Josh Benner

Tag: Old Testament

  • Wrath and judgment – did God command genocide in the Old Testament

    When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God…

  • A priest, two goats, and salvation

    Originally published September 29, 2017 For observant Jews all over the world, this evening, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur in Hebrew) is celebrated. The Day of Atonement is the most holy of days in the Jewish calendar. It’s an annual picture of forgiveness that people could have. While Christians don’t celebrate this day, it’s…

  • Meaning of the bronze serpent: the gospel in Numbers

    In Numbers 21, the Israelites experience victory over the Canaanites but soon fall back into grumbling and complaining. God brings a plague of snakes upon the people. It’s a divine judgment. Their grumbling against God was to their downfall. But the people beg for mercy. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and…

  • The importance of the Old Testament to the New Testament

    Originally published April 19, 2016 I recently had a friend ask me a question about a verse in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul will have passages where every verse seems to have different possible interpretations and where they can seem impossibly difficult. As I was researching this complicated passage, I couldn’t help but think “The Old…

  • The gospel in the exodus journey

    The exodus journey is the seminal event of the Old Testament. It’s the story of God miraculously delivering the Israelites from slavery for the purpose of bringing them to the promised land. The Old Testament constantly calls upon the Israelites to remember what God had done. For Christians today, there are a number of parallels…