Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Monday, April 29, 2019
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Friday, April 26, 2019
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Emmaus road
The two disciples of the Emmaus Road appearance rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the eleven they had seen Jesus and He is very much alive! Upon arrival with the ..good news.. they find that the others already know about the Risen Lord. It was Sunday evening and they had gathered to...sort this out! When the two from Emmaus arrived they were told that Jesus had appeared to Simon Peter.
Peter knew the tomb was empty...He was witness to that... but he did not believe Jesus had risen...until Jesus appeared to him! The disciples despair over Jesus’ death was overwhelming, but now since Peter had seen Him and they had seen Him, the despair was now exceeding joy. Their Lord was alive....just as He said. As they discussed the last few days’ events, they began to remember things Jesus had said.
As they were discussing Jesus, He walked through the .. apparently.. locked door and ...stood in their midst! Again they see the Risen Christ! The first reaction...they were terrified because they thought they had seen a spirit. Again Jesus had to prove that it was He standing before them. Now they’re...overjoyed...to say the least!!! But Thomas was not at this appearance! When told of Jesus appearance, he said I must see His wounds and touch them before I can believe.
A week later Jesus appears again to the disciples and Thomas is present. Jesus invited him to put his finger into the wounds and then to believe...and he did believe! Jesus told Thomas he believed because he had seen Him, but “blessed are those who believe that have not seen!” (John 20:29).
Jesus next appearance was by the Sea of Galilee where He cooked fish for several disciples who had gone fishing. This is the appearance where Jesus restores Peter. Peter had denied Jesus three times during His trials and now Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him. Of course, Peter says he does and Jesus tells him to “feed my sheep.” (John 21). Peter is restored to right standing for the mission of building the Church...” upon this rock” (Matthew 16:18-19). Jesus is the Rock and Peter is commissioned to build the Church... with people...disciples!
Paul mentions an appearance in 1 Corinthians 15:6. This appearance was to more than 500 people. The commentary says “they worshipped, but some doubted (Matthew 28:17).
Jesus then appeared to His brother James who, along with Jesus’ other siblings, did not believe. James finally did believe and became instrumental in the church in Jerusalem.
At the end of the forty days, Jesus appeared again to the disciples who, again, were gathered probably in the Upper Room. Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit upon them...but to “tarry in Jerusalem until you are empowered from on high.” (Luke 24:49).
At every appearance, Jesus has a purpose. He is preparing the disciples for their work still to be done! He is assuring them that everything is okay. He is preparing them for His imminent departure! Jesus, teacher, Lord, Savior, King all the way !!! Praise Him!
Scripture does record the ministries of Peter, James, and John extensively ... but not the others. They did go forth with the good news and did have their own ministry but they’re barely recorded in scripture.
Scripture does record the ministries of Peter, James, and John extensively ... but not the others. They did go forth with the good news and did have their own ministry but they’re barely recorded in scripture.
Friday, April 19, 2019
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Friday, April 12, 2019
Balaam
Balaam was a wicked prophet in the Bible and is noteworthy because, although he was a wicked prophet, he was not a false prophet. That is, Balaam did hear from God, and God did give him some true prophecies to speak. However, Balaam’s heart was not right with God, and eventually he showed his true colors by betraying Israel and leading them astray.
In Numbers 22—24, we find the story about Balaam and the king of Moab, a man called Balak. King Balak wanted to weaken the children of Israel, who on their way to Canaan had moved in on his territory. Balak sent to Balaam, who lived in Mesopotamia along the Euphrates River (Numbers 22:5), and asked him to curse Israel in exchange for a reward. Balaam was apparently willing to do this but said he needed God’s permission (verse 8). Balaam, of course, had no power, in himself, to curse Israel, but, if God were willing to curse Israel, Balaam would be rewarded through Balak. God told Balaam, “You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed” (verse 12). King Balak then sent “other officials, more numerous and more distinguished than the first” (verse 16), promising a handsome reward. This time God said, “Go with them, but do only what I tell you” (verse 20).
