“O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger.” Psalm 38:1 NASB O LORD – The Hebrew text does not use the word “Lord,” but rather the personal name of God, a name that is never spoken among the Jews. Worshippers were careful to substitute the word “Lord”…
A Psalm of David, for a memorial. “O LORD, rebuke me not in Your wrath, and chasten me not in Your burning anger.” Psalm 38:1 NASB For a memorial – Have you ever prayed like this? Have you reached the point, long after the Lord has redeemed you, long after you recognize your sinful condition…
“Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. . . And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God.” Hosea 1:6, 9 NASB I am not your God – Hosea is a tragic book. It is…
“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:9 NIV His fierce anger – “A better god has been discovered who never takes offense, is never angry, never inflicts punishment.”[1] If Tertullian is right, then the king of Nineveh is grossly mistaken. Too bad he made…
“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:9 NIV Who knows? – The king of Nineveh asked one of humanity’s most important questions. Does God change His mind? When the king of Nineveh asked this question, it was possible to imagine an empirical answer. Yes,…
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:14-15 NASB Hate – Step back and think about this verse. Is it really possible…
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:14-15 NASB Bondage – What if we read Paul’s letter to the Romans not as…
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB In the beginning – Recently we examined Heschel’s claim that this verse is not a proto-scientific statement of causality. It doesn’t tell us anything about how the world came into existence. Rather, it is a statement that God is alive, that He is sovereign,…
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. Psalm 63:3 NASB Better than – kî ṭôb pens the Psalmist. “Better than.” Better than what? mē ḥayyîm, he replies. ḥesed is kî ṭôb mē ḥayyîm. ḥesed is better than life! That is a powerful claim! Do we really think that ḥesed is better…
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:14 NASB I AM – Is this the biblical definition of God? Does He reveal His true essence in this conundrum of consonant/vowels? When you read…
