Dan Olinger

Archaeology, Part 2: The Days of Abraham

January 22, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

My claim is that several archaeological finds demonstrate an intersection between the biblical narrative and the “secular” ancient history that everybody learns in high school and college. Depending on the details, most of these can be taken to demonstrate a reliability or historicity in the biblical account. I’d like to go through several of these, in roughly chronological order. (I say “roughly” because many of the objects cannot be dated precisely.)

Nuzi

Because the Middle East is largely desert, the Euphrates River dominates it. As it meanders its way southeast from the mountains of southeastern Turkey to the Persian Gulf, its water provides life to a crescent-shaped region from northern Syria through modern Iraq, paralleling its sister river the Tigris, and then through Kuwait, where it empties into the Persian Gulf. Not surprisingly, the kingdoms, cultures, and their cities snuggle up close to this “Fertile Cresent.”

Nuzi was a city near modern Kirkuk, Iraq, about 100 miles north of Baghdad, east of the Tigris. It was at its geopolitical height around 2000 BC, the time of Abraham.

Archaeologists found tablets that recorded the legal and social customs of that culture.

One tablet contains the following regulation:

“The tablet of adoption belonging to Nashwi … : he adopted Wullu …. As long as Nashwi is alive, Wullu shall provide food and clothing; when Nashwi dies, Wullu shall become the heir.”

Thus an aging, childless couple could adopt an adult son to care for them when they could no longer care for themselves, and when they died he would inherit their wealth. This appears to be the arrangement between Abram and Eliezer of Damascus (Gen 15.2). God, of course, had another plan for Abram’s wealth, and a lot more.

Side note: I’ve wondered about the inherent conflict of interest in these arrangements; when the adoptive parents die, the adoptee’s work ends, and he gets their money. I wonder how many adoptees hastened the death of their adoptive parents, whether by action or just neglect.

Another tablet reads as follows:

“Kelim-ninu has been given in marriage to Shennima. If Kelim-ninu bears, Shennima shall not take another wife; but if Kelim-ninu does not bear, Kelim-ninu shall acquire a woman of the land of Lullu as a wife for Shennima, and Kelim-ninu may not send the offspring away.”

Another side note: I’m not sure the land of Lullu would be the best place to find a good wife.

The infertile wife—and in those days the wife was always assumed to be the infertile one—bore the responsibility of finding a fertile wife for her husband. This too sounds familiar; Sarai, beyond the age of child-bearing, insists that Abram take her servant as a wife so that she (Hagar) can bear him a son (Gen 16.2). It was her responsibility.

This also helps explain why Abram was troubled when Sarai later demanded Hagar’s expulsion from the house (Gen 21.9-12). Given the relationship, that just wasn’t done.

Now, I’m not suggesting that Abram and Sarai lived under the laws of Nuzi; the Bible never places them in that city. But the city was in effect the capital of a large region in eastern Mesopotamia, and its laws would certainly influence the laws of the surrounding area, from Ur to Haran, across the eastern Fertile Crescent. It’s no surprise that the patriarch would have followed those cultural practices.

A connection, verified in historical records, between the practices of the ancient patriarch Abram and the culture in which he lived.

We’ll turn next time to Israel’s time in Egypt.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Archaeology and the Bible, Part 1: Introduction

January 19, 2026 by Dan Olinger 3 Comments

The Indiana Jones movies have raised interest in archaeology, but they’ve also misrepresented it pretty badly. For starters, the guy in the cool hat accomplished 15 or 20 lifetimes’ worth of archaeological discovery in just a handful of movies. Most archaeology is pretty boring to people who aren’t cut out for it; it’s a lot of digging in the dirt, slowly, methodically, sweatingly, and finding nothing of substance over the course of several summer digs. A potsherd will make your week, and a scarab or a ring will make your year. The chances of your finding something historically or economically significant are slim.

Patience. Only those who love archaeology are likely to persist.

And over the decades, those who love it have found some remarkable things.

Archaeology is a global endeavor—or maybe I should call it a sport—and every continent has yielded finds to the persistent. But my field is the Bible, and since the biblical narrative is confined to Egypt and the Middle East—and mostly in Israel—my focus is on a relatively small portion of the globe.

