Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 926 to 950 of 1230 results

Gen 46:1–47:12

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... was seventy persons. Seventy is a crucial number in the OT, being the product of ten (a round number for a group larger than just a few; ten persons became the number required to form a congregation) times seven (the number of perfection). It symbolizes an ideal, complete unit, such as the Sanhedrin. The list of Jacob’s seventy children at the end of the patriarchal era parallels the seventy nations at the close of the primeval narrative (ch. 10). 46:28–30 Judah went ahead to meet with Joseph to learn ...

927. Do Not Forget the Lord

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... , it can mean to punish in discipline (1 Kgs. 11:39; Isa. 64:12) or for educational purposes, as here (cf. Ps. 119:71, 75). As a response to their rebellion at Kadesh Barnea, the wilderness was indeed punishment. But as a place of learning, it was an ideal classroom. The irony is that in that very classroom the Israelites thought they were testing God (cf. 6:16 and commentary), whereas in fact it was the other way around; it was God who was testing them. The meaning of test is the same in both cases. It ...

928. Exclusion From the Assembly

Deuteronomy 23:1-8

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... of food or seed grain in a difficult season or (in Leviticus) those who had fallen into severe poverty over a longer term. Such is the evil of human nature, that desperate human need is commonly an opportunity for unscrupulous exploitation. True to OT ideals of justice and compassion, the ban on interest in Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Leviticus is primarily concerned to stop the hardhearted from making a profit out of hard times. This may, as some think, be the reason why the ban did not apply to foreigners ...

929. Solomon Asks for Wisdom

1 Kings 3:1-15

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... of those foreign influences that would tempt Israel in different directions. There is, of course, nothing in 1 Kings 3:2 to suggest that the people have already succumbed to temptation. The implication is that they do worship the Name, even if is not in the ideal place. But the potential for disaster is clear enough, and 11:33 will tell us of a people who eventually follow Solomon into sin. All of this must influence our reading of 1 Kings 3:3. Here we are for the first time told something about Solomon ...

930. Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam

1 Kings 12:1-24

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... . Gen. 50:22–26). It is also the place where kingship first, if briefly, intruded itself into the tribal life of Israel, a mortal being (and a wicked one at that) taking the place of God as ruler over God’s people (Judg. 8:22–23; 9). Shechem is an ideal place, therefore, to which a prospective king might be invited if you wished to ask him (as the Israelites do) how his kingship was going to be exercised so as to be consonant with the nature of the covenant people of God—if you wished to ask him to ...

931. Elijah and Obadiah

1 Kings 18:1-15

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... 3:2–3). They are even more opposed to idolatry, however, and it is unlikely that in a context where Israel has given itself over to idolatry, they intend us to think critically of Elijah for acting thus. Centralization of the worship of the LORD is the ideal (cf. Deut. 12), but any worship of the LORD is better than worship of Baal. And the LORD removes the altar, of course, after it has served its purpose (v. 38)! It is interesting to note that “all Israel” is conceived in this passage, as earlier in ...

932. Amaziah King of Judah

2 Kings 14:1-22

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... . 3:16; 12:3). This represents, not merely the restoration of all the territory in Transjordan captured by Hazael in 2 Kings 10:32–33, but the wholesale incorporation of Aram into his kingdom (cf. also Damascus and Hamath in v. 28), the re-establishment of the ideal borders of northern Israel as they had existed under Solomon (cf. 1 Kgs. 8:65). This is not because he is a good king (v. 24). It is, rather, because in this period immediately after Elisha’s death there is still deliverance to be found, in ...

933. The Book of Law Found

2 Kings 22:1-20

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... he is a king come too late. 22:1–2 The verses that introduce Josiah alert us to the kind of king he is going to be. There is reference to David—as we would expect. More significantly, however, there is an unmistakable allusion to Deuteronomy 17:20, where the ideal king is one who does not “turn” (Hb. swr, as in 2 Kgs. 22:2) from the law to the right or to the left. This is only the first of many references in 2 Kings 22–23 that link Josiah with the law of Moses in general and the ...

