“Come, return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces; now He will heal us. He has injured us; now He will bandage our wounds. In just a short time He will restore us, so that we may live in His presence. Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know Him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of the dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.” Hosea 6:1-3I recently did a Bible s...

1. Was every prophet divinely called into service by God?Unlike the office of the priesthood, which was ancestry-based (you needed to be a descendant of Aaron), the office of the prophet was a divinely appointed call. Well-known prophets, such as Moses, Samuel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, or Isaiah, were called into service through a dream or vision, which we have a written account of in Scripture. The cal...

How lonely sits the cityThat was full of people!How like a widow is she,Who was great among the nations!The princess among the provincesHas become a slave!She weeps bitterly in the night,Her tears are on her cheeks;Among all her loversShe has none to comfort her.All her friends have dealt treacherously with her;They have become her enemies.Judah has gone into captivity,Under affliction and hard se...

The book of Isaiah stands out as a rich and majestic masterpiece of messages from God to His chosen people, unveiling His holiness, judgment, compassion, and faithfulness. Readers often find themselves drawn into the convicting messages and vivid prophecies handed down by God through the prophet Isaiah. For over 2,500 years, believers have been challenged by the message of Isaiah, comforted by its...

The Book of Jeremiah is a collection of sermons preached by the “weeping prophet” (Jer. 9:1, 10; and 13:17). Thomas Constable said, “Babylon” is mentioned 162 times in the Book of Jeremiah (Babylonian Captivity). No wonder Jeremiah was weeping. In fact, Jeremiah preached a heartbreaking message of doom to a stiff-necked people. He began preaching around the age of 17 and labored more than 40 years...

Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs) has, by far, produced a plethora of interpretations over the centuries. If you need some interesting, rabbit-hole reading, then look up the interpretations of Song of Songs; you will not be disappointed. However, with so many interpretations, the problem of finding the correct one becomes a fundamental issue that must be solved if we are to understand the book’s ...

If you didn’t know, my wife and I were privileged to visit Israel earlier this year. On one Saturday afternoon, after visiting the magnificent Qumran National Park where the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed, we began making the trip up to Jerusalem, where our trip would end. In this short, 45-minute trip to Jerusalem, we experienced a significant elevation change. Qumran is roughly 1200 feet below ...

The book of Ecclesiastes stands as one of the most intriguing and philosophical books of the Bible. Often misunderstood as pessimistic or cynical, it is in truth a deeply theological exploration of life, meaning, and human limitations. It was written by a man of great wisdom and experience, King Solomon, who had everything the world could offer: wisdom, wealth, fame, and power. Yet, his reflection...

The third section of the Old Testament in English is called the Wisdom Literature, comprised of the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.  To some, the Wisdom Literature section is an interruption to the expansive narrative of redemption that began in Genesis and will ultimately finish in Revelation. However, not every interruption is harmful; good interruptions are wh...

One of the most godly men who ever lived said, “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1). Can I get an amen? Exegetically and experientially, we know what this verse is talking about. We all have lived out this verse. But for Job, there was a time in his life when things went from bad to worse. Things just began to spiral out of control. The snowball effect took over...