Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
There’s something about joy that is infectious. And occasionally, we all have the opportunity to be in someone’s presence who is so happily engaged in their work, so joyous in their pursuits, that we want to learn from them. We want to know where that joy comes from and attain…
Jesus has told us that He intends all nations to be discipled. Nations. Not just individuals. All nations as theocracies. That being the case, the Church exists for the life of the world. Being baptized is not only a matter of becoming part of a new family, it is also…
Harold Bloom’s essay on Macbeth includes the kind of penetrating insights that make Bloom the great Shakespearean scholar that he is, but it also includes his typical and intense anti-Christian bias. “If Lear was pre-Christian, then Macbeth is weirdly post-Christian. There are, as we have seen, Christian intimations that haunt…
Revelation 16 is a day of atonement text. The tabernacle of the testimony has been opened (15:5). The angels who receive the bowls are clothed in linen (15:6), the clothing of the high priest when he goes into the sanctuary on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:4). The temple is…
From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…
"For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Some reflections on Jonah’s Big Fish have led to the following essay. Let me…
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Psalm 38 says some shocking things about God. He is wrathful toward David (v. 1). He is not just distant; indeed, he is altogether too near, near as an enemy, ready to attack. Yahweh has drawn his bow and beaten David down with His hand of power (v. 2). Some…
An elder tells John to stop weeping because someone worthy has been found in heaven (Revelation 5:5). The worthy one is the victorious lion who is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David. How does “root of David” ( he riza David ) fit grammatically? Is it an…
With the ascent of the Lamb (Revelation 5:13-14), the triple-decker vertical dimension of the universe - heaven, earth, sea - has turned into a fourfold arena - heaven, earth, under earth, sea - and this fourfold is populated by “things in them.” This follows a familiar separation-filling pattern. Four zones…
One of the central insights of Jeff Meyers’ book The Lord’s Service is that the liturgy is pre-eminently God’s service to us rather than our service to Him. When we gather each week as His people and bride, He draws near to declare forgiveness, to speak His live-giving Word, to…
Yahweh brings Israel to Sinai and shows Moses the pattern for the tabernacle. For the first time, Yahweh moves into Israel’s neighborhood. The house is closed. Only priests go to the altar, only priests into the holy place, nobody into the most holy place. But focusing on the restrictions on…
Gil Anidjar ( Blood: A Critique of Christianity ) makes the surprising claim that while “there may be a deep link between sacrifice and kinship, indeed, between blood and covenant, it is simply a fact that for the Old Testament, flesh and bone - never flesh and blood - signify…
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