Some few of these discoveries get attention in the popular press, and a disturbingly large portion of those popular reports are just wrong—sometimes accidentally, because the concepts are complex, and sometimes intentionally, to stir up interest and get hits on somebody’s web page. (No, archaeologists did not find chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea.)

But there are genuine, significant discoveries. Pretty much everybody’s heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Some significant discoveries tell us simply about what the culture was like in ancient days. (The linked article, by the way, has the “click-bait” title typical of reports in the popular press.) That’s probably the most common type. Others help us understand ancient languages better.

There’s another subset of these discoveries that I find particularly interesting, because of what they tell us about history.

If you grew up in a Christian school or home school, you studied both world history and the Bible. I don’t know if you noticed, but world history and biblical history seem to have different casts of characters.

World history had Hammurabi and Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

Biblical history had Adam and Noah and Abraham and David and Ezra and Paul.

Different characters.

Oh, there’s a little overlap. Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus and Caesar Augustus show up in both stories. But overall the two seem to be very different.

There are good reasons for the difference, of course. The biblical narrative begins before the start of written records or a surviving material culture—especially before the Flood—placing that period out of the reach of historians. And after that, the biblical story is focused on the development of a small nation without much political power, rather than on the great world powers, except as their plans intersect with that small nation of Israel.

But skeptics often consign biblical history to the legend bin because the stories are so different.

And thus I consider certain archaeological finds interesting because they bridge the gap between the two stories; they serve to tie the two stories together in a historical way.

Something I particularly like about these intersections is that they tend to be small. They don’t connect David or Solomon, say, with the incipient Assyrians, which would get serious headlines; rather they tell us about little details, such as the name of Jeremiah’s scribe, or the amount of gold traded between a couple of cities in the time of Abraham. I would suggest that a forger is not likely to be interested in these sorts of data. They don’t have the popular punch of, say, Hitler’s diaries.

In the next few posts, I’d like to present a few of these discoveries, ending with an observation about their significance.

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Demystifying Discipleship, Part 4: What, and Where / How?

January 15, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Why Disciple? | Part 3: When?

As I anticipated in the previous post, I think a couple “journalism questions” remain for our survey of discipleship:

What happened when you were converted?

Where do you go from here?

And because I’ve written on these questions here before, I think a couple of links and a comment or two might be sufficient for this post.

We begin discipling a new convert by explaining to him where he is, or what happened to him when he came to Christ in repentance and faith (or, in today’s common expression, “got saved”). God was doing things in his heart before that happened, and a whole raft of things, many of which he didn’t notice, happened to him at the moment of conversion. And God’s work will continue in him in the days ahead, and for the rest of his life.

He needs to know these things in order to understand his place in God’s plan now.

I’ve written about those things in this series, using the analogy of opening presents at Christmas. It’s a long series (22 posts!), because it needs to be.

We conclude by answering the question “Where do we go from here?” To some degree the last few posts of the series linked above will help to answer this question—there’s progressive sanctification and filling and glorification—but our new brother will need some help with getting there—with fulfilling his responsibilities in the shared (“synergistic”) work of progressive sanctification.

For these helps, I suggest another earlier series, in which I use the analogy of working out, or building muscle. That’s just 6 posts, covering what we call the three (or maybe five) “means of grace.” It’s a subject that I think is taught less clearly than it ought to be these days.

May we all comprehend, and apprehend, our inheritance and our responsibilities in this remarkable spiritual journey.

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Demystifying Discipleship, Part 3: When?

January 12, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Why Disciple?

I suppose there are two “when” questions having to do with discipleship:

When should I seek to make disciples (“evangelize”)?

When should I call for a decision in evangelism?

The first question, I think, has already been answered in our survey of the Great Commission: “As you are going,” Jesus said, “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 29.19).

That means it’s a natural extension of daily life.

Now, Jesus told us to be “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Mt 10.16). I know there are people who would disagree with me—vigorously—but I think that statement at least implies that we should evangelize in ways that are reasonably adapted to the culture in which we’re working.

An example. Some Christians preach on street corners. You can do that; I’ve done some of that myself, in years past. But in our culture, such people are typically viewed as, well, crazy, or at least socially maladjusted, and I haven’t heard of their having much success. The only response I ever got was from someone who was inebriated, and there was no way that I could take him through the plan of salvation in that condition.

