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Showing 4701 to 4725 of 4963 results

4701. Jonathan’s Faith Ignites a Victory

1 Sam 13:16–14:23

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... (v. 3) and will again prove (14:1–14) that he would make a worthy successor to his father, but sadly this will never be.2 14:3 Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. Jonathan prepares to ignite a battle against the Philistines (v. 1), but Saul remains inactive, apparently waiting for an oracle from God (v. 3 refers to the ephod).3 It is ironic that a priestly descendant of Eli is with Saul, for we have here a king whose dynasty is doomed (13:13–14) collaborating with a priest whose dynasty was doomed ...

4702. Saul Dilutes a Victory

1 Sam 14:24-52

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... ), Lewis (1898–1963) addresses self-preoccupation, essentially pride. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead, . . . to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be “good.” We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centred on money or pleasure or ambition—and ...

4703. David’s Faith Ignites a Victory

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... from the hand of their enemies (1 Sam. 7:3; 10:18). 17:38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. Saul has heard David’s confession of how the Lord has delivered him, and he has even prayed that the Lord will be with David. Yet his focus remains limited: he tries to dress David in his own armor. He even puts a “bronze helmet” on David’s head, as if to make him a little Goliath (cf. v. 5). But David has not specifically mentioned armor or weapons in relating his exploits: his focus is on the ...

4704. David Listens to the Voice of Wisdom

1 Samuel 25:1-44

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... , pronounced a blessing upon him, and assured him that he would someday be the king of Israel. However, he did not invite David to return to the royal court; Saul and David went their separate ways (v. 22). As we move to chapter 25, Saul remains backstage for a brief time as the narrator focuses on David’s dealings with the wealthy but foolish Nabal, and his wise wife, Abigail. In chapter 24 David refused to take vengeance into his own hands; instead, he appealed to God for vindication. In chapter ...

4705. David Spares Saul’s Life—Again

1 Samuel 26:1-25

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... him of his rightful inheritance in the Lord’s covenant community. Worse yet, they are essentially encouraging him to run away to another land and worship other gods, in direct violation of God’s covenant (Deut. 11:16; 13:6–18; 17:2–7; Josh. 23:16). But David remains a loyal servant of the Lord, as his appeal makes clear (1 Sam. 26:20). If he must die, he wishes that it would be close to the Lord’s presence. This confession of loyalty to the Lord is important, for David has already sought asylum in ...

4706. David Flees to Gath—Again

1 Samuel 27:1-12

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... , David, out of expedience, is fulfilling the Lord’s wishes more efficiently than Saul has done (cf. 15:7–9).5 27:12 He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life. Though David’s loyalties remain with Israel and his ruse is successful, he has compromised his identity. 28:2 I will make you my bodyguard for life. Confident of David’s loyalty, Achish promises to appoint him as his bodyguard (Hebrew, “a guard for my head”). At this point Achish ...

4707. Séance in Endor: Bad News from Beyond the Grave

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

... by God. Being called to a special position, like Eli and Saul were, did not insulate them from divine discipline. We find a corollary of this in chapter 28, where Saul is cut off from communication with God. When he seeks divine guidance in a crisis, God remains silent (v. 6). This is appropriate, for Saul has disobeyed the Lord, opposed the Lord’s chosen servant, and even killed the priests at Nob, whose job in part is to serve as mediators between the leaders of Israel and God (cf. 22:10). One finds ...

4708. Eliphaz

Job 4:1-5:27

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... will be exalted in the earth.” Some of the appropriate words are as follows: Be still, my soul—the Lord is on thy side! Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain; Leave to thy God to order and provide— In ev’ry change He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul—thy best, thy heav’nly Friend Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Eliphaz Thinks He Knows the Answer Big Idea: Eliphaz knows much truth about God, but he misconstrues Job as foolish and sinful. Understanding the Text In Job 5, Eliphaz ...

4709. Job Presents Evidence against the Retribution Principle

Job 12:1--14:22

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... –19 as a mountain erodes and crumbles. Job’s daring hope in 14:13–17 cannot sustain him in the face of his great adversity. Once again using the procedure of observation, Job notes that an eroded mountain cannot be rebuilt, but only the rubble remains at its base. If a mountain cannot survive erosion, then what chance could a feeble human have in the face of God’s inexorable laws? This reality destroys human hope (14:19). 14:22 They . . . mourn only for themselves. Despite his best efforts to ...

