Dr Paul Allen

King Hezekiah on a 17th century painting by unknown artist in the choir of Sankta Maria kyrka in Åhus, Sweden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weights? Where is he who counts the towers?” (Isa. 33:18b) Once again Isaiah speaks of the reign of Hezekiah , which was a type of the kingdom of Christ . After making this point in his commentary on this passage, John Calvin immediately qualifies his statement by assuring his readers that he was by no means “pursuing allegories, to which I am averse, and that this is the reason why I do not interpret the passage as relating directly to Christ.” It begins with Hezekiah, but it points to Christ and the freedom of His reign. One of the remarkable traits of Hezekiah’s kingdom would be the stress on individual freedom and the centrality of divine kingship. This, of course, is paramount in Christ’s kingdom, where all men worship the Lord as “Judge,” “ Lawgiver ,” and “King,” where all the people who dwell...

Image via Wikipedia Study the verse below from the apostle Paul that accompany this reading. Does this sound like a man who believed the law of God has no place in the Christian life?  Read Paul’s writings carefully and you will find a man whose heart longed for the law of God as much as David ’s. The law drives us to the gospel. The gospel saves us from the curse of the law, but in turn directs us back to the law to search its spirit.  The law of God is still a lamp to our feet. Without it we stumble and trip and grope in darkness. For the Christian, the greatest benefit of the law of God is its revelatory character. The law reveals to us the Lawgiver .  It teaches us what is pleasing in His sight. We need to seek the law of God—to pant after it—and to delight in it. Anything less is an offense against the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit . Pray this prayer: “Thank You for Your law, which is a lamp to my feet. Give me a heart that longs for and ...