Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
We know Cain to be a murderer—and we vilify him for it. What we often fail to consider is that Cain had a relationship with God. Consider that Cain gave an offering to God that wasn’t requested or expected. (Cain lived centuries before God instructed Moses about the need to give him offerings.) Also, consider […]
Cain kills Abel because he is jealous, jealous that his brother’s offering to God is accepted and his isn’t. God knows what Cain is thinking—and urges caution. God directly tells Cain that he must rule over his sinful thoughts, the temptation to do wrong. But Cain doesn’t heed God’s advice and kills his brother. The […]
The account of Cain is well-known. The Bible records his story as the world’s first murderer. It is out of jealousy—and possibly premeditated—that Cain kills his brother, Abel. But what are the events that lead up to this tragedy? Cain and Abel each bring an offering to God. Abel’s is accepted but Cain’s isn’t. There […]
In my prior post about Joseph, we saw that Joseph’s audacious sharing of his dreams was likely the catalyst for his brothers’ selling him as a slave and then staging his death. Joseph would have been better off to have kept his mouth shut. However, had Joseph kept quiet, his brothers may not have sold […]
In the story of Jacob’s son Joseph, we read that Joseph had a couple of dreams. The implicit meaning of his dreams was that his older brothers would become subservient to him, as would his father and mother. To his family this no doubt seemed to be mere wishful thinking of a young boy who […]
One of the central characters in the book of Genesis is Father Abraham. God calls Abraham to move to a different place, a location that God would reveal to him as the journey progressed. Because of Abraham’s obedience and faith. God promised to make him into a great nation. But the story doesn’t end there. […]
It is interesting how the Old Testament of the Bible is often in contrast with the New Testament. For example, in the story about the tower of Babel, God confuses the people’s languages and since they can no longer communicate, they scatter. He did this because they were working together; their goal was so that […]
Abraham, the great man of faith, did not always act that way. Once, when fearing for his safety, he lied to king Abimelech, claiming that Sarah was his sister and hiding the fact that they were married. Assured by Abraham’s lie, Abimelech felt free to take Sarah into his harem. Fortunately, God intervened before anything […]
Jesus’ teaching on binding and loosing is a bit perplexing and worthy of careful contemplation. A parallel passage talks about forgiving sin and is even more disconcerting. Jesus says that if we forgive someone’s sins, they will be forgiven; conversely, if we don’t forgive someone’s sins, they will not be forgiven. That is an even […]
In the post about the easy yoke, we learned that a yoke was essentially a Rabbi’s teaching, of what was prohibited and what was allowed. Jesus had his own yoke and he said it was easy. The process of ascertaining what things where to be prohibited, was the act of binding. To “bind” something, was […]