Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Daniel and His 3 Friends In my last post, Three People Given a New Name by God, we looked at God renaming people to give them a new identity. Today we will consider the opposite: people whose names were changed in order to strip away their identity. I’m talking about a young man named Daniel […]
John Teaches about The Holy Spirit One of the things I enjoy when studying the Bible is to investigate words and phrases that are repeated throughout its pages. The phrase “Spirit of Truth” is one such example that jumps out at me and begs further investigation. Interestingly, only John uses “Spirit of Truth” in his […]
The Source of Life, Truth, and the Way to Father God Is Through Jesus The disciple Thomas wants to go where Jesus will go but doesn’t know how to proceed. He seeks clarification. Jesus gives him a five part answer, which another disciple John records for us. Jesus says, “I am the way and the […]
Punishment May Await Us If We Fail to Listen to God Isaiah wraps up his lengthy prophecy talking about judgment. He prophesies that God has destined the people for death. That they will be slaughtered. There will be consequences. Why would a loving God want to kill his people? Through the mouth of Isaiah, God […]
Our Savior Came to Heal and to Save After giving us four chapters of historical narrative, Isaiah shifts back to more prophecy. His future-focused look tells us about Jesus and justice. Though Jesus is God’s Son, as our Savior—the Messiah—he is also God’s servant, who will come to earth in service of Father God to […]
Characteristics of God In the Bible, Jesus makes several declarations of who he is and his character. In the book of John alone, he says: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). “I am the […]
Isaiah’s Shocking Prophecies about the Nation of Egypt Isaiah often mentions the nation of Egypt in his prophecies. Egypt appears in the book of Isaiah forty-three times. Many, but not all, of these mentions relate to judgment and punishment. In a surprising passage, Isaiah looks forward to the day when Egypt will openly and intentionally […]
Don’t Drink Blood versus Drink My Blood Among the many “laws” (that is, rules and regulations for right behavior), that God—through Moses—gave the nation of Israel was an unconditional prohibition against drinking blood. Every Hebrew would have been taught this from early childhood. Breaking this law would have been unthinkable to them, a repulsive act to […]
Stop It Micah! The prophet Micah gives some strong words from God to his chosen people. Although Micah’s proclamation—his prophecy—should convict them, instead they take offense. At one point the people even tell him to stop talking—they say, “Stop it Micah”—as if his silence would keep God’s plans from happening. Micah’s sarcastic retort is that […]
We Can Believe That God Hears and Answers Our Requests When you pray do you think God hears you? Does he answer your prayers? All of them? The Bible says so. Consider what Scripture teaches. God Hears Our Prayers First, we can have assurance that God does indeed hear our prayers. John writes that we […]