OpenTheo

Obadiah (Full Book)

Obadiah — Steve Gregg
00:00
00:00

Obadiah (Full Book)

Obadiah
ObadiahSteve Gregg

In this brief overview, Steve Gregg explores the book of Obadiah which focuses on the conflict between Israel and Edom, their neighbor to the east. Despite being initially subdued by Israel, the Edomites later looted Jerusalem and showed no pity towards the Jews during their time of calamity. Obadiah prophesied that the Edomites would face divine judgement and their hidden treasures would be sought after by other nations. Additionally, like other prophets, Obadiah also had something to say about the Messianic kingdom and its subjects.

Share

Transcript

We'll take a brief look at this book Obadiah. It's the shortest book in the Old Testament. And it's like Jonah and Nahum, it is a prophecy against a pagan people instead of Israel.
And
that pagan people in this case is not Assyria, as was the case with Jonah and Nahum, but Edom. Now, the Edomites were closely related to Israel, you know, in terms of their family, because Edom came from Esau. And his name was Edom also.
I mean, the word Edom means
red and the name Esau means hairy. And we're told in Genesis that when the twins, Jacob and Esau, were born, that Esau came out all covered with red hair. So they called him hairy, Esau.
And then later on, they called him red, probably partly due to the red hair,
but also because he sold his birthright for some red lentils. That's actually the reason that's given for calling him Edom, though, whatever. Since he was covered with red hair, he might have also been called red, nicknamed, I mean, sometimes people with red hair are nicknamed red.
So, you know, this one guy, Esau, and he was the twin brother of Jacob.
Now, Jacob became Israel, and Jacob's twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. So, the nation of Israel came from one branch of that family, and the nation of Edom came from the other twin brother.
So, both Edom and Jacob came from Abraham and Isaac. And
they were the sons of Isaac. And so, they had close, you know, genetic family connection, but they weren't ever close in terms of sympathy with each other.
And what happened was that
Edomites were always hostile to Jacob. There never really was a time when they were friendly nations with each other. At one point, Israel actually subjugated Edom, which was a neighboring, Edom was neighboring them to the southeast.
And at one time, they were subjugated by Israel.
I've seen more than once. And so, they were just another hostile power in the area.
They
might as well have been, well, I guess they were considered Gentiles, even though they had blood relations with Israel. When Israel, or I should say when Judah, was taken into captivity by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the Edomites, who one would hope would show some sympathy for their brother nation, Israel, actually had no sympathy for their brother nation, Israel. They actually gloated and were happy that Judah had been destroyed by the Babylonians, and even took part in the looting of the city of Jerusalem.
When Jerusalem
fell, the Edomites among the Babylonians came in and looted along with them. So, Edom is viewed by Obadiah as being very unbrotherly, to say the least, and frankly, immoral for doing this to Judah. The judgment upon Edom is what Obadiah is talking about.
Now, Edom
actually, although they helped the Babylonians to loot the city in 586 B.C., four years later, the Babylonians returned and destroyed the Edomites and took them into captivity. And so, this is no doubt written between those two, between 586, when the Edomites looted Jerusalem, and 582, when Edom itself was judged by the Babylonians coming in. And so, Obadiah refers back to what the Edomites had done, in being very unbrotherly toward Judah, but also predicts their own, the Edomites' destruction.
Now, interestingly, the Edomites, when they
were taken into captivity, they never were restored as a nation again. There were some remnant of them living in the southern region of Judah, where they had apparently fled during the time that Edom was invaded by the Babylonians, and there were some Edomites there. But in the year 126 B.C., a Judean leader named John Hyrcanus, this is during what we call the intertestamental period, this is after the closing of the Old Testament, before the opening of the New Testament, 400 years there.
In the latter part of that 400 years, this
Jewish leader named John Hyrcanus conquered the Edomites and incorporated them into Judah. So, the Edomites kind of became part of the nation of the Jews, but ethnically diverse from them. But they were subjugated by Judah.
And then, the last known Edomite family, because
they did kind of get absorbed and so forth, was the Herod family. Herod the Great, who was ruling in Israel at the time Jesus was born, had been appointed by the Romans to be the king of Israel, or king of Judah, king of the Jews. And the Jews hated it.