Evangelism is simply a part of the way we live our lives. Recently I flew somewhere on Southwest, which at the time didn’t assign seating. The way that works is that the first people to board grab either an aisle or a window seat, as close to the front as possible, and then they all fervently hope that nobody sits in the middle. I boarded relatively late, and as I walked down the aisle I could see that fervent hope on every face I passed. I managed to get an aisle seat waaaay in the back, and when a big guy came down the aisle to claim the middle seat, I just slid over so he could have the aisle seat. He commented on that, and I said, “I’m the littlest guy in the row; makes sense for me to sit in the middle.” (I’m happy to say that this was not a transpacific flight; if it were, the decision would have wrenched my soul.) We had a long and congenial conversation about spiritual things—turned out he was already a believer—and the guy on my right heard the whole thing, even though he wasn’t inclined to join the conversation.

So when do we evangelize? All the time. As we go. Wisely.

My answer to the second question might be controversial as well. I’ve already written some thoughts on how much pressure we place on children to convert. Stop here and go read that brief piece. I’ll wait.

No, really. Go read it.

All right. We can do serious damage when we pressure people to accept something they don’t understand or agree with. Prayers are not magic words; God knows the heart, and even a prayer with all the right words is useless if the one praying doesn’t mean them.

That’s true of adults as well as children. Would that enebriated man on the sidewalk in Boston have been regenerated if he had prayed a prayer that I recited to him, but that he likely would remember only dimly, if at all?

No, he wouldn’t have been. But if he did remember it dimly, then for the rest of his life he could tell future evangelists that he’d already done that, and “it didn’t work for me.”

There’s no way I’d set up a situation like that.

So when do you call for a decision?

The Bible says that salvation consists of repentance—turning from sin attitudinally—and conversion—turning to Christ in faith. Repentance, without which salvation simply will not happen, is animated by conviction of sin, a sense of sinfulness and of guilt before God. And how does conviction happen?

Someone shouting at you?

Someone telling you a sad story that moves you deeply?

Someone telling you about the eternal fires of hell and scaring you half to death?

No. Not by themselves.

Conviction, the Scripture says, is a work of God’s Holy Spirit.

So when do we call for a decision, a prayer of repentance?

When we see evidence of conviction. In a child, or in an adult.

Otherwise, we’re just inoculating the person against evangelism.

Next time, we’ll finish the series by laying out the content of discipleship:

What happened when you were converted?

Where do you go from here?

Part 4: What, and Where / How?

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Demystifying Discipleship, Part 2: Why Disciple?

January 8, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction

If we’re going to be equipped to disciple others, we need to start with the basics:

What is discipleship?

Why is this a priority? (or, to put it more bluntly, why should I care?)

I’m going to answer those questions in reverse order.

It all begins with God’s will.

Just before he returned to heaven, Jesus left his disciples with a command, the one we call The Great Commission. It appears in Mark 16.15, Luke 24.46-49, and Acts 1.8, but its classic expression is in Matthew 28.18-20:

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. ¹⁹Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ²⁰Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

Jesus begins by asserting that he has obtained all the authority (“power”) there is in the universe.

That’s quite a claim, and it’s backed up elsewhere in Scripture (e.g. Co 1.14-20).

He’s not bluffing.

So the Great Commission is based on the infinite, universal authority of the one giving it. It’s not merely an option.

And what does this authority command?

The main verb of what follows is “teach.” This word means simply to “make disciples.” When are we to do that? Here Jesus uses a participle, “going,” or “as you go.” So whenever you’re out, take the opportunity to make disciples of all people groups. Of course, to do that you need to go to all the people groups. That’s a key basis of what we call “missions,” and I note that he didn’t restrict the command to a subset of professionals. His command assumes that we’ll all be going, and that as we go we’ll take the time to make disciples in the places where we go.

Next he uses two more participles to tell us how we’re to do that. First, we’re going to baptize them. That assumes, of course, that they will have been converted, will have expressed repentance from sin and faith in Christ. And second, we’re going to teach them what they need to know—what Christ has commanded of his disciples.

