Synonyms: renounce, relinquish, dispense with, forswear, disclaim, disown, disavow, discard, wash one's hands of, give up, stop, cease, drop, forgo, desist from, have done with, abjure, abstain from, discontinue, break off, refrain from, set/lay aside, desert, leave, leave high and dry, turn one's back on, cast aside, break (up) with, vacate, quit, evacuate, withdraw from, surrender, cede, yield, indulge in, give way to, give oneself up to, yield to, lose oneself to/in, uninhibitedness, recklessness, lack of restraint, lack of inhibition, unruliness, wildness, impulsiveness, impetuosity, immoderation, wantonness
Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on
Showing 4776 to 4800 of 4938 results
Understanding Series
Tremper Longman III
Jerusalem Attacked! (6:1-8): The oracles in chapter six continue the difficulty of distinguishing individual oracles. Fortunately, the major effect on the reader is not dependent on proper division of the text or accurate dating of the original setting of the oracles. A further difficulty is determining who is speaking. Subtle clues indicate whether it is Jeremiah or God. This too, however, is not a major obstacle to understanding the message, since Jeremiah, after all, is Yahweh’s spokesperson. We take 6: ...
Understanding Series
Tremper Longman III
A Second Temple Sermon: 26:1–6 This oracle is dated in the first verse to early in the reign of Jehoiakim (609–597 B.C.). Assuming that this means before 605 B.C., then the oracle would be before Babylon became an active threat toward Judah, and even then only if one accepts the testimony of Daniel 1:1–2 that Nebuchadnezzar threatened Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign. The following oracle is marked as a word from the Lord and is directed to Jeremiah who is to take this message to the people ...
Understanding Series
Iain W. Provan
The Kingdom Torn Away: The king is dead. Long live the king! Well, not quite. We are now to read of the tearing away of the kingdom that has been threatened in chapter 11. As Moses led his people out from slavery under the house of the Egyptian Pharaoh, so Jeroboam will lead Israel out from “slavery” under the house of David; as God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to accomplish all his will, so the hardness of Rehoboam’s heart will precipitate this schism also. The exodus will take Israel towards a new ...
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
Big Idea: Jesus explains his role as fulfiller and consummate teacher of the Torah (Old Testament law) and expects his disciples to live in covenantal obedience to his expression of the Torah, culminating in the call to love even one’s enemies. Understanding the Text This passage begins the body of the Sermon on the Mount and introduces Matthew’s extensive emphasis on the law. In the title sentence (5:17) Jesus claims to fulfill rather than abolish the Law and the Prophets and then calls his kingdom ...
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
Big Idea: After mercifully healing two blind men, Jesus enters Jerusalem as a peaceable and humble king in concert with Zechariah’s vision of Israel’s king who comes to bring salvation. Understanding the Text This passage, which narrates Jesus healing two blind men outside Jericho (20:29–34) and thereafter entering Jerusalem in kingly fashion (21:1–11), introduces a new section of Matthew focused on Jesus’ ministry to crowds and confrontations with Jewish leaders in Jerusalem (chaps. 21–23). Matthew ties ...
Teach the Text
Jeannine K. Brown
Big Idea: Jesus predicts the temple’s destruction—a vindication of his own message and mission as the Son of Man—and warns his followers not to confuse the signs of its destruction with the event itself. Understanding the Text This passage begins Matthew’s fifth and final discourse containing Jesus’ teaching (chaps. 24–25) and is directed to the disciples. The focus of 24:1–35 is Jesus’ predictions about the temple’s destruction (introduced in 23:37–39). In 24:3 the disciples respond to Jesus’ initial ...
4782. Jesus and Women
Luke 7:36--8:3
Teach the Text
R.T. France
Big Idea: Jesus’s work of salvation extends to people shunned or ignored by Jewish society; women play an unusually large part in his mission. Understanding the Text After the characterization of Jesus as a bon viveur and a friend of the disreputable (7:34), we now find him at a dinner party and befriending a disreputable woman. Two themes from earlier in the Gospel reemerge in this story: Jesus’s openness to and welcome by unrespectable members of society (5:27–32) and his claim to forgive sins (5:17–26 ...
