On the day after Shavuot (Pentecost), the priesthood in God’s temple are on trial, even as they put Peter and John on trial, as to whether they will cling to their presuppositions about God — that He created then vacated — or submit to the massive displays of God’s power in His house of prayer testifying to the reality that Yeshua is God’s Messiah.
Angels as described in the Bible are mysterious. They have great power and a dazzling appearance. Today, some are so enraptured with angelic beings that they seek to commune with them, and the situation wasn’t much different in the first century. Was Messiah Yeshua simply one of the mighty angels, elevated above the others for a certain role? The Book of Hebrews explains.
This discussion is “meat in due season,†because a noted Messianic teacher has written a couple of articles strongly questioning the canonicity of the Book of Hebrews. One unintended consequence of throwing out the Book of Hebrews would be to negate Yeshua’s (Jesus) role as the High Priest of His own sacrifice.
Judges 19-20 is a disturbing account of a Levite, from the tribe God picked to be His closest ambassadors to Israel and the world, who not only had a concubine but also callously let her get raped to death by a Sodom-like mob. The Bible’s detractors and defenders of liberal morality hold this account up as a key exhibit, but what does God really want us to learn in this no-holds-barred account?
Gen. 1:6 describes God’s action of creating the “firmament” by creating an expanse. In the original language, this process was “beating out,” like with metal or dough. What does God want to “pound out” in our lives to create what He wants in the world?
There are language cues in Acts 3 that strongly suggest that it is a description of an event on the afternoon of Pentecost. Thus this is a continuation of the events of Acts 2. The Spirit of God is on display in the temple with power, a display meant to prompt Israel to “turn back” from their rejection God’s Messiah and be restored by God’s Spirit.
In Gen. 1:5, God is not only describing what the world was like when He created it but what it will be like when He returns to re-create it. That may be the spiritual picture behind light and darkness, evening and morning in this verse.