As Paul spoke to the Romans about sin in the life of humans, he did so using the effect of Torah to illustrate the issue. In making this illustration he was careful to say that the Law is holy (Romans 7:12), the Law is Spiritual (Romans 7:14), and the Law is good (Romans 7:16)) and […]
Passover teaches us that the Torah is rooted in a liberating event and in the movement from Egypt to Sinai we are given the pattern for keeping the freedom which we were given. When we see Torah in light of this liberating impulse, we understand better what the Spirit of the Law is, and what […]
Two or three times in as many years, I have had conversations about Jesus’ parable in Mark 12 of the vine growers. The argument posited to me ran like this, “Doesn’t this parable prove that in Messiah, God was taking His Kingdom from Israel and giving it to the gentiles? Look at what Jesus says, […]
For all the times Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath on the one in which He seemed to be resting, He was doing His greatest work of all. As He lay in the tomb, no one accused Him of healing on the Sabbath, though even then, He was giving us the one healing […]
Whether we hear the cry from the lips of David or from the dying Savior “My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?” the cry makes little sense from either. These are two people with a sense of the LORD’s presence and intimacy and yet the draw from the well of the deepest human pain, alienation. […]
Whether you are passing through rejection, sorrow, sickness, injury, God in Christ not only meets you in it, but helps you to carry it.
In the midst of a global pandemic and during the week that started the trial of the man who killed George Floyd, one might well ask, “how are some ancient laws from the Bible relevant and aren’t other things more pressing?” Well, yes and no. Had we been mindful of the thoughts we have raised […]
On my drive to work this morning I conducted a small thought experiment (while keeping my mind carefully on the road). I took the scenario of Pride and Prejudice and placed it in the realm of Deuteronomic Law and then I took the case of the daughters of Zelophehad and placed it in the legal […]
The lamb was the people’s wealth and sustenance. To slay a yearling was to slay all those that would come from the animal. For the faithful in Egypt, the offering of the lamb was saying this, “God we have turned our back once and for all on Egypt. Our future is in You and You only. “
We all have a tendency to see in the Bible text what is in ourselves. If we have a prejudice for or against the text, we will find reasons for our preference in the text. Some readers find errors and contradictions in the Bible. Others find truth and consistency in the Bible. Whatever we find, […]
