I was recently asked by a friend how I might answer someone claiming to see Satan in the message of Ezekiel 28:1-19 (HERE is the passage). Here is my brief response: First, I point to 28.2 which specifically says “prince of Tyre” and this message is embedded within a series of messages against the kingdom/city… Continue reading Could It Be … Satan
In a recent conversation about events in the Middle/Near East, a question was raised as to the potential for fulfillment of prophecy, specifically concerning “Gog and Magog”. Gog and Magog have so captured the imagination that their very mention seems clouded by mystery and ready at hand to apply to nearly any particularity in contemporary… Continue reading Gog, Magog, and Premillennialism
The God of Israel is not the god of philosophic speculations….a god perfect to reason. He is not a god unfeeling and unmoved. The God of Israel is a god living with His people. Their lot is his lot. It is among them that he resides as one of them though king of all. Thus,… Continue reading Homeless God: A Reflection from Ezekiel
“Biblical” diets seem to be the fad of late (or maybe I’m just late to this news). There are those who are promoting the Daniel’s Diet, or perhaps enjoy a loaf of some Ezekiel Bread (I’m not even making this stuff up). The question is…were such accounts intended for “healthy diets” or as signs of… Continue reading Daniel Diet, Ezekiel Bread, and Other Drivel
Eugene Peterson’s The Message offers a fresh reading of Scripture that is intended not for study, but for hearing Scripture in a way intended to be comparable to those originally hearing it.* In many ways he has done a marvelous job of this. He is a remarkable scholar and author (one of my favorites) and… Continue reading Ezekiel and The Message
<!–[if !mso]> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <![endif]–> Neither of these two additions to the Book of Daniel has come down in a Hebrew text, but instead in the Theodotion, LXX and Latin Vulgate recensions. They were thus never included as part of the accepted text by the wider community of Israel, but were used regularly by the… Continue reading Susanna and Bel and the Dragon
11:36-39 – The king who exalts himself. This king does have certain levels of overlap with Antiochus IV Epiphanes (and many commentators believe that this individual is one and the same), but the description does not fit as it did in the verses prior. The best explanation seems to be that this king is some… Continue reading Daniel 12 – The Vision of the End
10:1 – The Time and General Content of the Vision. The third year of Cyrus king of Persia would place this vision in approximately 536-535BC. This would also suggest that the recently begun work on rebuilding the Temple of the LORD by the returning exiles under the supervision of Ezra had been stopped temporarily by… Continue reading Daniel 10 – Prepared for the Final Vision
Vision de Daniel à SuzeBy: Stephanus Garsia (11th Century) 8:1-2 – Daniel has a vision three years after the dream of chapter seven (approximately 550BC) while Belshazzar was still in Babylon (and his father, Nabonidus, still king of all Babylon). Perhaps the reason he repeats the “vision” three times is because it was so disturbing… Continue reading Daniel 8 – The Vision of the Ram and the Goat
This chapter is considered by most to be the most significant chapter of Daniel and also a key chapter of the Old Testament. There are some who have proposed that Daniel has borrowed from the ancient Near Eastern mythologies around him in this composition (such as the account of Adapa, Enuma Elish, or the Ugaritic… Continue reading Daniel 7 – Visions in the Night
