Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2326 to 2350 of 3099 results

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... 26). Even so, as long as God made his presence known there, the temple could be honored and, of course, the temple on earth represents the heavenly temple that was always glorious. The hymnic introduction continues in a way that begins to turn toward the subject of the petition (another reason to think that hymn and petition belong together). Yahweh is called the hope of Israel, the one who can lead Israel from death to life. Those who turn their back on Yahweh, however, will be put to shame, the same verb ...

2327. Restoration of Israel

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

... nations is that the Lord who scattered Israel, his flock, will now gather and protect them like a shepherd protects his sheep. The shepherd image is a familiar one in Scripture, one that is used of leaders, human and divine, who care for and protect their subjects (Num. 27:17; 2 Sam. 7:7; Ps. 78:70–72; Ezek. 34). In Jeremiah, we have earlier seen that Israel’s incompetent leaders were likened to senseless shepherds (Jer. 10:21, see also 50:6). For that reason, these shepherds will be destroyed (Jer. 25 ...

2328. How the Gold Has Lost Its Luster

Lamentations 4:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

... , the implication of the fact that Jerusalem’s punishment was worse is that its sin exceeded that of Sodom as well. Another contrast May be between the quick destruction of Sodom and the slow downfall of Jerusalem. 4:7–8 Zayin/Het. The nezirim are the subject of both these verses. NIV may well be right to take this word as a reference to princes, connected to nezer (“crown”). But it is also possible that it is related to the word for Nazirite. In any case, whatever group is meant, former glory (v ...

2329. Hosea's Wife and Children

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... of the children that follows is prophetic “symbolic action.” Throughout the prophetic literature the prophets are sometimes commanded by God to perform particular symbolic acts instead of speaking. For example, Jeremiah is commanded to wear a wooden yoke, forecasting the subjection of Judah and other nations to Babylonia (Jer. 27). Ezekiel is commanded to draw a picture of Jerusalem on a brick and to make (clay?) siegeworks around it, foretelling the siege of that city by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek. 4:1–2 ...

2330. Israel Unrepentant

Hosea 6:1--7:16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... depict Israel’s sin in terms of the loss of vitality. The result of Israel’s senselessness is the judgment pronounced by God in verse 12. Like a fowler catching birds, the Lord will pull Israel down from its frantic flight between nations and subject it to judgment. The NIV has adopted an emendation of verse 12c that was suggested by Das Alte Testament Deutsch. The Hebrew of the line reads, “I will chastise them according to the report to (of?) their congregation” (cf. the NRSV). Many scholars emend ...

2331. Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

Hosea 8:1-14

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... , it is very difficult to know how to divide chapter 8 into its separate oracles. From a form-critical standpoint, verses 1–3 could form an independent unit because they include summons, accusation, and judgment. But they are intimately linked to what follows by their subject matter. Verse 4 spells out the two primary ways in which Israel has rejected what is good (v. 3). It is then connected with verse 5 by the repetition of the verb zānaḥ, meaning “to reject” (v. 5; NIV: throw out) or “to go ...

2332. The Lord's Anger Against Israel

Hosea 13:1-16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... troops of Assyria will therefore lay siege to Samaria and finally capture it (2 Kgs. 17:5–6), and the last three lines of verse 16 picture the destruction that will follow. Samaria’s fighting men will fall by the sword, and then the entire populace will be subjected to the rampaging cruelty of the invading army (cf. 2 Kgs. 15:16; Amos 1:13). Ephraim will die. Hosea foresees the end that befalls Ephraim in 721 BC. The Apostle Paul uses Hos. 13:14 in his great chapter on the resurrection, in 1 Cor. 15:55 ...

2333. Judgment of Israel's Neighbors

Amos 1:1-2:5

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... in Mesopotamia, near Elam, and Amos 9:7 designates it as the original home of the Arameans. Thus, Yahweh the Lord of nations will reverse Aram’s history. God brought the Arameans up out of Kir (9:7); God will return them there. International relations are finally subject to the will of God and not the will of human beings. 1:6–8 The Philistines, from whom the name Palestine is taken, dwelt in five city-states on or near the coast of Palestine. Gaza was the principal city, on the border with Egypt. Some ...

