Jealousy

Confusion About The New Birth

In these verses we find both Jesus and John ministering and baptizing (vv. 22- 23); Jesus in Judea and John farther north along the Jordan River near Salim. This was before John was thrown into prison (v. 24). We know it was not Jesus Himself who administered the rite of baptism b …

Everybody Loves David (Except Saul)

After David killed Goliath, he and Jonathan became the closest of friends (v. 1). Their friendship is one of the deepest and closest in the Bible and this remained to the end. Saul wanted to keep David around so he could use him for personal gain, but Jonathan loved David as a person. We …

Conspiracy Against The Innocent

David became an old hand at dealing with danger. He was near death’s door time and time again. As a teenage shepherd boy in the Judean Hills David had barely escaped the jaws of wild beasts. He had faced the threats of Goliath in the valley of Eloh. But the dangers he faced in th …

War with Ephraim

The tribe of Ephraim seems to have been easily upset as they took exception to Jephthah’s strategy against Ammon (v. 1). The men of Ephraim had been angered before when Gideon did not ask them to join in his surprise attack on the camp of the Midianites. Their jealousy was a real infection that …

“He must increase, but I must decrease”

Last time, we read that Jesus and John the Baptist were doing separate baptismal ministries (vv. 21-24). During that time a debate erupted between their disciples over which of them had the greater purifying ability (v. 25). It seems that John’s disciples were jealous of Jesus and …

Children Need to Revere Their Parents

Any who rejoice over the misfortune of others are actually mocking God (v. 5). Since the poor are made in God’s image, as all people are, to mock them is to speak against God. I have known people to rejoice when the group they felt in competition with suffered loss and their gr …

Daniels’s Friends Disobey The King

Some Babylonians used this as a chance to accuse the Jews to King Nebuchadnezzar (v. 8). They said, “ Your Majesty, we hope you live forever (v. 9)! When the three Hebrew youths refused to bow, the Chaldeans, the very people whose lives had been spared because of the …