Hosea 1:2—2:1: Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and the birth of their children become the texts of God’s message to Israel. Israel’s unfaithfulness is portrayed in Gomer’s infidelity, and the removal of God’s covenant relationship…
An early Zionist leader was fond of speaking of the land that was to become Israel as “a land without a people for a people without a land.” Although his observation was, in large measure, accurate, it was not quite the whole of…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,” wrote Charles Dickens…
Possibly no subject in history has been as inflammatory to the Jewish people as the question, Who killed Christ? Time and again, the accusation of Christ-killer has been hurled against the Jewish people. Centuries of hatred have been built…
Pontius Pilate was awake early. It appeared that it was going to be a normal spring day in Jerusalem. At least that’s what he hoped. He had been appointed as the fifth Prefect to the Roman province of Judea and Samaria by Emperor Tiberius…
Near the end of his life, as the Roman Emperor Domitian was making claims of divinity and persecuting the church, the Apostle John wrote, “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 Jn. 5:19b). John was teaching that earthly rulers…
On Nisan 14 in the year 73 A.D., Jerusalem was quiet. Normally the city would have been full of Jewish pilgrims waiting in line for the Temple priests to sacrifice their Passover lambs. But on this day there were no pilgrims. There were no…
A few weeks ago I had lunch with an Israeli diplomat, a man for whom I hold great respect, in Washington, DC. We discussed, among a host of other things, the inescapable tensions that often arise between the Christian and Jewish…
From the time of Israel’s inception as a modern state 51 years ago, the United States has been its consistent and loyal friend. In our country, many issues seem to be based on political affiliation. The treatment of Israel has not been one…
When people hear the word Jericho, they naturally think of Israelites marching, trumpets sounding, and walls falling down. It is a wonderful story of faith and victory that we enjoy reading and telling in Sunday school class, but did it…
The call had gone out nationwide to assemble at Mount Carmel. Now the peak was bustling with thousands of people. King Ahab was there. Also present were 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah. Standing before the throng…
Nothing is more terrifying than being in the clutches of occult activity. The demonic forces of darkness can seize a person with overwhelming intensity. The powers of Satan and his demonic hordes have led many to mental and spiritual…
The Jewish people had traveled a tortuous road for the better part of two millennia before Baron Lord Rothschild received, on behalf of the Jewish people, the official letter sanctioning a national home for Jewish people in Palestine. For 400 years…
To the casual observer of life in the Middle East, the real struggle there appears to be about the issue of soil. Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs are arguing over “land rights.” At times, this struggle has erupted into violence over how…
The American College Dictionary defines the word obstacle as “something that stands in the way of or obstructs progress.” In order to understand the Middle East Peace Process, we must investigate the facts surrounding the…
The year 1998 is the Year of Jubilee—the 50th birthday of the State of Israel! What is going through the minds of Israelis on the state’s 50th birthday? What are the expectations of its citizens? Since Israel is a nation of immigrants…
Have you ever been driving along the highway when, seemingly out of nowhere, you hear the shrill sound of sirens? At first you are startled as the high-pitched sound seems to engulf you from almost every direction. Instinctively you try to…
Repeated denials by U.S. officials of any intention to pressure Israel into a posture of appeasement in the interest of approving nods from Yasser Arafat are refuted by their own actions. The heat is on Israel to acquiesce to Washington’s…
The stepping aside of the United States, even temporarily, in favor of intervention in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians by the European Union brings to mind an end-times scenario. There is a strong indication that…
Revelation 18: In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein started to rebuild portions of the ancient city of Babylon. Christians began to ask if Hussein’s project had anything to do with Bible prophecy. This in turn rekindled the often-asked question…
Most of us hardly noticed that Israel was having a birthday. No, I’m not talking about its upcoming 50th, which will be celebrated in 1998. It was in August 1897 that a group of Jewish representatives in silk hats and frock coats filed into a hall in Basel, Switzerland, to hear…
“He who has not seen Herod’s Temple has never seen a beautiful building.” With those deliberately exaggerated words, rabbis extolled the magnificence of the Temple that was in Jerusalem during the first century A.D. Although the religious Jews often despised…
The most volatile 35 acres on earth are undoubtedly those comprising a rectangular platform in East Jerusalem on which the ancient Jewish Temple once stood. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament affirm that a new Temple will once again occupy…
In a few months, the State of Israel will commemorate fifty years of modern statehood. No nation in the history of mankind has been born out of such enormous suffering.