The Jews
hated the fact that an Edomite was ruling over them. So, anyway, the Herod family, Herod the Great died, and several of his sons were called Herod, and to this Herod, Negripha, and so forth, Herod Achilleus, that these Herods were the last family of Edomites known to exist. So, when their family died off, the Edomites became extinct.
There are no Edomites
today. And so Obadiah does speak of this, does speak of them becoming an extinct people. Now, I would point out something interesting in a later prophet, in Malachi, because it's a well-known and quoted statement about Edom.
In Malachi chapter 1, I suppose the reason
it's a memorable passage is because Paul quotes it in Romans 9. It's talking about Israel and Edom. It says in Malachi chapter 1, verse 2, God says, I have loved you, speaking to Israel, says the Lord, yet you say, in what way have you loved us? He says, was not Esau Jacob's brother, says the Lord. Yet Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated, and laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness.
Now, this statement,
Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated, Paul quotes it in Romans 9. People sometimes think that what this is saying is that God hated the man Esau and loved the man Jacob. Well, in a sense, it could be said he did, but if we think in terms of the way their later nations were treated, Esau actually had a pretty good life, and as far as we know, a pretty peaceful death, the man himself. But his children, his family, occupied what was called Mount Seir.
Just as Israel eventually conquered Canaan, and the land of Canaan became
the land of Israel, so Mount Seir had been the land of the Horites, just a pagan group of people. And the people of Esau conquered the Horites and drove them out, just like Israel did the Canaanites. So the land of the Canaanites became the land of Israel, and the land of the Horites, which is Mount Seir, became Edom.
And Edom's capital was
the city called Selah or Petra, which is a rock city, and they were very easily defensible against invaders. They felt pretty secure, because their rock city of Petra had sheer stone cliffs through a narrow passageway, which was easy to defend against invaders, sort of like the defenders of Troy, you know, fighting off the attackers in the narrow passageway there. But their dwelling places were carved out of the faces of these cliffs up high, where it would be very hard for someone to get to them.
So the fact that they made their dwelling
places high on these rock cliffs made them feel like, and they had this easily defensible narrow gorge that enemies had to come through, made them feel very secure. I mean, it made them feel cocky, in fact, that other nations might be conquered by the Babylonians, but they would not be. And yet they were.
And so that's something that Obadiah talks about.
Now, when Malachi says, Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated, he's not talking about the man Jacob or the man Esau, he's talking about the nation of Jacob, Israel, and the nation of Esau, Edom, that both nations had been taken into captivity when Malachi was writing. They had both been taken in, but Israel had been restored by God, had gone back and restored their nation.
The Edomites had not. And therefore, that's what it means,
Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated, he says, speaking about Edom, he says, I wasted his mountains and made them desolate and so forth. So he did that to Israel too, but he let Israel be restored later on, after the Babylonians fell.
Edom's mountains were still
desolate at the time of Malachi. So he's saying this is a mark of God's disfavor on the nation of Edom and his favor on the nation of Jacob. Just looking at the book itself, it says, The Vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord
God concerning Edom, We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle. Now this nation rising up against Edom is Babylon in this case. Judah had already been taken into captivity before this point, but Edom had not yet fallen and didn't know they were going to.
They thought they were pretty secure. He says, Behold, I will make you small among
the nations. You should be greatly despised.
The pride of your heart has deceived you.
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, you who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? Though you exalt yourself as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. Now these high habitations and rock crevices and so forth could possibly be as high as the eagle's nest, but even if it wasn't, this is hyperbole.
This is an exaggeration.
Though you set your nest among the stars, that's obviously impossible. This kind of language is used in a couple of other places significantly, actually more interestingly than here.
Because in Isaiah chapter 14, we have a prophecy against the king of Babylon.
And the king of Babylon is symbolically called Lucifer. Now Lucifer, of course, we think of as a name for Satan, but the Bible never refers to Satan as Lucifer.
The word Lucifer
only appears once in the Bible, and it's in this passage where it's just speaking about the king of Babylon. Some people think, well, it's not just addressing the king of Babylon, it's addressing the devil who's kind of the power behind the king of Babylon. So Lucifer, a term used by Isaiah to speak of the king of Babylon, is thought to be also applicable to the devil.
