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  • Matthew 1:8–11 Uzziah to Jeconiah | Curse, Exile & Christ’s Dual Claim

    Matthew 1:8–11 Uzziah to Jeconiah | Curse, Exile & Christ’s Dual Claim
    2026/09/20
    Picking back up in Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, is examined in detail. Some names carry little besides their place in the list; others carry the promise of the Messiah who will rule from David’s line.David is the king God chose. Israel chose Saul; God appointed David, a man after His own heart who, despite failures, pursued the Lord. Solomon followed. He was known for wisdom and a generally good reign until foreign wives turned his heart after other gods.Rehoboam caused the split. He rejected the counsel of Solomon’s older advisers, increased the burden, and the ten northern tribes broke away. Two kingdoms remained. Abijah walked in the sins of his father. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and corrected much that his father had done, though he did not remove everything. Jehoshaphat taught the people the law of the Lord, sent priests throughout the land, and sought peace with the north, which later brought trouble.Joram (Jehoram) walked in the way of Ahab, followed false gods, died of a painful intestinal disease, and was not mourned. Matthew then jumps from Joram to Uzziah. Joash, Amaziah, and others stand between them. Athaliah and other royal mothers sought to destroy the seed; Joash was saved by his sister.Uzziah became king at sixteen (2 Chronicles 26:1). Early he sought the Lord in the days of Zechariah and prospered (2 Chronicles 26:5). Strength produced pride. He entered the temple to burn incense, a duty reserved for priests. Leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests (2 Chronicles 26:19–20). He was thrust out, lived isolated until death, could not govern or enter the house of the Lord, and was buried in a field adjacent to the royal tombs because he was a leper (2 Chronicles 26:23).Jotham judged the people while his father lived as a leper (2 Kings 15:5). He did what was right according to all Uzziah had done, yet the high places were not removed and the people still sacrificed there (2 Kings 15:34–35). He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord.Ahaz walked in the way of the kings of Israel, made his sons pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings 16:3–4; Leviticus 18:21), stripped the temple and palace to pay the king of Assyria (2 Kings 16:8), and after seeing an altar in Damascus ordered Uriah the priest to copy it and set it in the temple in place of the bronze altar of the Lord (2 Kings 16:10–16).Hezekiah rejected his father’s way and did what was right according to all that David had done (2 Kings 18:1–3). He opened the doors of the temple his father had shut, sanctified the priests (2 Chronicles 29:3–19), destroyed the high places, sacred pillars, wooden images, and the bronze serpent that had become an idol called Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4), and reinstituted the Passover on a national scale, inviting even Ephraim and Manasseh (2 Chronicles 30:1).Manasseh did not merely drift. He rebuilt the high places Hezekiah had destroyed, raised altars for Baal, made wooden images, worshiped the host of heaven, made his sons pass through the fire, practiced sorcery, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood (2 Kings 21:3–9). His evil exceeded that of the nations the Lord had driven out. The fall of Jerusalem and the exile are explicitly tied to the wrath provoked by Manasseh (2 Kings 24:3–4; Jeremiah 15:4).Amon did evil as his father had done, served the same idols, and forsook the Lord (2 Kings 21:20–22). His servants conspired and killed him in his house. The people of the land executed the assassins and made Josiah king (2 Kings 21:23–24; 2 Chronicles 33:25).Josiah began to reign at eight years of age (2 Chronicles 34:1). He did what was right, walking in the ways of David and not turning aside. He purged idolatry, broke down altars and images, beat them to powder, defiled Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom to stop child sacrifice, and removed mediums and household gods (2 Chronicles 34:4–7). While repairing the temple the Book of the Law was found. He kept a Passover such as had not been seen since the days of the judges (2 Kings 23:21). Yet the Lord did not turn from the wrath aroused by Manasseh (2 Kings 23:26). Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Neco at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29).From Josiah Matthew lists Jeconiah and his brothers, carried away to Babylon (Matthew 1:11). Intermediate sons of Josiah reigned briefly and were deposed by Egypt or Babylon. Jeconiah reigned three months and ten days before the siege. The curse on Jeconiah declares him childless as to the throne: none of his descendants shall sit on the throne of David or prosper in Judah (Jeremiah 22:24, 30).This genealogy is Joseph’s line. Because Joseph descends from Jeconiah he has no legal right to the throne. Mary’s line, given in Luke 3:31, comes through Nathan, son of David by Bathsheba (1 Chronicles 3:5). Nathan carries the blood right without the Jeconiah curse. Jesus alone holds both the legal claim through Joseph’s house and ...
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    34 分
  • Abide in the Son and the Father | 1 John 2:18–28

