Category: The Nation Israel

Impetuous Peter! #4

Sunday, February 21, 2021

“And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid” (Mark 9:5,6 KJV).

When in doubt, close your mouth!

Near the end of His earthly ministry, Christ revealed some startling news to His disciples. Both Matthew and Mark report the third time Peter swiftly spoke foolish words. Read Matthew 16:21-23: “[21] From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. [22] Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. [23] But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

Mark 8:31-33 is the parallel passage: “[31] And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. [32] And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. [33] But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”

Upon hearing Jesus speak of His impeding mistreatment and murder, Peter began to criticize and challenge the Lord’s statement: “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee” (Matthew 16:22). That is, “Lord, God be gracious in not letting that happen to Thee!” Jesus replied, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.” Peter, inadvertently serving as Satan’s spokesperson, outright denied Christ would die. Christ thus reprimanded him! Instead of believing God’s words, Peter was “savouring” (thinking) like a lost man….

Impetuous Peter! #3

Saturday, February 20, 2021

“And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid” (Mark 9:5,6 KJV).

When in doubt, close your mouth!

For Peter’s second hasty statement, consider Matthew chapter 14: “[24] But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. [25] And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. [26] And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. [27] But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

“[28] And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. [29] And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. [30] But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. [31] And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? [32] And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. [33] Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.”

Christ had been delayed in meeting them (cf. verses 22,23), but He eventually walked out onto the Sea of Galilee. Representative of all the disciples in the boat, Peter was not expecting Him, so he blurted out the conditional statement, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water” (verse 28). Christ gave Peter permission to walk on the water too. Howbeit, as Peter strolled, he looked around at his dangerous circumstances (violent wind)—and, as doubt and fear overcame him, he began to sink (verse 30)! Quick to say he would walk to the Lord, the dear Apostle, when afforded the opportunity, was distracted and literally fell. Thankfully, Jesus grabbed him before he drowned….

Bible Q&A #810: “What is Paul’s ‘lie’ in Romans 3:7?”

Impetuous Peter! #2

Friday, February 19, 2021

“And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid” (Mark 9:5,6 KJV).

When in doubt, close your mouth!

Fisherman Simon Peter, a convert of John the Baptist, first met the Lord Jesus along the Jordan River just north of the Dead Sea (John 1:40-42). Later, Simon was with his business associates, James and John sons of Zebedee, up north on the Sea of Galilee. Luke chapter 5 continues: “[4] Now when he [Christ] had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. [5] And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

“[6] And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. [7] And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. [8] When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. [9] For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: [10] And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. [11] And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.”

Peter whined they had returned emptyhanded after fishing the entire night (verse 5). He was therefore hesitant when Jesus ordered him to let down his nets to catch fish. Upon seizing many fish, however, he knelt before the Lord, confessing, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (verse 8). Peter voiced his regret, as if to say, “I should not have doubted Thee!” Luke 5:5 was just the first of several times Simon Peter articulated a poor choice of words….

Impetuous Peter! #1

Thursday, February 18, 2021

“And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid” (Mark 9:5,6 KJV).

When in doubt, close your mouth!

Proverbs issues guidance regarding the utterance of thoughtless speech. “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction” (13:3). This man protects his life by guarding his tongue. He knows loquaciousness—talkativeness—can be injurious. “The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things” (15:28). A saint will think about what he says before he says it; the unbeliever, lacking self-control, gushes out sinful words.

“The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips” (16:23). The wise man trains his mouth so it opens to speak appropriate words but closes before uttering anything else. “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles” (21:23). Again, someone who chatters haphazardly has opened himself up to a host of problems. “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth” (30:32). If we have a corrupt idea, we should remain silent!

God’s Word, the Holy Bible, is a record of His dealings with mankind. He does not hesitate to be candid about the nature of man. The Scriptures are honest—even concerning the “heroes” of the faith. Except the Lord Jesus Himself, every man in that Book had his weaknesses. We now focus on Peter, Israel’s leading Apostle. Like many of us at times, he was quick-tongued: Peter spoke first and thought later. As far as Holy Writ is concerned, he would often, most embarrassingly, have to repeal those words he had so quickly uttered. “Oh, wait, I should not have said that!” If we study the Scriptures, we can pick out a dozen instances of poor Peter blurting out mindless or inappropriate statements. By reading his lips, we can learn how to be careful with ours….

Our latest Bible Q&A: “How can the Bible call Herod Antipas a ‘king?’”

Thieves in the Temple

Monday, February 15, 2021

“And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Luke 19:45,46 KJV).

There were swindlers in “God’s house” then—just like today!

