I’d like to start by explaining why I think every Christian ought to study Biblical prophecy; it’s not something you should put on the shelf. Here’s the reason: approximately 27%…
What Do They Believe (1)Download
Kevin DeYoung sets the stage for us when he says, “As he is apt to do, Jesus makes the one commandment we would have thought we were all going to feel pretty good about into one of the commandments we all feel pretty bad about.”[1]
Throughout my long life as a Christian, God has answered many prayers in amazing ways. I praise Him for that! There have also been times when God—for His own sovereign reasons—said “no” to my prayers. I do not understand why, but He said “no,” and I continued to trust Him anyway.
We find the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. As the chapter opens, Jacob’s son Judah has married a Canaanite woman named Bath-shua, with whom he had three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. Er, the oldest son, married a Canaanite woman named Tamar, but he died before they had any children. Genesis 38:7 explains, “But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.” The exact nature of his wickedness is not given.
Grasping the literary structure of Genesis 2 and seeing how it builds upon the structure of Genesis 1 is key to understanding Moses’ account of creation. With this, I am much indebted to a journal article by Mark Futato that first brought this to my attention.