Psalm: 79 Meditation Luke: Here Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth and manages to talk himself into being tossed off the local precipice. In the town’s synagogue, he was delivered the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he searched for and found the passage which he identified with himself (Is. 61:1-2). The chilling moment …
Tag: Prophecy
Wednesday, December 15
Psalm: 85 Meditation Mark: The good thing about Mark is that he doesn’t mince words. He seems (or I interpret him) to weigh each word carefully (actually the Holy Spirit). Mark initiates his gospel citing a prophecy from Malachi 3:1 almost verbatim. Then comes John the baptizer – who looks every inch a prophet: odd …
Tuesday, December 14
Psalm: 79 Meditation Isaiah: This prophecy is frequently cited during Advent. “The people who walked in darkness…” (v. 2) most of us understand them to be the Jews and given the references to Zebulun, Naphtali and the Jordan, certainly justifies that position, but what else? Many prophecies can portend the near future as well as …
Monday, December 13
Psalm: 68 Meditation 2 Peter: I confess, I have never met St. Peter, well, not yet anyway. What I can say is that the Peter of the gospels is vastly different from the writer of this epistle. What changed? What happened? The most major event in Peter’s life must have been Pentecost – the descent …
Saturday, December 11
Psalms: 82, 84 Meditation Isaiah: Here you go: Maher-shalal-hash-baz – this is the name the LORD tells Isaiah to name his son. Sounds cruel to me when you consider its meaning: The spoil speeds, the prey hastens. (According to the Believer’s Bible Commentary p. 867) points to the destruction of Syria [Damascus] and Israel by …
Tuesday, January 12
Psalm 6 Meditation: John – In this passage, John the Baptist tells the priests and Levites that he is not the Messiah but the one preparing the way for him. They even ask if John is Elijah or a Prophet. John had his own position. He is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. John recognizes his …
Wednesday, December 6
Epiphany Psalm 97 Meditation: Matthew –Israel had been expecting a mighty warrior to ride into Jerusalem one day and kick all of the Romans and non-Jewish people out of the city. Apparently, they had forgotten that Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would not be noticeable until he established justice on earth. “…a smoldering wick …
Friday, November 13
Psalms: 92 Meditation Revelation: We now know where Hollywood got the image of the hero riding up on a white horse to save the day (or the world) (v. 11); a bit tongue-in-cheek but true nonetheless. We have seen this rider before (if not on His horse) in Daniel chapter 7:13-14. Other foreshadowing is found …
Tuesday, October 27
Psalm: 9 Meditation Ezra: The letter being sent is very much like the last one (Ezra 9:11-16): same letter new king – Darius. Because of jealousy, a new crop of people are determined to arrest the rebuilding of the Temple. Again, the king (Darius) is encouraged to search the archive for the royal authorization to …
Thursday, October 15
Psalm: 18 Meditation Jeremiah: I don’t know what “prophet of the LORD” meant to the people of Jeremiah’s day – probably no more than we do of a favorite or not-so-favorite preacher. The thing is Jeremiah was much more than ordinary. He, for his day, was a mouthpiece for God yet they threw him into …