934. A Rebellious Nation

Isaiah 1:1-31

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... that community affairs are conducted in the proper way, whether at the level of the courts or at the level of forming and implementing political policies. Thus Zion will once again be the City of Righteousness, “Justice City,” and once again Faithful City. The ideal is restored. 1:27–31 The double-sided point about punishment and restoration is now put in a different way. This redeeming of the city is an act of payment expected of the city itself. It has responsibility for the reshaping of its life ...

935. Woe to the Obstinate Nation

Isaiah 30:1-33

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... to Yahweh or means of relating to Yahweh. Instead of counting among the most valuable things (even if only on the outside), images will count as things you would most easily throw away. Farming will flourish (vv. 23–24). The Judean hill country was not ideal farming country and would be vulnerable to drought and plague, so the promise of plenty corresponds to a felt need. Bread of adversity is replaced by food (the same word) that is rich and plentiful, and water of affliction is replaced by rain to make ...

936. Hezekiah’s Illness

Isaiah 38:1-22, Isaiah 39:1-8

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... Judah more positively than any king is portrayed anywhere in the book, and thereby provide a vision of hope for the future. Hezekiah is the very embodiment of the kind of king Judah needs and one day will have, by God’s faithfulness. The portrait is thus an idealized one. There, the need is not for a portrait of Hezekiah “warts and all” of the kind that chapters 30–31 have implied could be drawn. The need is for a symbol of hope for people who were often depressed by the reality of kingship and by ...

937. Salvation for Others

Isaiah 56:1-8

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... . 2:11; 8:20–23). 56:4–5 Eunuchs were previously mentioned only once (39:7); in this reference they are a symbol of the terrible fate of the whole Judean community. In their maimed-ness they fell short of the human wholeness that was God’s ideal, and in their incapacity to beget children they could make no contribution to the future of God’s people. But God welcomes them. So eunuchs, whose name would die out, are promised that in the very house of God their name will never die out. The words take ...

938. Judgment and Salvation

Isaiah 65:1-16

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... the terms my servants and my chosen describe a group within the community, in effect a “faithful remnant.” It is a fateful moment as the prophet gives up on the notion of the whole community as chosen servant. For all Yahweh’s efforts to make this ideal work, in the end it has to be abandoned. Jacob’s “seed” will indeed possess my mountains and inherit them, and they will enjoy the benefit of the land on either side from the Mediterranean (Sharon) to the Jordan (the Valley of Achor, near Jericho ...

939. Signs and Oracles of Judgment

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... (9:4), and at least some among the community of exiles (11:16–20). Yet there is not one positive statement about the priests in the original text of Ezekiel. Surely, in a book written by a priest and shot through with priestly language and ideals, this is unexpected and reveals a negative view of the Jerusalem priesthood. The reference to “the king” in verse 27 is also unusual. Ezekiel’s term of choice for Israel’s kings is the more modest title “prince” (nasiʾ in Heb.; see the discussion of ...

940. Tyre, Sidon—and Israel

Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:1-36, Ezekiel 28:1-19, Ezekiel 28:20-26

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... regards the priestly image as a metaphor, applied to the king of Tyre. John Strong understands the close parallels to Jerusalem’s temple traditions in this lament to reflect what Ezekiel regards as Tyre’s mimicry of Zion ideas and ideals (“Ezekiel’s Oracles against the Nations within the Context of his Message” [Ph. D. diss., Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1993], pp. 175–76). However, neither of these arguments does justice to the unmistakable identification Ezekiel makes of the lament ...

941. Prologue to the Law of the Temple: The Lord Comes Home

Ezekiel 40:1--43:12

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... Ezekiel’s answer to this question, we must understand his final vision report. Unfortunately, Ezekiel does not make that task an easy one. Do chapters 40–42 describe a real temple, whether Solomon’s or some structure yet to be built, or the ideal temple? Is this a building program for the community, or a description of God’s activity? Is the mountain on which the temple stands the geographical, the eschatological, or the heavenly Zion? To complicate matters still further, the vision as we have ...

942. Jesus the Messiah from Joseph’s Family Line

Matthew 1:1-17

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... ’s importance in Jesus’ lineage.3 Teaching the Text 1. Jesus is the Davidic king, who will rule God’s people. It is no accident that Matthew draws Jesus’ identity from the kingly line of David. David is that prototypical Israelite king, whom the prophets idealize in their depiction of restoration under a kingly descendant from David. For Matthew, Jesus is that rightful king from David’s line. Yet it will be Matthew’s primary task in the rest of his Gospel to show what kind of king Jesus is and ...

