BEAR WITH ME

A Promise God Never Made and A Prophetic Application Overlooked   First, the verse, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”   This verse is, first of all – as it is often presented – a promise never made. “ “I … will heal their land” As I said, these applications are arrived at by seeing this verse as self-contained. One well-meaning pastor even makes this verse part of his “single, stand-alone Scripture series”! But to see any verse – especially one like the present – as stand-alone is a recipe for exegetical disaster. Context, always helpful for understanding “Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.”, vs. 12. Looking at this context we see that God’s oft-quoted “I will hear from hea...

Why did God say to Adam that he would die on the day that should he eat of the forbidden fruit when he clearly did not die on that day? It never seemed quite satisfactory that God meant that he would only begin to die after the Fall happened, that Adam would not die until almost a millennium later . I am not denying that this was also true, that there was certainly a great change in all of nature, including humanity, from that very time of disobedience. But this does not really account for all of what was implied in the divine prohibition. And it dances around the phrase "in that day". First of all , there must be a distinction between what God threatened and what He carried out . Second , we do not need to go far afield to imagine what the Hebrew here might mean. We have the context to guide us. Specifically, in order to know what is meant by " in that day " we only need to see how the phrase is used in a nearby parallel verse. Satan told Eve, Gen. 3:5: ...

Yes, but what does this mean ? It is a shame that Hebrews is so often neglected by many Christians. They don’t know what they are missing. I can’t speak for others, but the reason why I had earlier read sparingly from it for a long time is because I thought it was mainly “Jewish stuff”, written for those who came to Christ from a Jewish background. Well, yes and no. It is that – and much more. Hebrews not only leads Jews to Christ, it also makes the Old Testament come alive. It Christianizes much of the Old Testament. Here again are the first verses of Hebrews, now including the third verse: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the ages (aeons); who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purge...

As I think about this passage I cannot help but think about other connections. The following applications I will not be dogmatic about, but I offer them for your consideration. The Jews brought the woman to be judged but the judgment turned against them. Jerome and Ambrose both brought up the connections with Jer. 17:13 and 17:1. The Jews in John 8 departed (just like those in the Jer. passage). They could have stayed and been forgiven. And I wonder if there is not a connection with here with Daniel 5 . There the writing was on the wall of the palace in Babylon. Here it is on the Temple floor. Both are from the hand of God. "He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone." The only one without sin that day was the One who spoke this. Jesus, alone, had the right to cast the first stone, which He did not, of course. But about forty years later He did. The adulterous woman repented on that day and turned from her sin. But the adulterous men that day - m...

The very title of this article is a sort of half-truth.[1] It is certainly the starting point of the story but the context and outworking point to a larger sin and judgment than that of this one woman. The men who cornered her and dragged her up to the Saviour (and where was the man?) wanted to make the story all about her and about the predicament they thought they would land the Teacher in. If He exonerated the woman He would go against Moses and the Scriptures He himself said could not be broken. If He agreed to her stoning then He placed himself in opposition to the Romans, who alone claimed the right to inflict capital punishment. They saw this as an easy win either way. But Jesus surprised them with His answer. He wrote on the ground. Silent. This act puzzled them. It has also puzzled countless writers ever since. The translators of the KJV unhelpfully provide the gloss “as though He heard them not” . Other commentaries suggest various other guesses which are point...