Ezekiel (Program #25) – The Holy Land and the Holy City

Clearly the subject and central focus of the last section of the book of Ezekiel is the temple, the house of God. Show the house to the house, the Lord tells Ezekiel and that is exactly what he does in the final chapters. Yet, there’s a very profound postscript to Ezekiel’s vision that is found in the final chapters of the book and that is the land upon which the temple sits. In fact the land and the house are the central focus of the entire Old Testament. Recall Jehovah’s words to Joshua following the death of Moses as the children of Israel were encamped at the border of the good land in Canaan, “Moses My servant is dead; now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you, as I promised Moses…Be strong and take courage, for you will cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.” (Joshua 1:2-3,6). Well if the temple typifies the church as the fulfillment of the house of God, what then does this land typify?

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Jeremiah (Program #13) – God’s Economy with His Dispensing in Jeremiah (2)

It seems upon casual reading of the Old Testament that the central focus of the book is the law of Moses.  When God brought Moses to the mountain and deliver the ten commandments that surely was a key moment, a key factor in God’s dealing with His people Israel.  But in the New Testament, the apostle Paul tells us that the law was not part of God’s original intention for man, rather it was something added due to man’s failures and sins.   In Galatians chapter 3 he says, “Why then the law? It was added because of the transgressions until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, it being ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. ”  Actually God’s intention for man has never changed.  From the beginning He has desire that He Himself would be everything to man.  And Jeremiah, he lamented that His people Israel had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters.  If we have this view of God’s eternal desire, our understanding of such Old Testament books as Jeremiah will be greatly uplifted.

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Psalms (Program #2) – Christ in God’s Economy versus the Law in Man’s Appreciation (1)

Many of the 39 books of the Old Testament touched the matter of the law. The law generally refers to the commands that God delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai after the children of Israel had their exodus from Egypt. And the impact that these laws has had not just on God’s people but on all of western civilization is hard to overstate.

God’s people both in New and Old Testament heirs treasure the law of God.  But there is a key word in the New Testament that reveals something crucial concerning God’s entire economy and how the law relates to it.  In Rom 5:20 it says, “And the law entered in alongside that the offense might abound”  What does it mean that the law entered in alongside?  Well, we will discuss this in many more items relate to the law and the central focus of God’s economy on today’s program.

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1 Timothy (Program #1) – God’s Dispensation versus Differing Teachings

The book of 1 Timothy was written during a period of decline and even degradation in the Church. And interestingly the apostle Paul takes the opportunity to point out a clear distinction between the central focus of the New Testament and general, random Christians teachings.  And remarkably very few Bible readers have ever taken notice of these important verses. Listen to 1 Timothy Chapter 1:3-4 “.. I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia,” Paul writes to Timothy, “to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things. Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings rather than God’s economy, which is in faith.”

What are these different teachings that are versus God’s economy?  We will explore this marvelous, broad and critically important topic in the coming days and weeks in this new life study of 1 & 2 Timothy.

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