943. Jesus Begins His Ministry to Israel

Matthew 4:23-25, Matthew 4:18-22

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... . It is very likely that the reproduction would fall short of the dress as it was first created. Following the pattern of the original is a much better way of creating the closest reproduction of the original. This illustration provides an ideal picture of disciple reproduction in Matthew, which the author connects back to Jesus (as pattern). Disciples, according to Matthew, will not reproduce themselves but rather will make disciples who are fundamentally oriented to the master, who says, “Make disciples ...

944. Jesus, Not Jewish Leaders, Interprets the Torah Rightly

Matthew 15:1-20

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... and teachers of the law for circumventing obedience to the law in their very efforts to keep oral tradition (23:13–36). This passage also emphasizes the important of hearing and understanding (15:10), with the disciples functioning as a less than ideal example of such understanding (15:15–16; cf. 16:9). Interpretive Insights 15:1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem. Matthew frequently groups together Pharisees and teachers of the law as Jesus’ opponents about ...

945. The Baptism of Jesus

Luke 3:21-38

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... Son of God. Other cultures might speak of important men, especially kings, as sons of the gods, but in the Old Testament, apart from a few references to Israel corporately as God’s “son” (Exod. 4:22–23; Hosea 11:1), the term is used only of the future ideal “son of David,” the Messiah (2 Sam. 7:14; Ps. 2:7). Here in Luke, coming after 1:34–38 and pronounced by the very voice of God himself, it is clearly more than simply an honorific term for a human leader. In 3:22, then, Jesus is declared ...

946. Jesus’s Fallible Followers

Luke 9:51-56, Luke 9:46-50, Luke 9:37-45

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... , including lack of faith (9:40), lack of spiritual discernment (9:45), pride (9:46), and exclusivity (9:49). In what ways do believers today manifest these same failings? Notice how Jesus responds in each case. What does this teach us about the ideal qualities of Christian leaders? What contemporary Christian figures do listeners most admire? Is there a danger of unrealistic hero worship? Do you know of examples of Christian leaders with “feet of clay”? If so, what is the right response to this? Who is ...

947. Divided Loyalties

Luke 12:1-12, Luke 12:13-21

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... cf. 11:13). 12:14 who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you? The man (presumably the younger of two brothers) apparently was looking for a legal ruling or sanction relating to his father’s will, and he thought that this “teacher” (rabbi) would be the ideal person to give it. We are not told whether he had a good case, but in any event, Jesus has a very different understanding of his own role. 12:15 Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. This is not a verdict on the specific case ...

948. Two Testing Questions

Luke 20:27-40, Luke 20:20-26

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... are related in that they represent challenges to Jesus from various groups within the leadership of Israel. They can therefore be taught together with the rest of chapter 20 around the theme of Jesus’s successful debates with his opponents. Ideally, however, they should be taught separately, since they have different themes and raise unique theological questions. 1. The tax question. Make sure that people have grasped the political situation underlying this question and how sensitive it was in Judea at ...

949. Leadership and Servanthood

1 Corinthians 4:1-21, 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... the secular nature of the church’s behavior, Paul concludes his exhortation to use superior building materials with a reminder that the Corinthians are building God’s holy temple. This reminder becomes the launching pad for his rejection of Corinthian ideals. They have polluted the church’s thinking and kept it spiritually infantile. Interpretive Insights 3:16 you yourselves are God’s temple. Modern readers of English translations can easily miss the force of Paul’s language here. The common ...

950. Resurrection and History

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... of the Corinthians, what drives Paul is not a sense of self-worth or a need for self-promotion but a deep awareness of God’s gracious call. Grace does not demand specific action; it evokes love that in turn motivates action. In line with the ideals of patron-client relationships (see the introduction, especially “Grace and Patronage”), Paul accentuates that the grace his patron has shown him “was not without effect,” or was not “empty/in vain” (ken?; cf. 15:58; 2 Cor. 6:1; 1 Thess. 2:1; 3:5 ...

Showing results