The ten plagues were direct attacks against the false gods of Egypt. The following table shows a possible pairing, among many, of plagues and Egyptian gods. However it might have been, it is certain that God was showing that Pharaoh was a false god. Only the LORD is God, and only he is in control of creation, including Egypt.
Continue reading THE TEN PLAGUES
When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, Pharaoh and his armies chased them. The Israelites were afraid and complained to God. Moses said to them, “Do not be afraid. . . The LORD will fight for you. . . ” (Exodus 14:13-14).
Continue reading THE ARK IN BATTLE
While object representing deities were common in the ancient world, only statues created under carefully prescribed conditions and with proper rituals were regarded as real images that the deity inhabited. Some images were made of stone, cast of solid metal or molded from clay; however, the primary statues of deities that dominated the temples were usually carved of wood and covered with a thin layer of gold or silver and adorned with precious stones and elegant clothing. The Assyrian king Esarhaddon commissioned a major restoration of temples and images.
Continue reading MAKING AN IDOL
The fundamental truth about government in the Bible’s worldview and metanarrative is that the one triune God revealed in the Scriptures of the OT and NT is the sovereign ruler from which all authority flows. Whatever man and human governments are, they are not to be confused with god(s)-though some may make claims to that effect. On the other hand, they are not mere usurpers upon the creation. Man is the pinnacle of God’s creation. The psalmist, echoed by the writer of Hebrews in the NT, marveled poetically that God was “mindful” of man at all (Ps 8:4-6 NIV; Heb 2:6-8 KJV); but Scripture affirms human dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28-30; Psa 8:6-8; 115:16).
Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (GOVERNMENT “THE NATURE AND CALLING OF MAN”)
Go and marry a prostitute, so some of her children will be born to your from other men” (Hosea 1:2).
Continue reading A LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT (GOMER)
King Ahab of Israel had won a previous battle against the Syrians (1 Kings 20:21), apparently among the hills and mountains of Israel. The victory gave rise to the Syrian claim that the God of Israel was a god of the high country, not of the level plains. The Syrians reflected the typical pagan belief that different nations and different parts of the earth had their own regional gods.
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES (GOD OF THE HILLS AND VALLEYS)
This verse is a guideline, not a rule without exception. Peter and John paid no heed to governments edicts in Acts 4. The Old Testament’s preeminent statesman, Daniel, refused to comply with government strictures on prayer (Daniel 6). When civil law clearly contravenes divine command, biblical precedent calls for appropriate civil disobedience.
Continue reading WHY SUBMIT TO GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY WHEN SO MUCH OF IT IS CORRUPT AND MORALLY WRONG?
In a vision the prophet Ezekiel saw the temple of the Jewish people in Jerusalem. He was shocked to see on its walls paintings or sculptures of unclean animals that God’s people were not supposed to eat (Leviticus 11:1-19).
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS & CURIOSITIES (IDOLS IN THE TEMPLS)
General term for religions marked by rites that reenact a myth accounting for the orderly change of the seasons and the earth’s fruitfulness. Such myths often involve a great mother-goddess as a symbol of fertility and a male deity, usually her consort but sometimes a son, who like vegetation dies and returns to life again. In Mesopotamia the divine couple was Ishtar and Tammuz (who is mourned in Ezek 8:14); in Egypt, Isis and her sons Osiris: in Asia Minor, Cybele and Attis. In Syria the Ugaritic myths of the second millennium B.C. pictured Baal-Hadad, the storm god, as the dying and rising god. (A local manifestation of this god is mourned in Zech
Continue reading DEFINITION OF THE DAY (FERTILITY CULT PT1)