Reformed Blogging

Nahum's short book was really a renunciation of the Assyrian Empire. Before that, we read of Jonah where the prophet was sent to warn Nineveh of God's judgment. God spared Nineveh during the time of Jonah because the citizens repented. However, generations later, the Ninevites went back to their wicked ways. A study of world history can tell you how cruel the Assyrian Empire. I remembered having an Asian history class. I cringed at the fact that the Assyrians involved cruel punishments and among them was skinning their victims alive. You can tell how cruel the Assyrians are. It's no wonder Jonah was hesitant to go there. Going to Assyria was just plain suicide. It took God's chastising to get Jonah to go to Nineveh the capital city.  However, the next generation of Ninevites followed the old ways of their ancestors. The names of the Assyrian kings, Tiglath-Pileser III, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon are recorded in the Bible's historical narrative.  I think Nahum 1:11-...

Micah 3:1-3 contains a very graphic description of the corruption of the Northern Kingdom. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos. Micah as introduced in the first chapter was God's man during the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah in the Kingdom of Judah. A renunciation of the Northern Kingdom was brought in as follows: And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes (rulers, emphasis mine) of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? 2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.  The description is very graphic. The context may not be literal (or could be literal). The problem was that wickedness abounded in the Kingdom of Israel during the Divided Kingdom era. The nobles of the house of Israel...

Prophecies tend to be communicated in symbols. Daniel, in the Old Testament, manages to highlight the use of symbolism to interpret future events. It's very easy to say, "You're just assigning the names of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome to the four beasts." However, a study of Daniel (and world history) can show how the four pieces tend to fit together. It seems that there are the typology and the current fulfillment of prophecy. We can read Daniel 2, Daniel 7, and Daniel 8 which contains the visions of the four empires. Each one of them is connected to the other.  I. Daniel 2's interpretation of the four kingdoms Daniel 2:36-45 tells us the meaning of the dream as follows: 36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the...

I remembered buying the book "Why I Believe" by the late D. James Kennedy (though it's now the old, out-of-print edition). Chapter 2 is titled "The Stones Cry Out". Today, I was also reading through Daniel 5. Another commentator named J. Vernon McGee also wrote of this matter. What wasn't surprising was that some people were trying to discredit the existence of King Belshazzar who was later overthrown by the Persians. The man was known to be irreverent as he used the vessels from the Jewish Temple caught many decades ago. I wonder why would a man do such a thing as to use much older vessels when he had for himself some brand new vessels? I wouldn't even dare to do that to antique vessels. Belshazzar's existence was proven by the discovery of the Nabonidus Cylinders which are in the British Museum. McGee quotes from a book called "Daniel, the Key to Prophetic Revelation" by John Walvoord. McGee also mentions Raymond Doughtery's scholarly...

I decided to go through a slow study on Daniel. Granted, this was Old Testament times so we really need to understand how things were different for the Jewish times vs. the dispensation of the New Testament. Danieel and his friends were probably in their late teens (and would be considered marriageable at that time) so whether or not they were married men isn't clear. Daniel's three friends were known as Mishael, Hananiah (not to be confused with the false prophet), and Azariah. Their names were soon conveniently changed into Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego so they can be assimilated into the Babylonian culture. Even more, their diet was about to change. They were soon introduced to the king's food which they flat-out refused with due politeness. What was the issue of the food? I was thinking about how Daniel and his three friends were among the faithful remnant. Why God allowed them to be in Babylon is part of a much greater plan. Before Islam came in the 7th...

Apparently, there are two verses that seem to come to conflict. Jeremiah 25:1 says that the siege happened during the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Yet, Daniel writes that the siege happened during the third year of Jehoiakim. It would be very important to understand how stuff was written in ancient times. It's like how we try to solve the following: It was said that Absalom only waited for four years yet the KJV uses a non-literal 40 years. 2 Samuel 15:7 is often challenged since David would be too old if Absalom waited for a literal 40 years. Yet, it's most likely said that it was Absalom was actually 40 years old when this rebellion happened but he only waited for four years. The age of Ahaziah supposedly differs in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. I don't buy the nonsense story from Chick Publications. Actually, we must understand that 42 refers to the time from the rise of Omri's dynasty up to Ahaziah, not the actual age. Modern versions of the Bible prefer to put his literal...