    Abide in the Son and the Father | 1 John 2:18–28
    2026/09/20
    The study continues in 1 John toward the end of chapter 2, focusing on verses 18–28 and the word abide.1 John 2:18–28: It is the last time. Antichrist will come; even now there are many antichrists. They went out from us, but they were not of us; if they had been of us they would have continued (abided) with us. They went out that it might be made manifest they were not all of us. You have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things. These things are written because you know the truth, and no lie is of the truth. The liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise: eternal life. These things are written concerning those who seduce you. The anointing received from Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you. The same anointing teaches of all things and is truth and is no lie; as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. Little children, abide in Him, that when He appears you may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.Meno means to stay, to reside, to call a place home, to make yourself at home—not only physical location. The same word appears in verse 19 of the antichrists, three times in verse 24 (the King James uses abide, remain, and continue for one word), and three more times in verses 27–28 of the anointing and of abiding in Him.1 John 2:14: the Word of God abides in the young men, and they have overcome the wicked one. What is heard, taught, and read in the Word can abide in a person. It can also go in one ear and out the other, or be learned and ignored so that it is not at home.Abiding in the Son. John 15:4–5: Abide in Me and I in you. The branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abides in the vine; neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him brings forth much fruit; without Me you can do nothing. A dead branch may still be attached; abiding is being at home and not uncooperative with the vine that feeds it. A Christian can bear fruit or be carnal without losing salvation or attachment to the vine. Carnality means not abiding correctly.Romans 6:20–23: When you were slaves of the sin you were free from righteousness. What fruit did you have in those things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. Now, having been made free from the sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life. The wages of sin is death; the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Unsaved fruit was from the sin nature. Saved people have opportunity for fruit unto holiness, yet can still hinder fruit by carnality.John 15:7: If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you want and it will be done to you. In this the Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples. John 15:16: You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give you. The qualifier is abiding in Him and His words abiding in you.1 John 3:18–24: Love in deed and in truth. If our heart condemns us not, we have confidence toward God. Whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment: believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another. He who keeps His commandments abides in Him and He in him. By this we know He abides in us: by the Spirit He has given us. Commandments are not stored off to the side while another agenda is at home.1 John 5:14–15: This is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. If we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know we have the petitions we asked of Him. Asking is not for anything you want; it is for anything He wants. James 4: you ask amiss that you may consume it on your pleasures. Using asking correctly teaches what the will of God is.John 15:9–10: As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments you will abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.1 John 3:4–6: Everyone doing sin is also doing lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. Whoever abides in Him is not sinning. Whoever is sinning has not seen Him neither known Him. Present tense: the one currently abiding is not currently sinning. This is not a claim that one abiding once never sins again. It is John’s way of speaking of spiritual ...
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    47 分
  • Doubt, Cowardice and Lying | How Satan Attacks Christians