As the church has functioned throughout its history, some have specialized in certain people groups—and that makes sense. But all of us have been given this command, and by an infinite authority at that. As we go, wherever we go, we should be telling of Christ’s work, encouraging others to repent and believe, and helping to teach them what happens next.

We all have the obligation to evangelize. All of us. Not just the professionals, whether pastors here in the States or overseas. And once, through our evangelistic labors, someone has believed, we have the obligation to teach him. To disciple him.

Apparently, 2 out of 3 of us aren’t doing that.

Maybe they’re too busy screaming at their political opponents about how stupid they are.

I doubt that’ll open many doors. And I doubt that our infinite, universal authority will be pleased with our priorities, or our devotion to the real cause.

The Bible includes many examples of evangelism; we would do well to study those examples and consider how we might apply them to our time and culture:

Pentecost (Ac 2.38)

Temple (Ac 3.19-26)

Sanhedrin (Ac 4.12)

Sanhedrin 2 (Ac 5.31)

Simon (Ac 8.20-23)

Saul (Ac 9.20; 22.16; 26.18-20)

Cornelius (Ac 10.43; 11.17-18)

Antioch (Ac 13.38-39)

Iconium (Ac 14.1)

Gentiles (Ac 15.9)

Philippian Jailer (Ac 16.30-31)

Berea (Ac 17.12)

Athens (Ac 17.30-31)

Corinth (Ac 18.8)

Ephesus (Ac 19.4-5, 18-19)

Rome (Ac 28.23-24)

There’s no lack of patterns provided.

Next time we’ll consider how to proceed in evangelism.

Part 3: When? | Part 4: What, and Where / How?

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Demystifying Discipleship, Part 1: Introduction

January 5, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

We hear a lot about discipleship in the church these days. Pastors and teachers often point out that discipleship is the focus of the Great Commission (we’ll get to that in a bit), but a recent Barna study (2022) concluded that while about 56% of Christians are being discipled, only about 33% are discipling others.

A couple of caveats.

Accurate surveying is a complicated business; minor inattention can produce huge errors, and every survey that does its statistical work prudently will report a certain “margin of error,” usually 3 to 7 percent, based on sample size and other factors. (The margin of error in this study is +/- 1.5% at 95% confidence.) But even a very large sample size can yield unreliable results—as is the case in virtually every Facebook poll, in which the respondents self-select. That said, Barna is a well-regarded research group.

Nowhere does the article report how Barna defined “Christian”; it says simply that the respondents self-identified as Christian. (I didn’t read the study itself, which is behind a paywall.) Given Barna’s history, I think it’s safe to assume that they were interacting with evangelicals.

The article also doesn’t define “discipleship,” though I’m sure the study itself does. Given that only 56% percent of Christians are “being discipled,” I’m confident that the definition does not include pulpit ministry.

With those factors in mind, I think we can take the percentages as reasonably accurate. That said, though the percentage of Christians who are being discipled is significantly higher than the percentage of those who are discipling others, I still think it’s lower than it ought to be; and the number of those discipling others is disturbingly low.

When a subset of the survey group was asked why they’re not discipling anyone, the most common response was that they didn’t think they were qualified. I rather suspect that apathy and/or fear play a larger role than the survey indicates, but because people are not likely to give answers that find fault with themselves, I doubt that any survey would yield reliable data on that question.

So then. A large percentage of self-proclaimed Christians are rendering only casual obedience, if that, to Jesus’ last command.

Maybe we should try to clarify, in a few posts, what discipleship is all about.

I plan to proceed by tracking the basic journalistic questions:

Why should we disciple others?

What does discipleship consist of?

When should we call for a decision in evangelism?

What should we teach the disciple about salvation? (This will consist of a blog series I posted some years ago. A link will suffice.)

How should the disciple be enabled to grow? (This too will be an earlier series on this blog.)

We’ll start down this path next time.

Part 2: Why Disciple? | Part 3: When? | Part 4: What, and Where / How?

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Top Ten

January 1, 2026 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

And now for the Top Ten posts for all time (since summer 2017).

Same rankings as last year, except #7 and #8 switched, and #9 is new.