Recently, I heard from a man whose elderly father had just died. The late man had a clear testimony of salvation in Jesus Christ. (I talked with him years back.) Yet, a cult had captivated him, and he had moved far away from his family to attend “church services” there. For over a decade, he supported that woman preacher financially. When he graduated to Heaven, his son took over his estate and went through his personal records. As it turned out, that dear soul was giving a mandatory 25% of his annual income to that church. According to his last will and testament, 40% of his remaining fortune will go to fund the “church”—leaving his son very little inheritance!

Sadly, religion is “big bu$ine$$.” The amount of wealth taken from people under the guise of “church,” “Bible,” and “God” is far greater than the sum of every bank heist, every company embezzlement, and every purse-snatching. Surely, the Lord will absolutely not let people get away with such dishonesty. In fact, according to today’s Scripture, He exposed them in—and evicted them from—the Jerusalem Temple.

They were charging outrageous amounts for sacrificial animals… the very offerings the poor people needed to purchase for worship as per the Mosaic Law. Furthermore, officials working under the priests exchanged foreign currencies for the Jewish shekel—and they gave back far less than the equivalent. That is, “Do not defile God’s house with your pagan coins bearing idolatrous images! Come ‘exchange’ them for the shekel, and buy your sacrifices from us. Our fees are ‘quite reasonable!’” (Such hypocrisy.)

Hence, after today’s Scripture, “And [Jesus] taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.” How furious they were once Jesus put them out of bu$ine$$!

Wonderful Things!

Saturday, February 13, 2021

“And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Matthew 21:14-16 KJV).

The Lord Jesus has just a few days left to live, and He is doing some “wonderful things….”

In “the city of the great King” (Matthew 5:35; Psalm 48:2), the place from which the LORD’S Word should have flowed to the nations (Isaiah 2:3), Herod’s Temple Complex characterized spiritual ignorance and unbelief. To highlight Israel’s condition in conjunction with her Temple—the hub of her false religion—we find in today’s Scripture “the blind and the lame.” Nationally speaking, the Jews can neither see with spiritual eyes nor walk with spiritual legs. God admonished, “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see” (Isaiah 42:18). The Prophet confessed, “Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets” (Daniel 9:10).

Foreseeing Israel’s national sight restored at Christ’s Second Coming, the Prophet penned, “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness” (Isaiah 29:18). JEHOVAH God promised Israel in that day, “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). To prove He was Israel’s Messiah, Jesus performed the miracles of today’s Scripture: “…your God will come… he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart…” (Isaiah 35:4-6).

What will be more marvelous than the physically blind seeing and the lame walking in the Temple, is Israel—long dead, blind, crippled, and cast away—will see and walk again in the Earth! Hallelujah!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Can you explain, ‘We are in the world but not of the world?’”

Found Out and Fractured in Twain #33

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 KJV).

Doubtless, we never want to sensationalize or exaggerate. However, the fact remains, some dark days are ahead for the United States and the rest of the world. What can we Bible-believing Christians do?

Not only are non-Christians living contrary to God’s will for them, many of us “Christians” are equally disobedient. As they refuse to hear the truth, so we have ignored the rightly divided Scriptures to keep our church traditions. Just as they have their “holy books,” so we have used 100 modern English (different!) Bible translations to confuse and divide us for 120 years. As they bow to their pagan idols, so we have worshipped our “wafer gods,” relics, scholarship, statues, and “experiences.”

The sins of the flesh are easy to spot, but the sins of the spirit are more insidious. Relying on the sins of the spirit to fight the sins of the flesh, have we finally learned we cannot conquer sin with sin? Substitutes tricked us. We were religious, but not Christian: we were “playing” church. If we read the Bible, it was a quick verse here and there, passages our denominations approved. Whatever Bible we read, we really did not believe it. Our “feel-good” inspirational/motivational speeches distracted us from sound Bible doctrine. If this is how we got into this mess, then we do the opposite to escape it.

We must get back to the King James Bible: we need one final authority, not a hundred competing books. Also, we must return to the principles of grace, the Apostle Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon—Jesus Christ’s ministry today. Paul is our apostle (Romans 11:13), God’s spokesman to us. Supporting lies appears to bring harmony and progress, but there is no true, lasting unity and victory without sound Bible doctrine. The lost world must learn that, but we as believers in Christ must realize it first. We expect lost people to think and act like Christians when we do not think and act like Christians ourselves! Ridiculous! Until we believers are thankful for testimony of the Scriptures—grateful for our Bible heritage (albeit meager)—we have no testimony ourselves.

Let us summarize this devotionals arc….

Found Out and Fractured in Twain #32

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 KJV).

Doubtless, we never want to sensationalize or exaggerate. However, the fact remains, some dark days are ahead for the United States and the rest of the world. What can we Bible-believing Christians do?

