Category: Bible Study

Compromised

We now find out why it is that God must act to restore and renew his holy city through refining judgement and why God’s people need to learn again what it means to walk in the light of God. Read Isaiah 2:6-22 The people’s rejection of Yahweh is seen in the way that they have… Continue reading Compromised

Come let us walk

Take a moment to pause and mediate on these words   come, let us walk  in the light of the Lord. Isaiah 2:5 This is an invitation to the people of Israel and comes in the light of God’s promise that he will re-establish Zion as the place where he reigns “with justice and peace.  It is also an… Continue reading Come let us walk

Established

We tend to associate the early stages of Isaiah with gloom and judgement. However, rifght from the start, warnings of judgement are framed by promises of hope. Read Isaiah 2:1-5 If the city of Jerusalem and the Temple there faces imminent destruction, this will not be a permanent state of affairs.  God promises that a… Continue reading Established

Unfaithful

Warning, today’s reading will contain strong language from the start. We are used to a kind of gentle, nice respectability to our Christianity but the prophets were prepared to deal directly with root problems and unashamedly use shocking language to get their point across. Read Isaiah 1:21-31 Israel is compared to a prostitute. Sexual immorality… Continue reading Unfaithful

Death and resurrection – applying Jonah through Jesus

We want to apply the Old Testament to our lives today but how do we best do that.  There’s a risk that if we just use an Old Testament character as an example that we end up with legalism.  The message of Jonah gives us a helpful case study. Jonah runs away from God and… Continue reading Death and resurrection – applying Jonah through Jesus

Listen up

God spoke to and through the prophet Isaiah about 700 years before Jesus came and so over 2700 years ago.  Yet those words spoken millennia ago still resonate powerfully today. Ultimately, it is a message of hope as Isaiah points to Jesus but he had many tough things to say too. The question today as… Continue reading Listen up

What do you want to see?

Many Christians use the 40 days in the lead up to Easter as an opportunity for prayer, fasting and reflection in order to grow their love for the Gospel. The season is known as Lent.  I belong to a less liturgical strand of Christianity so I don’t tend to follow church calendars.  There is nothing… Continue reading What do you want to see?

Names

When the writer provides the generational records for Noah’s sons, he reverses the expected order.  We are told first about Japheth’s sons the Hams.  The line of Shem is delayed into chapter 11 and before that we have some further detail about what Ham’s descendants get up to. This will enable Moses to go on… Continue reading Names

Nimrod

It’s tempting to skip over the lists of names in the Bible.  We’re not too sure what to do with them but they are worth pausing and reading.  In Genesis, when we get to the words “These are the generations” as we do at the start of Genesis 10, it provides a marker to indicate… Continue reading Nimrod