    Doubt, Cowardice and Lying | How Satan Attacks Christians
    2026/09/18
    The lesson continues the Christian Life series on Satan and demons, focusing on ways they attack a Christian. Previous sessions treated independence from God, Job, discouragement, and disappointment. Three further attacks are taken up: doubt, spiritual cowardice, and lying. The aim is awareness so that the believer can respond without fear and, later in the series, take up the defense.Doubt is set against faith. Several Greek words are rendered “doubt.” The passages used here employ diakrino. The word can mean to distinguish or to differ from another; in the middle or passive it is often “doubt,” because one is differing with oneself and second-guessing what is so.Matthew 21:18–22 records the withered fig tree. Jesus tells the disciples that if they have faith and do not doubt they will not only do what was done to the tree but may speak to the mountain and it will be done, and whatever they ask in prayer, believing, they will receive. Christians are expected to walk by faith; doubt is the opposite.James 1:5–7 applies the same contrast to asking. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and does not upbraid, and it will be given. Let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed and is not to think he will receive anything from the Lord. Asking is for what is in God’s will; wisdom is such a request. Asking while wondering whether it will work is not asking in faith.Romans 4:19–20 gives Abraham as the positive example. He was not weak in faith. He did not consider his own body as good as dead, about a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Unbelief is unfaith. Faith and this kind of doubt cannot coexist regarding the same promise.Faith is a piece of the armor of God, the shield of faith in Ephesians 6, to be treated later. Romans 14 shows why doubt is dangerous: one cannot act on faith and on doubt at the same time. In the matter of food, nothing is unclean of itself, yet to the one who reckons it unclean it is unclean. Love limits liberty so a brother is not destroyed. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he allows. But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. Whatever is not from faith is sin. Satan can take an otherwise innocuous act and make it sin by bringing the person to do it without believing it is right.Satan and demons often work first on frame of mind, attitude, or mental state, then present an action. Job shows the same pattern: long labor on the inner life aimed at getting him to curse God, which he never did. The sin nature campaigns through what appeals. Satan’s method is frequently different: produce a state, then an act that may not in itself look like a listed sin.Spiritual cowardice is such a state. It is fear that begins to govern behavior. Luke 22:31–34: the Lord tells Simon that Satan has asked to have “you” (plural, the disciples) to sift them as wheat, but He has prayed for Simon that his faith not fail, and when he is converted he is to strengthen the brethren. Peter claims readiness for prison and death. Jesus answers that the rooster will not crow before Peter has denied Him three times. After the arrest, Peter denies the Lord three times by the fire (Luke 22:54–62) and weeps bitterly. Between the warning and the denials he had even struck with the sword; fear of prison and death then changed his conduct. The denials are lies produced by that fear.2 Timothy 1:6–9: Paul reminds Timothy to stir up the gift of God. God has not given a spirit of cowardice (deilia, timidity that affects behavior, not general phobos), but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Timothy is not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or of Paul His prisoner, but to share the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. Given who God is and what He has done, is doing, and will do, such cowardice is not logical. Unpleasantness may be ahead, as the garden showed of the Lord, without calling the path off.1 Peter 5:8–9: be sober and vigilant, because the adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; resist him steadfast in the faith. The roar is not appealing; it is meant to freeze. Peter knew the method from his own denials.Lying is itself an action and is tied to Satan. Acts 4:34–5:11: early in the church, possessors of lands sold them and laid the prices at the apostles’ feet. Ananias and Sapphira sold a possession, kept back part with the wife’s knowledge, and brought a portion as if it were the whole. Peter asks why Satan has filled Ananias’s heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. The land was their own before and after the sale; they lied not to men but to God. Ananias expires; about three hours later Sapphira repeats the lie and likewise expires. The reasoning was...
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    56 分
  • Great Multitude, Seventh Seal & Golden Censer | Revelation 7–8 Explained

