Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
G.K. Chesterton assumes a surprising and memorable perspective from which to view the events of Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11) The Donkey by: G.K. Chesterton When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head…
There is a common biblical principle: you must give back what you steal. In the Bible, restitution is repayment with interest. If you rob someone of their money, you have to pay back double what you stole. A thief must pay back fourfold if he steals a sheep, and if…
Identifying Isaiah’s suffering servant with the promised Messiah is unthinkable for a Jew because it combines the offices of humble priest and victorious king. While it is frustrating that Jews refuse to see the sufferings of Christ in Isaiah 53, the reluctance of Christians to interpret the passage in its…
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Psalm 150:6 (ESV) The command to praise God is pervasive throughout Scripture. In the verse above the Spirit calls all things with breath to praise the Lord. Song is also clearly featured all throughout Scripture and is a featured…
“Gender is a social construct.” That’s shocking to people who have assumed that gender and sex were synonyms but at least since I was in college, in the ‘80s, we were taught that “gender” refers to the forms, the customs, the traditions that our culture teaches us to define what…
In Genesis 49, Jacob prophesies about (blesses and curses?) his twelve sons. The first three of them don’t fare well. Jacob recalls Reuben’s offense of taking his concubine (Genesis 35:22) and the murderous violence of Simeon’s and Levi against the Canaanite inhabitants of the city of Shechem (Genesis 34). He…
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Is identical repetition possible? It would seem not. Sequence A (say, a musical theme) is repeated as sequence A’. The same notes are played. Is it identical repetition? No, because A’ has the distinct quality of coming AFTER A, and therefore is modified by that temporal context. Every sequence is…
1 Kings 3:15 The story of Solomon?s request for and reception of wisdom is framed by references to worship. At the beginning of the story, Solomon is in Gibeon, worshiping at the bronze altar that Moses built in the wilderness, and then he ascends to the ark-shrine in Jerusalem, the…
Earlier this month, we celebrated the end of the first year of our existence as Trinity Reformed Church. This occasion gives us reason to pause to reminder ourselves what we hope to do as a local congregation. Since we started Trinity, the elders have been laying out a number of…
There’s a fairly neat chiasm in the first part of Rom 7: a. law rules while one lives b. woman bound while husband lives; if husband dies, freed (KATARGEO) c. while husband lives: adulteress d. if husband dies: joined to another without adultery e. you died through Christ, through body…
Eyes, Jim Jordan constantly points out, are organs of judgment. God “sees” the light and judges it good, and His eyes are open to judge the righteous and the wicked (Ps 11). 1 Kings 3, however, seems to make some play with this. Solomon is asking for discernment and wisdom…
It seems that Solomon begins his reign with a breach of the law. Deuteronomy 7:3-4 forbids Israel from intermarrying with Gentiles, Canaanites in particular, and the usage in Deuteronomy 7 is very similar to that of 1 Kings 3:1. Solomon ?became son-in-law to Pharaoh,?Eand Deuteronomy 7 forbids the Israelites to…
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