The next morning, Balaam saddled his donkey and left for Moab (Numbers 22:21). God sent an angel to oppose Balaam on the way. The donkey Balaam was riding could see the angel, but Balaam could not, and when the donkey three times moved to avoid the angel, Balaam was angry and beat the animal. “Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth” (verse 28), and it rebuked the prophet for the beatings. “Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn” (verse 31). The angel told Balaam that he certainly would have killed Balaam had not the donkey spared his life. Ironically, a dumb beast had more wisdom than God’s prophet. The angel then repeated to Balaam the instruction that he was only to speak what God told him to speak concerning the Hebrews (verses 33–35).
In Moab, King Balak took the prophet Balaam up to a high place called Bamoth Baal and told him to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22:41). Balaam first offered fourteen sacrifices on seven altars and met with the Lord (Numbers 23:1–5). He then declared the message God gave him: a blessing on Israel: “How can I curse / those whom God has not cursed? / How can I denounce / those whom the Lord has not denounced?” (verse 8).
King Balak was upset that Balaam had pronounced a blessing on Israel rather than a curse, but he had him try again, this time from the top of Pisgah (Numbers 23:14). Balaam sacrificed another fourteen animals and met with the Lord. When he faced Israel, Balaam again spoke a blessing: “I have received a command to bless; / he has blessed, and I cannot change it” (verse 20).
King Balak told Balaam that, if he was going to keep blessing Israel, it was better for him to just shut up (Numbers 23:25). But the king decided to try one more time, taking Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland (verse 28). Again, Balaam offered fourteen animals on seven newly built altars (verse 29). Then “the Spirit of God came on him and he spoke his message” (Numbers 24:2–3). The third message was not what the Moabite king wanted to hear: “How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, / your dwelling places, Israel!” (verse 5).
Balaam’s three prophecies of blessing on Israel infuriated the king of Moab, who told the prophet to go back home with no reward: “Now leave at once and go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the Lord has kept you from being rewarded” (Numbers 24:11). Before he left, Balaam reminded the king that he had said from the very beginning he could only say what God told him to say. Then he gave the king four more prophecies, gratis. In the fourth prophecy, Balaam foretold of the Messiah: “A star will come out of Jacob; / a scepter will rise out of Israel. / He will crush the foreheads of Moab, / the skulls of all the people of Sheth” (verse 17). Balaam’s seven prophecies were seven blessings on God’s people; it was God’s enemies who were cursed.
However, later on Balaam figured out a way to get his reward from Balak. Balaam advised the Moabites on how to entice the people of Israel with prostitutes and idolatry. He could not curse Israel directly, so he came up with a plan for Israel to bring a curse upon themselves. Balak followed Balaam’s advice, and Israel fell into sin, worshiping Baal of Peor and committing fornication with Midianite women. For this God plagued them, and 24,000 men died (Numbers 25:1–9; Deuteronomy 23:3–6).
Balaam’s name and story became infamous, and he is referred to several times in the New Testament. Peter compares false teachers to Balaam, “who loved the wages of wickedness” (2 Peter 2:15). Jude echoes this sentiment, associating Balaam with the selling of one’s soul for financial gain (Jude 1:11). Finally, Jesus speaks of Balaam when He warns the church in Pergamum of their sin: “There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality” (Revelation 2:14). Satan’s tactics haven’t changed all that much. If he cannot curse God’s people directly, he will try the back-door approach, and idolatry and sexual immorality are his go-to temptations.
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Quail
A quail is a small, brown-feathered bird that resembles a partridge. It is also called a bobwhite for its distinctive call. Quail are known for their delicious meat and are often hunted as game birds for that reason. Quail are mentioned in Exodus 16:13, Numbers 11:3 and 32, and again in Psalm 105:40 in reference to God’s provision for the children of Israel when God brought them out of Egyptian slavery (Leviticus 25:38; Deuteronomy 6:12). The people following Moses had complained that they were sick of eating manna every day and longed for meat, such as they had back in Egypt (Numbers 11:4–6; 21:5). God heard their grumbling and gave them quail to eat (Exodus 16:11).
Although the Lord gave the Israelites quail, He was displeased with their grumbling and their ungrateful words against Him. He told Moses to tell them, “The Lord heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’” (Numbers 11:18–20).
