A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

• Revelation 12:1

The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?

• Numbers 14:11

The Lord said to Moses, “Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the ark of the covenant law, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.”

• Numbers 17:10

Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

• Psalm 86:17

Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel.

• Ezekiel 4:3

There was something in the air.  I could not think of a theme for this quiz.  Maybe I am not over my illness, but the doctor says that I am.  Maybe I have been distracted, and yes, I have been on many fronts.  Do I have writer’s block?

Well, the first letter of each answer spells the solution to this mystery.  If you guess the words before answering all the questions, the letter will help answer the questions.  All the questions are single Bible verses with one word removed and replaced by four underscores, regardless of the length of the missing word.  None of these answers is a person’s name, but one is an office that a person might hold.

The Bible verses may or may not be verses that you might memorize, maybe not even familiar verses, but hopefully there is enough left of the verse to figure out the answers.

By the nature of this quiz, the questions are not in biblical order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was ____ the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering ____ the waters.	Genesis 1:2	over	O
2	Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to ____ every disease and sickness.	Matthew 10:1	heal	H
3	“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the ____, and the ____ may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.	Matthew 5:25	Judge	J
4	“All this,” David said, “I have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to ____ all the details of the plan.”	1 Chronicles 28:19	understand	U
5	For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged ____, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.	Hebrews 4:12	sword	S
6	With the ____ we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.	James 3:9	tongue	T
7	____ is patient, ____ is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.	1 Corinthians 13:4	love	L
8	But the ____ of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.	Genesis 22:11	angel	A
9	Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the ____	Mark 3:18	Zealot	Z
10	He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like ____ that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”	Matthew 13:33	yeast	Y

There are many hints in this section.  Whether it does you any good is another matter.  But I think we have some smart people out there that have already solved the quiz.

The mystery expression is three words.  Actually, I added a two-letter exclamation at the beginning of the mystery expression to make it ten letters long.  The other two words are four letters each.

While we are on the length of words, the ten answers are four (3), five (4), six (2), and ten (1) letters in length.

The Bible verses come from the New Testament more than the Old Testament.  In fact, more than twice as many.

Of the answers to the questions, there are seven nouns, one preposition, and two verbs.  The preposition can be several parts of speech, but a preposition in this case.  Two of the nouns can be a verb, but in these cases, the words are used as a noun.

Note: The preposition mentioned above could be a noun, but that would confuse you even more unless you are a cricket fan.  Then it is a series of six balls bowled by a bowler.  But remember, the answer is a preposition in this case.

As mentioned above, one of the nouns is a title or position that someone may hold.  Another noun is a body part.  And another noun is a member of an ancient Jewish sect.

Of the questions’ answers, it covers the alphabet from A to Z and there are no repeated letters.

And if these hints have made the waters even muddier for you, remember that you might rely on one of the answers to bring you a message.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Who was placed in a papyrus basket, sealed with pitch and tar, and sent floating down the Nile River?	Exodus 2:3-10 (to get to the name)
2	Who was the son born to Hagar when she was given to Abram to have a son for him?	Genesis 16:15
3	Who was Abram’s wife when she gave Hagar to her husband?	Genesis 16:3
4	What was Peter’s name when he first met Jesus?	Mark 1:16
5	At some point on the island of Cyprus, Saul of Tarsus became known as what name?	Acts 13:9
6	Who was taken into Heaven in a whirlwind, guarded by a fiery chariot?	2 Kings 2:11
7	Who was the first wife of Jacob, who bore Jacob six sons, including Judah?	Genesis 29:25; 35:23
8	Who was the seller of purple, originally from Thyatira, whose heart was opened by God and she insisted Paul and Silas stay with her during their initial mission to Philippi?	Acts 16:14-15
9	When the answer to question 6 was taken up in a whirlwind, who witnessed this?	2 Kings 2:1
10	Who was the man after God’s own heart?	Acts 13:22

We all have distractions in our lives.  We all have those days, I guess I can be that bold, when we get out of bed and the bed beckons us to return.  And some days, our head is in a fog most of the day, and that does not have to stem from medication that we might take, whether we got enough sleep, whether we have recently had surgery and required anesthesia, or there is a thick fog outside and it is simply the power of suggestion.

Wow!  That was fun.  If any of you get this far and have a way of your brain being in a fog that I did not mention, let me know.

Sometimes, we get up and try to function, but the results may not be our best results.

Then again, on a few occasions, an answer to prayer occurs.  My brain might not function as well that day, but in prayer, God can provide the inspiration or the motivation to get the job done.

What we need to do is to keep plugging away.

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   …

   …

The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Who was placed in a papyrus basket, sealed with pitch and tar, and sent floating down the Nile River?	Exodus 2:3-10 (to get to the name)	Moses	M
2	Who was the son born to Hagar when she was given to Abram to have a son for him?	Genesis 16:15	Ishmael	I
3	Who was Abram’s wife when she gave Hagar to her husband?	Genesis 16:3	Sarai (not yet having changed her named to Sarah)	S
4	What was Peter’s name when he first met Jesus?	Mark 1:16	Simon	S
5	At some point on the island of Cyprus, Saul of Tarsus became known as what name?	Acts 13:9	Paul – probably always called by both names (Hebrew and Roman names)	P
6	Who was taken into Heaven in a whirlwind, guarded by a fiery chariot?	2 Kings 2:11	Elijah	E
7	Who was the first wife of Jacob, who bore Jacob six sons, including Judah?	Genesis 29:25; 35:23	Leah	L
8	Who was the seller of purple, originally from Thyatira, whose heart was opened by God and she insisted Paul and Silas stay with her during their initial mission to Philippi?	Acts 16:14-15	Lydia	L
9	When the answer to question 6 was taken up in a whirlwind, who witnessed this?	2 Kings 2:1	Elisha	E
10	Who was the man after God’s own heart?	Acts 13:22	David.  Oddly, this is the only verse that contains this phrase and directly relates this to David.  The phrase is only used one other time, when Samuel pronounces the curse on king Saul, 1 Samuel 13:14, but David is obviously not mentioned.	D

The mystery expression is “Oh, Just Lazy!”  I think my brain fog could stem from a lot of things, but I have been writing these quizzes, one each week, since July of 2020.  Coming up with something new or a new wrinkle to something old…  Hmmm.  Is that what happens?  A new wrinkle to something old is happening on my body with alarming regularity.  But I digress.  I have gotten into the rut of coming up with one word and ten questions where that word appears in the Bible.  I feel I have to mix it up, even if it makes a quiz a little harder than usual.

But on the day that I wrote this quiz, it was the third post of the day, and I still have plenty of time to work on another one.  Not that lazy after all, just some brain cells that needed to be energized.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Nat King Cole singing Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer.  I do not think there are many Christian songs and hymns about laziness.  Nat King Cole was one of the best jazz pianists in history, but he pretends to play a ukulele in this video.  The video is from a BBC special about Nat King Cole.

Well, I found one song from Sovereign Grace Music singing Lazy Bones.

But now back to something mellow, here are the Mills Brothers singing Lazy River.

And here is Marilyn Monroe singing Lazy.  My father’s mother, Mammy, had a swooning chair similar to the one in this clip from There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954).

There were a few others that I could have selected, but I think this covers a lot.  And I hope I did not shock people with the Marilyn Monroe video.

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.