Stories of Impact

Bible Scholar + Adventure Junkie

Biblical geography. Do those words intrigue you? Or make you shy away?

No matter your interest in what land has to do with Scripture, one man will pique your curiosity and make comprehension a little easier.

Dr. John A. Beck. Although he is seminary-trained with two master’s degrees and a PhD, he is more like a friend who will walk with you to ignite a passion for learning more about Scripture than you ever thought possible. And, he likes to be called Jack.

This friendliness and approachability makes Jack a unique fit to host Our Daily Bread Ministries’ video series The Holy Land: Connecting The Land With Its Stories

“If we are people of place, and place is very much a part of how we’re shaped and how we interact with one another, then there’s no way I can leave my understanding of place out of any literature, much less the Bible,” Jack said. 

He believes that the Bible’s stories are so greatly impacted by location and setting, that it’s vital for us to truly understand how God communicated to His people in Scripture and to us today. Engaging with Scripture is “always a spirit-led process. Reading the Bible is different than reading another book.” 

Jack Beck with plane

Jack’s background in language and literature informed one way for him to view Scripture. But in grad school, he met a Bible geographer who sparked his interest in how the biblical authors and poets used geographical content to shape the learning—or faith—experience. Since then, incorporating geography as a tool in his multi-faceted toolbelt has allowed Jack to bring a whole new level of understanding to others.

As an adjunct professor at Jerusalem University College, he regularly travels to the Holy Land to teach and lead tours. These tours often cover over 100 miles of hiking in 10 to 12 days so people can experience the rugged outdoors and “feel” what the people on the pages of the Bible felt.

Jack is a scholar who’s collaborated with Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODBM) to write numerous books, teach online classes, and film four seasons of The Holy Land. His first book with ODBM, Discovery House Bible Atlas, was published in 2015 and was well-received because it was more like a Bible commentary that married the land with the stories. 

Ten years later, this work is being re-published as the Our Daily Bread Bible Atlas. Even if you have the first atlas, the new version is a great addition to your library. “The clarity within the essays has gotten stronger,” Jack said. “The visuals have gotten a big touch-up. It really is a new piece, reflecting both maturity in my own thinking of the topic and the communication of that and the illustrations.”

The fourth season of The Holy Land is premiering next month so you can virtually travel with Jack to Samaria, the Southern Wilderness, and Jerusalem. His goal in every season of this series is “to take folks into the land and show them that there’s a connection between how things happened and where they happened.” He guides you to a region and tells the arc of stories that happened there, organizing the content by historical location rather than a chronological approach.

Jack Beck playing with kids

Although Jack treasures all his excursions on these production shoots, one of his most memorable times was in the Jezreel Valley at the spring where Gideon and his army drank (Judges 7). It happened to be a holiday, so many families with children were camping and enjoying themselves. When the kids invited Jack into the water, he immediately rolled up his pantlegs, took off his shoes, and joined them laughing and splashing in the cool water. 

Although the spontaneous moment led to the demise of the microphone he still wore, Jack heartily agreed, “I’m grateful for those moments that are unplanned, unscripted but absolutely spot on!”

Jack appreciates exploring in his personal life, too. He and his wife, Marmy, live in Germantown, WI but are often soaring around the country in the airplane they built themselves. “We’re always up for an adventure. We egg each other on and sometimes it takes us outside the bounds of what makes sense to do,” Jack chuckled.

Whether it’s snowshoeing in the Colorado Rockies with Marmy or leading an expedition of eager students in Israel, Jack loves being outdoors and bringing the stories of the Bible to life. “This is my passion . . . to turn the volume up on those things that maybe get less attention,” Jack said. “I hope you leave your time with me a more interested, informed, and engaged Bible reader.”

To find out more about Jack Beck:

Jack Beck with wife Marmy
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waterfall and rainbow

Ethnic Mixing

Even though racially mixed marriages are becoming more common, some still resent it when a member of their own ethnic community marries an outsider. Others are convinced that such marriages are morally or spiritually wrong. Until concluding that mixed marriages do have spiritual implications, I wasn’t sure I wanted to think through the subject in the presence of those who might be hurt or offended by my attempts to find a biblical perspective.

Do the Scriptures give us reason to believe that Asian, African, and European bloodlines should be kept pure? What about lesser ethnic distinctions? Some families believe Dutch stock should not be mixed with Swedish or German gene pools (as in my own parents’ case when they married, with some resentment from Holland-born relatives).

