In the “Book of Books” program this month, we study Philippians. This letter of Paul to his friends in Philippi gives us a beautiful Revelation of the nature of friendship. The bond that united the apostle with the converts whom he had left behind in the Macedonian city was strong and tender. The whole story of his association with Philippi is somewhat idyllic. He had been traveling through Asia Minor and had come down to the shores of the Aegean at Troas, and in the night, he had had a vision or dreamed a dream of a man standing by him beseeching him and saying, “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” That was accepted as a divine call, and he sailed at once for Neapolis and passed thence to Philippi, a little way inland, the city where Octavius and Antony won their great battle over Brutus and Cassius eighty or ninety years before. It was a Roman colony, and a commercial town of some importance, with a Jewish element in its population. Here the apostle, with his companions Silas and Luke, tarried several days. When the Sabbath came, they went outside the gate to a place by a riverside, “where,” Luke says, “we supposed there was a place of prayer”. The words intimate that they had no definite information about it; but they were looking for a place of worship, and they found it, on the banks of this stream, outside the city walls.
We continue to study Old Testament and in a new program discuss The Book of Jonah. Nowhere in the text is there any statement that Jonah wrote the book that bears his name, although the prayer in chapter 2 is in the first person singular. However, Jewish and Christian tradition has steadfastly maintained that Jonah himself is the author. In recent years many have held the position that the book is about Jonah. rather than by him. There are several reasons why this view is held. (1) chapters 1, 3, and 4 are written in the third person; (2) there are supposedly late Aramaic and Hebrew expressions in the book; (3) the emphasis upon God’s mercy toward foreign people indicates a postexilic date (much after the time of Jonah). Each of these objections has been refuted by conservative scholars.
The prophet Jonah (whose name means “dove”) lived during the days of Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah. Jeroboam II (782-753 B.C.) was the king in Israel. Jonah predicted Jeroboam’s restoration of Israel’s border back to the glorious days of David and Solomon (Kings 14:25). He was the son of Amittai and came from Gath-hepher, a small village three miles northeast of Nazareth, the secluded place where Jesus grew up.
Why must we forgive? Jesus was unequivocal on this point: As his followers, we are required to forgive those who sin against us (Matthew 6:15). But what if we don’t feel like we’ve forgiven them? How do we know, then, if we have truly forgiven? The Holy Spirit, thank God, often enables people to forgive even though they are not sure how they did it. But forgiving and knowing that we’ve truly forgiven, comes easier when we understand the realities of forgiveness. In our discussion of this subject, we give your prospective from the New Testament point of view.
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