It's sort of by extrapolation, though the Bible nowhere confirms that the
word Lucifer refers to the devil. If you look at Isaiah chapter 14, you'll see in verse 4, God says to Isaiah that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, and he gives this prophecy against the king of Babylon, which includes this statement in verse 12, Isaiah 14, 12, How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? Now the word Lucifer is actually an expression that means day star. It is actually from the Latin.
The Hebrew Bible, I think it was written in Hebrew, it was then translated into Greek
in the Septuagint, and then later, I believe in the 4th century, if I'm not mistaken, A.D., the Vulgate, which is the Latin Bible, was translated by Jerome. And so the Bible came into the Western Church, the Latin Church, the Roman Church, which we know as the Roman Catholic Church, through the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible. Now in Latin, the Hebrew word that Isaiah used is Lucifer.
That's the Latin word. And the Hebrew word
means day star or morning star. And so for some reason, we don't know why, the King James Version, when it was translated into Hebrew into English, they came to this word day star and instead of translating it from the Hebrew into English, they simply kept the Latin word that Jerome had used in the Latin Bible, Lucifer, and treated it as a proper name, which it probably was not intended as a proper name.
There was no king of Babylon named Lucifer,
and yet day star is a term that's even used of Jesus later on. It's like a royal title. Jesus is not the king of Babylon.
He's certainly not Lucifer. But to refer to a king as the
day star is simply a flattering nickname to give to a king. So the king of Babylon is referred to in the Hebrew as the day star.
The name Lucifer came into the passage in
English from the Latin and probably should not. In fact, if you have the King James or the New King James, it'll say Lucifer. If you have any other modern translation, it won't.
If you have the New American Standard, the NIV, English Standard, any modern translation
will not say Lucifer here. It'll instead translate it as day star, which is what it means. So anyway, this is to the king of Babylon, and it says in Isaiah chapter 14, in verse 13, it says, You have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like the
most high. Yet you should be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. Now, this statement that the king of Babylon said, I will exalt my throne above the stars.
I will ascend above the clouds. Many people say, well, no earthly king would think that way. That must be a reference to the devil, you know.
But in fact, earthly nations do
think that way sometimes. Edom did, apparently. I mean, it was a hyperbole.
It's an exaggeration.
But Obadiah says, even though you exalt yourself as high as the eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. And even Jesus used that imagery, speaking about a city of his time, actually the city of Capernaum.
There
we go. Matthew 11 and verse 23, Jesus said, and you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades, or Sheol. Now, this is the same thing that God said to Lucifer, the king of Babylon, in Isaiah 14-12.
Though you exalt yourself to heaven, yet you'll be
brought down to Sheol. Jesus says the very same thing to Capernaum. Though you are exalted to heaven, you'll be brought down to Hades, which is Sheol in the Greek.
So, it's clear
that this is a figure of speech. And yet, more than Babylon, and more than Capernaum, the Edomites actually did have their nests high in the rocks, so to speak. I mean, they really were exalted up there, probably almost as high as the eagle, if not as high as the eagle.
So, if you set your nest among the stars, I'll bring you down. That's the same
kind of hyperbole you find, speaking of Babylon and Capernaum and these other passages. Verse 5 says, If thieves had come to you, if robbers by night, oh, how will you be cut off? Would they not have stolen till they had enough? If great gatherers had come to you, would they not have left some gleanings? Now, this verse is actually taken from Jeremiah 49.9. Jeremiah said the same thing about Edom.
If great gatherers had come, oh, they'd take
enough to satisfy themselves, but they'd leave some gleanings. They didn't have, you know, the efficient means of harvesting and so forth that we have today. And when they'd, you know, go gather the grapes from vines, they'd grab the clusters and put them in their baskets and move along as fast as they could.
But there'd be a grape here or a little tiny cluster
there that they'd miss. And the law of Moses said that the Jews, when they do gather their grapes, and even when they harvest their wheat fields, whatever falls to the ground, a head of wheat or something, or one that's left on the stock by accident, don't go back for it. Those are called the gleanings.
That was for the poor to come. And, you know, after the
harvest had taken place and the general bringing in of the products of the field and the vineyard, the poor could go through and pick up the gleanings and take them home and eat those. That was part of the law.
