Topical
Lessons from the law of the rebellious son and the death penalty
Deut 21:18-21 As we have seen in Hosea 11, the background to God’s reluctance to eliminate Israel for their rebellion is the law of the rebellious son (Deut 21:18-21). It legislates that parents who have such a son take him…
Does God ever deceive us?
1 Kings 22:13-28 What follows next in Ahab’s story with Micaiah’s appearance raises questions about the character of God. The confusing part comes in the prophet’s vision where God ostensibly puts a deceiving spirit into the mouth of the prophets…
A comparison between the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple
Materials and dimensions The main difference between the tabernacle set up by Moses and Solomon’s temple is that the former was a mobile structure, the latter a permanent building. The tabernacle was a tent with a wooden frame covered by…
- 1 Kings 1-11 (Solomon), Bible reading notes, Kings, Sabbath rest, temple and God's presence, Topical
Rest, temple and fellowship with God
Exod 31:12-17; Deut 12:10-11; Heb 3:7-19; 4:1-11 As Solomon prepares to build the temple, he connects temple building and rest (1 Kings 5:4), a link also made by David earlier (2 Sam 7:1) and mentioned even before Israel entered the…
Who is Messiah: Jewish and Christian expectations
Isa 9:2-7; Zech 9:8-10 As we are approaching Easter, I am interrupting our study of Habakkuk to engage with questions relating to what Jesus came to achieve and the various expectations around it. As Christians, we look to Jesus as…
How to resolve the tension in how David met Saul for the first time? (1 Sam 17:55-58)
1 Sam 17:55-58 Careful readers will note a strange discrepancy at the end of the Goliath incident (1 Sam 17:55-58), where Saul is seemingly unaware of David’s identity, even though the latter was introduced to him in the previous chapter.…
Jonah and Historicity III – The Fish, Literary Features, and the NT
In my previous two posts, I dealt with some preliminaries (Jonah and Historicity I) and the historical issues proper (Jonah and Historicity II). In this final post, I want to address some remaining questions such as the fish that swallowed…
Jonah and Historicity II – The Historical Issues
In today’s post, I continue the topic of Jonah’s historicity. In my initial post, I reflected on why the debate is so heated and discussed underlying assumptions about the nature of truth (see post Jonah and Historicity I). Today, I…
Jonah and Historicity I – The Nature of Truth
Whenever Jonah is mentioned, the first question I get is usually about the fish and how Jonah could survive in it, but it makes me sad that when this query is answered, people move on as if there were nothing…
The significance of genealogies and Jacob’s family tree (Gen 46:8-27)
Gen 46:8-27 Genealogies are possibly the most boring parts of the Bible for us, modern readers, but they have an essential function for ancient people. We tend to think of family trees as purely information about who relates to whom,…