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Yahweh Is God!

The Book of Joel

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The prophet Joel lived in Judah during the time before the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian Exile. His short book, three chapters long, starts with a description of what will happen to Israel when Babylon attacks and destroys Jerusalem. Joel uses locusts as a symbol for Babylon and how the locusts swarm, crawl, and consume the land and the people, God’s Vine and Fig Tree. Joel tells the people to lament, and feel farrow for our sins and repent that we may receive God’s forgiveness.

Then in the third chapter, God gives Joel a prophecy concerning the coming of the ‘Day of the Lord,’ in which there will be earthquakes, sun and moon are darkened, and God appears with the host of heaven in a blaze of glory! Great and terrible! God calls for everyone to repent of sin and come to him and receive His grace! This prophecy was given for two time periods, one where God fulfilled a portion of the prophecy by restoring the Temple and rebuilding Jerusalem, which then allowed the Messiah to come to fulfill the prophecy of Daniel. The second, is the final ‘Day of the Lord,’ which is the Judgement.

Another prophecy is given also, this was the Holy Spirit, which Joel calls the ‘out pouring of the Spirit, the former and the latter rain.’ This indicated two periods in which the Holy Spirit with be given to God’s people, the first came on the Day of Pentecost!

Video & Audio: The Holy Spirit in the Last Days, Receiving the Holy Spirit,

Articles: Outline of Joel, Yahweh Is God, The Latter Rain in Practical Terms, Sabbath-Sunday?

Books: The Book of Joel: A Prophet Between Calamity and Hope

Web: The Chart of the Week,

Art: Michelangelo, Louvre,

God Saves

The Book of Hosea

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The Book of Hosea was originally written during the time of Israel’s division, between the house of David in Judah and Jeroboam in the North with they called Samaria. God uses marriage as a metaphor for the relationship between Israel and God. During this time, starting with Solomon to his son Rehoboam, idolatry, especially Baal worship, had infected Israel and spread through out the whole kingdom, that God brought judgments against the House of David and split the kingdom in two, the other half going to Jeroboam. But Jeroboam, who started out good, turned south fast in that he had two golden calfs created for the people of the north instead of allowing them to go to the Temple. So God comes to Hosea and tells him to marry a whore as an example of how God is married to Israel who was a maiden but became a whore by worshipping idols! Hosea’s audience is mainly the Northern Kingdom. God has Hosea tell Israel to turn back to God. That God should divorce Israel, but instead he would go after Israel to bring them back into covenant! God’s love, mercy, and commitment to us is stronger then our sin! So God will keep fighting to save us, even from ourselves! With such a God, we should come back into covenant with God.

Video: The Prophet Marries a Prostitute, Bible Project: Hosea, Amazing Love,

Audio: Hosea & Gomer: Forgiving the Unfaithful

Books: Prophets & Kings: Assyrian Captivity, Bible Commentary: Hosea, Grace Abounding,

Articles: Hosea: Historical Context,

God Will Strengthen

The Book of Ezekiel

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The prophet Ezekiel is a priest who was born in Judah and was part of the group of people taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.E. The book begins after he has spent five years in captivity in Tel Abib on the Kebar Canal near Nippur. At this time God gives Ezekiel visions of four creatures that looked like men with four faces each coming out of a whirlwind, they were awesome in appearance! Above these creatures came a bright rainbow with a throne, and on the throne sat God in his glory! God tells Ezekiel that he is sending Ezekiel to the Israelites in Babylon, just as God sends Jeremiah and other prophets to the people during the whole of the Babylonian Captivity.

Ezekiel’s mission was to admonish Israel of their sins, and turn them away from idol worship back to a covenant relationship with God! God clearly tells Ezekiel that he must tell the people that God is sad and angry because they turned away from God. That their captivity and soon destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple are caused by their own sins. A year goes by and God appears to Ezekiel again, transporting him to Jerusalem to see for himself the evil abominations that Israel is doing. Altars were set up all over the country to idols, priests offering incense to idols, women sitting in the gate of the Temple weeping for Tammuz, and worst of all, in God’s very Temple, men turned their back to the Most Holy, to worship the sun in the East! Keep reading!