The Christmas narrative is somehow never complete without Herod the Great's plan to murder the baby Jesus. Take note though that it was already more than a year and Herod the Great's order was to kill all the infant boys two years and below. Somehow, the Herods really do are a dysfunctional family. Just researching the history of the Herods will reveal a lot of sexual sin possible. If you do some research on the family tree of Herod - you'll find out that they're a seriously inbred bunch. You may find out that inbreeding was very common among the Herods. Why was inbreeding practiced? People back then were more focused on keeping the family wealth intact and the bloodline supposedly "pure". So marrying outside one's family was probably not in their best interest. However, Herod Antipas was previously married to Phaeselis a daughter of Aretas IV of Arabia before he cohabited with his half-niece and sister-in-law, Herodias. It should be noted that the parents...

As I'm reading through Nehemian for the nth time - we can see the role of Ezra in the life of Nehemiah. Before Nehemiah is the Book of Ezra. It's said that Ezra wrote Ezra and Ezra wrote Nehemiah which is most probable. What we can see is the role of the Levite priesthood with Ezra. Although we have Joshua the High Priest yet Ezra seems to have eclipsed the former. We do read of Joshua the High Priest in Ezra, Zechariah, and Haggai. Yet, Ezra seems to be focused for a reason. I think Ezra was focused because he was that scribe or historian of the Jewish people. It seems that he did some editing on Nehemiah himself. What we can also read in Nehemiah 8 is the situation of Ezra preaching the Word of God to the people. Those who say Sola Scriptura wasn't applicable until a certain century fails to see the canon. When it came to God's standards - they had God's Word. The Bible was still an expanding book. The first books that the people had as their Bible was the Pentat...

I've been reading Nehemiah for the nth time but I wanted to take a moment to pause as well. I was thinking about how often I get irritated by scoffers. Then I think of Nehemiah's statement that was given saying the following: Nehemiah 2:19-20  19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel against the king?  20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem . I was thinking about how am I reacting towards insults and letdowns from other people? Nehemiah was insulted by the three scoffers with how they tried to stop him from rebuilding the wall. Rather than throw a tantrum - Nehemiah chose to remain calm, trust God, and do his work that God assigned to him. Nehemiah chose to rely ...

While reading through 2nd Chronicles - a familiar doctrinal footnote by the KJV Study Bible is known as the "lost books". The doctrine of the lost books talks about a dozen books cited in the Old Testament canon such as the Book of Jasher (Joshua 10:13, 2nd Samuel 1:18), the Book of the Acts of Solomon (1st Kings 11:41), the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, the Visions of Iddo the Seer, the Book of Nathan the Prophet (9:29), the Book of Gad the Seer (1st Chronicles 29:29), the Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (12:15), the Acts of Uzziah (26:22), and the Sayings of the Seers (33:19). The same doctrinal footnote also mentions for the New Testament an epistle Paul wrote to the Corinthians (1st Corinthians 5:9), a letter Paul wrote to the Laodiceans (Colossians 4:16), the Book of Enoch (Jude 1:14), another unknown epistle by John (3 John 1:9), and something else Luke wrote (Luke 1:1, 2). So what are these "lost books" for and why are they not in canon.  So the illustratio...

