Bible Questions

Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness

Brooklyn Museum - The Pharisees Question Jesus (Les pharisiens questionnent Jésus) - James Tissot

Luke 16:8 (KJV) And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.


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If Any Man Be in Christ, He is a New Creation

The Last Judgment, from The Fall and Salvation of Mankind Through the Life and Passion of Christ MET DP832989

II Corinthians 5:1 (KJV) For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.


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The Parable of the Tares

Brooklyn Museum - The Enemy Who Sows (L'Ennemi qui sème) - James Tissot

Matthew 13:24 (KJV) Another parable put he [Jesus] forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.


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The Sovereignty of God

Jesus reconstruction test phases from Turin Shroud

Jesus wrapping - g.battista

Jesus Shroud

I’ll give you my conclusion, but you can draw your own.   These are some of my thoughts on the topic.

I recently had cause to briefly get into a discussion about the sovereignty of God.

This is actually a topic I’ve given some thought to in the past.  Anyone who has to write or speak, a talk show host, or anyone who does not use a teleprompter from which to read a prewritten script, actually has to research, consider, and think about topics before writing and speaking.

There seem to be two general trends of thoughts regarding the sovereignty of God.   One is that God will do “whatever” “regardless” of what man does.  The other is that mankind, particularly believers, are involved in outcomes.

Full disclosure:  I am of the latter opinion.

So what do I mean?

Let’s say you are sovereign over me and that you have given me a task to accomplish.

You ask me to bake a cake.  You provide me the ingredients, the flour, the oil, the water, the eggs, the leavening, the flavorings, the pan, the oven, everything I need to bake the cake.

What if I fail to use all the eggs, use less water and oil than required, forget to put in the leavening, fail to use the correct amount of heat or fire, and fail to keep the cake as long as required in the oven in order to properly bake it?  The cake will not rise properly, it will not bake properly, it will not turn out well.

So you, the sovereign, still need the cake.  You may go to a bakery down the street.  You may order a cake from a specialized bakery.  You have other options than me to get the cake.  You will get your cake somehow.

We see in the book of Jonah that the Lord God, the Sovereign, wanted something of Ninevah.  He sent Jonah to Ninevah to deliver the message.  Jonah resisted for a while.  After ending up in the sea, in the belly of a whale, he decided to obey.  He delivered the message to Ninevah.  Ninevah repented, changed, and the city endured for another (estimated)150 years or so.  What if Jonah hadn’t gone?  What if Ninevah hadn’t changed?  Well, we know the answer to that already from scripture.  God had already said they would have been destroyed within 40 days.   If you haven’t read the book of Jonah it is a small four chapter book at the end of the Old Testament.  I recommend you read it yourself.

The Lord God is Sovereign, but in the case of Jonah, the issue of free will comes into play.  On this earth, the issue of the free will of man always comes into play.

In trying to understand the thinking behind certain philosophies it occurs to me that when people read the statement of Jesus, “It is finished”, that maybe they think there is nothing left to do.  Maybe they think that it’s a slam dunk until the end.  We sit back.  Jesus does it all.  It is finished.

I personally believe that is a wrong interpretation of that verse.  Jesus did do it all in the sense that Jesus defeated satan at the cross.  Jesus purchased back, by virtue of His crucifixion, shed Blood, paying the price of justice for mankind’s fall through Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus bought back the right for man to again have a relationship with God, as each individual believes and receives and confesses that finished work. Then Jesus gave the authority of His Name, His Blood to believers.  Believers receive the indwelling Holy Spirit.  They become ambassadors for Christ.

Believers now have a job to do.

If “it is finished” is a slam dunk,  if nobody has anything left to do, then why does God leave believers on the earth?

Paul, the Apostle, who wrote 28 percent of the New Testament, or 13 or 14 books, depending on  which church tradition history is followed (the book of Hebrews is the one in question), wrote the statement below.  And this is only one of many statements that indicate that the Apostle Paul was a very focused, determined individual.

Philippians 3:11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

If the Apostle Paul thought that the statement by Jesus, “It is finished.”, meant that Paul had to nothing, then why did Paul make the above statement and other statements indicating that Paul was pressing forward in his life?

