About the Author
Based in South Korea, JO BEE SOO is a dedicated researcher of theology who seeks to share the quiet insights gained at the intersection of his Eastern roots and Western theological traditions. Rather than offering definitive answers, he writes as a way of working through his own questions, alongside those who walk a similar path of faith.
Recent Writings
- When God Spoke in Poetry
God did not choose careless, crude, or ordinary language to convey His word. He spoke through the prophets in poetry—the most refined form of human language. If God entrusted His word to such language, what does this demand of those who now stand in the pulpit and speak in His name? - Blessed Is the One
Psalm 1 does not merely contrast moral people with immoral people. It contrasts two fundamentally different ways of existence: life lived in relationship with God, and life lived apart from Him. This sermon explores “blessing” not as material prosperity, but as a life shaped by listening to, delighting in, and orienting oneself around the Word of God amid a world where unbelief often appears more successful and attractive. - Psalm 1 – Why Did the Psalmist Say This? / part (4)Psalm 1 did not emerge from an ideal world where righteousness always prospered and wickedness always failed. It was written for believers struggling with a troubling question: Why do those who ignore God often seem to flourish? Read against that reality, Psalm 1 becomes not merely instruction, but encouragement for every generation of God’s people.
- Psalm 1 – Like a Tree Planted by Streams of Water / part (3)Psalm 1 presents two vivid images: a flourishing tree rooted beside streams of water and weightless chaff carried away by the wind. These are not merely descriptions of success and failure. They reveal the radically different destinies of lives either rooted in God or separated from Him.
- Noblesse Oblige — Sophisticated Hypocrisy!
Noblesse oblige is often presented as the moral responsibility of the privileged. But what if the very situations that call for such sacrifice are produced by the social structures those privileged elites have built, preserved, and continue to control? Perhaps true noblesse oblige is not about responding to the situation, but about transforming the structure that created it. - Did Elisha Really Massacre Children? – part (4)
For centuries, Elisha has been remembered as the prophet who called bears to maul forty-two innocent children. But the Hebrew vocabulary, the historical significance of Bethel, and the military and political context of the Northern Kingdom point toward another possibility: the people who confronted Elisha may have been young men associated with the defense or security of Bethel. If so, the traditional accusation against Elisha rests on a profoundly misleading reading of the story.