“One can say that where the prophets failed; the sages succeeded.” The first woman to win the Israel Prize for Talmud made the above statement in an interview in the Jerusalem Post. This week I am finishing teaching the Book of Isaiah, so the prophetic word is very much in my mind. And I find… Read More »
Lately I’ve been reading through the articles at the back of the new NIV Zondervan Study Bible. I like “big picture” articles, and I expect a lot from contributors with names like D. A. Carson, Douglas Moo, T. D. Alexander, and Moisés Silva. Since some of these writers were also the editors of the Bible,… Read More »
When Isaiah saw the Holy God of Israel, he cried out, “Woe is me! I am ruined.” The word translated “ruined” is translated elsewhere in Isaiah as “destroyed” (Isa 15:1). It has this same meaning four times in Hosea. Zephaniah speaks of all the merchants who will be “wiped out” (Zeph 1:11). The psalmist speaks… Read More »
Too often debates about faith between Christians and non-Christians don’t recognize the root of the issue. J. I. Packer has made the important observation that the real issue in the New Testament is the incarnation; if you accept that, everything else makes sense. Over on Pyromaniacs, Dan Phillips argues that the most offensive verse in… Read More »
I am astonished by R.C. Sproul’s answer to the question, “What does Scripture teach us about the future role of Israel?” He starts off well, giving two major views: Some Christians believe that the New Testament church replaces Old Testament Israel as the subject matter of Old Testament prophecies about Israel. That is to say… Read More »
I believe that Netanyahu’s speech on Friday at the UN was excellent. You can listen to it or read it here. But he unwittingly concludes the speech with a quote from Isaiah that, if he read the context, would reveal the solution to his search for peace. The “great light” is not some ethereal “light… Read More »
Zechariah 12:10 — “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves… Read More »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday at a service for Israel’s Memorial Day. The event and his words are reported by Arutz-7: Quoting from the Book of Jeremiah (31:16), the Prime Minister stated, “Our grief is overwhelming, our hearts ache, where will we find comfort? The prophet said: ‘Refrain thy voice from weeping, and… Read More »
Isaiah wrote this about the Servant: He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth (Isa 53:9). How could this person end his life with the wicked and with the rich? Alec Motyer writes: “Wicked …… Read More »
Some evangelical scholars believe that the child “Immanuel” predicted in Isaiah 7 is a foreshadowing of a “greater” child who is predicted in Isaiah 9 (“Unto us a child is born…). Is this possible? Maybe. I must first applaud those who hold to this view because they are trying to find textual evidence for their… Read More »