I have taken the time to revise and expand my paper on the Levitical System. It can be found here:

The Levitical System (PDF file; 15 pages)

One of the most obscure characters in the New Testament is a guy named Demas. We don’t really know very much about him; in fact, he is only mentioned in three verses. Those three verses, though, have a sad story to tell.

Demas is first mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

Colossians 4:14: “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.”

At the time that Paul wrote this he was actually being held in prison in Rome. Despite the dire circumstances, Paul was not alone; Luke and Demas were both with him. Demas was not just a random person; he was someone who stood by Paul, even when he was in prison. In fact, Paul called him a fellowlaborer:

Philemon 1:24: “Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.”

That is high praise! The apostle Paul singled Demas out for special commendation. Demas was still there, fighting the good fight, standing by Paul in his ministry.

Demas is mentioned one more time in the Bible. This mention is found in 2 Timothy, which was written toward the end of Paul’s life. This is what Paul had to say:

2 Timothy 4:10: “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.”

Demas – who once worked beside Paul – had abandoned the apostle. Demas did not finish the race; instead he dropped out just when Paul was about to die. He left Paul just when the apostle’s need was greatest. We are even told why he did this: Demas loved this present world. He preferred the riches of this world over the sufferings of Christ. He chose the world over God because he loved the world more.

There is a cautionary tale in this. Demas started out strong, but he failed to finish. In the end he fell away and abandoned God. It is good to start out strong – but we must finish strong as well. We need to keep the faith and hold on. If we don’t, the consequences will be dire:

Ezekiel 3:20: “Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity…he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered…”

I don’t know what great deeds Demas did. What I do know is that Demas chose to forsake God, because he loved the things of this world – and that is how he will be remembered.

Revelation 6:15: “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

The mighty judgments of God are so horrific that everyone is terrified, from the mightiest people on the planet (kings) to the most humble (slaves). Nobody is exempt. They are so frightened that they run to hide. In fact, they are so desperate that they plead to be buried alive so that they might be hidden from the face of God. They can’t bear His gaze. Just look at their anguish: “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

The world finally realizes that the day of God’s wrath has come. Something supernatural is happening and they know exactly Who is responsible. They also know that they are utterly helpless against it. There is no more denying that God exists, and there is no more claiming that He is uninterested in what happens or that He does not see them. People are desperate to hide because they cannot bear His gaze.

Over the past year or so I’ve taught three different series of classes at my local church. I’ve taken the lessons that I taught during those three sessions and have turned them into a series of three books. They are:

Class 1: Creation: The lessons cover Biblical Creationism, Cain and Abel, the Sons of Adam, the Nephilim, and the Flood. Download the free PDF file (149 pages). There are also printed copies available.

Class 2: Abraham: The lessons cover Babylon, the life of Abraham, the order of Melchizedek, defiling the land, Israel’s right to Canaan, and covenant theology versus dispensationalism. Download the free PDF file (124 pages). There are also printed copies available.

Class 3: The Mosaic Law: The lessons cover Jewish festivals and holy days, the levitical system, the sacrificial system, the Mosaic Law, Sabbath keeping, tithing, and slavery. Download the free PDF file (153 pages). There are also printed copies available.

Revelation 6:12: “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

When the sixth seal is opened there is a “great earthquake”. This one is off the charts: it causes every mountain and island to be “moved out of their places”. It is catastrophic and planet-wide – and yet, for all that, it is not the worst earthquake of all time. Toward the end of Revelation we will see one that is even worse.

As if the earthquake were not enough, the sun becomes “black as sackcloth of hair”. We saw this back in Egypt as one of the plagues; there was three days of thick darkness. When the sixth seal is opened the sun becomes black, the moon becomes as blood, and there will be a great meteor shower. What we are seeing is a series of supernatural, cataclysmic events. The Bible does not say how many people are killed in these events, but I imagine it will be a tremendous number.

To recap: first, the antichrist launches a war and the whole world becomes engulfed in it. Famine breaks out, and a quarter of the world’s population dies. Many people are murdered for their faith in Jesus. Then there is a terrible earthquake, a darkening of the sun, and a meteor shower. And we are still in the first half of the 7-year Tribulation; there are much worse things to come.

This is the point when people realize that God is at work. The reality is that it has been God all along; God was the one who unleashed the antichrist, the war, the famine, and all the rest. But here, as a result of this seal being unleashed, people finally realize Who is responsible – and they are terrified.

