How Loving the Bible Should Turn Us into Geography Buffs

Nancy - 1966 school picture

Unless information is of practical value to me, I find it hard to retain.  As a kid it never occurred to me that I would need to know anything other than U.S. geography, so names of countries would lodge in my brain long enough to take a test—and then promptly fall out. Thankfully I have matured a bit and obviously, because it is my "adopted" continent, all things Africa now interest me. 

But besides Africa, I am also very interested in the geography of the Middle East.  Since the Bible is always Israel-centric and Israel is in the Middle East—as are all of the peoples and kingdoms that have dominated her—as a Christian it too has become an "adopted" area of the world. 

Several years ago God really did a huge work in my heart and I became a person who really, really loved the Bible. (I had always respected it a lot, but it would have been an exaggeration to say I loved it.) One of the most helpful things I have done in my study of the Bible, and so ridiculously simple that I can't believe I waited so long to do it, is to print out a map of the Middle East. Now when I am reading and come to a name I don't recognize, instead of assuming it doesn't matter very much, which of course was never true, I Google it. I get a majority opinion on what the place in question is presently named, find it on my map, and I then write the ancient name near the present-day name. 

Photo from stock.xchng Ove Tøpfer

Why bother? Identifying locations and labeling them breaks down the divide between Bible times and now. (The people of Bible times were, in most cases, simply the ancestors of the present day people of the various locales.) And on a very practical level, because many yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecies have exact locations given in the Bible, it makes today's Middle East news fascinating and relevant. 

So, here's how to get started on a more interesting way to study the Bible.

1. Print out a map such as the one here. 
2. Find a pen and a notebook for jotting down Bible references, keeping track of questions that come to mind, etc., etc., etc.
3. Grab your Bible.
4. Prepare your favorite beverage.
5. Find a comfortable chair, in a spot with good lighting, in which to sit.
6. Enjoy! 

"Middle East Maps and Online Resources." Infoplease Atlas.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education

Enquiring minds should want to know!

See Learning to Love the Bible.
See Tell Me Someone is Praying for Us!