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"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6 The Ultimate CliffhangerWhen I was growing up there were several TV shows that our family would watch together. You younger readers might not understand this, but it used to be that there were only a couple of TV networks and it seemed like everybody watched them. And there was no recording (unless you somehow figured out how to program your VCR) and no binging. You knew when your show would come on and you were home for it. The best shows were the ones that kept a continuous story going from week to week and they would build up to the end of the season. For weeks they would advertise the “season finale” and you couldn’t miss it. Inevitably at the end of the last show of the season, there would be a huge turn of events and you’d be left in suspense, not knowing how it would turn out. They had you. Now you’d have to wait until the next season before you could finally get the answer.So why are we talking about this? Well, there is a sense in which this is what God did to his people with the Old Testament. When the Old Testament ends you have this amazing promise of God’s restored kingdom. Our passage for today contains the last 2 sentences of the Old Testament, but in order to understand the context let’s look at the verses that come right before this.The Great Day of the LordIt’s important to remember that Malachi is writing to a group of Jews who had recently come back to their homeland. You see God’s people had turned away from him so he sent foreign rulers to take them into captivity. But now they were returning. Look at the amazing message of hope that Malachi gives to them:“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts." Malachi 4:1-3This is a proclamation of victory for God and for his people. Those who do evil will be judged and those who love the Lord will rejoice. It’s a really beautiful picture. I can only imagine the joy and the hope that God’s people would have received from this. It is truly “great and awesome”.But when was it supposed to happen? That’s what’s crazy, they don’t know. God doesn’t tell them when this is going to happen. Instead, he gives them a sign so that will know when it does happen. That’s where our text for today comes in. He tells them that Elijah the prophet is going to come and he will turn the hearts of God’s people back to him.This is confusing for several reasons. First, Elijah has been gone for over 400 years. And secondly, these are the last recorded words of the Old Testament. After this God stops speaking to his people for 400 years. All they know is that they need to be on the lookout for someone like Elijah.Elijah: Take 2If you aren’t super familiar wiPlease leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” Jeremiah 31:15So Much MorePeople who really know who Jesus is will respond in one of two ways: anger or adoration. There is no middle ground. We see people try to do this in today’s world but it really isn’t a possibility. I get really frustrated when I hear people say stuff about how Jesus was a “good, moral teacher” because that just isn’t an option. Jesus claimed to be God. Good, moral teachers don’t claim to create and sustain the universe. C.S. Lewis famously said in Mere Christianity: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to…”Now that we are on the same page we can look at this passage. This first comes to us as a prophecy in Jeremiah but then it is quoted in Matthew 1:18, where we are told that it has been fulfilled. But what happened?The StarAs you know, when Jesus was born a star appeared. It’s crazy because it looks like the only people that recognized it was a group of “wise men” from somewhere in the east. They were so impressed by this star’s appearance that they set out to see the one who was born “king of the Jews”. What’s even crazier is that they weren’t even Jewish. They must have had copies of the Old Testament lying around and put it together that God was going to announce the coming of the king with a star.Long story short, they show up in Jerusalem asking about the baby. Of course, they would go to Jerusalem, right? This is where the kings are supposed to live. But when they get there Israel’s king, Herod, has no clue what they are talking about, so he gets his own wise men together to figure it out. They come back and say that according to Micah 5:2, the king must be born in Bethlehem. That’s not bad, these guys traveled potentially 400 miles and made it to within 6 miles of Jesus on their first try. Herod then sends them off while trying to trick them. He tells them that they need to come back and tell him all about it so he can go and worship him too. The good news is that God wasn’t tricked. He knew all that was in Herod’s heart, so he later appears to the wise men to tell them not to stop and see Herod but to keep going.Polarized ResponsesThese wise men saw the star and came to worship Jesus. They knew that the heavenly signs were pointing to a heavenly baby. They knew that he was so much more than a baby born to be king. That is why they dropped everything to go and worship him. Herod understood this too, but it didn’t lead him to woPlease leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’ Jeremiah 23:5-6 A Timely MessageWhen you read this passage you can’t help but get excited. This is absolutely filled with hope. There is a king coming from the line of David who is going to bring