Tag: biblical

The Four Gospels Part III

Matthew 5-10, Mark 5-10, Luke 5-10, John 5-10

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In the third part of The Four Gospels, we will start with Christ’s greatest sermon, The Sermon On The Mount or The Beatitudes, continuing into the next chapters to read about Christ’s miracles, parables, and teachings ending in chapters ten.

Matthew 5-10: The Beatitudes, Raising the Ruler’s Daughter, Blind Man Healed, Demoniac Boy, The Rich Young Ruler.

Mark 5-10: Demoniac of Gadarenes, Raising the Ruler’s Daughter, Death of John The Baptist, Jesus Walks on Water, The Beatitudes, Blind Man Healed, Demoniac Boy, The Rich Young Ruler.

Luke 5-10: The Leper Healed, Jesus Lord of the Sabbath, The Beatitudes, The Servant Healed, Tribute to John The Baptist, Jesus Forgives, Jesus’ Family, Raising the Ruler’s Daughter, The Mission of the Twelve, The Mission of the Seventy.

John 5-10: The Son & the Father, Feeding the Five Thousand, Jesus The Bread of Life, Jesus Teaches In The Temple, The Woman Caught in Adultery, Jesus The Light of the World, The Blind Man Healed, Jesus The Good Shepherd.

Film: Jesus of Nazareth

Videos: The Sermon On The Mount, Confrontation in Galilee, Women of Mission, The Rich Young Ruler,

Books: God’s Not Dead, Man, Myth, Messiah, The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes: Biblical Studies and Ethics for Real Life

Articles:The Beatitudes are Essential and Relevant Today,

Web:  Jesus: Philosopher & Apologist,

The Four Gospels Part II

Matthew 3-5, Mark 2-4, Luke 4-6 & John 2-4

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In the first part of The Four Gospels we read about Christ’s genealogy, his birth in Bethlehem as prophesied by Micah (5:2). The Star of Bethlehem which signaled to the Magi of the East to the arrival of the Messiah. We see the work of God in the birth of the Messiah’s messenger, John the Baptist who came in the ‘Spirit of Elijah.’ We read how when the Magi came to inquire about the Messiah from King Herod (a descendent of Esau) that Herod sent his men to kill the innocent infants hoping to kill the Messiah! At this same time the Roman Emperor Augustus commanded a census to be completed in Judea, Joseph, Mary and Jesus escape to Egypt with the gifts of the Magi! Joseph, Mary, and Jesus come back after the death of Herod and came to live in Nazareth.

Now we read about Christ growing up and becoming a man on a mission! John baptized people, preached repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven! Jesus comes to John for baptism before going into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil! Christ was thirty years of age when he began his ministry. Jesus The Christ is the Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David. God had fulfilled his promise that he made to Adam and Eve in Eden to send One who would reconcile mankind to God and destroy evil, (Genesis 3:15). When Christ went into the wilderness to be tempted, he had to fast for forty days to weaken his Divine self so that he was as vulnerable as we are under temptation, only he who is sinless cannot sin; but Christ would have failed if he fell to the temptation to use his divine power to save himself from temptation. He was tempted in three areas where Eve and Adam fell, Appetite, Presumption and Selfishness.

Film: The Star of Bethlehem

Video: The Great Temptation, Water Baptism,

Audio: We Would See Jesus,

Books: Messiah: The 70 Week Prophecy,  Baptism: Is it necessary?,

The New Works of Josephus,

Articles: The Temptations of Christ, The Census of Quirinius,

Festival

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The Book of Haggai

The prophet Haggai lived during the time of the Reconstruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem in the second year of King Darius of the Medes & Persians around 520 BC. God comes to Haggai to tell him to relay a message to Zerubbabel the Governor and Joshua the High Priest saying, “Israel has spent their time building nice houses for themselves but haven’t even started construction on the Temple! Consider your ways! Because of this, you will not prosper!” After hearing this everyone in Israel was afraid! Until God sent another message to the people to calm their fears saying, “I AM with you!” So on the twenty-fourth day of June, the people along with the Governor and the High Priest started construction on the Temple. God sends another message to the Governor, the High Priest, and the people, asking, “Who among them remembers the First Temple in it’s former glory? How is that temple compared to the temple now? Fear not for I AM with you! For in a little while the Desire of Ages will come to fill this temple with His glory!” Read on.

