God Makes a Similar Promise to Moses In the book of Genesis, we meet Abraham. God takes a special interest in Abraham and gives him a bold promise. He pledges to make Abraham “into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2, NIV). What makes this promise even more incredible is that Abraham is seventy-five years old and […]
Luke Bible Study, Day 37 Today’s passage: Luke 22:39–71 Focus verse: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) The Bible is full of perplexing stories. One is when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. What father would kill his […]
Belief versus Practice James writes about faith and deeds. It’s a convicting passage that talks about the importance of belief and action. Both are important. They balance each other. We must pursue them with equal attention. One without the other leads to a distorted perspective. We need faith and deeds (James 2:14-26). Faith The Bible […]
There Are Many Ways to Solve Family Problems, but Kicking Out Your Son Isn’t One of Them Last week we looked at the story of Cain and Abel. We examined the first case of sibling rivalry. Things escalated out of control with one brother ending up dead and the other sentenced to wander, forever carrying […]
The Genealogy of Jesus Today’s Passage: Matthew 1:1–17 Focus Verse: This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1) We’ve already talked about how John, Mark, and Luke open their biographies of Jesus. Now we’ll look at Matthew’s approach. Though it may seem strange to us […]
Why Having Two Wives Is a Bad Idea Peninnah is a co-wife with Hannah. They’re both married to Elkanah. Reminiscent of Jacob and his two wives, Rachel and Leah, we have the story of Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Just as Jacob loves Rachel more than Leah, Elkanah loves Hannah more than […]
A Figure that Signifies Foundation We’ve covered the numbers three and seven in the Bible. Let’s now look at the number twelve. It occurs frequently but mainly references two parallel concepts: Jacob’s twelve sons and Jesus’s twelve disciples. We can consider the number twelve as foundational in the Bible. Twelve is the basis for government […]
By name, this Eliezer only appears once in the Bible. He is from Damascus and a servant of Abram. We can assume that Eliezer is Abram’s lead servant and most esteemed, because Abram is childless at the time and identifies Eliezer as the heir of his estate. If Abram dies childless, Eliezer will inherit much. […]
The mysterious character of Melchizedek shows up only once in the book of Genesis. There he meets and blesses Abraham after the patriarch defeats Lot’s captors and liberates his nephew, the rest of the town, and their possessions. Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder. Yet this seemingly straightforward story also intrigues. First, Melchizedek […]
There are two men in the Bible named Nahor, and they are related. Of Terah’s three sons, Haran dies early in life, Abram goes to Canaan, and Nahor stays home. We’ll circle back to him in a bit. Terah sets out for Canaan with his nephew Lot (Haran’s son), Abram, and Abram’s wife Sarai. Yet […]