So God sent quail in the evenings for the people to gather in the wilderness. The Bible says that “a wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea” (Numbers 11:31) and that the birds were plentiful: two cubits (approximately 3 feet) deep all around the camp. Scholars interpret this to mean that the quail flew about three feet off the ground, which made them easy to catch and kill. The quail came in such great numbers that each person was able to capture about ten homers, or eight bushels (Numbers 11:32).
We have no reason to believe that these quail were any different from the quail (Coturnix dactylisonans) that are still common in the Mediterranean region. It may well have been that they were on their spring migration northward and were exhausted from their flight, making it easy for the Israelites to capture them. Quail are known to migrate at night, which is the time God specified that they would arrive (Numbers 11:32). A large number of quail was caught by each person as the migrating flock continued to fly in from over the sea all night long, exhausted and easily taken. The people then “spread them out all around the camp” (verse 32), which probably refers to the Egyptian practice of drying the meat in preparation for eating it.
Despite the fact that God gave the people what they wanted, He was angry over their rebellion and grumbling and sent a severe plague among the people (Numbers 11:33). The plague may have been a disease carried by the quail as a lesson to His people that often what they think they want is not good for them. When God rises up in anger against our sin, it is so that we learn to trust and obey Him. The Israelites named the place Kibroth Hattaavah (“The Grave of Lust”) to remind them of what happened when in their greed they had grumbled against the Lord (Numbers 11:34). The Israelites had already been given manna and were therefore well supplied with food. But they demanded meat in addition to the manna, and their insistence on having more than they needed displeased God. “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Timothy 6:8). The Israelites failed to learn contentment, and they paid a high price. First Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.” God holds us to an even stricter accountability since we now have the written record of His wrath and judgment upon human rebellion. We have His written Word (Romans 15:4), the testimony of all those who have gone before us (Hebrews 12:1), and His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16) to keep us from making similar mistakes and suffering a similar fate.
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Shadrach, Meshach,Abednego
The amazing story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three young men defying the mighty King Nebuchadnezzar and thrown into a fiery furnace, has captured the hearts of young children as well as adults for centuries. Recorded in the third chapter of Daniel, the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego provides believers today with strong and lasting lessons.
For their refusal to obey the king’s decree to bow down to the idol, three charges were brought against them. They paid no heed to the king and his commands, they did not serve the king’s gods, and they refused to worship the golden statue the king himself had set up. The penalty for their actions was death. Their response to the king was profound:
"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Daniel 3:15-18).
We cannot but be astonished by their faith in the one true God. At the very outset, their response in the moment of trial confirmed three things: their unswerving conviction of the God of the Bible, their confidence in the God who is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do, and their faith as revealed by their reliance upon the only One who had the power to deliver them from evil. Their acknowledgment of God over the world’s most powerful king resulted in God’s supreme power being revealed to unbelievers. Their faith demonstrates that God is able to deliver us from our own problems and trials.
As believers, we know that God is able to deliver. However, we also know that He does not always do so. Romans 5 tells us that God may allow trials and difficulties in our lives to build our character, strengthen our faith, or for other reasons unknown to us. We may not always understand the purpose of our trials, but God simply asks that we trust Him—even when it is not easy. Job, who endured incredible pain, almost insurmountable agony, and suffering, was still able to say, “Though He may slay me, yet will I hope in Him” (Job 13:15).
We also know that God does not always guarantee that we will never suffer or experience death, but He does promise to be with us always. We should learn that in times of trial and persecution our attitude should reflect that of these three young men: “But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Daniel 3:18). Without question, these are some of the most courageous words ever spoken.
Jesus Himself said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Even if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had to suffer a horrible, painful death in a burning oven, they refused to abandon God and worship an idol. Such faith has been seen innumerable times throughout the centuries by believers who have suffered martyrdom for the Lord.
Nebuchadnezzar was astonished that the fire did not consume Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He was even more amazed when he saw not three, but a fourth person with them: "Look!" he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" (Daniel 3:25 NKJV). The point here is that, when we “walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), there may be those times of fiery persecution, but we can be assured that He is with us (Matthew 28:20). He will sustain us (Psalm 55:22; Psalms 147:6). He will ultimately deliver us. He will save us … eternally (Matthew 25:41, 46).
