I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
I will not fear though tens of thousands
    assail me on every side.

• Psalm 3:5-6

In vain you rise early
    and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

• Psalm 127:2

Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on.  When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.

• Acts 20:9

In a way, this quiz is partially inspired by our recent trip to Tennessee and Georgia.  I got a few nights of really good sleep, but on a few occasions, sleep was not forthcoming.  For part of the time, I had two roommates, a puppy and a guinea pig.  The latter is nocturnal, and the former stays awake if someone or something else makes noise.  Hoorah for me!!!!

I awoke after maybe an hour of sleep on our return to Pennsylvania, having stopped in Kentucky.  I awoke my wife, unhappily, and I drove the last five plus hours home in the dark, with the sun coming up for that last hour.  It was a beautiful sunrise, and I doubt if we would have made it home, if I had tried to sleep any more at the hotel.  The wall did not hit me until early afternoon, and then I could not keep my eyes open.  But I was home.  So, now, days later, I am still far behind on my sleep.

I searched for the word “sleep” and there were more than one hundred verses with “sleep” or “sleeping” in them.  I wondered if there were verses that alluded to someone sleeping without mentioning who it was that was sleeping in that verse.  I found seven candidates, really eight, but one a duplicate.  One refers to three people.  One is a taunt, thinking someone or something else might be asleep.

The entire quiz, a short one (seven questions), is “Who is asleep?” (Or might be in the one case of taunting)

Do the Scriptures above apply to this category?  No.

The first is a psalm of David, written while David fled from Absalom, but anyone can assume the pronoun “I” in this case, applying it to their lives.

The second Scripture is a psalm of Solomon and the unnamed people who are asleep could be anyone.

In the third scripture, the person is named, Eutychus.

For the question, the Bible verse will be quoted.  As usual, the Bible Reference will give the book, chapter, and verse – which might be a giveaway answer or not.  Reading a few paragraphs will give you the answer.  And then the answers will be provided.

I hope some of these are easy for you.

The Questions:

1. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.
2. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set.  Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
3. After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.  And his strength left him.
4. At noon Elijah began to taunt them.  “Shout louder!” he said.  “Surely he is a god!  Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling.  Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
5. While he was speaking to me, I was in a deep sleep, with my face to the ground.  Then he touched me and raised me to my feet.
6. The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep?  Get up and call on your god!  Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”
7. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.

That first question…  A deep sleep…  How wonderful that sounds.  Waking up and finding a rib gone?  Maybe not so much.

Question four is the taunting question, where Elijah is taunting someone, maybe the first historical recording of trash talk.  Who might be sleeping?

The last question is identified as “them.”  There were three that were separated from the others.

Another big hint, these questions are in Biblical order.

Bible References:

1. Genesis 2:21
2. Genesis 28:11
3. Judges 16:9
4. 1 Kings 18:27
5. Daniel 8:18.  This person did a lot of sleeping.  I could have used Daniel 10:9.
6. Jonah 1:6
7. Matthew 26:43

A lot, maybe most of the uses of “sleep” were in reference to “sleep with.”  I did not use any of those references, in that I am thinking of going to sleep – not the other thing.  For the mature audience, I could write a longer quiz for that reference, but I may just skip it.

   …

   …

   …

The Answers:

1. Adam – as in the creation of Eve.
2. Jacob – as in Jacob’s Ladder.
3. Samson – as in Delilah giving him a haircut.
4. Baal, the false god served by Ahab and Jezebel.  Elijah was taunting the priests of Baal, but the reference to sleeping is for Baal.
5. Daniel.  Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and often sleep alluded him, but that was early in the book of Daniel.  When the book shifts from third person to first person with Daniel narrating his story, Daniel has prophetic dreams.
6. Jonah, in an odd parallel with Jesus who was asleep on the Sea of Galilee during a storm.
7. Peter and the sons of Zebedee (James and John).  These three went further into the garden with Jesus as He prayed before being betrayed by Judas.

And regardless of how you did, here is a song for the Lord of the Rings, Aragorn Sleepsong.

And what better thoughts to focus on when we go to sleep other than knowing that we have a wonderful friend in Jesus and we need do nothing more than turn our eyes on Jesus, as David Wesley mashes two beautiful songs.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.