Category: Bible: Commentary, Intertextuality, Exposition

Wordplay, the Flood, and God’s Judgment of Sin

Noah’s Ark is told as a children’s flannel-graph story, with cartoon animals, a cheerful Noah, and a stylized rainbow decorating baby’s rooms and storybook Bibles. However, the story of the flood provides a devastating description of God’s hatred and wrath expressed against pervasive, rampant human sin. The Babylon Bee has capitalized on this irony multiple times. As you read Genesis 6:5–22, in which God describes the reasons for the flood and commissions Noah to build an ark for his own salvation, several instances of wordplay reveal the nature of sin and the nature of God’s judgment on sin. This occurs along the lines of two themes: God’s grief over sin and sin’s corruption of creation.

Continue reading “Wordplay, the Flood, and God’s Judgment of Sin” →

Cain and Abel: Humanity Can’t Save Itself from Sin

The Sunday School story of Cain and Abel has historically been put to many uses. As children, some of us probably heard it presented as a moral tale to discourage us from fighting with our siblings. In the biblical counseling world, the falling of Cain’s countenance (Gen 4:5–7) is used as a proof that emotions and conditions within the inner man can affect the outer man. Cain’s declaration that his punishment is too much for him has been used to encourage people to be wise and endure the consequences of their sin. But these and similar usages of Genesis 4 miss the main point being presented in the chapter: that redemption cannot come from man. People are unable to save themselves from sin and the curse. Continue reading “Cain and Abel: Humanity Can’t Save Itself from Sin” →

Eve’s Deception and Our Perception

As Christians, we daily struggle with sin and temptation. In order to fight this, we need a strong understanding of how sin tempts us to turn away from the God who saved us. We find this knowledge in the Bible, even at the very beginning. Genesis 2 and 3 show us that the reason that Eve was deceived by the serpent is the same reason that we fall into sin under temptation in our individual lives today. Parallels between Genesis 2 and 3 demonstrate the heinous evil of the sin of Adam and of all sins since.

Continue reading “Eve’s Deception and Our Perception” →

When Heaven Helped Those who Helped Themselves

Words matter. As a self-identified writer, I at least sometimes try to pick my words intentionally so that they create specific informational and emotional effects in the minds of my readers. The biblical authors of course did the same thing. Unlike me, they wrote in Hebrew and Greek, with at least the first of these two being a heavenly language. Their specific word choices in the original languages matter. Continue reading “When Heaven Helped Those who Helped Themselves” →

A Land Like Your Own Land

In 2 Kings 18, Judah was in deep yogurt. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians. While Hezekiah was the best king of Judah since David (vv. 3-6), and even though idolatry and contraband worship at high places had been purged from the land, and despite a past successful rebellion against Assyrian hegemony, Judah was invaded by King Sennacherib of Assyria, who successfully destroyed much of the country before besieging Jerualem (vv. 13, 17), putting his general Rabshakeh in command. Rabshakeh then commenced a propaganda campaign against the soldiers of Israel, mocking their king and their God. His speech made five points (vv. 19–35, with a reprise in 19:8–13): Continue reading “A Land Like Your Own Land” →

Toward a Theology of the Restroom

Some of the easiest and most common humor in our world is based on bodily functions, particularly excretion. To a lesser and milder extent, these same jokes are common in the conversations of Christians, even educated evangelicals. A common justification for these is the seemingly graphic nature of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament in the Law and histories, when discussing these sorts of topics. However, these might not actually be connected to the issue of determining appropriate humor. Looking at a couple passages will show that this is not crudeness, but actually direct glorification of God. Continue reading “Toward a Theology of the Restroom” →

Is God’s Faithfulness Always “Nice?”

When we think about God’s faithfulness, we usually think about it in context of God’s love, mercy, provision, and grace.  We think about certain hymns: Continue reading “Is God’s Faithfulness Always “Nice?”” →

Am I Ever Safe from Sinning?

As Christians, we all know from Romans 7–not to mention from personal experience–that we are still very sinful, and continue to do so even after God has forgiven us.  And we also hate that, or at least know we should, see again Romans 7.  We notice, as we strive to put to death the deeds of the flesh that we might live, that sin is hard to fight.  No matter how hard we fight, we still fall into sin sometimes.  The devil is indeed prowling about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  When we hear God tell Cain that sin is crouching at his door, we feel God is really speaking to us.  And sadly, sin doesn’t stop crouching at our door just because we’re at church or are on a spiritual high or just read our Bibles or just came from the most amazing small group ever or are actively serving God on the missions field.  No matter how God centered the things around us may be, we can still sin.  We are never safe from sin.  Even–perhaps even especially–when God is directly blessing us or giving us direct experience of His presence, we can fall into sin.  This shocking truth is quite biblical.  Let’s call it the immediacy of sin.  It can be quite easily traced through the entirety of Biblical history. Continue reading “Am I Ever Safe from Sinning?” →

When Even Men Cry: Jesus Wept

Inspired by a series of comments made by various friends about my public tears, or rather the complete lack thereof, I have decided to write a brief series of posts on the issue of men crying.  I feel compelled to biblically defend myself against groundless charges of being emotionless or cold.  So I will.  Today we’ll talk about every time Jesus cried.  Next time we’ll talk about my personal philosophy of crying in its relation biblical teaching.  Finally, I’ll publish a list of times I cried college, because sometimes I like writing stuff people will actually read.

Continue reading “When Even Men Cry: Jesus Wept” →

I Have a Dream for Amos 5:24

Please see update I wrote to this post in 2020 here.

On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, “I Have a Dream.”  During the middle of the civil rights movement, this speech emphasized the optimism and hope that many activists held for the future.  There is, however, one exception.  King quoted Amos 5:24 in this context:

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’

Now most of us probably think King means something like this: “We cannot be satisfied until there is fairness for the negro, and all in the nation behave rightly towards their neighbors, independent of prejudice against color.”  This is what we think based on the context of the speech.  Now I mean no disrespect to Dr. King and the great good done by his actions and this speech, but unfortunately, that’s not what the verse means, because the verse has to be interpreted in the context of its chapter. Continue reading “I Have a Dream for Amos 5:24” →