Volume 9, No.1, Feb. 1998
The Setting of the Vision of Ezekiel’s Temple
The vision of Ezekiel's temple is the most prominent part of his prophecy. It covers the last nine chapters of the book and is the focal point of his entire message. This remarkable book covers a span of 20 years, from the fifth year of Jehoiachin's captivity (1:1, 2) to the vision of the temple in the fourteenth year after the fall of Jerusalem [...]
Trials
It seems to me that God tries or tests not our weaknesses but our strengths, not our weak points but our strong points. Isn1 this reasonable? A teacher does not test his pupils until they have been instructed and have learned their lessons. The higher the education the more difficult the examination. The greater our strengths, the greater our trials along those lines may [...]
Jephthah’s Daughter
The story of Jephthah in Judges 11 is quite peculiar. How are we to excuse an army captain who heartlessly offers his daughter in exchange for victory in a war against the Amorites? The account begins in Judges 11, verse 30: “And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, [...]
Matriarch Prophecies
In view of the fact that the Hebrew nation has been known as “the children of Israel,” a closer look should be given to the children of Jacob from which the nation took its name. Since Chapters 29 and 30 of Genesis record the early history of these twelve sons of Jacob, it follows that their history, in some way, corresponds with the history [...]
The Empty Tomb
The empty tomb is a theological conundrum. We cannot use it to prove anything really, nor can we use it to disprove anything. Yet if Jesus' body lay entombed there, how difficult it would be for the disciples to believe in the resurrection. The instances when the disciples witnessed Jesus' power to raise the dead always involved a body being raised. Therefore, for the [...]
The Trial of Faith
The Edomite saint [a classical title for Job] must have looked into birds' nests when he used the comparison, “I said, I shall die in my nest” (Job 29:18). That is what a good many people say. They build each a nest for himself, and not for a summer, but for a life. They say that they shall die in it after many years [...]