Free Daily Bible Study Podcast

1 Kings 18 | 1 Thessalonians 1 | Ezekiel 48 | Psalm 104

In the head-to-head showdown of the gods in 1 Kings 18, Yahweh leads the people of Israel to repentance for the sins they had committed. This is one of the more famous stories from the Bible, but in context, its significance runs far beyond a simple display of Yahweh’s power. Here, Yahweh makes a major move toward restoring his covenantal relationship with his people.

First, Elijah is not Yahweh’s only servant. In 1 Kings 18, we read about Obadiah, whose very name means “servant of Yahweh.” Obadiah serves King Ahab, but with the autonomy afforded him by his role, he hides one hundred prophets of Yahweh in a cave and feeds them to preserve their lives (1 Kgs. 18:3–4). The true faith has not completely died out in the nation of Israel.

Second, Elijah rejects Ahab’s naming him as the “troubler of Israel” (1 Kgs. 18:18), countering that it is Ahab who has troubled Israel by his disobedience to Yahweh and his worshiping the Baals. While Elijah’s response to Ahab doesn’t condone any kind of prideful self-righteousness, he does help us to remember that God created the world to function in a certain way—specifically, human beings were created to love, worship, and obey God. To whatever extent we fall short of that standard, we will necessarily experience brokenness, pain, and anguish—that is, we will trouble ourselves and those around us.

Third, Elijah perceives that Ahab is essentially making a truth claim—that his god, Baal, is the most powerful god and, therefore, the god whom Israel should worship. Elijah challenges this by setting up a head-to-head contest for the gods, where the prophets would ask their respective gods—Baal or Yahweh—to send fire from heaven on the appropriate altar on Mount Carmel. While the false prophets cannot get a single spark from their god, Yahweh pours out fire from heaven to consume Elijah’s entire, water-soaked altar, causing the people to fall on their faces in worship, declaring, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God” (1 Kgs. 18:39). Elijah then destroys all the false prophets in accordance with Yahweh’s command in Deuteronomy 13, and afterward, Elijah prays, asking Yahweh to bless the land with rain again, as Yahweh had promised if his people covenantally obeyed (Lev. 26:3–6; Deut. 28:12, 23–24).

And yet, for as much as this episode represents a great success for Elijah and for Yahweh, the repentance of the people of the northern nation of Israel will not endure. Ultimately, lasting transformation and redemption will require nothing less than for God’s own Son to be slaughtered at the cross, consumed under the fires of God’s wrath against us for our sin, so that we might be restored to a covenantal relationship with God despite our own idolatries.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 17 | Colossians 4 | Ezekiel 47 | Psalm 103

In 1 Kings 17, we meet the prophet Elijah, a prophet whose life and ministry is marked by a glaring contrast. On the one hand, Elijah is so important that he appears, along with Moses, on the mountain when Jesus is transfigured into his glory (Matt. 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–13; Luke 9:28–36) and he spends much of his life confronting the mighty King Ahab, the most wicked king Israel had ever seen (1 Kgs. 16:30). But on the other hand, most of the stories we will read about Elijah involve small, humble interactions, such as his prophetic ministry to the widow of Zarephath here in 1 Kings 17.

First, Yahweh sends Elijah to prophesy to Ahab that “there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” (1 Kgs. 17:1), and then Yahweh tells Elijah to hide himself by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan (1 Kgs. 17:3). There, Yahweh feeds Elijah through ravens, who bring him food in the morning and the evening (1 Kgs. 17:6), and Elijah drinks from the brook until it dries up in the drought (1 Kgs. 17:7).

When the brook dries up, though, Yahweh does not send Elijah into round two of his battle with Ahab. Instead, Yahweh sends Elijah to care for a poor, Gentile widow who could no longer provide for her sons (cf. Luke 4:25–26). When the woman, by faith, prepares food for Elijah first, Yahweh supernaturally maintains for her a limitless supply of flour and oil throughout the drought to provide for her needs (1 Kgs. 17:16). Then, when the woman’s son dies, Elijah prays and Yahweh miraculously brings the woman’s son back to life (1 Kgs. 17:22). The larger point of including these stories is to remind us that Yahweh loves and cares for even the humblest people in this world.

