T.M. Moore is sharing a fascinating series of posts on economics through a biblical worldview. “All the ancient laws of Israel contain principles like this, principles which, if rightly understood and faithfully practiced, could tap into the grace of God and bring more honesty, respect, fairness, justice, generosity, forbearance, and love into the economic practice of a powerful nation such as the United States—more of grace and less of greed to our economic life.”
“Christ had even a literary style of His own, not to be found, I think, elsewhere; it consists of an almost furious use of the a fortiori. His ’how much more’ is piled one upon another like castle upon castle in the clouds. The diction used about Christ has been, and perhaps wisely, sweet and submissive. But the diction used by Christ is quite curiously gigantesque; it is full of camels leaping through needles and mountains hurled into the sea.” —G.K. Chesterton
David Mathis writes that the Bible is not just “a Book.” He says, “In my mind, one of the greatest imaginable tragedies is a professing Christian who is bored with the Bible. Could a truly loving husband cherish his wife but not care for her words? Could an adoring wife respect her husband but not what he says? What are words anyway? They are the breathed-out expressions of the person himself. Words are audible revelations of the otherwise unknown heart.”
Another archeological study supports the historicity of the Bible. This one identifies the battle preparations that King Joash made.
Isaac Newton said, “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler are two gigantic figures in the world of science. These men were both devout Christians. Check out these mini-biographies from the ICR.
“What made David’s heart remarkable wasn’t the absence of sin but his unrelenting pursuit of restoration with God.” —YouVersion reading plan Men of God: Ancient Virtues for Modern Warriors
It’s always fascinating to read about archeological discoveries that overlap with the historical accounts of the Bible.
Whether you are a pastor, a Sunday School teacher, or just a Christian sharing your testimony with your friend, we need to handle God’s Word correctly. John Piper’s lesson on 2 Timothy 2:14-15 is spot-on.
“Psychologists, since the beginning of the discipline, have argued about the essence of what it means to be human. Some, like [Sigmund] Freud, insist that we are motivated by physical pleasure, while others, like Victor Frankl or Abraham Maslow, believe that some higher purpose…. Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, only realize their full potential and pleasure as they participate in the very being of God and know and experience the pleasure He takes in Himself and His glory.” —T.M. Moore
“If you are persevering in faith today, you owe it to the blood of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, who is working in you to preserve your faith, is honoring the purchase of Jesus. God the Spirit works in us what God the Son obtained for us. The Father planned it. Jesus bought it. The Spirit applies it—all of them infallibly.” —John Piper
“The Hebrew word Davar (דבר, pronounced ‘daw-var’) reveals something profound about God’s Word—it’s not merely information, but transformation. … Throughout Scripture, God’s Word consistently proves both living and active. It has the power to create worlds (Genesis 1), transform lives (Psalm 119:105), and accomplish God’s purposes (Isaiah 55:11).” —Dave Adamson
More fascinating archeology that supports the Bible’s historicity. This is a look at the library of letters found at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt. “The most obvious connection between the Amarna Letters and biblical history is that some of the letters appear to be describing, in real-time, the attacks of the Israelites during the period of the conquest. Remember, the initial conquest battles took a period of some 5–6 years, but the attempts by various tribes to conquer their allotted territories lasted into the period of the Judges. The letters from the rulers of some of the very cities named in the biblical conquest calling for help from the attacking ʿapîru/ḫa-bi-ru, provide a poignant backdrop to this period of biblical history.”
“Because I am your constant Companion, there should be a lightness to your step that is observable to others. Do not be weighed down with problems and unresolved issues, for I am your burden-bearer.” —Jesus in Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling, based on Psalm 31:19–20; John 16:33
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Ahab, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, are strategizing a battle plan against Syria when they call for God’s prophet to share with them God’s counsel in this matter.
Then Micaiah said, “I did see all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.’ … Now, you see, the Lord put a lying spirit in the mouths of your prophets; and the Lord has spoken evil concerning you. … If you return at all in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me” (2 Chronicles 18:16, 22, 27).
You would think this would cause these kings to scrap their battle plans and keep their armies at home. But the next verse says they utterly rejected the prophet’s warning. “So Ahab king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead” (v. 28).
What in the world is Jehoshaphat doing?!
He asked for a prophet from God and then when he hears from God that this combined army will be defeated, Jehoshaphat still goes with Ahab?!
