Reformed Blogging

The topic of Hosea can be a very touchy one. It's very common to easily forgive a husband who has committed adultery but not the wife. It's really something to admire a woman who re-accepts her husband after siring a child out of wedlock but not when it's the other way around. Hosea's tragic love story had God command the prophet to marry the wanton woman Gomer. I was even assuming that Gomer's two other children were probably not Hosea's. Gomer went to other lovers for some time. However, the pleasures of sin are rather fleeting one way or another. Israel, like Gomer, went after other lovers in the form of idol worship. Israel soon split away from Judah and Benjamin after the death of Solomon. Israel was a kingdom characterized by apostasy. The names of the children of Hosea and Gomer were Jezreel, Lohru-Hamma (No Mercy), and Lo-Ammi (Not My People).  If I were to talk, I would really want to abandon Gomer for good. I don't want to endure such an unhealthy ...

Science is a very old subject lie history and mathematics. Reading the Bible always gets me to think about how science and math were taught back in their days. One interesting passage in Proverbs is Proverbs 5:11. It says that time will come when you will mourn at last when your flesh and your body are consumed. The New International Version (NIV) uses the term "are spent" over "are consumed". The English Standard Version (ESV) still uses consumed. I prefer to use consumed instead of spent in the translations. The New Living Translation (NLT) gets a bit more accurate by saying "disease consumes your body". Proverbs 5 also relates to sexual immorality and the strange woman. All these start to link into high school biology? Doesn't it make you think of sexually transmitted diseases? I'm noticing how the sex industry sells. The women don't have to be stunningly beautiful. Some of the strange women I see in the bus terminals are as ugly or as prett...

There's the statement that just because the Bible records it and speaks of it, doesn't mean that God approves of it. The Old Testament doesn't only talk about polygamy but also its consequences. Jacob ended up having up to four wives and it wasn't a happy family. Abraham had to get rid of Hagar because one wife is enough. Elkanah's two wives, Hannan and Peninah, can't even get along just like Sarah and Hagar. Eventually, David himself, while a man after God's own heart, made the serious mistake of having a polygamous lifestyle. At first, I wondered why polygamy was the norm but God never intended it. Even back in the Garden of Eden - Adam only had one wife and that was Eve. God didn't create Eve plus more women for Adam.  You can think of how David's woes can be caused by a polygamous lifestyle. I think he should've just dropped the offer to marry one of the daughters of the godless Saul. True, Jonathan was a godly man but the same can't be s...

I remember one of the greatest areas I deal with my life was lust. I remembered as a teenager that it shocked me to learn that certain heroes of the Old Testament were polygamists. Jacob had four wives, Elkanah had two wives, David had eight wives, Solomon had 1,000 women in total and the rest went on. It left me wondering why the New Testament affirms one man to one woman while the Old Testament somehow "allowed" polygamy to happen. I even wished I was born in the Old Testament so I could have more than one wife - never mind that the stories of the Bible showed how polygamy did more than good to those who practiced it.  I was thinking of the late Vernon McGee's "Thru the Bible Commentary" which says that just because the Bible records it doesn't mean it's approved of. I remembered how a Bible teacher mentioned how polygamy wrecked the home of Jacob, caused David's family to spiral into chaos, and caused Solomon to be lead astray. Yet, part of me ...

As I was reading through the Spurgeon devotional - I thought of today's evening topic was on David and Bathsheba which is found in 2 Samuel 11. David himself was already a man in his late 40s. Remember that David was 70 years old (the very age that he died) when Solomon ascended the throne at probably 20 years old. David's very blemish was that not only he had many wives but he also took another man's wife to add to his harem. The lesson that I can learn is that David didn't intend to backslide but he did. The problem was that it was a time of war and he should have been at war. Instead, he stayed at the roof of his castle. David's eyes were still good for a man in his late 40s. He didn't intend to backslide. Maybe, he wanted to have some devotion but he should have been in the battlefield. Then it happened that he saw the daughter of one of his men Eliam and note that Bathsheba's grandfather Ahitophel was one of his personal advisers. David by now had a ...