The Strangest Story in the Entire Bible - YouTube
Transcripts:
These are the 10 strangest stories in the entire Bible. I'm going to explain each one until we get to the number one most strange Bible story that almost nobody can explain. But first, let's begin with story number 10. The Bible says that while Abraham was living in the countryside over here, his nephew Lot was living in the luxurious city of Sodom.
A city so great the Bible compares it to the Garden of Eden. But things are about to get pretty ugly in paradise. And it all starts with three men visiting Abraham at his campsite in Mamry. Except they're not men. Two of them are angels. And get this, one of them is God himself. Even though they look like men, Abraham knows better.
He bows before God and makes him and the angels the best cut of steak he has, and they eat it. After they eat, God promises Abraham again that Sarah will have a son. Then the two angelic men dismiss themselves from the feast and begin to walk towards Sodom. Abraham's probably thinking, "Cool, my nephew Lot will get a chance to meet real angels.
" But God has some bad news to share with Abraham. The citizens of Sodom have hurt so many people. I have no choice but to destroy that evil city. Probably because he was concerned for his nephew, Abram tried to bargain with God. And as a result, God agreed to not destroy the city if there were 10 good people found in Sodom.
With this agreement in mind, God departed from Abram and made his way toward Lot. But meanwhile, a mob was forming in Sodom around Lot's house. The people of Sodom wanted to hurt the angels who had just arrived at Lot's house. But Lot wouldn't let the people in. Instead, he does something so horrible. Lot offers his daughters to be hurt by the evil men of Sodom instead.
This really shows just how depraved mankind can become. But God's angels didn't let it happen. They struck the angry mob with blindness and by God's grace pulled Lot and his family out of the city because God had just arrived and he wasn't happy with Sodom or her neighboring city, Gomorrah. Lot and his family were allowed to flee to Zor and were told to never look back.
But as they do this, the Bible records one of the strangest verses in all of scripture. Then the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. This word the Lord in the original Hebrew is actually the name for God, Yahweh. So then how is it possible that Yahweh rains down fire from Yahweh? Even though God is one, he is revealed in more than one person.
In this story, Yahweh in the flesh calls out to Yahweh in the heavens to bring judgment against these evil cities. This is why the idea of Jesus being 100% man and 100% God shouldn't have been so strange to the Jews when he arrived 2,000 years later. Because of God's judgment, no one ever lived in these cities again.
Also, Lot's wife got turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back, even though the angels told her not to. Story number nine. It's a story about a strange shrine the Apostle Paul finds when he arrives in the most intellectual city in Aaya, Athens. As Paul came into the city, he would have seen this great Parthonon built in honor of the goddess Athena.
And much of it is still preserved in its original location to this day. This was the home of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, the greatest Greek philosophers in the world. Even though these guys were long gone by the time Paul arrived, their schools of philosophy were still very much alive. Which is why the smartest people in the empire would come to this city to present their new innovative ideas and their gods.
So much so that everywhere Paul turned, he saw new idols. But when Paul saw an idol, he saw something very dark. He'd later explain in his first letter to Corenth, the city he was about to visit next, that when people worship idols, they're actually worshiping demons. Paul was right in the middle of Satan's playground.
And so, you can probably guess what Paul did next. But the Greek philosophers were annoyed at the confusing teaching Paul had brought to them, which is why they took him here. a small mountain of marble called Mars Hill where a legal council called the Aeropagus would meet to hear those who had been accused of teaching dangerous new philosophies.
Once again, Paul's teaching was being challenged, this time by the highest court in Athens. What most people don't know is that over 500 years before Paul ever stepped foot on Mars Hill, Greek historical tradition tells us that there was another man who was brought to stand before a council on this same hill. This man was summoned here because a deadly disease had broken out in the great city of Athens despite having offered sacrifices to hundreds of gods at this point.
Week after week, the Athenians continued to sacrifice to their numerous idols. But the plague still persisted. But this man named Epimenities was brought to fix it. He asked the people to bring him some hungry sheep and thenlet them loose on the grassy hill to graze. But then what seemed like a miracle happened. Some of these starved sheep laid down instead of grazing.
Epimenities marked the locations where these sheep laid, built altars to the unknown god who had caused this miracle to happen, and sacrificed to this mysterious god. Now, over 500 years later, it seems that one of these altars was still standing. Every altar had the name of a specific god on it, except this one, which was dedicated to the unknown god.
