Paul’s letter reads like a lone voice crying in the wilderness of a pagan empire. Paul reveals in our text that he had pushback on other missionary fronts in addition…
Proverbs 19:23 serves well as a theme verse to outline this chapter of Solomon’s collection of wise sayings. This verse reprises the meta-theme of wisdom literature: ‘The fear of the…
Proverbs 18:10 describes the name of the Lord as a strong tower. The renown and character of our great God is where the righteous man finds his identity, meaning, standards,…
Historical background: the kingdom and events unfolding in the book of Esther pick up roughly where the contemporary events of the book of Daniel had left off. The timeline of…
How can we run to the name of the Lord as our strong tower? While the first 8 verses of Proverbs 18 primarily identify and refute enemies of wisdom inspiring…
Taking verse 10 as an organizing analogy for Proverbs 18, this chapter presents a ‘tale of two towers’ in wisdom literature terms. Will the foundation and framework of our lives…
The Psalms, as summarized by the closing song in each of the first 4 book divisions in the Psalter, present Messiah Prayers in two senses. First: they serve as prayers…
Acts 7 records a Gospel sermon proclaimed to Paul before he was born again. Paul, approving of Stephen’s execution, would have been aware of this testimony. Sometime later, Paul is…
According to Proverbs 25:4 “Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel”. According to Proverbs 17:3 “The crucible is for silver, and the…
Prov. 25:4-5 expounds & applies the analogy of pure metals vs. dross. Another example in Proverbs utilizing similar picture language to Prov. 17:3. When the heart is tested by the…