Leave the gleanings for the poor. Well, that's what lies behind
this statement. If they had gathered grapes, they would leave at least some gleanings.
The idea is, but, the Babylonians, when they come to you, they're not going to leave anything behind. It's not like they're going to take most of you and leave some remnant of you behind. They're going to take every last one.
They're more greedy than most harvesters are.
Most harvesters would leave something behind, but the Babylonians will not leave any. That's what he's implying here.
Verse 6, Oh, how Esau shall be searched out.
And Esau here is Eden. How his hidden treasure shall be sought after.
All the men in your
confederacy shall force you to the border. The men at peace with you shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you.
No one is aware of it. Apparently, Edom and Babylon considered themselves allies when Judah fell to the Babylonians. And the Edomites, like I say, among the Babylonians, went in there and plundered the place.
So those who were at peace with you,
the Babylonians, are going to turn on you now. And this is what happened when the Babylonians came and took them away. Will I not in that day, says the Lord, even destroy the wise men from Edom and the understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O Teman, Teman was one of Esau's sons and therefore there's a branch of the Edomites called the Temanites, shall be dismayed to the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
Now one interesting thing here about the wise men of Edom and
of Teman, the Temanites, in one of the earliest books in the Bible, possibly the earliest, the book of Job, Job probably lived in a region that was Edom. We don't know where he lived exactly, but he was not a Jew and he was said to be the greatest of the men of the east. And from Israel's point of view, the next nation east would be the Edomites.
And one of his
friends is said to have been a Temanite. One of the counselors to Job that came and eventually wasn't a very good counselor, but he was Eliphaz the Temanite. And Teman was one of the sons of Esau.
So the Edomites, Job was very possibly an Edomite leader, some
think he was an Edomite king or prince. But one of his friends was a Temanite, which would also be from Edom. But they were considered wise men.
I mean, Job and his friends were
not just your ordinary neighbors. They were philosophers. I mean, in ancient nations, philosophers and counselors were very much esteemed for their wisdom.
A counselor who
is very wise would be esteemed almost as much as a prophet, as one to get advice from. It's almost like hearing from God when you hear from their wisdom. One of David's counselors was named Ahithophel.
He was just a wise man. He was not an inspired prophet. But Ahithophel,
we're told, had a reputation that to inquire of Ahithophel, that is to seek advice from Ahithophel, was like inquiring of the Oracle of God, which means it's like talking to a prophet of God.
Ahithophel was so wise that you'd assume talk to him as to God himself
to get wisdom, to get advice. Now, it was no doubt a hyperbole, but that's just the way that wise men were esteemed, if they were very wise. Solomon, of course, when he was offered anything he wanted by God, said, but give me wisdom.
And later in 1 Kings chapter
4, it says, the wisdom of Solomon exceeded that of, and it mentions several lesser known or unknown wise men of the time who had a reputation for being great wise men. And the writer of 1 Kings says, and Solomon's wisdom was even better than theirs. So, it's interesting that there was this class or this profession of people who were like philosophers, logicians, counselors, that were wise men.
And Job, it's very clear from what his friends say when
they come, that they were philosophers. They were wise men of the East. They were Edomite wise men, probably.
And it says, even I will destroy the wise men of Edom and the mighty
men of Teman. Now, this was, of course, Obadiah wrote this a long time after Job. So, he's not, you know, pronouncing curses or denunciations on Job's counselors personally.
But probably
the class of people that Job's counselors belonged to, you know, were the wise men of Esau or Edom. But they're all going to be cut off. The cutting off of the wise men is also mentioned in Jeremiah and in some of the other Old Testament prophets with relation to the fall of Judah.
That God said he's going to take away the law from the priests and
counsel from the wise. And he's going to take away the prophet. This is saying that a country when it comes under God's judgment, he takes away all the access they had to wisdom, which is a very valued thing in the Middle East, if you're wise.
It's almost like being a mighty
man in war, a mighty man of valor. You have sort of a status. And so, it mentions in some of the judgment oracles of the other prophets, and here, God taking away the wise men from them.
Which, without wise men, you couldn't really strategize. The kings needed to talk
to wise men about strategy. And with the wise men gone, the nation would have no strategy for self-defense.
