JUST AS God used the king of Tyre to describe His judgment against the rebel from Eden, the “anointed guardian cherub,” He used the pharaoh of Egypt to describe His judgment against the spirit of chaos, which was represented by the sea monster Leviathan.Continue Reading
Ezekiel’s lament over Tyre wasn’t a simple proclamation against a pagan neighbor of the Israelites, but an already-but-not-yet prophecy that will ultimately be fulfilled just before Armageddon.Continue Reading
THE HARSHEST criticism of Israel we’ve encountered so far is the focus of this week’s study. God calls the people of Judah a prostitute — except that prostitutes get paid.Continue Reading
THE SOJOURN in Egypt was such a defining moment in the history of Israel and Judah that you would think the last thing Judeans would want is to go back there. You would be wrong.Continue Reading
SPEAKING TRUTH can be dangerous. The last days of Judah’s independence before the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar are chronicled in this week’s study of the book of Jeremiah.Continue Reading
YOU’D THINK that prophets of Yahweh during the reign of good king Josiah would have been a little more upbeat. Not so much.Continue Reading
JOSIAH IS remembered as one of the best kings of the House of David. But even though his reforms brought Judah back to the Lord, the sins of his grandfather, Manasseh, had been so great that God only delayed His punishment on the kingdom of Judah until after Josiah’s death.Continue Reading
This week, we read Hosea’s prophecy against the northern kingdom of Israel, a final warning that was fulfilled when Assyria destroyed Samaria in 722 B.C.Continue Reading
ISAIAH PROPHESIED the fall of Babylon before it had risen. At the time of the prophesies we read this week, Assyria was still the dominant power in the ancient Near East, but the phrase, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon,” was revealed to the prophet anyway.Continue Reading
THE FUTURES of Damascus, Moab, Egypt, and a mysterious foreign superpower — possibly the USA — are the meat of our Old Testament study this week.Continue Reading