Encouragement

Mary’s Monday Morning Musings to Quilt Encouragement

Curious Facts about the Bible (Taken from an old newspaper clipping found in an old family Bible.)

A prisoner kept in solitary confinement was given a Bible. During a 3-year study, he come up with the following facts:

The Bible contains 8,586,489 letters, 773,692 words, 31,174 verses, 1,180 chapters, & 66 books. The word and occurs 46,277 times; the word Lord occurs 1,855 times; the word reverend occurs but once which is in the 9th verse of the 111th Psalm; the middle verse is in the 8th verse of the 118th Psalm. The 21st verse of the 7th chapter of Ezra contains all the letters of the alphabet except the letter d. The finest chapter to read is the 26th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The 19th chapter of II Kings and the 37th chapter of Isaiah are alike. The longest verse is the 9th verse of the 8th chapter of Esther. The shortest verse is 35th verse of the 11th chapter of St. John. The 8th, 15th, 21st and the 31st verses 107th Psalm end alike. Each verse of the 136th Psalm ends alike. There are no names or words of more than six syllables.

This man was quite the statistician! Let’s hope in all that research, he also found faith in the Author of the book he most studiously counted. Let’s hope he found a relationship that transcends intellectual reasoning about the Bible of our God. The prisoner cites Acts 26 as the finest Bible chapter. In this chapter, Paul, also a prisoner, calls himself happy to be able to summarize the gospel message for King Agrippa. Perhaps the prisoner who was confined to solitary isolation for 3 years and did all this counting, understood and grasped the promise of forgiveness of sin. Perhaps he claimed the promises of Jesus for himself. We, also, can rejoice in the revelation of forgiveness Jesus brought us, and the Bible records for us. We can ask God to help us be content and happy in whatever situation we find ourselves at the moment because of what Jesus did for us. The Bible is worthy of thoughtful study. The goal is always to know God more thoroughly and more intimately.