    Great Multitude, Seventh Seal & Golden Censer | Revelation 7–8 Explained
    2026/09/18
    Last week covered the sixth seal: the sun and moon darkened as a result of the war of Gog of Magog and the man of lawlessness. The sky rolled up like a scroll and stars falling like figs describe the shaking of that war. Gog of Magog is Russia with allies including Germany, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya. They attack Israel while Israel is still at peace with the man of lawlessness and is not suffering the worldwide famine. They come because Israel has goods. Russia and her allies are destroyed on the mountains of Israel (Ezekiel 38–39). The war causes Israel to recognize that God is dealing with them again. The man of lawlessness is slain and resuscitated, not resurrected. After he is restored he sets himself up as God in the temple of God, and Israel flees into the wilderness. Just before mid-tribulation the two witnesses come—Elijah and a contemporary Jew (Revelation 11). Revelation 13 records the man of lawlessness brought back to life. Israel flees and the Great Tribulation begins.Revelation 7 then shows the 144,000 sealed Jews so they cannot be harmed. Angels at the four corners hold the four winds. Later demons from the abyss also cannot harm them. They preach the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens. They are from the tribes of Israel. After the church is gone God deals with Israel again in the realm of the dispensation of law. That does not mean Israel returns under the law to be obedient; Israel failed under the law by crucifying the Messiah who would wipe out the nation’s sins and settle them in the promised land. There is judgment on the dispensation of law. In the first half of the tribulation Israel is under the protection of the man of lawlessness. Heavy destruction on the Gentiles comes in the Great Tribulation. The 144,000 go throughout the world with the message of the kingdom of the heavens—12,000 from each listed tribe. Levi is included because the list is not about land inheritance. Dan is omitted because Dan brought idolatry into Israel; the tribe is not wiped out, but Dan has no protected 12,000.Revelation 7:9 jumps three years forward to the result of their ministry. A great multitude with palm branches cries, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” These are those saved by the 144,000. They serve day and night in His temple—the temple on earth, not the heavenly temple. “Dwell” means He tents among them. Palm trees in Ezekiel 41 mark the millennial kingdom temple, which is not Solomon’s temple. Cherubim and palm trees decorate it. Those saved by the 144,000 reside in that earthly temple for the thousand years. The throne in the heavens will be visible from the temple on earth. New Jerusalem is over the earth and supplies its light (Revelation 21:23–24). The nations walk in that light.These come out of the Great Tribulation. They are not the fifth-seal saints under the altar slain by the harlot in the first half. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb—they believed the message of the 144,000. They will not hunger or thirst. The sun will not scorch them. If God did not shorten those days, not even the elect would survive. The Lamb in the midst of the throne shepherds them to living fountains of water and God wipes every tear from their eyes. They live in the temple the entire thousand years.Revelation 8 opens the seventh seal. Silence in heaven for about half an hour returns the narrative to mid-tribulation. Silence does not mean no sound; it means no one is speaking. Satan is being cast out of the third heaven (Revelation 12:7–9). Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels; no place is found for them in heaven. Satan and his angels are cast to the earth. His time is short; his wrath is on the earth. Angelic warfare is not clashing swords; spirit beings are described in human terms so we understand. Michael, an angel, casts out Lucifer, a cherub—the highest rank of created beings. Michael had previously said to Satan over Moses’ body, “The Lord rebuke you.”Seven messengers who stand before God are given seven trumpets. The trumpets belong to the messengers, not to God. They are for Israel’s deliverance while Israel is in the wilderness. Satan attempts to destroy them and fails. Gentiles are occupied with other judgments. Six trumpets are detailed; the seventh jumps to the end of the millennial kingdom just before eternity. Revelation covers more than the seven years.Another messenger with a golden censer stands at the altar. He is given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. “Angel” means messenger and can be a spirit being, a human, or the second Person of the Godhead as the Messenger of Jehovah. This messenger acts as high priest for Israel. The earthly temple was a shadow of the heavenly. The brazen altar, laver, and altar of incense (Exodus 27; 30) explain the scene. The golden censer belongs with the Holy of ...
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    51 分
  • Matthew 1 Genealogy: David to Jehoram | Royal Line of Judah

