Tag-Archive for ◊ chastisement ◊

24 Apr 2024 2 Corinthians (Program #1)

2 Corinthians (Program #1) -Introduction (1)

The apostle Paul’s first epistle to the believers in Corinth was of sixteen chapters and was full of his strong rebuke and argument with the church there. In that letter he subdued them and defeated them. Now in his second letter just as a parent would spend a long period of to comfort and encourage a child that had received the strong chastisement. Paul minsters to comforting ointment and the encouragement of love. Listen to his opening words in his cherishing epistle :

1:1-3 ” Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions and God of all comfort;”

This is a very subjective book, 2 Corinthians, where by Paul brings the Corinthians back to the experience of Christ and is a book that can lead us to experience Christ as well.

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16 Mar 2023 Malachi (Program #4)

Malachi (Program #4) – The Revival Revealed in the Minor Prophets

The twelve books of the minor prophets at the end of the Old Testament are somewhat hard to get into and most Christians today have a hard time even remembering or naming them in order. Today in our last life study of Malachi, we’re going to bring you the ‘kernel’ of all these twelve minor prophet books which is referred to as a ‘wonderful sweet kernel’.

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19 Feb 2023 Micah (Program #2)

Micah (Program #2) – Jehovah’s Comfort to Israel

The Prophet Micah in the Old Testament speaks of God’s reprove and chastisement of Israel in a very poetic language.

Chapter 1:3-4 “For Jehovah is about to come forth from His place, And He will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will be melted under Him, And the valleys will be cleft, Like wax before fire, Like water poured down a slope.”

These sobering words caused Micah to weep but as with other prophets Micah also speaks of God’s comforting of His people.  Which ultimately comes at the end of this age in what the prophets of all spoke as the restoration. A coming age when there will be no need of weapons for all the enemies will be gone and Christ will rule, shepherd and protect His people while His people feast and rejoice in loving worship of Him for a thousand years.

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15 Feb 2023 Amos (Program #1)

Amos (Program #1) – The Introductory Word, Jehovah’s Judgments on the Surrounding Nations, and His Judgments on Judah and Israel, and Jehovah’s Contending with the House of Jacob

There are many ways to look at and interpret human history. But if we study the divine record in the Bible, we can see a clear and on going pattern. And that is that for more than 20 centuries God’s people Israel had been under a kind of suffering, a chastisement at the hands of the surrounding nations.  At the same time God has been judging and punishing those nations for their excessive brutality toward Israel. And during these entire period beginning from the incarnation of the Savior, Christ had been increasingly manifested on the earth. This clear, concise summary of the past centuries is the topic and focus of most of the Old Testament books of the prophets. Amos is one of the Minor Prophets that continues this revelation.

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08 Feb 2023 Hosea (Program #4)

Hosea (Program #4) – On Hosea (3)—The Sins of the Apostate People, the Punishments of Jehovah, and the Return of the Apostate People

Chapters 4 through 6 in the book of Hosea give us many details concerning God chastisement of rebellious people, Israel. For the most part He used the great nations, the great empires of the human history to accomplish this chastisement. Israel had suffered under first the Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar and then the Medo Persian empire and the Greek empire and ultimately the Roman empire. And as harshly as Israel had suffered under these four great empires that were prophesied first by the prophet Daniel, still God had used this for good. Because Israel will eventually return to Jehovah and be fully restored. But even more than that God had used these four consuming empires as factors to help in the accomplishment of His great purpose in bringing forth and manifesting Christ

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10 Dec 2022 Jeremiah (Program #17)

Jeremiah (Program #17) – Jehovah as the Potter and Israel as the Pottery

The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a difficult almost impossible situation. On one hand, he himself was part of the nation of Israel. A nation that had rebelled against the Lord and as a result was suffering under the hand of Jehovah’s discipline and chastisement. Therefore, Jeremiah was suffering along with all his countrymen. Yet Jeremiah was unique in that he had faithfully spoken Jehovah’s word to Israel pointing out their unfaithfulness and warning them to turn back to the God who had so marvelously brought them into the Good Land. But this faithful speaking by Jeremiah was rejected by Israel and caused them to hate him and even further persecute him.  So it’s not surprising to hear this man of God crying out in anguish to the one person who would surely sympathize with him – his own mother. In chapter 15, the prophet said “Woe is me, my mother, because you bore me, A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land. I have not lent with interest, Nor have they lent to me; Yet everyone curses me.” But before his mother could speak a comforting word, Jehovah intervenes. And in the discourse that follows, we see that Jeremiah had a different view from Jehovah regarding the way that the Lord was dealing with His people, Israel.

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16 Oct 2022 Isaiah (Program #9)

Isaiah (Program #9) – The Salvation of Jehovah (7 & 8)

The Old Testament book of Isaiah seems to alternate between God’s judgment which issued from the degenerating and corrupted condition of His people and the glorious revelation of our Savior Christ.  This sequence also seems to parallel at times, our own experience.  After God’s chastisement and discipline we often enjoy the Lord in a deeper and more substantial way.  We will see this issue once again in two of Isaiah’s most marvelous chapters 11 and 12 on today’s life study of the Bible.

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09 Oct 2022 Isaiah (Program #2)

Isaiah (Program #2) – The Salvation of Jehovah to His Beloved People and the Nations (1)

“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.  Hear, O heavens, and hearken, O earth, For Jehovah has spoken: I have brought up children, and I have raised them; And yet they have rebelled against Me.”   These are the words of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah as he began his book of prophecy.  God’s people have rebelled and their righteous and loving Father after confronting them with His complains begins the work of chastisement and drawing the stubborn people back to Himself.  How does God deal with His own when they strayed?  What can we see from this ancient account that is meaningful for us today as we live the Christian life?

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