I find Genesis 19:14 one of the most sobering, and scary, verses in the whole Bible.
“So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.’ But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.”
Tragic
But surely that’s just the Old Testament, right?
Yes, I’m back in Jonah 1 again!
What happens if we take the view that Jonah represents Israel?
I was asked one very specific question after my last sermon on Luke 21.
I developed one implication that the temple was to come to an end, which is the implication developed in Ephesians 2. The era of Jewish national privilege has closed, so that in the new creation none of us will have a second class spot – specifically, no Gentiles will be penalised for being Gentile.
After the service I was asked why, if this is the case, I still hold that there will be a distinction in the roles taken by men and women in church life.
/a
In November and December 2007, I preached a series of 3 sermons on Luke chapter 21. You can read the transcripts on this site, should you wish to.
Psalm 88 has been a huge comfort to me over the years, as I know it has to many other Christians. There is something paradoxically comforting in the presence of such a black Psalm in the Psalter. A Psalm that truly records life as we feel and experience it, without embarrasment, without contradition to the other Psalms that step back to see life from God’s perspective.
There is, of course, much debate over the title.
“A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the Choirmaster: According to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.”
Following on from my posts on reading and learning the Bible, by way of a footnote I offer some statistics.
Let’s suppose you want to set out to read / learn a book / some books of the Bible. How big an undertaking are you taking on?
Here are the books of the Bible, together with how long they are:
| Book | Verses | Words | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis | 1533 | 36277 | 4.80% |
(The Book of the Twelve is another name for the “Minor Prophets”, Hosea – Malachi).
Peter Leithart has an illuminating post on the unity of these 12 books entitled Book of the Twelve.
Doing some work on the birth narrative in Matthew at the moment, and enjoying the recently published commentary on Matthew
He has a brilliant (if long) paragraph arguing that Matthew was not a poor Old Testament handler at all, but knew exactly what he was doing. So brilliant, it’s worth quoting in full (from page 45)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)
If, like me, you’ve ever read that verse and puzzled slightly over what those “greater works” are, then it’s time to visit Doug Wilson’s blog over at Blog and Mablog.
Yesterday he posted an entry entitled Greater Works which sheds a lot of light on that verse.
“I tell you the truth, today you wll be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
So said Jesus, on the cross, to “the other criminal”. A saying that has been precious to me for some time, not least because of the implications for the way in which God saves by grace not works. The model sinner, whose saving faith could not be accompanied by any good works. Such a verse makes very clear that God does not save us because of our works (as instrumental cause), but by faith. James 2 makes clear that genuine faith will be accompanied by good works, but Luke 23 makes clear that such good works are the outworking of faith in space and time not an essential component of it.
But I want to reflect on this verse from another angle today. What we can learn from this verse about what awaits the believer after they die.
