Jehoram was the world’s best-known fratricidal maniac. He waited until power was solidly in his palm, then wiped out all possible bloodline competitors. The crime carried little strategic advantage, and alternatives, such as appointing brothers to cabinet posts, might have been more effective in securing Jehoram’s reputation and power.
Continue reading HOW COULD ANYONE BE SO CRUEL AS TO EXECUTE ALL HIS BROTHERS
In the beginning God created an ordered, harmonious universe. It was a creation where everything had its place and function. It was a beautiful, good, and blessed creation. God also made special creatures: humans. Humans represented God in his creation. In addition, God created humans as relational beings. Humans were meant to relate to God (he walked alongside them,) to creation (they were the caretakers of the garden), and to each other (God instituted marriage and family life).
Continue reading GOD LIVING WITH HIS PEOPLE
Can we feel sorry for the man who invented murder?
Sure. Cain probably felt sorry for himself. He was the first child born into mankind’s fallen state. He friends a cursed land. It would have been a difficult life. He might have felt bitter. Perhaps he felt justified in keeping his best produce for himself and offering God the rest. Continue reading MEN OF THE BIBLE (CAIN: THE “FIRST” DRIP IN THE FLOOD)
Romans 12: 1-2 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (ROMANS 12:1&2)
When know Ephraim for his childhood and his descendants. Between those two extremes precious little is told of his life, but because he was given precedence over his older brother when both were small and unproven, we can only surmise that God picked him out for a reason. Continue reading MEN OF THE BIBLE (EPHRAIM, FIRST EVEN THOUGH HE WAS SECOND)
The number five, with its immediate connection to the fingers of one hand, often represents a small amount in the Bible. The idea expressed in modern terms is “just a handful.” When faced with the hunger of five thousand, all Jesus’ disciples could come up with was a child’s lunch of five loaves and two fish (John 6:9). Yet Jesus had no problem multiplying that small gift into abundance for the meal. Isaiah mentions five Egyptian cities that will be unusual as a foreign remnant from that land and that will “swear
1 SAMUEL 16:1-13
You see a new worker at work. They have the right clothes, the perfect haircut/hair style, the brand name stuff. They’ll probably be popular, right? But what’s going on inside him/her? Can looks tell us that? God instructed the prophet Samuel to bless the new king, one of the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem. Samuel met the first seven sons. Each one looked
9. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (JAMES 5:9-12) PATIENCE
Problem: There were no women for Cain to marry. There was only Adam, Eve (4:1), and his dead brother, Abel (4:8). Yet the Bible says Cain married and had children.
Continue reading WHERE DID CAIN GET HIS WIFE? “GENESIS 4:17”