salvation. The reason why this is encouraging for us is that we are looking back at it through the lens of a stable. We know that this is talking about baby Jesus born from David’s line in David’s town.However, the Jews to whom this was originally written were in a completely different context. Some of them had been taken into captivity and some of them were getting ready to be taken. They have a “king” but he’s just a puppet set up by a conquering army, he has no power. Imagine you were in that situation. How much more meaningful would it be to know that God was going to send a real king? And not just any king either, this king would be like David (one of his actual offspring) and he would really rule and reign. Not only that, but he would bring peace. Remember that at this time God’s people had already been split into 2 nations (Israel and Judah) each with separate kings. The king that Jeremiah was promising would be a king to bring unity and peace. There would be no more wars with Assyria or Babylon. There would be no more deportations to foreign lands. God’s king would be in control.A Godly KingYou don’t have to look too far to realize that there is more going on here. Look at the attention given to “righteousness”. In just these 2 verses we see it mentioned 3 times. First, we see that God is going to raise up from David’s line a “righteous” branch. This is a really big deal for several reasons. It’s important because even before Israel had their first king God laid out how the king was supposed to reign. He wasn’t supposed to get a ton of wealth for himself, he wasn’t supposed to marry a bunch of women, and he wasn’t supposed to make a huge army. Instead, he was supposed to put his trust and confidence in God and his word. Look at what God says through Moses:“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)The Jews knew that their kings were supposed to reign like this. They also knew that very few of them had. When you read through Kings and Chronicles it’s easy to see that both Israel and Judah had a bad track record when it came to godly kings. Knowing this makes this prophecy so much sweeter.Secondly, we see that this king is going to execute “justice and righteousness”. This is really interesting because it looks like he is emphasizing both sides of the coin. This new king that God was sending woulPlease leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,from you shall come forth for meone who is to be ruler in Israel,whose coming forth is from of old,from ancient days." - Micah 5:2Some Prophecies are Harder than OthersDepending on who you ask, it is possible that Jesus fulfilled a couple hundred prophecies from the Old Testament. That is absolutely incredible. Some people will go on and on trying to figure out the odds of this happening so that they can show that no mere human being could possibly accomplish this and therefore Jesus must be God. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, one of my favorite illustrations comes from a book published by a guy named Stoner in 1957 called Science Speaks. He said that the odds of Jesus fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies would be the same as if you covered the state of Texas with silver dollars 2 feet deep, marked one with a checkmark, and blindfolded someone. Then they walked around and picked the marked silver dollar on their first try. Do you see what he’s saying? That’s just not possible.When we look at the text for today in light of this we are faced with some really interesting questions. In the above scenario we are talking about an adult attempting to fulfill these prophecies, but what about the prophecies about stuff that had to happen before the Messiah was born? What about where you’re born? Or where you move as an infant? What about your ancestors? See what we are getting at here? No one has ever been able to plan the city in which they were born… no one that is, except Jesus. And the reason he was able to do this is because he was, and is, God.The Not-So-Expected ProphetJust like with many of these prophecies, this one looks really clear to us as we look back but, what did the Jews of Jesus’ time think about this? Did they know that it was a prediction of the Messiah? This is a difficult question to answer because it looks like it’s a mixture of yes and no.First, let’s look at the “no”. During the time of Jesus, the Jews could be separated into 2 basic groups of people: those who were looking for the coming Messiah, and those who weren’t. It might sound weird to say this, but from the New Testament’s witness it looks like the religious leaders of the day fell into the category of the ones who weren’t. They had built up their own power and influence and they were not ready to hand that over to anybody—not even the Messiah.On the other hand, we see faithful Jews who were raised on the Old Testament and longed for the Messiah to come. This makes sense too. These were the common Jews who didn’t have any of the power of the leaders. They were the ones who felt the most of the oppression by the Romans. Of course, they were looking for the Deliverer.We see these people showing up as real seekers in the gospels. In John, there is an interesting interaction between these 2 groups of people. Jesus has gotten up and told them that he is God and that there is hope only in him. Some of them say, yes, “he is the prophet” or “he is the Messiah” but some say it’s not possible because Jesus is from Galilee (remember he moved a couple of times as a kid). Look at verse 42, “has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”Read the full article here:Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

