The people of the Bible lived in temple-building cultures. Temples provided pagan gods with a place to live, keeping them close to the people who worshiped them. Even Israel did the same – first Solomon, then Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, and eve... MORE
Most of Jesus' ministry was spent in Jewish communities, proclaiming the good news of God's kingdom to the people of Israel. His greater intention, though, was for His Jewish followers to bring this message to the Gentile world around them, a worl... MORE
God desired a people who would partner with Him in "making space" to reveal Himself to a broken world. The detailed patterns and plans for the tabernacle not only illustrated the kind of care and devotion He wanted to display to His peop... MORE
The Lord defied the gods of Egypt with mighty displays of power so that Israel, Egypt, Pharaoh, and ultimately the entire world would see the strength of the one and only God. Pharaoh hardened his heart, but the Israelites responded to the power o... MORE
God desired a people who would partner with Him in bringing shalom to the chaos of a broken, hurting world. Israel experienced a taste of the peace He brings when He rescued them out of Egypt. In this lesson, you will continue on the road of the e... MORE
Psalm 78 says that God led his people Israel "like sheep through the desert." Their wanderings through the Sinai provide a striking image of God's leading in our lives today. In this lesson, you will follow God's people through this barr... MORE
The Colosseum in Rome is famous for many reasons, not least of which because it was built by the spoils of war from the destruction of Jerusalem, the military defeat of the Jews. In the Roman world, it was assumed that if Caesar was... MORE
When the time came for God to choose a people, He didn’t pick the strongest kingdom He could find. He chose the weak, the nobodies – a family that would become the nation of Israel. God rescued them from Egypt and brought them into the... MORE
Giving God the Honor He is Due
Satan has always wanted to rob God of the credit and honor due to him. Because the deified emperors and gods of Pergamum such as Asclepius, Demeter, Dionysus, and Zeus received credit and honor that was due to God al...
How Could He?The story of the destruction of Jericho and the conquest of Canaan poses an ethical dilemma for many readers of the Bible. How could the God of love and mercy, the Father of Jesus, display such anger toward the inhabitants of the Prom...
In Herod's FootstepsHerod lay dying in his opulent palace in Jericho. He had been seriously ill for a long time. From the description in Josephus' writings, Herod had gangrene, severe itching, convulsions, and ulcers. His feet were covered with tu...
God allowed his people to employ cultural practices and ideas if they had no pagan content and were used only in God's service. Because the people of the ancient Near East honored their gods by worshiping them on high places, God allowed his peopl...
The Old Testament view of sin and judgment created a model of reality separated into three different parts.The Holy
In the Biblical times, once something was given to God, it belonged to him alone and was considered holy. Anything devoted to God o...
One of the three persons of God. In the Old Testament we see the Holy Spirit active in the creation of the world. The Spirit also filled certain people with power at special times, and worked through men to produce the Scriptures.Because Jesus die...
Modern worldview based on an evolutionary model that considers human beings the ultimate life form and denies the existence or relevance of God. Right and wrong are determined by human standards, not God's.
Anything that is worshiped instead of the true God. In Bible times, idols were often statues of false gods made of wood, stone, or metal. Idolatry is the worship of idols.
Another name for the city of Edom, meaning "red." Located south of the Dead Sea and west of Arabah; home of Herod the Great. Some early followers of Jesus came from Idumaea (Mark 3:8).
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