Videos: A Call To Sanctification, First Things First,

Books: Haggai & The Return of YHWH, The Message of Ezra & Haggai , Darius The Mede.

Articles: Haggai 2: 7 The Desire of the Nations, Book Outline, Darius I

Art: Prophet Haggai Mosaic

 

God Is My Secret

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The Book of Zephaniah

Zephaniah was a Cushite, or a Black Jew and the great grandson of King Hezekiah. He is the ninth of the Minor Prophets and mostly prophesied about Judgment Day. He lived during the reign of Josiah about 641 BC and was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Zephaniah prophesied that God would bring judgment on all nations including Israel:

“I have cut off nations,
Their fortresses are devastated;
I have made their streets desolate,
With none passing by.
Their cities are destroyed;
There is no one, no inhabitant.”
Zephaniah 3:6
“Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth,
Who have upheld His justice.
Seek righteousness, seek humility.
It may be that you will be hidden
In the day of the Lord’s anger.”

Zephaniah 2:3

“The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:16
Video: The Day of the Lord,
Books: Zephaniah: A Commentary
Articles: Zephaniah Chart,
Art: The Judgment, Second Coming, Greek Icon, Michelangelo’s The Judgment

To Wrestle & Embrace

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The Book of Habakkuk

Habakkuk is the seventh of the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. It is believed that he lived in the 7th century during the reign of King Josiah, before the Babylonian Captivity. The three chapter book begins with Habakkuk pleadingly asking God why He is showing him visions of the devastating judgments that are coming on Israel. Habakkuk sees all the evil in his country, and knows what is coming and questions God as to why this is happening if God was so good? God answers Habakkuk by telling him that He will bring justice and judgement on His people for their sins allowing the Babylonians to conquer Israel for the many years that it has continuously broken their covenant with God! But Habakkuk questions God again about Israel’s punishment of destruction by Babylon! That the Babylonians are men to have done evil in God’s eyes also, and surely God will not allow them to get away with their evil deeds! God responds again, saying that the Babylonians will come and do all that God said they would do, according to God’s will but that the Just shall live by Faith! God doesn’t endorse the evil things that the nations do, but will bring about their down fall! The last chapter Habakkuk gives a powerful prayer to God for the Final Judgment against all evil!

Video: Trusting God’s Goodness,

Books: Habakkuk,  The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah: With Introduction and Notes

Articles: Chart

Art: Habakkuk by F.O. Salisburry, BBC

The Comforter

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The Book of Nahum

The prophet Nahum’s three chapter book is a prophetic vision of judgment upon Nineveh and the ending of the Assyrian Empire. In Deuteronomy 32: 35 God says, “To me belongs vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.“ In the first chapter of Nahum, he quotes a passage of scripture, Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.“ Two Bible books before Nahum, the prophet Jonah is sent to Nineveh and is successful in bringing the people and their king to repentance so the city was spared! But by the time of Nahum they had reverted back to their idol worship forgetting the God of Israel! God used Israel and blessed them amazingly with supernatural incidents to awaken the surrounding nations into a realization that, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” Psalm 115: 3-9. Nahum receives a vision of judgment and then describes the events that will and have taken place paralleled with The Judgment.

“The destruction of the great Assyrian cities was so complete that, within two generations of the empire’s fall, no one knew where the cities had been.”

Joshua J. Mark, Assyria, Ancient History Encyclopedia

Videos: Nahum, Bible Project,

Books: Nineveh, The Great City, Deliverance From Assyria,

Articles: Elkoshite, Nahum Outline, Destruction of Nineveh By ISIS, National Geographic

Who Is Like God?

