Another judge, who is prominently noted in the book of Judges is Jephthah. Jephthah, the son of a prostitute which doesn’t say much for his dad was exiled from his people. However, when they became oppressed by a foreign power, they turned to him, asking for his help. Eventually he agreed to their petition, doing […]
Category: Bible Insights
Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Discover How to Grapple with Difficult Passages in Scripture When we read the Bible, it’s human nature to dwell on the parts we like and skim the parts that confuse us. We camp out at the many passages in the Bible that offer comfort. And we skip the parts that confound us, the passages when […]
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Inherit Eternal Life
The Bible tells the story of a rich young ruler who asks Jesus the question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” His use of the word inherit is interesting—and a bit confounding. His question implies that salvation is inherited. Is this a misconception of the man posing the question? Surely we cannot inherit […]
The Story of Zacchaeus There was a man in Jericho who was boss of the people who collected taxes. He was quite rich. He wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus, but couldn’t because he was a short rascal and the taller people blocked his view. Ever resourceful, he ran ahead of the throng and […]
Not Liking What Someone Says Doesn’t Give Us the Right to Silence Them The prophet Jeremiah faithfully informs the people of the message God gives him. But they don’t like what they hear. They oppose Jeremiah and his unpopular messages. Unpopular Messages in Bible Times Throughout his lengthy ministry, Jeremiah faces continued opposition and persecution. […]
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Nine Guys Named Simon in the Bible
Simon Peter and More In the last post, we talked about the disciple Simon, who Jesus named Peter. I only know of one person called Peter in the Bible, but there are several guys named Simon in the Bible. I would have never guessed there were this many guys named Simon in the Bible (in […]
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Will God Ever Tell Us Not to Pray?
Even If We Don’t Understand Why God Tells Us to Do Something We Should Do It Anyway After giving Jeremiah a stinging message to tell the people, God gives a personal message to his prophet. He says, “You are not to pray for these people.” He says don’t plead for them or make a petition […]
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Four Johns but One Mark
Who Is John Mark? In “Another Man with Two Names” we talked about a guy known as John Mark. Although no one knows why he’s called John Mark, it does distinguish him from other men in the Bible named John. John In addition to John Mark, I count four guys in the Bible with the […]
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Who is Jude?
In the Bible, there is only one mention of a man named Jude. That lone reference occurs in the opening greeting of the letter that he wrote. However, Jude is a variation of Judas. Apparently, Judas was a common name two thousand years ago: We can rule out Judas Iscariot, because he committed suicide before […]
The End Will Come Unexpectedly Like a Thief in the Night John’s epic vision that he records in the book of Revelation includes many perplexing allusions. One is a warning that Jesus will return unexpectedly, like a thief (Revelation 16:15). Note that this doesn’t say Jesus is a thief, merely that most people won’t be […]