Recent Commentaries

Satan seeks to blind minds to God’s light, fortify minds against God’s truth and seduce minds from God’s love (vv. 1-6). We need to keep in mind that throughout this letter Paul is writing to a divided church, and a church that is being seduced by false teachers. These false teachers charged …

Pekahiah, Menahem’s son, reigned two years before being killed in a conspiracy by Pekah. Pekah then assumed the throne of Israel. It seems that he had never accepted Menahem’s claim to the throne and prior to this had set up a rival government east of the Jordan River in Gilead …

God promises material blessings to those who honor his principles but it does not imply that all wealth is a necessary sign of blessing (vv. 19-21). A common error of Judaism was to regard material wealth as always indicating the blessing of God. While it is true that the book of …

Men often are too proud to listen to instruction. Lasting honor only comes to those who humble themselves and receive instructions from Godly men (v. 18) while poverty and shame will come to those who think themselves too advanced for such instruction. I find this often …

The book closes by speaking of the king’s power; but more importantly extols the leadership abilities of Mordecai who was once a hated Jew in the Persian Empire (vv. 1-3). He was promoted by Ahasuerus and loved by the Jews (v. 3). Mordecai did not only act frequently on his own b …

The following is the outline of a message for this passage of Scripture I read from Brian Bill:1. Keep faith with others: Don’t allow your relationships to rupture (v. 10). 2. Keep faith with God: Don’t unite with an unbeliever (vv. 11-12).3. Keep faith with your spouse: Don’t get divorced (vv. 13-16).

It took one whole year to prepare these women for their presentation to the king (v. 12). During this time beauty treatment was prescribed, with oil of myrrh and six other perfumes and cosmetics (v. 13). We are not told how her turn to come before the king was determined. When called she …

In these verses Samuel tells Saul that he has a message for him from the Lord and Saul tells him to speak (v. 16). Samuel goes on to tell him that the Lord anointed him king over Israel (v. 17) and sent him on a mission to destroy the Amalekites until they were all killed (v. 18) …

After Joshua’s death Israel presses forward to exterminate the Canaanites who are still holding on to their strongholds in the land. The tribes of Judah and Simeon merged their forces to carry out a series of attacks on the Canaanites in the hill country south of Jerusalem (vv. 1-5). They captured …

On Sunday about dawn, a group of women, including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and others went to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body (v. 1). As they approached, an earthquake occurred, and an angel rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb (v. 2). T …