Reasoning Through the Bible

Judges 4 begins another cycle of Israel’s rebellion, oppression, and deliverance. After Ehud dies, the people once again do evil in the sight of the Lord. God allows Jabin, king of Canaan, and his commander Sisera to oppress Israel cruelly for twenty years with an army supported by nine hundred iron chariots.

The problem, however, was not the strength of the chariots. Israel had already seen God defeat powerful armies and fortified cities. Their weakness came from turning away from the Lord and losing the protection and blessing that came through obedience.

In this session, Gl...

Judges 3 introduces the first specific deliverers whom God raises up for Israel. The chapter begins by explaining that God left certain nations in the land to test Israel and to teach a new generation how to wage war. The test was not designed to give God information He lacked. It revealed Israel’s condition and exposed whether the people would obey His commandments.

Instead of remaining separate from Canaanite influence, the Israelites lived among the pagan nations, intermarried with them, and eventually served their gods. They became comfortable with the very practices God had warned would become a...

Judges 2:11–23 introduces the repeating cycle that will shape the rest of the Book of Judges. Israel forsakes the Lord, serves the Baals and Ashtoreth, provokes God to anger, suffers under enemy oppression, and then receives mercy when God raises up judges to deliver them.

In this session, Glenn and Steve examine the Canaanite worship of Baal and Ashtoreth and explain why this idolatry was so dangerous for Israel. Rather than completely rejecting Yahweh at first, Israel began adding Canaanite worship to the worship of the Lord. That kind of syncretism led them deeper into idolatry and away fr...

Israel’s decline continues in Judges 1:23–2:10 as the people begin making deals with the Canaanites instead of fully obeying God. What may have seemed practical in the moment became spiritually dangerous over time. The Israelites spared people they were commanded to drive out, allowed pagan influence to remain in the land, and eventually placed some of the Canaanites into forced labor for economic gain.

In this session, we examine the danger of partial obedience and why compromise often becomes a trap. The discussion contrasts Israel’s deal with the man from Bethel with Rahab’s faith in Joshua...

The Book of Judges begins after the death of Joshua and covers the period between Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land and the rise of the kings. Joshua was largely a story of faith, victory, and obedience. Judges presents a much darker picture of unbelief, defeat, oppression, and repeated spiritual decline.

In this opening session, we introduce the historical setting of Judges and examine the verse that summarizes the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). When people reject God’s standard and become t...

In this special theology discussion, Reasoning Through the Bible steps away from the normal verse-by-verse format to address an important question: Does God change His mind, emotions, or knowledge based on what people do?

This session looks at passages where Scripture says Israel provoked the Lord to anger, God tested people, God regretted making man, and God relented. How should these passages be understood alongside other Scriptures that say God does not change, does not grow weary, does not learn, and is not like man?

The discussion explains key theological terms such as immutability, impassibility...

In this special Reasoning Through the Bible discussion, we step away from the normal verse-by-verse format for an informal conversation on eschatology and end-times systems. This session compares views such as premillennialism, amillennialism, covenant theology, preterism, and postmillennialism, while asking a central question: Does God still have a future plan for Israel?

The discussion focuses on the sequence found in the Old Testament prophets: Israel’s sin, God’s judgment, the nations gathering against Jerusalem, Israel crying out to the Lord, and God restoring His people. We examine passages and themes from Ezekiel, Zechariah, Joel, Daniel, Romans 11, Acts...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 24, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches the final chapter of the book of Joshua. Joshua gathers Israel at Shechem, a place filled with covenant history, remembrance, and spiritual significance. From Abraham to Jacob, from the renewal of the covenant to the burial of Joseph’s bones, Shechem served as a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness to His people.

This session explores why Joshua retells Israel’s history, why remembering God’s works matters, and how gratitude strengthens faith. Joshua reminds the people that God brought Abraham out from idol worship...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 23, Reasoning Through the Bible looks at Joshua’s farewell address to the leaders of Israel. Joshua is old, advanced in years, and near the end of his life. His final message is not about himself, but about the faithfulness of God and the need for Israel to remain faithful after he is gone.

This session explores why Joshua reminded the people that the Lord had fought for them, why there was still work to do even after Israel had rest, and why the remaining nations were still a danger. Joshua warns Is...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 22, Reasoning Through the Bible continues the account of the altar built by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan. When the rest of Israel hears about the altar, they fear that these tribes are turning away from the Lord and repeating the sins of the past.