As members of the Body of Christ, we have two choices. Firstly, we can throw our hands up and cry out, “We surrender! Why keep believing the truth when error abounds everywhere?!” Or, we can remind ourselves of the following facts. Although America has overwhelmingly languished in unbelief for centuries, there was a remnant of believers. Therefore, the truth passed down to us. Faithful saints, teachers, delivered to us the pure Word they were taught, being traced all the way back to the Apostle Paul.

Like they, we can continue the Christian ministry of 2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” If we choose to follow our culture as it increasingly disintegrates, we will definitely be wasting our time. Remember, “the word of God is not bound” (2 Timothy 2:9). Also, “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8). With or without our cooperation, the Word of God rightly divided will continue and triumph—as always. It will never lose or be lost.

Christian friends, we will not reverse our culture’s inevitable collapse. Yet, we can slow it down with sound Bible doctrine. However, it is easier said than done because it has gained momentum—and, we have let it, since we have squandered our own time on foolishness instead of believing sound Bible doctrine and then teaching it to those lost souls who needed to believe on Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. If success is where we find the Word of God dispensationally considered and believed, why not join ourselves to it? Only what God does will last forever. If we find out what He is doing today, we can do that by faith, thereby ensuring what we do will last forever….

Found Out and Fractured in Twain #31

Monday, February 8, 2021

“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 KJV).

Doubtless, we never want to sensationalize or exaggerate. However, the fact remains, some dark days are ahead for the United States and the rest of the world. What can we Bible-believing Christians do?

As to what the future holds, or how to proceed in handling it, even at this late hour the professing church still seeks answers, searching for any scintilla of understanding or glimmer of hope. Many Christians have no idea what to think or do. Paralyzed with fear, they wonder what is God’s will. Again, this underscores Christendom’s spiritual ignorance and feebleness. Have they not read their Bible that He gave them to teach them His will?! “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17).

Other believers are praying for revival, that God intervene and somehow perform a miracle to save our errant culture and nation from self-destruction. Honestly, dear friends, if I could be so bold in telling you, this is wishful thinking. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12,13).

For far too long, the Church the Body of Christ has fought evil using the wrong weapons. We have relied on the energy of our flesh instead of the power of the Holy Spirit via sound Bible doctrine. Our thoughts were not God’s thoughts. Underestimating Satan, we presumed we could beat him apart from the Word of God rightly divided. Hence, the church has failed. We have assumed we can “bring in the Kingdom”—that is, make Earth so heavenly and sweet that Jesus must come down to join us. The fact is, this evil world is headed for the Tribulation, God’s undiluted wrath, and nothing we can do will stop it. There will be no national or global revival until Christ’s Second Coming.

In the meantime, here is what we can (and should) do….

Found Out and Fractured in Twain #26

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 KJV).

Doubtless, we never want to sensationalize or exaggerate. However, the fact remains, some dark days are ahead for the United States and the rest of the world. What can we Bible-believing Christians do?

The Jerusalem Temple of Christ’s earthly ministry was Herod’s Temple, named after Herod the Great who renovated and expanded Zerubbabel’s Temple built some 500 years earlier in the Books of Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah. (Attempting to kill the Christ Child, this was the King Herod who, in Matthew chapter 2, slaughtered the Bethlehem children ages two and under.) Herod’s Temple had already taken nearly 50 years to enlarge and decorate by the time of John 2:20. Construction lasted another three decades!

Mark 13:1 relates: “And as he [Jesus] went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!” At the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, archaeologists have unearthed massive limestone and marble blocks forming its walls. Golden plates covered the main edifice’s entire eastern wall, so the structure shimmered with the rising sun. Ancient Jewish historian Josephus wrote, “Whatever was not overlaid with gold was purest white.” Herod the Great even donated a golden cluster of grapes—an ornament as tall as a man!

In addition to the gigantic Temple complex—a series of buildings that were a world wonder—the Jews had their rites, rituals, and ceremonies. Washing their hands several times daily, fasting throughout the week, praying for hours every day, faithfully giving alms (donations to the poor), hearing and reciting their Old Testament verses and singing the Psalms each Sabbath, physically circumcising their male babies, and so on; no other group was more pious! Yet, it was here in their main religious center where they repeatedly challenged the Son of God, especially with potentially-embarrassing trick questions (Matthew chapters 21–22; Mark chapters 11–12; Luke chapters 19–20).

Although deeply religious, they ultimately crucified—yea rather, outright murdered—Jesus their Messiah in unbelief! Calvary was neither surprising nor accidental; it was the culmination of centuries of deliberately refusing God’s words. Similarly, America’s new culture did not spring up overnight….