It should not surprise us, then, that Jesus spent very little of his time speaking to the people in power. Rather than seeking an audience with King Herod or with the Roman governor Pilate, Jesus spent his time restoring sight to blind beggars (Luke 18:35–43; John 9), healing the sick (Matt. 15:29–31), and raising children up from the dead (Mark 5:35–43; Luke 7:11–17). The ministry of Elijah—and later, the ministry of Elijah’s successor, Elisha—prefigure the work that Jesus would do as he came into this world to show his Father’s compassion to the poor, the sick, and even the dead.

But just as Jesus did not shrink from confronting powerful people who had led God’s people astray, Elijah is not finished delivering Yahweh’s message of judgment to the wicked King Ahab. We will read more about Elijah’s prophetic denunciation of Ahab tomorrow.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 16 | Colossians 3 | Ezekiel 46 | Psalm 102

In 1 Kings 16, the northern nation of Israel descends quickly into chaos because of the sin of their many kings. Where Asa, the godly king of Judah, reigns for a total of forty-one years (1 Kgs. 15:10), the northern nation of Israel goes through a series of kings in rapid succession. Israel will eventually experience the reign of longer-term kings, but, as we will see tomorrow, a long tenure is not always a good thing either.

To begin, remember that Yahweh had promised to cut off the house of Jeroboam for the sins into which he had led the ten tribes of Israel (1 Kgs. 14:10). Only two years into the reign of Jeroboam’s son Nadab, Yahweh fulfills that promise by sending Baasha to murder Nadab and to kill all the members of the house of Jeroboam (1 Kgs. 15:27–30). Baasha also, however, leads the nation of Israel into sin and idolatry, walking in virtually the same ways that Jeroboam had walked (1 Kgs. 15:34). For this reason, Yahweh promises to cut off Baasha’s house entirely, just as Baasha himself had cut off the house of Jeroboam (1 Kgs. 16:1–4). Therefore, only two years into the reign of Baasha’s son Elah, Zimri, the commander of half of Elah’s chariots, kills Elah when he is drunk (1 Kgs. 16:10). Soon thereafter, Zimri strikes down all the rest of the house of Baasha, leaving not a single male among either Baasha’s relatives or his friends (1 Kgs. 16:11). But even Zimri doesn’t last long. Only seven days into Zimri’s reign, the rest of Israel decides to crown Omri king instead (1 Kgs. 16:15), so Zimri commits suicide by burning down the king’s house over him (1 Kgs. 16:18).

We will look more at the reigns of Omri and Ahab tomorrow, but for now, consider the fact that all these kings of Israel reigned during the tenure of Asa alone. Sin often seems more exciting and life-giving than obedience, but again and again, we see that the exact opposite is true. As Paul writes, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). The natural result of sin is death—not only for us, but also for those around us whom we drag down with us.

The gospel, though, is that God, through Jesus, has provided us an alternative to receiving death as our compensation for sin. Jesus’ life was cut short so that we could live eternally with him in glory through the power of his resurrection. Put away your idols and the sin that so easily entangles you and embrace the life that God offers you in Christ by walking in obedience to him.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 15 | Colossians 2 | Ezekiel 45 | Psalms 99, 100 & 101

The two new kings whom we meet in 1 Kings 15 represent, respectively, the two main kinds of kings we will read about during the age of Judah’s kings. On the one hand, we have the wicked Abijam, who “walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father” (1 Kgs. 15:3). Then, on the other hand, we have Asa, who “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done.…the heart of Asa was wholly true to the LORD all his days” (1 Kgs. 15:11, 14). These stories are not merely historical trivia—the biblical narrator has much deeper theological principles to teach us.

In Abijam, we read a description of what will become a pattern for Judah’s wicked kings. Abijam walks in the sins of his father, Rehoboam, rather than obeying Yahweh with a whole heart as David had done (1 Kgs. 15:3). Just as Israel’s kings all drag the northern ten tribes down toward their eventual exile at the hands of the Assyrians, so kings like Rehoboam and Abijam pave the way for Judah’s exile into Babylon.

In Asa, however, we find hope that Yahweh can raise up another king after his own heart. It is important to understand, however, that Yahweh provides godly kings to his people not out of obligation but out of grace. The critical line for understanding the theology of the books of Kings comes in 1 Kings 15:4–5: “Nevertheless, for David’s sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem, because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” Justice would have required Yahweh to wipe out Judah at the first sign of kings like Rehoboam and Abijam, but Yahweh nevertheless remembers the covenant he had promised David, and so he remains faithful to his people for the sake of David, his servant.

