Synonyms: thirstiness, dryness, parched, craving, strong desire, longing, yearning, avidity, hunger, voracity, keenness, eagerness, lust, appetite, passion, love, crave, want, covet, desire, hunger for/after, lust for/after, hanker for/after, have one's heart set on
Antonyms: aversion, distaste, apathy, dislike, hatred, antipathy, disgust, disregard, abhorrence, acrimony, wet, animosity, animus, antagonism, bad feeling, bitterness, be averse to, detestation
Showing 326 to 350 of 411 results
Sermon
James Merritt
... I see God determines how I relate to God. That is why we are told in this verse, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3, ESV) Think about that. His glory doesn’t just fill the temple. It fills the entire earth! There is nothing more disgusting to God or dishonoring to God than trying to put God into your little box or my little box. When it comes to God not only do you have to think outside the box, but you can’t even have a box! To get up close and personal I need ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... of that trend even among church people. And we ought to give that some thought. Could this be related in any way to the moral deterioration of our society? When God’s name becomes simply a way of expressing our anger or frustration or surprise or disgust, what does that say about us? One day a Pharisee, an expert in the law, tested Jesus with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and ...
328. Table Manners
John 2:12-25
Sermon
Craig MacCreary
... between the dinners is barely overcome by civility. A few clergy meals lately have felt like the last meal of the condemned before controversy erupts around the latest blue state/red state theological battle. Many families will find only helpings of shame, guilt, and disgust served up with Thanksgiving turkey and Easter ham. I have known church Easter egg hunts to break down into a sea of tears when, despite the best adult supervision, the children act out the meaning of Matthew 25:29: “For to all those ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... on his TV antenna, “pounding its little brains out on the metal pole.” Angry at the little creature who ruined his sleep, Ralph picked up a rock and threw it. The rock sailed over the house, and he heard a distant crash as it hit his car. In utter disgust, Ralph took a vicious kick at a clod of dirt, only to remember too late that he was still in his bare feet. The woodpecker was still pounding but now Ralph had a broken car window and a sore foot. Anger does so much damage, to ourselves and to others ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
... life on the streets in the village changed. The Giant's bodyguards and the soldiers hired to protect the castle roamed the village streets during their off hours terrifying the citizenry. No longer were visitors welcomed. Now they were looked upon with disgust. Strangers were thought to be potential thieves trying to benefit from the wealth of Tranquil. It was a sad scene. The once-happy people of this village became a frightened, mistrusting, miserable lot. A dark, all-consuming passion had awakened within ...
331. A Lost Boy
Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
Sermon
King Duncan
... rabbis would not even teach those they judged to belong to the class of sinners, which certainly included tax collectors. Yet here was Jesus (a Jewish rabbi) teaching a group of tax-collectors and sinners as if they were as acceptable as anyone else. This disgusted the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. This is the setting for today’s lesson. Jesus tells a parable with this particular audience in mind. A man had two sons. There is a remarkable contrast between the two boys. That happens in families ...
Understanding Series
Tremper Longman III
The Valley of Topheth (7:30-34): God now explains the extent of Judah’s disgusting idolatry, bringing home the appropriateness of his judgment. For judgment against the practices performed in Topheth, see also Jeremiah 19. 7:30–31 The Judaeans had set up idols in the temple itself and they engaged in child sacrifice at a place called Topheth, located in the Valley of Ben ...
Understanding Series
Elizabeth Achtemeier
... tree” (RSV; 1 Kgs. 14:23; 2 Kgs. 17:10, etc.). Regular sacrifices were offered at such high places; a portion of the sacrifices was eaten in the pleasant shade of the trees, while the inedible parts were burned as offerings to the gods. Most disgusting, however, were the sexual rites carried on under the trees. There, says the prophet, the virgin daughters of Israel played the harlot, and brides committed adultery: such is the reading of the Hebrew of verse 13e–f. To what is Hosea referring? Very likely ...
