Thematic Bible: National


Thematic Bible



For I will drive out and dispossess nations before you and enlarge your borders; nor shall any man covet (actively seek for himself) your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times a year. Verse ConceptsNationalismGod's ProvisionThree Times A YearGod Sets BoundariesThe Lord Will Drive Them Out

“When the Lord your God extends your territory, as He promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you want to eat meat, then you may eat meat, whatever you wish. Verse ConceptsFood DefinedEating Meat

“If the Lord your God enlarges your border, as He has sworn to your fathers to do, and gives you all the land which He promised to give to your fathers— Verse ConceptsEnlargementborders

Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If this people goes up to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to sacrifice, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah. So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, It is too much for you to go [all the way] up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. read more.
And he set the one golden calf in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship each of them even as far as Dan. Jeroboam also made houses on high places and made priests of people who were not Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast kept in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had made. So he offered upon the altar he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a date which he chose individually; and he appointed a feast for the Israelites and he went up to the altar to burn incense [in defiance of God's law.]

And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel came over to Rehoboam from wherever they lived. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them out from executing the priest's office to the Lord. And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the [idols of demon] he-goats, and calves he had made.

Now then, send word and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of [the goddess] Asherah, who eat at [Queen] Jezebel’s table.” Verse ConceptsFalse GodsSchool Of ProphetsTablesAssembling IsraelFour To Five HundredFour And Five HundredFollowers Of BaalProphets Of Other GodsServing Asherahjezebel

And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel came over to Rehoboam from wherever they lived. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them out from executing the priest's office to the Lord. And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the [idols of demon] he-goats, and calves he had made.

a beka for each man (that is, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary) for everyone who was counted, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men. Verse ConceptsMiddle AgeCoinsTwentyThree To Nine Hundred ThousandHalf Of ThingsComparative MeasuresRight MeasuresTax To Be Paid

And the Lord said to Moses, When you take the census of the Israelites, every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them, that no plague may fall upon them when you number them. This is what everyone shall give as he joins those already numbered: a half shekel, in terms of the sanctuary shekel, a shekel being twenty gerahs; a half shekel as an offering to the Lord. read more.
Everyone from twenty years old and upward, as he joins those already numbered, shall give this offering to the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when [you] give this offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. And you shall take the atonement money of the Israelites and use it [exclusively] for the service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may bring the Israelites to remembrance before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.

Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If this people goes up to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to sacrifice, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah. So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, It is too much for you to go [all the way] up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. read more.
And he set the one golden calf in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship each of them even as far as Dan. Jeroboam also made houses on high places and made priests of people who were not Levites. And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast kept in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had made. So he offered upon the altar he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a date which he chose individually; and he appointed a feast for the Israelites and he went up to the altar to burn incense [in defiance of God's law.]

Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the prostitute after other gods and they bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. Verse Conceptsethics, basis ofGod's WaysProstitutionRevelation, Responses ToDifferent Gods

Gideon made [all the golden earrings into] an ephod [a sacred, high priest’s garment], and put it in his city of Ophrah, and all Israel worshiped it as an idol there, and it became a trap for Gideon and his household. Verse ConceptsephodsProstitutionTrapEvil Trapping

But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the prostitute with the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. Verse ConceptsProstitutionUnfaithfulness, To God


In this way they became unclean in their practices;
They played the prostitute in their own deeds [by giving their worship, which belongs to God alone, to other “gods”].
Verse ConceptsActionsFalse ReligionSpiritual HarlotryDebaucheryProstitutionSin, Effects Of

Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be exiled, how I have been broken by their lewdness and their adulterous hearts which have turned away from Me, and by their eyes which lust after their idols; and they will loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed, for all their repulsive acts. Verse ConceptsConversion, God's demands forApostasy in OTRejection Of God, Results OfHeart, Of Unregenerate PeopleHedonismForsaking GodEscaping EvilIdol WorshipHating Individualsheartbroken

Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Will you [exiles] defile yourselves in the same manner as your fathers? And will you prostitute yourselves before their loathsome and heinous things? Verse ConceptsAbominations, Idolatry IsImitating Wicked PeoplePeople Polluting ThemselvesThe Great Prostitute

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore bear now [the consequences of] your lewdness and prostitution.’” Verse ConceptsThrowing AwaySpiritual Harlotryconsequences


My people consult their [lifeless] wooden idol, and their [diviner’s] wand gives them oracles.
For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray [morally and spiritually],
And they have played the prostitute, withdrawing themselves from their God.
Verse ConceptsSpiritual HarlotryIngratitudeSpirit, Emotional Aspects OfWoodHarlotsCausing People To TurnIdol Worshipwhores


Their [immoral] practices will not permit them
To return to their God,
For the spirit of prostitution is within them
And they do not know the Lord [they do not recognize, appreciate, heed or cherish Him].
Verse ConceptsForgetting GodSpiritual HarlotryIngratitudeProstitutionSalvation, Necessity And Basis OfSpirit, Emotional Aspects OfDecadenceNot Returning To God

Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation as do the [pagan] peoples,
For you have played the prostitute, turning away from your God.
You have loved prostitutes’ earnings on every threshing floor [attributing the harvest to the Baals instead of to God].
Verse ConceptsFaithfulness, To GodSpiritual HarlotryIngratitudeMarriage, Between God And His PeopleServants, Working Conditions OfUnfaithfulness, To GodLack Of RejoicingWages Of A ProstituteThe Great Prostitute


and from Jesus Christ, the faithful and trustworthy Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who [always] loves us and who [has once for all] freed us [or washed us] from our sins by His own blood (His sacrificial death)— Verse ConceptsGod, Faithfulness OfFreedom, Through Jesus ChristFreedom, Abuse Of ChristianFirstbornExpiationAtonement, Remission Of Sins ByJesus As King Of KingsRulersSalvation, Nature OfWitnessing, Importance OfJesus Christ, Love OfJesus Christ, ResurrectionLibertyNames And Titles For ChristChrist, Names ForChrist The FirstbornThe Witness Of ChristChrist AtoningChrist Is RisenChrist's LoveWitnesses



And He [that same Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins [the atoning sacrifice that holds back the wrath of God that would otherwise be directed at us because of our sinful nature—our worldliness, our lifestyle]; and not for ours alone, but also for [the sins of all believers throughout] the whole world. Verse ConceptsAtonementExpiationHoliness, Believers' Growth InPropitiationSin, God's Remedy ForPurgingAll PeopleChrist AtoningSacrificesSacrificeReconciliationThe WorldThe Blood Of Jesus