But let’s back up: Why was Jehoshaphat even here hanging out with Ahab? And before even hearing from Micaiah, why does he commit his army and cavalry to this joint-venture (v. 3)?
I think the clue is in v. 1: Jehoshaphat “was allied by marriage to Ahab.” Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram is married to Ahab’s daughter Athaliah (2 Kings 8:18).
Jehoshaphat thought this was a strategic move. Like a chess master moving his pieces on the board, he calculated that this alliance would give him an advantage. But instead this move resulted in years of heartache and destruction.
First, Jehoshaphat feels trapped into allying with Ahab in this ill-fated battle against the Syrians. Ahab is killed in this battle, and Jehoshaphat barely escapes with his life, although his army is embarrassed in defeat.
As he is returning to Jerusalem, another prophet meets him and pronounces this heartbreaking message, “Should you help the ungodly and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, wrath has gone out against you from the Lord” (2 Chronicles 19:2).
Later on, Jehoshaphat again partners with Ahab’s son, “After this, Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined with Ahaziah king of Israel, who did very wickedly” (20:35).
After Jehoshaphat died, his son Jehoram ascends the throne.
His reign as king is only eight years long, and is noted for him walking “in the ways of the kings of Israel” by doing evil in God’s sight (2 Kings 8:15). Jehoram was killed in battle.
Ahaziah his son then sits on the throne in Jerusalem for only a year, manipulated by his mother Athaliah. “He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab, for his father was son-in-law of Ahab” (2 Kings 8:27). This alliance led to another disastrous joint military campaign with Israel. Ahaziah was killed by Jehu shortly after this.
Look what happens next: “When Athaliah the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal descendants (2 Kings 11:1). This began a six-year reign of terror in which Athaliah assumed the throne.
Where did all of this mayhem begin? When Jehoshaphat calculated his own destiny.
We have such a limited view; whereas, God is timeless, all-knowing, all-powerful. It is the highest form or arrogance to think we can out-maneuver God’s plan, or that we can even begin to know what’s best for our lives.
The One who has all of our days written in His book is also the One who tells us that we can call to Him to learn things we don’t know and access the wisdom we don’t have (Psalm 139:16; Jeremiah 33:3; James 1:5).
Think of the misery that could have been avoided if Jehoshaphat would have heeded the counsel of his forefather Solomon: “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6 AMPC).
What a miserable strategist I am when I make plans that I think are clever! Instead, I’m trying my best to follow Solomon’s counsel, and I pray you are too.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
I was absolutely fascinated by a Messianic Jew’s insights on the Old Testament Tabernacle, and how every aspect of it pointed to Jesus the Messiah.
The overview of the construction of the Tabernacle starts in Exodus 25 and covers the next fifteen chapters in that book. Here are a few of my main takeaways from my friend’s teaching.
The materials for the Tabernacle are brought as a freewill offering given by freed slaves (Exodus 25:1-2). This gold, silver, bronze, linens, and other materials were gifts from the Egyptians when the Israelites left on the night of the Passover.
The Tabernacle is at the center of the Israelite camp (Numbers 2:1-34), signifying God’s presence in the center of our lives. When the Israelite community moved out, the tribe of Judah went first. Judah means “praise.” What a great reminder to let praise to God be at the forefront of all we do!
In Exodus 27:16, the materials to be used for the curtains compromising the entrance to the Tabernacle are blue, purple, and scarlet. The blue is for sky (Heaven), the purple designates royalty, and the scarlet signifies the blood of the sacrifices. Jesus came to earth as royalty from Heaven, and by His shed blood He opens the way for all of us to be with Him in Heaven forever! Jesus said He was the only way to Heaven (Hebrews 2:14-15; John 14:6).
The bronze altar for cleansing was just inside the entrance (Exodus 27:1-8). The worshiper offered this sacrifice in place of their sin. The priests would then move to the laver to wash off the dirt of the world. It’s important to note that the priests wash at the laver, not in the laver. Jesus is the One who washes us and cleanses us (Ephesians 5:26).
There are four different coverings over the Holy Place. As the priest progresses farther into the Holy Place, the coverings become thicker, so less outside light is visible.
First covering (Exodus 26:1) was blue, purple, and scarlet yarns (like the colors at the entrance) with cherubim woven into the fabric. The priests looking up would see these angels.
Second covering (v. 7) was goat’s hair. Goats were used for sin offerings, reminding the priests that there was a sacrifice to cleanse them so they could approach the presence of God.
