Category: OT
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Justice for all
Peter Leithart pointed out in his talk at the BH conference that the emphasis on the treatment of widows and orphans that comes up so often in scripture is not a showing of favoritism – in fact, that is expressly forbidden in the law (Ex 23:3, Lev 19:15). Rather, it is the litmus test of…
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Servant-kings
Moses didn’t just stand up on the mountain to give the law. He sat with the people and took on the burden of hearing and judging their individual cases. When God was angry with the sin of the people, Moses prayed that God would blot him out of His book rather than destroy the people. The blessing…
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Christus Victor
Joshua’s conquest of Canaan is a foreshadowing of the great commission, the call to the church to go out into the world and bring it into submission to the King. God gave Joshua the authority of Moses and told him – go in, take the land that I have promised to give you, be careful…
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Trinity at creation
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The Father and the Holy Spirit are clearly present at creation in Genesis 1. The Son…
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Slaves to sin, slaves to God
We are all slaves. The Hebrews had made themselves slaves to the worthless gods of the Egyptians, so God made them slaves to Pharaoh. God did not bring the people out of Egypt so they could be an autonomous, self-mastered people. He spoke to Pharaoh through Moses, “Let my people go, that they may serve…
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A new people, a new temple
Everett Fox, in his translation of the five books of Moses, points out that covenants were widely used to establish political relationships between kings and vassals, granting privileges and obligations for the parties involved. But no other ancient society “conceived of the possibility that a god could ‘cut a covenant’ with a people.” Calvin writes, “and…
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In the beginning, God
Moses starts with God. Rather than setting out to prove the existence of God by looking at the world and reasoning up, God is simply presupposed. He begins with God and unfolds the whole creation on this foundation. Everything else (in scripture and in creation) proceeds from this.
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Teach them diligently
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:6,7 Children play a prominent role…
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An Excellent Wife
This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Genesis 2:23 Proverbs is a book of kingly training, written by King Solomon for his son to learn to rule justly. Throughout the book, Wisdom is personified as a woman. In chapter…
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All trifles vanish
And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. Malachi 2:15 God’s relationship with man is entirely covenantal. Deuteronomy 6 has come up several times in the Old Testament readings and it covers some very foundational…