Thoughts and Notes
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Their wickedness did not disturb the order of God’s providence
Why, then, should God not have created those who He foresaw would sin, since He was able to show in and by them both what their guilt merited, and what His grace bestowed, and since, under His creating and disposing hand, even the perverse disorder of the wicked could not pervert the right order of […]
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A Kingdom that Cannot Be Shaken
Daniel chapters 2 and 7 both relate dreams that cover the same progression of kingdoms from different perspectives, and both serve to contrast the succession of fleeting manifestations of the City of Man with the solid, eternal City of God. In chapter 2, Daniel interprets a dream that troubled Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. The […]
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Heart of Flesh
Ezekiel 36 talks about the uncleanness of Israel, not just in the land but in the presence of all the nations to which God had driven them out. This uncleanness is not dirtiness but death, the death of empty idolatry, of exposed flesh, the death that Jesus says comes up from the inside, from the […]
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For the Body
Exodus 3 and 4 recount Moses’s encounter with God at the burning bush. God tells Moses that He has heard the cry of His people and He knows their sufferings and that He has come down to deliver them from the Egyptians. He said to Moses, “‘Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you […]
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Covenant King
2 Samuel 7 is a passage we hear frequently. It is an important passage because it is God’s establishment of His covenant with David. The chapter is divided into two sections. The first section starts with the king sitting in his house and goes through the vision that God gives to Nathan the prophet. Yahweh […]
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So All Will Know
Leviticus 19 includes the phrase that Jesus quotes as the second great commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” God gives examples of what this means, anticipating the pharisaical question, “Who is my neighbor?” He includes the poor, the sojourner, the hired worker, the deaf, the blind, the great, the one living near you, and any […]
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Though He Slay Me
The book of Job fits in with the book of Proverbs as a book of kingly training. It begins with the familiar story of this great and wealthy man who loses everything he has — his family, his home, his servants, animals, and crops — all in one day. He is plagued with sores from […]
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Walk in the Covenant
In Deuteronomy, Moses recounts God’s establishment of His covenant with His people and the giving of the Ten Words. He walks them through a covenant renewal ceremony, rehearsing Israel’s disobedience and urging them to trust God, to obey, and to remember what God has done for them in their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. Moses […]
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As the Waters Cover the Sea
Isaiah 45 is addressed to Cyrus, king of the Persians, whom God calls His anointed — His messiah, His christ — the one who would shepherd His people. God tells him that He will give him the nations so that all will know that Yahweh is God and there is no other, so that all […]
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Proverbs 11
Proverbs 11 is a contrast of the wicked and the righteous — their desires, means, and ends. The desires of the wicked are to undermine and destroy the righteous, to take what he can get, to amass for himself riches. He tears down his neighbor with his mouth, slandering and exposing secrets. He relies on his wealth and his […]