The Great Sin of the Evangelical Right (September 4, 2017)
On Calling God by His First Name (November 16, 2017)
Are We Doing Church Wrong? (July 31, 2017)
On Deconversion (March 18, 2021)
On How You’re Remembered (Strategery) (August 6, 2020)
I Was Born That Way (August 9, 2018)
Pants on Fire (August 16, 2018)
On Sin: I’m Guilty of Adam’s Sin? How Is That Fair? (October 4, 2018)
On Retiring (February 24, 2025 )
Freak Out Thou Not. This Means You. (January 8, 2018)

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Top Ten 2025

December 29, 2025 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

It’s time for the Top Ten lists. Today, Top Ten for this year’s posts; Thursday, Top Ten for all time (since summer 2017).

I note that by the nature of things, an annual list like this is noticeably biased in favor of earlier posts. Note also that a series’s place in this list is determined by its most-viewed single post.

Top Ten New Posts 2025

On Retiring (February 24, May 15 )
On Jaywalking (October 20)
On Silence During Chaos (April 28, May 1, 5, 8, 12)
On Political Panic (February 27, March 3)
Baccalaureate (May 19, 22, 25)
On Memes (October 6)
How God Makes Well-Rounded Christians (Colossians 1) (August 21, 28, September 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 25)
A Denier Redirected (1 Peter) (March 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, 27)
On Spiritual Decline (Malachi) (July 28, 31, August 4, 7, 11, 14, 18)
A Book Donation and a Kind Providence (June 26)

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On How to Think about Enemies, Part 11: God Is Great, and God Is Good

December 22, 2025 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

Our third prophet, Habakkuk, will wrap up our thinking with a flourish. He has asked God why he hasn’t judged Judah for her sins, and God has assured him that he will—with the Chaldeans (Babylonians).

But this raises another question. The Babylonians, like the Assyrians, are cruel and violent. Habakkuk asks, “Why, God, would you judge sinners by giving victory to even worse sinners?” (Hab 1.13). How can God use, and benefit, such ruthless (Hab 1.14), brutal (Hab 1.15), sensuous (Hab 1.16), and relentless (Hab 1.17) people?

Good question. And now Habakkuk waits for an answer (Hab 2.1).

Was he out of line for asking the question? I don’t think so—not if God gave him the answer he requested. Even further, God ordered Habakkuk to write down the answer and to run to deliver it to his people (Hab 2.2).

Justice is coming, God says, but slowly (Hab 2.3). You need to trust me and be patient (Hab 2.4).

The next section (Hab 2.5-20) is a “taunt song,” similar to the one David spoke to Goliath as their battle approached. God describes what he will to the the Chaldeans:

The looter will be looted (Hab 2.6-8).

The cocky one will be exposed (Hab 2.9-11).

The expansionist will be thwarted and outshone by the glory of God (Hab 2.12-14).

The shameless will be defamed (Hab 2.15-17).

The idolatrous will be powerless before the enthroned God of heaven (Hab 2.18-20). The Hebrew of Hab 2.20 effectively says, “Hush!”

God will act in his own time, overcoming Habakkuk’s enemies in ways the prophet never could. To this point in the book, we’ve seen our second principle restated: God is better at dealing with our enemies than we can be,

But the book doesn’t stop there; there’s one more chapter. Here God quits speaking, and the prophet speaks in response to what he has heard.

Or rather, he sings; this is a musical work, as the musical term Shigionoth (Hab 3.1) indicates. And what does he sing?

He begins with full recognition of the greatness of this God who is in his holy temple, infinitely greater than Habakkuk, than Judah, than Chaldea, and even than the whole earth (Hab 2.20). The prophet has asked his questions; now it’s time for him to reflect on the answers.

He begins by describing the Lord’s powerful execution of judgment and justice. I won’t go into the details; it’s moving enough for us just to read it thoughtfully. At the end of it all, the prophet stands overwhelmed by this all-powerful God (Hab 3.16).

But.

He can “rest in the day of trouble” (Hab 3.16), because this all-powerful God is no stranger; he is the covenant God of Judah. He is Habakkuk’s God.

And so he closes with words with which most of us are familiar.

No matter what happens (Hab 3.17), he says, “I will rejoice in the Lord” (Hab 3.18).

Why?