    Matthew 1 Genealogy: David to Jehoram | Royal Line of Judah
    2026/09/13
    The teaching continues Matthew chapter 1 in the genealogy of Christ, picking up after Judah through Jesse and moving through the royal line from David to Jehoram.Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, moved from giving up a brother to protecting his brethren, and the royal line comes through him. Perez broke through at birth after his brother’s hand appeared first. Hezron headed the Hezronites in a princely role. Ram is briefly noted. Amminadab became father-in-law of Aaron the high priest through his daughter Elisheba. Nahshon marked the rise of Judah’s authority, including military leadership. Salmon married Rahab. Boaz acted as kinsman-redeemer, marrying Ruth and raising a seed for Elimelech so his name would not be cut off; Obed was born. Jesse is tied to the prophetic branch that would come from his line.David is the one God selected; Saul is the one the people selected. Samuel was sent to anoint one of Jesse’s sons and anointed the youngest (1 Samuel 16:1–13). God promised that after David’s days a seed from his body would have his kingdom established and his throne established into the ages (2 Samuel 7:12–13). David is described as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), focused on obedience, in contrast to Saul, who was disobedient, took forbidden possessions, and lost the throne and his seed. David is the sweet psalmist of Israel (2 Samuel 23:1), establishing the literary foundation of temple worship. He occupies the tenth generation from Perez. Ten denotes completeness in biblical symbolism: ten generations from creation to the flood (Genesis 5), ten from the flood to Abraham (Genesis 11:10–26), and ten from the breach (Perez) to the royal dynasty (Ruth 4:18–22). David lived seventy years and reigned forty years—seven in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem—beginning to reign at thirty (2 Samuel 5:4; 1 Kings 2:11). He refused to usurp the throne and waited for God to appoint him.Solomon, son of Bathsheba the wife of Uriah, was chosen by God among David’s many sons to sit on the throne of the Lord over Israel (1 Chronicles 28:5). Nathan named him Jedidiah because the Lord loved him (2 Samuel 12:24–25). He asked God for an understanding heart to judge the people and discern good and evil (1 Kings 3:9). He was wise but not known as merciful in establishing his throne: Adonijah was put to death after a failed coup (1 Kings 2:23–25); Joab, who supported Adonijah, fled to the horns of the altar and was executed (1 Kings 2:28); Shimei of Saul’s house was executed after violating the terms of exile, with the warning “dying you will die” (1 Kings 2:36–46). God gave Solomon wisdom, riches, and honor and promised lengthened days if he walked in the ways of David (1 Kings 3:12–14). David was not permitted to build the temple because of blood on his hands; Solomon built it (1 Kings 6:1). Solomon reigned forty years in Jerusalem over all Israel (1 Kings 11:42–43). In the end, wives and idolatry entered.Rehoboam, son of Solomon, was forty years old when he became king and reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem; his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess (1 Kings 14:21). The restriction on Ammon and Moab concerned males, not females. He went to Shechem to be made king. He rejected the elders’ counsel to serve the people and lighten the yoke and followed the young men who said his little finger would be thicker than his father’s waist (1 Kings 12:7–11). The turn of events was from the Lord to fulfill the word spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam: ten tribes torn from Solomon’s house (1 Kings 11:31; 12:15). Israel answered, “What share have we in David? … To your tents, O Israel” (1 Kings 12:16). The kingdom split: two tribes with the house of David, ten with Jeroboam. Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him (2 Chronicles 12:1). High places, pillars, wooden images, and abominations of the nations were permitted (1 Kings 14:23–24).Abijah claimed the throne of David, blamed the split on worthless men, and adhered to the Mosaic priesthood of Aaron and the Levites against the northern calves and self-made priests (2 Chronicles 13:4–12). He still walked in the sins of his father and his heart was not loyal to the Lord as David’s heart had been (1 Kings 15:3).Asa did what was upright in the eyes of the Lord, as David had done (1 Kings 15:11; 2 Chronicles 14:2). He banished the perverted persons, removed the idols his father had made (1 Kings 15:12), deposed his grandmother Maacah from being queen mother and cut down and burned her obscene Asherah image, restored the altar of the Lord (2 Chronicles 15:8), and led the people into a national covenant to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 15:12).Jehoshaphat sent leaders and Levites throughout the cities of Judah with the book of the law of the Lord to teach the people (2 Chronicles 17:7–9). He established judges in the fortified cities to hold the people accountable to the law (2 Chronicles 19:6). ...
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    44 分
  • Satan’s Attacks on Believers | Independence, Job & Discouragement