“1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,the Spirit of counsel and might,the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.He shall not judge by what his eyes see,or decide disputes by what his ears hear,4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,and faithfulness the belt of his loins.6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;and a little child shall lead them.7 The cow and the bear shall graze;their young shall lie down together;and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.9 They shall not hurt or destroyin all my holy mountain;for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORDas the waters cover the sea.10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” – Isaiah 11:1-10The Heart of the KingFirst off, let’s pay attention to how God is narrowing the path to the Messiah. Twice in this little passage, Isaiah tells us that this hero is going to come through Jesse’s family. And you remember the story, right? Jesse was a faithful Israelite looking forward to a Messiah when out of nowhere a prophet comes to tell him that one of his boys is going to be the king. This is when Jesse parades each of his sons out in front of Samuel but then finds out that none of them are gonna work. He has to actually go out to the field to get David from watching the sheep so that he can be anointed as the king! How crazy this that?! Don’t forget: man looks at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.Like the Best Petting Zoo EverAs we have seen over and over this is just another example of God narrowing and expanding the vision for his kingdom. He is narrowing it by telling us that it is going to come through Jesse’s family, but he is expanding it to include the whole world, “far as the curse it found”. We know that there is something wrong in the world. When we look around us there is so much violence. Not only do we see wars and fighting among men and nations, but we see it in the animal kingdom as well. When God created the whole world and said that it was “very good” there was no violence, just peace.The vision that Isaiah is giving us is of that same kind of peace. Have you ever watched Planet Earth or the Discovery Channel? How do animals typically treat each other? More like food than friends, right? WePlease leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

"The people who walked in darknesshave seen a great light;those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,on them has light shone.You have multiplied the nation;you have increased its joy;they rejoice before youas with joy at the harvest,as they are glad when they divide the spoil.For the yoke of his burden,and the staff for his shoulder,the rod of his oppressor,you have broken as on the day of Midian.For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumultand every garment rolled in bloodwill be burned as fuel for the fire.For to us a child is born,to us a son is given;and the government shall be upon his shoulder,and his name shall be calledWonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.Of the increase of his government and of peacethere will be no end,on the throne of David and over his kingdom,to establish it and to uphold itwith justice and with righteousnessfrom this time forth and forevermore.The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this." - Isaiah 9:2-7The Light of HopeThis is such an exciting and beautiful prophecy. And it makes it even more meaningful when we realize that this was given 700 years (give or take) before Jesus. Yet when you read over this you just can’t help but think of him. This is another one of those passages that we read every year at this time and it gives us hope, but think about the hope that it gave the Jews all those years ago before Christ.As you look at this passage you can see that God is sending a rescuer, a deliverer. It’s easy to see how the Jews would have been so surprised by the way Jesus lived on earth. It would be hard for them to see him as their Messiah since he didn’t fit the picture of a conquering warrior. The history of the Jews had been very dark. Even after they came back to their land it seemed like they couldn’t catch a break. One nation after another seemed to oppress them. They needed someone to set them free.No Mere Human Would DoWhen we look at this passage there is so much going on. First off, the focus is on a child. Isn’t that interesting? This should let us know that something really unique is going to happen. The answer that they are looking for is going to come in the form of a baby boy.Next look at these titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. These aren’t titles that you would give to just any military leader. The Jews stood apart from the rest of the world in their time because they believed that there was only one true God, the God who created the universe. It was blasphemy to worship any other God.If we tie both of these ideas together we can realize that even in their own holy scriptures God has given serious hints pointing to the incarnation. This is a prophecy that is talking about a child to be born who would be called God...Read the full article at: https://www.swoutfitters.cPlease leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14Double