I have taken the time to revise and expand my paper on Jewish festivals and holy days. It can be found here:

Festivals and Holy Days (PDF file; 14 pages)

Anyone who has studied the book of Job has run across the mysterious Behemoth and Leviathan. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I believe that both of these creatures are dinosaurs. (If you want to read about them you can find the behemoth discussed in Job 40:15-24, and the leviathan discussed in Job 41:1-34.) Both of these creatures are fascinating and are well-worth studying, but they’re not what I want to focus on today. Instead I’d like to take a look at a much more obscure creature: Rahab the Dragon.

Now, in Joshua 2 the Bible tells us about a prostitute named Rahab who helped Israel’s spies escape from Jericho. That is not the Rahab that I am talking about. The Bible speaks of another Rahab:

Isaiah 51:9: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?”

That mention is interesting, but it doesn’t tell us very much. There is another mention of Rahab in the book of Psalms:

Psalm 89:9 “Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
“10: Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.”

Notice that in both of these passages Rahab is mentioned in conjunction with God’s power over the sea. It seems possible that Rahab may have been some kind of sea creature that God defeated. It’s tempting to think that Rahab may be a reference to some nation (such as Egypt), but the context of these passages simply do not support that.

It should be noted that Rahab is not the only mysterious sea creature that God has fought. The Bible uses the exact same language when it talks about Leviathan:

Isaiah 27:1: “In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”

Psalm 74:13: “Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.”

Are Rahab and Leviathan the same creature? I don’t really know. What I do know is that they are both called dragons, they are both associated with the sea, and God promised to destroy both of them. Rahab seems to mean “proud” or “arrogant”, and God did say that the Leviathan was characterized by pride (Job 41:34). Rahab and Leviathan may well be the same animal.

There is yet another reference to Rahab, and that is in the book of Job. If you read the KJV you won’t see it, because the translators translated the word “Rahab” to mean “proud” instead of just inserting the name. But it is the same word. This is how the ESV translates it:

Job 26:12: “By his power he stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Rahab.”

Notice that once again Rahab is mentioned in conjunction with God’s power over the sea.

Taken together, these passages paint an interesting picture of a mysterious animal.

Revelation 6:9: “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

Here we see a group of people who were executed for their faith in Jesus. These people are crying out to the Lord, asking Him to avenge them. This is a fascinating passage and there is a great deal we can glean from it.

First of all, these people must be Tribulation martyrs. They are not part of the Church because the Church is represented by the 24 elders. The elders are seated on thrones; they are not huddled under the altar. Since these people are saved but are not a part of the Church, that means they must have been saved after the Rapture. This puts an end to the idea that no one is saved after the Rapture. As it turns out, a tremendous number of people will become Christians after the Church is gone.

As we know, the Church is resurrected at the time of the Rapture. These Tribulation saints, however, are represented as souls. They have not yet been resurrected. As it turns out, their resurrection will not happen until after the Tribulation is over and the Lord returns.

Notice that these people – who are dead and in Heaven – are quite aware of what’s going on back on Earth. People have wondered if they will know what is going on when they reach Heaven; well, these people certainly do! So that answers that question. Also, notice that these people are not happy: they know that they were murdered and they want revenge. They are not resting in peace, even though they are in the presence of God Himself. They are crying out for justice and the Lord has promised to give it to them.

Also, notice that they are given white robes, which are symbolic of righteousness. These white robes did not originally belong to them; instead the robes were given to them. Their righteousness is not their own; it is a gift from Jesus. We do not stand before God dressed in our own righteousness; instead we stand before God dressed in Christ’s righteousness. It is a gift from Jesus, paid for by His death and resurrection.

Another startling thing is what is said in verse 10. Even though a quarter of the planet was just killed, these martyrs are asking when they will be avenged! That means that the previous seal judgment was actually not God’s vengeance for the death of His saints. God agrees that they have not yet been avenged and promises that this will happen when those who “should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled”. In other words, there are still more people who will be martyred. After the number of martyrs have been completed the Lord will avenge their blood on those that dwell on the Earth. (That is something that we will see addressed later in Revelation.)

The Bible does not say when these people were martyred. All we know is that these people are not war casualties; they are people who were executed because of their faith. This means that after the Rapture many people are saved – and those people are then intensely persecuted, and many will be murdered.

This book contains a summary of every chapter in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. The purpose of this summary is to make it easier to see the Bible as a whole. This book is one tenth the length of the Bible, but each chapter summary retains the key points of that chapter. This book can be read in just a few days, enabling the reader to cover vast portions of the Bible in a very brief amount of time. It is my hope that this summary will prove to be a valuable study aid for those who wish to understand the Bible a little bit better.

