Life's Inanities and Ironies

The book of Hebrews is one of the richest treasures in all of God’s Word. It unveils the absolute supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King of the new and better covenant. In chapters 4 and 5 the Holy Spirit presents our Savior as the Great High Priest who perfectly meets every need of His people. To fully appreciate the glory of Christ’s priesthood, we must first understand the qualifications and limitations of the Old Testament high priests. These men were living shadows, divinely appointed pictures that pointed forward to the substance—the sinless, eternal, and all-sufficient High Priest, Jesus Christ. As conservative Christians who hold without apology to the verbal, plenary inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, we approach Hebrews 5:1-4 with reverence and expectation. Every word is God-breathed and profitable. Let us examine this passage carefully, verse by verse, and see how it exalts our Lord and instructs us in faith and practice. Verse 1 – Taken from Am...

In the closing verses of Gideon’s remarkable life, the Holy Ghost records a tragic turn that serves as a solemn warning for every fundamentalist believer. After refusing the throne offered by Israel, Gideon took the golden earrings from the Midianite spoil—seventeen hundred shekels of gold—and “made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went a whoring after it there: and it became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house” (Judges 8:27). What exactly was this ephod, and why does its symbolism pierce the heart of every generation that follows? Let us explore its meaning directly from the preserved Word of God, without the fog of modern scholarship or liberal reinterpretation. The Biblical Ephod: God’s Prescribed Garment of Worship In Exodus 28, the LORD Himself commanded the high priest to wear a sacred ephod—an intricately woven garment of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, adorned with onyx stones bearing the names of the tribes of Israel. It w...