In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters — These are the first sentences in the bible, written by Moses more than 3500 years ago. […]
Paul starts his letter with a praise song focused on one thing: who we are related to defines who we really are. And this makes all the difference! Paul continues his praise song with a prayer that his friends will continue to grow up and discover just how rich they already are. Paul’s friends think […]
At the height of the Roman empire, 2000 years ago, the island of Crete in the eastern Mediterranean Sea was perfectly positioned to operate as a way station for shipping. Massive grain cargo ships travelling northward from Egypt to Rome, ships carrying copper and tin from Britain to the coasts of Asia in the east, […]
Okay. So here we are, starting into Part Three of Luke’s mini-series about God’s Law. Last week, in Part One, we met a lawyer who asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus’ answer was, essentially, “Show compassion to everyone, regardless of race or religion, and you will inherit eternal life.” […]
So last week we talked about the massive cultural changes that were sweeping across the Roman empire 2000 years ago, during the time when Paul wrote this letter to Titus. We focused especially on how Roman law had emancipated Roman women, especially upper-class women, in some significant ways. We also noticed how these changes in […]
For 40 years the people of Israel have been wandering in the wilderness east of the Jordan River, without city walls to protect them, without farmland to feed them — and yet they have thrived. God kept them alive with bread from heaven. He made sure their clothes did not wear out, not even their […]
Last week, a desperate Hebrew mother gave her child up into the hands of the God of Israel, in order to save him from the gods and government of Egypt. Now, the gods of Egypt moved quickly to make sure the child fell directly into the hands of the Egyptian government, so that he would […]
All right! Paul’s reconstruction of the Cretan churches is almost complete. He started with the foundations, of course. If the foundation is not carefully laid, the structure will have problems later on. And for Paul, the foundation of every church is the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus Christ, which was written down in detail […]
In the end the glory of the Lord leaves one mountain to take up residence upon another; but even this is just the beginning. Moses calls the people to shape the pieces of the tabernacle and then assemble it — according to a ritual more ancient than mankind. The Lord finally gives Moses his answer, […]
Back in the Book of Genesis, there is a very strange story about human sacrifice — or, what was almost a human sacrifice. Way back near the beginning of the Book of Genesis, God had called a man named Abraham out of the ruins of a civilization that had been built on a plain beside […]
In the beginning, Moses says, God created the heavens and the earth: God created our universe. Now, ancient people thought that the primordial universe was a massive ocean. And they believed that this universal ocean was an extremely violent place, a universal storm of chaos and darkness. But then, as Moses kept writing, he went […]
So last week we looked at the story of King David and what happened to his kingdom after him. Because of Solomon’s idolatry, God allowed the kingdom to be split in two: north and south. The northern kingdom rejected God completely, and so after three hundred years God brought judgement upon them. They were conquered […]
When Moses wrote Genesis, he structured it very carefully into a series of books, or parts: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and so on. But back in Moses’ time, they did not use chapter divisions like we do today. Instead, they would use certain key phrases to signal the beginning of a new chapter, […]
All right. Let’s start with just a brief recap of where we are in the Book of Exodus: Six weeks after the people of Israel escaped from slavery in Egypt, they arrived at Mount Sinai on the far side of the Arabian wilderness. But they did not find their way to the mountain all on […]