The chief lesson from the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is that, as Christians, we will never be able to bring the world to Christ by becoming like it. As did these three men, so should we in revealing to the world a higher power, a greater purpose, and a superior morality, than the world in which we live. If we are put before the fiery furnace, we can reveal the One who can deliver us from it. Remember the powerful, yet comforting words, of the apostle Paul:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
Our hope when experiencing illness, persecution, or pain lies in knowing that this life is not the end—there is life after death. That is His promise to all those who love and obey Him. Knowing that we will have eternal life with God enables us to live above the pain and suffering we endure in this life (John 14:23).
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Monday, April 8, 2019
Calvinism
Just speaking from the heart here.....
Here's the thing I have don't get about Calvinism. Despite the numerous textual & eisegetical concerns I have, Calvinism just seems (as a systematic) to artificially elevate God's sovereignty and glory at the expense of His many other glorious and wonderful attributes, like His enormous & bottomless reservoir of love and tenderness and kindness and patience and goodness.
Does God have the right and power and authority to be as Calvinists portray Him? Yes, absolutely. But is that portrayal in keeping with His character as expressed all throughout scripture in its totality?....... Not in my opinion.
The God of Calvinism may be biblical in a very narrow sense, but it just doesn't strike me as totally aligned with the whole counsel of His word.
The God I see in scripture is not small, or dictatorial or petty or needing to meticulously control every thought and molecule, (i.e. playing both sides of the chess board so as to ensure His victory.) The God I see in scripture is powerful enough to know and ensure the future outcome of all things, IN SPITE OF the free will activities of His creatures. Now THAT is Powerful and Sovereign.
The God I see in scripture desires to be loved and honored and obeyed freely and genuinely.......not as a result of a divinely preprogrammed & robotic responses.
The meticulous determinism and fatalism of Calvinism just make it all seem.....controlled and fake....staged.....scripted.....artificial. I sometimes feel like the God of Calvinism has more in common with the Allah of Islam than with Jehovah of the Bible. It just leaves no room left for a REAL, true, & intimate father/child relationship.
If the Calvinists have it right, and God really is micro-managing and meticulously determining everything....well, ok............but I just envisioned Him as being so much more.
Blood of Jesus
Pilate washed his hands saying he was free from guilt. He continued his evil ways until being called back to Rome, where he was banished to Gaul. Just outside Lucerne Switzerland stands Mount Pilatus. Tradition says when storms rage on the mountain, Pilate’s Ghost is seen in the rain seeking to wash the guilt from his hands, crying, “It won’t come off! It won’t come off!” Nor will it ever do so. ILLUSTRATED LIFE OF JESUS Herbert H. Hobbs author.
When Pilate washed his hands, thinking this would free him of guilt, the Jews that waited for the verdict told Pilate that, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25). Their statement was all the more terrible, if we remember the teaching of the Mosaic Law regarding the shedding of blood. Pilate didn’t know, but the Jews did. In Deuteronomy 21 the law considered the innocence of unsolved murders. Jesus was innocent, and they were about to...murder... an innocent man! Absolution was sought as it says in Deuteronomy 21:7-8 “Our hands did not shed this blood; out eyes did not see it.............” But no absolution was sought for the murder of Jesus!
Thus, Pilate released Barabbas and caused Jesus to be beaten and crucified with no mercy. They mocked Him by putting...royal robes... a scarlet cloak belonging to a guard...on Him and plaited a crown of thorns for His head. A reed of grass was placed in His hand for a royal scepter. And they all, in procession, bowed before Jesus, hailing Him, King of the Jews, while spitting on Him and beating upon His head. When they were tired of this, they led Jesus away to be crucified. Jesus carried His cross to Golgotha, a hill shaped like a skull.
Pilate tried to wash away his guilt. The Jews didn’t, rather they claimed it! But, had Jesus ...not... shed His precious blood that day, there would be ...nothing... to wash away my sins...nothing to cleanse me. Only the innocent blood of Jesus can cleanse me from all ...unrighteousness... and make me ...righteous... before God! Jesus had the ...world’s eternity... on His back, my eternity! What a load it must’ve been...to know what He had to do to save me....but praise God He did!