    Satan’s Attacks on Believers | Independence, Job & Discouragement
    2026/09/11
    The lesson continues the Christian Life series on Satan and demons by distinguishing Satan’s attacks from the campaign of the sin nature. The flesh campaigns against the soul through appetites and emotional appeal, as listed in Galatians 5. Satan and his demons typically present a thought or line of reasoning aimed at the rationale. The method is not necessarily appealing; Job’s losses were not desirable. Scripture describes Satan as walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Handling an attack from Satan differs from handling an attack from the flesh.Satan and demons ordinarily work through a thought put before a person; the person is not mind-controlled. Three attacks are assembled from different passages: independence from God, disappointment, and discouragement.Independence from God is at the center of Satan’s own fall and of his first recorded dealing with mankind. In Genesis 3 the serpent questions what God has said, contradicts the warning of death, and offers the prospect of being like gods, knowing good and evil. Eve is beguiled and eats; she later says the serpent deceived her. Adam is not deceived. First Timothy 2:14 states that Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression. Romans 5:12–19 traces sin and death entering the world through one man, Adam, who knew what he was doing. The attack is to know God’s command and act independently of it.James 4:13–17 addresses the same independence in planning: those who say they will go, stay a year, buy and sell and gain ought instead to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” To know to do good and not do it is sin. Acts shows the contrast in Paul’s travels. In Acts 16:6–7 the Holy Spirit forbids preaching in Asia and does not allow them to enter Bithynia. In Acts 18:21 Paul says he will return to Ephesus if God wills. In Acts 19:21 Paul purposes in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. In Acts 21 disciples speak through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem, and Agabus binds himself with Paul’s girdle, saying the Holy Spirit declares the Jews will bind the owner of the girdle. Paul is not persuaded and continues. The pattern illustrates the danger of setting one’s own course apart from the Lord’s will. Satan peddles independence from God; believers are dependent on God.Job supplies the examples of disappointment and discouragement. In Job 1 the Lord points to Job as a blameless and upright man. Satan answers that Job fears God only because of the hedge and blessing, and claims that if all Job has is touched he will curse God to His face. Permission is given except against Job’s person. Messengers report the loss of oxen, donkeys, sheep, camels, servants, and Job’s sons and daughters. Job tears his robe, shaves his head, worships, and says, “Naked I came… the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job does not sin or charge God foolishly.In Job 2 Satan returns and claims that if Job’s bone and flesh are touched he will curse God to His face. Job is struck with boils from sole to crown. His wife says, “Curse God and die.” Job answers that they should receive evil as well as good from God; he does not sin with his lips. After seven days of silence with his friends, Job opens his mouth in chapter 3 and curses the day of his birth, wishing he had died from the womb so as to be at rest. The attitude has shifted from blessing the Lord to disappointment that events do not match his expectations.The friends then press a reasoning that such calamity cannot fall on the righteous. Eliphaz asks who ever perished being innocent (Job 4:7). Bildad says God will not cast away a perfect man and that Job should seek God so his habitation would be prosperous (Job 8). Zophar says God exacts less than Job’s iniquity deserves and that Job should put iniquity far away (Job 11). Job is bewildered. In Job 10 he asks God not to condemn him and to show why He contends with him, insisting he is not wicked. In Job 19 he says God has overthrown him, fenced his way, stripped his glory, kindled wrath against him, and counts him as an enemy. The attitude moves from disappointment to discouragement—the sense that God has turned against him. The opening chapters show that God has not abandoned Job; Satan’s aim is to bring Job to curse God.First Thessalonians 2:17–18 records that Paul desired to see the Thessalonians again but Satan hindered him. The Thessalonians themselves were in tribulation, and some were teaching that they were already in the Day of the Lord. Paul sent Timothy lest the tempter have tempted them and the labor be in vain. Timothy brought good news of their faith and love. Believers can pass through suffering without falling into disappointment, discouragement, or the conclusion that God has abandoned them. Christians do not face wrath from God as Job described. Satan remains permitted to hinder and...
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    1 時間
  • The Sixth Seal Is Not the End | Gog Magog War & 144,000 Sealed