RainbowWe have all have read the verse above and we know, for certain, that this is about Jesus. But did you know it’s also about someone else? Wait, what? Yeah, this is one of those situations where God makes a prophecy that has an immediate fulfillment and then a later fulfillment. This is another amazing example of God’s specific sovereignty over all of human history. The people of Israel needed something to give them hope and God gave it to them. What they didn’t know at the time was that this was also going to give hope to the whole world.Signs of DeliveranceHere is what is happening in the context of Isaiah 7. The king of Israel, Ahaz, is freaking out because there are 2 other kings threatening war with him. So, God sends Isaiah to comfort him. That is where this prophecy comes into play. Let’s read it again but this time let’s go just a little bit farther."Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”" - Isaiah 7:14-17What is Isaiah saying to Ahaz, and why is it important? God is foretelling the birth of a little boy. When this boy is really young the threat will be over. The whole point of this is to calm Ahaz down and let him know that he doesn’t need to be afraid. This is going to happen in his lifetime, and this is a sign for him that God is going to keep his word.So Is This About Jesus or Not?Yes. This is about Jesus, but first, it’s about Maher-shalal-hash-baz. You see the whole point of this sign is that it provides something tangible for Ahaz to see. That’s why we get the first fulfillment one page over in chapter 8. To understand this we need to know a little something about the Hebrew language (because the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew). You see the word translated as “virgin” doesn’t necessarily have to mean “virgin” and could just mean “young woman”. This little boy is actually born to Isaiah and his wife. God confirms this when he tells Isaiah that before his son is even old enough to say his parents’ names the threat will be over.But you might be thinking, how then do we know that it’s about Jesus? Great question and there are 2 clear ways that we see this...Read the full article at: https://www.swoutfitters.com/resource/advent-14-maher-shalal-hash-baz/Follow the whole study of The Things Concerning Himself at:https://www.swoutfitters.com/advent/Every day, Dec. 1-25, we'll be publishing daily advent study posts (written and audio versions) on our website. You can also access the audio recordings on the Snowbird App, Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

"When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." - 2 Samuel 7:12-13"and Jesse the father of David the king.  And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah," - Matthew 1:6The Un-named GrandmaWhen you read through the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew you’ll notice that there are 5 women who show up in the line of Jesus but only 4 of them are mentioned by name. This one is simply called, “the wife of Uriah”. Isn’t that interesting? Why wouldn’t Matthew mention the name of this woman? I think it’s because this isn’t a particularly bright spot in Israel’s history. This episode in King David’s life is not something that they were proud of. It gets even more interesting when you realize that Matthew was writing to a mostly Jewish audience who would have known all about who this lady was. The bottom line is that I think the reason Matthew didn’t mention her name is probably the same reason you don’t know many ladies named Bathsheba.Wrong Place, Wrong TimeThere are 2 things that everybody remembers about King David. The first is that he killed Goliath and the second is his relationship to Bathsheba. We hear all about this in 2 Samuel 11. At the beginning of the chapter, there is some not-so-subtle foreshadowing that should tip us off that something bad is going to happen. It says “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle … but David remained at Jerusalem.” There you have it. David is the king of whom they used to say had “slain ten thousands”. He should be out there with his men, leading them in battle, but instead, he’s lounging around the palace in the middle of the afternoon. It’s pretty embarrassing.A Man of HonorThe rest of the story is even worse. David sees a beautiful woman and asks about her. Even though he knows that she is married to one of his most valiant soldiers it doesn’t stop him from pursuing her. Soon afterward he finds out that she’s pregnant and tries to get her husband to come home to be with her so that everyone will think that he is the one who got her pregnant. This plan might have worked except for the fact that her husband was way more honorable than David. Uriah would not come home and enjoy the comfort of his normal life while the army was out in battle. How ironic is that? The king didn’t care that they were at war, but the soldier did.After all of this, when David couldn’t think of anything else to do, he sends Uriah to the front line of battle and orders everyone around them to retreat. Who knows how many people David ordered to their death just to cover up his sin...Read the full article at: https://www.swoutfitters.com/resource/advent-13-grace-from-disgrace-the-wife-of-uriah/Follow the whole study of The Things Concerning Himself at:https://www.swoutfitters.com/advent/Every day, Dec. 1-25, we'll be publishing daily advent study posts (written and audio versions) on our website. You can also access the audio recordings on the Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

"Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman." - Ruth 4:11-2 "Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king." - Matt 1:5-6 A Widowed Daughter-in-lawIf you haven’t picked up on this yet, our journey through the Old Testament on our way to Jesus often reads more like the plot to a soap opera than a religious text. This goes to show us that God uses all kinds of people from every type of background to bring about his plan for the world.This episode in the drama of Scripture starts out very dark. I mean no sooner do we get introduced to the main characters than they start dying off. There’s a man named Elimelech from Judah who moves to Moab because of a famine and there he and his two sons die, leaving his wife Naomi with two daughters-in-law. One of them goes back to her family and our story follows Naomi and Ruth as they go to live in the little town of Bethlehem.Gleanings and SandalsAs soon as they get settled in Bethlehem, Ruth gets to work. You see God had already made a way for faithful Jews to take care of the poor and Boaz was a faithful Jew. It just so happened that this takes place in the time of the harvest and Ruth just so happened to stumble across Boaz’s field. As was their custom Boaz’s workmen would harvest the fields but would leave anything that fell to the ground for the poor to pick up for themselves. This is where Ruth comes in. She was busy all day picking up the leftovers when Boaz noticed her. He had already heard of the kindness she had shown to Naomi and he wanted to help reward her so he told his men to leave out even more for her. When Naomi hears about this she realizes that Boaz is in a unique position to help because he is a close relative of theirs and could be their redeemer.I realize that some of this might be confusing because it is talking about ancient Jewish traditions and customs, but the really crazy part is that these practices had been a part of the Jewish culture for generations and now God is using them to bring about his plan of salvation through Jesus. Then we come to the climax of the story. Boaz decides that is going to redeem them but he has to get past another relative who is first in line. This guy doesn’t want to ruin his own inheritance so Boaz redeems them and hands over his sandal, which is kinda like a handshake. The deal is done...Read the full article at: https://www.swoutfitters.com/resource/advent-12-davids-moabite-grandma/Follow the whole study of The Things Concerning Himself at:https://www.swoutfitters.com/advent/Every day, Dec. 1-25, we'll be publishing daily advent study posts (written and audio versions) on our website. You can also access the audio recordings on the Snowbird App, Apple Podcasts, and Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

"… and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab," - Matthew 1:5Don’t Forget the LandFor the people of Israel, the most tangible part of God’s covenant with them was that he would give them the promised land. It’s really cool for us to look back on how all of this played out because we usually don’t think much of the land. After all, we don’t live in Israel and most of us don’t ever plan to. But for the Jewish people this meant everything to them. And in reality, if we don’t keep the promise of the land in mind we will miss out on a lot of what the Old Testament is about.Today we will talk about the events that take place in the book of Joshua. Let’s do a quick summary to get us up to this point in history. Remember that when God made his promise to Abraham he told him that his people would be slaves in a land not their own for 400 years and that afterward, God would bring them back to possess their own land. This is exactly what happened. They went down as sojourners to Egypt and then when a new Pharaoh came on the scene he put them in slavery. Moses then rises up as their deliverer and God brings them out with great possessions to wander the wilderness for 40 years. During this time God gives them victory over everyone that opposes them, which will bring us up to the book of Joshua.The Faith of a PaganThe first city of the promised land that they face is Jericho. This is a city surrounded by walls that seem impenetrable to the people of Israel. So Joshua sends in two men to spy out the land. This is where we first meet up with Rahab. Now Rahab is not a godly woman. Not only is she living in a sinful environment but she has a very sinful profession. She makes her living sinning against God’s design for marriage. In other words, she is an unlikely convert. But look at what she does. She risks her neck to save these foreigners. Why would she do that? It’s because she has heard all about the God of the Jews.Let’s look at God’s Word in Joshua chapter 2.Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” (Joshua 2:8-13)Rahab is confessing in Yahweh and putting her faith in him...Read the full article at: https://www.swoutfitters.com/resource/advent-11-the-savior-of-the-world-and-rahab/Follow the whole study of The Things Concerning Himself at:https://www.swoutfitters.com/advent/Every day, Dec. 1-25, we'll be publishing daily advent study posts (written and audio versions) on our website. You can also accesPlease leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help others grow in their faith. Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.