4783. Two Parables about Prayer
Luke 18:9-14, Luke 18:1-8
Teach the Text
R.T. France
Big Idea: We should pray with confidence that God will respond, but our confidence should be in God’s mercy, not in our own merits. Understanding the Text Parables have been a prominent feature in Luke’s narrative of the journey to Jerusalem, especially in chapters 14–16. The two parables in the present section, together with one further one in 19:11–27, will round out the collection before Jesus reaches Jerusalem. The first of these two parables is linked to the preceding section in that it finishes with ...
Teach the Text
R.T. France
Big Idea: Two incidents at Jericho demonstrate Jesus’s mission to save the lost, whatever their place in society, whether oppressed or oppressor. Understanding the Text The journey that began in 9:51 is near its end, as Jesus and his disciples cross the Jordan and enter Jericho before the final climb up to Jerusalem. Two events in Jericho illustrate again the deep social divisions that came to our attention in 18:14–30, and the issue of the salvation of the rich (18:18–27) is explored further in the story ...
4785. The Roman Verdict
Luke 22:66--23:25
Teach the Text
R.T. France
Big Idea: The Roman governor, under pressure from the Jewish leaders and crowd, reluctantly condemns Jesus to death. Understanding the Text In 18:32–33 Jesus predicted that he would be handed over to “the Gentiles” for execution, and that prediction also now comes true. Hitherto, the whole move against Jesus has come from the Jewish leaders and has taken place within Jewish circles, but now the political reality demands that, in order to have Jesus executed, they must involve the Roman governor. But while ...
Teach the Text
Joe M. Sprinkle
Big Idea: Trust that God can overcome great difficulties. Understanding the Text The people had begun complaining at Taberah and Kibroth Hattaavah (Num. 11). At Hazeroth Moses’s own sister and brother had expressed resentment against Moses and undermined his spiritual authority (Num. 12). In each of these cases God had intervened with a mixture of punishment and grace. Now they come to Kadesh (or Kadesh Barnea) in the Desert of Paran (Num. 13:26) just south of the land of Canaan. Israel has not learned its ...
Teach the Text
Joe M. Sprinkle
Big Idea: God’s people will receive their rightful inheritance. Understanding the Text The plague of Numbers 25 and the census of Numbers 26 mark the end of the first generation after leaving Egypt and the emergence of a new one. But how does the unit on the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. 27:1–11) fit into this sequence? One answer is that the purpose of the census of Numbers 26 is to determine allotments in the land, and this passage is related to the fair distribution of the land.1 But why does the ...
Teach the Text
Robert B. Chisholm Jr.
Big Idea: Repentance and renewed allegiance to the Lord are foundational to a restored relationship with him. Understanding the Text This chapter depicts Samuel as a spiritual and military leader. He revives Israel spiritually and politically and delivers them from Philistine bondage. This positive portrait of Samuel continues the contrast with Eli’s house so evident in chapters 2–4. Israel’s defeat was closely linked with the death of Eli and his sons. The text even seems to indicate that it was their sin ...
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
Proverbs 4, which concludes the positive commendation of wisdom, consists of three instructions, each of which begins with a direct address (4:1, 10, 20). In 4:1–9, which utilizes several terms from the preceding section, the father passes on counsel from his own father that is marked by another metaphorical presentation of wisdom as a woman. Verse 1 uses “my sons” rather than “my son” for the first time in the book (cf. Prov. 5:7; 7:24; 8:32), which, along with the reference to the mother in Proverbs 1:8 ...
4790. Gog
Ezekiel 38:1-39:29
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
Ezekiel has already devoted one section of his prophecy to oracles to the nations (chaps. 25–32). It is somewhat strange, then, that Ezekiel has two chapters (38–39) against another outsider (Gog/Magog) in the section comprising prophecies of hope and restoration. There are many instances in the prophetic books, and elsewhere, of nations invading Israel, but few of those instances are after Israel is resettled in her land (Ezekiel 38–39; Zechariah 14). Although the setting for Israel is ideal at the end of ...