So when the Athenian elders asked Paul about the strange things he was teaching the people, Paul began to explain to them who this mysterious unnamed god really was. It's possible that Paul may have even known about what took place on Mars Hill hundreds of years ago. Even though the elders listened as Paul denounced their idols and preached about the one true God, they stopped him mid-sentence when he mentioned that God had raised Jesus from the dead.
They mocked him for this nonsense. But some Greeks, including Dionius, one of the Aeropagus council members, believed Paul's teaching. Story number eight. But before I share it, if you have little ones watching, I highly advise skipping this one. It's a story that has to do with something super strange that happens between Noah and his son Ham.
Sometime after the flood, Noah had a little too much to drink and passed out naked. And the Bible says that Ham's son was cursed because Ham looked at his father's nakedness. Most would read this and think that Ham just happened to walk into the wrong place at the wrong time. But that's not exactly why his son was cursed.
This phrase can also be a Hebrew idiom that means to sleep with someone else's wife. And Ham's dad, Noah, only had one wife. So yeah, why in the world would Ham do such a horrible thing, you might ask? Well, at the time, this would have been a way for Ham to signal to the family that he was the alpha male in charge.
But if a son was born out of this shameful relationship, then it would make sense why that specific son would be cursed. Canaan would one day become a nation who God would have to deal with later. Story number seven. This one is about the most strange creatures mentioned in the entire Bible.
You've probably heard the story of Job, the man who went through horrible suffering before God spoke directly to him. But at the end of God's speech to Job, he begins to describe these strange creatures. Starting with the first one he calls the behemoth. He eats like an ox, but has a tail like the trunk of a massive tree.
His bones are like beams of bronze and his ribs are like bars of iron. Some have suggested that this creature is a hippopotamus, but even though hippos are pretty tough creatures, I don't think anyone would describe their tails like a giant tree trunk. Others have said that it's a type of dinosaur.
Whatever it is, it's not something that any human could defeat on their own. But this creature is nowhere near as terrifying as the next creature God begins to describe. In fact, God spends an entire chapter describing this creature, so you know it's important. This beast is a massive sea dragon called Leviathan. This creature has terrible teeth all around, rows of scales tightly sealed that can block any sword.
Arrows feel like flimsy straw against this god-given armor. Leviathan is also an extremely fast swimmer. Oh yeah, and he can breathe fire while smoke comes out of his nostrils. He is king over all the children of pride. Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle. Never do it again. What most don't know about the Leviathan is that this creature has been referenced in many ancient cultures, not just the Israelite culture.
And every time Leviathan is mentioned in ancient texts, he is a representation of the chaos of life. Just like no one can control or tame this creature, no one can control or tame the chaos that shows up in one's life. Sometimes Leviathan shows up as raiders stealing all your cattle. While other times it's that unexpected call from the doctor that the cancer is spreading.
God is saying only I have the power to bring justice and order to this crazy chaotic life. But for now, it serves a purpose that you can't understand. Story number six. At this point, the stories only get more strange from here. Thousands of people are crowding around two men. Afraid and angry, the mob picks up giant rocks. They want these two guys dead.
But before they have the chance to hurl their stones, a terrifying cloud descends from the heavens. It's God. And he's even more furious than the crowd. But for a completely different reason. Only 40 days prior, God sent 12 men to spy out the land of Canaan. This was the land God had promised to the Israelites, his chosen people who were living in the wilderness at the time.
The spies couldn't believe their eyes. Everything in this land was huge. the grapes, the figs, the pomegranates. But so were the people. Why were there giants livinghere? Where did they come from? The spies returned to their leader, Moses, and told him they couldn't enter the land God had promised them because they were like grasshoppers compared to the size of these Canaanite giants.
But two of the 12 spies objected. God is with us, they said. Do not fear the giants. The first spy who objected was named Caleb and the other Joshua who was also Moses protege at the time. The people wanted to silence these two guys because they feared Moses would send them to battle against these giants. So they picked up stones, but God intervened and gave the people what they wanted.
He told them that because of their lack of faith in him, they would be forced to wander the wilderness for 40 years. But after their time was up, God used Joshua to lead the people into the land and commanded them to exterminate all of the giants. But who were these strange giants? The key to understanding these mystery giants is found in Joshua 11.
