BIBLE exposition and essays – OLD TESTAMENT Witness JESUS CHRIST through Old Testament + the BIBLE & Scripture taught by the Messiah Jesus, who revealed the LORD’s WORD in the Person of Christ Jesus.
Genesis – Malachi
Posts here typically cover multiple books of the Old Testament in QUOTES (but not any O.T. Book in its entirety). New Testament quotes connected to an Old Testament book are oven included.
MANY Quotes linked also to HEBREW with English usage in the Old Testament, i.e. LORD or Yᵊhōvâ
And the earth was a [waste] formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the [primeval ocean] surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Do you believe in God? – אֱלֹהִים
Is your god or are your gods the God of Scripture?
IF SO (even if not), DO YOU FEAR THE ONE WHO IS AND WAS, THE ALMIGHTY THE ETERNAL ONE?
OR do you, a mere MORTAL & created one create a god you DO NOT FEAR?
What if your theory of creation is wrong?
Then might your concept of LIFE, DEATH AND JUDGMENT also be suspect?
Will you bet your ETERAL soul on this failing flesh?
What is your short take on Genesis 1:1-2 and the God (according to Scripture) who caused the biggest bang in the cosmos and created man from the dust of creation?
ASK your question in the Comments below OR give us your short take on the God of Creation.
ALL COMMENTS ARE WELCOME, but MODERATED.And all links provided for your further study are secure.Roger@TalkofJESUS.COM
If you could TEXT 12 men or women about Jesus Christ, would you? Do you SHARE the Good News of JESUS with a ‘christian’ friend or 12 men you know or dozens of men and women who have questions about the Gospel?
Worship of the Son of God!
You likely know the narratives of 21st century holidays such as Palm Sunday, Easter or even Passover [Pesach – פסח (in Hebrew)] all too well – perhaps too well to worship the Lord God in the context of a first century Jerusalem.
A dear Jewish friend of ours, one of many since my wife is a Messianic Jew, commented just last week on the troubling events of these last days. He said something to the effect that it looks like it could be getting close to the time of the return of the Messiah.
Perhaps our Jewish friend is right. Indeed, if you examine the context of the first coming of the Messiah Jesus you will see promise after His bodily resurrection of a return once more.
Yet I ask you to consider in my agreement with our Jewish friend (a social jew just like many “christians” have become social christians) a deeper look into Scripture – Jewish Scripture. What you read here I offer based on what Christians call, the “Old Testament” or the ‘former Covenant.’
The Former Covenant – בְּרִית
How many Christians OR Jews truly value the solemn witness of Covenant with the LORD our God?
Sadly, too few — and the LORD in these last days seems all-but forgotten in the hearts and lives of those ‘religious’ who claim covenant with the Lord our God. I trust that by your own study of my exposition of prophecy of the Messiah and especially all other Scripture (yes, christian, including the Old Covenant) you seek cleansing and redemption for your sins.
Although ancient writings of the Talmud & Mishna, (in various translations), the Apocrypha (with 14 books Jewish in origin) and other extra-Biblical teaching may be enlightening, these do not stand up to Scripture alone, the inspired word of the Lord God.
We might easily veer off course, sidetracked from the Lord’s application of Scripture in our own lives by even unintentional misdirection and misinterpretation by teachers of the past.
In this brief look of connection between the Old Covenant and New we will look back to two brief passages from three chapters of Daniel.
The New Covenant
Our purpose here is focused only on the Sacrifice of the Son of Man – the Messiah of Israel – and not specifically the broken covenant compared to a new and better covenant. If the Spirit of the Lord draws you to further study the following translations of the book of Hebrews may help.
… I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
24 …
to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin,
to make atonement for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy
and to anoint the most holy place.
What mere mortal, what man even a priest of the Lord can do this with permanence?
Only the Son of Man, the Holy One of Israel – the One Messiah Jesus!
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince…
You withears to hear, understand: Jerusalem does not surpass the Messiah the Prince of God our Father in importance. For by His Sacrifice worship of the LORD is sanctified and perfected in Jesus the Son of Man and Only Son of God.
… It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat, but in difficult times. 26 After those sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the coming ruler will destroy the city and the sanctuary…
Better-learned men than me have studied Daniel’s vision of the Messiah and understood more, but even the Prophet Daniel confessed that he did not understand its full meaning.
I will add one additional look at Daniel after deferring to Sir Isaac Newton.
On the Bible:
“I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.”
On atheism: “Atheism is so senseless.
When I look at the solar system. I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.”
If you count in Judaic years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first autumn after Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem, when he put the King’s decree in execution; the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Julian Period 4747, Anno Domini 34; and the weeks will be Judaic weeks, ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth…
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2 NASB
7 Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time.
When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed.
8 I heard but did not understand…
Whether texting 12 men and women OR simply sharing the Gospel in person you can bet that THEY do not understand either. Why not start your Christian Social Witness here?
What does it mean to be Jewish? Does it mean something entirely different to be Christian? How does the Hebrew Bible fit with the Christian Bible? All important questions of faith, along with other foundational tenants of belief in the Lord God.
Authorship
Every authentic book of Scripture has at least two authors, the LORD God and a man writing God’s message for a specific reader response.
In the same way one might question the writings of a prophet to be authentic or the word of God accurately delivered to mankind, we might ask the source of the book of Hebrews, any other scriptural writings or a book authored by one claiming an authority of a god of their making.
Of more importance to the reader than the human author or authors is a better understanding of the context as Hebrews relates to a specific audience.
Hebrews assumes a practice or at least knowledge of first century Judaism. The readers and more often hearers of the first century were Jews, who spoke Greek, likely learned Hebrew scripture and practiced blending into a Roman cultural context of their local town.
We can safely assume that first century Jews who came to believe in their Messiah did so by faith and by the witness of fellow Jews. They knew Scripture better than most Jews and Christians of this century.
In the letters of the New Testament we should note that Saul of Tarsus (Paul) was a Jew; highly intelligent, well-trained in Scripture and skilled in Hebrew and Greek logical argument. Unlike Paul’s letters, often addressing congregations of gentiles or Greeks, the letter of Hebrews addresses the cultural and religious issues of the faithful Jewish reader who sought to understand the love of God and incarnation of the Messiah Jesus.
Book of Hebrews
In the posts to follow we will explore Hebrews a bit at a time, mostly following the thirteen chapters, including some translation back to the Greek and Hebrew. As always, our study of Scripture verifies these teachings by looking back to the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, which Jews know as the Bible and Christians refer to as ‘the Old Testament.’