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The Book of Micah

Once again, we see that God sent another prophet to Israel just before the Babylonian Captivity to warn them of what was coming. Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Hosea, ministering from about 737 BC to 696 BC. He lives in a town in southern Judah called Moresheth. God brings him a message for the people of the coming judgments on the nation and surrounding nation which caused Israel to sin due to it’s evil influences. God gives prophecies of judgment against Samaria and Jerusalem. The kings of Judah and Israel were both doing what was evil in God’s sight, and the people were corrupt with idolatry and greed, even the prophets of God were corrupted by greed taking bribes! Once the prophesies are fulfilled, then the remnant will be restored in a new Jerusalem. Micah also prophesies of the coming of the Messiah ( Micah 5:2) and that through the messiah the Gentiles will be saved.These prophesies of judgment took place later and are also a warning of the final judgement that will come to the whole world. After the judgement, will come a new kingdom that will never be ended. The book of Micah ends with the pardoning grace for the sinner.

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly, To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8
Video: Messianic Prophecies, What is the main thing?,
Articles: Messianic Prophecies, 70 Week Prophecy,
Books: Twelve Prophets,

The Shortest Book

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The Book of Obadiah is the shortest book in the Bible, in the Old Testament or Torah. There is some debate about when this book was written, because the book contains a prophecy of judgement against Edom and it’s inhabitants who were the descendants of Esau the son of Isaac and the brother of Jacob (Israel). Obadiah means, “Servant of the Lord.”Some scholars date the book to the time of the Babylonian Captivity (597 B.C.), because the Edomites joined Nebuchadnezzar II in sacking and looting Jerusalem. We find in verse 10 that because of the “violence that was done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you and you will be cut off.” Making a point that Israel were blood relatives that they betrayed, including allies! The other option, would be another prophet who was a steward to King Ahab. This Obadiah was a contemporary with Elijah and Elisha, and was responsible for hiding 100 prophets from the evil Queen Jezabel in a cave and feeding them using his own money! Most seem to think that the time of Nebuchadnezzar is the most likely option!

The Kingdom of Edom or Idumea was located in what is now southeastern Jordan and spread as far as the Negav Dessert and Sinai. Other than the Bible, Edom is recorded in a list of the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I in 1215 BC, and in the chronicle of a campaign by Ramses III (r. 1186–1155 BC).

Videos: Obadiah, Petra: Lost City of Stone,

Audio: Arabs, Israelites & Inspiration

Articles: Petra & The Bible, Bible Commentary,

Books: The Book of Obadiah,

The Shepherd & Prophet

The Book of Amos

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Amos was another prophet who lived before the Babylonian Captivity, in the time of Jeroboam of Israel and Uzziah of Judah, two years before a major earthquake took place. Amos is a breeder of sheep and a fig farmer, and was not part of the school of the prophets, used to the study of scripture. He lives in Tekoa, a town near Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. The Lord comes to Amos, a simple sheepherder or husbandman, to tell him what will come to pass, what judgements He will send against the ancient cities and cultures of the Near East. God pronounces judgements against Damascus, Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, Moab, Judah and Israel. God also tells Israel that again, they have sinned, by worshiping idols, made offerings and sacrifices to God but neglected the poor and needy, and even sold people into slavery for money even though God delivered them from slavery out of Egypt! Amos prophesies God’s judgments against Judah and Israel, as well as the surrounding nations! That they will fall and never rise again! But once again God has Amos tell the people  to come to Him and repent of their sins because they broke the covenant relationship with God and they refused to listen to His prophets who brought truth! Like the prophet Joel, Amos’ last prophecy concerns the Day of the Lord and what will take place then. Also, Amos is also given a vision of locusts that come to devour everything! Amos is given other visions as well, The Summer Fruit, The Fire and The Plumbline.

Video: What’s the Story of Amos About? , Lord of All Nations,

Web: Seek The Lord and Live, Israel: The Vine, Fig & Olive Trees, Outline: Amos

Books: The Theology of the Book of Amos, Amos – The Prophet & His Oracles 

Art: The Hague, Amos Painting,

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)