Resultados narrador por "Dr. Bill Creasy" en Todas las categorias

Although their names sound alike, few men in the Bible are more different than Elijah and Elisha. Elijah loves a show; Elisha is shy. Elijah loves a grand exit; Elisha dies quietly, alone. Yet, in many ways, Elisha is an even greater prophet than Elijah. This is his story.

Timothy joins Paul and Silas at the beginning of the second missionary journey, A.D. 50-52. A young man from Lystra, Timothy is the “Macgiver” of the Bible—he can fix anything with duct tape and a can of WD-40! This very resourceful young man becomes Paul’s protégé, but on assignment to Ephesus, Timothy finds himself in deep water, well over his head. Paul writes 1 Timothy to offer Timothy guidance and encouragement.

In Isaiah Part 2, we enter the historical interlude. We learn in Isaiah 1: 1 that Isaiah functions as a prophet during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: That is, from 740 – 686 B.C. During that time, two major historical events occur: 1) Assyria’s attack on the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. and 2) Assyria’s attack on Jerusalem in 701 B.C., while Hezekiah is king and Isaiah is prophet.

That attack in 701 B.C.—and God miraculously saving Jerusalem—foreshadows greater events to come.

Traditionally attributed to the apostle John, 1 John is a very personal discourse on a variety of topics by one who had an extraordinarily intimate relationship with Christ. In this epistle, John discusses the appeal and challenges of emerging Gnostic beliefs in the early Church and the impact such beliefs have on a believer’s view of salvation. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as we explore this intimate epistle.

If Isaiah is the Thundering Prophet and Jeremiah is the Weeping Prophet, Ezekiel is the Weird Prophet! Ezekiel is taken captive to Babylon after its second attack on Jerusalem, 597 B.C. Ezekiel’s book is set in Babylon and it consists of thirteen separate “visions” that span twenty years. And they are very strange visions, indeed!

With the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam, ascends the throne. All twelve tribes gather at Shechem to anoint him king—but they demand two concessions: 1) lower the taxes and 2) end conscripted labor. Rehoboam refuses, triggering a civil war. In 930 B.C., the united monarchy splits, ten of the twelve tribes forming the northern kingdom of Israel, with its capital in Samaria, and two of the twelve tribes forming the southern kingdom of Judah, with its capital in Jerusalem.

Joel may be the earliest of the writing prophets; if he is, then he introduces the term “the Day of the Lord” as a reference to a set of final, catastrophic events that will befall Israel—and indeed all humanity in the “end times.” Illustrating his message with reference to a dreadful locust plague that occurred in the past, we shudder as God makes clear that if Israel does not repent something much greater than a locust plague will occur.

Moving from Genesis to Exodus, 400 years flash by and the Israelites grow from a family of 73 to a nation of 2 million; and they move from freedom into slavery. We shouldn’t be surprised. Half a millennium earlier, in Genesis 15: 13, God had told Abraham: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.” Why would God allow this happen?

The Minor Prophets are minor because they are shorter in length than the Major Prophets, not because they are less important: Isaiah is 66 chapters long; Obadiah is 1 chapter. All of the Minor Prophets write during the time of the kings, 1050 – 586 B.C., or after the return from Babylonian Captivity, 539 – 430 B.C. Most tell us when they are active. Hosea, for example, begins: “The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah…” (Hosea 1: 1).

The Babylonians lay siege to Jerusalem in 588 B.C., and the city falls on August 14, 586 B.C. The siege of a fortified city is a dreadful thing to behold. Food and supplies quickly run out: Starvation, sickness and death follow. Jeremiah is inside Jerusalem during the 2-year siege, and Lamentations is his eyewitness account.

The march to the Promised Land takes 40 years. But the Israelites do not wander aimlessly in the wilderness during that time. (Recall the old explanation that Moses, like most men, was too stubborn to stop and ask for directions!) Refused passage through Edom on the King’s Highway, Moses diverts northwest to Kadesh Barnea, a large oasis, where the Israelites spend nearly 37 of the 40 years, finally entering the Promised Land through Moab, by a remote and very dangerous desert route.

God continues prescribing rules and regulations for his people, including sexual and priestly behavior, and a comprehensive cycle of annual festivals, many of which are still observed today.

After an epic battle with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and into what he later calls “that vast and dreadful wilderness” (Deuteronomy 1: 19). Are the Israelites moving from slavery into freedom, or from slavery into death? We shall see...

If Isaiah is the “thundering prophet”, then Jeremiah is the “weeping prophet”. Jeremiah holds the terrible position of being both a priest and a prophet; he represents both the people before God, and God before the people—not unlike a lawyer representing both husband and wife in a contentious and bitter divorce! Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as he follows Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet”, through his many trials and tribulations.

When Paul is arrested in Jerusalem in late A.D. 57, it plunges Paul into a legal morass that sees him held under protective custody in Caesarea for nearly two years, transported to Rome for his legal appeal, and two more years waiting in Rome for his court hearing. Altogether, Paul is sidelined for nearly five years, A.D. 58 – 62. It is important to understand that Paul is not a prisoner at this time: He is a Roman citizen, first arrested for inciting a riot, but quickly put under protective custody and sent to Rome for a legal appeal that he initiates.

During the 40 years in the wilderness, all the Israelites who had left Egypt die: 603,548 of the 603, 550 men—all except Joshua and Caleb. On the Plains of Jericho, Moses tells the new generation their story. This is not a simple recounting of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers; it is a retelling of the story to a new generation on the back end of 40 years’ experience. Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell address. At the end of the book he dies.

When Cyrus the Great king of Persia allows the Jews to return home and rebuild Jerusalem, only 42,360 do (Ezra 2: 64), about 10% of the population. The rest stay behind in Assyria, Babylon and Persia. After all, it had been nearly 200 years since the Northern kingdom had been taken captive into Assyria and almost 70 years since the Southern kingdom had been taken captive to Babylon. The Jews had built homes, started businesses and settled into their new lives.

Jesus’ entire public ministry leads to his death, burial and resurrection. Indeed, Jesus tells us himself that he came “to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20: 28). We often are given the impression that Jesus was the innocent victim of corrupt religious authority and political intrigue. That is wrong. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he left Galilee for Jerusalem on Passover in the third year of his ministry.

As Saul crumbles under the weight of kingship, a young man rises to take his place: David. As Jonathan Kirsch observes in King David: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel (New York: Ballantine Books, 2000), the story of David is “a work of genius that anticipates the romantic lyricism and tragic grandeur of Shakespeare, the political wile of Machiavelli, and the modern psychological insight of Freud." David is one of the greatest characters in world literature; he is also my favorite character in the Bible.

With Samuel an old man and his sons corrupt, the people demand a king to lead them, like all the other nations have. God tells Samuel, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king” (1 Samuel 8: 7). So the people choose Saul, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin to be their king (1050-1010 B.C.). Although Saul looks like a king, he lacks the heart of a king, and very quickly the weight of kingship begins to crush him.