The events in the book of Ruth happened around 1385 BC, nearly two decades after the death of Joshua when Boaz was about 40 to 50 years old and five decades after Israel fought against Moab before entering the promised land.
The thirty-eighth chapter of Ezekiel is about the prophecy of Gog and it’s war against Israel. When Israel being surrounded by Turkey and it’s allies, all evidences point to a Jihad. This will not be a simple war where Israel can defeat but rather, it will be a war that all nations will know that that is a God in Israel and He defended His inheritance.
There are two most important requirements to be in God’s army. The first requirement is to be fearless of the enemy. Only one-third of all the people who want to be in God’s army were fearless of the enemy. The second requirement is to seek Him and believe in Him. When God spoke, He need His army to obey and trust in Him fully, just like the army He chose who went to fight a huge army of Midianites without even using a sword.
The book of Samuel which is divided into two books in Christian bibles for convenience but they are actually one book. When the Masoretic texts were compared with Septuagint, it paints a strange picture of some effort made by some scribes who wants to portray the book of Samuel as historically old by removing all historical references for events after king David in Masoretic. Based on the information we have from Septuagint, we can confidentially say that the book of Samuel was written after Rehoboam (or Roboam) began to reign 992 BC.
We can ask God to do a miracle in our life, like walking on the water in the midst of a stormy situation. God hears our prayers and can even command us the miracle to happen in our life. The miracle can even begin to happen in our life. But if we see the situation and became frightened because of it, Jesus declares us to be ‘doubtful’ of Him and we can sink into trouble right before Jesus. The coward who is afraid of Satan have no faith in God, and will not inherit eternal life but have his part in second death. Are you afraid of the devil?
When a person who repeatedly keeps sinning against us, comes and says ‘I repent’, we must forgive every time he asks forgiveness. If the person didn’t come to us, we must go and let the person know the fault and rebuke him. If he repents, we must forgive him. If he didn’t, we can call a couple of more people and the church as witnesses. If he still didn’t hear we don’t need to forgive him but treat him as a stranger.
The Gog and Magog who will come against Israel as prophesied by Ezekiel is Turkey. Satan’s throne and his dwelling place is in Turkey. Turkey, along with Iran, Libya and Sudan will come against Israel for a great battle in near future but God will bring judgement on the troops of Turkey and it’s allies by flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Since Israel is dwelling safely in their land, let us therefore keep watch for the signs of this prophecy.
The story or Genesis gives us the information about man being created in the image of God, yet like animals, naked, innocent and not knowing what is good and evil. Man disobeyed God to choose good and evil for himself, leading to suffering, pain and death. This is the gist of the creation and fall of man in the garden of Eden. But what actually happened ‘literally’ is something we may never know or we may not be able to bear them now.
What is grace and mercy? Translations often can be misleading and sometimes misses out the rich meaning found in the original language. In this post, we will explore the two words – grace and mercy. This is very important because, the word ‘grace’ was not once used by Jesus Christ, but always taught to be merciful. Grace means favor, not undeserved favor. Mercy is disgrace and shame and showing mercy is to remove the reproach of others.
Understanding different covenants in Scripture are key to understand their promises and fulfilment. God never made a covenant with children of Israel to give them the promised land but with Abraham. Israel must surely plucked off from the land according to the curse of law and it promises no second return from exile as in 1948. Based on what covenant did Jews return to their homeland? This post will explore each of the covenants in the Scriptures.