Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh answered him, "Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you! This one will restrain My people" (1 Samuel 9:17) Many English versions of 1 Samuel 9:17 read, "This one will rule over My people," but that is a mistranslation. The Hebrew verb is `atsar…
We have arrived at the tentative date of A.M. 3474 for the decree of Cyrus, and we have determined to operate as if the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 are literal years. We also decided that Messiah the Prince arrives at the beginning of the 70th week, after the 69…
The book of Proverbs appears as a largely random collection of aphorisms drawn from experience saturated in law. Despite its random arrangement, however, the book does have an over-arching structure that reinforces its main themes. One way to gather clues regarding the structure of a biblical book (or any book)…
I recently had the privilege and pleasure of reading the first draught of Gary North’s Economic Commentary on Leviticus , which will be out some time next year. Gary’s comments on Leviticus 27 were stimulating, and caused me to take another look at the passage. The results, which I sent…
As we have seen in this series, each time there is a new covenant, there is a break in the year-by-year chronology. At the same time, each time the break is crossed by information provided in the text. Thus, the year-by-year chronology breaks down at the birth of Abraham, but…
The Openness of Literature Let’s discuss literature for a moment. There are two ways a story or novel can close. The first is called poetic justice. When a story ends with poetic justice, the bad guys are all punished and the good guys are all rewarded. This kind of story…
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Is identical repetition possible? It would seem not. Sequence A (say, a musical theme) is repeated as sequence A’. The same notes are played. Is it identical repetition? No, because A’ has the distinct quality of coming AFTER A, and therefore is modified by that temporal context. Every sequence is…
1 Kings 3:15 The story of Solomon?s request for and reception of wisdom is framed by references to worship. At the beginning of the story, Solomon is in Gibeon, worshiping at the bronze altar that Moses built in the wilderness, and then he ascends to the ark-shrine in Jerusalem, the…
Earlier this month, we celebrated the end of the first year of our existence as Trinity Reformed Church. This occasion gives us reason to pause to reminder ourselves what we hope to do as a local congregation. Since we started Trinity, the elders have been laying out a number of…
There’s a fairly neat chiasm in the first part of Rom 7: a. law rules while one lives b. woman bound while husband lives; if husband dies, freed (KATARGEO) c. while husband lives: adulteress d. if husband dies: joined to another without adultery e. you died through Christ, through body…
Eyes, Jim Jordan constantly points out, are organs of judgment. God “sees” the light and judges it good, and His eyes are open to judge the righteous and the wicked (Ps 11). 1 Kings 3, however, seems to make some play with this. Solomon is asking for discernment and wisdom…
It seems that Solomon begins his reign with a breach of the law. Deuteronomy 7:3-4 forbids Israel from intermarrying with Gentiles, Canaanites in particular, and the usage in Deuteronomy 7 is very similar to that of 1 Kings 3:1. Solomon ?became son-in-law to Pharaoh,?Eand Deuteronomy 7 forbids the Israelites to…
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