One of the delights of the Bible is the abundance of its irony. I’ve talked about this before, when considering the principle of proportion, where God positions various contrasting elements within the redemptive story next to one another, highlighting His own attributes and through them, the subversive power of the Gospel. And among the Bible’sContinue reading “God’s Weaker Vessel, the Woman with Tender Eyes”
Category Archives: Genesis
The Daughters of Job: An Inheritance Among Our Brothers
This morning, I finished reading the book of Job. I had already planned to begin rereading it from tomorrow as the richness of this book’s symbolic use of the natural world is utterly breathtaking. I don’t feel ready to leave it yet! But it is instead the book’s end – Job’s daughters specifically – whichContinue reading “The Daughters of Job: An Inheritance Among Our Brothers”
The Donkey and the Colt
I’ve started creating short video meditations on Biblical themes, and I now have a YouTube channel. My first video focused on the theme of sparrows, and now here is one on donkeys. Having studied donkeys closely, I have a new appreciation for them. And how interesting that donkeys carry a cross on their back. WhenContinue reading “The Donkey and the Colt”
Adam and His Adversary: Israel’s crossing of the Jordan
After Adam’s headlining appearance in Genesis, his name is hardly mentioned for the rest of the Hebrew Bible. We find him mostly in genealogies and very occasionally in the books of the prophets (see Hosea 6:7). Still, Adam returns in other ways, many times after Genesis, in stories recounting his (and our) fall from glory.Continue reading “Adam and His Adversary: Israel’s crossing of the Jordan”
Gender, Apologies and the Bible
In 2010, psychologists Karina Schumann and Michael Ross published research based on reported behaviour among Canadian university students (age 18 to 44) which suggests that on average, women apologize more than men. Not only did women document more apologies, but women also reported committing more offenses than men reported. And when presented with imaginary andContinue reading “Gender, Apologies and the Bible”
A Tent with No Idols
During His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ never utters the words for “idol” and “idolatry.” My friend Rev. Bill Dennison pointed out this omission a few days ago. What makes it so intriguing is that idolatry is mentioned many times and in many ways throughout the Hebrew Bible. And idolatry comes up again later, repeatedly, asContinue reading “A Tent with No Idols”
The Word of the Lord came
In Genesis 1, the Triune God speaks the world into existence as His Spirit hovers over the surface of the waters. King David brings the Creation account into sharper focus, declaring, “by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host” (Ps. 33:6). I’ve written already about the breathContinue reading “The Word of the Lord came”
Valley of the Cluster
Thus says the Lord,“As the new wine is found in the cluster,And one says, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is benefit in it,’So I will act on behalf of My servantsIn order not to destroy all of them.Isaiah 65:8 I am so fascinated by the fruits of the Bible, especially grapes. It was the Nazirites that first drewContinue reading “Valley of the Cluster”
The Cupbearer’s Memory
In Hebrew Bible times, the cupbearer to the king was an office of extraordinary responsibility and prestige. A cupbearer served wine to the king, but his job was much more as it involved tasting the wine before the king drank, for quality but also in case of poison. An office of oppositions. There are twoContinue reading “The Cupbearer’s Memory”
Breath like Apples
In Genesis 4, Cain, tiller of the earth, offers fruit to the LORD and murders his brother Abel. This act comes hot on the heels of Adam and Eve’s lost paradise, where Satan too had offered fruit to God’s people and ushered in a reign of death across the earth. Just as He had doneContinue reading “Breath like Apples”
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