It’s one thing to speak the truth to people in power when you have nothing to lose. It’s quite another to speak the truth when you have everything to lose. The Old Testament prophet Nathan faced the prospect of losing everything, including his life, if he spoke the truth to the most powerful man in Israel. Yet that was exactly what God called him to do.
Continue reading MEN OF THE BIBLE (NATHAN)
Kurios is the word normally employed in the NT to speak of Jesus as Lord. The word, however, has a wide range of reference, being used of God (Acts 2:34), Jesus (Luke 10:1), humans (Acts 16:19), and angels (Acts 10:4). When characters in the Gospels speak of Jesus as Lord, they often mean no more than “sir.” At other times the designation Kurios expresses a full confession of
Continue reading DEFINITON OF THE DAY (LORD/JESUS AS LORD PT1)
Roads of Bible times were little more than paths, rough and crude by modern standards. When a king traveled, his servants would go ahead of him, removing stones, filling in low places, and straightening curves so the king’s journey would be more pleasant.
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES (GET READY FOR THE KING)
Many Christians feel that dancing is wrong, the vertical substitute for horizontal immorality. This verse certainly speak to the dangers of dance. Captivated by the sensuality of dance, Herod made a foolish promise that he had to keep for political reasons. John the Baptist lost his life because of a sexy dance.
Continue reading IS DANCING RIGHT OR WRONG?
In an age without television or other leisure-time pursuits, the people of Bible times often used riddles as a form of entertainment. Like Samson, they would pose a puzzling or mystifying question or problem and see who could figure it out.
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS AND CURIOSITIES (SAMSON’S RIDDLE)
Deuteronomy shares many affinities with literature from the ancient Near East. The most evident is tis relationship to the various collections of legal sayings that have been recovered. These collections have come from as early as 2000 BC and before – eg., Sumerian Laws of Ur-Nammu (2064-2046 BC), the Laws Eshnunna (c 1850 BC), and the Code of Hammurapi king of Babylon (1792-1750 BC). The OT contains both similarities with and difference from these collections in subcategories of types of laws, such as case law, apodictic law, laws, involving curses, motive clauses, etc.
Continue reading DECREES AND LAWS
In ancient times a signet ring functioned much like a personal signature does today. A king or other high official would stamp an official document with the symbol on his ring to establish its legality and show that it was issued under his authority.
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS & CURIOSITIES (ZERUBBABEL AS A SIGNET RING)
Saul was a young man dutifully searching for his father’s stray donkeys. Samuel was the renowned prophet, priest, and judge of Israel reluctantly searching for his nation’s first king. When their paths crossed, the course of Israel’s history changed dramatically.
Samuel had served as the Lord’s representative leader of Israel for decades, but he was growing old. When his sons proved to be unfit to succeed him, the people of Israel demanded that a king be appointed to rule over them. They were envious of the monarchies common in surrounding nations.
Continue reading MEN OF THE BIBLE (SAUL: WRESTILING WITH DEOMONS)
While the Hebrews of the Exodus were still camped in what is now Jordan, their leader, Joshua, sent two spies to scout the fortified border town of Jericho.
The spies went straight to the house of a prostitute, Rahab, And they spent the night.
Continue reading WOMEN OF THE BIBLE (RAHAB)
This verse refers to the humiliation of the nobility of Judah by the army of Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem. Were these princes, or nobles, executed and then hung up by their hands as a public example? Or were they tied and hung up by the hands as a form of torture? We don’t know.
Continue reading BIBLE CUSTOMS & CURIOSITIES (HANGING BY THE HAND)