Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Bible

ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura

The HOLY BIBLE IS: The written word of God from scripture.

Looking Back – Chronicles of the Years

“So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. – 2 Chronicles 15:6 NKJV

Chronicles is more than just recording the history of the hebrew people. Kings and other historical books of the Bible record the events of a nation. Why would someone write out a history of events which will only be read by generations to come? God knows.

In Looking Back – Nations in the eyes of the LORD we examined history from the perspective of God. Why would the LORD allow His chosen people to fall into captivity? In fact, the Lord had warned Israel to keep her covenants since the time of Moses.

We observed that events predicted by Prophets would be like someone in pre-colonial days accurately predicting the amazing power of the United States today.

The Lord knows what will happen, revealing future events to Prophets. Surely the Lord holds power over the nations and reveals events impacting His chosen people Israel.

The Lord had a hand in the fall of Jerusalem many times and also in the rebirth of Israel in the 20th century.

Two Perspectives – Looking Ahead and Looking Back

Looking back on the nations by the Lord always comes from an all-knowing perspective of everlasting to everlasting. ‘God only knows,’ would be man’s best expression.

Human perspectives of mankind measured in years can look ahead in speculation or back in retrospection. The chronicles of years of mortal men record history as it happened or as events take place presently. Some Prophets with longevity like Daniel reveal the future from the Lord, then live to record some fulfillment. Even the Psalmists reveal prophesy from the Lord in songs of present praise or lament.

Moses chronicles the journey of the Hebrew people to and from slavery in Egypt. Yet the Lord reveals not only the Law through Moses, but also prophesy as Moses records history.

Do the warnings of Deuteronomy not reveal precisely how Israel would turn away from the Lord?

The book of Kings records the history of a United Israel and division into the kings of Judah and kings of Israel. Kings reveals which kings ‘did evil in the sight of the Lord’ or what good they accomplished. It continues with defeats, captivity and restoration in an account nearly parallel to Chronicles.

So what’s the difference in these two books? (One scroll practically reads like the other.)

1 & 2 CHRONICLES
The ACTS of the Old Testament

I want to attribute the apt description above and following explanation of this historical book [a single scroll in Hebrew] to Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

WRITER: Probably Ezra. There is a striking resemblance in style and language to the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Evidently Chronicles was written during the Babylonian captivity… probably between 450 and 435 B.C.

Ezra records events which go back to and before the chart above, again, like you or I might do to record historic events for centuries preceding us. Again, Dr. McGee observes:

COMMENT: Many treat Chronicles and Kings as if they were “Cabbages and Kings.” Are the Chronicles a duplication of Kings? Although they cover the same ground from Saul to Zedekiah, they are not duplications…

In Kings, the history of the nation is given from the throne; in Chronicles, it is given from the altar. The palace is the center in Kings; the temple is the center in Chronicles. Kings records the political history; Chronicles records the religious history…

Kings gives us man’s viewpoint; Chronicles gives us God’s viewpoint (note this well as you read Chronicles; it will surprise you).

To be continued…

February 15, 2018
Follow After Me -3- The Holy Bible
It is written…

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. – Deuteronomy 9:10

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV

written from an angel

written from dreams

A man comes up to you and claims, ‘I have a new doctrine, a new teaching. It was given to me by an angel in a cave.’ Would you follow him? Would you believe him?

A different man tells you, ‘I have a new doctrine, a new teaching. It was given to me when I sat alone on a mountain.’ Would you follow him? Would you believe him?

Wouldn’t you ask a man who would lead you to death for proof of his doctrine and teaching? Wouldn’t you ask a man making a claim of royalty and promises for the after-life for independent proof beyond dreams and visions?

In fact, Jesus IS the Christ of the Living God! When Jesus came to us, our Lord and Savior not only worked miracles by the Hand of God, Jesus pointed always to Scripture.

He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” – Matthew 21:13 ESV

Jesus was challenged by not only Satan to prove He IS the Son of God, Christ was challenged continually by the Jews, who asked him,

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Our Lord answers always with additional proof from the scriptures.
- And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
  “‘This people honors me with their lips,
  but their heart is far from me… Mark 7:6
- And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ – Mark 14:27
- and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead… – Luke 24-26
- It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— – John 6:45
- In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. – John 8:17
Some make false claim to know what God has said, who God is and how God would have you use your mortal life. They may speak of a peace in death or a present leading to death for their cause…

Do you follow these who would claim to know God better than you from ancient and unreliable myths never proven true? Would you bet your eternal life on their self-serving temporal claim of a mere mortal man?

Hebrews 9 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Earthly Holy Place

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness…

¹² he [Christ] entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

26b But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

+

We will face, though we would deny it, a day of our mortal death. We will face, though we justly fear it, a day of our eternal judgment. And let us not think that any calculation of our own can alter the plan of Almighty God.

Job 10:

“I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the designs of the wicked?

18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few?

Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
21 before I go—and I shall not return—
to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
like deep shadow without any order,
where light is as thick darkness.”

+

Now I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, “What shall I do to be saved?” – John Bunyan, from The Pilgrim’s Progress

I saw also that he looked this way, and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go. – Bunyan

¹⁴Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you?

I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. – Ezekiel 22:14

To be continued…

NEXT: Evangelist
January 25, 2016
Days of Despair

In Christ we have a Light of hope in a season of our dark despair.

Job 30:

¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.
¹⁷The night racks my bones,
    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

Have you ever had a bad time in life like this?

¹⁸With great force my garment is disfigured;
    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹God has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.
²⁰I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you only look at me.

IF you even ask, do you sometimes feel like God does not answer you?

²¹You have turned cruel to me;
    with the might of your hand you persecute me.
²²You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
    and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
²³For I know that you will bring me to death
    and to the house appointed for all living.

Does despair, inward pain and silence from God turn your Christmas joy into a longing for the gift of hope?

²⁶But when I hoped for good, evil came,
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.

²⁷My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
    days of affliction come to meet me.

²⁸I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

Bible trivia: Job is the oldest of any book of the Bible written approximately 2100-1800 B.C.

Job was a righteous man who had some big troubles test his faith. Perhaps you think that you are a righteous man or woman as well. You do mostly good. You live like you should (for the most part).

You cry out to God for help… and nothing…

Job could not help himself, except to pray to God. Often, neither can you or I.

This time of year you may hear the familiar Christmas nativity story told by either Luke or Matthew. If we were to read on in Matthew to a time thirty years later when Jesus first began His teaching, we would read how our Lord heals the afflictions of mankind.

Matthew 4:

²³And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

²⁴So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains,those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.²⁵And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Are you just one in the Christmas crowds who follow Jesus just to see if He will heal someone else?

Jesus Christ IS the balm for your wounded soul and the salvation of your sinful flesh.

Hear these words of encouragement from the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth:

2 Corinthians 4:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;

perplexed, but not driven to despair;

persecuted, but not forsaken;

struck down, but not destroyed;

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

To be continued…

This look at the afflictions of Job is the third installment in my Christmas series in the year of our Lord, 2015.

December 3, 2015