Greed
Two Thousand Hogs Drown
It was night time (Mk. 4:35) so you can imagine the eerie scene. At the legion of demons’ request Jesus allowed them to enter into a herd of two thousand hogs coming down the mountain nearby (vv. 11-12). Immediately these swine ran into the lake and drowned (v. 13). The men …
Results of Religious Greed
Paul made plans to return to Greece and Palestine, and then go to Rome (v. 21). Two and a half years had passed since Paul arrived in Ephesus, and he felt his work there was over. To prepare the believers in Macedonia for his coming, Paul sent two of his disciples (Timothy and Erastus) …
We Are Never Satisfied and Always Want More
I. Four kinds of undesirable behavior (vv. 11-14). a. Disrespectful Children ?“ a curse and a non- blessing to their parents (v. 11). b. Hypocritical People ?“ Clean in no one’s eyes but their own (v. 12). …
The angel and Balaam’s donkey.
This passage is about Balaam, his donkey and the angel. Balaam was a man ready to obey God’s command as long as he could profit from doing so. Although he realized the awesome power of Israel’s God, his heart was occupied with the wealth he could gain in Moab. God let Balaam go w …
Ahab Defeats The Assyrians
The scene now switches temporarily from Elijah to an account of Ahab’s reign. This chapter begins with the first of three battles over Samaria. These are between Ahab and Ben-hadad, king of Israel’s northern neighbor. This Syrian leader, Ben-hadad, was greedy for lan …
The World Mourns Babylon’s Fall
The fall of commercial Babylon is covered in this passage. The context of chapter 18 with its many references to the kings and merchants and commerce shows that, in this setting, Babylon is viewed in her political, economic, and commercial character, rather than in her religious…
IllustrationAn Archbishop of Cape Town
A former Archbishop of Cape Town once said, “When missionaries came to South Africa, they had the Bible and we (the Africans) had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land!” (Source …
IllustrationWoman who owns the Empire State Building
She owns a string of hotels. She owns the Empire State Building. She is a billionaire. Yet, in September 1989 Leona Mindy Rosenthal Helmsley was convicted of 33 counts of tax evasion, for which she faces the possibility of being sent to prison for 100 years. According to Time mag …
IllustrationMan Who Died in An Eating Contest
Reuters Life! reported that a man died just as he was about to win a university binge-eating contest …
IllustrationCan You Build a House That is Sinful?
Several years ago, Millard Fuller of Habitat for Humanity addressed the National Press Club on public radio, on which he recalled a workshop he conducted at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with 200 pastors in attendance. The assembled pastors quickly pointed toward greed and se …