Verse 10, For your violence against your brother Jacob, meaning Israel,
shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever, which they have been. They're not around anymore. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his forces, when foreigners entered his gates, meaning Israel's gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were as one of them.
So he says, this is your problem, that
you took sides, you were on the wrong side. You know, it was Babylon against Judah, and you took the side of Babylon. When they were casting lots for Jerusalem, casting lots was often the way that people would divide up real estate.
In fact, when the Jews first
came, or when Israel first came into Canaan, Joshua used the casting of lots to determine which portions would be given to which tribes, and so forth. So he's talking about Jerusalem now as being taken by the pagans, by the Babylonians, and they were casting lots over who would get this house, who would get this section of the city. He says, you were like one of them.
That is, you were like a plunderer taking things from your brother nation, Jacob. Verse
12, But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother, that is the day he was suffering, in the day of his captivity, nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have gazed on the affliction in the day of their calamity,
nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. There's a lot of repetition of this in the day of their calamity. You shouldn't have done this in the day of their calamity, or done that in the day of their calamity.
When they were in fact helpless,
you could have helped them, but instead you took advantage of their helplessness in the day of their calamity. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped, nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained. So apparently as people were fleeing from Jerusalem from the Babylonian invaders, there were certain routes they'd take, which were the traveling routes, the crossroads they'd come to.
The
Edomites were staying there, not letting them escape, and apparently turning them over to their captors. So they were not just, you know, not helping. They were helping them on the wrong side, and this is what made God angry at Edom.
It says, For the day of
the Lord is upon the nations, or the day of the Lord upon all nations is near. Now the day of the Lord is on all nations. This doesn't mean that all the nations are going to be suffering at the same time.
In the Old Testament, the term day of the Lord refers to the time
that God judges a nation. Every nation eventually falls, and it is seen as God's doing when a nation falls. So God brings them down.
They've had their day. Their day now is the
day of their destruction. And it says, For the day of the Lord upon all nations is near.
He doesn't mean all nations at the same time. Each nation has its own day of the Lord, where God judges them, and this time it's going to be Edom's turn. As you have done, it shall be done to you.
Your reprisal shall return upon your own head. For as you drank on my
holy mountain, meaning apparently they celebrated on the depopulated Mount Zion after the Jews had been carried away captive. So shall the nations drink continually.
Yes, they shall
drink and swallow, and they shall be as though they had never been. That is, the Edomites even today are as though they had never been. But on Mount Zion, which is of course Jerusalem, there shall be deliverance.
And this is true. I mean, both Jews and Edomites were carried
away to Babylon, but God had promised through Isaiah and other prophets that that captivity would eventually end and God would restore Jerusalem, and they'd rebuild the temple, and they'd return. And that's what's referred to.
Yeah, God's going to bring deliverance
to Mount Zion, and it's going to be rebuilt. And it was in 539 B.C. when Babylon fell to the means of the Persians. And there shall be holiness.
The house of Jacob shall possess
their possessions. The house of Jacob shall be afire, and the house of Joseph aflame. But the house of Esau shall be stubble.
They shall kindle them and devour them, and no survivor
shall remain of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken. This reference to the house of Jacob and of Joseph, meaning the Israelites, shall be aflame, and the house of Esau will be what they burn up, will be their fuel, is no doubt referring to, as I said, in 126 B.C. when John Hyrcanus, the Jewish leader, conquered Edom, and it was only about a century or so after that that they pretty much ceased to exist. So Jerusalem will have its vengeance against Esau, the Edomites.
The inhabitants of the south shall possess the mountains of
Esau. And the inhabitants of the Philistine lowland, they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria. And Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
Notice the Jews will
come back from Babylon, and they'll possess these lands again, the lands that had been once in control of Philistines and once been in control of Esau, these different lands that had been conquered permanently, their lands would now fall to the hands of the Jews when they're restored from Babylon, and that would become part of Jews' territory. It says, and the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath. Now Zarephath up in the north, of course, is where Elijah had fled from Jezebel, and he'd stayed with the widow there at Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem
who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south. Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. Now these saviors or deliverers, it can be translated, these saviors are going to come to Mount Zion, and no doubt this refers to the return of the exiles from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem, and they will have their vengeance, as it were, upon the people of Esau, the Edomites.
