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Showing 1901 to 1925 of 4972 results

1901. Zebah and Zalmunna

Judges 8:1-21

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... After a brief altercation, these took over the pursuit and executed two Midianite leaders. This would have been a good place to stop. The author could have closed the story with the stereotypic notices that the land had peace for forty years (Judg. 8:28) and Gideon died ... and was buried in his family tomb in Ophrah (8:32). But he did not stop there. He continued on with the story of Gideon, a story that reveals a different side of Israel’s judge—the dark side, to ...

1902. Ruth Meets Boaz

Ruth 2:1-23

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... to live on the fringes of society. Thus she is grateful that Boaz’s behavior contrasts so sharply with, say, the behavior of the Levite from Ephraim: When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Come, let’s stop at this city of the Jebusites and spend the night.” His master replied, “No. We won’t go into an alien city (’ir nokri), whose people are not Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.” (Judg. 19:11–12) There are several levels of irony here ...

1903. David Numbers the Fighting Men

1 Chronicles 21:1-22:1

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... Yahweh is a God of mercy is then confirmed when Yahweh withholds the destruction at the last moment. In 21:15 the Chronicler’s addition (but as the angel was doing so, the LORD saw it) emphasizes the compassion of God for the city. Yahweh stopped the angel from destroying the city precisely when the angel of the LORD was . . . standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. This remark introduces the specific location of the threshing floor that will play an important role later. The whole of 21 ...

1904. The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh

Nahum 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... order in the alphabet is ʾ, b, g, d, h, v, z, kh, t, y, k) is not an indication of corruption in the text; it is common for alphabetical poems in the OT to work only in partial fashion. The fact that the alphabetical sequence stops after verse 8 is one indication that a new section begins at verse 9. 1:1 In general terms, this opening description parallels that of other prophetic books, though it has distinctive features. Its use of the word oracle (massaʾ) compares with Habakkuk and Malachi. Habakkuk ...

1905. Habakkuk’s Complaint

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... ” that would send the prophet home satisfied. It is a rhetorical question that disguises a protest or reproach. It implies, “stop doing what you are doing.” Yet Habakkuk never makes such an actual plea. In a psalm one characteristically asks for ... pleas, but Yahweh has ignored both, and he wants to know how long Yahweh will carry on doing that—or rather, he wants Yahweh to stop doing it. But whereas a psalm would regularly utter such a plea and Habakkuk refers to the way he has been doing so, he does ...

1906. The Gold Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees

Zechariah 4:1-14

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... as encouragement for Zerubbabel and the temple-builders. This word addresses O mighty mountain, a symbol of all types of opposition to the temple-building project. The people of Yehud were reluctant to work (Hag. 2:1–5), and the neighboring peoples attempted to put a stop to the building (Ezra 4:1–5, 24). Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground, God’s word tells the opposition. The removal of a mountain of difficulties is a powerful image of salvation (as in Isa. 40:4; 41:15; 49:11). The final ...

1907. Laughing Sickness

John 13:31-35

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... I brought this joke book with me this morning. (Read a couple of silly riddles if you feel so inclined. Give them a chance to giggle.) I heard about a tribe in New Guinea that sometimes comes down with what is called, "laughing sickness." An afflicted person can't stop laughing and literally laughs themselves to death. I have heard people say that they died laughing, but they didn't really mean it. They simply meant that they laughed a long time. I have seen boys and girls start giggling and have trouble ...

1908. Jesus Heals the Official’s Son

John 4:43-54

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... also conveys the notion that Jesus gives eternal life now, and not just at the last day (cf. 5:24–25). 4:52 Yesterday at the seventh hour. See note on 1:39. The official may have begun the seventeen-mile trip from Cana to Capernaum immediately and stopped overnight on the way, perhaps at Magdala. The servants would probably not have gone out with the good news until the next day, when the boy was safely out of danger. 4:54 Second miraculous sign: This reference, along with 2:11, has been made the basis of ...