4710. Job’s Hope against Hope

Job 19:1-29

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... hurting and humiliating him by what they have said and how they have spoken. Job has already been broken by his calamity, and now he also feels crushed by their shameless words. He has no patience left for these disappointing friends. 19:4 my error remains my concern alone. Job suggests that the friends speak as though he has offended them. Using hypothetical language rather than admitting to any sin, Job insists that if he has committed a minor, inadvertent error (cf. Lev. 5:18; Num. 15:28), not the ...

4711. Zophar’s Final Words for Job

Job 20:1-29

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... God, because God invariably destroys the wicked. God’s rigid moral order guarantees the fate of Job, because Zophar’s tight system leaves no place for an exceptional case or for divine grace to the sinner. Because Zophar has now spoken his final word, he remains silent when it is his time to reply to Job in the third cycle of speeches. Theological Insights Zophar’s description of the wicked losing the riches that they have accumulated (20:15) connects with a familiar theme in the Bible. The problem of ...

4712. Elihu Makes His Appearance

Job 32:1--37:24

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... turned from following God (34:27), so God has overthrown him (34:25), as God does regularly to evildoers. With these words, Elihu lumps Job’s adversity into the general category of divine punishment of the wicked. 34:29–30 But if he remains silent, who can condemn him? Elihu grants that God may not always exact judgment immediately. This divine silence, however, should not be misconstrued as God’s lack of sovereign control. Elihu’s implication is that Job’s previous prosperity, not his present ...

4713. “In Peace I Will Lie Down and Sleep”

Psalm 4:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... that deals with Absalom’s rebellion, and the tone of this poem shifts from the crisis mode to reconciliation. Prompted by Joab, his commander in chief, David initiated a policy of reconciliation (2 Sam. 19:1–23), to salvage any vestiges of goodwill that remained after Absalom’s death. Rather than the angry words of David’s accusers (Ps. 3:2), we hear the query of the former rebels who seek to reposition themselves behind David: “Who will bring us prosperity?” (4:6a). This is followed by David ...

4714. “The Lord Is My Shepherd, I Lack Nothing”

Psalm 23:1-6

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... to isolate himself in study and writing. En route, however, he stopped to spend the night in Geneva. When William Farel, a leader of the fledgling Reformation church in Geneva, heard that Calvin was in town, he went to see him and asked that he remain in Geneva to help the fledgling Reformation church. Calvin resisted, and he tells the story like this: And after having learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies for which I wished to keep myself free from other pursuits, and ...

4715. “For Your Sake We Face Death . . . as Sheep to Be Slaughtered”

Psalm 44:1-26

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... mystery is bundled up, not in the “secrets” of Israel’s heart (44:21), which God knows so well, but in God’s unfailing love (44:26). Yet even when the phrase “for your sake” is resolved in the chord of “your unfailing love,” the mystery still remains, and we trust not in the mystery but in God’s “unfailing love,” which is God’s greatest revelation and his greatest mystery. But what does this mean in the real world? When God acts for his own sake (not for ours), how does that benefit ...

4716. “Ride Forth Victoriously in the Cause of Truth, Humility and Justice”

Psalm 45:1-17

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... temple were sometimes called ’elohim (Exod. 21:6; 22:8–9).7Hakham translates the verse “Your throne, of God, is forever and ever,” and he alleviates the tension by expanding the verse as follows: “Your throne is the throne of God, and it will remain forever and ever” (cf. 1 Chron. 29:23).8However, the Epistle to the Hebrews resolves the issue simply by recognizing this usage of ’elohim as a reference to Christ as King (Heb. 1:8–9). That is, the author views the psalmist as speaking beyond ...

4717. “God Is Our Refuge and Strength, an Ever-Present Help in Trouble”

Psalm 46:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... the poem into three parts (46:1–3, 4–7, and 8–11). There is probably no compelling reason to endorse this view, since Hebrew poetry does not exhibit the same kind of symmetry we expect of classical Western poetry,6and, further, the meaning of selah remains somewhat in doubt.7We will follow the two-part division, which seems to align with the content a little better than the three-part division. 1. God as refuge from natural disasters (46:1–7) Refrain (46:7) 2. God as refuge from political disasters ...