This session looks back at two serious examples: the sin at Peor and Achan’s sin at Ai. Both remind Israel that sin does not remain isolated. One person, one group, or one act of re...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 22, Reasoning Through the Bible looks at the return of the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh after helping the rest of Israel conquer the land. These two-and-a-half tribes had chosen to settle east of the Jordan, but they still kept their promise to Moses and Joshua by helping their brothers fight for the land west of the Jordan.

This session begins with a reminder of God’s promise of the land to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the nation of Israel. The discussion traces how the land promise runs through Genesis, Joshua, th...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 20–21, Reasoning Through the Bible examines the cities of refuge and the powerful picture they give of God’s justice, mercy, and protection. These cities were set apart for someone who had killed another person unintentionally, giving them a safe place to flee until their case could be heard fairly.

This session explores how the cities of refuge point to important biblical principles still reflected in legal systems today, including due process, innocent until proven guilty, fair judgment, and protection from vengeance. The study also explains why these cities were connected to the...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 11–19, Reasoning Through the Bible moves through one of the most detailed sections in the book of Joshua. These chapters include long lists of conquered kings, cities, boundaries, tribes, inheritances, and land divisions. At first glance, the details may feel tedious, but they serve an important purpose: they show that Joshua is not religious myth, but real history rooted in real places, real people, and real covenant promises.

This session explores why God included so many land details, how Joshua’s conquest shows God’s faithfulness, and why Israel still failed to finish...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 10, Reasoning Through the Bible looks at one of the most dramatic miracles in the book of Joshua: the day God made the sun stand still. After the Gibeonites made peace with Israel, five Amorite kings banded together to attack them. Joshua came to their defense, and the Lord fought for Israel through battle, confusion, hailstones, and a miraculous extension of daylight.

This session explores why the kings feared Israel, why opposition often increases when people make peace with God, and why the Lord’s work sometimes requires hard, exhausting effort. At Je...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 9, Reasoning Through the Bible examines the deception of the Gibeonites. After Israel’s victories at Jericho and Ai, the kings of Canaan begin to band together against Israel. But the Gibeonites choose a different strategy. Instead of open battle, they use deception, pretending to be travelers from a distant land so they can make a covenant with Joshua.

This session explores how the Gibeonites used worn-out clothes, old wineskins, dry bread, and religious language to convince Israel that they came from far away. Their deception worked because Joshua and the leaders fa...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 7:13–8:35, Reasoning Through the Bible continues the account of Achan’s hidden sin and Israel’s defeat at Ai. After Israel lost power because sin was hidden in the camp, God commands Joshua to deal with the sin publicly and remove what had been placed under the ban. This session shows that sin is never merely private, because it can affect families, churches, ministries, and the people around us.

The study follows the process by which Achan is exposed, his confession that he saw, coveted, and took the forbidden things, and the seriou...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 7, Reasoning Through the Bible examines Israel’s unexpected defeat at Ai after the great victory at Jericho. One man, Achan, secretly took what God had placed under the ban, and that hidden sin affected the entire nation. The chapter reminds believers that God sees what people try to hide and that secret sin can rob God’s people of spiritual power.

This session explores Achan’s sin, Israel’s defeat, Joshua’s desperate prayer, God’s response, and the sobering reality of God’s wrath against sin. The study also explains why the defeat...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 6, Reasoning Through the Bible walks through the fall of Jericho and one of the most memorable victories in the Old Testament. God gives Joshua an unusual battle plan: march around the city, carry the Ark of the Covenant, blow the trumpets, remain silent until the appointed time, and then shout. From a human standpoint, this did not look like military strategy. But that is the point. When the walls fall, God gets the glory.

This session explores why Jericho was shut up in fear, what it means that God said, “I ha...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 5, Reasoning Through the Bible examines the chapter that comes just before Jericho. Instead of rushing straight into battle, Israel must first get right with God. The people are circumcised, they celebrate the Passover, the manna stops, and Joshua encounters a mysterious figure with a drawn sword who identifies himself as the commander of the Lord’s army. 

This session explores why circumcision mattered as a covenant sign, how it pictured cleansing and separation, and why Israel had neglected it during the wilderness years. The discussion also draws New Testament parallels to the...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 4, Reasoning Through the Bible looks at the memorial stones Israel set up after crossing the Jordan River. God commanded one man from each tribe to take a stone from the riverbed so future generations would ask what happened there and be told how the Lord brought His people into the land on dry ground. This chapter is about remembering what God has done and passing that testimony on. 

