he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, “Who are you?” They said, “We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.”

• 2 Kings 10:13

The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev of Canaan, heard that the Israelites were coming.

• Numbers 33:40

This was after he had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and at Edrei had defeated Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth.

• Deuteronomy 1:4

“Set out now and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle.

• Deuteronomy 2:24

This quiz is about the words “king” and “queen”.  But for those of you who like poker, not the gambling, just playing the game or playing poker solitaire, the questions are related to four things, kings, queens, and two sets of numbers.  It is up to you to arrange the questions and/or answers into two perfect full house hands.  For those who do not know what that means, three of one thing and two of another.  The specific word or the number will be in either the question or answer.

Of course, there will be two interchangeable sets of three and two interchangeable sets of two.

But to think of a different type of full house, I have had my son’s family with me, cleaning house and having a memorial service for my wife. They stayed nearly two weeks. This quiz was written as they were packing the car to drive here and as it gets posted, they are probably going to already be on the road. They want to take advantage of the extra hour by changing time zones and make it home in a day. For that to be a comfortable accomplishment, they should already be gone by now. From six people to one person in a house where maybe four is the max, it will feel empty.

The questions are in biblical order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	How many pairs of clean animals were placed in Noah’s Ark?
2	What son of Cush was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and his kingdom included Babylon, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh, and he built many cities, including Nineveh
3	God said, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.”  Who were the three in the tent of meeting?
4	Adonijah set himself up as king before King David had died.  This future king’s mother went to the prophet Nathan to inquire as to how her son could then be anointed king.  Which future king is this?
5	Who was the queen who visited King Solomon and was impressed by his kingdom and his wisdom?
6	What empire was Cyrus the king of?
7	Who was the queen who refused to appear before drunken king Xerxes and his friends?  Eventually paving the way for a new queen.
8	How many days and nights was Jonah in the fish?
9	Jesus said Peter would deny Him how many times?
10	How many bowls of God’s wrath were poured out in John’s Revelation?

Okay, I apologize to anyone who was taught that gambling is sinful, that playing cards is sinful, etc.

I could have simply said that there are two sets of three and two sets of two in the questions/answers.

I am sensitive to such teachings, in that my father’s father would not allow any board game to be played with dice, or a spinning wheel, or any other means of generating a random number.  It was too much like gambling.  He allowed it only once when I brought to him a board game of the life of Jesus.  We could play it only if we read the Scripture associated with each square that we landed on.  It made the game a lot longer to play, but in a way, my cousins and I became even more determined to read the Scriptures just so someone would win the game.  In the end, I guess we all won.

The same grandfather would not allow cards.  I think if he saw how I know what a “full house” in poker is, he would have fainted dead away.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	How many pairs of clean animals were placed in Noah’s Ark?	Genesis 7:2
2	What son of Cush was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and his kingdom included Babylon, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh, and he built many cities, including Nineveh	Genesis 10:9-10
3	God said, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.”  Who were the three in the tent of meeting?	Numbers 12:4
4	Adonijah set himself up as king before King David had died.  This future king’s mother went to the prophet Nathan to inquire as to how her son could then be anointed king.  Which future king is this?	1 Kings 1:11-13
5	Who was the queen who visited King Solomon and was impressed by his kingdom and his wisdom?	1 King 10:1
6	What empire was Cyrus the king of?	Ezra 1:1
7	Who was the queen who refused to appear before drunken king Xerxes and his friends?  Eventually paving the way for a new queen.	Esther 1:12
8	How many days and nights was Jonah in the fish?	Jonah 1:17
9	Jesus said Peter would deny Him how many times?	Matthew 26:34
10	How many bowls of God’s wrath were poured out in John’s Revelation?	Revelation 16:1

As I mentioned last week, I was looking for the word “Jack” to have a card themed quiz, and I could only find Jackal.  Thus, there was a quiz on jackals.

But what made me think of a quiz about cards was that I had taken a break from writing in order to play some solitaire.  While one grandfather never allowed cards in his house, the other grandfather not only played solitaire, he cheated.

Yes, I grew up in a family of mixed signals.

I was playing an online solitaire phone application which had sixteen different types of solitaire and one was Poker Solitaire, where you are dealt 25 cards and you try to create winning poker hands both across and up and down.  Thus, you have ten possibilities to score.  The better the hand, the higher the score.  My strategy is to try for four flushes horizontally (five cards of the same suit), and the discard row might get something by accident.  In the vertical columns, I shoot for a full house, until I draw cards that don’t fit and they have to go somewhere.  I do not always get four flushes, but with a couple of full houses in the vertical columns, I do not need four flushes to win.

Maybe if you play that type of solitaire you have a different strategy.

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   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	How many pairs of clean animals were placed in Noah’s Ark?	Genesis 7:2	Seven
2	What son of Cush was a mighty hunter before the Lord, and his kingdom included Babylon, Uruk, Akkad, and Kalneh, and he built many cities, including Nineveh	Genesis 10:9-10	Nimrod
3	God said, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.”  Who were the three in the tent of meeting?	Numbers 12:4	Moses, Aaron, and Miriam
4	Adonijah set himself up as king before King David had died.  This future king’s mother went to the prophet Nathan to inquire as to how her son could then be anointed king.  Which future king is this?	1 Kings 1:11-13	Solomon
5	Who was the queen who visited King Solomon and was impressed by his kingdom and his wisdom?	1 King 10:1	The Queen of Sheba
6	What empire was Cyrus the king of?	Ezra 1:1	Persia
7	Who was the queen who refused to appear before drunken king Xerxes and his friends?  Eventually paving the way for a new queen.	Esther 1:12	Queen Vashti
8	How many days and nights was Jonah in the fish?	Jonah 1:17	Three
9	Jesus said Peter would deny Him how many times?	Matthew 26:34	Three
10	How many bowls of God’s wrath were poured out in John’s Revelation?	Revelation 16:1	Seven

So the two sets of three are kings (Nimrod, Solomon, and Cyrus) and the number three (the people in the tent of meeting, days and nights in a fish, and Peter’s denials of Jesus).  The two sets of two are queens (the Queen of Sheba and Vashti) and the number seven (the pairs of clean animals on Noah’s Ark and the Bowls of God’s Wrath).  The best hand would be the kings and queens, but in many poker games, a full house of any type would be a really good hand.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, here is the Gaither Vocal Band, my favorite four of David Phelps, Guy Penrod, Mark Lowry, and Bill Gaither singing The King is Coming.  I guess people that know me would expect this to be the headliner, but I found this Homecoming gathering where Vestal and John Goodman come onto the stage, Jesse Dixon, Candy Christmas, Jake Hess, and many others.

And here is Saddleback Worship singing King of Kings.  They read Psalm 100 before the singing.  And besides mentioning the King of kings, they mention “three.”

And here is a dramatization of Esther, the woman portraying Esther is singing What Would I Give.

And, the comedian in me cannot resist.  I have sung this work of Handel in choirs, a couple of times without practice.  It is not easy just keeping up with your part.  While you may think this only an amusing version, consider the practice that it takes.  Also consider that the tallest monk is second in line, and the shortest monk is next to last in line, both for comic effect.  With no further ado here are the Silent Monks “singing” Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.  If you do not want to know why people are laughing, you can simply not watch, just listen to a beautiful recording.

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.