Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2801 to 2825 of 3160 results

Numbers 11:4-35

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... to life and is associated with the throat. The strength of life fails. 11:17 Spirit is ruakh, which means spirit or wind or breath. 11:20 Until it comes out of your nostrils apparently refers to severe nausea. 11:25 The prophesying was probably some sort of transient ecstatic state; see 1 Sam. 10:10–13; 19:20–24. 11:31 An alternate translation would suggest that quail were lying about three feet deep on the ground (NRSV). That would be a sizable catch. The NIV rendering relates more to the method ...

2802. Offerings for Unintentional Sins

Numbers 15:22-31

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... goat as a sin offering. The law applies to both native-born Israelite and alien. This look at unintentional sins leads to a brief consideration (vv. 30–31) of intentional sins: anyone who sins defiantly, “with a high hand.” The penalty for this sort of sin is excommunication from the people. Such excommunication would be tantamount to death, through losing the protection of the community. This person must bear the consequences of the sin, which is described as blasphemy and despising God. There was no ...

2803. The Priests' Share

Leviticus 7:28-38

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... altar. The worshiper takes clear responsibility for bringing this holy portion to God as a wave offering. The basic meaning of the word communicates a waving motion. The offering has a special status. Perhaps this part of the sacrifice was presented with some sort of elevated or waving motion to indicate special dedication. The fat is burned but the breast goes to the priests. The fact that certain portions go to the priests indicates that the priests have a means of living. In fact, these regulations put ...

2804. Unacceptable Sacrifices

Leviticus 22:17--23:2

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... animals that are blind and then those which are among the injured or the maimed. The word “injured” means “broken” and probably indicates a broken bone. The term translated as “maimed” is related to “cutting” and may indicate some sort of mutilation. Warts or festering or running sores are also unacceptable blemishes. These terms remind the reader of the Manual of Purity, although the terminology is somewhat different, and neither skin diseases nor bodily discharges are mentioned here. No ...

2805. The Year of Jubilee

Leviticus 25:8-55

Understanding Series

W. H. Bellinger, Jr.

... of help for the poor. The language is of strengthening someone who has become weak and is slipping. The poor deserve the same attention as aliens and temporary residents. The alien is the familiar resident alien; the temporary resident would be some sort of non-Israelite guest. The prohibition on interest is described in terms of fearing or obeying God. That is, taking advantage of another’s circumstance is contrary to God’s intention for the human community. The goal is that fellow Israelites will ...

2806. Saul's Family

1 Samuel 14:49-52

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... concerning Saul and Jonathan to illustrate their contrasting characters and behavior, and then verses 47–52 may correct any imbalance in the earlier stories. The rest of chapter 14 to verse 46 describes two only partially interrelated accounts, a reflection on the sort of demands God makes and how God’s actions should be understood. The reference to Ahijah as Eli’s descendant at the beginning of the chapter (v. 3) prefaces this discussion. 14:24–30 The first incident is Jonathan’s unwitting ...

2807. Saul and the Witch of Endor

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... comparable to sleep. Saul’s statement that God has turned away from him is repeated by Samuel, indicating that Saul’s own statement shows he should not expect Samuel to give him an answer on God’s behalf. Part of the ambiguity of the passage is that an answer of sorts is nevertheless given. 28:21 The woman’s coming to Saul after his collapse suggests that she had not played any part in his encounter with Samuel.

2808. Nathan Rebukes David

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Understanding Series

Mary J. Evans

... worked out in a different way. However, when the child died, this was not to be. For the moment it was over, the death could not be reversed, and there was no need for further mourning. The I will go to him (v. 23) could imply some sort of belief in immortality. However, such a belief is never strongly worked out in the OT, and it is probably a recognition of the inevitability of death. Under the circumstances, the greatest comfort that Bathsheba could have would be to have another child to love. David’s ...

2809. The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

John 4:27-38, John 4:1-26, John 4:39-42

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... fields, and they are the ones who in verse 38 are to reap a harvest for which others have worked. The roles in this drama are not fixed. Jesus is not speaking in allegories or riddles but using a simple metaphor capable of several applications. A transition of sorts can be detected at verse 37. If the controlling thought of verses 34–36 was “as the Father sent me,” the controlling thought of verses 37–38 is “I am sending you” (cf. 20:21; also 17:18). But the fact that the disciples play no part ...

2810. The Disciples' Grief Will Turn to Joy

John 16:17-33, John 16:5-16

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... the world, but because his return to the Father makes possible for the believer a new relationship to God in prayer. To pray to the Father in Jesus’ name (vv. 23, 24, 26) is to have direct access to the Father. Jesus will not be a sort of go-between who takes the disciples’ requests and presents them to the Father (v. 26). He does not see his role with the Father as that of a heavenly intercessor. Even though there is NT testimony elsewhere that the risen Jesus “always lives to intercede” for ...

2811. Jesus Sentenced to be Crucified

John 19:1-16, John 18:28-40

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... , but of its source—and therefore of its nature. Its source is God, even as Jesus comes from God. As God sends Jesus, so God and God alone brings the kingdom to realization. It is not established by armed violence; Jesus is not the sort of king who needs, or permits, the protection of the sword (cf. vv. 10–11). Jesus’ redefinition has stretched the meaning of kingship almost to the breaking point. Pilate, somewhat confused, can only repeat his initial question: You are a king, then? (v. 37a; cf ...