This session explores why God wanted a visible memorial, why teaching children mattered so much in Israel, and how believers today can intentionally p...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 3, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Israel as they prepare to cross the Jordan River and finally enter the Promised Land. This chapter centers on the Ark of the Covenant, God’s holy presence going before His people, and the miracle of the Jordan stopping at flood stage. The message is clear: when God leads, His people must follow, even when the path ahead is unfamiliar and humanly impossible. 

This session explains the significance of the Ark of the Covenant, why Israel had to keep its distance, what it meant to consecrate the...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 2, Reasoning Through the Bible examines one of the most powerful stories in the early part of Joshua: the faith of Rahab. As two spies enter Jericho, they find refuge in the home of a woman who should have been an unlikely ally. Yet Rahab had already heard what God had done for Israel, and she believed that the Lord had truly given the land into their hands. 

This session explores why Joshua wisely sent only two spies, why they stayed in Rahab’s house, what Rahab knew about the God of Isr...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 1:10–18, Reasoning Through the Bible continues through Joshua chapter 1 by focusing on the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. These tribes agreed to help Israel conquer the land, but they chose to settle on the east side of the Jordan rather than fully enter the land God had promised. This session explores why that decision matters and how it pictures the danger of settling for less than God’s best. 

This study examines the background from Numbers 32, the promises those tribes made to Moses and Joshua, and the spiritual lesso...

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 1:1–9, Reasoning Through the Bible begins the first chapter of Joshua by looking at one of the most important leadership transitions in all of Scripture. Moses is dead, Joshua must now step forward, and the people stand on the edge of the land God promised long ago to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This session explores why God’s work does not end when one leader dies, because the Lord remains faithful to His covenant and continues His purposes. 

This study also examines God’s promise to give the land to Israel, why that la...

In this introduction to the book of Joshua, Reasoning Through the Bible sets the biblical context for one of the most important historical and symbolic books in the Old Testament. This session traces the story from Genesis to Exodus, from slavery in Egypt to the wilderness, and from Moses to Joshua, showing where the book begins and why Joshua matters so much in the larger flow of Scripture. 

This study also explores Joshua’s background, the faith of Joshua and Caleb, the failure of the generation that refused to trust God, and the significance of Joshua’s name...

In this verse-by-verse study of Psalm 2, Reasoning Through the Bible explores one of the Bible’s clearest Messianic Psalms. The psalm begins with a world in chaos — nations raging, rulers conspiring, and people resisting the authority of God and His Anointed One. But the message of Psalm 2 is not that rebellion will win. The message is that God reigns, Christ is His King, and all resistance to Him is ultimately vain. 

This session explains the narrative flow between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, the meaning of “Messiah” and “Christ,” why the nations reject God, how Acts 4 connects Psalm 2 to Jesus, and wh...

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 41–42, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches the final session in the book of Job and brings the entire message into focus. After four chapters of questions from God, Job is finally humbled, repentant, and silent before the Lord. Yet even at the end, God still never tells Job the reason for his suffering. That becomes one of the greatest lessons of the whole book. 

This session explores the meaning of Leviathan, God’s total control over every creature and even over Satan, Job’s repentance in dust and ashes, God’s rebuke of Job’s...

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 38:31–40:24, Reasoning Through the Bible continues through one of the most humbling sections in all of Scripture as God keeps questioning Job about the stars, the weather, the mind, the wild animals, and the structure of the world. After Job had demanded answers, the Lord turns the questions around and shows just how little man understands about the universe he lives in. 

This session explores the constellations, the ordinances of heaven, the complexity of the human mind, the instincts of mountain goats, ostriches, horses, hawks, and eagles, and then moves int...

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 37 and Job 38:1–30, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches one of the most dramatic turning points in the entire book: God answers Job from the whirlwind. After chapters of suffering, accusation, confusion, and debate, the Lord finally speaks — not to explain everything Job wanted to know, but to reveal His greatness through creation, weather, wisdom, and power. 

This session explores Elihu’s final words about thunder, lightning, snow, rain, ice, and storm as a preparation for the Lord’s arrival. Then the chapter turns as God Himself begins asking Job questions about the foundatio...

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 36, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Elihu as he shifts the focus away from man-centered thinking and back onto the character of God. While Job and his friends were often preoccupied with human suffering from a human angle, Elihu gives a different perspective: God speaks in our affliction and teaches us through suffering. 

