HEZEKIAH WAS a better king than any since David, and better than all those who followed. He repaired and restored the Temple, reinstituted the worship of Yahweh, and tore down the high places devoted to Baal and Astarte (not just in Judah, but in Israel, too).Continue Reading
ISAIAH PROPHESIED the fall of Babylon before it had risen. At the time of the prophesies we read this week, Assyria was still the dominant power in the ancient Near East, but the phrase, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon,” was revealed to the prophet anyway.Continue Reading
THE FUTURES of Damascus, Moab, Egypt, and a mysterious foreign superpower — possibly the USA — are the meat of our Old Testament study this week.Continue Reading
ALREADY BUT not yet. That’s a phrase we use often when discussing Bible prophecy, and it’s appropriate again this week. We discuss the destruction of the northern kingdom, Israel, by the Assyrians as punishment for abandoning the LORD. Then we look at two chapters of the fascinating Book of Isaiah.Continue Reading
GOD’S JUDGMENT on Israel and Judah was not going to be pleasant, but it was not to last forever. This week, we read prophecies of Isaiah and Micah on the coming destruction of the northern kingdom by Assyria and the southern kingdom by Babylon.Continue Reading
HE HADN’T intended to be a prophet, but that’s the work to which the Lord called him. Amos, a contemporary of Isaiah, was a shepherd from south of Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah. However, he devoted most of the nine chapters of his book to warning the northern kingdom of Israel about its imminent doom — a judgment decreed by God.Continue Reading