This book can be downloaded free-of-charge right here:

Chapter Summary of the Bible (PDF file; 337 pages)

Printed copies of this book are also available here.

Revelation 6:7: “And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

This is just a side-note, but it’s interesting that the second seal commented upon by the second beast, the third seal by the third beast, and the fourth seal by the fourth beast. It’s just something curious.

In these verses we see a “pale horse”, which I understand can also be translated as a “pale green horse”. Some have claimed that the rider is Islam, but the verse tells us that the rider is actually Death. Death rides forth and kills a quarter of the planet’s population, “with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth”.

It is horrifying to stop and realize that even though we are still in the early stages of the Tribulation, a quarter of mankind has already been killed. At today’s population that represents almost two billion people! It is an astonishing thing; death on that scale hasn’t been seen since the Flood. Even World War II only killed tens of millions! There has never been a conflict in all of recorded history that has killed billions.

This brings up an important point. There are some people who believe in a pre-wrath Rapture, which teaches that the Rapture will take place around the middle of the Tribulation. They claim that the Church will be delivered only from God’s wrath, and that His wrath doesn’t really begin until the midpoint of the Tribulation when the Antichrist enters the Temple and declares Himself to be God. The problem with this view is that the time of God’s wrath begins as soon as the Tribulation starts! In fact, Revelation 6:17 says that the day of God’s wrath has already begun, and the Tribulation has just barely gotten started. This puts an end to the mid-Tribulation rapture theory. The wrath starts at the beginning of the Tribulation, not its midpoint.

To recap, this is what we have so far: at the beginning of the Tribulation the Antichrist will launch a war against other countries, and the entire world will become engulfed in a world war. A terrible famine will break out and a quarter of the world’s population will die. And the Tribulation has only just begun.

A number of years ago I read the book Messianic Christology, which was written by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum. One of the statements he made (if I remember this correctly) was that when Jesus was a child He was taught by angels. I had never heard anyone mention that before, and I thought that was very interesting.

Today someone asked me about that very same subject. Since I no longer have that book (I have no idea what happened to it) and since I had forgotten where that verse was, I did a quick online search – and I found absolutely nothing. Apparently Dr. Fruchtenbaum had shared a very obscure piece of knowledge. It took quite a bit of digging to turn up the passage that he had referred to.

Before I talk about it, though, I need to set some things up. The book of Isaiah spends a lot of time talking about the Messiah who was to come. One of the passages that talk about the Messiah is Isaiah 50:

Isaiah 50:2: “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. . .
5 The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
7 For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”

Verses 2 and 3 make it clear that this passage is talking about God. The Lord is the one who dries up the sea with a rebuke; He is the one who clothes the heavens with blackness. No one else has that kind of power. Verse 6 goes a bit further and makes it clear that this passage is talking about Jesus. He is the only person of the Godhead who gave His back to the smiters. He is the only one who suffered and died for us. There is no one else who has Godlike power and who suffered like that; Jesus is the only one. Therefore, this passage is talking about Jesus.

That brings us to verse 4, which I deliberately omitted. This is what it says:

Isaiah 50:4: “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”

Here we are told that the Messiah was awoken each morning so that He might learn. Now, this is obviously not talking about Jesus before the incarnation; the only time He would have ever needed to learn anything was after He became a man and was born in Bethlehem. The Bible tells us that Jesus never had formal schooling. This was a source of amazement to the Jews, who could not figure out where Jesus had obtained His wisdom. Jesus told them that He got it straight from God Himself:

John 7:14: “Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
15 And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.”

The passage in Isaiah tells us how God gave Jesus that knowledge: each morning God woke Jesus up and taught Him. It seems strange to think that Jesus had to learn, but that’s exactly what the Bible says. This is how the book of Luke puts it:

Luke 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

Notice how the passage clearly says that Jesus increased in wisdom. This can only mean that there was a time in Jesus’ childhood when He had less wisdom, and He then learned and gained more. (That is, after all, what the word “increase” means.) Before the incarnation Jesus knew all things, but when He became a man He had to go through the same childhood and learning process that all men go through. He had to grow up. He had to learn. He remained fully God and fully part of the Trinity, but becoming a man meant going through childhood, and all that entails.

The fact that Jesus was fully man and yet still fully God is one of the great mysteries of theology. Theologians refer to this as the “hypostatic union”. There is a great deal that can be said about this, but my purpose today is not to plumb the depths of that mystery. My only point is that when Jesus was a child He had to learn, and the way that we learned was that God Himself taught him. Jesus Himself testified that His doctrine came from God, and that agrees with Isaiah 50:4.