When it comes to the Sovereignty of God, God gave us the Scriptures.  These scriptures were carefully copied generation after generation by scribes.  They are reliable.

God gave mankind directives in Genesis.  He gave us commandments at Mt. Sinai.  He gave us “if…then” clauses throughout the Bible.   The Lord God gives many indications of the will of God, and how scriptures about how mankind should relate to God and to each other as created human beings, men, women, and children (not AI), on earth.  Read the Bible from the beginning book, the book of Genesis to the ending book, Revelation.

To say that the sovereignty of God will bring a certain solution, without the free will of man doing the things that God has asked mankind to do, I think exhibits a bit of laziness or complacency or stubbornness or rebellion.

Yes, ultimately, there will be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

But as some parents or grandparents might be familiar with the saying,

We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.

There may be some chastening, even severe chastening, from the Lord God on mankind if mankind, in freewill, fights and rebels against the purposes of God and the Holy Spirit.

And actually, I always look at it that God is not sitting up there deciding if He is going to smash someone down.  He simply set laws in place and if mankind, or individuals, don’t follow those laws, they bring the repercussion on themselves.  God doesn’t have to really do anything but rest in the laws he set up, at least that is how I see it.  If you defy the law of gravity by jumping off a cliff, God didn’t hurt you, you hurt yourself.  If mankind, an individual, or nation, is defiant, the price to pay for that defiance has already been set up within the way the universe was created by God.  Again, these are just some thoughts.  You may see it differently, that’s fine, that’s how I read it in scriptures, which are full of “if…then” clauses.

Yes, God is Sovereign.  Yes, God will have the ultimate end He wants.

But I personally believe that getting there is intimately involved with the free will choices of mankind, and all of us individuals, overall.

I personally believe that to say “God is sovereign” and by implication imply that I can sit back and do nothing because “Jesus will do everything” is not a working dynamic for life.

As I said of the beginning of this post, I am only offering some thoughts on this.  You can believe however you want.

But beliefs and actions take you a certain direction and place.

In these times, for example, to say that God is sovereign, so, for example, you say, I don’t have to bother to vote because God is sovereign, I think is a bad choice.  Yes, God is sovereign, but man has responsibilities.

To say God is sovereign, so I won’t think about what I do on a daily basis and just blindly do the first thing presented to me, is, again, I think a misinterpretation.  To say that “God is sovereign” and then, for example, to take the toxic jab offered by satanic globalists and say that “Jesus will protect me”, when you are not willing to study the true science and consequences, I personally think will bring bad results.  But again, these are my thoughts.

Choices bring consequences.

God is sovereign, but God also gave mankind freewill.

Related prior post:
http://biblequestionsblog.com/is-this-a-fatalistic-world/

 


A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.

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Slings and Arrows

The Vision of Hell, by Gustave Doré

Shakespeare’s character, Hamlet, indicated that he experienced the arrows of affliction, but he did not know the source.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Hamlet, Shakespeare

 

The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, indicates the source of these arrows and darts.

Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

 

Water quenches fire.

Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.


A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.

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Seek the Lord

Brooklyn Museum - The Widow's Mite (Le denier de la veuve) - James Tissot
The Widow’s Mite

I Chronicles 16:11  (KJV) Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

63:1a O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee,

Psalm 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

Psalm 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Matthew 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

Amos 5:6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

Malachi 3:9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.


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Who hath believed our report?

Take thee a great roll, and write on it with a man’s pen

 

Isaiah, who lived about 700 years before the time of Jesus, gave a word picture of Jesus, the One who would be the sacrifice for mankind, the Messiah.

Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

It is notable that Isaiah began with “who hath believed our report?” and follows that with “and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”

There is a causual relationship between believing the report and having the arm of the Lord revealed.

The truth of God’s Word, the truth of Jesus, is revealed to those who believe…not to those who scoff.  Scoffers and mockers and doubters self-select themselves out of experiencing a relationship with God.

In anything in life, there are those who have a cursory, or beginning or scanty knowledge, and those who understand the significance of the details.  This applies in any field:  farming, fishing, husbandry of any kind, construction, homemaking, sports.  Details matter.

