A Useful Test
Leviticus 26:5, 10 “Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will be eating all the food you want … You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you have to move it out to make room for the new”...
How Could God Have Gotten It So Wrong?
Leviticus 25:23 “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants” (NIV). Observation: God here reiterated His ownership of everything. Knowing that a Year of Jubilee would occur on a fixed, fifty-year schedule...
Reading of the Will
Romans 8:17 “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory” (NIV). Observation: Life lived by the Spirit is our only gateway to assured resurrection...
Leaners Don’t Count
2 Chronicles 9:12 “Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country” (NIV). Observation: This verse concludes the chronicle of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. Extensive trade was consummated and a warm personal relationship established before she...
The End of Exile
Jeremiah 50:20 “‘In those days and at that time’, declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I shall pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’ ” Observation:...
The End of Exile
Jeremiah 50:20 “‘In those days and at that time’, declares the Lord, ‘search will be made for the iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I shall pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.’ ” Observation:...
Higher Form of Ooze
Romans 5:12 “Therefore just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin … ” (NIV). Observation: Romans 5 is a robust passage uniquely used in the development and defense of the Christian faith. It opens with Paul’s declaration of justification by...
Attic Trunks
Romans 3:3 “Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” (NIV). Observation: Paul’s letter to the Romans is a clear-eyed assessment of the depraved spiritual condition of all men, both Jews and Christians. Spiritual darkness is universal without faith in God,...
A Tall Order
Psalm 101:2 “I will walk in my house with blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing” (NIV). Observation: In this brief psalm David beautifully expressed a heart set on pursuit of God alone. He promised to sing of God’s love and justice (v. 1) and to...
Parched Eternity
Psalm 78:61 “He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy” (NIV). Observation: Psalm 78 begins with parables designed to recount the relational history of God and the Israelites. He blessed and established the nation even as...