To test our thinking, let’s give a hearing to those who believe ethnic differences are a part of the divine order. Such a person might say, “Racial purity is a righteous idea. Whether we like it or not, our Creator made the races different. The same God who made all living creatures to reproduce after their own kind is the One who made Asians, Africans, Europeans, and Latinos. How could it be right for us to blend distinctions He conceived? Furthermore,” such a person might argue, “according to the book of Genesis all bloodlines are not equal. Through Noah, God predestined the descendants of Ham, who migrated to Africa, to be a servant race. We may not like all of this. We may think we are sophisticated enough to override God’s purposes. But according to the Bible, our Creator is the source of our differences, and it’s dangerous to think we know better than Him.”

Some might see such an argument for ethnic purity as an example of conservative, Bible-believing conviction. Let me suggest, however, why I think using the Scriptures to condemn racially mixed marriages is an example of theological and biblical confusion. Let’s see if the Scriptures can give us help in evaluating the validity of Afro-European marriages.

  • We were alike before we were different. The Scriptures repeatedly show that all of us have roots from the same parents (Acts 17:26). Before there were differences of skin tone, facial features, and language, we were alike. First, we were the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. After a terrible flood wiped out everyone except one family, the gene pool was narrowed back down to Noah’s family. For this reason there’s no merit to the idea that God expects people to protect racial purity by reproducing after their own kind. All families of the earth share equally, not only in the gene pool of humanity but in the image and likeness of God. We may be inclined to belittle one another by failing to identify with the thoughts and emotions of people who look or sound different than we do. But the Bible clearly says that we all have the same human blood running through our veins.
  • God did not predestine Africans to be a servant race. The idea that Africans were predestined to be a servant class comes from a misreading of a biblical story. It relates to a curse pronounced by Noah after learning that his son Ham had told his brothers he’d seen their father lying naked in a drunken stupor (Genesis 9:20-27). From Noah’s reaction to Ham, we conclude he felt that Ham had shown him disrespect. A closer look shows that Noah did not curse all of Ham’s descendants, many of whom migrated south into Africa. The curse settled specifically on Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, whose descendants eventually moved into the area now occupied by the nation of Israel. Noah’s curse fell on the Canaanites, who were judged for their idolatrous, sexual excesses.
  • Moses married an Ethiopian woman. When Aaron and Miriam, Moses’ brother and sister, spoke against Moses “because of his Ethiopian wife,” God showed His displeasure with their criticism, but did not indicate He had a problem with Moses’ mixed marriage. God showed disapproval of Miriam’s condemnation of Moses by striking Miriam’s skin with leprosy for seven days (Numbers 12:1-15). I doubt it’s a coincidence that God turned Miriam’s skin “leper white” in judgment.
  • Hearts are more important to God than skin color. While the New Testament urges followers of Christ not to enter into a binding relationship with someone who does not believe in Christ (2 Corinthians 6:14), it never says anything about avoiding people with a different shade of skin. Never does the New Testament give us reason to believe that God wants us to stay within our own ethnic profile. But a concerned black or white parent may ask, “What about the social burden carried by partners in a racially mixed relationship? Isn’t marriage difficult enough without facing enormous cultural differences too?” These are important questions. Ethnic and temperamental differences that are appealing in courtship sometimes become the very differences that are most difficult to tolerate as the marriage matures. But however difficult our differences, we must remember that God is more concerned about the attitudes of our hearts than about skin color.

The real issue isn’t what we think about racially mixed marriages. It’s how deeply we care about all who’ve been created by Christ, and for whom He died.

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Engage Deeper

The Galaxy

The Galaxy

Scientists tell us that our galaxy is home not only to our own sun and its family of planets, but to billions of other stars. They tell us that our disk-shaped galaxy is about one hundred thousand light-years wide and about two thousand light-years thick. Yet, astronomers tell us that this “cosmic disk” (itself made up of billions of stars) is only one of billions of galaxies known to exist in the universe.

It seems that thinking about such a creation should cause me to praise its Creator. But I have other emotions. I find little comfort in a God whose creation can be measured only in light-years and in billions of galaxies, each made up of billions of stars.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that if God were not greater than that which He has created we might all succumb to a creation that is out of control. But what some see through a telescope doesn’t awaken my heart in praise until I also think about what others have seen through a microscope. Through a microscope we see the infinite attention to detail that the God of the universe has given to the “little things of life.”

The inexpressible systems and details of microscopic life allow me to find great comfort and credibility in the One who reassures us that the hairs of our head are all numbered (Matthew 10:29-31), that a sparrow doesn’t fall to the ground unnoticed, and that we are of much more value to Him than many sparrows.