“A people considered for centuries as non-fighters carried out in June, 1967 against long odds the most nearly perfect military operation in modern history.” With these words an eminent American historian opened her…
Prime Minister Golda Meir was worried. It was that same strange feeling she had back in 1967, on the eve of the Six-Day War. Reports had been coming in since May…
The Bible pictures Lebanon as a land of towering mountains covered by tall cedars, rising above lush valleys with flowing rivers. Although few of the famed trees grow in the rugged mountains of modern Lebanon…
Of the many imaginative discourses offered by the Talmudic rabbis is one based on Genesis 28:12.
Ezekiel 36:16–24 A few years ago a survey was taken to determine which events cause the greatest stress on a family. It was discovered that, next to the death of a spouse…
Ezekiel 36:22–38 In the beginning, God planned a beautiful creation. He created seas and a place of lush vegetation. He made creatures to inhabit the seas and the dry land.
Gentile rule over Judæa began in 605 B.C. when King Jehoiakim of Judæa became a vassal of Babylon. As pictured in Daniel’s visions of the image (Dan. 2) and the four beasts (Dan. 7)…
If you believe in the Lord Jesus as your Savior, I ask you the following question: Are you a Christian American, or are you an American Christian? You may answer with some perplexity…
Intense is the only way to describe an informal discussion that took place among several young students of the Bible. The topic being discussed? The Pharisees during the time of Jesus…
The four hundred years between the prophecy of Malachi and the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, are frequently described as silent or mute years; however, they were full of activity. Although no inspired prophet appeared…
The Roman general Pompey laid siege to Jerusalem in 63 B.C. Having made Syria a Roman province the preceding year it was now Judea’s turn to be conquered. Twelve thousand Jews died in the ensuing melee.
“What is truth?” The words rang out like the vibration of an endless sound wave echoing through the universe. Can one know the truth? Is truth the elusive goal of man’s fertile imagination?
Christmas has never been a time of rejoicing for Jewish people. The hubbub and festivities that effervesce around the holiday seem to many Jews more like a big ball of excitement that rolls…
History has bestowed on him the descriptive title, “the Great.” The primary Jewish chronicler of his period, Josephus, was the first to use the actual phrase “Herod the Great” in his Antiquities of the Jews.
We seem to be hearing “Thank you” less often these days, and it’s not a good sign. Some grumpy people go so far as to complain about store clerks who cheerily urge…
This statement, made by former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Perez, may have paved the way for his failure in May to be officially elected to that position.
The ascent of Benjamin Netanyahu to the position of Prime Minister in Israel gave rise to a considerable amount of hand-wringing among international politicians, as well as liberal and anti-Israel elements in the news media.
It has become quite fashionable among some feminist writers and people sympathetic to the women’s liberation movement to castigate biblical writers for their “sexism.” Often biblical authors have been characterized as “male chauvinists”…
When the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, it indwelt each member of that small group of believers in Jerusalem, including the women. Among them were Jesus’ mother Mary and the other…
Theodor Herzl had a dream. It was a dream born of the desire of the Jewish people to have a homeland in Eretz Israel under the recognition of international law.
Thus saith the Lord Gᴏᴅ: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, to which they are gone, and will gather them on every side…
The most prominent events marking the early days of the modern Zionist movement were the publication of Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State in 1896 and his calling of the First Zionist Congress in 1897.
So wrote Chaim Weizmann in 1919. Both God in heaven and Balfour in England viewed “with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
Two thousand years ago a young Jewish woman and her husband came to the town of Bethlehem, in Jewish Judea, to be registered for taxation. Their permanent residence was Nazareth.
