The People Don’t Want to Hear His Message The prophet Micah (5) is a contemporary of Isaiah. Micah’s ministry overlaps and follows Hosea’s. We know little else about Micah from the Bible except that he comes from Moresheth, but Scripture doesn’t reveal where it is. Micah prophesies to the nations of Israel and Judah during […]
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 […]
Justifying the Bible ThroughHuman Reasoning Limits God’s Power As Joshua leads the nation of Israel into the promised land, they defeat Gibeon in a most amazing battle. Though Joshua’s army does its part, God plays an even bigger role. He orchestrates a hailstorm that pelts the Gibeon army with huge hailstones, killing many of them, […]
Doing What Is Right in The Eyes of the Lord King Ahaz is king of Judah. He is an evil king. He comes into power when he’s twenty years old and reigns for sixteen years. He dies at age thirty-six. His son, Hezekiah, succeeds him. King Hezekiah, however, it’s not like his father. He’s a […]
Hezekiah and Moses Plead with God for a Different Outcome In Isaiah we read about King Hezekiah. The king is sick, and Isaiah comes to him with a dire message from God. Through Isaiah, God tells Hezekiah to put his affairs in order because his illness is fatal. Death looms. Though few of us would […]
There are several places in the Bible that talk about seeking God’s favor. In reading these sections it becomes clear that when people seek God’s favor, good things result; when they don’t, bad things result. For example, Hezekiah sought God’s favor and disaster was averted, whereas the Jewish people did not seek God’s favor and […]