Latest Blog Posts from Wednesday in the Word, the podcast about what the Bible means and how we know.
Today’s leaders promise hope and change only to deliver corruption and scandal. We elect bright promising outsiders who go to Washington and immediately become insiders. They cease fighting for the ideals they promised in the campaign and start fighting to keep themselves in power. Who can make things right? Who will help us out of this mess?
With Absalom dead, Joab blows the trumpet to end the battles and the civil war is over. Except David is still in exile. Now we have a guilty nation and a vindicated king, and the question that remains is how to restore the relationship. How do you approach your king after you’ve been sinful or rebellious?
A 16-week Bible study podcast on selected passages from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. What do you do when the world falls apart? Jeremiah has the answers.
2 Samuel 18 is the climatic battle for the throne. But instead of highlighting the ferocity of the battle, the spotlight focuses on David’s anxiety over his son, and how the news of Absalom’s death impacts him, especially when he learns that the price of rebellion is the death of his son. It is a price David cannot bear to pay, but it is a price God pays for us. David’s grief gives us a glimpse of the price our heavenly father was willing to pay on our behalf.
As we’ve studied the rebellion of Absalom, we’ve been asking what we can learn about responding when we sin, understanding the discipline of our heavenly father, and how to respond when suffering unjustly. With 2 Samuel 17 we focus on these questions from God’s perspective.
Study questions, maps, charts, key words, history, background, outlines, and links to help you study the Old Testament books of 1&2 Samuel
How should you respond when suffering unjustly? As David flees Jerusalem, he is used and abused by two members of Saul’s family. We can learn from his example how to bear unjust suffering.
What do you do when you fail in a big way and your failure matters? Your mistake has big consequences for other people? How should you respond? That’s the situation David is facing in our story today.
Explore King Saul’s family tree, including Jonathan, Michal, Ish-bosheth, Abner, Rizpah, and the two men named Mephibosheth. Includes a free printable chart.
The conflict between appearance and reality is the theme of our story today. As we’ll see, what appears to be wisdom and repentance is not.
Narratives are true stories. Over 40% of the Old Testament Scriptures are narratives. Generally, the purpose of a biblical narrative is to show the Lord at work in His creation. Every genre found in the Bible presents unique challenges for understanding. Narratives are no exception. With narratives we think in scenes, plot and character, rather than paragraphs and outlines.
The sins of David’s sons repeat and magnify David’s sin. David’s crime was against the wife of a friend. Amnon sins against a sister. The consequences of the first were death of a husband and baby. The consequences of the second was civil war. But why do the consequences fall so heavily on Tamar?
A 7-week Bible study on the rebellion of David’s son, Absalom, from the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel.
Explore King David’s family tree, including his ancestors, siblings, wives, sons, daughters, and nephews. Learn why Samuel and Chronicles sometimes give different names, and download a free printable chart.
Study questions, maps, charts, key words, history, background, outlines, and links to help you study Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul argues that there is one voice to listen to above all others and that is the voice that speaks the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We all come to a place at one time or another where we ask the question, “Why is my life so hard? Why do I have to endure this particular problem or experience this pain or go through this situation?” In Jeremiah 20:7-19, we see Jeremiah reach that place. He hits rock bottom and cries out asking, why his life was so hard.
One of the most common complaints is that the God of the Bible doesn’t seem to be very “fair.” We come from different backgrounds, we have different accents and we have different gifts and opportunities. And we look at that and ask, “Is God fair?”
Learn the marks of false teachers with classic and modern checklists from J.C. Ryle, Tim Challies, and Colin Smith to discern truth and avoid deception.
I suspect many of believers today are convinced that Sabbath still means something but have no idea what it is. You take the Bible seriously, you sincerely want to follow and obey God, but in this particular instance you have no idea how to begin, what to do or what not to do. What can we learn from Jeremiah about Sabbath?
What do you do when you sin repeatedly? What do you do when you see something about yourself that you decide to change, you give it your best effort, and you don’t change? What’s wrong with us? Jeremiah gives 3 metaphors to explain the problem of our hearts.
Religion should make a difference in our lives. By “religion,” I mean the set of outward behavior, practices, ethics and rituals that we do or avoid doing to mark ourselves as believers. Believing in God means we ought to love and value what God loves and values, and therefore we ought not to be nicer to each other. Yet, religion doesn’t seem to solve all the problems we think it ought to solve. What is wrong with religion? Why doesn’t it make more difference?
Reading through the psalms can change your life! Here’s a plan to read through the psalms in 30 days.
Why is God so difficult to believe in? We want control. We explain away His gifts and provision. We want a predictable god who doesn’t surprise us. The God of Scripture is complicated and does not answer all our questions. We are afraid the hope of the gospel is too good to be true. The truth is that God is really not hard to believe in. The problem is that it is our hearts that are fickle.
Jeremiah Answers: What does God want from us? Faithfulness. Calling begins with God, develops through our relationship with God and that relationship leads us to others.
The book of Jeremiah is about global national and political crisis, personal crisis and most importantly, the word of the Lord.
Master Bible observation by learning what to notice in each passage and why it matters. How to Observe Scripture: 10 Things to Watch For
Jeremiah Bible Study Resources: Tools and resources to kick start your study of the Old Testament book of Jeremiah from WednesdayintheWord.com
The prevailing belief of the world is that “You go around once and then you die.” Yet, the remarkable claim of the Christian faith is that those who have died are more alive today than they were before their deaths. “If I die and go to heaven, what is it going to be like?” “Someone close to me died, where do I turn for comfort?” “If I die, will I go to a better place?” Professor Ken Elzinga answers these questions.
Jeremiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah who wrote the book of Jeremiah. His name means “exaltation of the Lord.” Below is a basic chronology of his 40+ year ministry.
Studying biblical prophecy is an often overwhelming task. Much of it is written in Hebrew poetry. The names and places are foreign, and the metaphors don’t always resonate with our modern ears. Yet we can usually understand the main point. If studying an Old Testament prophet overwhelms you, here are some tips to get you started.
The talks in this collection were given by one of my role models Ken Elzinga to various audiences over several years. Professor Elzinga is a famous economist and the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia. He is also a very wise man.
Meeting God in the Psalms: How to take what you learned and transformed it into a talk that will change someone’s life.
Lecture notes for Psalm 107 The Lord delivers us from manifold troubles
Lecture notes for Psalm 109 which is used by Peter to describe Judas in Acts 2:16-20: “the Scriptures had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas”
Lecture Notes for Psalm 49
Psalm 73 The end of the wicked contrasted with the end of the righteous.