The life of Joseph presents some very important lessons for all who care to read the chapters in Genesis devoted to him. But there is one overriding factor in the story that should overwhelm…
Trials and testings come into the life of every person. If you are not going through any at the moment, wait a while. Sooner or later, they’ll come.
As the aged, bedridden Jacob pronounced prophetic blessings on his sons by Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah, he must have looked forward with great anticipation to what God had in store for his two youngest sons…
Israel’s era of innocence died with the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Theirs was not an innocence bred by naiveté. At its core it was tough—much like the exterior of the Sabra cactus after…
I had never seen Michael, our Israeli guide, so excited. Our Institute of Biblical Studies group was touring the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, seeing the usual sights, when Michael motioned us to join him on the other side of the church. He led us down a corridor into a small chapel. Michael explained in hushed tones that this was a very ancient part of the church, and tourist groups usually do not get to see it.
Flavius Josephus was a Jerusalemite priest who lived in the last half of the first century. He also was the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee during the war with Rome from AD 66–70.
Jewish tradition states that the oral law was transmitted from Moses to Joshua, from Joshua to the elders, from the elders to the prophets, and from the prophets to the men of the great assembly.
Capernaum was a picturesque town located on the northwestern shore of Galilee where the Jordan enters the lake. The city lay on a gentle slope rising from one of the numerous shallow coves that lend…
American Edward Robinson a former Congregationalist minister, was the first person in modern times to scientifically explore the marvel of Hezekiah’s Tunnel.
“We want a piece of the action!” This seems to be the prevailing attitude when the international community talks about Jerusalem. Until the Jewish people began to wind their way back toward the Holy City…
“And Isaac entreated the Lᴏʀᴅ for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lᴏʀᴅ was entreated by him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together within her;
This February, a lone Jewish man walked into a mosque inside of a shrine built over the cave of Machpelah in Hebron. Dressed in Israeli military garb, he gunned down 29 Muslim Arabs…
The ground in front of the beautiful Golden Gate was still soft from the recent heavy rains. An archaeology student confidently stepped back from the gate to capture its entire view in his camera…
Jerusalem will remain the capital of the Jewish people forever, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the conference of Jewish National Fund leaders recently. He was responding to a statement by PLO leader Yasser Arafat that…
Lord Byron, in “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” caught in vivid poetic form not only the essence of a battle long gone, but the final convulsions of the “times of the Gentiles.” Thus, human observation confirms…
In Luke 21:24 Jesus Christ referred to “the times of the Gentiles,” when the Gentiles would be the dominant power in the world and Israel would be at the mercy of or dependent upon…
When Bible readers move from the Old to the New Testament, they encounter many new ideas and institutions. They encounter groups like the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots, who are not mentioned in the Old…
The solace of blissful sleep was violently shattered with dreadful visions of hideous creatures. So disturbing was the dream that the usually composed Prophet Daniel was greatly troubled in mind and body.
The reason is the source of the request—the United Nations, which has asked Israel to assist in its peacekeeping efforts in Angola by supplying an Israeli-staffed field hospital…
Moses had a rich heritage of faith. Before his birth, Pharaoh of Egypt commanded that all male babies born to Hebrew women be killed (Ex. 1:15–22). When Moses was born, his parents had to make…
Every year new members are elected to the various sports’ Halls of Fame. Many good players, however, never receive this public honor. Buried in the past rosters of hundreds of teams are thousands of excellent…
Among the material possessions Maxine and I hold dear is an old oak dining room table. It was the object of a rescue effort launched years ago when we discovered the table…
Whenever the Lord calls a person to serve Him, opposition usually follows. Sometimes it comes in a very subtle manner, and at other times it comes through strong, open resistance. Unbelievers and believers alike can…
Being a leader is an unenviable calling. It appears glamorous and glorious, but it is more often lonely and thankless. The best training for a would-be leader is to observe closely the model…
When the Jewish people returned to their homeland after the Babylonian Captivity, Jerusalem lay in ruins. The Temple, the city walls, and the gates had been destroyed as a result of the three invasions…
Only a remnant of Judah came back to the land in these returns, while a significant number, probably the majority of the population, remained in the East. At the time of Esther…
The Jews who were living in their homeland during the 440s BC (93 years after the Babylonian Captivity had ended) had a great heart for God. Perhaps all the opposition, affliction, and reproach they had…
Something within human beings compels them to look for something new—a better way, better quality, better fashion. “Build a better mousetrap,” youngsters of another generation were told…
There is a saying in Israel that if you really want to learn about the political situation in the country, the person to ask is a taxi driver.
