A blog by Tom Sheepandgoats (aka Tom Harley)
Search topic, word, or Bible verse (Bible books may be abbreviated)
-
Takeaways from Gibeon
You know when people are pulling lessons out of Gibeon that you’re dealing with a Bible people. You’re dealing with a people who take seriously that counsel that “all the things that were written beforehand were written for our instruction.” (Romans 15:4) So it was with the Watchtower Study of September 13, 2026, reviewing several developments in that Gibeonite mess that nonetheless turned out well.…
-
The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31: Parts 1-3
(1) The New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 Just after that slogan of setting teeth on edge and what it means (Jeremiah 31:29-30) comes the promise of the new covenant that sets it in motion: “Look! The days are coming,” declares Jehovah, “when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant. It will not be like the…
-
Fathers Eat Sour Grapes; The Teeth of the Sons are Set on Edge
What about this expression: “In those days they will no longer say, ‘The fathers ate sour grapes, but the teeth of the sons were set on edge. But then each one will die for his own error. Any man eating sour grapes will have his own teeth set on edge?” (Jeremiah 31:29-30) Does it mean that the days are coming (1) in which no one…
-
That First Night Away from Home
That First Night Away from Home That first night away from home you don’t sleep so well. The second night, and all nights thereafter, you do. It’s a carryover from the caveman “eat or be eaten days,” say people who believe in such things. Half your brain is sound asleep. But it has charged the other half, also asleep, to sleep not so soundly, to…
-
What is the Purpose of the Daniel 4 Dream?
What is the Purpose of the Daniel 4 Dream? The purpose of the 4th-chapter-Daniel dream is reiterated three times to Nebuchadnezzar. Three times! Isn’t there a thing that repetition so many times means it carries great significance? “that people living may know that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind and that he gives it to whomever he wants, and he sets…
-
It is Always the Priests and the Prophets
“Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people laid hold of him, crying, “You must die!” …The priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the…
-
“Eat my Flesh and Drink my Blood”—What About it?
That Watchtower Study last week, How to Remain Loyal When We Face Tests of Faith, begins with a consideration of Jesus’ words: “So Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life,…
-
Proverbs 22:6 Revisited
(See Part 1) There is another way to translate Proverbs 22:6, the proverb that traditionally goes: “Train a boy in the way he should go; Even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” (NWT) The above is the typical rendering. Almost all Bible translations do it similarly, if not identically: “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when…
-
A Good Fig but a Bad Egg
Read up on the father-son combos of Bible history and it’s enough to make you doubt Proverbs 22:6. You will at least footnote it: “ Train a boy in the way he should go; Even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” *”Not necessarily so in the case of kings,” the footnote will read. (“Past returns do not guarantee future performance,” says…
-
Science Takes a Hit in Pandemic’s Aftermath
Nobody’s trying to diss vaccines here—honest, I’m not. I’m just trying to write a commentary on evolution—to what extent (if any) can it be reconciled with Genesis? Why should vaccines thrust themselves into the middle of the discussion? No reason at all, that I can see. Except that Sean Carroll, author of ‘The Making of the Fittest,’ does just that. Many times I’ve mentioned this…