Not only do details matter, but those who really know the topic, those who have the “inside knowledge” and experience, understand why you would use, for example, one tool over another in a particular situation, or why you would use, for example, a particular fishing rod and bait over another in a particular situation.  Outsiders remain clueless.

A good example is sports.   Someone who knows football understands what the different players are doing and why.   They follow the strategy.   To someone who doesn’t know the game, players are simply throwing an odd-shaped ball around the field.

Likewise, someone who has no understanding of Jesus and his redemptive work, who has not  yet been born again, can miss the point.

For example, take communion.  Communion is one of the sacraments of the church.  Correctly approached, it is a means whereby the very life and healing of the Lord Jesus Christ can flow into a person.

But for those who don’t grasp what is going on, “not discerning the Lord’s body”, who don’t discern the fact “by whose stripes ye were healed”, it is simply a ceremony.  Not accessing the inner spirit and power, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

I Corinthians 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

I Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

 

This was the Apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy in such a situation.

II Timothy 3:5  having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

 


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Speak the Word only and my servant shall be healed

SonRoyalHeal

Jeremiah 1:12 (KJV) Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

Numbers 14:28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

Matthew 8:8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

Psalm 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Matthew 233:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

II Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

Psalm 33:9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

Jeremiah 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Hosea 4:6 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.


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Resist Not Evil Does Not Mean No Self Defense

Abigail tends Nabal Fitzwilliam MS 38-1950 f 78
Abigail tends Nabal who died due to his greed

Does “resist not evil” mean that we stand down while children and family are murdered?

The Greeks said, “know thyself”, and the Bible says, “if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged”.  We need to know why we are or are not acting in a certain way.

The quote below is pulled from an older book.

The general principle which he laid down was, that we are not to resist evil; that is, as it is in the Greek, nor to set ourselves against an evil person who is injuring us. But even this general direction is not to be pressed too strictly. Christ did not intend to teach that we are to see our families murdered, or be murdered ourselves; rather than to make resistance. The law of nature, and all laws, human and divine, justify self-defense when life is in danger. It cannot surely be the intention to teach that a father should sit by coolly and see his family butchered by savages, and not be allowed to defend them. Neither natural nor revealed religion ever did, or ever can, inculcate this doctrine. Our Saviour immediately explains what he means by it. Had he intended to refer it to a case where life is in danger, he would most surely have mentioned it. Such a case was far more worthy of statement than those which he did mention.

When satan wanted the throne of God, did God roll over?

Jesus spoke the words of God, the heavenly Father and said, “resist not evil”.

How did God deal with the evil of satan’s rebellion?

If you believe a principle, it has to be sound in every application.   God  threw satan out of heaven.

Why was WWII fought if we are not to resist evil?  You have to think these things through.

One of the bad results of the Reformation is that it split the church into a 1000 pieces.  And with that, there is no overarching directive in the important issues of life.  With issues like this, the issue of self defense, the sheep wander with no shepherd to lead them.  They are taught how to go to Jesus in the private life, but not the public one.

The Catholic Church, from which the Protestants split, have something called the Catholic Cathecism.  Since Protestants don’t have anything comparable, I will quote from the CC.

Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.   Source

Unless and until the Protestant/ Charismatic/Evangelical move has a similar overarching intellectual dive into how to deal with societal evils, I think the Catholic brethren have defined wisdom in this matter of self-defense.

The very society your children, grandchildren, your posterity are growing up in is being taking over by a satanic globalist oligarchy.

You have to be involved in the fight through prayer and also through legally battling these things.  Or you need to support those who are fighting in some way.

In the Old Testament, there were the actual warriors.   Then there were those who supplied the warriors.  Both are needed today.

Nabal is an example of someone who enjoyed the protective work the warriors did for him on his behalf, but didn’t want to help them out.  He ended up dying.

I Samuel 25:2 And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.

7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

9 And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.

11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

12 So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.

15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:

16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert on the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.

21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.

22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

26 Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

30 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;

31 That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.

32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

34 For in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died.

39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head….


A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.

Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
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The Whirlwind

Job Confessing His Presumption to God Who Answers from the Whirlwind, object 1 (Butlin 461)

Isaiah 17:13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Isaiah 40:24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

Jeremiah 30:23 Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.


A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.

Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
Continue Reading