1909. The Healing at the Pool

John 5:1-15, John 5:16-30

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... story of the paralytic, in which healing and the forgiveness of sins are virtually equated (Mark 2:5–11), Jesus warns the man to stop sinning or something worse may happen to you (v. 14b; cf. Jesus’ warning to the adulterous woman in 8:11, at the end of ... that God rested on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2–3; cf. Exod. 20:11). Their conclusion was that God did not actually stop working after six days, for if he had, the world would have ceased to exist. Instead, he simply ended his work of creation ...

1910. The Empty Tomb and the First Appearance

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

... Gospel) because she was using it, not as a form of address preliminary to saying something else, but as a cry of recognition in itself. 20:17 Do not hold on to me. The present imperative suggests that Jesus is telling Mary either to stop doing something she is already doing, or to stop trying to do something she is attempting to do (some ancient manuscripts add, at the end of the preceding verse, the actual words “and she ran toward him to touch him”). The point of the words Do not hold on to me is not ...

1911. From Shem to Abram

Genesis 11:10-32

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... history, or toledoth, of Terah, which begins here, and continues through 25:18. Members of this family set out from their home in Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan (11:31). They stop at Haran, where they decide to settle. Later God commands Abram to go on to Canaan, and Abram obeys. Once there, he moves through the land, making three stops for indefinite periods: at Shechem (12:6), between Bethel and Ai (12:8), and in the Negev (12:9). At the center of this account is Yahweh’s call of Abram and the ...

1912. Isaac and Abimelech

Genesis 26:1-35

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... ), and the discovery of a new well at Beersheba (vv. 32–33). Having been expelled from the city of Gerar, Isaac moved and set up camp in the Valley of Gerar. There he reopened the wells that had been dug in Abraham’s day but later stopped up by the Philistines. The action of the Philistines reveals that they no longer honored the covenant between Abraham and Abimelech (21:22–31). Isaac called the wells by the same names his father had given them, thereby reclaiming for himself these valued sources of ...

1913. Jacob Arrives at Paddan Aram

Genesis 29:1-14

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... –53, 54–56). This account consists of two scenes: Jacob arrives at the well (vv. 1–8) and meets Rachel (vv. 9–14). 29:1–3 Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. Having reached his destination, he stopped at the local well, a primary meeting place for shepherds. Three flocks of sheep were lying about that well, waiting to be watered. A huge stone covered the opening of the well, protecting the purity of the water and preventing any person or animal from falling ...

1914. Wanderings in the Desert

Deuteronomy 3:21-29

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

... of the pain and disappointment that the divine refusal caused Moses can be seen in the number of times he refers to it. (1:37; 3:26; 4:21; cf. 31:2; 32:48–52; 34:4). So even if he stopped talking to God about it (v. 26 suggests he had been making a persistent request), he didn’t stop reminding the Israelites of it: because of you the LORD was angry with me! The exclusion of Moses from entering the promised land figures so largely here, and was probably as much a surprise to the original readers as it is ...

1915. The Man of God from Judah

1 Kings 13:1-34

Understanding Series

Iain W. Provan

... , then, that may lie behind the instructions given to the Judean about his journey. He is to go directly to Bethel and come directly back. He is not even to stop for refreshment, and he is to vary his route so that he cannot easily be found and prevented from completing his mission (cf. Matt. 2:12). It is when he does stop (v. 14) that his troubles begin. Whatever the reason for both the prohibition and the committed attempts to persuade the man to disregard it, it is clear that God requires complete ...

1916. Stubborn Israel

Isaiah 48:1-11

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... all the seriousness of their inward commitment backed by outward confession, their faith has a fatal flaw. 48:3–6a The flaw is different from that which Isaiah saw, though there is an underlying link between them. Isaiah would go on to urge the people to stop living their life in contempt of the fact that Yahweh was active in that life and in the affairs of the nations, working out a moral and religious purpose. This conviction that Yahweh is at work and that the community can know what Yahweh is about ...

1917. The Future Glory of Zion

Isaiah 54:1-17

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... one. The tent imagery gently underlines the reference back to the stories in Genesis. The people had their origins in that kind of act. It is tempting to believe that such acts of God belong only in the past, in the Bible, in the great days, but Yahweh has not stopped being that kind of God (cf. 51:1–3, though there Abraham is more in focus than Sarah). More is the same word as the “many” of 52:14, 15 and 53:11, 12, which suggests that the many for whom the servant has suffered are the many children ...