    The Sixth Seal Is Not the End | Gog Magog War & 144,000 Sealed
    2026/09/11
    The sixth seal is not the end of the world. It is the moment the world sees God step back into Israel’s history: sun darkened as sackcloth of hair, moon like blood, sky receding as a scroll, every mountain and island moved, while Israel is still at peace.Revelation 6:12–17 describes a great earthquake and atmospheric obstruction so the sun can still be seen through sackcloth-like darkness and the moon appears blood-filtered. This is not Matthew 24:29, where the sun stops giving light and the stars go out just before the Lord’s return. Stars here fall as a fig tree drops late figs when shaken by a mighty wind; they are shaken, not extinguished.Ezekiel 38:11 places this at mid-tribulation. Gog of Magog comes against a land of unwalled villages, a peaceful people dwelling safely without bars or gates because the man of lawlessness’s covenant has protected Israel. The motive is plunder: livestock and goods in the midst of the land after the earlier seals have left the nations in famine and death.Gog of Magog is the expander of the expanse, prince of Rosh, farthest north—Russia—with Meshach (Turkey), Tubal (Georgia), Gomer (Germany), Togarmah from the far north, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya (Ezekiel 38:1–6; Genesis 10:2). The Lord puts hooks in the jaw and brings them down. Every man’s sword is against his brother. Pestilence, bloodshed, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone fall on Gog, his troops, and the many peoples with him (Ezekiel 38:19–22). Mountains are thrown down, steep places and walls fall. Revelation 6:13–14 describes the same shaking and the sky rolling up like a scroll—the language of nuclear detonation affecting earth and atmosphere together.They fall on the mountains of Israel; birds and beasts devour them (Ezekiel 39:4). Fire is sent on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands; homelands are destroyed with the armies (Ezekiel 39:6). The nations know that He is the Lord (Ezekiel 38:23). Kings, great men, rich men, commanders, mighty men, slave and free hide in caves and rocks and cry for the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath has come (Revelation 6:15–17).God is not dealing with Israel as a nation in the present dispensation of grace; He calls them “not My people” while preserving a remnant among the Gentiles. A Jew today is saved by the same gospel: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day. In the tribulation the dispensation of law is under judgment. The first half God again deals with Israel; this war makes Israel realize He is protecting them. Zechariah 14:1–7 gathers nations against Jerusalem; spoils are divided; a remnant flees; the Lord fights; His feet stand on the Mount of Olives, which splits east to west; light diminishes so it is neither day nor night until evening light signals His coming.Russia succeeds in assassinating the man of lawlessness; one of the beast’s heads is mortally wounded and healed, and the world marvels and follows him (Revelation 13:3). Two witnesses prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth; they are the two olive trees and two lampstands (Revelation 11:3–4)—Elijah and a contemporary Jew, not Enoch. The woman (Israel) flees into the wilderness to a place prepared by God and is nourished 1,260 days, given two wings of a great eagle (Revelation 12:6, 14). The Great Tribulation begins when the man of lawlessness sits as deity in the temple of God (2 Thessalonians 2:4). The church will not know who he is; that day cannot come until the standing away (the gathering of the church from the earth) and then the man of lawlessness is revealed.After these things four angels hold the four winds so they do not harm earth, sea, or trees until the servants of God are sealed on their foreheads (Revelation 7:1–3). Another angel from the east with the seal of the living God commands the delay. 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel are sealed for physical protection so they can proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of the heavens—the Messiah coming to Israel and the earth—not the gospel of grace. They are sealed just before mid-tribulation and then spread through the earth. Levi is included because the sealing is not about land inheritance (Numbers 18:20). Joseph receives a double portion; Manasseh is listed. Dan is omitted; that tribe first set up carved images and its own priesthood (Judges 18:30). The dragon, unable to destroy the woman in the wilderness, makes war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus the Messiah (Revelation 12:17). Next the great multitude that results from their ministry (Revelation 7:9–17).Word of Grace Studies is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Word of Grace Studies at ...
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  • Judah to David | Matthew 1 Genealogy: Perez, Rahab, Ruth & Jesse

    Judah to David | Matthew 1 Genealogy: Perez, Rahab, Ruth & Jesse
    2026/09/06

    The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, traces the promise God gave Abraham. The line did not follow firstborn custom. God rejected Ishmael and appointed Isaac, the son of promise born to Sarah. From Isaac the line passed to Jacob rather than Esau, the firstborn. Before the twins had done good or evil, God chose the younger so that the purpose of election might stand. Jacob’s name means heel-grabber or usurper. Esau sold the birthright for a meal; Jacob, with his mother, took the blessing.

    Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, first proposed selling Joseph rather than killing him (Genesis 37:26–27). God used that act to place Joseph in Egypt so that Jacob’s house would survive the famine. Later Judah changed. Facing Joseph, he pledged his own life for Benjamin. Israel (Jacob renamed) blessed Judah as a lion’s whelp: the scepter would not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes (Genesis 49:9–10). When God calls the nation Jacob He speaks of the usurper; when He calls them Israel He speaks of the prince of God.

    From Judah the line runs through Perez and Zerah, sons of Tamar. Perez received his name because he broke through after his brother’s hand had appeared first (Genesis 38). His house became a leading clan in Judah (Numbers 26:20). Perez’s descendants settled in Bethlehem. Ruth 4:12 treats the house of Perez as a blessing. Perez begot Hezron, head of the Hezronites and the primary clan of the later royal line (Genesis 46:12). Hezron begot Ram. Scripture records no deeds of Ram; he stands as a structural link in the tables of Ruth and 1 Chronicles that validate the house of David.

    Ram begot Amminadab, whose name means “my people are noble.” Amminadab’s daughter Elisheba became the wife of Aaron (Exodus 6:23), joining the coming royal line to the priestly line. Amminadab begot Nahshon, the first man in Scripture explicitly called a nasi, a prince or leader of Judah (Numbers 1:7; 2:3). Nahshon offered the first gift at the dedication of the tabernacle (Numbers 7:12) and led Judah as the vanguard of the wilderness march (Numbers 10:14). Judah was already set as military and political head before the monarchy.

    Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon married Rahab of Jericho. Rahab hid the spies, confessed that the LORD had given Israel the land, and bound the scarlet cord in her window (Joshua 2). By faith she did not perish with those who did not believe (Hebrews 11:31). Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Boaz means “in him is strength.” He acted as go’el, kinsman-redeemer, under the law of Deuteronomy 25:5–10. Before the elders at the gate he acquired the estate of Elimelech and took Ruth the Moabitess as wife to raise up the name of the dead (Ruth 4:9–10). Boaz was a mighty man of wealth (Ruth 2:1) and kept the Torah toward the poor, leaving extra grain for Ruth.

    Ruth, a Moabitess descended from Lot, left her land and gods and clung to Naomi: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Deuteronomy 23:3–4 bars an Ammonite or Moabite male from the assembly of the LORD even to the tenth generation. The restriction applies to the male line, the line of seed; it does not bar Ruth. There is therefore no legal defect in her place in David’s genealogy.

    Boaz and Ruth begot Obed. In the legal sense of redemption Obed was accounted the heir of Elimelech and Naomi so that the name and inheritance would not be cut off (Ruth 4:10, 14–15). Obed begot Jesse of Bethlehem. The LORD sent Samuel to Jesse after rejecting Saul: “I have provided Myself a king among his sons” (1 Samuel 16:1). David, the youngest, was keeping sheep. Samuel anointed him; the Spirit of the LORD came upon him. David did not seize the throne while Saul lived. Isaiah 11:1 promises a rod from the stem of Jesse and a Branch from his roots. Romans 15:12 applies that word to Messiah, who will rise to reign over the Gentiles. Revelation 5:5 names Him the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the One worthy to open the scroll.

    The Spirit was with David, not in him as in the Church; David could plead that the Spirit not be taken from him. The earthly monarchy would later be cut down, yet the right to the throne remained in Jesse’s line and is fulfilled in Christ.

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