The final godly king of the earthly Davidic Dynasty was Josiah. We could read of the cycle from David down to Jehoiakim to how the kings acted. When we think about it - only a few of the kings ever repented or ever did great. Some kings had a good start but a bad end like Joash the boy-king and Uzziah who later died as a leper. Other kings in David's lineage were just plain wicked like Jehoram, Ahaziah, Ahaz, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, and Jehoiachin (Josiah's grandson). A similar pattern can be seen with Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah (righteous reformers), Jehoram and Manasseh (sons who countered the reforms of their fathers though Manasseh repented), Ahaziah and Ammon (two wicked kings that didn't rule long), and Joash and Josiah (both made king at a very young age). Sadly, Josiah would be the last righteous king in the earthly Davidic Dynasty. What do we read of Josiah? 1st Kings 13:2 says that Josiah will one day rise. 2nd Kings 22-23 and 2nd Chronicles 33-35 tells us of...

  The history of the Davidic Dynasty proved one thing - good fathers can sire bad sons and the other way around. Just because the father is great doesn't mean that the son wouldn't be a fool. Just because the father is a fool doesn't mean the son wouldn't be great. Such is the case of Hezekiah. You can examine the Davidic Dynasty and see how the cycle went: David was a king after God's own heart even with all his mistakes.  Solomon was a  righteous king but had a half heart. His sinful pluralistic marriages led to the division of the kingdom after he died. Rehoboam was easily influenced but repented later on after Shishak's invasion. Abijah ruled only for three years and the cause of his death is unknown. From Asa down to Jehoshaphat were righteous kings. However, Jehoshaphat's ungodly alliance with Ahab caused a ripple effect down to his son (Jehoram) and his grandson (Ahaziah). Jehoshaphat had his son Jehoram marry the wicked Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and...

After the reign of Amaziah came Uzziah. So, we can see better times after the unfortunate bad ends to both good kings Joash and Amaziah. Joash was a king who never grew up mentally and spiritually. Amaziah did what was right but not with a devoted heart. Now, we have Uzziah who became the next king after the two short reigns. Joash died at 46 years old and Amaziah died at 54 years old. Now, Uzziah was 16 when he reigned and reigned for 52 years. He was only a teenager when he occupied the throne and died at 68 years old. What's interesting is that Uzziah is also called Azariah in 2nd Kings 14. In 2nd Chronicles 26 - he is called Uzziah. I think 2nd Chronicles personally used Uzziah over Azariah because there was a priest with the same name. What's interesting is that people in the Bible can also have more than one name - something you need to put into consideration when studying the Bible! We can read the two common passages which say the following: 2nd Kings 14:3   And he did ...

The story of Amaziah, the successor, and son of Joash can be found in 2nd Kings 13-14 and 2nd Chronicles 25-26. What can be read by Amaziah in both 2nd Kings and 2nd Chronicles is that he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD but he didn't do it with his whole heart. David was called a man after God's own heart in spite of his mistakes. Solomon is referred to as half-heart. The mother of Amaziah is mentioned because she may have been a good influence. Amaziah soon had his father's murderers arrested and put to death but slew not the children. We can read much good at first but later, like his father Joash, he ended up from revival to ruin. We can read this absurd incident in 2nd Chronicles 26:14-16: 14 Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. 15 Wherefore the anger of the Lord was...

The story of Joash can be found in 2nd Kings 11-12 and 2nd Chronicles 23-24. We can read of the story of how Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, had lost her kin from the House of Ahab and her last surviving son Ahaziah. Remember when Jehoram's big mistake caused all his sons except Ahaziah? Well, Athaliah was really hungry for power. For the whole reign of Jehoram up to Ahaziah - Athaliah was the real power behind the throne. I dare believe Athaliah stirred Jehoram up to kill her siblings-in-law and eventually counseled Ahaziah to do wickedly. Later on, Ahaziah died and Athaliah did the unthinkable. To maintain her power - she decided to destroy all the royal seed. Fortunately, Joash the last son of Ahaziah escaped with his aunt Jehoiada (who some say is the daughter of Jehoram and another wife) and was hid in the desecrated temple. Eventually, the very old but still active high priest Jehoiada managed to come up with the plans that would overthrow Athaliah's illegitim...