The United States of America was built by immigrants. In the earliest days, they came from England, Holland, and Spain, often seeking freedom from religious persecution.
Looks of revulsion marked the faces of primly dressed Aryan ladies who pressed handkerchiefs against mouths and noses as a defense against the acrid stench rising from the piles of bodies and charred remains draped…
A brief look at world conditions clearly indicates that many international disputes concern land ownership, particularly in the Middle East. The so-called occupied territories—the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights—are familiar to anyone who…
In the Scriptures, a covenant is a legally binding obligation of God for man’s redemption. It is God’s solemn pledge to fulfill His promises to those included in the covenant.
The Arabs of the Middle East are constantly in the news, one probable reason being that they control a major portion of the world’s petroleum. Islam, the religion most often associated with them…
Why have the Jewish people been persecuted more persistently than any other ethnic group throughout history? Why, in spite of overwhelming evidence of the Holocaust, do some deny that it happened?
This chart, although extensive, is not meant to be complete. Many other instances of anti-Semitism in South America, North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa could be cited.
The days of the judges were a time of almost unbroken national depression for Israel. All of the indicators for survival and success of the nation were pointing downward.
Ruth comes to us from the pages of biblical history as a young woman of Moab who married a young man from Bethlehem of Judah. At first glance, it may appear that her husband simply…
The Jewish community has always looked upon marriage as a sacred and divine institution. It is viewed as a holy covenant between a man and a woman, a necessity for the divine plan to propagate…
One cannot understand fully the story of Ruth and the role of Boaz as the kinsman-redeemer apart from a knowledge of God’s program of land redemption for Israel and the responsibilities of the kinsman-redeemer.
The charming little account contained in the Book of Ruth has all the interest-catching elements of an absorbing short story. The reader is exposed to a plot containing elements of tragedy, conflict, characterization, and resolution.
Israel is a nation in need of friends. But, understandably, after centuries of rejection, abandonment, and betrayal, the Jews are somewhat hesitant about whom they call a friend. For Charles Orde Wingate…
A barren ruggedness marks the eastern side of the Judean Hill Country. Virtually year-round the face of these slopes is covered with only sand, stones, and deep gorges…
It has been 25 years since those battle-begrimed young paratroopers stood looking up at the Western Wall, the last artifact of the Herodian Temple. Their faces graphically mirrored the awe engendered in the heart…
Jerusalem! The very name commands a fascination. No other city in the world has been both adorned and devastated so many times by so many different peoples over so many centuries.
The ancient rabbis said, “Ten measures of beauty descended to the world. Nine were taken by Jerusalem and one by the rest of the world.”
The future of the city of Jerusalem is of vital concern to the three main monotheistic religions of the world—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each has an historical claim to and a compelling interest in this city.
In the last article in this series, we saw that Abraham desperately wanted the heir God had promised to him. He realized that Eliezer of Damascus was not the one (Gen. 15:2).
The passing of Menachem Begin, Israel’s sixth Prime Minister, on March 9th, marked the end of a singular period in the history of the modern State of Israel.
Anyone who has stood on the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem, and overlooked the city of Jerusalem will never forget the sight. This is especially true if it is seen as the early…
Likud USA mourns the passing of one of Israel’s Founding Fathers, Menachem Begin. Begin was one of the “Gedolei HaDor,” or giants of his generation. He was one of the greatest Jewish leaders…
An old Yiddish saying translated into English, says, “As a high temperature does not denote serious illness, neither is Purim a festival.” Its meaning reflects the impression among some that the Feast of Purim…