After Joshua had completed his war, the Bible says that God actually hardened the hearts of the people who went to battle against the Israelites so that he could utterly destroy them. Okay, that sounds a bit harsh, but you have to keep reading. It says that at the time Joshua came and cut off the Anakim.
Now, this is a super interesting word. Remember how 40 years before Joshua's conquest of the land, Moses sent Joshua into the land with 11 other guys to spy it out. These guys didn't just see large people in the land. They saw something so much more. These giants were the sons of Anch who came from the Nephilim.
That's right. This word right here is actually the word Nephilim. The Bible says that one of the main reasons God flooded the earth hundreds of years earlier only saving Noah and his family was because fallen angels had made babies with human women. And the Bible calls these creepy fallen angel human babies Nephilim.
This is why these babies grew much taller than any other humans on the planet at the time. It's because they weren't just human. They were supernatural beings. Why did God want these things completely annihilated? I mean, if God is a merciful God, why did he tell Joshua to show no mercy to these creatures? Well, in order to answer this question, we first need to talk about demons.
Many people believe that a demon is just an extra creepy way to talk about fallen angels, but that's not what the ancient Jews believed. When you look at ancient Jewish texts, you find out that the Jewish people of the Old Testament actually believed that demons came from the Nephilim.
As a human being, you have an immaterial spirit living inside of you. Which is why when you die, your body is buried in the ground, but your spirit continues to live on into eternity. But what kind of spirit does a Nephilim giant have? Because God considered the union between these fallen angels and human women to be unclean, their disembodied spirits were also considered to be unclean spirits.
In other words, what we call demons today are actually the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim. Story number five. This is a story you've probably heard a thousand times, but never quite understood. But before we get to that, I want to tell you about Ground News, the sponsor of today's video.
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Just go to ground.news/eartoheer or scan my QR code to subscribe for only $5 a month and start saving yourself a ton of time and confusion with ground news today. Not long after God flooded the earth, he commanded the people to be fruitful and populate the earth. But instead of these nations obeying God, they decided to do something else instead.
They built a tower which made God pretty upset. Many believe they haveeven found the location of where this tower was being built. But before we look at that, you need to know why God was so angry about this tall building. Scholars are agreed that this tower would have been an ancient ziggurat. This unique pyramid-like building can be found in just about every ancient civilization on Earth, which would make sense if every nation at one point in time was united in constructing this exact type of building.
Anytime a ziggurat has been found, the evidence always shows that it was used for only one thing, a temple for worship. But the nations building this particular ziggurat weren't interested in worshiping God. The Bible says that the people were building this tower to make a name for themselves. They were worshiping people rather than the one who created these people.
And it's for this reason that God confused their language and scattered the nations. But then what happened to this giant ziggurat? Archaeologists like Joel Kramer believe they have found the exact location where this ziggurat used to be located. The Bible says that the place where this whole fiasco occurred was called Babel, which is where we get the name Babylon, which later became an empire located in the country of Iraq today.
And guess what's been discovered in Iraq? the foundation of what scholars believe to have been the largest ziggurat that ever existed. You've probably heard the Tower of Babel story before, but most people don't realize that God didn't just confuse the nation's languages as punishment for not worshiping him. He gave them something else to worship instead.
But there's actually another description about what happened at the Tower of Babel in the book of Deuteronomy. In chapter 32, it says that God gave to the nations their inheritance when he divided mankind. This is a clear reference to God scattering the nations at the Tower of Babel. But what was their inheritance? God fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
This is a reference to angels like the ones who had rebelled against God before the flood. This passage is saying that since the people didn't want to worship him, he gave them up to worship these fallen angels. These ancient nations referred to these angelic beings as the gods and even carved idols to represent these false gods.
Story number four. Now we are going to explore parts of the Bible most pastors tend to skip over. Bible prophecy. Starting with a dream God gave the prophet Daniel. the same guy who God saved from lions in the lion's den. This is one of the first descriptions the Bible gives of the Antichrist, a topic I've covered at length in a video I'll link below.
The prophet Daniel was asleep when he was given a vision of a massive storm churning over the surface of the great sea when suddenly four huge beasts came up out of the water, each different from the others. The first beast was like a lion but had the wings of an eagle. The second was like a bear with three ribs in its mouth.
The third was like a leopard with four bird wings and four heads. Yes, these descriptions are in the text and trust me it only gets more strange from here. The fourth beast though was very different. Daniel could barely describe it, only that it had teeth made of iron, was extremely powerful, and had 10 horns. Daniel was later told that each of the beasts represented a kingdom that would rule on the earth.