Third covering (v. 14) was a red-dyed ram skin, showing the blood that covers us.
Fourth covering (v. 14) was the durable leather of a badger. Now there would have been very little light from outside, but the angels would still be seen for those inside the Holy Place.
In the Holy Place was the showbread (sometimes called the bread of presence) pointing to Jesus as our Bread of Life (Exodus 25:23-30; John 6:35). Also in the Holy Place was the lampstand filled oil (vv. 31-37). Only one stick holds the oil and supplies the other six branches. The priests could only work by the light of God. Jesus is our light (John 8:12). And we also find the altar of incense here (30:1-7). This was a unique perfume that wasn’t used anywhere else. The prayers of the saints that arise before the throne in Heaven as said to rise as incense (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8). Worshipers in God’s presence are saturated with the aroma of Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:14-15).
In the Holy of Holies is the ark of the covenant of the Lord (25:10-22). Inside the ark were the stone tablets that contained the Ten Commandments. On top of the ark, overshadowed by the wings of two huge cherubim angels, was the mercyseat or atonement cover. Notice that mercy is over the Law, and that the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus covers my disobedience and makes me at one with God (the literal definition of atonement).
How beautifully all of these aspects of the earthly Tabernacle point to Jesus (Hebrews 8:5, 10:1)! And even more amazingly, Jesus fulfilled every requirement in this Tabernacle to make it possible for all who put their faith in Him to enter the Heavenly Tabernacle and remain in His presence for ever and ever!
Controlling leaders shut down creativity among their teammates, which leads to higher turnover. If your team isn’t sharing their good ideas with you or if they are leaving you, that may be an indicator that you are too controlling. Check out the full conversation on The Craig and Greg Show
“As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously material about something spiritualistic. … Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.” —G.K. Chesterton
Astronomical technology like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are providing breathtaking images. They are also creating problems for the scientific theories of the origins of our universe. University of California Santa Barbara physicist Caitlin Casey, said, “It makes sense—the Big Bang happens and things take time to gravitationally collapse and form, and for stars to turn on. There’s a timescale associated with that…. And the big surprise is that with JWST, we see roughly 10 times more galaxies than expected at these incredible distances.” There is a more straightforward answer found in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
“Knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to use God’s gifts and God’s methods to get them there, in reliance on God’s power through Christ, with God’s appointed people following.” —John Piper, giving his definition of godly leadership
The Bible records the names of five Persian kings. One of them called “Darius the Persian” in Nehemiah 12:22 requires some historical cross-referencing to identify. The Bible Archeology Report presents another one of their fascinating archeological biographies on this Persian king.
“The greatness of a leader is in his humility before God, not in his eloquence before men.” —Anonymous
The most viewed and downloaded resource on my blog is my chart of the kings of the united kingdom of Israel and the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. I was thrilled to discover this week that Jacob Edson at Biblegateway has taken my chart even deeper!
T.M. Moore has vital counsel for pastors, “Jesus must increase in us, and we must decrease. But that doesn’t just happen by carrying out whatever our ‘spiritual work’ requires of us week-in and week-out. Our ‘natural gifts’ cannot replace spiritual ones, and ‘mental powers’ are no match for the mind of Christ. It is a shepherd’s ‘duty’ to attend to the care and nurture of his soul, for unless we are diligent in this, we will not be able to lead the Lord’s sheep into a greater experience of our great salvation or a fuller realization of His Kingdom.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Back in 2014, I was reading through the history of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The historical accounts of these kingdoms in both the Books of Kings and Chronicles go back-and-forth from kings in the north to kings in the south. I was having trouble keeping them all straight, so I began designing a side-by-side chart to help me.
I had no idea that this chart would be viewed and downloaded by other Bible students literally thousands and thousands of times each year.
You can find all of the download information for this chart by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Luke had previously spent a little time with the apostle Paul (Acts 16:10-18), but near the end of the historical record in the Book of Acts, we see Luke with Paul almost continually.
The reason we can tell this is because of the pronouns “us” and “we.” From Acts 20:5—21:18, 27:1—28:16, these two pronouns are used over 80 times!
Luke probably joined Paul in Greece (20:2) and was with him when they arrived in Jerusalem. After Paul’s arrest, transport to Caesarea, and being bound over for his hearing before Caesar, Luke is still there (27:1). Luke remains with Paul throughout the entire journey to Rome, and is still with him as the Book of Acts closes.
