"Where's baal; sitting on the jon?" When someone once explained to me that's the implication of what Elijah actually said to them - I thought to myself - well isn't that interesting. So I actually looked up 1 Kings 18:27.
Cry louder, for he is a god, he is muttering to himself, on his return from a (habitual) journey; or maybe he languishes (I.E. he's stuck - in the "privy"?) and must be aroused (from his sate of preoccupied stupor).
So yeah, contextually when you put all the words in this sentence together; that does make sense.
LOL
My favorite story in the Old Testament is Noah and the flood. There's so much to that story that points to the utter destruction at the end of time; as well as redemption.
I find the story so fascinating because of the vast evidence that's still with us today of how absolutely devastating of a catastrophe this flood was. All the other Bible stories are confined to a specific place. Besides creation and ultimately the going forth of the gospel; the flood is the only event that affects all life on earth.
It's mind numbing to think of this man and his family, having built this giant box (basically) for 120 years; to be in this thing for a little more than a year; with all these land animals. Then to get off and know
everything (except aquatic animals) had been killed! No wonder the poor sap got drunk!
I can't imagine how terrifying of an experience that would have been!
LOL - of any place the ark of the covenant would be today - that's probably it!
There's no evidence in the Scripture that it ever came back from Babylon. Which that does make some sense because the "presence of God" was suppose to be connected to the mercy seat. And at the point that the 2nd person of the Trinity becomes incarnated; it would make sense that the ark (which was a symbol of what was to come. Kind of like Noah and the big box that saves all life on earth.) would be conspicuously absent.
Which this makes the tearing of the curtain in the temple an interesting story. Did that act prove to the people that the ark was not in the temple; because it was across the ravine on the Mount of Olives being crucified!
As to the OP of how often do you read the Bible?
We have access to so much information today; but finding the truth requires a lot of digging.
I study off and on, maybe an average of a couple hours a day. Some of that involves internet research and sometimes I just listen to sermons or other types of lectures. If it catches my interest I'll take a look at it.
Outside of just studying though; I spend a lot of time contemplating what I've found.
If I'm just studying the Bible; it's a concordance and simply looking up passages. I'll often take a word or phrase and just research all the places it's used in the Bible. I've learned a lot that way. The Scripture is its own dictionary, commentary and interpreter.
We learn what God is telling us by comparing the Bible to itself. Although I find historical and archeological information enlightening (it's often quite informative); God never tells us to interpret Scripture through the lens of what any culture thought it meant. We compare it to itself and this is how we find out what it means.
For example the number 666. The answer to what that actually means comes out of information in the book of Ezra (chapter 2) as well as part of one of Ezekiel's visions. Ezekiel 8 is a parallel text to Revelation and who's slaying those with the "mark of the beast" in their foreheads.
"Mark of the beast" is actually 2 different types of marks. We see this in the Greek that's used. One is in the hand, the other in the forehead. Only certain people get the "mark of the beast" on the forehead. Everyone gets a "mark on the hand" because it's connected to a who runs the monetary economic system. Certain people don't get the "mark of the beast" on their foreheads though because they have their Father's name written on their foreheads.
And to think - all this I found with just a concordance and a Bible!
Bible Study - END TIMES? Chapter 1: Introduction, a bible fanfic | FanFiction