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Showing 176 to 200 of 2331 results

176. Living on the Edge

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... was to trust God. "God will be present for me — just as God was in Iraq." It was at that moment that she realized God had not deserted her and that in time she would be all right.1 God calls and inspires people at just the right time, a time she or he ... face some tremendous challenges as the people took possession of the land God promised to their ancestors, but through it all God would not desert them. He would learn to trust God. We do not know what the future holds for us but we know the one who holds ...

177. There Are Many Paths to God and Sainthood

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

Richard Gribble

... talked quite a bit and the hermit learned much about the shoemaker, but he revealed little about himself, even though the family was quite curious about him. Then after three days the hermit said good-bye to the shoemaker and his family and walked back across the desert to his cave, wondering all the while why God had sent him on this mission. When he arrived back at the cave, God questioned the hermit. "What was the shoemaker like?" The hermit answered, "He is a simple man; they have a small home. He has a ...

178. Advent 2

Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 1:68-79, Luke 3:1-20, Philippians 1:3-11

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... God like a bright dawn with salvation to shine from heaven on all who live in dark shadows. You, my son, John, will prepare the way for paths of peace. Reader 1: John grew up, maturing in body and spirit. Reader 2: He lived in the desert until he was ready to be a public leader among the people of Israel. Reader 3: While John and Elizabeth celebrated the birth of their child, John, later dubbed “The Baptist,” Cousin Mary and Joseph were expecting their first child to be named “Jesus,” later called ...

179. Joshua's New Diet

Joshua 5:9-12

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... No one else there knew Egypt and left Egypt as an adult. The man born in Egypt now leads the conquest of Canaan. The one raised in slavery stands now on the property of God's promise. And the one who has spent a lifetime eating manna from the desert floor now gazes over the land flowing with milk and honey. There, at that sacred moment on the other side of the Jordan, the Bible reports, "On that very day, they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day they ...

180. Philip and the Ethiopian

Acts 8:26-40

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

... in the way in which he obeyed divine guidance and came and went unexpectedly (cf. 1 Kings 17:2, 9f.; 2 Kings 1:3, 15). God’s guidance is always most evident where there is a willingness to obey (cf. John 7:17). The inland, desert road to Gaza was not, apparently, the most frequented route. Philip was therefore surprised to find another traveling the same way. This is expressed in the exclamation, “[Look!] an Ethiopian” (v. 27; see disc. on 1:10f.). In the biblical context, Ethiopia corresponds to ...

181. Bricks Without Straw

Exodus 5:1-21

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... demand. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.’ ” Here is the first, but not the last, demand from Yahweh (the Lord) to “Let my people go” (5:1; 7:16; 8:1, 20; ... it gives the “logic” for his new policy. Pharaoh claims that Aaron and Moses’ request for the religious pilgrimage to the desert is based on lies (v. 9), motivated by laziness. The reader knows that the logic is fallacious, but Pharaoh was impervious ...

182. Restoration of Israel

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... the sword. Surely this is a reference to what elsewhere might be called the remnant, those who endure beyond the coming moment of judgment. God proclaims that these survivors will find favor in the desert. The term favor (or grace) describes a disposition on the part of God to treat people better than they deserve. The mention of the desert fits in with a theme that we find in other prophets (Hos. 2:14–16; Isa. 40:1–5) that God’s coming judgment is in essence a reversal of redemptive history. God had ...

183. Punishment for Israel

Hosea 9:1--10:15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... . As for human kings, like the king of Samaria, in verse 7, they are just like helpless twigs cast upon a torrent of water in comparison with the kingship of the Lord. The whole oracle is held together by the principal word king, and the whole concerns Israel’s desertion of its king, the Lord. As is so often the case in Hosea, the prophet’s words reflect Israel’s past history with its Lord, verse 1. Israel was the vine planted by God—a frequent figure of speech in the OT (Ps. 80:8–11, 14–15; Isa ...

