In some books of the Bible, euphemisms are used to describe sex. Take, for instance, Song of Solomon’s talk of gardens, pomegranates and deer. However, as I’ve been reading Ezekiel, I’ve discovered that this wild and wooly prophet takes the opposite tack, describing in sexual terms things that aren’t even remotely sexual. Consider the prophet’s anger at Israel’s penchant to seek political and military alliances with its pagan neighbors rather than trusting in God (see Ezekiel 23).

Here’s the challenge: Moving past the question of why the Holy Spirit would inspire such graphic word pictures as Ezekiel 23:20-21, how can passages that are so historically particular be applied to my life? My strategy is to move from the universal to the personal by asking a few questions of the text:

Why were the Jews’ political alliances so serious an offense to God that he describes them in these terms?

How does this text point toward Israel’s need for a Deliverer who will transcend their political and national interests and transform their hearts?

How does this text reflect on the tendency of the people of God to put trust in political and military machinations to achieve earthly influence?

How does this text confront my own sinful habit of seeking security in temporal strategies—whether it’s IRAs, insurance policies or business plans?

Go ahead, let the text confront you. Don’t censor Ezekiel!

Christianity Today’s interesting question earlier this week (“Should Christians fast during Ramadan?”) got me thinking about the identity of the god Muslims worship. Is he in some fashion the same deity as the God of the Bible?

Interestingly, Jesus encountered this question in His ministry, when the Pharisees questioned his bona fides in John 8:12-59. The text fairly sizzles, as supposedly “meek and mild” Jesus turns the tables on the Pharisees, calling them sons of Satan and warning these Law-abiding Jews that they will die in their sins because they don’t really know the Father.

Why? Because they didn’t know Jesus.

“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus tells them. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” … “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.”

The God of the Old Testament—the God of the Bible—is the God who revealed Himself as a Middle Eastern peasant about 2,000 years ago. He was rejected by most of His own tribe, killed by a corrupt religious establishment in league with a pagan Roman government. God raised Him from the dead.

If you can’t swallow that, we don’t worship the same God.

My homie Jeff DM-ed me about a “Leviathan” action figure he saw in a Christian bookstore, and it got me thinking about some other biblical action figures that would be great tools to teach kids Bible stories:

1. Adam and Eve. The pre-fall Adam and Eve combo offers many teachable moments for teachers and parents who wish to explore the consequences of the first family’s fall into sin and expulsion from Eden.

2. Nebuchadnezzar. Like a biblical Transformers toy, the Nebuchadnezzar action figure can be converted from a noble king to a four-legged beast of the field in mere seconds.

3. Proverbs 31 Woman. This is a great alternative to Barbie, a toy which merely perpetuates feminine stereotypes. The P31 is a sensible, godly woman who balances the responsibilities of family with her entrepreneurial skills.

4. Woman/Beast Combo. For more mature children, Revelation’s “whore of Babylon” comes with a ravenous, seven-headed dragon to ride. Depending on your eschatological leanings, she may be accessorized with a bishop’s miter.

What other action figure ideas am I missing?

The recent story of a KJV-only church burning non-KJV Bibles got me thinking about the three main views of how God inspired holy texts:

1. Islam. God spoke through his prophet Muhammad, in Arabic, and Muhammad transcribed God’s words—in Arabic. Translation of the Quran into other languages is discouraged, because the Quran is only considered truly inspired and reliable in Arabic.

2. KJV-Only. Numerous authors penned the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments in Greek and Hebrew. However, it was not until 1,500 years later that God miraculously enabled King James’ clerics to compile and translate manuscripts into an English Bible that is now the only truly inspired and inerrant version available.

3. Classical Evangelical. The Holy Spirit led authors to pen 66 books in Greek and Hebrew—the original manuscripts of which are inspired, inerrant and authoritative. We no longer have any of these original documents, but the thousands of copies of these manuscripts that we do have allow us to reliably translate God’s Word into any language on earth.

Now, which of these two views are most similar?