Who Were The People Involved?

Chapter 5

Day 2

How will knowing where something happened help us to know who the people are that are involved? By looking at the geographical location we can see the country or city involved and thus the people involved. By knowing who they are we know whether they are friendly or hostile. We know if there is a church there or whether one needs to be established. The same is true today. If you were being sent to a foreign country as a missionary, you wouldn’t just pick up and go, you would first want to know where you were going. A look at the map can tell you several things.

Suppose you were a missionary and the church decided to send you to Shikoku, Japan. Ideally everyone wants to be sent to Tokyo. In Tokyo you would enjoy a comfortable life style and the modern conveniences are all there. A quick look at the map of Japan tells us that Shikok is a totally different story. Shikoku is on an island in the southern part of Japan. The map tells us it is all supplies will come in by boat or plane. Either way, the cost of living will be very high. There may or may not be electricity and other modern conveniences we have grown accustomed to using. The map will also tell us this is the area of a fishing people. These people are poor and separated from the mainland, therefore they are very devout in their religion and patriotism to their country.

As we can see from the map, this would not be an easy assignment. God doesn’t always ask us to go where the good things are. Believe it or not, further study shows there are already some Christian churches there.

              When we consider the world (John 3:16), we think of the world as it is today. To understand the bible we must see the world as it was when the scriptures were written. From Genesis to the book of Romans there were many changes in both the land and the people. The world was not just the people in Israel, it involved people in all the other countries too.

Daily Bible Reading:

Read Joshua 1