So where do the angels fit into all of this? Well, during Christ’s ministry there were a number of times when angels ministered to him. For example, after Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days and tempted, angels came to Him:

Matthew 4:11: “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, about to be taken away and crucified, an angel came and ministered to Him:

Luke 22:41: “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.”

The passage from Isaiah seems to be saying that someone came to Jesus, woke Him up each morning, and taught Him. It seems very unlikely that God the Father personally did this; the Bible says that God is a spirit and that no one has ever seen Him, and there is no evidence that the Father ever took a physical form and visited the Earth. The same can be said for the Holy Spirit. If God taught Jesus but did not come and teach Him in person, then that implies that He used messengers – and angels fit the bill perfectly.

Now, one could argue that God just spoke audibly to Jesus. It’s true that God did that a number of times during Christ’s ministry, but on each occasion there were other people present. As Jesus explained, the reason God spoke audibly was not for Christ’s benefit but for the benefit of others:

John 12:28: “Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
29 The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.
30 Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.”

Another possibility is that God just spoke to Jesus’ heart and taught Him that way. While it is true that God could have done this, it should be pointed out that God could also have done that in the Garden of Gethsemane – but instead God decided to send an angel. God also could have personally ministered to Jesus after He was tempted by Satan, but instead God chose to send an angel. It is not unreasonable to think that when God taught Jesus each morning He did so by sending an angel. It does fit the pattern of how God interacted with Christ. After all, angels are messengers; is it really that unreasonable to think that God used them to relay messages to His Son?

To recap: we know that when Jesus was a child He had to learn, and we know that He became wise over time. We know that Jesus got His wisdom from God, and we know that God woke Him up and taught Him each morning. However, the Bible doesn’t tell us how God actually communicated this wisdom to Jesus. Since it is very, very unlikely that God the Father assumed physical form and paid Jesus a personal visit each morning, that leaves the angels as a prime candidate. I cannot guarantee that it’s right, but I think it’s a good guess.

What you make of this is up to you. I think it’s at least plausible to say that God used angels to teach His Son, but I’m not going to be dogmatic about it. Unless some new bit of evidence turns up it’s likely that this will remain one of those questions that can never be definitively answered.

When David realized that King Saul was trying to kill him, he ran for his life. On his way out of town, though, he stopped at the Temple and asked Ahimelech the priest for help. Ahimelech gave him some food and the sword of Goliath, and David went on his way.

While David was there Doeg the Edomite happened to see him, and he told Saul. Saul was outraged and had Ahimelech killed – along with an entire city of priests:

I Samuel 22:16: “And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house.
17 And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord: because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord.
18 And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.
19 And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword.”

Now, Ahimelech was not trying to rebel against the king. He had no idea that David had fallen out of favor, or that the king was trying to kill him. He acted in his integrity – but Saul, enraged, murdered him. Saul went on to destroy the entire city of Nob; he murdered men, women, children, and even animals – all because Ahimelech gave David some bread and a sword.

Why would God allow this to happen? Why would God allow Saul to go on a bloody rampage and kill pretty much all of the priests who were around? Why didn’t God step in and protect them, the way God constantly protected David?

Sometimes there is no way to know why God does things, but this is not one of those times. This is not a random act of violence; God was actually doing exactly what He said He would do. He was keeping a promise that He had made many years earlier.

You see, Ahimelech was the son of Ahitub:

1 Samuel 22:11: “Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests that were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.”

Ahitub, in turn, was related to Eli:

1 Samuel 14:3: “And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.”

If you know the story of Eli then you already know where this is going. Eli the priest had two sons who were also priests, and they were very wicked men who abused the sacrifices that were offered to the Lord. Now, being a priest was a Big Deal, and deliberately defiling the offerings was a very grievous sin. Since Eli refused to stop his sons from defiling the offerings, God pronounced a curse upon his entire family:

I Samuel 2:29: “Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
30 Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31 Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.
32 And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.
33 And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.
34 And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.
35 And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.
36 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.”

God promised to slaughter Eli’s descendents, starting with his two children – and that is exactly what He did. When Saul later murdered Ahimelech and the entire city of Nob, he was unknowingly carrying out the judgment that God had decreed upon the house of Eli. There was nothing random about what happened; God was keeping His promise.

