Building on the Foundation

  God’s Word, the Bible, is an incredible book! Though it took more than 1,500 years to write, and though it involved roughly 40 or more human authors working under Divine inspiration, it all fits together perfectly. Researchers have identified roughly 340,000 cross-references between various passages in the Bible. The Old Testament explains the New Testament, and the New Testament explains the Old. It’s impossible to understand either one without the other. From beginning to end, it preaches the same God, the same plan of salvation, and the same standards of good and evil. There’s no filler or wasted space. Every story, every instruction, every prophecy, and every detail is there for a purpose. Or probably for more than one purpose, because God’s Word also contains many layers. There’s the face value interpretation, but hidden within are also types, symbols, and additional meaning. Today, let’s look at one such example: a part of the story of Isaac. I think we’re all familiar with...

  Throughout history, civilizations have esteemed courage as one of the highest manly virtues. And it’s true, part of being a man is being courageous. In 1 Cor. 16:13, Paul exhorted the congregation, “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.” In Greek, that word “brave” is andrizomai (Strong’s # G407), which means “to act manly, show oneself a man, be brave.” In the Old Testament, wherever we read the phrase “be of good courage” in our English Bibles, the Greek Septuagint uses that same word andrizomai . Be manly. Be brave. God commanded Joshua to “be strong and of good courage” and “be strong and very courageous” (Josh. 1:6-7). And again, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9). David’s general Joab exhorted his troops, “Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God” (2 Sam. 10:12; 1 Chron. 19:13). On his deathbed,...

There are numerous lessons that we can learn from the story of Gideon, but one of my favorite pictures that is painted is about the resurrection.  No, Gideon was not brought back to life after meeting his demise, nor were any other people in this story. In fact, there is a lot of death and destruction contained in these pages.   Let's start in the book of Judges and in Chapter seven.   Gideon was leading an army of 32,000 Israelite men.  The enemy were the Midianites and the Amalekites, and were described in verse 12 as being "... as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude ." That's a lot more than 32,000 men. Now Gideon was a nobody that was recruited by our God for this task. He had no military history, nor was he a renowned general.  And even if he had been; it would still be akin to suicide to engage in such a lop-sided battle.   Then in verse 2 things really get interesting. ...