After this short visit to Capernaum, Jesus apparently traveled to Jerusalem to observe the Passover festival. Here He found the outer courts of the temple cluttered with merchants who were selling sacrificial animals to pilgrims who had come to the Holy City for the annual Jewish holiday. Other agents were busy exchanging foreign currency for the Jewish coins needed to pay the annual temple tax (John 2:13-25).
Continue reading JESUS’ CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE
1.Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
Continue reading SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY (HOSEA 4:1-19 “GOD’S CHARGE AGAINST ISRAEL”)
Place name meaning “swelling,” “fat,” “bulge,” or “mound,” It became the proper name of a portion of the hill on which the city of David was built (2 Chron 27:3). The Ophel was just south of Mount Moriah, on which the temple was constructed, joining the old city with the area of Solomon’s palace and temple. The hill has been inhabited since pre-Israelite times by peoples such as the Jebusites from whom David took the site.
Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (OPHEL)
LUKE 17:32- “Remember Lot’s wife!”
Lot’s wife is one of the many unnamed characters of Scripture. We don’t know her background or how or where she and Lot met. We only know she was a mother of two daughters (see Gen 19:15) and that se lived with Lot in the notoriously wicked city of Sodom. Continue reading WOMEN OF THE BIBLE “LOT’S WIFE”A CAUTIONARY TALE ABOUT WORLDLINESS
Angels apparently spend most of their career serving Christians working as bodyguards or perhaps “spirit guards,” helping Christians remain faithful throughout life. It is interesting that this type of job would be noted in the book of the Bible that describes Christians as most vulnerable to defeat and loss. Surely Jesus is the captain of all the company of the saved, but angles are the rank-and-file “coast guards.” defending the spiritual perimeter against attack from the evil one. This job function does not prevent Christians from suffering disaster or defeat, as experience clearly attests. The effectiveness of the angels’ work will be known only in heaven. But the hints we have concerning these guardsmen suggest that heavenly praised to God will be all the more joyous for the help we unknowingly received from these unseen agents.
Hebrews 1:14 – Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Brimstone, literally “the stone that burns” is another name for the mineral sulfur. It is found at the surface around the Dead Sea, where it was deposited during the breakdown of sedimentary rocks, Sulfur, when burned, produces an acrid and poisonous smoke. It was sometimes used as a disinfectant, as a fumigant, or as an antiparasitic. It was also associated with volcanic activity. Sulfur’s distinctive odor is present in odorized natural gas, skunk spray, grapefruit, and garlic. It was also used to make the most effective black gunpowder. Today it is used in fertilizer and pesticides, and is also an essential mineral for the human body. Continue reading BIBLE SIGNS AND SYMBOLS (BRIMSTONE)