Video: Worship: From Exile to Restoration, The Book of Ezekiel,

Books: Reviving Dry Bones, Baptized Paganism, The Archeology of Ancient Israel

Articles: Tekton Apologetics

Web: Topic: Whirlwind,

The Book of Lamentations

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The Book of Lamentations is a series of poems following the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar I in 586 B.C. The book is recited during Tisha B’Av and by Christians on Tenebrae. Lamentations comes from the Hebrew  אֵיכָה, ‘Êykôh, meaning “how.” We read in all five chapters that the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding country is desolate. The Babylonians ravaged the country, killing young and old. Those that are left live in fear and heartbreak. The writer is weeping over the city, the temple and the people, because they didn’t listen to God’s warnings, to his prophets whom he sent to save them from themselves! In allowing Jerusalem to be taken and destroyed God shows that he is just; Israel knew the consequences of idol worship when they made a covenant with God! God showed mercy by sending messengers to turn them away from idols back to Himself for years! But they wouldn’t listen. The restoration of the people can only come with true repentance. They were reminded of God’s mercy with the knowledge that God had promised to send the Messiah!

Videos: The Bible Project,

History Channel: Mankind the Story of Us: Babylonian Exile

Audio: Optimism: Happiness & Healing

Articles: The Bible & Archeology, “By the Rivers of Babylon Exhibit”

Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah

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Jeremiah is Hebrew meaning “He who is raised up or appointed of Yahweh.” The Book of Jeremiah begins in Jerusalem in the thirteenth year of King Josiah of Judah until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, a period of 40 years from about 626-586 B.C. God speaks to Jeremiah telling him that before he was created in the womb, God sanctified him and ordained him a prophet to ‘all nations.’ God sends Jeremiah to remind Israel (then and now) of her covenant with God and how she has become unfaithful! They do not keep the Sabbath as God set as a symbol of His authority at Creation and reiterated again after their Exodus from Egypt! They worship other gods of clay, stone and wood; in the groves and temples of false idols that cannot hear, see, love nor can save! Jeremiah spoke openly to the people to turn them back to the Lord saying,

“I brought you out of Egypt (slavery) into a plentiful country (freedom)…The priests said not ‘Where is the Lord?’…the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit…Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water…Wherefore I will yet plead with you, says the Lord, and with your children’s children will I plead.”

Because of Israel’s wickedness, that they were worshiping idols, the Lord gave Jeremiah a prophecy for the people to know God’s judgement; that King Nebuchadnezzar, would come from the North to destroy Israel! Keep Reading!

Videos: Jeremiah: The Bible Collection, Prophet of Doom, Lessons from Jeremiah,

Articles: Jeremiah: New World Encyclopedia

Jeremiah, The Prophet of the Bible, brought back to life

Book: Like Fire in the Bones: Listening for the Prophetic Word in Jeremiah, Jeremiah: The Fate of the Prophet.

Biblical Archaeology: An Introduction with Recent Discoveries that Support the Reliability of the Bible Paperback by Dr. David Elton Graves

Art: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Donatello , Horace Vernet (1844)

 

 

 

From Orphan to Queen

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The Book of Esther begins during the time of Israel’s Babylonian Captivity in the time of Xerxes I about 490 B.C. Esther’s real name was Hadassah, which means myrtle tree. She changed it to Esther to hide the fact that she was a Israelite. She was an orphan when her cousin Mordecai took her in as his own daughter and raised her. Some time during Xerxes’ third year in power, he throws a party to celebrate his power and majesty for 180 days! Then the king made another feast for the people for seven days. The Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women of the palace. By the seventh day of festivities the king was very drunk, commanded that Vashti be brought to him clothed with royal garments and the crown on her head so that everyone can see how beautiful she is and how she is his. But the Queen refused to obey the King’s command. So the King divorced her and sent her away and her position as Queen was to be given to another more worthy! So the King decreed that all the maidens of the land be brought to him to spend one night with the King until he found another woman to be Queen. After a time of purification, in the tenth month in Tebeth (October) in the seventh year of Xerxes I, Esther goes in to the King; out of all the women, the King loved Esther the most! He chose her to be his Queen.

