Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2176 to 2200 of 2962 results

Exodus 25:23-30

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... rings attached high on the four legs to hold the two gilded poles for carrying the table. The function of the table was to hold “the bread of the Presence” in plates and dishes of pure gold. The spirit-filled artisans under Bezalel’s direction were to design these dishes (31:1–6; 35:30–35). Some dishes held incense for the altar. The Lord describes the twelve loaves of bread in Leviticus 24:5–9. The priests would eat this unleavened bread in the Lord’s presence and replace it every Sabbath. It ...

2177. Consecration of the Priests

Exodus 29:1-46

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... it is likely that the seven bulls, sacrificed over the seven days of ordination, also served to make atonement for the holy altar. The holiness (lit., “set apart”) of the altar meant that it could not be used for anything except what God designated. 29:38–46 With the details of ordained priests and a consecrated altar in place, the Lord immediately added a description of the perpetual daily sacrifices and their purpose (vv. 38–43). The two lambs were worship offerings—offerings not for sin—but ...

2178. Setting Up the Tabernacle

Exodus 40:34-38

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... s glory (13:21–22; 14:19–24; 16:7–10; 24:16–18; 33:9–10, 22; 34:5; see the detailed comments on the glory of the Lord at 16:7). Building this home together best expressed the reconciliation between the people and the Lord. God designed it and directed the construction through Moses. The people made and gave everything. The long detail and labor of Exodus 35–40 are best explained as a fitting response to the betrayal and rift of the golden calf. By building the tabernacle they participated in the ...

2179. The Lord Commands Joshua

Joshua 1:1-18

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... in the tent of meeting (Exod. 33:11; cf. Acts 7:44–45). He evaluates the land of Canaan as a spy and joins with Caleb to affirm that with God’s help Israel can take the land (Num. 13–14). As Moses faces his death, he designates Joshua to be his successor (Num. 27:12–23; Deut. 3:23–28). Joshua helps the people to possess the land by following the commands of Moses. Joshua begins to lead the people under the most difficult of circumstances. In chapter 1 God repeatedly encourages Joshua. Joshua ...

2180. Crossing the Jordan

Joshua 3:1-4:24

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... A. Reed, “Perizzite,” ABD 5:231, and Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, p. 145). Amorites refers to remnants of western immigrants (Josh. 7:10; Gen. 15:19–21) in Canaan. The term amurru first occurs in Old Akkadian as “the West.” As an ethnic designation, the term identifies a foreign population from northeast Syria. During the Late Bronze Age the Amorites dispersed into Canaan and set up a kingdom in the Orantes Valley of Syria. The Amorites were among the early enemies of the tribes. Their kings ...

2181. Division of the Land East of the Jordan

Joshua 13:8-33

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

... to tie them to one region of the nation. Levites do not depend on land for making a living; they receive their livelihood from worshipers who support them with sacrifices and offerings. Joshua then turns to the inheritance of the tribe of Reuben. The area designated by Moses for the clans of Reuben details the geography of the region and then mentions towns on the plateau and the entire realm of Sihon king of the Amorites (13:16–21). The narrative tells how Moses defeated Sihon and his allies. A refrain ...

2182. Allotment for Joshua

Joshua 19:49-51

Understanding Series

J. Gordon Harris

Territory for the House of Joshua: 19:49–51 After Joshua and Eleazer the priest finish dividing the land among the people, the tribes grant Joshua an inheritance in the hill country of Ephraim, the center of the country. The divine designation of this land for Joshua also comes by casting lots, the Urim and Thummim. Joshua claims the land and builds up the city of Timnath Serah, the place of his burial (24:30). Verse 51 summarizes the completion of the division of the tribal lands. The land belongs to ...

2183. Gideon

Judges 6:1-40

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... had only very little. The angel appeared to Gideon and greeted him with words of standard greeting: The LORD is with you [sing.], mighty warrior. These words have an ironic twist, because indeed the Lord was with him, though he did not know it. The designation “mighty warrior” is also ironic, addressed as it is to a man threshing a little wheat in a winepress. Gideon affirmed that it was indeed a strange way to address him (v. 23). He responded in the first person plural, perhaps because he recognized ...

2184. Gideon's Ephod

Judges 8:22-27

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... of determining the Lord’s will on behalf of the covenant community. Thus Gideon’s act was treasonous against the Lord and contradicted his affirmation that only the Lord would rule over Israel. By this act he took upon himself the role of the Lord in designating Israel’s spiritual leadership and also seeking to control Israel’s destiny. According to the continuation of the story, although he refused the title of king, he acted more like a king than a judge: He had many wives (8:30) and at least one ...