This session explores why so much modern Bible teaching becomes overly focused on what people can get from God rather than who God is in His nature. Job 36 pushes in the opposite direction. Elihu speaks about God’s justice, pow...

In this verse-by-verse study of Job 34:10–35:16, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Elihu as he gives one of the clearest defenses of God’s justice in the entire book. While Job and his friends spent much of their time talking about themselves, Elihu turns the focus back to the Lord and insists on a foundational truth: God never does wrong. 

This session explores how God is both Creator and Sustainer, why He shows no partiality between rich and poor, why no human being can hide from His sight, and why He does not owe man an explanation on man’s...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 33:19–34:9, Reasoning Through the Bible explores one of the hardest but most important questions in suffering: can God use pain to get our attention and draw us back to Himself? Elihu argues that God may use physical pain, weakness, and affliction to humble a person, expose spiritual need, and turn the soul away from destruction. 

This session carefully explains the balance that must be maintained. Not every sickness or suffering is a direct punishment for personal sin, but suffering can still become a means through which God teaches, disciplines, and refocuses His...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 32–33, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches a turning point in the book as Elihu enters the conversation. He is angry with Job for justifying himself before God, and angry with Job’s three friends because they condemned Job without answering him well. This session explores what Elihu gets wrong, what he gets right, and why his first words matter so much. 

This study also deals with practical Christian wisdom: how to respond when angry, why age alone does not guarantee wisdom, why flattery is dangerous, and why believers must measure all couns...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 31:13–40, Reasoning Through the Bible examines Job’s final defense as he lists the good things he has done for servants, the poor, widows, orphans, strangers, and the needy. This session explains why those works are commendable and necessary, but why they still cannot justify anyone before God. 

This study also highlights two important biblical truths from Job 31: human beings are known by God in the womb, and all people are equal before their Creator. The passage speaks clearly against class pride and shows that every human life bears dignity because God m...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 30:16–31 and Job 31:1–12, Reasoning Through the Bible continues through one of the most emotionally raw sections in the book of Job. Job says that God seems against him, cruel to him, and silent toward his cries for help. This session explores what believers should do when suffering becomes so severe that God feels distant, silent, or even hostile. 

This study also highlights an important truth: even though Job reaches some wrong conclusions about God, he does not abandon the Lord. He still cries out to Him. That becomes a powerful reminder that...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 29–30, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Job as he looks back on the better days before his suffering began. He remembers a time when he felt protected by God, surrounded by family, respected in society, and listened to by others. This session explores how suffering can make the past look brighter, the present look darker, and the soul feel abandoned. 

This study also addresses an important spiritual issue: Job is not only suffering, he is becoming deeply focused on himself. The discussion highlights how pride, nostalgia, and pain can com...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 27:13–23 and Job 28:1–28, Reasoning Through the Bible explores two connected truths: wealth cannot protect the wicked forever, and true wisdom cannot be found or bought in the world. Job first describes how evil people may gather riches for a time, but in the end they leave everything behind and face the justice of God. 

The study then turns to one of the most beautiful chapters in the book of Job. Job 28 describes mankind digging deep into the earth for silver, gold, iron, and precious stones, then asks a far greater question: where...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job chapters 26 and 27, Reasoning Through the Bible reaches one of the most majestic descriptions of God in the entire book. After exposing how little help his friends have really been, Job turns to the greatness of the Lord and describes God’s power over creation, the grave, the seas, the clouds, and the heavens. This session explores why God’s control over the universe gives believers reason to trust Him even in painful suffering. 

This study also follows Job into chapter 27, where he insists that he will not curse God or deny...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job chapters 24 and 25, Reasoning Through the Bible tackles one of the hardest questions in Scripture and in life: if God is good and all-powerful, why doesn’t He stop evil right now? Job describes a world full of brutal injustice—people exploiting the poor, harming widows and orphans, stealing, murdering, and committing evil under the cover of darkness—while God appears patient and silent. 

This study explains why God’s patience should not be mistaken for indifference. Scripture teaches that the Lord is long-suffering, giving time for repentance, but final justice is still...

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 23:11–17 and Job 24:1–8, Reasoning Through the Bible continues through Job’s response by focusing on one of the most practical biblical pictures for the Christian life: walking in God’s ways. Job says his foot has held fast to the Lord’s path, and this session explores what it means to walk steadily, daily, and faithfully with God even in suffering. 

This study also highlights God’s uniqueness, His unchangeable nature, and the truth that He has a purpose and destiny for His people. It explains why the fear of God is not terror...