The people of Israel were told by God through Moses, that they were not to marry anyone outside Israel, who were pagans. This is what Paul called being ‘unequally yoked with unbelievers.’ While this is the smartest decision, because religious differences can cause tensions and problems in the marriage. God has continually shown in the Bible that: 1. God has a plan and knows all things and plans all things for his glory, 2. God is love. Jesus’ own genealogy contains woman who were not Hebrew, such as Ruth the Moabitess and Rahab the Canaanitess. While these women were not Hebrew, they chose to follow God and were faithful! So God brought Esther to a pagan King to save her people and bring remembrance of the God of Israel to the King of Persia! Keep reading!

Video: Esther: The Bible Series, The Gospel of Esther,

Books: Esther: A Woman of Strength and Dignity (Great Lives Series) , The Book of Esther: A Critical And Exegetical Commentary , Xerxes: A Persian Life

Articles: The Biblical Archeologist,  Ashuerus: Jewish Encyclopedia.com, Xerxes I: Ancient History Encyclopedia,

Web: Bible Timeline: 490 B.C.,

Art: Rembrandt’s Ahasuerus and Haman at Esther’s Feast, Aert de Gelder, The Banquet of Ahasuerus,

 

Jesus Visits Daniel

Daniel 10-12

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Daniel has been in captivity from Jerusalem 70 years and is now 87 years old. It is the third year of Cyrus the Great’s reign as the King of Persia. Daniel was fasting and praying as he contemplated the visions he had received before. Daniel is sitting next to the river Heddekel when he sees a man appear before him. Daniel describes the Man as wearing linen, with a gold belt. The Man’s body was like beryl, his face like lightning, his arms and feet like polished brass, and his voice like a multitude of people. Daniel was with other people but only he heard the Man and saw Him, but the Man’s presence cause the ground to quake scaring them away. The Man came to explain to Daniel another vision. Daniel then goes into a deep sleep, he falls face down on the ground. A hand touches him so that he is lifted up on his palms and knees. Daniel stands trembling as the Man tells him what will come to pass in the last days. Daniel was set face down on the ground, dumb having no strength within him nor did he even breath! The Man tells Daniel that he and Michael will help the king of Persia against Greece, but that later Greece will come to fight against Persia. Who is the Man? He is God. Who is Michael, one of the chief princes? He is Jesus Christ! (Jude 9, Isaiah 9:3, Acts 3:15 & 5:31).

Chapter Eleven brings us to the time of Darius the Mede during his first year as king. Daniel has been told that three more kings would arise to power but the fourth king would be the wealthiest of them all and will us his power and wealth to attack Greece! After this king will come a great king from Greece who will rule a great dominion according to his will, but his kind would be broken and separated into four regions. Read on!

Video: When Kings go to War,

Audio: The Time of the End or the End of Time

Book: Who is Michael the Archangel?

Articles: Strong’s Concordance , Beryl , Alexander & the Jews ,

Archeology Confirms the Bible

Web: Daniel 11 Bible Commentary , Diadochoi , Bible Prophecy & the Phoenician city of Tyre

 

The 2,300 Year Prophecy

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In the eighth chapter of Daniel, during the third year of the reign of Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel is given another dream by God. He is next to the river Ulai at the palace in Shushan. He sees a Ram with two great horns, one larger than the other, that takes over a vast area of territory and subdues all in his way. At the time he becomes great, a male Goat appears with a good size horn between his eyes. The Goat flew through the air and hit the Ram with all its power and broke the two horns and subdued it. The Goat becomes very powerful, but when it becomes powerful, controlling a even larger territory, it’s horn is broken and he dies. From that one horn arises four smaller horns or powers that take control in the ancient world. From these comes a little horn, a powerful kingdom, more powerful and dreadful then those that came before, subduing and enslaving all. This power takes away the daily sacrifices in the Temple of God and desecrate the temple. This power continues to attack the Sanctuary service of God for 2,300 years starting from the time that Cyrus the Great gives the command for the Second Temple to be rebuilt until 1844. The angel Gabriel comes to Daniel to tell him the interpretation of his vision and how it has to do with the end of time. Read Daniel 8:18-27. In the ninth chapter of Daniel, he is praying to God to forgive Israel her sins when the angel Gabriel appeared before him. Gabriel tells Daniel that seventy weeks (490 years) would be given to Israel to finish it’s work on the Temple and bring the knowledge of the Messiah to the world! Read Daniel 9:23-27.