Paul calls Luke a faithful friend (2 Timothy 4:11). Today, people know this man who wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts as a preeminent historian. It is God’s perfect provision and timing that links together the lives of Paul and Luke at such a pivotal time.
Quite simply stated: Paul is blessed by Luke just being with him.
Not only does Luke preserve the accurate historical record of Paul’s missionary journeys, but it appears that Luke is actively involved in Paul’s letter writing to the churches. Luke uses more unique Greek words in the New Testament than any other writer. But many of the words that appear more than once are found only in the historical works of Luke and the letters of Paul. I can almost imagine Paul dictating a letter, and then pausing to ask his educated friend Luke, “What is the Greek word that means such-and-such?” Luke’s thoughtful, Spirit-inspired reply is then included in these important letters for the early churches.
This should be a great encouragement to us still today that God has us where we need to be, and with the people that need us in their lives.
What skills do you have? Who has God put in your life? How can your talents be a blessing to those people?
Simply doing what God has gifted you to do with those whom He has placed in your life is both a blessing to your companions and is pleasing to your God.
I pray that you will find a way to use your God-given talents to be a blessing to those around you. Perhaps the blessing will simply be you being there for your friends as they journey through their life.
You and I will learn lessons in the hard times that we could learn no other way. Then God will use those lessons so we can help minister to others in their hard times. Check out my sermon about interceding for other saints.
ICR’s Dr. Randy Guliuzza says, “Convergent evolution is the fabricated conjecture evolutionists invoke to explain very similar characteristics between creatures that could not have been inherited from a common ancestor and that evolutionists will never accept as having been produced by an intelligently designed internal programming that is specified for common purposes.” This particular article is about bats which have always had the ability to fly. Not one fossil record shows any flightless bats because God created them as flying mammals.
In the early 1900s, Albert Norris was a missionary in India, observing firsthand the spiritual and physical hardships the people faced there. In an article in the Pentecostal Evangel, Norris wrote, “A Christianity that coldly sits down, and goes on its routine of formal work, and allows its fellowmen to starve, or to be obliged to go through all the hard sufferings and exposure connected with famine, without effort to help them, might as well quit its preaching.”
In answering a question about using AI to write a sermon, John Piper answers with an emphatic “no.” I agree! One of the reasons Piper shares: “One of the qualifications for being an elder-pastor-preacher in the Bible is the gift or the ability to teach, didaktikos (1 Timothy 3:2). That means you must have the ability, the gift, to read a passage of Scripture, understand the reality it deals with, feel the emotions it is meant to elicit, be able to explain it to others clearly, illustrate and apply it for their edification. That’s a gift you must have. It’s your number-one job. If you don’t have it, you should not be a pastor.”
“You don’t try to forget the mistake, but you don’t dwell on it. Don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” —Johnny Cash
Christian parents often experience both a weight and a wait as they pray for their children. Biblical waiting is always active, calling us to continue to pray for our kids—not matter how old they are!
The Institute for Creation Research reported: “Perhaps one of the top evidences for creation are the subcellular and incredibly efficient molecular protein machines that clearly function by known engineering principles. They are hardly simple. Determining just a part of their function requires the best science has in twenty-first-century technology: ‘While belonging to the nanoscale, protein machines are so complex that tracing even a small fraction of their cycle requires weeks of calculations on supercomputers.’”
Dr. Thaddeus Williams said, “What do you think is the most repeated phrase in the entire Bible? It’s, ‘Thus says the Lord…’ which clocks in at over 400 occurrences. The God of the Bible is not the stone-cold silent god of the ancient Greeks. Nor is He the stone-cold silent god of the ancient Stoics or Epicureans, too busy enjoying the amenities of divine bliss to bother with humanity. No. The God who exists is a God who speaks.” What does this mean for us? Dr. Williams talks about what happens to people who make time to regularly hear what God has to say to them through His Word.
“Work is the outcome of effort; fruit, of life. A bad man may do good work, but a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” —Hudson Taylor
I love studying my Bible, and I also enjoy passing along things that encourage others to begin studying their own Bibles. This is a really cool infographic from Wesley Huff, giving a great overview of the Bible.
J. Warner Wallace leads us all along “the fuse” that led up to the arrival of Jesus as the Messiah, the One to whom the Old Testament prophets predicted.
Craig T. Owens 