Ultimately, this covenant logic takes on more importance as we see Yahweh continue to be faithful to his people, even now. It is not because we deserve God’s kindness that we continue to receive the gracious provision of a godly ruler. Instead, it is that God treats us kindly for the sake of the Son of David, Jesus Christ. No matter what sins we have committed or what idols we surround ourselves with, Jesus Christ stands ready through sheer grace to save his people and to preserve them for the day when he will return to establish his kingdom on this earth.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 14 | Colossians 1 | Ezekiel 44 | Psalms 97–98

The overall sweep of the books of Samuel and Kings builds the case against both the nations of Israel and Judah in order to justify Yahweh’s sending both nations into exile. In many ways, the apostasy of Solomon serves as the foundation for the apostasy of both the nations of Israel and Judah, but 1 Kings 14 demonstrates the ways in which Jeroboam and Rehoboam extend the apostasy of the twelve tribes.

As for Jeroboam and the northern kingdom of Israel, we should recognize that Yahweh would have established the kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam if only he had obeyed Yahweh with his whole heart. But rather than becoming a new David, Jeroboam rebels against Yahweh immediately (1 Kgs. 14:6–16). For that reason, Yahweh promises both to cut off the house of Jeroboam and to judge Israel for obeying the idolatry of Jeroboam rather than the voice of their God (1 Kgs. 14:14–15). Israel, therefore, will never enjoy a godly king until the day when the nation of Assyria comes to destroy them and carry off their survivors into exile—an exile from which the ten tribes have never recovered (2 Kgs. 17).

Judah, on the other hand, will do better, but not by much. Under Rehoboam, Judah also enters into idolatrous worship, establishing high places and pillars and Asherim and male cult prostitutes (1 Kgs. 14:22–24). As a harbinger of a greater exile to come, the Egyptians march against Jerusalem and take away the treasures of Rehoboam’s palace and the gold in the temple (1 Kgs. 14:25–28). So, the southern nation of Judah will experience a handful of good kings, and they will not fall to the Assyrians as the ten tribes of Israel do. It is the next empire, Babylon, however, that will capture Judah, destroy the temple, and carry off the people of Judah into captivity (2 Kgs. 25).

Shockingly, Israel’s kings are no more capable of reforming the hearts of God’s people than Israel’s judges were. Even in the days when there are kings in Israel, the people continue to do whatever is right in their own eyes until Yahweh finally hands them over to judgment. God’s people need something more than just a warm body on the throne of Israel—they need a better king, a king who can not only heal the nation from their exile but also transform their hearts to follow after God fully. The storyline of the kings must run its course all the way into exile, but once Israel and Judah demonstrate decisively that they are unable to reform themselves, Yahweh will eventually send his own Son to do what no mere king could do by redeeming the people, cleansing their hearts from sin, and establishing the kingdom of God in this world so God might dwell with his people for all eternity.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 13 | Philippians 4 | Ezekiel 43 | Psalms 95–96

In the first part of 1 Kings 13, Yahweh sends a prophet to condemn Jeroboam’s worship. Speaking to the illicit altar on which Jeroboam was offering unauthorized sacrifices, the man of God (a name given to prophets during those days) foretells the day when a son of David named Josiah will “sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you” (1 Kgs. 13:2). The fulfillment for this prophecy comes much later in Israel’s history, in 2 Kings 23:15–20. From the beginning, the days of Jeroboam’s false worship were numbered.

Now, if that were the only part of this story, we would be reading a fairly straightforward account of prophecy, judgment, and Yahweh’s insistence upon the true worship he had commanded in the law of Moses. Once the man of God delivers his message, however, Yahweh gives him additional instructions, saying, “You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came” (1 Kgs. 13:9). At first, the man of God obeys (1 Kgs. 13:9), but when an older prophet lies to him, enticing him to return with him to eat and drink in Bethel (1 Kgs. 13:18), the man of God disobeys God’s instructions and a lion kills him as he leaves Bethel a second time.

From the prophet’s story, we learn two principles about obeying God. First, obedience for you may not look the same as obedience for another, since God governs us not only by his law but by our consciences. Paul writes, “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23), meaning that when God impresses something clearly upon our consciences, we sin by overriding that. This man of God receives a clear prophetic word, but he disobeys anyway, acting contrary to his faith.

