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The Women at the Door

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In my reading, I came across a very interesting passage, almost an aside, in the Book of Exodus. The Bible gives little information about it, yet its inclusion suggests it matters to some degree.  As I pulled on that loose thread, several other things came loose, very interesting things. There’s more to this one verse than meets the eye, and it delves into spiritual warfare, the role of women in an assembly, and spiritual adultery.  I hope it’s as interesting for you as it was for me! In Exodus 38, it briefly mentions the women who “served at the door of the Tabernacle,” and then just moves right along without ever getting into more detail—or does it? There are only two passages that mention these particular women specifically, but there are a few others that allude to them as well, and even an apostolic command that gives a good direction for a modern application.  Now, we know that the priesthood was entirely composed of men, and they were carefully regulated and ordere...

What Do You Mean, "Last Days?"

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  If I were to guess your beliefs, I would guess you probably believe that we are living in the last days, and that Jesus Christ will return to this earth sometime in the next few decades, if not within just a few years. I, too, am inclined to believe this, and most readers of this blog probably are as well. For most of my life, I’ve heard that we are living in the last days, and that Jesus Christ’s return is imminent. Most of you probably have as well. This has been proclaimed for many decades, if not centuries. And what about the apostles who lived and died around 2,000 years ago? Men like Peter, Paul, John, and others? Didn’t they also believe that Christ’s return was imminent, within their own lifetimes? It’s often asserted that they did, and those who say so can point to several Scriptures as support. For example, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come...

The Gospel According to Job

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  In your English Bible, you’ll probably find that the Book of Matthew is titled “The Gospel According to Matthew”; Mark, “The Gospel According to Mark”; and likewise for Luke and John. The Four Gospels, as we often call them, tell the story of Jesus Christ’s ministry, miracles, teachings, death, and resurrection. But the gospel begins elsewhere. Whenever Jesus or His apostles preached the gospel, the good news of salvation, they preached from the so-called “Old Testament,” the only Scriptures that existed then. Jesus began His ministry by reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18; quoting Isa. 61:1). So the gospel begins in the Old Testament. The Book of Hebrews declares that even the Israelites under Moses heard the go...