It has been said that many cynics were once great optimists. They were once full of hope and optimism, but after too many disappointments, or perhaps one large disappointment, all that hope and optimism was drained and was replaced by pessimism and cynicism. I think Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, may have been such a person.
It has been my experience that most of the Christian life takes place in the wilderness, not the Promised Land. That is, it is much more common to be struggling (spiritually) in one form or another or to one degree or another than it is to be sitting back and relaxing. One of the reasons for this is that spiritual growth requires work and effort, which means there will likely be a lot of struggling and failing. Another, and often overlooked reason I think, is injustice. Times when God does not do what he has promised to do.
“The teachers that were hard, the ones that made things difficult and forced you to learn and improve, those are the ones that you will remember. Not the easy ones who tried to make things as easy as possible so that you felt good about yourself.”
Was there a day when the earth stopped spinning and the sun stood still? That seems to be what a certain passage in Joshua is saying, but is that really what is being described? Or does it mean something else?
The Way of Life leads to perfection, but we often bumble and stumble as we follow it. Sometimes we may even veer off it. Whether we blunder or flat-out leave the Way of Life repentance is a necessary part of the Christian life.
“But she will be saved through childbearing…” [1Tim 2.15]. This verse can be difficult to understand. It not only sounds strange, but seems to contradict the rest of the New Testament (NT) when it comes to salvation. However, this is not the case. It is not as strange as it might sound and it does not contradict the rest of the NT on salvation.
The Old Testament has but a shadow of the good things to come (Heb 8.5, 10.1). Some of the good things to come are obvious, like the sacrificial ending with Christ’s sacrifice being offered once for everyone for all time (Heb 10.12-14). Some are not, like the future of the sojourner.
The mention of Bethel in Joshua 8.17 might seem a little odd. Up until this point the only role that Bethel plays within the narrative is to help mark the location of where the Israelites were waiting in ambush. Then all of a sudden Bethel is mentioned along with Ai as having gone out to attack Israel. How do we account for this seemingly sudden change of events?
One of the fundamental principles of Christianity is revelation. Not the book, but the action. Not only does God reveal himself to us, but he also reveals the true nature of things, including people. In Matthew’s gospel there are two back-to-back parables revealing the possible natures of people: righteous or wicked.
Joshua 7.1: “…and the anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel.”
This translation is common to many English Bible translations. It is also rather careless, I think. It still captures the idea and gets the point across, but it isn’t as accurate as it could be. There are a couple of things to sort out here: first, the meaning of the Hebrew, then second how to translate that Hebrew into good idiomatic English.