And
the kingdom shall be the Lord's just means that, you know, there's a succession of kingdoms. The Assyrians fell to the Babylonians, the Babylonians fell to the Medes and the Persians, but ultimately God is going to restore his kingdom, which was associated with the Jews, and that was seen when they were brought back from Babylon and the Jewish nation was restored. But the kingdom, when the Jews came back, they never were a kingdom really again.
They
were, when they came back from Babylon, they were vassals under the Medes and the Persians. And then when the Greeks conquered the Persians, they were vassals under Greeks. And then when the Romans conquered the Greeks, they were vassals under the Romans.
And under the Romans,
they were destroyed and have not existed as a nation with a king anymore. And the reason for that is when Jesus came preaching, he said the kingdom of God is at hand. And the last line in Edom, excuse me, in Obadiah, is the kingdom shall be the Lord's.
And so
there was an anticipation the Jews had from passages like this and many others that God was going to restore his kingdom to Israel. It didn't happen when they came back from Babylon. It didn't happen under the Medes and Persians or under the Greeks or under the Romans.
It happened when the Messiah came and was proclaimed king. He, at his ascension,
it says in Psalm 110, God said to Jesus, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. And the Bible says that Christ is reigning at the right hand of God over his people, which is his kingdom.
So the kingdom is no longer associated with the earthly nation
of Israel. It's associated with whoever is subject to the king, Jesus. And so frankly, we refer to that as the church, the redeemed, the people of God, the body of Christ.
They
are the kingdom of the Lord. So like all the prophets, although Obadiah is mainly focused on things in his region and near his time, virtually all the prophets, including the shortest prophet in the Old Testament, have at least something to say about the Messianic kingdom. The kingdom did not become the Lord's after the Jews went into captivity until Jesus came and established his kingdom.
So this has to be a reference to the Messianic kingdom
of Christ. And it shows that Christ's coming and his kingdom coming was such the core of God's purpose for history that no prophet could avoid mentioning it, even if they're talking about something entirely different. I mean, the fall of Edom is about as far removed from the story of Jesus and the kingdom of God that could be mentioned.
And yet the whole
book is about the judgment on Edom. And by the way, that happened hundreds of years before Jesus came. But the book can't really properly close until it mentions, but God's going to establish his kingdom again.
He'll be reigning over his people again. And as
I say, that never really happened until Jesus came. And it's true now because we are his kingdom, we're his subjects.
So enough of Obadiah.

Series by Steve Gregg

The Life and Teachings of Christ
The Life and Teachings of Christ
This 180-part series by Steve Gregg delves into the life and teachings of Christ, exploring topics such as prayer, humility, resurrection appearances,
Malachi
Malachi
Steve Gregg's in-depth exploration of the book of Malachi provides insight into why the Israelites were not prospering, discusses God's election, and
Knowing God
Knowing God
Knowing God by Steve Gregg is a 16-part series that delves into the dynamics of relationships with God, exploring the importance of walking with Him,
Numbers
Numbers
Steve Gregg's series on the book of Numbers delves into its themes of leadership, rituals, faith, and guidance, aiming to uncover timeless lessons and
Charisma and Character
Charisma and Character
In this 16-part series, Steve Gregg discusses various gifts of the Spirit, including prophecy, joy, peace, and humility, and emphasizes the importance
1 John
1 John
Steve Gregg teaches verse by verse through the book of 1 John, providing commentary and insights on topics such as walking in the light and love of Go
3 John
3 John
In this series from biblical scholar Steve Gregg, the book of 3 John is examined to illuminate the early developments of church government and leaders
Lamentations
Lamentations
Unveiling the profound grief and consequences of Jerusalem's destruction, Steve Gregg examines the book of Lamentations in a two-part series, delving
Gospel of John
Gospel of John
In this 38-part series, Steve Gregg teaches verse by verse through the Gospel of John, providing insightful analysis and exploring important themes su
Foundations of the Christian Faith
Foundations of the Christian Faith
This series by Steve Gregg delves into the foundational beliefs of Christianity, including topics such as baptism, faith, repentance, resurrection, an
More Series by Steve Gregg

More on OpenTheo

Are Our Physical Ailments Caused by Spiritual Warfare?