This is why Jesus sweat blood
The night before Jesus Christ was crucified, He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is in Luke’s Gospel where we see that His sweat was like drops of blood: “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). Hematidrosis is a rare, but very real, medical condition where one’s sweat will contain blood. The sweat glands are surrounded by tiny blood vessels. These vessels can constrict and then dilate to the point of rupture where the blood will then effuse into the sweat glands. Its cause—extreme anguish. In the other Gospel accounts, we see Jesus’ level of anguish: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38; cf. Mark 14:34).
The intense anguish and sorrow Jesus felt was certainly understandable. Being God, Christ knew “all that was going to happen to Him” (John 18:4). He knew in painstaking detail the events that were to follow soon after He was betrayed by one of His very own disciples. He knew He was about to undergo several trials where all of the witnesses against Him would lie. He knew that many who had hailed Him as the Messiah only days earlier would now be screaming for His crucifixion (Luke 23:23). He knew He would be flogged nearly to the point of death before they pounded the metal spikes into His flesh. He knew the prophetic words of Isaiah spoken seven centuries earlier that He would be beaten so badly that He would be “disfigured beyond that of any man” and “beyond human likeness” (Isaiah 52:14). Certainly, these things factored into His great anguish and sorrow, causing Him to sweat drops of blood. Yet there was more.
Crucifixion was considered to be the most painful and torturous method of execution ever devised and was used on the most despised and wicked people. In fact, so horrific was the pain that a word was designed to help explain it—excruciating, which literally means “from the cross.” From His arrest in the garden until the time our Lord stated, “It is finished” (John 19:30), Scripture records only one instance where Jesus “cried out in a loud voice” (Matthew 27:46). As our sinless Savior bore the weight of the world’s sins on His shoulders, His Father must have looked away, as His “eyes are too pure to look on evil” (Habakkuk1:13), causing the suffering Servant to cry out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). The spiritual pain of this feeling of abandonment no doubt greatly exceeded the intense physical pain the Lord endured on our behalf.
At the beginning of creation, human history began in a garden (Genesis 2:8), and when the first Adam sinned against God in this garden, death entered the world (Genesis 3:6). Thousands of years later, Jesus Christ, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), entered into another garden to accept the cup from His Father’s hand (Matthew 26:42; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42), and death was about to be swallowed up in victory. Although God’s plan was designed before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4–5), we must never forget that its execution came at a great cost. Ultimately, then, we are the ones responsible for the blood that dripped from our Savior as He prayed in the garden. And we are the reason Jesus’ soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Indeed, these bloodied sweat drops came at a great cost; let us never forget that.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Rome and slavery
Slavery was common in the Roman Empire
. For the most part, people were either born into slavery, a prisoner of war, or sold themselves into slavery to pay off debts. “Unlike pre-Civil War America, in the Roman world slaves could own property, earn money, and often save enough to buy their own freedom.”
Saturday, April 6, 2019
Apostolic fathers
The term "Apostolic Fathers" refers to the Christian leaders who ministered during the late first and early second century. They are called “Apostolic” because their lives overlapped with the time period of the Apostles, and in fact, some of them are traditionally believed to have personally known and studied under one or more of the twelve Apostles. The Apostolic Fathers whose names we know with certainty are Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna. Their letters (along with a few anonymous writings) make up the earliest Christian documents we possess outside the New Testament itself.
Friday, April 5, 2019
Hebrew midwives
"Should the Hebrew midwives be commended for lying?"
The Hebrew midwives during the time that Moses was born are credited with saving many lives in their defiance of the king of Egypt and his order to kill all male Hebrew babies. The midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah (Exodus 1:15), kept the babies alive. When brought before the king to explain their actions, the midwives said, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive” (verse 19). This statement, in itself, seems to be a lie. What’s often debated is whether or not it was a necessary or justified lie.
The lie of the midwives takes place within the context of slavery. Many years after Joseph’s death, a new Pharaoh rose to power. This new king knew nothing of Joseph. All the new king could see is that the Israelite population was growing stronger every day. Fearing an uprising, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters to oppress the Hebrews with hard physical labor. “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites” (Exodus 1:12).
Pharaoh decided to make life even harder for the Hebrews and “worked them ruthlessly” (Exodus 1:13). Even worse, Pharaoh decreed to the Hebrew midwives, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live” (verse 16).
