- You are here:
- Home »
- Author's Archive:
All posts by Randall Johnson
Daniel 3:1-30, Refusal to Bow
It was common in the ancient near east for kings to be revered as the “son” of their national god, and common for statues of gods to be erected for worship. But it seems suspicious that Nebuchadnezzar
Continue reading...Daniel 2:25-45, The Dream and Its Interpretation
“The appearance of colossal figures, often the statue of a deity, is fairly common in dream reports from the ancient Near East. Pharaoh Merenptah saw a giant statue of the god Ptah, who gave him permission
Continue reading...Daniel 2:1-24, To Dream the Impossible Dream
Wikipedia: “The Babylonians and Assyrians divided dreams into “good,” which were sent by the gods, and “bad,” sent by demons. A surviving collection of dream omens entitled Iškar
Continue reading...Daniel 1:17-21, The Excelling of the Hebrew Young Men
This first section of Daniel’s book highlights a basic theme of the work, which is Yahweh’s care and concern for His people who obey Him while they are in exile from their homeland. Israel was in exile
Continue reading...Daniel 1:8-16, The Test of Faith
Sometime prior to 1975 I attended Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts, a ministry which has since been discredited by its extreme teachings and its founder’s immorality. But it taught
Continue reading...Daniel 1:3-7, Training to Be a Chaldean
When I was 14 I began attending a new school. In each class they called roll and they had my first and last name on the roll. I went by my middle name but I answered, “here,” and so was being called
Continue reading...Daniel 1:1-2, History of Daniel’s Coming to Babylon
The book of Daniel the prophet begins by giving the historical setting and the reason for Daniel’s and his friends’ situation in Babylon. It is because of the judgment of God on Judah and the nearing
Continue reading...Malachi 4:1-6, The Great and Awesome Day of Yahweh
The Day of Yahweh is any day of God’s judgment when the wicked are destroyed and the righteous are exonerated and restored. There is going to be an ultimate Day of Yahweh, the final judgment of the wicked
Continue reading...Malachi 3:12-18, The Book of Remembrance
Does God need to keep books or lists in order to remember things of importance? Of course not. It is an action of His part that is for our benefit. We need such tools to help us remember, so God is depicted
Continue reading...Malachi 3:6-12, The Tithe
“Tithe” means a tenth. The Law required giving a tenth of one’s income to Yahweh (“A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to Yahweh”
Continue reading...Malachi 2:17-3:5, The Underlying Root of Unbelief
Most of us are familiar with the process of smelting silver or gold in order to remove the impurities. This is a common metaphor of judgment in Scripture. But another metaphor is cleansing by fuller’s
Continue reading...Malachi 2:10-16, Another Covenant Failure
There are three covenants in view in this section of Malachi. He has already mentioned the covenant that Yahweh made with Levi, constituting his tribe as the priestly tribe. Here in this passage, he mentions
Continue reading...Malachi 2:5-9, How Priests (Pastors) Should Minister
Though there is not a one-to-one correspondence between priests and pastors, there is a similarity of responsibility. As one commentator says, Whilst the prophets were extraordinary messengers of God,
Continue reading...Malachi 2:1-4, Judgment on the Priests
The functions of Israel’s priests were (1) ritual – the offering of sacrifices that brought Israelites back into relationship with God, (2) oracular – divine or perceive God’s will
Continue reading...Malachi 1:6-14, Polluted Sacrifices
God did not accept sacrifices that were imperfect: Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the LORD or give them to the LORD as a food offering
Continue reading...