184. The Lord's Anger Against Israel

Hosea 13:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... the wind” (RSV). And before that, in the beginnings of Israel’s history, Ephraim held a preeminent place among the tribes of Israel (cf. Gen. 48:15–20; 49:22–26). But Israel’s history was finally dependent on the guiding of God, and when Ephraim deserted God to worship Baal, it died; that is, it lost the vital source of life that had given it strength and preeminence. Hosea here sounds the leading motif of verses 1–8: Life comes from God alone, and apart from God there is only death. Instead ...

185. An Unholy History

Ezekiel 20:1-29, Ezekiel 20:30-49

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

... ; 29:17). But what you have in mind will never happen, the Lord declares (v. 32). God swears that God will take them out of the nations, and rule over them, whether they like it or not. This exodus has judgment as its object: “I will bring you into the desert of the nations and there, face to face, I will execute judgment upon you” (v. 35). Like the first exodus the Unheilsgeschichte of verses 1–26 described, the new exodus is threefold. First, God judges Israel “As I judged your fathers in the ...

186. The Passover as Eucharist: Jesus’s Body and Blood Given for Us

Mark 14:27-31

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... for roosters crowing at each watch (i.e., every three hours). Simply, this means that the three denials would occur before the night was over.12The mention of crowing “twice” may not be so much a temporal marker as Peter’s own personal memory.13The ten would desert Jesus, but Peter would go further and actually “deny” (for the severity of this, see Matt. 10:33) Jesus not just once but three times (14:66–72). 14:31 Even if I have to die with you . . . the others said the same. Jesus’s death ...

187. Trust versus Self-Reliance

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

... :10 do not grumble. On his fourth point, Paul returns to a direct command. Grumbling was the norm rather than the exception for Israel and a continuing cause for God’s aggravation.7 The sheer number of references to “grumbling” during the desert experience makes it difficult to determine Paul’s direct point of reference in 10:10. Maybe Paul mentions Israel’s grumbling because he has faced similar reaction from the “strong” as response to his stance against participation in the idol banquets ...

188. Ingratitude and Judgment

Num 11:1-35

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... NASB, ESV). crave other food. Literally, they “desired a desire,” meaning they “craved strongly” (NRSV)—that is, for meat. 11:5 fish . . . at no cost. This hyperbole means that fish was cheap. cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Vegetables are unavailable in the desert. 11:6 manna. Manna (man) relates to man hu, meaning “What is it?” (Exod. 16:15). The Israelites do not know what it is. God has provided manna six nights a week to sustain Israel (v. 9; cf. Exod. 16:4–5), but a ...

189. Condemned to Wilderness Wandering

Numbers 14:1-45

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... . 14:40 we are ready to go up to the land. Having mourned bitterly (v. 39) and confessed their sin, the people now agree to go and take the land, but by doing so they now are in violation of God’s new command to turn back toward the desert (v. 25; cf. Deut. 1:42). The attack will fail because Yahweh is not with them (vv. 42–43). God’s sentence against them is final (cf. v. 35). 14:44 neither Moses nor the ark . . . moved from the camp. Invading without God’s appointed leader, Moses, and God ...

190. Babylon, Edom, and Arabia

Isaiah 21:1-10, Isaiah 21:11-12, Isaiah 21:13-17

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... that the morning of “hope” will come but can say no more. The Dedanites (21:13–15) were an Arabian tribe of caravanners and traders located close to Edom. The caravanners are not coming to Tema for commercial purposes, but to hide away in the “thickets” (desert shrubs) of Arabia as refugees from slaughter. They come south to Tema for food and water. They have encountered a strong enemy (Assyrians?), who has put them to flight with sword and bow. The people of Kedar (21:16–17) were also known as ...

191. The Woman and the Dragon

Revelation 12:1--13:1a

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

... Sea parted for Israel, the earth helped the woman again by swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. The torrent of water no doubt is a metaphor for a torrent of evil which surrounds God’s people in whatever desert they live. Their experiences of oppression and powerlessness, coupled with the apparent triumph of secularism and materialism, could swallow up the testimony of God’s people even as the earth did to an earlier generation of the insolent in the wilderness at Korah (cf ...

