Aesop told a story of a lion startled by a mouse. The lion slapped a paw over the mouse and was about to lick it up when the mouse pleaded for her life, promising that someday she would repay the kindness. The lion was amused by the idea of the little mouse ever helping him…
When the patriarch Jacob thought his young son Joseph was dead, he believed that in death they would be reunited, “he refused to be comforted and said, ‘No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.’” (Gen 37:35b ESV). “Sheol” is the Hebrew word for the abode of the souls of the dead,…
The story of King David’s adultery with Bathsheba, his attempts to cover it up, and the murder of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, is told in 2 Samuel 11. The last statement in the chapter is “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.” Afterward, the prophet Nathan, who had always been a staunch…
John taught that God became a man: “the Word was God… And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). When did the Word become flesh? “Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a…
Jesus and his chosen disciples were Jewish, living under the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. As such, most of Jesus’ teachings during his ministry were built upon principles already known by Jews familiar with the Old Testament. On four points, Jesus specifically instructed his disciples not to be like the Gentiles…