And the horns of the fourth beast represented 10 kings who would rule the entire world. He was staring at the horns when something unusual happened. There was another horn, a little horn, that appeared among the others. As it grew, three of the original 10 horns were torn out to make room for it. It had eyes like a human and a mouth that was speaking loud, arrogant words.
This little horn was making war with God's people and was defeating them. Daniel was told this little horn represented a new king who would subdue three of the 10 original kings and control the entire world for 3 and 1/2 years. The same world ruler will make a peace treaty with God's people, Israel, for 7 years, which he will break halfway through by setting up a mysterious object in God's temple that will be an abomination to God and his people. Story number three.
This one is so crazy you might unsubscribe from the channel after you hear my interpretation. The Bible describes a massive war in the book of Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39 that involves five nations with Russia as their leader attacking the nation of Israel. Here's what some scholars predict this battle will look like.
These five nations are going to cross the Syrian border into Israel's Golan Heights with their armies. The Bible says they are going to cover the land like a cloud. So, we know there's going to be a massive number of troops. But before they have the chance to attack, God is going to cause the largest earthquake in Israeli history.
Even more devastating than the Nweba earthquake of 1995 that left many areasin total rubble. Then the Bible says God is going to cause Russia's weapons to misfire and explode on themselves. This will create confusion among these five nations to the point that they start attacking themselves instead of Israel.
And if that's not bad enough, the Bible says God is going to send rain, giant hail, and fire and brimstone against this army. But it's this next part that is probably the most concerning because it could affect you and me. The Bible says that God will send fire on Mog, Russia, and on those living in security in the coastlands.
This means that somehow God is going to cause fire to fall on the land of Russia and on those who are not part of this war at all. People who think they're far away and safe from this battle. Now, the Bible doesn't name who these people are, so all we can do is speculate. But some Bible scholars believe this is prophesying a fullscale nuclear attack on multiple nations.
Now, this is an interesting take because in chapter 39, you're going to hear about what takes place after this war, and it sounds a lot like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. In the Bible, there are many wars, both recorded and predicted. But none of these wars have so much text dedicated to giving us the details of the cleanup process that takes place after the war, except for this battle prophesied in Ezekiel.
Most people overlook it as some strange ritual that Israel does after the war. But what if God is trying to communicate to us the type of war that's going to take place by giving us the details to the post-war cleanup process? The Bible says that after this great failed attack on Israel, the citizens of Israel are going to wait 7 months before cleaning up any of the devastation on the Golan Heights.
But when they finally do get around to cleaning it up, they use two separate groups of people to do it. A search party to help spot the bodies and a hired team of professionals. Whenever someone from the search party locates a body, they will mark the area for the professionals to come and take the body and bury it all the way down souththeast of the Dead Sea.
What a strange cleanup process. Now, I'm not an expert on what a nuclear cleanup would look like, but could it be that this almost 3,000-year-old prophecy is predicting the tedious process of disposing of nuclear waste downwind of Israel so the nation is not affected by the fallout? I mean, why do they wait 7 months before cleaning up? And why do they need two separate teams to do it? This is just a theory, so let me know what you think in the comments. Story number two.
This is the last strange story we need to talk about before we get to the strangest one of all. The book of Revelation describes a series of judgments that God inflicts on the earth in the last days. And each one is triggered by an angel blowing a trumpet. When the first angel blows his trumpet, hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth.
and a third of the trees were burned up and all green grass was burned up. When a nuclear explosion takes place, not only does everything flammable around it, instantly catch on fire, including trees and grass, like what's mentioned in John's vision, the debris from the explosion gets sucked up into the sky and then plummets back to Earth like fiery hail raining down.
It's possible that this odd combination of hail and fire was the best way John could describe what he was seeing. When the second trumpet was sounded, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of ships were destroyed.
Notice that John says something like a great burning mountain. So whatever it is, it's definitely not a burning mountain, but it's something like a burning mountain. Are you starting to see how these judgments all connect to one another? In a 1946 nuclear test called Operation Crossroads, the US detonated a small nuclear bomb in the Pacific Ocean.
The result was a column of water and fires 6,000 ft blasting into the air that could be seen up to 30 miles away with the mushroom cloud on top of it. This would have looked a lot like a mountain of fire being thrown into the ocean. Especially to John seeing this vision 2,000 years ago when people were still fighting with swords.