Yet, once again, as I think about the God of little things, the praise slips back into my throat. In His attention to detail, there is danger. Jesus said that we will have to give account for every careless word we have spoken (Matthew 12:36). King David said God not only knows when we stand up and when we sit down, but also what we are thinking (Psalm 139). Solomon said that on a final day of judgment God will examine the secret motives of our heart (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

Once again my heart grows cold, until I think of the cross. It is at the cross that my heart finally seems to find wholehearted praise. At Calvary, I can think about the greatness of the God of the galaxies, the One who counts the hairs of my head and the steps of my feet. At Calvary, I can remember the price that it took for Him to pay for the least and worst of my sins, to buy my salvation, and to call me into His undeserved kindness. At Calvary, the God who formed the galaxies becomes the God who loves me, as much as I need to be loved. And for that, I want to praise Him. Now, and forever . . .

Does God Play Favorites?

Does God Play Favorites?

Why would a parent do more for some of his children than for others? Why does our Father in heaven seem to repeat the mistake of a well-known biblical patriarch? Jacob provoked family rivalry among his twelve sons by spoiling young Joseph in the presence of his older brothers (Genesis 37:3).

So often our Father seems to do more for new believers than for those of us who have been around for a while. Recent converts often tell stories of dramatic answers to prayer, even as those of us who have been in the family for a long time struggle under the weight of problems our Father could have lifted from our backs long ago.

Why does a Father of unlimited resources seem tight-fisted with some of His children while being so open-handed with others? And why does a Father who is everywhere at all times seem to withdraw from some while walking so closely with others? Is God like a parent who creates havoc in the family by playing favorites?

An Infant Needs Direct Help to Survive

When the Father of Israel delivered His newborn nation from the bricks and whips of Egypt, He did so with great style. With the fireworks of a great storm exploding in the Egyptian sky, and with the persuasion of mounting plagues, God tightened His grip on the throat of the pharaoh until the self-proclaimed sovereign of Egypt choked and slumped, gasping in grief and angry defeat.

Just as God gave the infant children of Israel this impressive display of His power, He often welcomes newborn believers into His family with a clear and present sense of deliverance from their sin. He may give them real and vivid experiences to show He is a God who is everything His children need Him to be.

New believers at this stage often give encouragement to the whole family of God as they describe with fresh awareness and enthusiasm what God has done for them. In telling of their experiences, however, they are not yet aware that ahead of them are mountains to scale, swamps to wade, and seasons to endure.

A Young Child Needs to Learn Boundaries

As the children of Israel walked out of Egypt they breathed free air for the first time in centuries. There were no whips cracking at their backs. No fences to confine them. No crops to plant. Their food was delivered daily. Water gushed out of rocks. The sky was big over their heads. The ground was wide under their feet. The possibilities of the future seemed unlimited.

Then came a change. At the foot of Mount Sinai, God gave His children rules. In time someone would count these rules. There were 613 in all: 365 negative commands like “don’t ignore the plight of an overloaded animal”; 248 positive commands like “return lost property to its owner.”

The school of Sinai represents the line upon line of education that is needed by all children. The God who miraculously rescued His children from bondage then teaches us the principles of freedom. With the benefits of relationship come the boundaries of family rules.

At first the rules seem overwhelming. Do this. Don’t do that. No. You’re going to get hurt. Ouch! That’s why Mom and Dad warned you! Slowly the period of God’s supernatural intervention is eclipsed by a new period of learning. As God provides for us, He wants us to learn that trust is not just a passive experience. Trusting Him on His terms means being willing to do what He tells us to do. The struggle begins.

An Adolescent Needs to Learn Self-Control

Forty years later, the children of Israel stood at the threshold of the Promised Land. They had learned some important lessons, but now they had to trust God in a new way. They were no longer just spectators of His miracles but were required to actively engage in battle and obedience.

As we grow in our spiritual journey, God’s expectations of us increase. He calls us to a higher level of responsibility and trust. It’s no longer just about receiving from Him, but about walking in obedience and exercising faith even when we don’t see immediate results.

An Adult Child Needs to Learn the Independent Side of Dependence

In the centuries that followed, God remained present with His people. On occasion, He would give them dramatic miracles of provision. As a rule, however, the wonder of His presence and provisions were clothed in the natural cause-and-effect relationships of life. He still provided daily for His people, but He did so in increasingly subtle ways.

Sometimes we become confused by the apparent absence of God in our lives. But honest reflection will show us that God is absent only in the sense that He is not giving us everything we want when we want it. He still provides for us constantly or we would not survive the need for another breath. But like a seasoned coach, a loving parent, and a wise teacher, He has gradually given us the impression that we are on our own. Does He do this so we will have to provide for ourselves? No. He does it so our trust in Him will grow, not diminish.