There are two sections I want to talk about. The first being the bit at the end of chapter 13. I can see how a lot of people might have a problem with this passage. When we are taught that the Bible is completely literal, this passage says that God himself is going to “turn …
Interesting. Okay. So these chapters are further encouragement to Israel regarding their restoration, promising judgment on their enemies, and compelling them to be better than their fathers. I didn’t find much to really hang on to here, to be honest, but there’s one thing about chapter 6 that got my attention. There are four chariots: …
It’s such a short book about a prophet calling the people to rebuild the temple and reconsecrate the people of Israel. People say it isn’t time to rebuild, but you seem to be quite comfortable in your house, why can’t you rebuild mine? You know nothing is going to grow well until you do, right? …
Prophecy is weird, man, but I gotta say, I think our reactions to it over time have become even weirder. So I grew up with this idea that the second half of Daniel was some big end times prophecy, and to be honest I’ve only skimmed it until now because it’s weird and difficult to …
Can I just say I’m really glad Daniel was bothered by his visions on account of not understanding them? Because I really don’t understand them at all. There are a lot of smart people out there with all sorts of explanations of what the visions might mean. Everything from recorded history that was still in …
I’ll be honest. Joel is one of those books that I’m not entirely sure what to do with. It’s a prophecy a lot like every other prophecy we have on record. There’s just one thing that stands out: the promise of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, Joel promises, the Spirit will be poured out on everyone. …
The river flowing from the temple is a fascinating. In the middle of a seemingly practical tour intended to provide instructions, the blueprints for rebuilding, there is this image of a river. A very dramatic and miraculous river. Where this river flows, there is life. It clarifies salt water, brings life to a desert: it …
Prophecy is difficult. There’s a passage here that sounds fairly Messianic. David will rule over them once more. Christ is of the line of David, and Christ will come to redeem them. But then you stop and think about it and you realize the people didn’t exactly accept Christ all that whole heartedly, and they …
So, being familiar with Psalm 23, David, and the metaphor of Christ as shepherd, it’s fairly easy to read this prophecy as a metaphor, as about more than just the shepherds. So when it get down to the more explicit statements, it’s not much of twist or reveal. I wonder, though, whether the people that …
All right. I don’t really have anything passage significant today. So I’m going to take this opportunity to remind whoever happens to be reading that it is perfectly all right to be down right confused by a passage of Scripture. It is good idea to look for help from pastors, friends, books, podcasts, blogs, what …