Because God will do things right; he will keep his promises; he will deliver his people.

So how do we think about our enemies?

We see them not as enemies, but as broken objects of God’s love, just as we are.

We trust God to deal with them infinitely more effectively than we can.

And we trust God to do the right thing, and to do it perfectly.

In this world or the next, our enemies will be properly dealt with. We have the privilege of trusting our God, who is in his holy temple.

Fear and despair in the face of polarization and rage is just stupid.

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On How to Think about Enemies, Part 10: Why the Delay? 

December 15, 2025 by Dan Olinger Leave a Comment

We turn now to a third prophet who will refine how we think about our enemies. He’s the prophet with the funny name, Habakkuk. He lived, apparently, just before Babylon began attacking Judah and taking her people into exile. This was a time of great evil in Judah—evil kings, evil priests, evil businessmen, evil everybody else. As a prophet, Habakkuk is grieved and troubled by the evil he sees all around him. He cries out to God, seeking answers (Hab 1.2-3), decrying the evil behavior of his own people (Hab 1.3-4).

Have you ever wished that you could just sit down and have a one-on-one conversation with the Almighty? Ask him pointed, specific questions, and hear his answers?

Well, Habakkuk is one of the few people who’ve ever been granted that opportunity. Though lots of people have cried out, “How long, O Lord?” (Hab 1.2), most of them don’t get an audible, verbal answer. Habakkuk does. And his book is a record of the conversation.

In chapter 1 Habakkuk asks God a question and receives an answer—which only raises a further question at the end of the chapter. Chapter 2 records God’s further answer. And chapter 3 wraps it all up, with an example that will put the finishing touches on our philosophy of response to our enemies.

Habakkuk’s first question to God is, “Why don’t you judge Judah’s evil?” (Hab 1.2-3). He describes the evil that is prompting his cry:

Violence (Hab 1.2). Interestingly for our day, this is the word hamas.

Violent robbery (Hab 1.3)

Strife and contention (Hab 1.3)

The Law is paralyzed and does not render justice (Hab 1.4).

Everywhere he looks, there’s evil (Hab 1.4).

Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe applicable to our relationships with our enemies?

The prophet thinks this calls for divine judgment.

And he’s right.

And now, uncharacteristically, God speaks up; he answers Habakkuk’s question.

He begins with a simple promise: I will indeed judge Judah, and within your lifetime (Hab 1.5).

And this tells us why Habakkuk’s question—“How long, O Lord?”—is unwarranted. First, he has apparently assumed that God doesn’t know about the problem; and second, that if he does know, he apparently doesn’t care.

Bad thinking, friend. God knows all things, and his heart is closely wrapped up in his creation and in his covenants. Delay doesn’t mean anything.

God is never in a hurry, because hurry is evidence of lack of authority and ability. Remember the White Rabbit?

God moves deliberately, authoritatively, and always exactly at the right time.

I suppose I should say that we shouldn’t be too hard on ol’ Habakkuk. His entire question seems to be prompted by his firm belief that God will do the right thing—so why isn’t he doing it?! It seems that his view of God is correct; he simply doesn’t understand the timing. We’ll see clearer evidence of this at the end of this chapter.

Now God expands on his answer. He is going to judge Judah by means of the “Chaldeans” (Hab 1.6)—essentially another term for the Babylonians (Is 47.1), who about this time (605 BC) have defeated Egypt at Carchemish (Jer 46.2), establishing themselves as the dominant power in the Middle East. Their infantry is intimidating (Hab 1.7), and their cavalry gives them swiftness of movement (Hab 1.8)—Blitzkrieg! They attack with the fierceness of wolves—”evening wolves,” who haven’t eaten all day and thus are ravenous, attacking with a violence that is only exponentiated by the taste of blood. A feeding frenzy.

When they come to a walled city with an established king, they will not be impressed: king, schming (Hab 1.10). They’ll simply build siege ramps—“heap dust”—and overrun the walls.

And when they win—and they will win—they give themselves all the credit; they are mindless to the role of the God who has decreed and empowered their victory (Hab 1.11).

These are evil, evil people.

Now, this raises a second question, doesn’t it? We’ll include the last paragraph of chapter 1 with chapter 2 in the next post.

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