The Lord told Jeremiah that he had prepared a table for the kings of Judah and the gentile kings living under the influence of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt (cp. Jeremiah 51:7). Through Jeremiah, he told them that they must serve the king of Babylon for 70 years, and this was his judgment upon them for the evil they had been doing (Jeremiah 25:1-5). When the Lord judges a people or nation, it is only fair that he would judge everyone, and this is what occurred, when he chose to judge Judah. Because the Lord chose to judge his people, fairness demanded he also judge the nations round about her, including Egypt (Jeremiah 25:15-27). In this context, he named Nebuchadnezzar as his servant, and the judgment of God was administered by him (Jeremiah 27:6). Babylon’s judgment would come 70 years later, probably due to the fact that she overdid the judgment, which she was called to do for the Lord (Jeremiah 25:11-12; cp. Daniel 4:27). When he would judge Babylon, he also judged the nations in Babylon’s charge and provided a way for them to return to their homelands (Jeremiah 29:10). Read the rest of this entry »
As we conclude our study of the Book of Job and consider how the Lord restored Job to his former prosperity, we need to keep in mind that all Job and the friends knew about God prior to Job’s calamities was what was handed down through oral tradition. In fact, there is no ancient evidence of an alphabet prior to Israel’s coming down to Egypt about the time of Joseph’s reign as second in command to Pharaoh.[1] So, knowledge of such things revealed in the New Covenant scriptures, like God forgiving us is dependent upon our willingness to forgive others (Matthew 6:14-15; cp. Ephesians 4:32), simply wasn’t known or understood in the ancient world. Even if such things were known from the beginning, Paul shows us that that kind of knowledge of God would have been lost to mankind by the time of Job (Romans 1:18-25). Read the rest of this entry »
Keeping in mind that Solomon’s quest for the meaning of life (Ecclesiastes 1:3) does not critique the Lord’s original plan for mankind (Genesis 1:26-28), which has been restored in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10; 2Corinthians 3:18), it becomes evident that the Teacher had embarked on a journey to investigate mankind’s life and labors that are in rebellion against the Lord (cp. Genesis 3:14-19; Ecclesiastes 1:13-14). However, the original intent of the Lord continues to operate throughout his creation even after the rebellion of Genesis 3, but not according to mankind’s chosen path away from God. In other words, success is rewarded only to those who live and work according to the Lord’s original plan. The problem is, however, the rebellion (Genesis 3) introduced wickedness into the plan of God. Nevertheless, mankind can neither improve nor destroy the Lord’s work (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Therefore, wickedness can exist but it won’t ever produce the desired result. Read the rest of this entry »
In a previous study I demonstrated that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, telling them that at the coming of the Lord, they, together with the raised dead, would be seized (G726; harpazo) or taken in a cloud (G3507) for a meeting (G529; apantesis) with the Lord (1Thessalonians 4:17). I also demonstrated that, although this is the foundational Scripture for the doctrine of the rapture, there is absolutely no evidence in 1Thessalonians 4:17 for such a doctrine. The Greek word apantesis has the sense of one leaving one’s place to a meeting with another person, usually a dignitary, and escorting that person back to one’s home or city etc. It simply doesn’t support the context of being physically snatched from the earth to go to heaven in order to be with the Lord. Rather, it has the sense of a meeting with the Lord and then escorting him back to one’s home—i.e. earth (cp. Revelation 21:1-3). Read the rest of this entry »
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