Geographical Location

Chapter 5

Day 1

Most study bibles have maps of the area around Israel during biblical times. To look at today’s maps would be useless because the names of cities have changed and some cities don’t even exist. Some of the countries have changed their names and some were incorporated into other countries. With these biblical maps we can trace the travels of each character in each of the bible books.

We need to know the geographical locations of the events to have some idea as to the importance of the event. EXAMPLE: When Jesus went to Samaria from Jerusalem. We already know the Samaritans were hated by the Jews. A quick look at the map shows all the mountain terrain he had to travel. This detour cost them several days of travel. The maps show us a higher level of desire for Jesus to go through Samaria.

These maps also show us the methods of travel they would have used (boat, walk, horse, etc.). Another consideration is, what other countries did they have to travel through to get where they were going? Were these hostile or friendly countries? Was the terrain mountainous, desert, or were they easy travel.

To understand the book of Revelations it absolutely essential to know where all these events will take place. The seven churches in the first three chapters are definitely better understood if you know where they are and look at the area around them.

For other sources of these maps, look at the nearest Christian book store, look on line for biblical maps, there are computer programs that are designed for this purpose. The computer program I use is “Parson’s Bible Atlas,” by Parsons Technology.

Daily Bible Readings:

Read John Chapter 4.

If you have access to a map look at where he was ultimately going and the terrain where he went and tell me how important it was for Jesus to make that detour.

Question for you to think about:

1.  If God told you to make this detour today, on foot, what would you tell Him?