4718. “The Lord Most High Is Awesome, the Great King over All the Earth”

Psalm 47:1-9

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... praises” to “our King” (47:6–7). The summons itself implies that God has had designs on the gentiles all along, and when the “nobles” (kings) of the nations gather as “the people of the God of Abraham,” the designs are transparent. Now the only remaining piece of the picture is an acknowledgment from the covenant side of the aisle that “the kings of the earth belong to God” (47:9). But what does this covenant context have to do with the gentile nations? And here is one of the remarkable ...

4719. “No One Can Redeem the Life of Another or Give to God a Ransom for Them”

Psalm 49:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... ” one “is not a half-wit” but someone who “deliberately rejects the wisdom.”5The “senseless” one is someone who lacks understanding (Prov. 30:2). These two terms occur in parallel in Psalm 92:6. 49:11 Their tombs will remain their houses forever. “Their tombs” is singular in Hebrew. The Greek text (LXX), Syriac, and Targum read the word as “tomb/grave” (qibram) rather than the Hebrew qirbam (“their inward thought”), transposing the middle letters. This emendation is recognized ...

4720. “Cast Your Cares on the Lord and He Will Sustain You”

Psalm 55:1-23

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... (Matt. 26:47–49). The Gospel story tells both sides of the betrayal: the crucifixion of Jesus and the guilt of Judas that leads to his suicide. In Psalm 55, we see only one side of the story, the story of the betrayed. The other side remains untold, unless, of course, the friend is Ahithophel, and his story ends in suicide also (2 Sam. 17:23). On the one side of the story, betrayal causes indescribable mental anguish because it breaks a covenant of friendship (55:20), a covenant between two persons of ...

4721. “Be Exalted, O God, above the Heavens; Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth”

Psalm 57:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... nations, we may also see the forming lines of Isaiah’s quite well-developed view that the word of God goes forth to accomplish a purpose, for which it cannot fail (Isa. 31:2; 40:8; 45:23; 55:11). Mission accomplished! Teaching the Text We want to remain faithful to the biblical text as we seek to hear the message of the Psalms and share that with our listeners. To do so, we need to know not just what a psalm says but how it is structured. Structure and meaning are companions, and one supports the other ...

4722. “Endow the King with Your Justice, O God”

Psalm 72:1-20

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... the one before.12 With a similar meaning, Psalm 72 leaves us poised on the verge of God’s future kingdom, waiting breathlessly for the next chapter to begin: “May the whole earth be filled with his glory” (72:19b), and that is where all who hope in God must remain.

4723. Nebuchadnezzar’s Testimony and Tree Dream

Daniel 4:1-18

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... a heavenly being. The Old Greek translates, “angels,” although Theodotion changes it to “watchers” (see the sidebar “Nondivine, Heavenly Beings in Daniel” in the unit on 3:24–30). 4:14–16 Cut down the tree . . . let the stump . . . remain. The plural imperatives in 4:14a carry the same force as the passives in 4:14b–15a, implying a comprehensive judgment. Leaving the “stump and its roots” marks the transition from “tree” to “man” to “animal.” The “iron and bronze ...

4724. Daniel Interprets the Dream and Confronts Nebuchadnezzar

Daniel 4:19-27

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... as he wills. Third, God provides opportunities for prophets to speak words of truth and sinners to break away from their sins by doing what is right. Teaching the Text 1. God is the source of human greatness. Although Nebuchadnezzar is a pagan king, God remains the divine giver of all his greatness and, by extension, the spheres of influence of all human rulers. The symbol of a tree makes this point well. It is planted by someone else and obtains its splendor through someone else’s gifts. Comparing a ...

4725. Daniel's Prayer

Daniel 9:1-19

Teach the Text

Ronald W. Pierce

... .” Point out that God is our standard, not so-called biblical heroes. Challenge them to new goals for living godly lives. Warn them that this must be done by depending on the power of God’s Spirit, but remind them that they also must remain faithful. 2. Consequences of persistent sin. When God’s people make choices that are against his revealed will, they often pay a price for those bad decisions. This does not mean that all sufferings or failures are the result of sinful behavior. On the contrary ...

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