2185. Tola

Judges 10:1-2

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Minor Judges: Framing the Jephthah story are accounts of several minor judges, beginning with Tola and Jair and ending with Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon (Judg. 12:8–15). These, along with Shamgar (Judg. 3:31), are commonly designated as minor judges, because their stories are condensed into a few brief lines. In most cases, all we know about the judge is his tribal affiliation, his geographical location, and how many years he led Israel; sometimes we learn about his economic situation. But, strikingly, the ...

2186. Israelites Fight the Benjamites

Judges 20:1-48

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

... tragic irony of all this, that the destruction of the towns of Benjamin, a tribe of Israel, corresponded to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, cannot be overstated. Additional Notes 20:1 All the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba: This is a phrase that came to designate all of the land of Israel. Dan was at the extreme north and Beersheba at the extreme south; implied in this was also all that lay in between the two points. Assembled before the LORD in Mizpah: There were several Mizpahs in the OT; this is ...

2187. Naomi and Ruth

Ruth 1:1-22

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... over him. In a real sense the survivors have to grieve their own death. The text underlines this not once but twice. Twice Naomi is left alone (tisha’er, 1:3, 5), and the narrator uses a word for “survival” (sha’ar) that is designed to transmit the depth of Naomi’s devastation. The Canaanite myth of Aqhat uses a word, cognate to Hebrew sha’ar, that similarly describes the pain of bereavement. In this contemporary story, Aqhat is the son of Danil, a patriarchal character like Elimelech. Anat ...

2188. Ruth Meets Boaz

Ruth 2:1-23

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... el as long as it is adequately defined. The English word “redeem” comes from a Latin verb, reddere, which means “to give/buy back” and is a term fundamentally rooted in law and economics. Ga’al, however, is a Hebrew word designed to denote the process of restoring the created order, including, but not limited to, the legal, socioeconomic, and theological aspects of that order. Thus Yahweh himself is the quintessential go’el, the compassionate Redeemer who delivers Israel from every distress (Ps ...

2189. Ruth and Boaz on the Threshing Floor

Ruth 3:1-18

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... , p. 79, and Fewell and Gunn, Compromising Redemption, p. 75. 3:13 Let him redeem: W. Brueggemann (Theology of the Old Testament [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997], pp. 173–76) lists ga’al (“redeem”) as a “verb of deliverance” designed to “enunciate Yahweh’s resolved capacity to intervene decisively against every oppressive, alienating circumstance.” 3:16–18 Barley: K. Nielsen (Ruth: A Commentary [OTL; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1997], p. 80) thinks it “no coincidence that both ...

2190. The Genealogy of David

Ruth 4:13-22

Understanding Series

Michael S. Moore

... left you: For the polysemantic possibilities of shabat, see Moore, “Two Textual Anomalies in Ruth,” p. 242. 4:15 Your daughter-in-law: Sasson relies on V. Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale (trans. Laurence Scott; Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 1968) to designate Ruth as the hero of the story. C. Bremond has a good critique of Propp in “The Narrative Message,” Semeia 10 (1978), pp. 5–55. 4:17a Obed: Sasson (Ruth, pp. 175–78) lists several theories on the origin of this name. 4:17b ...

2191. The Family of Abraham

1 Chronicles 1:28

Understanding Series

Louis C. Jonker

... a new lineage, namely, that of Seir, is taken up. This segmented genealogy, which continues through 1:42, is not related in any way to Esau in the Chronicler’s version. From Genesis 36:8–9, however, it becomes clear that Seir is a geographical designation of the area where Esau settled. The lineage of Seir presented here is therefore implicitly connected to Esau. For each of the seven descendants of Seir the Chronicler describes a branch, again quoting from Genesis 36:20–28. The next verses (1:43–54 ...

2192. Cyrus Helps the Exiles to Return

Ezra 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... provided resources, Exodus 12:35, 36, 38). In 1:6 that was achieved by diverting local taxes, for which 6:8 may be compared. Additional Notes 1:1 King of Persia, used as Cyrus’ title twice in this verse and also in 1:2, 8; 3:7; 4:3, 5, designates him as head and founder of the Persian empire, as the Chronicler used it in 2 Chr. 36:20 before citing Ezra 1:1–3a. It was not used by the early kings and reflects later usage in the narrator’s period. In 5:13 he is called “king of ...

