By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
Have you ever wondered what a prophet of God did when he wasn’t prophesying?
Of the people who we know as prophets, many seem to have been used by God on only a few occasions. For example, Abraham, Oded (2 Chronicles 28:9), Uriah (Jeremiah 26:20) and various other prophets who aren’t even named.Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
Sometimes when we have a pet theory – but little evidence! – we use arguments from silence. For example, we might argue that since something has not been reported as happening, this is proof that it never happened. Of course, it’s not proof at all, because history doesn’t report most things that happen. Arguments from silence don’t prove anything, however it is valuable at times to observe things about which the Bible is silent and ponder what the reasons for the silence might be. Let’s look at things missing from Jeremiah – events or facts which the book of Jeremiah does not mention.Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Paul
In the times of Jeremiah, God often used the picture of unfaithfulness in marriage, and even divorce, to show how terrible the behaviour of Israel and Judah was when they worshipped other gods. This lesson has now lost its power in many countries of the world because unfaithfulness and adultery are not viewed as seriously as God views them.Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | David , Jeremiah
Many countries that have kings or queens, and even those with prime ministers or presidents, have ornate ceremonies for appointing a new person to the position. The rules for choosing who the new leader will be and the associated rituals are considered important and followed carefully. The same was true for anointing Bible kings.Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
We all like to think that we have made a difference in the world. King Josiah was a righteous king, but did he make a difference in his kingdom? Was Josiah a success?
King Josiah reigned near the end of the kingdom of Judah, about 600 years before Jesus Christ was born. He is described in 2 Kings 23:25:
“Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.”Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets
We often read of the worship of “other gods” in the Bible – in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, we read of different nations worshipping their own individual gods, but the nation of Israel seemed to want to worship all of the available gods!Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
From time to time over many years, the following question has popped to my mind: Did the people of Israel and Judah keep the Sabbath day during the period of the kings? Keeping the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments, but did God’s people keep the day holy as God had said?Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
The book of Jeremiah was originally written in Hebrew. What we read as the book of Jeremiah in our English Bibles is mostly translated from this Hebrew version. However, the Old Testament – including Jeremiah – was translated into common Greek about 250 years before Christ. Thus Jeremiah in the Septuagint is in Greek.Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah
Have you ever noticed that the Bible refers to books not included included in the Bible? From time to time, someone in our family refers to “Waheb in Suphar and the valleys of the Arnon” – a rather quaint and attractive expression from Numbers 21:14 which tells us that it comes from “the Book of the Wars of the Lord”. Unfortunately, this quaintness is missing from the KJV which says simply “What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon”.Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets
When we read of prophets in the Bible we can get the feeling that they all lived at different times from each other. There is almost never any indication of different prophets meeting each other or working together. However, there are just a few examples, including Moses and Aaron; Elijah and Elisha; Haggai and Zechariah; and two nameless prophets in the time of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and maybe some others. What about the prophet Zephaniah?Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Jeremiah , Minor prophets
When God led the people of Israel out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, they quickly went astray while Moses was up on the mountain. Only the Levites worshipped God as he wanted them to and so he selected them as his special tribe in Israel. Not only that, but he selected Moses’ brother Aaron as priest, and said that his descendants after him would inherit this important task. Did they do the job well? Are we told what God’s judgement of priests was?Continue reading
By Mark Morgan | Harmonies , Jesus
We are given quite a bit of detail surrounding the birth of Jesus and his early life in the gospels of Matthew (Matthew 1:18-2:23) and Luke (Luke 2:1-52), but there is little overlap in the details given. Putting the two together as a parallel record can help us understand when various events took place.Continue reading