Video: 2,300 Day Prophecy, Prophecy of Daniel 9

Article: Right On Time! Prophetic Appointments Revealed

Web: Campaigns of Alexander the Great,

The Silver Empire

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Daniel 6

Babylon, the great empire symbolized by the head of gold, has fallen as predicted by God through the prophet Daniel. Now enter the bronze empire of the Medes and Persians led by Darius. Darius chose 120 princes to govern the kingdom, overseen by three presidents, the first of which was Daniel. The other princes became jealous of Daniel because of his favor with the emperor, so they contemplated ways that they could slander him and falsely accuse him of braking the law! They schemed and conspired until they developed a plan that would flatter the king’s ego and kill Daniel! They came before the king with a petition for a new law, which they they knew under Babylonian law could not be annulled, that everyone in the empire must pray and worship the deity of the emperor for 30 days and must not pray to any other god on pain of death! The king signed the decree with his seal and made it law, while Daniel was present! After this, Daniel went to his house, to is room and kneeled down and pray to God toward Jerusalem in the West. Daniel prayed to God in Heaven, three times a day publicly! Found out what happened next, keep reading!

Video: The Bible Series: Daniel & The Lions, The Lions Den, The Persian Empire,

Books: Daniel & The Lions’ Den, Secrets of Daniel, Daniel.

Articles: The Met Museum: The Achaemenid Persian Empire, Ancient Persia.

Art: Rembrandt, Nuremberg City Hall.

The Bible So Far…

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The Bible begins with the creation of the world and mankind. But this isn’t the beginning of the story! We get a glimpse but do not get the whole picture in one lump sum. We have to study the Bible from beginning to end to see the full picture. We discover that there is in fact a war between Creator and creature, between light and darkness, between good and evil, a cosmic conflict!

Plot

The protagonist, God, is the uncaused cause from which man cannot explain. The antagonist is Lucifer a.k.a. Satan, a created angel that once served God but then betrayed God because he coveted God’s position and power. From this initial battle stems the controversy that we read about in the Bible. Satan wants to be God, so he copies God, but twists everything so that what is light is darkness, what is good is evil, what is truth becomes  a lie. Satan accused God and his law of being unjust, so God allowed Satan to prove his case, just like you would in a court room.

The court session begins in Eden with mankind’s downfall happens and the incident between Cain and Abel. By the time we get to the Flood, there are only eight who worship God. Abraham followed God and did what was right. Again with Jacob and Esau and Joseph and his brothers. The women of the Bible who follow God are brave and faithful! Then the showdown between Tutmosis III (the writer of The Book of the Dead) and Moses during the Exodus. Samson fails his mission during his life but in the end is redeemed. Saul does exactly what Cain did and loses not only the crown but his soul. 

We come to David, the man in whom God loved! He is not perfect, as no human being is, but the difference is that he desires to do what is right! He is a representation of Christ. All through his reign he is in constant conflict with the Philistines and others that worship Baal. Baal represents Satan who is opposed to God and his law. Man worships idols made by man, at the same time the men of these ancient cultures elevated themselves as gods on earth. So Satan, a being created by God, foolishly believes that he can be God and take his place.

The plan of redemption is laid out for the whole ancient world to see through Israel. Jerusalem and the Temple is a focal point for trade and commerce in the ancient world, so that practically everyone came into contact with the God of the Bible.

Now we have come to the story of King Solomon, the man who has the First Temple constructed which places a spotlight on Yahweh and Monotheism! 

… Denouement!

Resources: