This great vision is presented to us in apocalyptic form. This means it belongs to a certain literary genre, just like parts of Daniel, the Gospels, and the book of Revelation. The word apocalypsis (just like the Latin revelatio) refers to an unveiling, or lifting of the curtain. This enables us to see what is …
They Will Look on the One They Have Pierced
The second oracle, the second “burden,” begins. Now a burden is a negative prophecy. In some sense, this contains hard words for Israel, but in another sense it is full of consolation. “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of …
Thistles on Reprobate Land
The word adokimos is rendered as reprobate, castaway, or rejected. It represents the condition of sin itself, but not a particular sinful action. Those who do not want to retain a knowledge of God in their thoughts are given over to a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:28). This is the kind of mind that refuses to …
The Lord Against the Greeks
The prophet has given us a glimpse of the conquest of Alexander. In the midst of this vision, he jumps ahead so that we might see the character of another kind of conqueror, our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in this portion of Scripture, he returns to the scene established by the wars of Alexander, …
Just Love On Her
Once there was young lady in college who flew home for Christmas vacation. Her mother picked her up at the airport, and so they had a very good talk on the drive back to her home, which was a couple hours away. The thing that the young lady really wanted to unburden her soul about …
Delayed Judgment Is Not Mercy
God has promised blessings to Israel, but we have seen that His blessings are always covenantal. This means that we may never walk away from our obligation to live in the way that God commands, knowing always that He gives His beloved what He commands. Grace enables us to walk rightly; it does not waive …
A Woman in the Garden
The narrative of the resurrection in this book is brief, but it is truly powerful. As we consider the appearances of the Lord, and His current enthronement, our prayer should be that we continue to spread the word. He is risen indeed. “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of …
Moral Imagination
“If that is the imagination, what is the moral imagination? The eighteenth century British statesman Edmund Burke first coined the term in his great work Reflections on the Revolution in France . . . The moral imagination is the distinctively human power to conceive of men and women as moral beings . . . Modern …
Grace or Law?
“A vision of the good has far greater power to move men and women to do the right thing than all the horrible images we may conjure up to terrify them into doing it” (Vigen Guroian, Rallying the Really Human Things, p. 10).
Guilt or Gratitude?
“So the last principle is to have richness of wealth be matched by a richness of good works. We are not to give to others because we have been infected with wealth, and we, the guilty, want to pass on the cooties. We are to give from a sense of enjoyment and gratitude. A man …