Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Jesus Comes for Everyone: All Nations, All People The phrases God’s people, the chosen ones, the chosen, and other similar references appear in multiple places throughout the Old Testament. This designation certainly makes the Jewish people feel special. After all, God chose them to be his people. This must mean he likes them better than […]
Do Not Seek Your Own Good, But What’s Best for Others We live in a narcissistic, self-centered world. We put ourselves first and care only about what’s in our best interest. Too many people live their life with the attitude that “it’s all about me.” In doing so, they miss so much. Instead, we should […]
We Should Embrace Our Homecoming to Eternity After writing his psalms of praise to God, Isaiah continues the positivity by looking forward to the day when his people will receive deliverance from their enemies, about them going home. Though the people view this as a physical rescue, many people today understand it as a spiritual […]
Celebrate Jesus as the Messiah and Savior In our current usage today, many people talk (and think) that Christ is Jesus’s last name, as in Jesus Christ. Though the identifier of Jesus Christ does appear in most of the New Testament, it didn’t start out that way. Christ The label of Christ does not appear […]
When We Do God’s Work, Our Labor Is Not in Vain As Paul winds down his first letter to the church in Corinth, he gives a simple command, followed by some encouragement. He says for them—and us, by extension—to remain diligent doing God’s work. Though we may not see the results of what we do […]
Let God Prune Us So We Can Produce More Fruit Isaiah looks forward to the day when the Branch of the Lord will appear. Branch, with a capital B, is a euphemism for Jesus, who will come to rescue God’s people. Isaiah says this Branch will emerge as awesome and full of wonder, which is […]
We Must Examine Our Church Meetings to Make Sure They Are Truly Beneficial In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he talks about worshiping God and then he talks about celebrating the Lord’s Supper. In between these two topics he slips in a condemning one-liner. He says that their meetings are more likely […]
Walking in our Parents’ Footsteps The books of 1 and 2 Kings are filled with the accounts of many rulers who reigned over the nations of Israel and Judah. Most of them were bad kings, with varying degrees of disobedience to God’s laws and exhibiting evil. A few, however, were good rulers, mostly following God […]
During a long drought and famine, God sends Elijah away from Israel to the city of Zarephath in Sidon where God directs a widow, a foreigner, to give Elijah food. When Elijah reaches the town gates, he see a widow and asks her for water and bread. Though she is willing to fetch him water, […]
Discover What the Bible Says about Being a Member The word member appears throughout the Bible showing up eighteen times in the Old Testament and nineteen times in the New. A common convention in studying the Bible is to let earlier uses of a word inform our understanding of later occurrences. Here is how the […]