June 14, 2025
Deuteronomy 18
The head coach of Auburn’s men’s basketball team never played competitive basketball; my boss at the aerospace company where I worked as a young engineer majored in art; and several men have been elected president of the United States despite never having held any previous public office. It’s not always about your experience. It’s about God’s calling on your life. Even so, when a young man with no theological training attracted a crowd in the Judean Wilderness that repented at his preaching and requested baptism, the priests and Levites from Jerusalem began asking John for his credentials. “Who are you? … Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” (John 1:19, 25). The Baptizer humbly responded to them and to others that he’d been sent as prophesied by Isaiah to prepare people for the coming of the Lamb of God, the Son of God (vs. 26-34).
Not all, but many began to connect the dots, for when Jesus later performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, the questions started up again, leading some of the men that day to conclude, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (6:14).
So, Jesus wasn’t just a prophet, but he was THE Prophet, the one prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15-22 of whom the Lord would say to Moses, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him” (v. 18). The passage doesn’t give many details about the coming of this Prophet, but clearly the Jews expected him to come before the final “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21), meaning the kingdom of God. Since Deuteronomy 18:18 describes this Prophet as “like [Moses]” and since to reject this Prophet would lead to personal “destruction” (Acts 3:23; cf. Deut. 18:19), a lot rides on the acceptance or rejection of Jesus by both the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day and every one of us.
I believe that Jesus is the Prophet, the Lamb of God and the Son of God. Who do you say that he is?
–Daniel McCabe
Trivia
How many times per day do observant Jews pray?
A. 1
B. 3
C. 5
On Location: Antonia Fortress
Believing that the apostle Paul brought a Gentile companion with him past the public barrier that leads into the temple courtyard, an action punishable by death, a murderous mob of Jews seized Paul, dragged him out of the courtyard and began beating him to death atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27f). Fortunately someone alerted the Roman soldiers stationed not more than 100-150 yards away at the Antonia Fortress, which the Bible calls simply “the garrison” (v. 31). The soldiers quickly intervened, detained Paul and questioned him, but with the mob shouting over Paul’s every word and unable therefore to get a clear picture of what had transpired, the Roman commander ordered Paul taken into custody. Retreating to the garrison, Paul requested that he be allowed to speak to the people from the safety of the steps that led up the fortress. These steps, mentioned in Luke 21:35, 40, are not visible in the attached picture, but it at least captures the massive size and beauty of the fortress. From there Paul would soon be transferred to Caesarea for safety, and from Caesarea he would eventually appeal to Caesar and be taken to Rome.
All that remains of the Antonia Fortress today is a 13-foot long section of the south wall. Built by King Herod sometime around 35 B.C. and named for Herod’s patron, Mark Antony, the Antonia served to protect the northern wall of Jerusalem from any hostile armies and to keep the peace for all visitors to the Temple Mount. At the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt in 66 A.D., Jewish rebels occupied the fortress, and in 70 A.D. after two bitter months of fighting, Roman General Titus finally smashed through the walls of the Antonia and spilled out on the Temple Mount. Soon the city and the temple lay in ruins, and by order of Titus the fortress too was demolished.
Daniel McCabe
Life in the Land: The Statue of Liberty
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” These well-known words are aptly inscribed on a plaque inside Lady Liberty’s accompanying museum on Liberty Island in New York Harbor within New York City. Some four million visitor’s take the ferry to see her up close each year and there are hundreds of replicas of her around the world in places like Taiwan, Pakistan, Japan, Ukraine, Ireland, Mexico and even Israel. Below are the pictures of two of at least three known replicas located in Israel, the first, a 15-foot high statue that stands at the western entrance to the village of Arraba, and the second, an abstract skeletal replica at a highway intersection in Jerusalem called “New York Place.”
Daniel McCabe
History and Geography: Tel Dan
August 9, 2022
No one suddenly becomes bane. Unchecked doubts progressively open the door to discouragement, which creates a feeling of defeat or emptiness that one either chooses to fill with the Lord or with a ruinous self-reliance or self-righteousness. But spiritual ruin doesn’t happen overnight. We all know that unsuspecting frogs cook in kettles, not microwaves. Sadly over time unchecked doubts can grow into a monstrous rebellion, and such is the story of the people of Dan.
The good land given to the tribe of Dan after Israel’s conquest under General Joshua included beautiful, rolling foothills, sunny coastland and the fertile Sorek Valley of Samson fame, yet the people already living there “forced the children of Dan into the mountains … [and] would not allow them to come down to the valley” (Judges 1:34) despite God’s promise to his people that he would drive out their enemies if they would love him (Joshua 23:11-13). Sadly many of the Danites doubted that they’d ever be able to conquer their God-given allotment, so instead they chose another way, their way. They moved to the far north of the Promised Land, burned down the Canaanite city of Laish, renaming it Dan, and settled in this new land at the foot of Mt. Hermon, which feeds the surrounding verdant valley with fresh water and, along with a river and nearby springs, forms the headwaters of the Jordan River.
But the beauty now surrounding them belied their ruinous and rebellious self-righteousness, for Scripture tells us that the tribe of Dan became a center of false religion with the installation of a golden calf, “shrines on the high place,” and attending “priests from every class of people who were not of the sons of Levi” (1 Kings 12:28, 31).
A tel is small hill or mound that has built up over centuries and that when excavated will reveal layer upon layer of past civilizations at that location. At Tel Dan archaeologists have found evidence of a high place and housing for the priests, literally uncovering the monstrous rebellion of the tribe of Dan, and it all started with doubts that they would not be able to do what God had already said that he would do. May that never become our story!
Daniel McCabe