4791. A Light for All Nations
Isaiah 60:1-6, Matthew 2:1-12
Sermon
King Duncan
As far as our society is concerned, the Christmas season has long been over. The lights and the tinsel have been put away. For most of us Christmas is only a pleasant memory. In the Church year, however, Christmas begins on December 25 and extends for 12 days. You remember the silly little song that starts off, “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree . . . .” It details an array of gifts that a young woman received from her lover over a period of 12 days. Her true ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
Pre-marital counseling can be an adventure for pastors. You never know what two people filled with passion will say. I recall talking with a couple a few years ago about their upcoming nuptials. I was explaining to them the wedding ceremony. When I got to the reference of Jesus being at a wedding reception in Cana of Galilee and turning the water into wine, the soon to be groom interrupted me mid-sentence and asked, “You really don’t believe that happened, do you? I mean, that sounds like a trumped up ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
Today I continue our series “Pop Verses.” We are taking a closer look at some of the most popular Bible verses. We are going to find out why they are so popular and how they apply to our lives. What you might discover is that some of these verses don’t mean what you think they mean or they mean a lot more than you think they mean. You see, quite often our favorites verses are just that – they’re verses. They’re not read in light of the passage in which they appear. This can lead to a misunderstanding about ...
Understanding Series
Robert H. Mounce
Parables of Jesus: In chapter 13 we come for the first time to Jesus’ favorite method of teaching, the parable. The seven parables recorded in this chapter form Jesus’ third discourse as arranged by Matthew, There are in the first three Gospels about sixty separate parables. In the LXX the Greek parabolē almost always translates the Hebrew māšāl, which denotes a wide variety of picturesque forms of expression, including the proverb, metaphor, allegory, illustrative story, fable, riddle, simile, and parable ...
Understanding Series
Craig A. Evans
A Great Catch of Fish: Luke’s story of the great catch of fish parallels Mark 1:16–20, which Luke expands, partly by utilizing other Marcan details (see Mark 4:1–2, where it is necessary for Jesus to preach to the crowds from a boat) and by drawing upon his own special information. (Some scholars think that Luke’s information regarding the great catch of fish is somehow related to the similar episode in John 21:1–11.) Mark’s account of the calling of Simon (Peter), James, and John takes place shortly after ...
Understanding Series
Gerald H. Wilson
God Has Wronged Me Job’s response to Bildad’s second speech alternates between recrimination against his friends’ lack of compassion and lament over the divine attack he is experiencing. The friends attack and torment Job because they are convinced he is at fault (19:4, 28). Job continues to claim his innocence and to call the friends to compassion and mutual support (19:21–22). He concludes with a warning that if the friends continue to align themselves with God’s unwarranted attack on Job, they might ...
Understanding Series
Larry W. Hurtado
9:42–50 In these verses we seem to have a collection of sayings somewhat artificially held together by particular words that associate the sayings with one another. Once brought together, however, the sayings are all to be understood in their present context, which has to do with discipleship, especially the obligations of disciples for one another. The mention of little ones in 9:42 is a reference to Jesus’ followers and takes us back to verse 37, where Jesus refers to his followers under the symbol of “ ...
Understanding Series
Norman Hillyer
To Wives 3:1 Peter’s linking phrase in the same way occurs again in verse 7, as he turns to speak to husbands. So the expression is not to be taken as being too significant in itself: in verse 7 there is no question of husbands being admonished to be submissive to their wives. Neither is Peter implying that wives are to be submissive in the way expected of the slaves he has just been addressing (2:18), for the husband/wife relationship is on a different plane. Each wife is instructed to be submissive to ...
Understanding Series
John Goldingay
The Restoration of a Blind and Deaf Servant, I: After the parallel sequences of prophecies in 41:1–20 and 41:21–42:17 have come to their natural end in praise, a new pair of sequences begins. First Yahweh directly confronts Jacob-Israel about its capacity to fulfill the servant role (42:18–25). Then Jacob-Israel is reassured that nevertheless Yahweh, the one who brought the community into being, is still committed to it (43:1–7). Further, its calling to be Yahweh’s servant still stands, and beyond that, ...
Understanding Series
John Goldingay
Yahweh’s Closing Critique and Vision: In these last two chapters of the book, once more we cannot discern an order or structure. The succession of phrases that look like introductions to prophecies (65:8, 13, 25; 66:1, 5, 12, 22) and the movement between verse and prose suggest that here it is not because a prophet let a stream of consciousness have its way. It is, rather, because a number of separate prophecies have been accumulated at the end of the book. These different prophecies have overlapping ...
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