Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
We Must Put God First Before Worrying about Ourselves In the short book of Haggai, the prophet has a message for the people and an application for us today. God, through Haggai, chastises his people. They live in nice homes, while God’s home—the temple—sits in shambles. It isn’t that God wants us to build great […]
Discover Why We Need to Help the Poor and Needy Even if you’ve not read the Bible, you have likely heard about Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities God destroyed for their extreme wickedness. The account of this is found in Genesis, chapters 18 and 19. In this text, the sexual depravity of the men of […]
Pursue the Right Priorities In the post about the effects of priority we saw that wrong priorities produces wrong outcomes, whereas right priorities results in God’s blessings. It is, however, worth it to consider the timing of these two events. The prophecy is given on the first day of the sixth month. The people respond […]
Discover More About Haggai In the short book of Haggai, the central theme is that God’s house (the temple) needs to be rebuilt. It lay in ruins. But the people have not done so because they are focused on their own houses and comfort. As far as God is concerned, their priorities are wrong. They’re […]
Discover More about Zephaniah A quick read of the beginning of the book of Zephaniah sounds a lot like Noah and the flood: “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and […]
Discover More about Zephaniah The short Old Testament book of Zephaniah opens with an apocalyptic prophecy. Amid the forth telling of doom and gloom is the reminder that “neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them.” The Message Bible, puts it more directly: “Don’t plan on buying your way out. Your […]
Discover More about Gideon Another familiar character in the book of Judges is Gideon. There are three whole chapters devoted to him. He is a fearful man who is at first cautious of God’s call. But eventually he does fully obey what God says to do. There are three initial things that God tells him, […]
Resurrections Occur in Both the Old and New Testaments In the Bible, dead people return to life. This happens on ten occasions, with three resurrections occurring in the Old Testament and seven times in the New. Check out these stories of people supernaturally raised from the dead. 1. Son of a Widow in Zarephath The […]
Consider Your Sacrifices Do you worship your work? Of course we would say “no.” But consider that what we make sacrifices for is that which is important to us. If so, then perhaps we are at risk of worshiping our work. In doing so, might it be that we’ve elevated our vocation to the status […]
Time Is Different in the Spiritual Realm Than in the Physical Though King David wrote many psalms, the book of Psalms also includes the work of others. One of these writers is Moses. Yes, Moses wrote a psalm, Psalm 90. It may be the oldest of them all, the first Psalm ever written in the […]