Category Archives: Scripture

This past summer, I completed a 31/2 year Masters program. It seems a common question asked after a person completes a program of that magnitude is, “What did you learn?” To be honest, I didn’t learn much. Not because the school didn’t teach anything, they did. I read thousands of pages in dozens of books, I completed countless papers, and improved my knowledge of Greek and developed a base knowledge of Hebrew. But I don’t know if I actually learned anything.

During those two weeks, the smoke was so severe we couldn’t open the windows nor turn on the AC (our window unit does not have a good enough filter). For two weeks, we prayed for rain. For two weeks, we waited for rain.

The people of Israel waited three years for rain. I can only image what that feels like, day after day, not only needing the rain because of forest fires and smoke, but because of thirst and hunger. Rivers dried up. Wheat withered. People starved.

What I noticed today was that Jereboam was given the same promise by God that Rehoboam was. I think I was always under the impression that only Rehoboam, and his descendants, were given the promise of always having their descendant on the throne, because of David’s faithfulness, but Jereboam was given this promise as well. The difference, is that the promise to Rehoboam is not contingent on the behavior of the kings and the people where as the promise to Jereboam was.

If we are the friends of the shepherd, the woman, and the father, we are in a good position. This makes us like the angels in heaven who rejoice “over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). If we are the 99 sheep or the 9 coins, we too are in a good position because we are faithful followers of Christ, keeping our eyes on Him. But if we are the older son, we are in trouble.

Jesus is famous for challenging these expanded “dos” and “don’ts”, especially those which place prohibitions on the Sabbath. These prohibitions on the Sabbath, such as not healing on the Sabbath, are not for the benefit of the individual who is in pain, but is for the control of those in power.

There are a few different views on the knowledge of God. One view is that God knows everything that does happen because He plans it out. Another view is that God knows everything that might happen, but doesn’t know what might not happen. This third view demonstrates that God knows not only what might happen, but also what might not have happened.

In the 84 days, I have been seeing afresh where women have been marginalized in Scripture. I have known this for a long time, that Scripture, like most of history, is written by the victors, not the victims and the victor usually means rich, powerful men.

Most of us recognize that the Old and New Testaments have difficult stories, as does all of history. We also recognize that during the majority of history, culture, politics, and everyday life is run by men. Because of this, women have not, and often still do not, have the right or choice to who touches their bodies.

If someone were to ask you, “Why did Jesus come to earth? Why was Jesus born and why did He die?”, how would you respond?

The general answer is usually something like, “Jesus came to earth so He could die for my sins and offer me the free gift of salvation.” And this is a beautiful answer. I am so glad that this is true. Having been reading through the Old Testament, particularly Exodus and Leviticus, I love the fact that I don’t have to make offering, sacrifice, and atonement yearly, monthly, or even weekly for my sins. Praise God!

Do you know what the “Jesus year” is? Historically it has been said that Jesus died, rose, and ascended in his thirty-third year of life. While this is not known for sure, it has been one of the historical views and he general assumption.

During one of seminary classes a professor said this idea of Jesus being thirty-three was “false” and He was actually thirty-seven. While it doesn’t actually matter how old Jesus was (He could have been seventy-three for all we know), it does kind of matter.