PSALMS AND genealogies again this week in our Old Testament study, but even here we find some very interesting nuggets. We come across Psalm 87, an interesting prophecy of a future time when foreign nations will come to worship at Jerusalem, ones that are usually not represented in a positive light: Rahab (Egypt), Babylon, Tyre (the king of Tyre is equated with Lucifer/Satan in Ezekiel 28), Philistia, and Cush (Ethiopia, but also the name of the father of Nimrod).
Filed under Bible Study, Old Testament
WE BEGIN our study of the second of the Historical Books of the Bible. Judges is named for the twelve leaders who were raised up by Yahweh at critical points in Israel’s history from the late 13th century to the mid-11th century B.C., and it chronicles Israel’s slide into apostasy and chaos, showing the need for a godly king to lead them.
Today, we look at the first five judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar (who may have been a devotee of the Canaanite goddess of war), Barak, and Deborah.
We also discuss a few interesting aspects of the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), especially the curse by the Angel of Yahweh (Jesus, if you’ve just joined us) against Meroz. According to a Jewish tradition, Meroz was a group of supernatural inhabitants of the second heaven who refused to fight for Yahweh against the Canaanites.
Filed under Bible Study, Old Testament
THE ISRAELITES’ time in the wilderness is drawing to a close. Today, we discuss instructions from Yahweh to Moses about vows to the Lord, the military operation against the Midianites (which resulted in the death of the prophet-for-hire, Balaam son of Beor), and the decision of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh to take their inheritance east of the Jordan River rather than in the land of Canaan.
Filed under Bible Study, Old Testament
