If you’re a gentile and you want to partake in the benefits offered by the Jewish Messiah, then you have to be grafted into Israel. There ain’t no way around this. In the New Testament, Paul explains this in his analogy of the wild olive tree versus the pure olive tree of God. The wild […]

Yesterday I talked about differences in spiritual status connected to the four directions of North, East, West, and South. Recall I said the East held the most preeminent status followed by the South, and the North held the least preeminent status. Now what’s interesting to consider is that when we go back to the book […]

It’s understandable that a man (Saul) from the tribe of Benjamin was chosen to be king. Benjamin’s territory bordered on Judah, the dominant tribe in the south… But it also bordered on Ephraim, the dominant tribe in the north. This was both a curse and a blessing. It was a curse because they couldn’t be […]

Let’s get our bearings by quickly reviewing the political landscape that surrounded both Samuel and Saul’s decisions. First, it’s important to know that at this point in the Bible, Israel was a deeply divided family. There were three factions that formed the Holy Nation when Saul became king. First, there were the 2 1/2 tribes […]

“True, there were some scoundrels who said, ‘How can this man save us?‘ They showed him no respect and brought him no gift, but he held his peace.”-1 Samuel 10:27 So in verse 27, we’re told there were some BENE-BELIAL (sons of Belial) or no-good scoundrels who refused to accept Saul as king. Why were […]