Two men have been sent by Joshua to secretly check out the city of Jericho to get a feel for what the Israelites would face when they got there. Unfortunately, either they weren’t very good at covert operations, or they just stood out as “not one of us,” and the king of Jericho found out about them. He sent soldiers to the house of Rahab, where he had been told the men were staying.
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.
We said in a separate article that God revealed His name to Moses as YHWH. Now, please understand that I am not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, and I certainly don’t have a seminary education, so I asked Jeff Pallansch, one of my coworkers, to read and comment on this article and help me navigate these rather turbulent waters.
In Exodus 3:13-15 God identified Himself to Moses as YHWH (pronounced Yahweh), and identified that as His “memorial name to all generations.” The root of this name is the Hebrew verb hayah, “to be”. This is the God who is—who He is now, who He has always been, and who He will always be.
Many years ago I taught a Bible study entitled “Christ BC” (Christ Before Christ). It was a beautiful study of Jesus found in 12 or 13 people and events in the Old Testament. I was reminded of that study today as I read a challenge to look for the phrase “this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet,” or similar phrases in the Gospel of Matthew. Mind officially blown.
In his delightful book The Ultimate Guide to the Names of God, Elmer Towns explains that “as each name of God is unfolded, a new source of strength is revealed…
Supporting Israel has often been a controversial view. Many Arab nations do not even accept Israel as a nation, Western nations often support Palestinians over Israel, while many simply do…
In the Bible, Melchizedek is a mysterious figure. He is only mentioned twice in the Old Testament (Genesis 14:18-20 and Psalm 110:4) and in one section of the New Testament (Hebrews 5-7).
With the term “Zion” being popularized today in songs and movies, many wonder what it means. What is the significance of Zion in Scripture?
- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next »
