29 April – 5 May 2018. Deuteronomy 5–6 (click to read). Which is the most important law in the Bible? If we had to answer that question, I think many people would choose one of the so-called Ten Commandments. Most people know those commandments very well, and we even find them written out twice in […]
9–15 April 2017. Acts 8:26–40 (click to read). Today’s text starts with a strange command from an angel of the Lord who tells Philip to walk out into the desert. What a strange thing to do! But Philip listens, and when he gets out there, he finds a strange person: an Ethiopian. In the Bible […]
13–19 November 2016. Ezekiel 17–18 (click to read). When we Christians read the Old Testament, sometimes we get the feeling that God is so frightening. Whereas Jesus spreads the good news of God’s love and amazing grace, the Old Testament seems to talk so much about God’s anger, judgement, and the way he punishes Israel. […]
25 September – 1 October 2016. Nehemiah 11–13 (click to read). Here at the end of the book of Nehemiah we are confronted with two problems. The first is that we have to read through all these genealogies, these long, long lists of names! But the second problem is much more serious, and is connected […]
17–23 July 2016. 1 Kings 9–10 (click to read). In the book of Kings, one of the morals that the writers want to teach us is that sin always has it’s price. Sooner or later, God’s punishment catches up with people. That’s what happened to Saul and David, and that’s what’s coming for Solomon too. On the […]
5–11 June 2016. Ruth 3–4 (click to read). Anyone who has lived in a different country knows how hard it is to be a foreigner. We often get pushed away or treated badly just because we’re different. Sadly, the ancient Israelites often treated foreigners in shocking ways: oppressing and rejecting them, even murdering foreign women, children and […]
Bonus April 2016 Text. Deuteronomy 28 (click here to read). Deuteronomy 28 is such a frightening text! Moses’s death is coming, and he wants to make sure that after he is gone the people never forget to obey God. So he stands before them and gives them a choice: do good and be blessed, or […]
24–30 April 2016. Deuteronomy 19 (click to read). Deuteronomy 19 talks again about cities of refuge, an idea we saw back in Numbers 35. But unlike in Numbers, this chapter is special because it includes the “lex talionis“, the famous Jewish law of revenge. In verse 21 this law demands “life for life, eye for […]
17–23 April 2016. Deuteronomy 8–9 (click to read). In English we have the expression “a self-made man”. Originally this described someone who became rich and wealthy through their own hard work, rather than by inheriting lots of money from their family. But these days this expression is not always a positive one. That’s because the mentality […]
17–23 January 2016. Genesis 27–28 (click to read). In chapter 27 we find a story full of heartbreaking drama. We often think of it as the story of “Jacob the Deceiver” cheating his brother Esau out of his blessing. But the main character here is actually Rebekah, the mother. It’s a story about her treachery, […]