But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord . . . Jonah 1:3a NASB To flee – Everyone know the Jonah story. Probably everyone knows, or thinks that they know, the Sampson story as well. We have those Sunday school memories of the whale (big fish) and the long hair of the…
That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9 NASB Nothing new – On the surface, this claim seems preposterous if not outright false. Of course, there are new things. Every birth is…
All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. Ecclesiastes 1:8 NASB Wearisome – Why is this book even in the Bible? It’s so pessimistic! What kind of spiritual message can be gleaned from writing that basically says nothing really matters, that death swallows up everyone, and there is really no solid evidence of anything…
“Utter futility!—said Koheleth—Utter futility! All is futile!” Ecclesiastes 1:2 JPS Utter futility! – Tom Clancy isn’t correct. The sum of all fears is not nuclear holocaust. That possibility might make some sense given the enormity of human evil, the insatiable quest for power, and the technological ability to exterminate. But when you read the novel,…
The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem Ecclesiastes 1:1 JPS Words – I love the line from the movie The International where the old Communist officer, now a sage, says, “There is a difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” I don’t know who wrote that line for the…
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! Psalm 1:1 NASB Walk/stand/sit – Undoubtedly Watchman Nee’s influential Christian book Sit, Walk, Stand found its genesis in a verse like this. Perhaps you, like me, read it when…
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Titus 1:12 NASB Cretans – Crete has an ancient history. Home to the Minoans, significant to the Mycenaeans, and a major port island in the Roman Empire, Crete plays a role in the Mediterranean for thousands of years. …
You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3 NASB Shall have – In May of 2014 we looked at the important difference between Greek thought and Hebrew thought in this verse. Usually translated “you shall not have,” the Hebrew verb plus negative, lo-yihye’, reveals an important characteristic of Hebrew thought. The translation, “shall…
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; Romans 7:9 NASB I died – In 1977, Krister Stendahl changed everything about the way Christianity understood Paul.[1] You probably didn’t know that; in fact, you probably never heard his name. What he started is now…
O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger. Psalm 38:1 NASB Rebuke – How long is your fuse? How long can you hold out before that deep anger about the injustice in life explodes? Oh, I don’t mean all the social injustice we observe every day. I mean that sense…