But the Hebrew midwives “feared God” and allowed the male infants to live (Exodus 1:17). To their credit, they valued God’s law above Pharaoh’s laws and refused to commit the act of infanticide. Pharaoh found out about their disobedience and summoned Shiphrah and Puah. When questioned why the boys were being allowed to live, the midwives responded with what we assume to be a lie (verse 19). The Israelites continued to grow in number and strength (verse 20). Also, the Lord rewarded the midwives well by giving them families of their own (verse 20).
God, who is Truth, desires His people to speak the truth (Leviticus 19:11; 1 John 2:21), and surely the midwives knew that honesty is God’s will. Yet Shiphrah and Puah lied anyway. The New Testament gives an example of people killed on the spot for lying to God (Acts 5:1–11). So why do the Hebrew midwives seem to get a pass? A key difference between these two instances is motivation. The midwives lied to the Egyptian tyrant to cover their disobedience of his ungodly edict. The couple in Acts 5 lied for selfish reasons. Also, Shiphrah and Puah lied to an evil, murderous king; Ananias and Sapphira lied to God.
We must also note that the Bible does not say that God commended the Hebrew midwives specifically for their lie. The Bible’s stated reason for God’s blessing is that “the midwives feared God” (Exodus 1:21), not that they lied, per se. Of course, their falsehood came as part of their effort to save lives, so perhaps God overlooked the lie and commended their godly motivation. Perhaps they received God’s forgiveness for the act of lying and were blessed for their act of mercy toward the newborn sons of Israel.
Another consideration is that the midwives may have been telling at least a half-truth. It is possible that, generally speaking, the Hebrew women gave birth quickly, and that some births did occur before the midwives were on the scene. The midwives may only have been guilty of withholding the fact that, when they managed to arrive before the moment of birth, they did not kill the males. Either way, they were rewarded not for their words but for their works.
Similar cases such as the one faced by the Hebrew midwives can be found throughout biblical history and into our own time. Although rare, some situations seem to call for an obscuring of truth in the face of evil. Rahab’s falsehood when hiding the Israelite spies from the king of Jericho (Joshua 2; James 2:25–26) is one example. Those who hid Jews from the Nazis in World War II are another. It seems that when innocent human lives are at stake, choosing the lesser of two evils is appropriate.
Another important principle is illustrated in the story of the Hebrew midwives. We need not obey mankind’s authorities if they require us to do something that goes against God’s higher law. As Peter and the other apostles said, “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29). The Hebrew midwives obeyed God’s will before Pharaoh’s will, and God rewarded them richly.
Jesus on the cross
Why did Jesus say, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
“And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, KJV). This cry is a fulfillment of Psalm 22:1, one of many parallels between that psalm and the specific events of the crucifixion. It is difficult to understand in what sense Jesus was “forsaken” by God. It is certain that God approved His work. It is certain that Jesus was innocent. He had done nothing to forfeit the favor of God. As God’s own Son—holy, harmless, undefiled, and obedient—God still loved Him. In none of these senses could God have forsaken Him. The prophet Isaiah says this about the Messiah: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4–5). Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). He was made a sin-offering, and He died in our place, on our account, that He might bring us near to God. It was this, doubtless, that intensified His sufferings and part of why Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It was the manifestation of God’s hatred of sin, in some unexplained way, that Jesus experienced in that terrible hour. The suffering He endured was due to us, and it is that suffering by which we can be saved from eternal death.
In those awful moments, as evil men were allowed to do whatever they wanted to Jesus, our Lord expressed His feelings of abandonment. God placed the sins of the world on His Son, and Jesus for a time felt the desolation of being unconscious of His Father’s presence. It was at this time that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
There is another possible reason for Jesus to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It could be that Jesus’ intent in quoting Psalm 22:1 was to point His hearers to that psalm. When they read Psalm 22, they would no doubt see the many fulfilled prophecies included in that song of David. Even while experiencing the agony of the cross, Jesus was teaching the crowds and proving yet again that He was the Messiah who fulfilled the Scriptures.