Are Our Physical Ailments Caused by Spiritual Warfare?
#STRask
December 5, 2024
Questions about whether our physical ailments are caused by spiritual warfare, how much agency demons have in light of the fact that God sometimes sen
Do Jesus’ Words Take Precedence over Everything Else in Scripture?
Do Jesus’ Words Take Precedence over Everything Else in Scripture?
#STRask
December 26, 2024
Questions about how to respond to friends who say that Jesus’ words take precedence over everything else in Scripture and anything he didn’t speak on
Should We Only Study the Truth in the Bible and Not Learn About Other Beliefs?
Should We Only Study the Truth in the Bible and Not Learn About Other Beliefs?
#STRask
October 17, 2024
Questions about whether we should only study the truth in the Bible and not learn about other beliefs, whether the apologetics approach is contrary to
How Can So Many Professing Christians Support Things That Are Anti-Christian?
How Can So Many Professing Christians Support Things That Are Anti-Christian?
#STRask
December 19, 2024
Questions about how so many professing Christians can support things that are anti-Christian, such as LGBTQ issues and abortion on demand, and how to
How Would You Respond to Someone Referring to God as “She” in Church?
How Would You Respond to Someone Referring to God as “She” in Church?
#STRask
December 16, 2024
Questions about how to respond to someone referring to God as “she” during a church service, how to handle the tension between respecting the authorit
How Should I Pray About Big Decisions If I Can’t Expect a Confirmation from God?
How Should I Pray About Big Decisions If I Can’t Expect a Confirmation from God?
#STRask
January 2, 2025
Questions about how we should pray about big decisions if we can’t expect to hear a “yes“ or “no” from God, what Greg means by “listening prayer,” and
Can Evil Spirits Come into Our Lives Through Certain Music and Movies?
Can Evil Spirits Come into Our Lives Through Certain Music and Movies?
#STRask
December 2, 2024
Questions about whether evil spirits can come into our lives through openings like certain music and movies and whether putting Bible verses under you
Jesus the Bridegroom in John
Jesus the Bridegroom in John
Alastair Roberts
November 19, 2024
The following was first published over on The Anchored Argosy Substack: https://argosy.substack.com/p/18-johannine-allegory-and-baby-goats. I previous
How Do You Convince a Former Christian That Jesus Is God?
How Do You Convince a Former Christian That Jesus Is God?
#STRask
November 14, 2024
Questions about how to convince a former Christian that Jesus is God, whether Jesus’ human nature was created, and what the Bible means when it says J
Guillermo Gonzalez: Earth is Designed for Discovery
Guillermo Gonzalez: Earth is Designed for Discovery
Knight & Rose Show
October 26, 2024
Wintery Knight and Desert Rose welcome Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez to discuss the new 20th anniversary edition of "The Privileged Planet". Guillermo explai
Desacralizing and Evangelizing Politics
Desacralizing and Evangelizing Politics
Alastair Roberts
November 5, 2024
The following was first published over on The Anchored Argosy Substack: https://argosy.substack.com/. Keeping Faith In and Out of Politics: https://a
How Would You Respond to the Current Mainstream View of the Historical Jesus?
How Would You Respond to the Current Mainstream View of the Historical Jesus?
#STRask
November 18, 2024
Questions about how to respond to the current mainstream view of the historical Jesus and the allegations that Jesus just ripped off material from anc
Making the Most of Your Youth
Making the Most of Your Youth
Knight & Rose Show
December 20, 2024
Wintery Knight and Desert Rose offer advice to children, teenagers and young adults about how to get the most out of their young years. They talk abou
What Progressive Christian Teachings Should I Look Out For?
What Progressive Christian Teachings Should I Look Out For?
#STRask
November 7, 2024
Questions about what progressive Christian teachings one should look out for and whether John 16:12–13 provides justification for the views of progres
You Shall Call His Name Joshua
You Shall Call His Name Joshua
Alastair Roberts
December 26, 2024
The following was first published on the Theopolis website: https://theopolisinstitute.com/you-shall-call-his-name-joshua/. Follow my Substack, the A