So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 1 Kings 3:9 NASB Who is able – Answer the question. Solomon asked it. You answer it. Who is able to judge? The answer, of course, is the one…
So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 1 Kings 3:9 NASB Understanding – Solomon asks for a heart that hears. He wants to know what God knows. So do we (might I add, unfortunately) because we…
But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” Genesis 27:13 NASB Your curse – “Listen to me,” she said. Actually, it’s more like, “Listen to the sound of my making.” She continues, “If anything disastrous happens, then let it affect me. I will…
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Exodus 20:2 NASB Brought you out – Israel Finkelstein makes some challenging points in the book, The Quest for the Historical Israel. He notes that archeology is not in the business of exegesis. Exegesis is the process of…
Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the]Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. 2 Chronicles 20:1 NASB Now it came about – Once again we encounter our neon sign. Vayhi—and it came about. It signals that the apparently accidental occurrence has…
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food. Ruth 1:6 NASB In giving them food – How do you know when God is working? What signs do you…
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NASB Confess – What does it mean to confess our sins? Does it require verbal affirmation of specific acts? Does it mean a change of heart? Does it work if…
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. Numbers 21:1 NASB King of Arad – Something unexpected is happening. As I investigate the background for a book about Solomon, I…
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 1 Peter 5:6 NASB Humble – The road less traveled is not a highway. It is a back road, the one that wanders through no-name villages, over streams without signs, across ditches and into forests where you…
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:17 NASB Broken/Contrite – “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sins.” Ah, well, maybe. Maybe not. According to the Psalmist, what God desires is a broken and contrite person, not…