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Methuselah
Genesis 5 tells us about Methuselah, who was the son of righteous Enoch. Enoch is one of only two people in Scripture who did not die but were transported miraculously into heaven (Genesis 5:24). The other, Elijah, was taken up to God in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11). When Enoch was 65, he became the father of Methuselah, who lived to be the oldest person on record in human history, at 969 years old.
Methuselah had a son named Lamech who became the father of Noah (Genesis 5:26–29). It is interesting to note that both Lamech and Methuselah were alive when Noah was building the ark, but they both died before the flood. Some have suggested that Noah’s grandfather Methuselah died the week before the flood, citing the fact that God told Noah and his family to enter the ark seven days before the rains came (Genesis 7:1, 10). It has been speculated that this seven days was a period of mourning for Methuselah, as was common in humanity’s early history (see Genesis 50:4; 2 Samuel 11:27).
While we cannot know this for sure, Scripture does seem to say that, when the flood came, no righteous people were left on the earth except for Noah and his family (Genesis 7:1). Because Methuselah was raised by righteous Enoch, and his grandson Noah also walked with God, it seems likely that Methuselah himself was also a godly man. Lamech, too, may have obeyed God and even helped his son build the ark. This family line from Enoch to Noah, descended from Adam’s son Seth, appears to have been God-honoring and the only ones through whom God could work His plan to save the world.
Whether Lamech and Methuselah helped to build the ark, we don’t know. But we do know that there is much more to the lives of the people we read about than the Bible tells us. They were real people with real relationships and real struggles just as we have. There is also much more to the story of Noah building the ark than we are told. He worked for many years to build it, and it is doubtful that he worked alone. Was Noah preaching truth to the neighbors who helped him (see 2 Peter 2:5)? Did his father Lamech and grandfather Methuselah help?
Methuselah would have known about God’s coming judgment and the reason for the ark, yet he is not mentioned by God as a possible occupant of the ark. He must have also known that he would die before the flood came. He must have understood that the Lord knows the ones who are His and delivers them from His judgments (Malachi 3:16–18). We may not live to be 969 like Methuselah, but, if we belong to God, we can have Methuselah’s peace concerning God’s coming wrath upon the world.
Monday, April 1, 2019
Eagles
Eagles have always symbolized freedom, strength, and power. They are considered the kings of the sky and were adopted by several ancient cultures, including Rome, as a symbol of that country’s leadership and immortality. The United States declared the bald eagle its national bird in 1792, due to the eagle’s long lifespan and majestic presence.
The Bible’s first mention of the eagle is in Leviticus 11:13. Eagles, along with vultures and other unclean birds, were prohibited as food for the Israelites. God gave the newly formed nation of Israel dietary laws to help set them apart from the pagan nations around them. The dietary instructions were also given for health reasons as part of God’s promise to “put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians” (Exodus 15:26). Eagles are birds of prey that sometimes act as scavengers, eating dead flesh as vultures do. Eagles could carry diseases harmful to humans; God protected Israel at a time of limited medicines and inadequate sterilization procedures.
The next time an eagle is mentioned is in Deuteronomy 32:11 as part of the song God instructed Moses to teach the Israelites (Deuteronomy 31:19). In that song, God compares His care for His people to that of a mother eagle who spreads her wings to cover her young and carry them away from danger (cf. Exodus 19:4).
Throughout Scripture, eagles represent God’s handiwork, such as in Proverbs 30:19, which says that “the way of an eagle in the sky” is an example of God’s wondrous creation. Job 39:27 is another example. But eagles also symbolize power. God often used the imagery of an eagle in issuing warnings to Israel and other nations who did evil (e.g., Obadiah 1:4; Jeremiah 49:22). He chose the bird they considered powerful and unstoppable to demonstrate His sovereign control over everything.
Isaiah 40:31 is the most familiar biblical reference to eagles: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (KJV). This verse is the conclusion of a chapter detailing the greatness of God. It reminds the reader that the strongest of men may stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord have a strength that this world cannot offer. When we see an eagle in flight, soaring on invisible air currents, we can be reminded that the Creator who supplies the eagle’s strength will also strengthen those who call upon His name (Psalm 50:15; Isaiah 55:6–7).
