This last part of chapter 2 opens up much-discussed topics: human freedom and that grey area between claims of faith and falling away from faith.
Minor Prophets: Zechariah, Vision Two
It was evocative imagery, immense and forceful blacksmiths, their hammers raised, mighty opponents to the raw and primitive power of the bulls with their horns.
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2 Peter 2: Balaam’s Revenge
It is an exact corollary to what Peter—and Jude—were speaking in such strong terms against. It was the Gnostic cancer, threatening to infect the entire church.
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2 Peter 2: Balaam’s Oracles
Maybe the catch word for us, as it surely was for Peter’s readers, who knew this story very well, is Have No Fear. Even despite mistakes, wrong choices, sin, and anything else, nothing can derail God’s plans for God’s people.
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2 Peter 2: Balaam the Mountebank
As surprising as it might be for you and I to hear a donkey speak, Balaam seems to have taken it in his stride, for he answered his donkey, as though this were a perfectly ordinary part of his day. It is actually more astonishing that Balaam should have answered in the way he did!
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2 Peter 2: Balaam the Seer
Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. But Balaam’s pride was in his way, his confidence that he could manipulate Almighty God into cooperating with Balaam’s greed. Balaam could not see God.
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Jephthah’s Daughter
Her story always bothered me, so I decided to make a deep study of what -really- happened. And now I know what this story is in the Bible.
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Minor Prophets: Zechariah, Vision One
Generational sins complicate life. You and I live with the consequences of what the previous generations did, even what our own family members did. But there is always a way out.
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2 Peter 2: When Corruption Completely Corrupts
These were newish Christians, still in the early stages of having their faith anchored in truth. What a precarious time it was for the first century church.
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2 Peter 2: Righteous? Really?
It complicates things, does it not? When scripture specifically describes Lot and Noah as righteous, then carefully records their drunkenness and sexual deviance.
