Category: prophecy

The Key to Be Happy! #3

Monday, March 27, 2023

“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding” (Proverbs 3:13 KJV).

What is the key to happiness?

On one hand, Solomon’s wisdom: “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about. And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom” (1 Kings 4:29-34).

On the other hand, Solomon’s folly: “But king Solomon loved many strange [foreign] women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods” (1 Kings 11:1-8).

Let us see how happy Solomon truly was….

The Key to Be Happy! #2

Sunday, March 26, 2023

“Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding” (Proverbs 3:13 KJV).

What is the key to happiness?

History abounds with gloomy biographies of doleful individuals spending their whole lives seeking happiness—an exercise in futility. Brilliant philosophers, prolific writers, highly decorated military leaders, long-time politicians, affluent business leaders, innovative researchers, scholarly educators, and even respected religious leaders went to their graves utterly exhausted, completely frustrated, and totally miserable. Think about it; it is truly mind-boggling. We cannot estimate the total amount of time, energy, and resources they wasted to wind up at the end of their path with nothing to show for all their troubles! They were just more victims of Satan’s evil world system, an elaborate series of ingenious distractions designed to keep their eyes wholly off the God of the Bible and His purpose and plan for the ages. Without a meaningful context for anything and everything they did and said, they wished they had conquered nothing, discovered nothing, written nothing, made nothing, owned nothing, lived nothing.

Although Satan’s evil world system is in effect today, it has not yet reached its pinnacle. Starting in Genesis chapter 3, it has been strengthening these last six millennia, but will not culminate until the future time that the Scriptures title “Daniel’s 70th Week” (see Daniel 9:24-27). This is actually the context of today’s Scripture (and the entire Book of Proverbs): “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.”

Knowledge is acquired or learned information. Wisdom is the skill of properly applying that knowledge in particular situations. Understanding is the ability to see how knowledge and wisdom form one overall coherent picture or plan. It is not enough to know. We must use wisdom (apply what we know). It is not enough to be wise. We need to gain understanding (fathom how what we know and apply thereby contributes to a meaningful “big picture”). It all starts by having the right knowledge, the correct information, and then putting that data into use so it conforms to that which the God of the Bible is doing….

Give Me Another Day to Think About It

Monday, March 20, 2023

“The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity” (Psalm 94:11 KJV).

Dear friends, are we so silly as to want another day to think about more folly?

Once, a police officer patrolling his neighborhood noticed a prostitute hobbling on crutches and wearing a conspicuous cast on her leg. He stopped his car and began talking with her. She explained how one of her “clients” had recently shot her in the foot and disabled her. In fact, she refused to name the perpetrator so the police could arrest him, fearing he would have her “coworkers” retaliate. At this point, the officer asked her if she wanted to leave her line of work and find a more respectable job. She hesitated and then replied, “Give me another day to think about it.” What ultimately happened to that poor woman is unknown.

As sinners, we engage in self-destructive behavior because it is fun. That woman working the streets was having a “good time,” and she was making a lot of money in the process, but her profession was indecent, hazardous, and even life-threatening. She wanted to wallow in sin just a little longer—knowing full well she was not acting in her best interests. There is pleasure in sin for a season, Hebrews 11:25 tells us. Read today’s Scripture in context (all of Psalm 94). The wicked are persecuting Israel’s believing remnant during Daniel’s 70th Week. With the Antichrist in office, crime abounds and no one is there to deliver the righteous. The saints suffer while the evildoers prosper; the evildoers believe they can continue in their sin and not reap the bitter consequences (see their empty thoughts in today’s Scripture).

The Psalmist asks God to “shew thyself” and take vengeance (verse 1). Here is one of the many “imprecatory psalms” of Scripture, the believers praying for the LORD to punish sinners and rescue saints. Psalm 94 summarizes the Second Coming of Christ, when He deals with such sinners in wrath (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). If we are sinners without Jesus Christ today, may we come to Him by faith in His finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4), while we still have opportunity. May we not say, “give me another day to think about it!”

Looking Unto Jesus

Saturday, March 4, 2023

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1,2 KJV).

