The List

They did not remember His [w]power, the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,  Psalm 78:42  NASB Not remember – In the next ten verses Asaph lists all the mighty works that God did to redeem His people from Egypt.  You might notice that his list isn’t quite the same as the sequence of events in Exodus.  For…

The Badad Boys

I did not sit in the gathering of revelers to make merry.  Because of Your hand, alone I sat, for with wrath You filled me.Jeremiah 15:17  Robert Alter Alone – Brené Brown convincingly argues that being human means being connected.  The greatest punishment a man can feel is isolation: “ . . . the most terrifying…

Speaking Your Mind

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  Genesis 2:7  NASB A living being– In the Hebrew text, these significant words are nepeš ḥayyâ (for us, sounds like nefesh hayyah).  The words themselves are fertile ground for all kinds of translation assumptions. …

Living in the Moment

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.Genesis 2:25  NASB Not ashamed– We like to think that before the Fall the world was perfect.  There was no sin.  Human beings (only two of them) lived in the Garden of delight. Everything was wonderful. In fact, we think if we could just get…

Sound or Sight

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”  Genesis 18:20-21  NIV See– God knows everything, right?  God sees everything without error, right? Then why does God…

Appeal in the Ancient World

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46  NASB My God –  Why does Yeshua cry out from the cross?  Some time ago we discovered that his words are really the opening statement of a psalm of…

An Unutterable Sigh

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; Romans 8:26 NASB Groanings too deep – It’s there. You know it’s there. Down deep inside you somewhere that you really can’t look. It’s not…

The Cost

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 NASB Fully known – “It costs so much to be a full human being that there are very few who…

The Human Verb

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 NASB Image –…

The Essential Tension

I have called the heavens and the earth as witnesses today against you:  I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Therefore you shall choose life, so that you live, both you and your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim, to obey His voice, and to cling to Him  ….