Learn About Moses’s Wife When Moses flees for his life, he meets seven shepherdesses, the daughters of Reuel. Moses marries one of the daughters, Zipporah. Moses and Zipporah have two sons. They are Gershom and Eliezer. Years later when Moses and his family travel to Egypt, God afflicts Moses. This is apparently because Moses failed […]
Deuteronomy Instructs Us to Help Foreigners, Orphans, and Widows In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds God’s people that when they’re harvesting a field to not pick it clean, to leave some of the produce for others. This includes foreigners, orphans, and widows (Deuteronomy 24:19). Help Foreigners Orphans and Widows Moses’s words reiterate the same […]
Giving Helpful Advice When Moses flees Egypt for his life, he ends up in the desert. There he encounters the seven daughters of Reuel, a Midianite priest. The girls are shepherdesses. When they try to draw water from the well for their sheep, however, other shepherds drive them away. Moses intervenes for them and waters […]
Not Taking Responsibility for Our Actions Goes Way Back We often shake our heads in dismay over people who refuse to admit when they have done something wrong. Instead they want to blame others. They refuse to take responsibility for their mistakes. This is not a new development. Even Moses, who spoke to God face-to-face, […]
We Must Respect God’s Chosen Leaders In my post on Korah’s rebellion, I noted that Korah had some progressive ideas about God and the people’s relationship to him. While these views are widely accepted today (thanks to Jesus), they were quite radical in Korah’s day. However, I don’t think that Korah’s rebellion was theological in […]
Consider What the Law and Jesus Say About This Phrase The phrase “an eye for an eye” occurs four times in the Bible. The first three are in the Old Testament, in the Law of Moses (Leviticus 24:17-22, Exodus 21:22-25, and Deuteronomy 19:16-21). In these verses, it seems that Moses grants us permission to seek […]
The mysterious character of Melchizedek shows up only once in the book of Genesis. There he meets and blesses Abraham after the patriarch defeats Lot’s captors and liberates his nephew, the rest of the town, and their possessions. Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth of the plunder. Yet this seemingly straightforward story also intrigues. First, Melchizedek […]
Methuselah is Enoch’s son. Aside from being Noah’s grandfather, the other notable fact about Methuselah is that he has the longest recorded life in the Bible, standing at an amazing 969 years. The Bible records many people at that time as living hundreds of years, but Methuselah’s life is the longest. Yet as we move […]
In Nehemiah and the Wall, we saw Nehemiah’s great leadership at work, stirring up a passive and floundering people to act, quickly accomplishing what had long been languishing. He also ushered in numerous reforms and ignited a spiritual revival. Yet he lacked one thing. He did not train a replacement. After leading his people for 12 […]
As Followers of Jesus, We Are All Priests The priesthood of believers says that as followers of Jesus we are all priests—every one of us. It’s time we start acting like it. Let’s discover what this means. Though the Bible never mentions the phrase priesthood of believers, we find the idea of us all being […]