2812. Boasting

2 Corinthians 11:16-33, 2 Corinthians 1:1-11, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... , which the opponents so vehemently decry, is none other than his extraordinary apostolic revelations! By this subtle and ingenious maneuver, Paul deconstructs his opponents’ most effective argument against his apostleship. In effect, Paul makes suffering and weakness—even the extreme sort that he constantly endures (cf. 11:23bff.)—a sign of genuine, and even exceptional, apostleship since the more often that an apostle ascends to the divine throne of glory, the more his pride will need to be held in ...

2813. Paul's Vision and His Thorn

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

2814. Praise to God for a Living Hope

1 Peter 1:1-12

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... nicely balance. Christians may have to face all kinds of troubles. But in whatever “color” troubles appear, God’s grace will always “match” them and prove perfectly sufficient. Nevertheless, Peter’s wording implies that the trials that Christians have to meet will sort out those who are full of faith from others whose profession is less than wholehearted. Writer and readers were living at a time when pagans maligned Christians as criminals (2:12), and this would be the source of many petty local ...

2815. Be Holy

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

... the “good tidings” of Isa. 40:9 LXX, where the same Greek word is used. New Life Must Grow 2:1 As a realist, Peter is well aware of the human condition. So he speaks bluntly. The believer’s new life in Christ has no place for any sort of misconduct, such as all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. (Peter’s vehement threefold all (pas) is muffled when NIV translates the third pas differently as every kind.) It is a pretty comprehensive list of the ills to which the human ...

2816. Laban Pursues Jacob

Genesis 31:22-55

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... between Abraham’s offspring and his father’s house in Haran. No one else of Abraham’s seed would travel to that area to take a wife. The report of this covenant between Laban and Jacob is difficult to unravel because it is hard to sort out the duplicate details: two witnesses, two place names, two names for God, two meals, and two purposes, that is, a guarantee of Jacob’s protecting the status of Laban’s daughters in his house and a boundary marker. These elements in pairs may be understood ...

2817. The Plague of Darkness

Exodus 10:1-20

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... mean that God had personally “occupied himself” with the arrogance of the Egyptians. God actually used this limitless power with measured control, as earlier the Lord had said, “I could have . . . wiped you off the earth” (9:15). In the NT, this sort of harshness does not disappear. In the incarnation and cross God sought out and suffered the harshness of oppression to overthrow it with love. The combination of the protection of love and the harshness of judgment against rebellion is also a NT ...

2818. Freeing Servants

Deuteronomy 15:12-18

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... year release (Exod. 21:2–11 and Deut. 15:12–18) with the jubilee law prescribing release in the fiftieth year (Lev. 25:10; 39–43; etc.). If all three laws are taken to apply to the same class of people (Israelites) in the same sort of circumstances (debt slavery), then there is a real discrepancy. A possible solution is to argue that the seventh year release applied to those in the category of “Hebrews”—the landless poor who lived by selling their services; whereas the jubilee release applied to ...

2819. Leadership in Israel: Judges and Kings

Deuteronomy 16:21--17:7

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... corrupt, then there is only despair. Justice itself turns to wormwood (Amos 5:7, 10). 16:21–17:1 These few laws may have been included here because they describe the kind of religious syncretism that would lead to covenant transgression (17:2), and thence to the sort of court case that judges would have to deal with. The wooden Asherah pole (v. 21, either a wooden pole or a living tree, as a female symbol) and the sacred stone (v. 22, as a phallic symbol) were the typical props of the Canaanite fertility ...

2820. Law Courts

Deuteronomy 16:18-20

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

2821. Jeroboam Rebels Against Solomon

1 Kings 11:26-40

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... . The only other occurrence of the root sḇl in Kgs. is, in fact, to be found in 5:15 (70,000 carriers, Hb. nōśēʾ sabbāl). What kind of group was this? We must certainly imagine, given the insistence of 9:15–23 that no Israelite was the same sort of “servant” as any Canaanite, that the authors do not wish us to regard the sēḇel as forced labor in the same sense as the mas; and indeed, the difference can be seen in Neh. 4:17, where we are again told of the building of Jerusalem’s wall ...

2822. Solomon's Death

1 Kings 11:41-43

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

2823. The Widow of Zarephath

1 Kings 17:7-24

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... the word brings life. And so, as the Israelites had once been the beneficiaries of God’s provision of bread and meat in the wilderness (Exod. 16, esp. vv. 8, 12–13), now Elijah also eats bread and meat—even more liberally than they (each sort of food twice a day). 17:7–16 The theme of miraculous provision in the midst of life-threatening circumstances is developed further. The drought takes effect and the brook dries up; Elijah must move on. But that “must” is far from indicating constraint on ...

2824. Elijah on Mount Carmel

1 Kings 18:16-46

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... ”). This is not the only place in the OT where this is so. Numbers 11:16–30 and 1 Samuel 10:5–6, 10–11 come to mind. Even more striking are 1 Samuel 18:10–11 and 19:18–24, where we find precisely the bizarre sort of behavior evidenced in 1 Kings 18. The condition is commonly referred to as “ecstatic,” because the person involved “stands outside himself” (Gk. ekstatis) in a state of spirit possession. In OT thinking this possession can be by good influences or by bad (cf. the Spirit of ...

2825. The Lord Appears to Elijah

1 Kings 19:9-18

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... to it, for Horeb (also known as Sinai) is not just any mountain. It is the “mountain of God” (v. 8)—the place where Israel herself, having been sustained in the wilderness (Exod. 16:1–17:7), met with the LORD and discovered in some detail what sort of God he served (Exod. 19–20 etc.). This is significant; it appears that the LORD is intent here, not only on reminding Elijah of his recent history but also on teaching him something new. The emphasis at Carmel had been on God’s spectacular ways and ...

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