2193. Rebuilding the Altar

Ezra 3:1-6

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... with members of this Levitical group in Neh. 3:18; 10:9 (see BHS, REB, NJB). 3:10 The foundation of the temple was a platform or podium, if this feature of Ezekiel’s visionary temple in Ezek. 41:8 belonged also to Solomon’s temple, whose design was followed for the second temple. See the text and illustrations in IDBSup, pp. 543–45. Took their places: the NIV, along with the REB and NJB, has rightly followed a different textual tradition of vocalizing the Heb. verb (see BHS), which in the MT has ...

2194. Further Opposition to the Rebuilding

Nehemiah 6:1-14

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... the sanctuary (Num. 18:7). But as Fensham, Ezra and Nehemiah, p. 205, observed, according to v. 13 the plot was intended to discredit Nehemiah rather than kill him. Verse 10 mentions the aim of killing him, but the plot may have been designed to drive a wedge between Nehemiah and the priesthood (K. D. Tollefson and H. G. M. Williamson, “Nehemiah as Cultural Revitalization: An Anthropological Perspective,” JSOT 56 [1992], pp. 41–68, esp. p. 54). 6:12 “[A] true prophetic word cannot override what is ...

2195. Ezra Reads the Law

Neh 7:73b–8:18

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... who traveled with Ezra and arrived in Jerusalem in Ezra 8:32. Here it echoes and provides a neat link with 7:73a, which referred to immigrants long before Ezra’s and Nehemiah’s time—the phenomenon still applied at this late period. This designation identifies the contemporary community as those who had returned from exile (compare 7:6; 8:17). The movement of material to Neh. 8 to make a literary point is paralleled in the narrative of Ezra 1–6, where the chronologically later account of Zerubbabel ...

2196. Haman Hanged

Esther 7:1-10

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... king (v. 9; compare 2:22). Without hesitation, the king pronounces the sentence, “Hang (impale) him on it!” (v. 9; compare Gen. 40:19–22). Haman is suffering the punishment for treason shared by the conspirators of 2:23, and he is receiving the ill he had designed for others (Judg. 1:6–7; 1 Sam. 15:33). This is his second (and final) time trading places unintentionally with Mordecai. Once Haman is impaled, the king’s fury subsided (v. 10). This is precisely the phrase used of the king in 2:1 after ...

2197. The King's Edict in Behalf of the Jews

Esther 8:1-17

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... Personal Honor: A Response to T. Frymer-Kensky (1980),” BA 44 [1981], p. 135), and the comments and references in Laniak, Shame, pp. 140–42. 8:15 Royal garments of blue and white, a large crown of gold: These symbols of royalty designate royal favor but not royalty itself. 8:16 Honor: Hebrew words for honor often have a broader range of meanings than comparable words in English. Certain words reflect concerns of status; others, substance (i.e., wealth); others, honorable character; and others, splendor ...

2198. Triumph of the Jews

Esther 9:1-19

Understanding Series

Timothy S. Laniak

... an axiom of ancient law. The lex talionis principle required and limited retribution and revenge to “eye for eye” and “life for life.” The principle was applied to intent as well as action (see Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat”). Haman deliberately designated all Jews as fair targets for legalized genocide. For justice to be served, Haman’s family and all those willingly associated with him in this plot would face death. This account reflects the same perspective on justice exhibited in the stories ...

2199. Moral Benefits of Wisdom

Proverbs 2:1-22

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... where marriage is described as the covenant of her God (see NIV margin). But covenant (Hb. b e rît) in this context has nothing to do with the covenant between God and Israel. The only occurrence of “covenant” in Proverbs is here and it simply designates the marriage contract (cf. Mal. 2:14). Is yhwh meant by her God, or is the woman a foreigner who recognizes a different deity in her contract? The text remains ambiguous. It should be noted that she is described as speaking seductive words. The speech ...

2200. Further Benefits of Wisdom

Proverbs 3:1-35

Understanding Series

Roland E. Murphy

... of divine direction in life. 3:7–8 The antithetic character of prohibition and command defines an aspect of fear of the Lord. Fearing the Lord results in health and well-being. For body the MT has “navel”; apparently the NIV regarded this as a part to designate the whole (or a synecdoche). 3:9–10 The command to honor involves such cultic rites as Deuteronomy 26:2, or Leviticus 2:14. The command may be intended merely in a general sense here and the reward is appropriate to the action: full barns and ...

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