Negotiating With the World As much as we would like to think of ourselves as independent, free-thinking individuals, we find ourselves in a severely restricted environment that I will refer to as the world for today’s purposes. Certain aspects of life are non-negotiable such as age, physiological limitations, intelligence quotient, etc. Other self-imposed restrictions govern […]

When The Sacred Becomes Profane As I read in 2 Kings 18 this week, I was amazed to learn that Hezekiah (a righteous king) broke in pieces the brasen serpent fashioned by Moses in the wilderness. He did it because the children of Israel had begun burning incense to it and had given it a

Prophets and You During the past two weeks, we have read about two great prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah, and Elisha. Both were involved in some miraculous and frightening events. Both men solved complex problems for people who regarded them as men of God and raised havoc and destruction for those who chose to

Earning The Confidence of God When we read stories like Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, or Elijah calling down fire from heaven, we may wonder if any of them are real. Like so many Biblical stories, critics pass them off as fables with a moral, or as clever manipulative instruments designed to capture imaginations,

Who Do We Think We Are As we read the stories of David and his son Solomon, their rise to greatness, and their precipitous fall from grace, we may wonder how it all could happen. The courage and faith of David and the wisdom of Solomon are legendary, and they left legacies nearly unmatched in

Questions of Power This week I read the story of how the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant and suffered disastrous results. I will give a brief summary of the story.   The army of Israel went to battle against the Philistines and saw that they were in trouble, so they sent for the ark

Traditions of Kindness As I read the Book of Ruth this week, I was impressed with the overwhelming feeling of love and kindness displayed by the characters involved in the stories. Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz all demonstrated a complete lack of selfishness and an abundance of loyalty, not only to each other but to the

Will We Ever Learn? The Book of Judges covers an extended period of Israel’s history. The repeated transitions from prosperity to bondage seem almost unbelievable when it is covered in a few pages. However, when you consider the spans of time between these cycles it is not only believable, it is seemingly inevitable. That is

Choosing Sides This past week we read the Book of Joshua. Much of the subject matter covered the settlement of the land promised to Abraham and his posterity. Some of the occupation of the land came by war and bloodshed while other areas were made uninhabitable to the former inhabitants by plagues. In all cases,

For Our Good Always The Book of Deuteronomy contains the final episodes of Israel’s journey in the wilderness and gives instructions to establish themselves in their lands of promise. A significant portion of the counsel the Lord gives, is in remembrance of how they were delivered from bondage and the miracles of their day-to-day life