The Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” Jeremiah 9:13-14 NASB Stubbornness – Obstinate – “refusing to change one’s opinion.”…
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. I John 5:3 NASB Love of God – Whom do you love? Visualize that person sitting in front of you. His or her presence makes your heart feel a bit lighter. You have a smile on your…
and these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. 1 John 1:4 NASB Our joy – John must have been confused. I thought he wrote his gospel and letters so that the reader’s joy might be fulfilled. Don’t we automatically assume that John’s purpose is to make us feel better? But…
“so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your humiliation, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” the Lord God declares. Ezekiel 16:63 NASB Be ashamed – How is shame connected to community? If we imagine the word reflects our cultural understanding, then…
But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:9 ESV Where – Some time ago we learned that Hebrew has two words for “where.”[1] God’s question, the first question in the Tanakh, is not about Adam’s location. It is about God’s surprise that Adam is not where…
He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10 NASB Was afraid – Nahum Sarna points out that this Hebrew statement can be read as irony because the declaration, “I heard the sound of You” can also be translated…
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25 NASB Not ashamed – But it didn’t last, did it? A few verses later Adam says, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10). The…
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. Psalm 149:4 NASB Beautify – The influence of the Greek idea of beauty pervades the West (and now a great deal of the East). Glitzy advertising in the subway of Shanghai displays European high fashion models as the epitome…
“but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24 NASB Knows – yada’, yada’, yada’. Did you ever think that this colloquialism is the equivalent of…
“but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24 NASB Understands – sakal not bin. That’s the first thing we need to know about the Hebrew…
