The Bible Exposition Channel

Paul urges his brethren to search the scriptures with him to show how the Old Testament prophets predicted his death, burial and resurrection taking them back to Psalm 7.

Paul through Old Testament scripture writes his final love letter to his people, the Jews, the letter of Hebrews.

Most church teachings posit that the Book of Hebrews was written anonymously and that is true. That is not where it ends though. There are many proofs as to who wrote it and why. Those proofs all point to only one possible author, Paul.

The main thrust of this chapter and its commentary is to distinguish what it was like to be of the Jewish race at that time rather than the pagans.

Contrary to popular teaching, Jacob did not steal his twin brother Esau’s birthright. It was willingly given over just as God had ordained.

Prager always comes up with something I did not know. Regarding the death of Abraham, he compares the current day thinking of the Jews concerning an afterlife to the Jewish thinking in the days of Abraham.

Abraham requests his slave Eliezar to find a wife for his 40-year-old son Isaac, just not a Canaanite.

Sarah dies at a very specific and important age, 127 Abraham directs his servant now to find a wife for Isaac, who is 40. Just not a Canaanite.

There must have been a good reason for all this right? What was it? Was it worth the effort? Was the reason enough for the conclusion to be the separation of Abraham and Sarah, never speaking again right up till the day of her death? Find out why!

Dennis Prager gives us his unique Jewish perspective of this very odd request.

This is the story of God coming through on his promise to Sarah to have a son and to Abraham that his other son Ishmael, whom he loved, would also become the father of many nations.

What a story! This is about as lurid a story as you can find and it’s in the Bible. Sex, lies, incest, drunkenness, and Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt as God rains down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah.

Alan Dershowitz refers to this chapter as the introduction of the first Jewish lawyer as Abraham argues and negotiates with God.

The Abrahamic Covenant, the most important covenant God ever made with man.

Because of the incidents at the tower of Babel in chapter 11, God begins the story of Abraham and the choosing of the nation of Israel as His people in chapter 12. This is the commentary of that story by Hebrew scholar, Dennis Prager of Prager University.

Only by studying the writings of Paul do we learn about the purpose and destiny of the “ Body of Christ.”

Talk about a change in operation. Humans go from worshipping their God in the Ark of the Covenant to actually becoming the Ark of the Covenant themselves after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ living in you.

Jesus taught Paul seven new secrets out in the Arabian desert after Paul’s conversion. Perhaps the most important is this snatching away from the Earth of his church. Take notes, lots of scripture here.

Paul states plainly in Ephesians 6:19 that his Gospel was a “mysterion”, Greek for a secret. These new doctrines had never been revealed to any human nor explained by any human. These are brand new and designed for “a new people.” This is what should be taught from every Christian pulpit throughout the world.

Nothing in Paul’s experience could have prepared him for the shock that the man he had been persecuting for seven long years was indeed the Messiah of the Jewish nation. To him was salvation granted in Grace and to him were the new mysteries revealed during his three-year seminary training on Mt. Sinai. These are those mysteries.

Paul runs into two Kingdom-believing Jews, Aquila, and Priscilla. He teaches them the Grace Gospel and they believe. They teach Apollos and he believes and begins teaching it. Paul returns to Jerusalem and his teachings cause a riot. He is arrested and would be killed if not for the fact that he was a Roman. He gets sent to Rome and the new “Christian Church” begins to flourish. Thus ends the book of Acts. Now comes the most important book in the Bible for Grace believers. This is the owner's manual of Christianity. This book is what differentiates Jews from Christians. These are the mysteries taught by Jesus Christ Himself to one man, the Apostle Paul.

The importance of this story is to convey that there is a stark difference between the ways Jews and Gentiles get saved under Paul’s new Gospel. In Acts 2 the Jews ask how “we” as a nation can be saved. In Acts 17 the jailer asked how he, individually, can be saved. It’s a different program, a different Gospel, a new way of being saved offered to Gentiles individually. The Jews were God’s chosen people corporately. Now, You are God’s chosen person individually.

Joel prophecies of the tribulation with no mention of a Church Age

Paul blinds the eyes of Elymas the sorcerer for a season, God blinds the eyes of Israel for a season

Barnabus finds Paul in Tarsus and convinces him to co-pastor the new “Christian” church in Antioch.