Second, this means we ought never to cause another to stumble. The broader context of Romans 14, for example, relates to whether Christians could eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Paul explains that there was nothing wrong with eating such food in itself, but if someone believes the activity to be sinful, that person would sin by eating it, since that action would not proceed from faith. Therefore, Paul also writes that “it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats” (Rom. 14:20). The older prophet wickedly causes this man of God to sin by lying to him and encouraging him to act in ways that specifically violate the word God has spoken to him.

Are there areas where you are behaving in ways contrary to your conscience? Or, are there areas where you are leading someone else to violate their conscience? In either case, repent—repent from whatever does not proceed from faith or repent from leading another to stumble.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 12 | Philippians 3 | Ezekiel 42 | Psalm 94

What the Bible teaches about the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humankind is complicated, to say the least. On the one hand, we know God never tempts anyone to sin, nor is he the author of sin (Jas. 1:13). But on the other hand, we also know he sovereignly and providentially reigns over all things in this world (Rom. 11:36), which includes the sin in this world. Where, then, does the one end and the other begin? The story in 1 Kings 12 helps us nuance our understanding of the relationship between human and divine action in this world.

First, Yahweh reminds us in 1 Kings 12 that he often works through ordinary means. Here, Yahweh had promised Solomon he would punish Solomon’s apostasy by tearing away ten of the tribes from the house of David. The fulfillment of this promise comes, though, not because Yahweh sends some thunderbolt falling from the sky but because of a fairly straightforward (but serious) political mistake on the part of Rehoboam, who refuses to lower the people’s taxes. Still, Yahweh insists that “this thing is from me” (1 Kgs. 12:24). In other words, we cannot always identify acts of God on the basis of whether or not extraordinary signs and wonders are involved. Rather, God often works precisely through everyday, mundane details to fulfill his word.

Second, we see in 1 Kings 12 a vivid illustration of the fact that God sometimes uses wicked people to accomplish his purposes. In the case of Jeroboam, Yahweh had clearly stated that Jeroboam would accomplish his will by judging the house of David for Solomon’s sin. Yet, once Jeroboam becomes king over the ten tribes of Israel, he immediately repeats the sin the Israelites had committed at the foot of Mount Sinai. He carves golden calves for the Israelites to worship at Bethel and at Dan, saying, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kgs. 12:28). So, we may say truthfully that Jeroboam is Yahweh’s servant on one level, but on another level, Jeroboam is nothing like David, a man after Yahweh’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14).

To bring these two principles together, consider of the cross of Jesus. There, we see Jesus caught up in typical political power struggles, and, furthermore, we see him crucified at the hands of “lawless men,” but we are told that all of this happened “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23) and that his death took place for the forgiveness of sins of all who look to him in faith. We get no better picture of the way God works than at the cross, where God worked through great evil to bring about the salvation of the world.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 11 | Philippians 2 | Ezekiel 41 | Psalms 92–93

As Israel’s king, Solomon reaches extraordinary heights during Israel’s golden age. Lavish wealth, rich cultural achievements, and wide-ranging justice characterize this era to a degree that Israel has never seen before or since. But, precisely because Solomon enjoys such abundance, his heart is drawn away to worship the false gods of foreign nations, which here in 1 Kings 11 brings this extraordinary period in Israel’s history crashing down almost as quickly as it begins.

The chief cause of Solomon’s apostasy stems from his marrying “many foreign women…from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods’” (1 Kgs. 11:1, 2–3). Now, this is not the same thing as saying that “there’s a woman to blame” for all of Solomon’s troubles—the biblical writer puts all the blame for Solomon’s apostasy on Solomon, who had disobeyed Yahweh’s explicit commandments not to marry foreign women who worshiped foreign gods.

Still, there is a clear warning here that we ought to be careful with the company we keep, both by avoiding being unequally yoked with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14), and also by avoiding deep relationships with people of particularly bad character, since “bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). Obviously, we should strive to enter into relationships with unbelievers, for how will people come to know the good news of Jesus unless someone tells them (Rom. 10:14)? But, when we enter into too many relationships too deeply with people who are not also being conformed to the image of Christ, there is real danger that those relationships will undermine our discipleship, as happened in Solomon’s case.

Because Solomon violates Yahweh’s covenant by serving other gods—something Yahweh had twice warned him specifically against when he appeared to him (1 Kgs. 11:9–10; cf. 1 Kgs. 3:3–14, 9:1–9)—Yahweh issues a curse for Solomon’s disobedience: “I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant….However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen” (1 Kgs. 11:11–13). Israel’s golden age here comes to an abrupt, terrible end. David’s offspring fails to obey Yahweh for even one generation.

