So if we have the belt of truth tied around us, we should not think of it as a bit of string — this is a belt that is part of our full armor. We should not be surprised at this; the Scriptures describe the truth of God as enduring forever. O praise the Lord, …
Arma Dei
The whole armor of God is an image that is pretty familiar to us. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh …
Son of Jonah
In the famous exchange between Jesus and Peter after the resurrection (John 21:15ff), a lot of attention is paid to the question about the word for love that Jesus uses. While that is a worthwhile question, I think we should also spend some time on the fact that Jesus calls Peter “the son of Jonah” …
Nadab and Abihu
Nadab and Abihu were the sons of Aaron who were famously incinerated because they tried to approach the Lord with strange incense (Lev. 10:1-2). It seems to me that they were trying to accomplish something, or see something. I don’t think they were judged just because they got the formula wrong when they were mixing …
Josiah Will Find It
In the typological relationship of Old Testament to New Testament, we have to remember the importance of terrain. Mountain ranges answer to mountain ranges, great rivers to great rivers, canyons to canyons, and of course, ordinary meadows to ordinary meadows. A great mountain would be something like the relationship of Adam to the second Adam …
Three Kinds of Servants
In my reading this morning, I noticed an oddity in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It began with seeing that the older brother in effects identifies himself as his father’s slave. When the younger brother came to his senses, and says that he should be treated as one of his fathers “hired servants” (misthios). …
A Strong Smell of Sulphur About It
The apostle Paul does not talk about Hell by name, but we should not draw the wrong conclusions from that. The concept is certainly there. For example, in one place he talks about those who subscribe to magazines calle Me, Self, or Gimme (Rom. 2:8, ESV). They are self-absorbed and give themselves over to unrighteousness. …
What Jesus Keeps in His Tent
In Luke 11, Jesus has an encounter with some who were saying that He had cast out a devil through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Throughout the exchange that follows there are clear echos of the Goliath story. Those saying this about Jesus thought, in effect, that the slaying of Goliath must have been …
Three Camels and the Needle
In Luke 11, Jesus gives us a truly odd juxtaposition — until we learn to think of generational bloodguilt more biblically than we usually do. Jesus says that one generation killed the prophets, and a subsequent generation builds a tomb for that same prophet (Luke 11:47). According to carnal calculus, building a tomb of honor …
Spray Early
We often don’t pay enough attention to how familiar passages are juxtaposed. Take, for example, a short chain of passages in Luke 6. A disciple when fully trained will be like his teacher (Luke 6:40). Don’t try to take a speck out of your brother’s eye when you have a railroad tie in your own …