Esau
Esau was Abraham’s grandson, the older twin born to Isaac and
Rebekah (the younger was Jacob). Rebekah had a difficult pregnancy, and God
told her it was because “two nations are in your womb; . . . one people will be
stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).
Esau’s name means “hairy,” which described him at birth (Genesis
25:25). Esau’s twin was born holding Esau’s heel and was named Jacob, which
means “supplanter”—someone who tricks another out of something for personal
gain. The twins’ birth story served as a prophecy about their future.
Esau became a skillful hunter (Genesis 25:27), and his father
favored him. His mother favored Jacob. Esau took his hunting seriously; one day
he came in from hunting so tired and hungry that he thought he was going to die
(our first indication that Esau was a whiner). His hunger, along with the
tantalizing scent of the red lentil stew his brother was cooking, convinced him
to give up his birthright when Jacob asked for it (verses 29–34). Because of
his desire for red stew, Esau became known as “Edom,” which means “red.” The
son with the birthright would receive a double portion of the family
inheritance, so Esau’s giving up his birthright was a big deal. In order to
fill his belly, Esau had “despised his birthright” (verse 34).
When Isaac neared the end of his life and was blind, he told
Esau he wanted to bless him. Patriarchal blessings included encouragement and
prophetic words about the future. Rebekah overheard her husband and told Jacob
to pretend to be Esau so he could get Esau’s blessing instead. While Esau was
hunting and preparing food as Isaac had requested, Rebekah fixed Isaac’s
favorite recipe. She had Jacob wear Esau’s clothes and put baby goat skin on
his hands and neck so he’d feel hairy like Esau (Genesis 27:14–16). Jacob
brought Isaac the meal and pretended he was Esau, telling his father a series
of lies. Isaac believed him and gave Jacob a wonderful blessing that included a
prophecy that he would be lord over his brother (verse 29).
Later, when Esau brought his meal and Isaac realized Jacob had
deceived him, Isaac was horrified (Genesis 27:33). Esau resorted to whining,
pleading with his father for a blessing. Isaac couldn’t find much to say except
that Esau would eventually “throw [Jacob’s] yoke from off your neck” (verse
40). This prophecy was fulfilled when Esau’s descendants revolted against
Jacob’s descendants (2 Kings 8:20). Bitterness filled Esau, and he vowed to
kill Jacob after their father died (verse 41). Rebekah heard about the plan and
intervened, telling Jacob to move away.
Years later, when Jacob returned to Canaan, he feared Esau might
try to kill him and his children. So he sent a lavish gift ahead of him and
asked God to save him (Genesis 32:9–15). But he was wrong about Esau: “Esau ran
to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed
him. And they wept” (Genesis 33:4). The men couldn’t live in the same area
because God had blessed them both so much with children, possessions, and
livestock, so Esau moved to the hill country of Seir, an area south of the Dead
Sea (Genesis 36:7–8).
In spite of the fact that the brothers made peace, Esau’s
descendants, the Edomites (also called Idumeans), never got along with Jacob’s
descendants, the Israelites. Edom regularly opposed and fought against Israel.
A big part of the problem was that the Edomites were pagans and the Israelites
followed God. The prophets Jeremiah and Obadiah said God would “bring disaster
on Esau” (Jeremiah 49:8) and that the Edomites would be eventually destroyed
(Obadiah 1:18).
What can we learn from Esau’s life? Esau focused more on earthly
things than on the things of God. He would rather have his physical cravings
satisfied than receive God’s blessings. The writer of Hebrews uses Esau as a
negative example of godlessness: “See that no one is sexually immoral, or is
godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the
oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he
was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not
change what he had done” (Hebrews 12:16–17). This passage also shows how our
actions have consequences, and sometimes those consequences are permanent, even
after we have seen the folly of our ways.
The fact that Esau was the
older brother, yet Jacob received the birthright, carries theological
significance. Esau’s mother had been told before she gave birth to twins that
“the older will serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23). So God’s choice—His
election—was at work before either of the twins had done anything, good or bad.
Paul uses this story to show that we are saved “not by works but by him who
calls” (Romans 9:12). God’s sovereignty and election cannot be thwarted: “Just
as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’ . . . It does not,
therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (verses 13 and
16, cf. Malachi 1:2–3).
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