As they left, so they returned, in three waves: under Jeshua (538 BC), Ezra (458 BC), and Nehemiah (444 BC). Ezra did not come home alone. “Some of the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes” (Ezra 7:7). Why […]
CHRIST the RESURRECTED ONE: “In our thinking we must not leave Christ on the cross; for God did not leave Him there. He ‘raised Him from the dead,’ and set Him on the throne, and made Him Lord of all. With what a rebound did the “energy of the might of God’s strength” (Eph 1:19) […]
“A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not […]
“Your own mouth condemns you, and not I” (Job 15:6). The concept of evil is nonsensical if there is no God. If everything just evolved from nothing, it’s as foolish to say a rotten man is evil as it is to say a rotten apple is evil. If I am only biology, then I am […]
The temple was a masterpiece. But who knew the Owner’s Manual, explaining its use? Enter Ezra! Memorializing their freedom from Egypt, but now also in the joy of deliverance from Mesopotamia, they “kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month” (Ezra 6:19). It was also linked with “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” (v 22) which was […]
Read More… from March 26, 2025 — No To The Leaven; Yes To The Lamb
CHRIST, GOD’S ANOINTED (Ps 2:2). In his book, The Names and Titles of Christ, Francis Derk explains: Anointing in the OT symbolized the giving of the Holy Spirit and solemn consecration to the service of God. It was performed on the three offices of the theocracy: Prophet, Priest and King…In the fullest sense it was […]
“He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord” (Ps 40:2-3). God is not […]
J. Oswald Sanders recounts the story of a believer who had tried every way to share the gospel with an elderly lady. He had used all the well-known gospel verses—John 3:16, Romans 10:9 and the like—but all to no avail. She just couldn’t get it. As he was preparing to visit her again, the Christian […]