An artist once drew a night scene in which a man was rowing a boat across a large body of water. The waves were rough and the winds were strong. Storm clouds veiled the moon and all the stars except one. Focused on that solitary point of light, the man paddled on and on. The artist added a caption at the bottom: “If I lose that, I am lost!” Here is an extremely simple application of today’s Scripture.

In Matthew 14:22-27, the Lord Jesus Christ was delayed in meeting His disciples in the ship on the Sea of Galilee. Eventually, they no longer expected Him. When He finally showed up, they supposed He was a spirit or ghost. Keep reading: “[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.”

Peter took his eyes off the Lord, looked at his perilous circumstances, and began to sink! Likewise, in today’s Scripture, the Holy Spirit reminds believing Israel suffering the troubles of Daniel’s 70th Week to keep watching Jesus, not the evil Antichrist or his followers. Saints, we would do well to remember to firmly fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and not our difficulties (Romans 8:31-39)!

Fill Up That Which is Behind? #6

Sunday, February 12, 2023

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24 KJV).

Did Jesus Christ suffer enough to pay for our sins? Then how can Paul “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ?”

Once Satan realized a dispensational change arose with the Apostle Paul’s salvation and commissioning, he quit persecuting Israel’s believing remnant and started targeting God’s apostle of the Gentiles (see Romans 11:13). Concerning this the Dispensation of the Grace of God, the Church the Body of Christ is the Lord’s current agency of believers. So as to hinder, obstruct, and interfere with God’s purpose and plan for the Body of Christ, Satan worked in and through sinful men to do whatever he could to harass and harm Paul (today’s Scripture).

After the first two sons of men were born, a spiritual conflict existed between them. The narrative is recorded briefly in Genesis 4:1-8, but the underlying satanic motivation for the combat is made manifest centuries later in 1 John 3:11-13: “For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one [Satan], and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”

Unbelieving Cain followed Satan’s evil world system’s religion to the point of murdering his believing brother Abel—and it was that same religion of the evil world system that resulted in the execution of many of God’s people through the ages, all the way up to Jesus’ own murder at Calvary and beyond (see Matthew 23:29-37, Luke 11:45-51, and Acts 7:51-53). That evil world system was in Paul’s day during Acts, it is here with us at this present moment, and it will be in effect until Christ’s Second Coming in justice and righteousness.

Abel himself is no longer here, Christ Himself is no longer here, Paul himself is no longer here, so sinful men do to us what they cannot do to injure them….

Extol

Friday, February 3, 2023

“I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me” (Psalm 30:1 KJV).

Our King James Bible features “extol” six times, and today’s Scripture is the first occurrence. Can you deduce what the term means?

“I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me” (Psalm 30:1). “I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue” (Psalm 66:17). These psalms both look to Jesus Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, yet future from us. “Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him” (Psalm 68:4). This is Christ’s glorious Second Coming, yet future from us. “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever” (Psalm 145:1). Here again is Christ’s Millennial Kingdom.

“Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isaiah 52:13). In the context (reaching to the end of chapter 53), we find Christ’s two comings, with this verse being Father God seeing “the sufferings of Christ” (First Coming) and “the glory that should follow” (Second Coming and Millennial Kingdom). See 1 Peter 1:10,11. “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase” (Daniel 4:37). These words anticipate Jesus Christ’s Millennial Kingdom, when the Gentiles or nations are converted to the one true God (see Isaiah 60:1-3, Zechariah 8:20-23, and Matthew 28:18-20).

Our English term “extol” is derived from Latin, with the prefix “ex–” defined as “out of” or “from” and “tollere” as in “to lift, raise up.” The underlying Hebrew words (“nasa,” “salal,” “rum,” and “romam”) convey just that sense—“carry,” “bear,” “lift,” “raise,” “exalt.” Therefore, to “extol” the LORD means to “lift Him out.” In other words, we are to magnify or elevate Him above anything and everyone else, lifting Him to the uppermost, most prominent, or supreme position. “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”

Joseph and Jesus #12

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

We Berean Bible students have seen how Joseph and Jesus are alike in excess of 20 specific traits and circumstances. This is certainly not coincidental. To those who want to see, hear, and believe, it is as clear as can be. Joseph served as a template, foreshadow, preview, pattern, or outline: by nature, that is a type in the Bible. Centuries later, the antitype (Jesus Christ) shared those same qualities and underwent those very situations. By studying the one, we better appreciate the other, rejoicing how the LORD God was omniscient, knowing well in advance what would occur all along. Joseph’s whole life—even seemingly insignificant attributes and situations—prophesied what another beloved Son would be like and what He would experience.

“Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:10,11). Like the other Old Testament prophets, Moses (who wrote about Joseph in Genesis) possessed limited knowledge. He had no idea the Holy Spirit was using him to present Messiah’s two comings with such vivid details—one arrival to suffer and die, and a return to conquer and reign. Stephen, speaking in Acts 7:9-16, had more light than Moses, for by that time the Lord Jesus Christ had already come once and the saints in early Acts were anticipating His reappearance. With a completed Bible canon, we have even greater insight than Moses and Stephen combined. May we be thankful!

Joseph is just one of several types of Jesus Christ: other examples include Joseph’s brother Benjamin, plus Adam, Abel, Noah, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, David, and Solomon. While beyond the scope of this study, they too are equally fascinating.

Joseph and Jesus #11

Monday, January 30, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

Read Acts 7:9-16. “But God was with him” (verse 9). Though Joseph’s brethren did not know him and refused him the first time, “at the second time” they recognized and accepted him. Likewise, though Israel did not identify and receive Christ in faith at His First Coming (John 1:10-12), the opposite will be true at His Second Coming (Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 23:39).

When Joseph reunited with his brethren 20 years later, he told them: “For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7,8). “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20). While Joseph’s brethren were free moral agents, having willingly chosen to harm him, the LORD turned that sad situation into a benefit after all: without Joseph in Egypt, they would have all starved (Jacob’s family in Canaan, and the Egyptians with Joseph down south)!

Similarly, Father God used the Lord Jesus’ rejection—in which sinful Jews and Gentiles participated (see Acts 2:22-24; Acts 3:13-15; Acts 4:10-12,25-28; Acts 5:29-31; Acts 7:52)—to bring about His finished crosswork on Calvary. Christ’s shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection would ultimately take care of our sin problem and Israel’s sin problem! Father God can now form a people for Himself in the Earth (redeemed Israel) and another people for Himself in the Heaven (us, the Church the Body of Christ): “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).

Let us conclude this devotionals arc….

Joseph and Jesus #10

Sunday, January 29, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

Indeed, young Joseph was envied, hated, betrayed, and imprisoned. He was in a foreign land, amongst a pagan people, and employed as a lowly slave, yet the most important fact (and, dear friends, we dare not forget it!) is recorded in these few verses that follow: “But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison…. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him [Joseph], and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper” (Genesis 39:21,23). No matter how rough and tough his circumstances became, the LORD was with Joseph every step of the way—and it was the only reason Joseph survived any of it.

As the perfect Man, the Lord Jesus Christ lived in this world surrounded by sinners and, just think, He was treated far worse than Joseph ever was (more than we will ever know!). Just like the LORD blessed Joseph’s efforts, in spite the extreme satanic opposition, so Father God endorsed the Lord Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry and it was exceeding fruitful. Peter the Apostle commented as the Spirit of God gave him utterance: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38). Christ Himself stated, “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (John 16:32).

Now, having taken a quick run through the numerous references, we will summarize this devotionals arc….

Joseph and Jesus #9

Saturday, January 28, 2023

“These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report” (Genesis 37:2 KJV).

Let us search the Scriptures to see how Joseph is a type of the antitype Jesus….

Observe Genesis 45:21,24-28: “And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way…. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.” In chapter 46, all of Jacob’s household joins Joseph in Egypt.

As Joseph gathered Israel that was scattered, so Jesus at His Second Coming will physically reunite them by bringing them into the Promised Land: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:30,31). See also Deuteronomy 30:1-5, Jeremiah 31:10-14, Jeremiah 32:37-41, Ezekiel 11:16-20, Ezekiel 20:33-42, Ezekiel 28:24-26, and Ezekiel 34:11-16. These passages anticipate New Covenant restoration, unity, and blessings in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom.

Yet, there are still more likenesses between Joseph and Jesus….