There are quite a few times in the Old Testament where God cursed entire families because of sin. This should not come as a surprise; after all, God did say this in the Ten Commandments:

Exodus 20:5: “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

If you love God and repent then God will show mercy to you; if you do not then you will not be spared. A good example can be found in the case of King Jeroboam. God pronounced a curse upon Jeroboam and his offspring – but God exempted one of the king’s sons. The Lord explained why:

I Kings 14:12: “Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.
13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.”

Something good was found in this one child, so he was shown mercy. Nothing good was found in the others, though, so they were not shown mercy. That is how it works.

The massacre of King Saul was not a random act of violence. Saul certainly meant it for evil; I very much doubt that he had any idea he was carrying out God’s sentence against Eli. He was just in a murderous rage, lashing out against everyone who he thought was connected to David. But God used Saul’s rage to accomplish His purposes and fulfill His word.

Revelation 6:5: “And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”

A penny would be a denarius, which was a day’s wage. When the third seal is opened a famine breaks out – one that is so terrible that it takes an entire day’s wage just to by a single measure of wheat. Food prices have skyrocketed. War is often followed by famine, which is what we see here.

In Bible times oil and wine were used for medicinal purposes. It is possible that although there will be war and famine, this may be tempered by the availability of medicine.

To recap: first, the antichrist launches a war against other nations. Second, the whole planet becomes engulfed in war. Third, a terrible famine breaks out. (And the Tribulation is only just beginning.)

Revelation 6:3: “And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.”

When the second seal is opened, peace is departed from the earth and wars break out between the nations. When the first seal was opened the antichrist attacked other countries; now the whole world is engulfed in war. This appears to be a World War – a great war that engulfs the whole planet, as men everywhere kill each other.

To recap: first, the antichrist launches a war against the nations. Second, the whole planet becomes engulfed in a world war.

In Jeremiah 36 the Lord told Jeremiah to write down all of his prophecies:

Jeremiah 36:1: “And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Jeremiah obeyed, and Baruch read the words of the scroll to the people of Judah. When the princes heard about this, they asked Baruch for the scroll and promised to give it to the king. When the scroll was read to the king, though, the king did not repent; instead he burned it and then tried to have Jeremiah arrested:

Jeremiah 36:21: “So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.
22 Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
23 And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
24 Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
25 Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.
26 But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord hid them.”

God was not at all pleased with the way King Jehoiakim had utterly despised His Word. He therefore cursed him:

Jeremiah 36:29: “And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?
30 Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.”

At first this seems like just another sad story of disobedience. God warned a king that judgment was coming, but instead of repenting the king burned the words of God and tried to have the prophet arrested. God therefore cursed the king and promised to send judgment. It’s the same tragic story of rebellion that is repeated so many times in the Bible.

This time, however, there is something critically different. Verse 30 says that none of Jehoiakim’s descendents would sit on the throne of David. That was bad news, because the Messiah was supposed to come from that line. If none of his descendents could rule then that meant the Messiah could not come, and that meant all was lost. This is why some Jews teach that the Messiah can never come – they say that the curse of Jehoiakim prevents it.

There is an answer to this, and it is fascinating. It is true that Joseph, the husband of Mary, was indeed of the line of Jehoiakim. We find this in Matthew 1, which lists the genealogy of Joseph:

Matthew 1:6: “And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;
8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;
9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;
10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;
11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:”

“Jechonias” is just an alternate spelling of Jehoiakim. Joseph was the son of David, the son of Solomon, and the son of Jekoiakim. However, thanks to the curse of Jehoiakim, neither Joseph nor any of his children could sit on the throne of David.

But Jesus wasn’t Joseph’s natural son; He was his adopted son. In Luke 3 we find Mary’s genealogy. It turns out that Mary is also of the line of David – through David’s son Nathan:

Luke 3:31: “Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,”

Nathan’s line was never cursed. Jehoiakim’s line was cursed – but Jesus was adopted into that line. Since Jesus wasn’t Jehoiakim’s natural son He did not inherit the curse, and therefore He had the right to rule. Thus was fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah had foretold:

Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah said “unto us a child was born; unto us a son is given”. What Isaiah is telling us is that the Messiah will come by birth and by adoption. Jesus was born into the line of Nathan and adopted into the line of Jehoiakim. He thus fulfilled both requirements and avoided the curse of Jehoiakim. He came the only way the Messiah could possibly come.

To this day the Jews struggle with the curse of Jehoiakim. They do not understand how the Messiah could come and avoid that curse. They believe that their salvation is blocked – but it is not. God worked out the details a long time ago. Jesus really is the Messiah.