Christian Thoughts

  The unembellished five-verse passage in Numbers 15 outlining what happened prior to God’s pronouncement of capital punishment for a man who had gathered sticks on the sabbath, has prompted believers and scoffers alike to pose provoking questions such as the following: •       whether the sabbath law should be stringently enforced every seventh day •       whether God was overly unfair in imposing the most extreme punishment on the man •       whether this apparently out-of-place narration ought even to have been incorporated into scripture.   First of all, the incident described in Numbers 15:32-36 cannot be read out of context.   It is important to recognise at the very outset that this passage has been deliberately placed by the author in Numbers 15 because of the focus on, among other things, the different adjudication processes to be applied when “a person sins unintentionally … before the Lord ” (Numbers 15:27-28) as opposed to when “the person does anything presumptuo

    1.     The Old Testament’s narrations of the experiences gained by Joseph, Daniel and Esther whilst navigating the ruling echelons in foreign jurisdictions have piqued the interest of many a believer.   Why were they in positions of influence among pagan cultures?   Did they contribute to the heathens’ causes?   Had they compromised themselves in the process?   2.       It should at the inception be pointed out that God is actually silent in the entire book of Esther whereas His leading is very much evident in the lives of Joseph and Daniel.   Perhaps looking at how the three of them ended up outside the Promised Land is of assistance when seeking to understand the context for each character’s life journey.   God told Abraham that his entire family would have to leave Canaan for Egypt, and Joseph was the first to do so.   God told Jeremiah that the Jews would have to leave Judah for Babylon, and Daniel was among those who did so.   However, God also told Jeremiah that the Jew

  1.       Whether Christians are entitled (scripturally or otherwise) to call themselves as friends of God is a question that has cropped up for airing time and again.   It is best to turn to none other than God’s Word when pondering on this question that has piqued the interest of many.   2.      O ften touted as the model for friendship with God is the  souls-knitted-together relationship portrayed in I Samuel 18:1-3  between David and Jonathan .   However, o ne of the primary reasons for the Old Testament to highlight this exceptional relationship is to explain why Jonathan did not vie with David for kingship.   This trio of verses has to be diligently read in conjunction with the detailed narrations of the two on-the-run occasions where David chose to disregard the strategically-expedient advice proffered by his loyal followers to capture Saul when the latter was left unattended in the caves to relieve himself.   All these collectively serve to affirm that David did not conspi