A long time ago, God decided to be a blacksmith. I don’t think He originally intended to enter that trade. While He has always been a master craftsman with metal, I am quite sure that He didn’t deliberately learn the art of heating and beating things into shape because He enjoyed the task. God became…
And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:12 NASB What does this mean? – Are you “full of sweet wine”? That’s what some of the bystanders thought when they heard the Galilean followers of Yeshua the Messiah speaking in their own languages. It was obvious…
Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city. Ecclesiastes 7:19 NIV Ten rulers – Most modern translations of the Hebrew Scriptures are based on a text complied by a group of rabbinic scholars called the Masoretes. They worked between the 6th and the 10th Centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem. They…
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal faithfully are His delight. Proverbs 12:22 NASB Abomination – tôʿēbâ isn’t a word we hear often. Oh, sorry. I meant that the English translation of tôʿēbâ is a word we hear often—“abomination.” It would certainly be familiar to ancient readers of the Tanakh, but…
The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NASB Knowledge of good and evil – Just what was this tree of the…
Tulips are coming to Holland. I thought you’d like to see some in our local market. Just have a wonderful, colorful day today.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB Acknowledge – Let’s have some fun today. We want to think about the Hebrew idea of knowing. It’s not the same as our Western idea. To get the…
When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Genesis 32:25 NASB Socket of his thigh – The enigmatic Hebrew phrase bekaph yereko raises some interesting technical questions. If we try to figure out…
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . . . Jonah 1:3a NASB To flee – Everyone know the Jonah story. Probably everyone knows, or thinks that they know, the Sampson story as well. We have those Sunday school memories of the whale (big fish) and the long hair of the…
That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 NASB Nothing new – On the surface, this claim seems preposterous if not outright false. Of course, there are new things. Every birth is…
