GOD CAN deliver us in the face of overwhelming odds. We discuss two examples of this from the book of Isaiah this week–the miraculous healing of Hezekiah, marked by the backwards movement of the sundial’s shadow, and the deliverance of Jerusalem from the unstoppable might of the Assyrian army.Continue Reading
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
PROPHESYING DURING a time just before a calamity has to be one of the worst jobs ever. Isaiah was called to be a prophet during a visit to the throne room of God, but his orders were to make sure the people of Judah didn’t listen to God.Continue Reading
THE DIVISION of the kingdom of Israel is the focus of our Old Testament study this week. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, gets some bad advice from his young friends, not just rejecting the request of the northern tribes for tax relief, but doing so with a rather crude euphemism.Continue Reading
PAUL RETURNS to Jerusalem in this week’s study, in spite of warnings from believers from Asia to Judea that he would be arrested and possibly killed. But Paul already knew that.Continue Reading