Deacon D

Walk in the Bible - Genesis 16 This chapter starts off right away with mentioning that Sari still hasn't had any children yet, so she devises a plan to have Abram have a child, through her maid, Hagar.  Hagar is actually the pharaoh's daughter! Remember, he was told the leave Egypt when the Pharaoh took Sari as a wife and received plagues in his household for his trouble! Also, Rabbeinu Bahya reminds us that Hagar really belongs to Sari, she's, according to the customs of the day, property Sari brings with her at the marriage. Abram has limits on what he can do with her, in fact, he can't even sell her Rashi reminds us that if a woman lives with her husband for 10 years and no child has been born, the man is bound to take another (Per Yevamot 64) Ramban says as much, himself. Radak even adds more detail - he states that the man could pay out her marriage settlement (Ketuvah) and divorce her and take another wife. Rashi advises us that Hagar started despising Sari. She...

Genesis 15 In verse 1 we see GOD coming to Abram in a vision. Chizkuni reminds us that the same thing would happen to Jacob in Genesis 34:30 after Jacob and his sons fought and defeated the Shechemites. Even though Abram had been victorious in battle, he still worried that other tribes would come after him to avenge the army that he and his people had defeated. GOD lets him know this won't happen, that HE HIMSELF will protect him against that happening. This is backed up the first words GOD says to Abram.     GOD further tells him his reward will be great, and Abram, the man who had just defeated army much larger than the amount of men he had with him at the time, likely fresh from the battle and not thinking too clearly essentially asks GOD what good that reward would do him since he had no child to inherit it and keep it in his house. Because that was true at this time, he believed that Eliezer, his stewart, would possess all of the rewards GOD had promised him. Now, remebe...

Good Friday      So today is Good Friday ?   Why call it Good Friday?  JESUS suffered the worst death imaginable on "Good Friday", in fact, here's a physician's view on what actually happened https://www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-jesus-christ .     Yes, HE did die the worst death possible, in fact, that kind of death was reserved for the worst of the worst, murders, insurrectionists, rebels against Rome. They did this publicly to show everyone what would happen if they too decided to fight Rome!      Prior to JESUS's death - there was no forgiveness of sins. There was atonement, but it had to be done by sacrificing an animal, a bull a goat or even a bird, as is shown in Leviticus 1:1-17. There was no going to GOD - only the priest could do that, and at that, only once a year, per Exodus 30:10.  In fact, there was a curtain in front of the Ark of the Covenant, where GOD , HIMSELF would dwell. Whe...

Walk in the Bible - Chapter 14      Verse 14 seems to start with a totally different subject, but not really. It starts with these kings and these cities to show us that they were the super powers of their day, as Or HaChaim reminds us. It also serves to set the stage for Abram and Lot's story to continue. It also starts with an interesting parallel between Abram and Lot, Sforno states that these kingdoms that were at war at this time originally met in the Valley of Siddim (now the Dead Sea) and in a compromise in the dispute that was going on, they all agreed to serve King Kedorlaomer. They'd serve him and pay him taxes for 12 years, just as Lot followed Abram around for a while too, but then the vassal kingdoms or Kedorlaomer rebelled, just as Lot had. Interestingly enough, some scholars argue that King Amraphel of Shinar is actually the famous King Hamurabi as he won his kingdom's freedom from King Elam who's also mentioned in verse 1 too!      From ...

After being told to leave Egypt and escorted to it's borders, Abram now journey's north into the Negev.  The Negev is the same place were the Nabataens would dwell and build the now famous city, Petra.Abram was here well before they were, however!   The Bible tells us that Abram was extremely wealth, interestingly enough the words used for extremely wealthy ("meod kabad") literally means "much heavy: or "abundantly heavy " or even "much burdensome", it tells us that he had so many "things" that they literally weighed him down and he had to move slower than before!  Verse 3 literally tells us that he had to stop frequently until he got to where he'd originally set up his tent at Bethel. Verse 4 tells us that Abram went to the same site he's build his altar and he called or proclaimed the name of the Lord.  Notice, he has so much wealth and things that it's weighing him down, and yet the first thing he does when he gets hom...

                                   Genesis 12 Here we begin the story of Abram (and yes, at this point he's really called "Abram", but further along, GOD changes that - but for right now his name is "Abram" and his wife's name is "Sari" ) Verse 1 starts right out with GOD telling Abram to leave his family, his town and go to a place GOD would show him.   Remember, Abram doesn't have a son yet, and he's not a young man at this time, he's 75 years old!  There's no 401 K's no social security, no Medicaid or Medicare, when you got too sick to work or too feeble, you looked to your family to take care of you.  GOD was telling Abram to forget about that, follow him to without telling him where he was to go  - and in exchange for that, GOD was going to make his name great!     H...