Respond to the following statement: The Holy Spirit would not allow the use of geographical references in the Bible that are unfamiliar to us because to do so would leave part of what God had to say to us in obscurity.

The Bible is full of geography references that Many people do not understand. Much of the geography of the Bible and they do miss a lot of the meaning, that is why it is Necessary to study the geography along with the feast of the Bible

Places and geography mentioned in the Bible are not as familiar to me as they would have been to the people at that time, but God gives us study resources today to use to get a deeper understanding of His Word.

More than anything, I believe that God wants us to understand and know His Word. If the Bible was written differently and more specifically, especially referring to geographic locations, it could just leave us confused and uncertain.

The salvation plan of God is not difficult for the local people who lived in the Land that God gave to them, so that they (the prophets and the authors) will not miss any point to convey the messages that God wanted them to convey. They did what was said, and we understood what they said because the Holy Spirit helped us to understand His words. Many of the locations, the topology, the names, however are not quite familiar to us because we (gentiles) do not know much about the land of Israel, but we are saved (by faith). However, knowing the geography …or even just the meaning of the names, give us a great appreciation for what God has done. For example: Bethlehem – the house of bread, also was the house of victory (lechem – eat, win), and the tower of the shepherd in the time of Jacob…Why the manger on the top of the hill of Bethlehem, and not at the bottom of the hill so Mary did not have to go to such a steep slope? A hotel of Bethlehem would not be there so no inn keeper get the blame! but a last spot for the poorest couple Joseph and Mary to stay…with the sheep of Bethlehem…

I believe that the Holy Spirit would use the geographical references familiar to the audiences/readers to convey God’s message to avoid any misunderstanding.

But for modern readers like us, we are not familiar with most of the geography references mentioned in the Bible because they are addressed to the ancient readers. The ancient authors and the readers shared the same language, culture, and geographical environment. Therefore, to understand the biblical message, we need the bible dictionary and atlas to guide us.