I used to listen to political talk radio and watch political TV talk shows. But I got tired of the arguing back and forth. And I noticed that no matter how logical or well-thought-out an argument was (on either side), seldom (if ever) was an opponent persuaded to listen objectively. And often, both sides ended…
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Our first chapter today, Chapter 7, began with the word “Therefore”. In studying the Bible, it’s a good practice to, whenever you see that word, ask yourself, “What’s the therefore there for?” Let’s look again at the first sentence of the chapter. Paul writes, “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends…” What promises? We…
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As we begin the week, we also begin the short, lovely book of Ruth. This book is still considered one of the OT books of history, but it is very unlike the others in that there are no accounts of wars or laws or politics. It takes place during the times of the judges and…
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Number 25 sounded prophetical, didn’t it? It sounds like it was meant for the holocaust. Listen again to verses 11 and 12: Save those who are being led away to death. Hold back those who are about to be killed. Don’t say, “But we didn’t know anything about this.” The One who knows what you…
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Today I’m going to focus on the seventh verse, which just happens to consist of only seven words: We live by believing, not by seeing. You know, there comes a time in each person’s life where they just have to make a decision. Given the facts that can be known, and accepting that there are…
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Wow. Israel is so angry at at the tribe of Benjamin that they do something way over the top in response to their not coming to the gathering that was planned at Bethel to offer sacrifices to God at their sorrow for what the Benjaminites had done to the concubine. It was because of the…
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Just as Solomon changed up his teaching method in chapter 22, I would like to change things up a bit for the next few readings in Proverbs. I’m sure you noticed that he began grouping his teachings, right? Well today, instead of telling you what particularly stood out to me, I would like to ask…
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In the beginning of chapter three, Paul talked about letters of reference. And then he said, “You yourselves are our letter.” What he was saying was that they were the evidence of his work. Nothing more was needed to validate what he was doing. What kind of monument do we build with the work we…
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So the tribe of Benjamin got what they deserved for this heinous crime. But not without a couple of false starts. Why did God allow the Benjaminites to win the first couple of battles? Well, when we look closely at the narrative here, we see that in the first case, the men of Israel did…
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I’m sure you noticed Solomon’s comments about living with a disagreeable woman. In some circles this is fodder for the fallacy that the Bible is anti-woman. I disagree, and here’s why. This book is written by a man who was a king with not only great wisdom and great wealth, but a large amount of…
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