This is the same for the third trumpet, which John described as a star falling to earth, polluting a third of all fresh water. Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobson in her best-selling book, Nuclear War, describes what the first two years would look like after a global nuclear holocaust. She writes that one of the greatest challenges civilization will face is the ability to find non-contaminated drinking water.
Chemical waste is going to be spread at scale because of the devastation caused by a thousand nukes. And where will those harmful chemicals end up? In our bodies of fresh water. The second issueis that because millions will be dead, their bodies will contaminate and poison most of our fresh water as well.
And this isn't just a crazy theory. These are the results of what scientists at the highest level have modeled for us. Which brings us to the next prophecy that top scientists have also predicted will happen only weeks after nuclear war takes place. The Bible says that the sun and moon and stars were darkened so that a third of the day did not shine.
If you remember the soot from the explosions will cause the atmosphere to be darkened. But so much more happens as a result. According to the best research we have, only days after the nukes explode, the Earth will begin to get really cold. In places like Iowa and Ukraine, temperatures will not go above freezing for over 6 years.
Even sunny Los Angeles, the area I live in, will go below freezing for a time because not only will the light of the sun be blocked, but much of the sun's warming rays will be blocked as well. This is what experts call nuclear winter. Days will be shorter, nights will be longer, and summer will cease to exist as winter takes over. This isn't science fiction.
This could actually happen. Even days from now, if Kim Jong-un were to wake up and decide that today was a good day to destroy the world, this literally makes me so grateful to be a Christian and know that God is in control, not some insane dictator. Now, let's finally look at what I think is the most strange story in the entire Bible that almost no one can explain.
It's the first vision God gave the Apostle John that he wrote down in the book of Revelation. John's first vision is one that he could barely put into human words. John saw a throne in heaven with one sitting on the throne. The only way Jon is able to describe this being is by comparing him to a Sardis stone and a jasper stone. This throne had a rainbow around it that had the appearance of an emerald.
Seven golden lampstands surrounded this throne. But here's where it gets really strange. John saw four angels around the throne. But these aren't those little baby angel statues from your grandma's house. John tells us that they were each full of eyes, had six wings, and had the appearance of a lion, calf, man, and eagle.
These heavenly creatures never sleep, but instead praise God night and day, singing, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come." But these creatures aren't the only ones praising God in his throne room. There are also 24 human elders casting their crowns before God. Oh, yeah. And hundreds of thousands of angels praising God, too.
Everything seemed to be in perfect harmony until John's focus was turned to this. A scroll sealed with seven wax seals in God's right hand. God asks, "Who is worthy to open the scroll?" But no one responds. This is a very important scroll because it's what brings the first seven divine judgments on the earth.
But what exactly is this scroll and why does someone have to be worthy to open it? A sealed scroll in John's day was often used in property transactions. When someone wanted to buy land, they would seal up the land deed with a wax seal for the new owner to redeem at their choosing. Many Bible scholars believe this sealed scroll is the title deed to the entire earth.
Up until this point, the Bible tells us that Satan is the ruler of this world and the god of this age. This is probably why John begins to weep so heavily when it seems like no one can open it. He's thinking, "If no one opens the scroll, Satan will rule this world forever." But John's tears dry up when he's told that the lion of the tribe of Judah is able to open the scroll.
John quickly looks up, but instead of seeing a mighty lion, he sees a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes that looks like it has been slain. This slain lamb is Jesus Christ who was sacrificed for our sins. Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why do so many creatures in heaven have more than two eyes? It's just plain creepy.
Here is the reason the book of Revelation is full of such strange imagery. God is allowing John to see things that were not made for human eyes. The spiritual realm. If you were to peek into the spiritual realm, it would be completely unexplainable. Which is why God allows John to see pictures of the spiritual world.
This is why John has seen Jesus in two different forms. At this point, Jesus cannot be confined to one image. Both images give us a picture of who Jesus is. Lord of the world and savior of the world. I used to say my mom has eyes in the back of her head. But what I was really saying was I can't do anything without her finding out about it.
In the same way, God allows Jon to see certain creatures as having multiple eyes. This is God's way of saying nothing gets past them. So, there you have it. But what's the strangest Bible story that you've ever read? Let me know in the comments and maybe I'll cover it in another video.
