Ecclesiastes 12:10

    There is a bad tendency in our world today to look back in history and apply modern philosophy and thinking to the ancient world.  It becomes very easy to judge those folks from our safer, easier, and protected perspective.  Yet the truth is that they lived in different times and under different circumstances that we couldn’t really understand without being in their shoes.  Before we pat ourselves on the back as being different and better, we might need to think more about how we’d be in those circumstances.   I think this is Paul’s point in 1 st Corinthians 10. He tells those hundreds of years later that those in ancient Israel were in a different world, but were still a lot like them. He then goes on to show how they failed to live pleasing to God, warning us to heed the example. He then says, “ Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him w...

    Omri was maybe the most powerful king of Israel’s northern kingdom. He built the capital city of Samaria. Artifacts from that period, like the Mesha Stele and the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, refer to him and his reign. If fact, the nation of Israel was known by the Assyrians as the land of Omri. In history, he is a predominant figure.     However, the Bible only gives him eight verses (1 st Kings 16:21-28). Those deal with the civil war that brought him to power, how he bought the hill that Samaria would be built on and how “ did evil in the sight of the LORD, and acted more wickedly than all who were before him” .   It‘s not that is doesn’t acknowledge his reign as significant (it tells us where to look to see those details) but rather it is unimportant to God’s purpose.   Omri might have been great historically, but to God, he is rather inconsequential.   Many people think an important life is one that garners attention culturally...

  The period of Judges lasts for close to 350 years. During this time men (and a woman) were raised up by God to free his people and bring them back to him (Judges 2:16-20). It never seemed to work.   The people wanted the freedom but not the faith required to sustain it.   We know a good deal about a few of the Judges (the majority of the book of Judges deals with Barak/Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson). But mostly we have a record of major events, a bit about their families, the battles they fought, the length of their reign. Their names are a little more than a footnote in history.   That seems rather odd. These were people of significate in their time and a major factor in the history of Israel. Why don’t we have more?   It’s because the story isn’t the history of Israel thought that is what is taking place. It is the story of God’s plan for mankind. It tells that tell us not only what he is doing but the why of it.   The peri...

 Robert E. Lee had his choice of his command in the Civil War.  The commanding general of the Union Army, Winfield Scott, told Lincoln he wanted Lee for a top command. With the Civil War looming, both sides wanted this top general to lead their forces.   So why did Lee make the wrong choice?   It wasn’t because he was on board with the Confederacy.  Lee was against the idea of succession seeing it as rebellion and betraying the work for the founding fathers.  He even recognized the issue for the war, slavery, “ as an evil institution’ , that was a cancer harming ‘ not only to the black population but to the white as well  ’ and believe the institution would eventually come to an end.   If he didn’t believe in the act and wasn’t set on the cause why did he betray his country?   In his own words, Lee said " I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South I would sacrifice them all...

  Most people don’t think a lot about toilets until it quits working.  However, how humans dispose of waste is a very important issue.  At least 2.4 billion people, 40% of the world's population, lack access to adequate sanitation.  In the developing world, 80% of disease is due to poor sanitation.  Those diseases claim the lives of nearly 6,000 children a day – that is over two million deaths a year.  The inability of people to know and follow sanitary practices plague the world today and not only in developing countries.  Yet many government agencies overlook the problem. No one wants to talks about this ‘dirty’ issue.  It’s interesting to me, however, that this is an issue that the Scriptures deal with. Deuteronomy 23:13 instructs the Israelites  to have latrines outside the camp and make sure waste is cover up (This prevents run off into local water supplies) Leviticus gives instruction on washing pots and utensils so the...

  The area of Canaan is rich in limestone and it didn’t take the Israelites long to being to use this in the construction for their homes when they entered the Promised Land.  Even common people could gather up uncut stone blocks as building material. The problem with these stone building was the weight. Without a good foundation, the homes could sink it the mud and collapse in the rain. “He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.  "But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great ." Luke 6:48-49  Stones were laid in order to provide that needed foundation.   As it always is, the a rich person could afford bet...

  Its name was Exercise Tiger, and it was one of the most important exercises in World War II. You've probably had never heard of it.  It ’s not, however, forgotten because it was a disaster for the American forces, even though that is exactly what it was . A disaster.   The trouble started on the beach landing. A delay in some of the landing ship caused the troops that were to invade the beach to come under shelling from their own warship. Marines were killed by friendly fire.  Even worse the top secret exercise was witnessed by a German E-boat that attacked some of the transport boats. Two of the nine were sunk, another two were damaged before other ships could return fire.  A thousand men died. The failed exercise caused the entire Allied war plan to be put on hold until the situation was brought back under control. The whole debacle was hidden from the public. The families of those that died were not informed of the men deaths.   Any mention...

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, "JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS."  Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews'; but that He said, 'I am King of the Jews.'" Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." John 19:19-22   John records that the sign that was placed over Jesus to designate the charges against him didn’t come without controversy. The leaders were appalled about what Pilate had done. ‘He wasn’t the King, he just claimed to be’, they shouted. Now because of how it was written, in the three most common tongues of the region, everyone would think that this was true!  But Pilate refused to budge. The sign over the cross would stay.   Which seemed kind of out o...