1918. Praise and Prayer

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... being a person and one that most imperils relationships. The prayer again urges that Yahweh be sovereign in remembering. It is the other side of not being angry (cf. v. 5) beyond measure. Once again there is an appeal to look upon us (as 63:15), to stop being someone who is resolutely turned the other way (cf. v. 7b). Once again there is an appeal to the fact of being your people (cf. “my people,” 63:8; “his people,” 63:11; “your people,” 63:14, 18), “all of us” again. Once again there the ...

1919. The Glory Departs

Ezekiel 8:1-18, Ezekiel 9:1-11, Ezekiel 10:1-22, Ezekiel 11:1-15, Ezekiel 11:16-25

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... this hope in God’s activity and depend upon God’s character. 11:22–25 The conclusion of this vision complex returns us, once more, to the wheels and the cherubim. As the prophet watches, the glory of the Lord departs from Jerusalem altogether, stopping above the mountain east of it (v. 23)—that is, the Mount of Olives. The Glory, it appears, is headed toward the exiles in Babylon. But when next the prophet experiences the Lord’s Glory, some twenty years later, the Glory will enter the glorified ...

1920. The Authority of Jesus over Sickness and Death

Mark 5:21-43

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... of no particular status (not named or wealthy like Jairus). Mark tells her heart-wrenching story in seven successive participles. During the entire life of Jairus’s daughter (twelve years) this woman has suffered from a terrible malady, a menstrual disorder that has not stopped but worsened for that entire time. In Leviticus 15:19–33 (and an entire tract, Niddah, in the Mishnah), we are told that a woman with menstrual flow is unclean for seven days, and anyone touching her will be unclean for an entire ...

1921. Gentiles Exemplify True Discipleship

Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... Why do you feel this way? How might God want you to minister to these “outsiders”? Who are my brothers and sisters? Bible: In the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) it is a “hated” Samaritan, not either of the two Jewish religious leaders, who stops to help and care for the injured man. Jesus broke through historical, national, and racial barriers to challenge us to see our neighbors as people whom God loves. We are called to see all people as created in the image of God, and we are to ...

1922. The Birth of Jesus

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... dwelling together forever, face-to-face. Drama: Select two young people ahead of time and supply them with fencing foils, toy lightsabers, squirt guns, or foam dart launchers. Have them come onto the platform unexpectedly in the midst of a fierce battle. Stop them, and insist that they make peace with one another. They can reluctantly agree, then act out an uneasy ceasefire in which they keep circling, eyes locked, and weapons still pointed and ready as they twitch and posture. Try to resume the message ...

1923. A Sick Woman and a Dead Girl

Luke 8:40-56

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... someone down because you were inattentive to their needs. In this passage, Jesus is not only able to notice an individual touching his garment in the middle of a crowd, but he is also able to sense the faith and trust behind that touch. Nor does stopping to pay attention to this woman detract from his perfect timing and provision for Jairus’s daughter. Invite your listeners to wonder at the miracle that Jesus’s attention is never divided like ours is by a world full of simultaneous needs—he is enough ...

1924. A Blind Beggar and a Rich Scoundrel

Luke 19:1-10, Luke 18:35-43

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... contrast to the rich man in 18:18–25? How does Zacchaeus’s massive “redistribution of wealth” relate to Jesus’s demands in 12:33; 18:22? In what ways might God be looking for a similar response from rich people today? Illustrating the Text In stopping to heal the blind man, Jesus shows his concern for the lowly and outcast. Christian Fiction: In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?, by Charles Monroe Sheldon. Among the top-selling books of all time, this novel (1897) is set in a small railroad town and ...

1925. The Gospel of God in Christ through Paul

Romans 1:1-17

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... An ancient map of the Roman Empire preserved in a thirteenth-century copy known as the Tabula Peutingeriana reveals the eschatological genius behind Paul’s plan to visit Spain for the purpose of preaching the gospel. That map shows that the ancients believed that Illyricum was a key stopping point on the way to Rome and that Rome was halfway to Spain, the end of the then-known world. If we compare this map with Romans 1:8–15 and 15:19–29, we arrive at the logic behind Paul’s passion to go to Spain ...

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