192. Stages in Israel's Journey

Numbers 33:1-56

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... move on to the oasis of Elim. They then proceed to the Red Sea, yam-sup, which means “sea of reeds or vegetation.” Vegetation grows around the body of water, here probably the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. The Israelites then journey through the Desert of Sin and on toward Sinai. If we tentatively accept the traditional location of Sinai at Jebel Musa, the route so far appears to have moved south in Egypt from Rameses toward the Bitter Lakes and then across into the wilderness. There were twists and ...

193. The Sign of Jonah

Matthew 12:38-45

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

... the Jews. Advantage carries responsibility. Later, Paul speaks favorably of the Gentiles, who sometimes “do by nature things required by the law” (Rom. 2:14). 12:43–45 Jesus now tells the parable of an evil spirit who returns from wandering in the desert and, finding its former house put back in order, moves in again with seven other spirits more wicked than itself. Jesus concludes, “And that is just what will happen to this evil generation” (v. 45c, Phillips). The verb exerchomai (“to go out ...

194. Deep Well

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... promises of quenched thirst and quenched needs in the promises of God. We hear about God’s people wandering in the desert, their thirst quenched by waters sprung from rock at Massah and Meribah. How awesome must that have been to see and experience ... of God. Faith is a journey and an excavation of the soul. God can be found in any place and in any time. In the midst of every desert place. In the midst of any vast field. In the depths of the oceans or on the tops of mountains. God is there. All we need to do ...

195. A Disciple After God’s Own Heart

Genesis 22:1-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... scriptures tell us that “God dwelt with Ishmael from that time onward.” Now God asks a similar faith from Abraham regarding his second son Isaac, the son who would be covenant bearer for all of future Israel. This time, it would not be the heat of the desert, which would purify, but the heat of the moment, in which he would be threatened with death by fire. “After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac dwelt at Beer-lahai-roi [A well to the Living One Who sees me].” (Genesis 25 ...

196. Touchdown in the Wilds

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... sense, God gets in touch with the wildest place in our soul and interrupts our lives in order to change our hearts, our minds, our intentions, and our actions for the future. God’s touchdowns are always places where covenants are formed, whether in the desert or in the desert of our hearts. This advent, this day in which you partake of Holy Communion if you will, I invite you into an “immersion” experience with God, in which God can enter into the wildest part of your soul, the most primal part of you ...

197. Things That Open

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Mary Austin

... wild beasts, whatever their shape, we can be much more useful to God. The things that divide us from God get torn away, and we are connected to God in deeper and deeper ways. Everyone has had a time when life rips you open and empties you out into a desert of confusion… or pain… or change. We choose to deal with an addiction, or to take a step toward a long-held dream. We work up the courage to live differently, even when it’s hard and people don’t understand. We make a choice to end one chapter or ...

198. In Those Days: The Voice Of The Time Keeper

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... the time keeper. God’s viewpoint, whether a day is like a thousand years or vice versa, is the one that counts. When in Matthew’s gospel, John the Baptist burst upon the scene “in this day” to tell us it was time to make straight a path through the desert because the Lord’s anointing was coming, he was right on time. God’s time. Time was not to be measured. Time was urgency. We only have today. We live in the moment. We remember the past, but we can’t get back to it. We foresee the future but ...

199. Recalling, Remembering, And Rejoicing

Deuteronomy 8:1-20

Sermon

Robert S. Crilley

... didn't matter. We delighted in hearing her stories all the same. "The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell these forty years," Moses declares (Deuteronomy 8:4). Really? Not a single blister in such an arduous trek through the rocky desert? I dare say, the garments of the children must have grown right along with them! It sounds like an entry from Ripley's Believe It or Not, or at the very least, a candidate for the Guiness Book of World Records. Still, we know how memory works ...

200. Proper 12

Mt 13:31-33, 44-52 · Rom 8:26-39 · Gen 29:15-28 · Ps 105:1-11, 45b

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... prayed for him, and by the preaching of Saint Jerome at Milan, which aroused him to search further. He was puzzled when he, a professor of rhetoric, still did not seem to have the joy in the Christian life as did the relatively unlearned monks in the Nubian desert. Then one day as he paced his walled garden in vexation, he heard the children in the next garden playing a game in which they chanted, "Tolle Lege" Ä "Take and Read." He picked up the scripture, read Romans 13:13-14, and it happened to him. He ...

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