Bible

The magicians and the plagues

I love the fact that the Egyptian magicians think it is clever to copy the first few plagues. (They run out of steam when it gets to the gnats).

The Egyptians "grow weary of drinking water from the Nile" (7:18 - !), because it is turned to blood. So the Egyptians produce... more blood.

Pharaoh is pleading (not very dignified for a king of Egypt, 8:8) with Moses and Aaron to take away the frogs. But that's alright - his magicians can produce... more frogs.

I mean: What use is more blood and more frogs?! The one thing they cannot copy is Yahweh's ability to take away the plagues. Thus it's clear, even from plague 1, that Yahweh is without rival in Egypt.

There are many temporal expressions of God's anger in today's world. The false gods we all serve to varying degree can replicate many of these expressions of anger. But there is no god in the world, except the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who can take away the anger of God.

Blog Category:

Exodus

Which person of the godhead caused Scripture to be written?

I’m looking again at sermon I gave a little while ago on 2 Peter 1:12-21.

What I’m noticing was the careful precision with which Peter describes the inspiration of the OT (prophets) in verse 20.

Blog Category:

Peter

Theology

Long live King Joash!

I like the story of King Joash / Jehoash (1 Kings 11-12).

When he was just born (under a year old, comparing 11:3 and 11:21), the person who thought they ruled Judah (Athaliah) killed all the kings sons. Why such ruthlessness? She wanted to rule, and felt threatened that a new heir to the throne had been born.

Blog Category:

Kings

Peter Enns on Exodus

I’m enjoying Peter Enns, NIV Application Commentary, Exodus more than I expected to. He has clearly spent a lot of time with the Hebrew text of the book, and has a lot of helpful observations to make.

For example, the word for “worship” in 4:23 is of the same root as the word for “work” in 5:9. (‘bd). The conflict between Yahweh and Pharaoh is being seen in yet one more respect – which king will successfully command the work/worship of the Hebrews.

Blog Category:

Exodus

Preaching on Exodus

At St James, Audley we are about to start a sermon series on Exodus – the whole book in 8 sermons.

I get to preach on 1:1-7:7, 12-14, and the first of the tabernacle sections.

Phew… it’s hard work. And I’m trying to work out why.

Blog Category:

Exodus

Pastoral Ministry

God lives mouth to hand

1 Kings 8:15:

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to David my father.

Blog Category:

Kings

The sins of the whole world II

Picking up, again on this CHN article. The Bible is quite clear that it’s a fair question. Jesus did die for the sins of the whole world. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”.Just a small exegetical observation.

Blog Category:

John

1-3 John

Theology

Hebrew Weak Verbs

Ros wanted a copy of the sheet I prepared whilst at college summarising the morphological changes that take place when conjugating the 9 classes of weak verb.

Here it is Ros, and anybody else who’s interested: Weak Verb Summary Sheet

Blog Category:

Bible

"A visit required three days"

Thank you Mark Dever, in The Message of the Old Testament for this that I’ve never seen before:

Blog Category:

Jonah

The Message of the Old Testament

I'm finishing off preparations for a training day I'm leading on Saturday, entitled "Preaching Christ from the Old Testament".

The bookstall arrived today. The good John Telford, manager of Wesley Owen on Wigmore Street in London, was tremendously helpful in recommending titles for me and finding ones that our local Christian bookshops said they wouldn't be able to sell. Thank you John, and an excellent parcel of books it is. Shame the Griedanus is temporally unavailable.

Anyway, why did I not know of Mark Dever's The Message of the Old Testament before now? It was only published in May, so fair enough. But Mark sets out, for each Old Testament book, to print a sermon on the entire book. A brave project, but oh so helpful. So thank you Mark Dever too.

Blog Category:

Old Testament

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