Posts by John Staiger (Page 94)

(Joshua 2; 6; Matthew 1:5; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25) The Bible bluntly calls her “Rahab the harlot.” But some have opted to translate “Harlot” as “Hostess” or “Innkeeper.” Nice try, as they say, but that is a deliberate mistranslation of the Hebrew word used (not to mention the Greek words in the New testament).What is their problem? It comes from the fact that Rahab is a direct ancestress of Jesus. In fact, she is the great-great-grandmother of King David (Mt.1:5).…

Matthew 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43 In Jesus’ day blindness was not spoken about in polite terms. It was not a ‘challenge,’ it was a ‘curse.’ If a blind man was not born to wealth, he was destined to beggary.Bartimaeus did what poor blind men do. He sat and begged from passers-by. When something happened in his part of Jericho, he simply asked the nearest person what was going on. He saw much of life through the eyes of strangers…

That sense of foreboding that grows inside of you at the news of pending doom can issue forth in irrational behaviour.Balak, King of Moab sent Moabite and Midianite princes to Balaam with letters and money. He invited him to come and curse the Israelites who were on their way from Egypt to the promised land. Balak should have taken Balaam at his word when he told them that he could only do and say that which God commanded. Balaam’s arrival…

Many years ago, I was asked by a Christian couple to come to their home and “pray for their new-born baby.” They had asked the local preacher to pray for their baby in worship, but for reasons unknown to me to this day (I did not ask, and I make no judgement), they were refused. Hannah belongs in the upper echelons of any spiritual rankings. But for her immense faith we would never have known the name Samuel (1 Samuel…

Every man needs a friend who will stay with him to the end. The apostle Paul had Luke and Jeremiah had Baruch. Both wrote more than a little of our Bibles, both appear in the narratives, and both were true believers in the things they wrote.Baruch was Jeremiah’s amanuensis. God spoke to Jeremiah and Baruch wrote it all down.Baruch’s brother, Seraiah, was the officer in charge of King Zedekiah’s household (Jer.51:59). Thus, there may be some credence to the tradition…

A great apostacy of the Lord’s church in New Zealand in the 1950s saw our numbers decimated. It was the work of an old single sister in the Lord that helped bring back the light (others were working elsewhere, also). Simply put, Miss Edie took some young men and raised the church around them. Scratch the surface of most local congregations and you will find stories of dedicated sisters having poured their hearts and resources into the growth of the…

Congregations are like people, the moment they forget their roots is the moment that they lose their way. The church at Philippi knew their beginnings and remembered the man that Jesus sent to make it happen (Acts 16). When Paul was imprisoned in Rome the Philippian church dispatched Epaphroditus with a gift to meet Paul’s needs (Phil.4:18). Not only did Epaphroditus bring a gift, he was a gift. Paul understood and appreciated the immense value of this brother. He praised…

Well, not everything. But he would have been if he could have been.Though he did rack up a few personal and family firsts: *First to practice polygamy by taking two wives, Adah and Zillah.*Thus, the first to break God’s marriage laws (Gen.2:24). *Adah’s firstborn, Jabal, became the first large scale tent-dwelling farmers. *And his brother, first runner-up, Jubal, was the first to rise a family of instrumentalists. *Zillah’s firstborn, Tubal-cain, was the first to make iron instruments. *And Naamah…she was…

Someone asked me if I believe in karma. I said, “No, because I believe in Jesus.” He explained, “You know, when bad things all seem to happen at once.’ Of course, all these mixed up ideas are oft pondered perceptions, but things that I have lived long enough to dismiss.Shimei is one of those ‘bad things’ who turned up at just the wrong time. King David was fleeing Jerusalem (2Sam.16), because his son Absalom had taken over the kingdom. Along…

Just as Jesus would not countenance doubt among his disciples, Paul would not countenance division in the churches. His words were characteristically strong on the subject and he named names.In Philippians 4:2-3 Paul speaks to two hard working sisters in the Lord who are not getting on. Their stature in the congregation was such that Paul saw fit to write down what everyone knew but no one seemed able to do anything about; their disharmony was affecting the church.His first…