Posts by Fayetteville Church of Christ (Page 15)

The very last of God’s prophets to speak to the apostate northern kingdom of Israel, Hosea is sometimes called the “death-bed prophet of Israel.” As the ten idolatrous northern tribes neared their rendezvous with Divine punishment at the hands of king Sennacherib and his Assyrian Empire, Hosea warned of the destruction coming upon them because of their faithlessness. His message was vividly illustrated by the behavior of his own wife – Gomer was as shamelessly unfaithful to him as Israel…

The last chapters of Daniel’s inspired writing present some of the most exciting information anywhere in the bible! Here the Holy Spirit lays out a “panorama” of the events and empires that would exist between Daniel’s time and the coming of the Messiah. These chapters show the rise of Alexander the Great (chapter 8), the division of his empire after his death (chapters 10-11), a “window” of Jewish freedom under the Maccabees (chapter 11), and the eventual rise of the…

For children who grow up attending Bible classes, “Daniel in the lions’ den” may be THE best-known “story” in the entire bible; and the best part is that it’s true– it really happened! We can draw many practical lessons from Daniel’s experience, but surely the primary lesson to learn is that God’s faithful saints are safe even when we are being persecuted. Even though he faithfully served several Babylonian rulers, when the Medo-Persian empire conquered Babylon the new ruler –…

One of the most fascinating events in Daniel is what God does to show king Nebuchadnezzar that he is NOT the greatest, most powerful being in the world! Chapter 4 is actually the king’s own record of what God did to him! As in chapter 2, the king had been troubled by a dream and sent for Daniel to interpret it. The dream – of a mighty tree being cut down to a stump – represents God humbling Nebuchadnezzar because…

The book of Daniel presents some of the most memorable events and tests of human faith in all of the bible. Daniel recalls and interprets king Nebuchadnezzar’s forgotten dream in chapter 2, and ends up being elevated to a position of great power in the kingdom. The king awoke troubled and upset by the vividness of dream he could not recall. When his counselors could not tell him what he had dreamed, and insisted that “only the gods can show…

The prophet Daniel was a member of the tribe of Judah, and was descended from one of the most prominent families of that tribe (Daniel 1:3 suggests that he was actually a member of the royal family). His name means “God is my Judge.” We meet Daniel when he is taken to Babylon as a captive/ hostage after king Nebuchadnezzar first conquered Judah, around 606 B.C. It is clear that he was thoroughly educated in the scriptures, and in Babylon…

In Ezekiel 25-32 God presents a series of declarations of impending judgement against the various heathen neighbors of His people (the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philistines, the Phoenicians/city of Tyre, the Sidonians, and the Egyptians). There are many important points and valuable lessons we should learn from these chapters; here are two that should “stand out” among them: First, the fact that God declares His judgement against these pagan, idolatrous peoples shows that even though they did not worship or acknowledge…

The prophet Ezekiel was a contemporary of both Jeremiah and Daniel, as well as Habakkuk and Zephaniah. He was a priest as well as a prophet, and the focus of his “ministry” was mainly among the common people of Judah. Like Daniel, he was taken into captivity in Babylon, where he lived by the river Chebar among the “middle class” captives (unlike Daniel, who served in king Nebuchadnezzar’s palace). Some biblical scholars identify the Chebar as one of the large…

The book of Lamentations is sometimes described as a five-stanza dirge (a funeral song) over the death of a city (Jerusalem) and a nation (Judah). In the original Hebrew language, there are mnemonic (memory) aids in each chapter: In chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5, each verse begins with a letter of the alphabet (thus, 22 verses in each chapter because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet). In chapter 3, each group of three verses begins with a…

One of the truly vivid lessons presented by Jeremiah comes in chapter 35, and it concerns the descendants of a man named Rechab. Rechab was the father of Jehonadab, who participated with Jehu in slaughtering the worshipers of Baal after the death of king Ahab (2 Kings 10:15-28). Rechab’s “claim to fame” was his decree that none of his descendants should ever live in a house, nor plant a field or vine- yard, nor drink grape juice/wine in any form…

One of the most valuable lessons we can learn from the prophet Jeremiah comes from his own experience in faithfully serving the Lord. True commitment to the Almighty means persisting in His way, with His message even when those around us don’t want to hear it. In Jeremiah 20:7-9, the servant of the Lord laments that he “got more than he bargained for” in obeying the Lord’s call to be His prophet: The people mocked him for his message, until…

“Do not pray for this people… for I will not hear you.” What an incredibly hard, harsh-sounding decree! Yet this was God’s explicit instruction to Jeremiah, in chapter 7:16. The bible critic, and the skeptic would respond, “See; the God of the bible is a mean, cruel despot!” Some background information is in order, however, so as to understand the context of the Lord’s words here; He first instructed Jeremiah to go to the main entrance of the temple and…