And yet, Yahweh nevertheless promises to keep David’s son on the throne of Israel to reign over at least one tribe, Judah. It will be through this dynasty of kings, reigning in Jerusalem over the tribe of Judah, that Yahweh will eventually fulfill his promise to David by raising up a better king who would reign not only over Israel but over all the kingdoms of this world.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 10 | Philippians 1 | Ezekiel 40 | Psalm 91

Solomon’s glory as king of Israel reaches its pinnacle in 1 Kings 10. We read an initial report of Solomon’s great wisdom, wealth, and fame in 1 Kings 4, but we find a fuller inventory here in this chapter. Chiefly, these descriptions of Israel’s golden age under Solomon accomplish two things: (1) they provide a shadow of the glory of Christ’s greater kingdom, as we discussed in our meditation for 1 Kings 4–5, and (2) they provide some clues as to why nothing less than the coming of Jesus into this world could usher in that greater kingdom.

Part of the function of including the story of the queen of Sheba in 1 Kings 10 is to underscore how far short the descriptions of Solomon’s kingdom fall from actually depicting the full extent of his kingdom’s glory. The queen of Sheba’s independent findings help to allay our skepticism: “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me” (1 Kgs. 10:6–7).

In the same way, our own imaginations are too weak to fathom the riches of glory we stand to gain in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2:9–10, Paul writes this: “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, who searches out the depths of God, begins to reveal an inkling of the glory that is to be revealed—and on that day, when Jesus Christ returns, all we will be able to say will be, “Behold, the half was not told me.”

But if things were so good during the days of Solomon, why did Solomon himself fall away from worshiping Yahweh, as we will read about tomorrow in 1 Kings 11? What we learn from this story is that no amount of wisdom, success, wealth, and prosperity can provide us contentment outside of Christ. As Solomon grew to enjoy his vast possessions more and more, his heart fell away from enjoying the Giver of these good gifts first and foremost.

Solomon stands as a warning for us to guard our hearts from being drawn away to whatever treasures we might find in this life. For this, we need to pray for God’s Spirit not only to constrain our hearts from greed but also to teach us how much better Jesus is than the riches we can accumulate. For, in the words of Jesus, “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1 Kings 9 | Ephesians 6 | Ezekiel 39 | Psalm 90

In 1 Kings 9, Yahweh accepts Solomon’s prayer from 1 Kings 8, saying, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time” (1 Kgs. 9:3). Yahweh does put his name in the temple, but importantly, Yahweh also provides explicit terms for this arrangement—terms that would affect the rest of human history.

First, Yahweh reiterates to Solomon the terms of the covenant he had made with Solomon’s father David. So, Yahweh says, “And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statues and rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever” (1 Kgs. 9:4–5). The establishment of the throne of David’s offspring after Solomon depended on the obedience of David’s descendants.

Second, Yahweh also clarifies that even the temple’s ongoing use as the dwelling place of Yahweh on earth depends on the perpetual obedience of Solomon and the rest of David’s descendants. So, if Solomon or his children turn aside from Yahweh, then Yahweh will raze the temple to the ground: “And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’” (1 Kgs. 9:8).

And in fact, David’s descendants do fall away from Yahweh—including Solomon himself, as we will see in 1 Kings 11. Within one generation, Solomon’s son Rehoboam would see both Israel split into two kingdoms (1 Kgs. 12) and the temple ransacked by the Egyptians, who steal all the costly treasures Solomon had built (1 Kgs. 14:26). All of this, however, is merely a precursor to the day when both kingdoms would go into exile and the Babylonians would destroy the temple altogether (2 Kgs. 25:9) to fulfill the word Yahweh had spoken to his people when he warned them against disobedience.

It is critical to note, then, that when Jesus came to be the new temple, he did not merely reunite Israel—and, he went beyond reconciling the nation of Israel with the Gentiles into a single body (Eph. 2:14–16). Ultimately, the temple of Jesus’ body had to be destroyed at the cross for the disobedience of God’s people and then, on the third day, that temple had to be raised up (John 2:19). Not a word that Yahweh had spoken would fall to the ground, but it was precisely through destroying his temple that Yahweh would atone for the sins of all his people, reconciling them to himself forever in peace and righteousness.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.