Understanding Series
Elizabeth Achtemeier
... those that Solomon is said to have sacrificed (1 Kgs. 8:63; cf. 3:4)? Or perhaps God would prefer olive oil, that precious substance that gave Israel food and healing and delight, poured out in immeasurable abundance. And then, the final sarcasm and disgust of the speaker is shown by the suggestion that perhaps Israel should sacrifice its firstborn children to this God who seems so implacable. Child sacrifice was never required in Israel (cf. Gen. 22:1–18; Exod. 34:20), it was specifically forbidden by ...
Understanding Series
F. F. Bruce
... cross. By the standards of the first century, no experience could be more loathsomely degrading than that. It is difficult for us, after so many Christian centuries during which the cross has been venerated as a sacred symbol, to realize the unspeakable horror and disgust that the mention or indeed the very thought of the cross provoked. By the Jewish law anyone who was crucified died under the curse of God (Gal. 3:13, quoting Deut. 21:23). In polite Roman society the word “cross” was an obscenity, not ...
336. Cain and Abel
Genesis 4:1-26
Understanding Series
John E. Hartley
... (3:12). Irritated by Yahweh’s question, Cain sought to silence the questioner and remove himself from any responsibility with a sarcastic, rhetorical question, Am I my brother’s keeper? Despite the question, which anticipates a negative answer, Cain, disgusted at being questioned about his brother, betrayed his disdain for Abel and his disregard of any filial responsibility for his brother. His use of “keeper” is also telling. Animals, not humans, need “keepers” (P. Riemann, “Am I My Brother ...
Understanding Series
John E. Hartley
... stature was increasing, Abimelech came to realize that it would be beneficial to make a pact with Isaac. Taking along two high-ranking officials, Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces, Abimelech visited Isaac. Isaac, however, disgusted at Abimelech’s earlier treatment, confronted him about the reason for his visit, pointing out how he had acted with hostility toward him, especially in ordering him to leave Gerar. At once Abimelech sought to mollify Isaac by conceding that ...
338. Renewal of the Covenant
Deuteronomy 29:1-29
Understanding Series
Christopher J. H. Wright
... seen the hideousness of idolatry ought to recognize it as something to be avoided at all costs. The two words used for detestable images and idols are unusual (šiqqûṣîm, cf. Hos. 9:10; and gillûlîm, cf. Ezek. 37:23) and express disgust and contempt (v. 17 [MT v. 16]). The trouble is, of course, that idolatry only tempts people because its enticements initially outweigh its wretchedness and cost, a lesson always learned too late. The insidious nature of idolatry and the hypocrisy it engenders (vv. 18f ...
339. Woe to Ephraim
Isaiah 28:1-29
Understanding Series
John Goldingay
... obviously. Yet what appalls the prophet is not merely that drink makes them get their visions and their counsel wrong. There is something obscene about the very fact that they combine the two. Perhaps they got their visions and their counsel right. They are still disgusting. It is clear enough that the prophet goes on to quote their mockery of him (vv. 9–10, see NIV mg.). It is not clear whether this mockery is also a fruit of their drunkenness, though it is interesting to imagine a scene at a sumptuous ...
340. Signs and Oracles of Judgment
Ezekiel 4:1-5:17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27
Understanding Series
Steven Tuell
... and detestable practices. Toʿebah (rendered “abomination” in the KJV) is a common term in Ezek., where it appears 43 times; only Prov. (22 times) and Deut. (17 times) use this expression as frequently. Broadly speaking, toʿebah refers to something disgusting or reprehensible; so, in Gen. and Exod., the term describes the Egyptian attitude toward the Israelites, whose language (Gen. 43:32) and customs (Gen. 46:34; Exod. 8:26) the Egyptians find repulsive. This, indeed, reflects the use of the term ...
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
... one who has forgiven the largest of debts. Those who refuse forgiveness to their fellow believers demonstrate as little gratitude for God’s forgiveness of them as the unforgiving servant has shown. The power of the parable is to create a sense of disgust in the hearers or readers toward the behavior of that servant, motivating them toward mercy and forgiveness toward others. Some interpreters have complained that if God is the king in this analogy, then even God does not live out Jesus’ exhortation to ...