2334. A Lament and Call to Repentance

Amos 5:1-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... –17 as a unit, dividing it into subunits only for the purpose of convenience of exposition. Finally the task of the interpreter is to try to make sense of the canonical text as it now stands. In this section, in which the prophet himself speaks, the subject is the fate of the righteous in Israel, and the thought of the verses might be summarized by a quotation from Ps. 11:3 RSV: “ If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” For Amos, the foundation of justice in Israelite society was ...

2335. Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line

Amos 7:1-9

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... the judgment announcement in 7:9 and is bound to the third vision by the use of “sword” in both 7:9 and 7:11 and by the reference to “sanctuaries” in both 7:9 and 7:13. Thus the whole unit holds together by its common subject matter of visions and the reaction to them. Visions were frequent means of God’s communication with the prophets. In an ecstatic state of heightened consciousness, the prophet was granted to see and to hear God’s voice and actions, of which others were unaware. For example ...

2336. Jonah Flees from the Lord

Jonah 1:1-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... was employed when addressing foreigners (Exod. 2:7; 3:18), “and I fear Yahweh, God of heaven (cf. Gen. 24:7; 2 Chron. 36:23; Neh. 1:5) who made the sea and dry land” (MT). The sailors are not dealing with some localized deity. They are being subjected to a storm sent by the God who made their entire world and who therefore is Lord over it. That Jonah makes such a confession of faith is totally ironic. He says that he “fears” (NIV: worship) Yahweh. “To fear God,” in biblical usage, can have two ...

2337. Judgment Against Samaria and Jerusalem

Micah 1:1-7

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... such authority, it has been preserved and carefully handed down to us over almost 2,700 years. The superscription says that the word of the Lord “came” to Micah. That is, it came from outside of the prophet himself. In our age, which so credits subjective experience as a source of revelation, it is noteworthy that Micah’s prophecies were not the result of his own experience or inner musings or of his sagacious insight into the signs of his time. His prophecies were given to him by God, communicated ...

2338. Deliverance Promised

Micah 2:12-13

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... take place, but it is clear that the Israelites will be reunited as one people under the leadership of their shepherd-king Yahweh. The thought is similar to Paul’s, “All Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26). Dispersed Israel is, however, a captive people, subject after 721 first to Assyria, then to Babylonia, and then to Persia. To be saved by God, they must be released from their captivity (cf. Isa. 61:1). The figure of speech is therefore changed in verse 13. Once again God takes the initiative and ...

2339. The Lord’s Case Against Israel

Micah 6:1-8

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

... other good outside of God, no virtue, no ideology, no civil, political or religious scheme that can qualify unless it accords with God’s desire for human life. Thus, the Israelite speaker is addressed here as ʾādām, man, mortal, creature before the creator and subject totally to the creator’s definitions of good. God has created human life on this earth, and as its creator, God alone can say what and how it should be lived. But the Lord is a “gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding ...

2340. The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh

Nahum 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... or Amon? It could then be Judah that experiences the destruction described in verse 8. Indeed, soon after Nahum’s day it does so. 1:12–13 The introduction This is what the LORD says suggests that verse 12 marks a new start, and the change in subject matter fits with this. Verses 2–11 focused on Yahweh and “his foes . . . his enemies.” Perhaps Judah needed to be asking “Is it I?” It is quite likely that Judah was addressed in verses 9–11, and no doubt it was in the wings throughout, but it ...

2341. Nineveh to Fall

Nahum 2:1-13

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... their way,” and makes allowance for them or encourages them. 2:7 There are two verbs galah, and as the KJV indicates, gulletah here (be exiled; cf. the noun golah in 3:10) could alternatively be translated “be stripped” (cf. 3:5), particularly in this context where the verb’s subject is unidentified but feminine.

2342. Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... vision is all about Yahweh bringing calamity. Yahweh acts to deliver people from their oppressors. But more specifically, the reason why Yahweh came out, made that journey from Sinai, was not just the deliverance of all the peoples that are subject to Babylonian power but specifically to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. Here, to “save” and to “deliver” are the same Hebrew expression (leyeshaʿ), the verb related to the noun for “deliverance” in verse 8b (“victorious” in NIV ...

