Field Notes are quick sketches from the Biblical world – the people, places, rulers, etc. that show up in Scripture and shape the story around them.
Sometimes that still means looking at the armor Paul describes in Ephesians. If that’s what you’re after, you can find each piece of the armor in the sidebar links at right.

  • Field Notes: Where Were You When I Laid the Foundation of the Earth?

    For most of the book of Job, Job wanted answers. He wanted to understand why everything he had built and loved had been taken from him, and he wanted God Himself to explain it.

    By the time God answered him, Job had lost his children, his wealth and his health. He had spent chapter after chapter arguing with his friends about why this had happened and wanting an opportunity to make his case before God.

    Then, in Job 38, God finally spoke. He didn’t begin by answering Job’s questions. He began asking His own. God spoke to Job from a whirlwind and asked, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

    Job obviously wasn’t there, and that was the point. God continued by asking Job about things that existed long before him and operated far beyond his control. “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning?” “Have you entered the springs of the sea?”

    Then the questions moved into the heavens. “Can you tie up the chains of the Pleiades?” “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?”

    God asked about weather, stars, animals, birth, death, light, darkness, snow, hail, rain and lightning. The questions continue for four chapters. They weren’t really a test of how much Job knew. They repeatedly showed him how much he didn’t.

    Then God asked, “Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty?”

    Job finally answered. He said he was insignificant and had nothing to say. He put his hand over his mouth.

    God wasn’t finished. He spoke again from the whirlwind and continued questioning Job, this time challenging whether Job could exercise the justice and power that belong to God. Then came Behemoth and Leviathan, two creatures Job could neither control nor overpower.

    By the time God finished, He still had not given Job the explanation Job had spent so much of the book wanting. Instead, Job said something had changed in what he understood about God. He had spoken about things he didn’t understand, things too wonderful for him to know. He said, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You.”

    God’s questions didn’t give Job the reason for everything that had happened to him. They changed Job’s understanding of how much he could possibly know from where he stood.

    Job wanted God to explain Himself.

    God showed Job just how much bigger the picture was than Job could see.

    Job 38–42

    God has more questions. See Let Me Ask You Something: When God Asks a Direct Question.

  • Field Notes: Mount Tabor

    Mount Tabor rises prominently out of the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. In the Old Testament, it served as a gathering point for Israelite forces when Barak assembled troops to face Sisera’s army (Judges 4:5-14). In Christian tradition, Mount Tabor is often identified as the site of the Transfiguration, where Jesus revealed His glory to…

  • Field Notes: Herod Agrippa II

    Herod Agrippa II was the son of Herod Agrippa I and the great-grandson of Herod the Great. Unlike his father, he never ruled the full kingdom of his grandfather, but instead governed smaller territories in the northern regions under Roman authority. He ruled as a King as his father had, though over smaller territories than…

  • Field Notes: Herod Agrippa I

    Herod Agrippa was a grandson of Herod the Great and the son of Aristobulus IV. Unlike the earlier division of his grandfather’s kingdom among several sons, Agrippa eventually ruled over nearly the entire territory that Herod the Great had once controlled. Agrippa first received territory in 37 AD, when the Roman emperor Caligula granted him…

  • Field Notes: Herod Philip (Philip the Tetrarch)

    Herod Philip, often called Philip the Tetrarch, was another son of Herod the Great. When his father’s kingdom was divided in 4 BC, Philip was given control of territories northeast of the Sea of Galilee, including Iturea and Trachonitis. He ruled at the same time as his brothers Archelaus and Antipas, each governing a portion…

  • Field Notes: Herod Antipas

    Herod Antipas was another of the many sons of Herod the Great. When his father’s kingdom was divided after his death, Antipas was given control of Galilee to the north and Perea to the east of Judea. Like his brothers Archelaus and Philip, Antipas ruled simultaneously over his portion of the divided kingdom under Roman…

  • Field Notes: Herod Archelaus

    Herod Archelaus was one of the very many whole-lotta sons of Herod the Great. When his father died in 4BC, the kingdom was divided among several of his sons, who ruled their territories simultaneously. Archelaus was given control of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea. Unlike his father, Archelaus did not hold the title of “King” but…