Old Testament

Who recognises in the manger?

Thanks to Joel Green, commentary on Luke page 136, for this one

The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.

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"This one was born there"

Rich Lusk points out in his fine book Paedofaith how the testimony of the Psalmists is of God being their trust since birth and even conception.

Psalm 87 gives another slant on this wonderful truth that the blessing of being one of the people of God can be traced back to the earliest days. (Thomas, and others who have studied the Psalms much more than I, please correct me if needs be!)

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Psalms

Children

The 12

Does anyone know where I can get hold of a copy of Simon Wakeling's dissertation on the unity of the book of the 12?

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Latter

Who do you pray for?

I’m a bit hopeless when it comes to lists.

But I do have a vague idea of the people I would like to pray for regularly.

Somehow, I tend to pray most for those people who are most in need of God’s help, those who are weakest, those with unrealised potential, etc.

Then I read Psalm 72.

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Psalms

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.

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Exodus

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.

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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.

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Exodus