2343. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah

Zephaniah 2:4-7, Zephaniah 2:8-11, Zephaniah 2:12, Zephaniah 2:13-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... can refer to Egypt. Assyria is the great power to the north (in terms of the direction one travels). There is interestingly no reference to Babylon, the up-and-coming Middle Eastern power, nor to Edom, Judah’s neighbor to the southeast which is often the subject of such prophecies, and only in connection with Moab and Ammon is there any suggestion that calamity comes to these peoples because of enmity towards Judah. The aim is simply to cover all four points of the compass. At the center, in verse 11, is ...

2344. A Call to Build the House of the Lord

Haggai 1:1-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... about the state of Yahweh’s house. Thus the poor harvests were not “just one of those things.” Like earlier prophets, Haggai sees the poor harvests as sent by Yahweh. Here for the first time Haggai utters terrible sentences of which Yahweh is the subject: I blew away . . . I called for a drought. Of course it was implicit that Yahweh was behind the experiences described in verses 5–6, but only here does it become explicit. Yahweh acts in this way for reasons different from those that preoccupied ...

2345. Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

Zechariah 1:18-21

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... along with the queen mother, princes, and other officials, as being among the captives taken away by the Babylonians in B.C. Craftsmen typically “make” or “work” (ʿasah, paʿal) rather than “terrify” (lehakharid). The latter verb usually has a military leader as its subject (e.g., Judg. 8:12; 2 Sam. 17:2; Ezek. 30:2). Other prophecies communicate God’s intention to judge the nations that conquered Israel (e.g., Jer. 50–51; Zech. 10:11). This vision report belongs to the same prophetic theme ...

2346. The Woman in a Basket

Zechariah 5:5-11

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... is a broad term, designating a person or nation that has rebelled against the full range of the Lord’s laws and statutes (e.g., Ezek. 5:4). The interpreting angel/messenger “casts away” (NIV “pushed back”; the hipʿil of shlk) wickedness. The subject of this verb is in control, and, by this action, disposes of something that is almost always passive (e.g., corpses, a millstone, illicit altars). It is an appropriate term for sending away the ephah container of wickedness with its lead weight cover ...

2347. The Lord Will Care for Judah

Zechariah 10:1--11:3

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... that the people from the north who were exiled by the Assyrians retained their Israelite identity or ever heard or read these restoration promises. The faith stated in Zechariah 1, that God’s word does not die but catches up with its subjects, stands behind this salvation portrayal. The exile of northern and southern kingdoms, and the return of Jews to Jerusalem, proved the living effectiveness of God’s word. Therefore, this oracle reaffirms the earlier promises of reunification of God’s people in the ...

2348. Mourning for the One They Pierced

Zechariah 12:10-14

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... Abraham’s last son, the only one who could continue Abraham’s lineage. The people will grieve bitterly for the pierced one as one grieves for a firstborn son. Naomi (Ruth 1:20) and Job (Job 27:2) are the only other OT figures who are subjects of this verb, “grieve bitterly” (the hipʿil of mrr), and every one of their children had died. Firstborn sons were raised to take over the leadership of their families and to be responsible for the family land and other assets. The death of the firstborn ...

2349. The Day of Judgment

Malachi 2:17--3:5

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... prepare the way for the LORD.” The obstacles in Malachi’s use of the image are ritual and spiritual, the impurity of the priests and the temple services. Interpreters disagree about the identities of the Lord and the messenger of the covenant, in verse 1, and the subject of the verbs in verses 2–4. In 3:1a God speaks in the first person of “my messenger” and “the way before me.” The first person returns in verse 5, so God is the one who “will come near you for judgment.” Verses 2–4 ...

2350. Robbing God

Malachi 3:6-18

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

... will no longer stand as evidence against the justice of God. The ones who will escape on that day will be the people who fear the Lord, because God will spare them (3:17). The God-fearers who had made a public witness to their faith (3:16) are the subjects of the promise in 3:17–18. God describes them in terms previously used for the whole people of Israel, my treasured possession (Exod. 19:5; the king’s private treasure, as in 1 Chr. 29:3–5), and his son who serves him (Exod. 4:22–24; cf. the ...

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