The phrase “incline your ear” appears in the Bible approximately seventy-six times. As is relatively evident, it generally means “pay attention!” It appears a lot in the book of Psalms when the psalmist asks God to incline His ear to the psalmist’s...
One of the most famous passages of the Old Testament is Exodus 3:13–14. It says this: “But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what...
Last week I wrote about Elkanah and his family situation as described in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel (chapters 1–2). We looked specifically at the fact that Hannah, one of Elkanah’s wives, had both internal (she could not bear children) and...
The opening story in the Old Testament book of Samuel features two female characters: (1) Hannah, and (2) Peninah. Hannah and Peninah are the wives of Elkanah. The storyteller explains why Elkanah has two wives. He has two wives because Hannah, his...
I did not know for a long time that Christianity didn’t start out as a new religion. The original Christians were Jews and they understood themselves to continue to be Jews. What set them apart from other Jews was that they believe that Jesus was...
Most of the time, people read the Psalms as independent poems that have been gathered together (rather haphazardly) through history to make up a collection, or anthology of poems, prayers and praise hymns. People tend to read it almost like a...
We recently celebrated Memorial Day. Memorial Day in America commemorates military soldiers who gave their lives in defence of American freedom. Few people would argue the point that self-sacrifice is the most noble act one could commit. The Bible...
Psalm 1 (along with Psalm 2) introduces the book of Psalms as a whole. It does so by implying a comparison of the five books of the Psalms (Book 1: 1–41; Book 2: 42–72; Book 3: 73–89; Book 4: 90–107; Book 5: 107–150) with the first five books of the...
In the mid 19th century, the death rate among birthing mothers in certain hospitals in Vienna was five times higher than that of those giving birth at home or in midwives’ clinics. Something was really wrong. There was something killing these...
Before Jesus’s ministry, came John the Baptist. John, like Jesus, had disciples. John’s disciples would have looked up to John. This makes sense because many believed that John was sent by God. John was a spiritual giant. John had the courage to...