Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Psalm 153 from Beyond Psalm 150 The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117. It weighs in at a mere two verses, serving as a reminder that our efforts to praise God need not be long or wordy. Sometimes succinct is better. Miriam’s song of praise to God, only one verse long, is a […]
Do God’s Instructions to the King of Judah Apply to Us Today? It’s dark times indeed for God’s people. The prophet Jeremiah is his mouthpiece to speak truth. God sends Jeremiah to the king of Judah with a message. This message begins with some commands and ends with a promise for obeying and a threat […]
The Bible Addresses Complacency Complacency. The word complacent means to be “pleased or satisfied” or especially, to be “extremely self-satisfied.” This seems to describe many people that I know. They are complacent, perhaps not materially, but certainly spiritually. They are content to sit back, with no concern for their non-material well-being and little remorse for […]
While I can’t definitively answer this question about prostitutes, the Bible does give a clear indication—and the answer may surprise you. Through the prophet Hosea, God says: “I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution…because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—a people without understanding will come to […]
Isaiah Talks about Peace More Than Any Other Book in the Bible Isaiah talks a lot about peace, mentioning it more than any other book in Scripture. One-tenth of the Bible’s references to peace occur in this one book. That’s a lot of peace in one place. And God is the source of this peace, […]
God Wants Us to Celebrate Him and What He’s Done for Us As Isaiah moves forward in his sweeping prophecy, he devotes a section to the city of Tyre. Tyre is a city of prominence, a center of trade and commerce. God doesn’t like their self-sufficiency and that they take pride in what they have […]
God Uses His People to Heal the Hurting Elisha dies, but his influence lives on. Yes, Elisha continues to teach us today, thousands of years after his death, through the words recorded about him in the Bible. However, he also has a practical effect on someone postmortem. It’s one example of God’s amazing healing power […]
Choose Advisors with Care When king Solomon dies, his son Rehoboam assumes the throne over all of Israel, following his father, Solomon, and grandfather David. A delegation comes to him and asks him to lighten their load, to decrease the burden placed on them by his father. Rehoboam doesn’t answer them right away. Instead, he […]
Discover More about the Remarkable Woman of Proverbs 31 The book of Proverbs ends with a poem about a woman of noble character. People often call her the Proverbs 31 Woman. Though she may be a real person, this passage reads more like an idealized ode to a wife of mythical proportions. One Busy Lady […]
Don’t Be Too Quick to Say No The word sluggard occurs 14 times in Proverbs, but is nowhere to be found in the other 65 books of the Bible. This is curious. First, what is a sluggard? It’s a slothful person; an idler; a person who is habitually lazy. Consider then, Proverbs’ 14 mentions of […]