Teach the Text
Preben Vang
... heard his followers were called Lutherans, he was infuriated, saying, “What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. . . . How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?” Disgusted with the vainglory of some pastors, he goes on to say, “May God protect us against the preachers who please all the people and enjoy a good testimony from everybody. . . . Hearers should say, ‘I do not believe in my pastor, but he tells me of ...
343. Message to Laodicea
Revelation 3:14-22
Teach the Text
J. Scott Duvall
... Colossae to the east had cold, refreshing drinking water. But Laodicea received its water from a spring about five miles to the south. By the time this mineral-rich water made its way over the Roman aqueduct to Laodicea, it had become lukewarm and disgusting to drink. (On a visit to the city today you can see many corroded water pipes.) Jesus views both hot and cold water as positive and useful, whereas lukewarm water is nauseating. The apathetic complacency of the Laodicean believers makes Jesus want to ...
344. Sexual Discharges
Leviticus 15:1-33
Teach the Text
Joe M. Sprinkle
... for moral uncleanness. Isaiah states that all his people have become “like one who is unclean” and that their righteous deeds are like “filthy rags,” literally like “a menstrual cloth” (Isa. 64:6). Just as a spent tampon or sanitary napkin seems disgusting—at least to me as a man—so are human sin and hypocrisy to God. But the analogy can be pressed further. When people become unclean, they are excluded from the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God. If they ignore these purity rules ...
Teach the Text
Joe M. Sprinkle
... Passover (Exod. 12:48), whereas a foreigner who does not identify with Israel’s exodus and covenant cannot (Exod. 12:43). Eating carrion is proscribed whether the animal has been killed by predators or has died on its own. Such food, besides being disgusting and unhealthy, cannot have had its blood properly poured out to God as required by verses 10, 13. It makes a person “ceremonially unclean,” making it dangerous to approach that which is holy. It is inconsistent with the holiness of God’s people ...
Teach the Text
Joe M. Sprinkle
... the opium of the people.” In his view, religion drugs people and gives them a false sense of happiness. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote sneeringly of Christianity, “Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life’s nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in ‘another’ or ‘better’ life.”13 Popular Culture: Hollywood, offended by Christian morality, goes out of its way to portray Christians negatively. While there can be positive ...
347. The Lord Is My Rock
2 Samuel 22:1-51
Teach the Text
Robert B. Chisholm Jr.
... line demonstrates this, for David identifies the Lord as “the Rock” (that is, protector; see the comment on vv. 2–3 above) and his “Savior.” There is an echo here of David’s words before his battle with Goliath, when he expressed his disgust that the Philistine champion would defy the armies of the “living God” (1 Sam. 17:26, 36). 22:51  he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed. When the Lord made his special covenant with David, he promised that his “love” (hesed) would remain ...
Teach the Text
Daniel J. Estes
... many of the charges made previously by his friends. He vigorously rejects their claims to possess knowledge that is superior to his, and he dismisses their arguments as irrelevant to his specific case. Job’s strong language indicates that he is indignant and disgusted with them (16:1–6). Job then addresses God directly, expressing his feelings that God is oppressing his life as an attacking warrior (16:7–17). In 16:18–22, Job expresses his longing for a witness to advocate for his innocence before ...
Teach the Text
Daniel J. Estes
... how it is perceived by Job and his ancient Near Eastern contemporaries (see the sidebar). Interpretive Insights 26:2–4  How you have helped the powerless! It is quite possible that as Bildad was speaking of humans as maggots and worms (25:6), Job in disgust interrupted him. Job sarcastically dismisses Bildad as giving no practical help and as expressing no wise insight (26:3), even though Job has repeatedly referred to his own weakness (6:11–13; 9:19; 12:16; 24:22). To Job’s ears, Bildad’s claims ...
Teach the Text
Daniel J. Estes
... called for a horse-drawn carriage and asked to be taken to the London Bridge on the Thames River. Overcome by depression, he intended to commit suicide. But after two hours of driving through the mist, Cowper’s coachman confessed that he was lost. Disgusted by the delay, Cowper left the carriage to find the bridge on foot. After walking only a short distance, he discovered that he was at his own doorstep. The carriage had been going in circles. Immediately convicted, he recognized the restraining hand of ...
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