Three -- A Common Number in the Old Testament Quiz

Answer: Noah

Noah is the correct answer. He and his unnamed wife were the parents of Shem, Ham and Japheth, with Shem being the oldest, as per Genesis 5:33.

Scripture states Noah and his wife and their three sons and their unnamed wives took refuge in a gigantic ark and were saved when floodwaters engulfed the world. Details about the flood can be found in Genesis 7 and 8.

Answer: Moses

Moses, described as a "beautiful child" in Scripture, was hid for three months by his mother Jochebed, as per Exodus 2:2. She took such action to prevent her baby from being killed. Exodus 1:25 tells of the Pharaoh issuing a decree calling for the killing of every new-born Israelite male. (The females were to be spared.)

Scripture goes on to tell of Moses being put in a basket and placed in the reeds by the banks of the Nile River. Lo and behold the Pharaoh's daughter came along, found the baby, and opted to take him home to raise in the royal household.

According to Exodus 2:11, Pharaoh's daughter gave the baby the name Moses "because I drew him out of the water." According to notes in the NKJV Study Bible, Moses means 'drawn out'.

Answer: Abraham

God made the request of Abraham, who was known as Abram at the time, as per Genesis 15:9. In addition to requesting a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat and a three-year-old ram, the verse tells of God requesting a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

In Chapter 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham, telling him his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky. This at a time when Sarah, Abraham's wife, was unable to conceive.

Answer: Isaiah

Isaiah, according to Scripture, walked naked and barefoot for three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia. Details can be found in Isaiah 20:1-6. Verse 2 quotes the LORD as telling Isaiah, "Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet." The verse goes on to state Isiah followed his divine instructions, "walking naked and barefoot."

Verse 3 goes on to quote the LORD as saying that, just as Isaiah walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, "so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered."

Answer: Saul

Samuel was talking to Saul just prior to his coronation as the first king of Israel. Sure enough, Samuel's prediction about the three men carrying three young goats, three loaves of bread and a skin of wine came to pass. 1 Samuel 10 is devoted to details about Saul, the son of Kish, being proclaimed king of Israel.

However, Saul initially didn't want the job. The chapter tells of Saul being in hiding when he was sought for his coronation. However, he was found and Verse 24 tells of the people proclaiming "long live the king!"

Answer: Jonah

Jonah, according to Scripture, was swallowed by a huge fish only to be regurgitated onto dry land after surviving three days and three nights in its stomach. After surviving his ordeal in the fish's stomach, Jonah agreed to go to Nineveh, the place the LORD wanted him to go all along. According to the book of Jonah, the LORD told him to go to Nineveh and "preach against it" because of the city's wickedness.

Jonah's story is one of the best known in the Old Testament. According to Wikipedia, Nineveh was an ancient city across the river from the modern-day Iraqi city of Mosul.

Answer: Esther

Esther made the request of "all the Jews who are present in Shushan", as per Esther 4:16. In making the request, Esther stated she and her maids would also fast for three days. She requested the fasting prior to her unannounced visit to King Ahasuerus. (In the NIV, the king is known as Xerxes.)

It's difficult to fathom, but Esther could have easily been killed for going directly to the king without being summoned. It boggles the mind that a king would have such a draconian rule, but that's how it was in Biblical times. Making things even more dicey is the fact, as Scripture states, that Esther had not been called to go to the king in thirty days, indicating she might have fallen out of favour with the emperor.

Esther 4:11-12 tells of the precarious situation Esther placed herself in when she decided to visit the king unannounced to prevent Haman from carrying out a diabolical plan to kill all the Jews in the vast Persian empire.

Shushan was the city in which Ahasuerus ruled as king.

Answer: Elijah

Elijah is the correct answer, with the drought lasting slightly longer than three years. In Luke 4:25, Jesus states that heaven was shut up for three years and six months during the days of Elijah.

Backing up Christ's statement is the verse 1 Kings 18:1. The verse tells of the word of the LORD coming to Elijah in the third year saying, "Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth."

Elijah was a notable prophet of God who was vehemently opposed by King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel.

Answer: Rahab

After hiding two unnamed Israelite spies in her house, the prostitute Rahab enabled them to escape by letting them down by a rope through the window, as her house in Jericho was on the city wall. Before they departed, however, Rahab gave this advice: "Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward you may go your way."

According to Joshua 2:1, Joshua had sent the two men to spy out the city of Jericho and its surrounding land. Because Rahab gave the men safe harbor, the Israelites agreed to spare her life, as well as the life of her family, when they conquered Jericho.

Answer: House of the Forest of Lebanon

The verse is describing the House of the Forest of Lebanon. (In the NIV, it is called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.) The impressive building was part of the palace complex Solomon constructed in Jerusalem. At the same time, he built a temple of the LORD, fulfilling a dream for his deceased father David. As the name implies, the house, or palace, was built of cedar trees specially imported from Lebanon.