Respond with Moderation In one of the Bible’s more horrific stories, Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, is taken by force and raped by the outsider, Shechem. When Jacob hears of this he does nothing. Perhaps he fears for his life should he complain or maybe it’s because all his boys are in the fields tending their livestock […]
Psalm 158 from Beyond Psalm 150 After Moses’s final song he gives a blessing to the people. The first four verses of this passage read like a psalm. He then directs the rest of his oration to various tribes, much like a patriarch giving his final words to his children. In the opening to his […]
Psalm 157 from Beyond Psalm 150 Despite forty years of faithful service leading God’s chosen people, God prohibits Moses from entering the promised land. This is all because of a single act of disobedience. This one action is enough to keep Moses from realizing the reward he desires. It’s a reminder that, through the law, one […]
Psalm 156 from Beyond Psalm 150 With the people poised to take the promised land, Moses recaps their forty-year history in the desert and reviews the instructions God gave them. At one point Moses leads the people in a liturgy of blessings (for obedience) and curses (for disobedience). In this the Levites make a statement […]
Psalm 154 from Beyond Psalm 150 As the people of Israel travel about in the desert, water is scarce. They reach the city of Beer. God instructs Moses to gather the people, and he will provide water to quench their thirst. The people respond collectively, praising God in song. Though this seems like a poem […]
Psalm 152 from Beyond Psalm 150 Psalm 90 is the oldest chapter in the book of Psalms. Moses wrote it. Though it’s his only entry in the Psalms, Moses penned other songs as well, but we need to search for them. We encounter one in the book of Exodus, we’ll call it the song of […]
On Pentecost God Gives Us the Holy Spirit as Our Guide to Replace the Law Pentecost occurs fifty days after Resurrection Sunday (Easter). It’s a significant event in the early church. That’s when the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus’s followers in an extraordinary way. The Holy Spirit empowers team Jesus to share his good news […]
Even One Sin Is Enough to Disqualify Us from Attaining God’s Perfect Standard; Jesus Bridges the Gap The book of Deuteronomy concludes with the death of Moses. Moses faithfully leads God’s people as they wander in the desert for forty years, brings them to the border of the land God had promised to give to […]
Moses Explained the Three Key Elements of Worship and We Still Follow Them Our churches today function in much the same way as outlined in the Old Testament. We follow the Old Testament model for church. We pursue these same three key elements. We meet in a building, hire paid staff to represent God to […]
After Their Situation Changes, David Gives Them New Jobs The book of Numbers is so named because it starts and ends with a census—a numbering of the people. These take place forty years apart. Moses orchestrates both counts, at God’s command. For the third part of the first census, Moses counts all men who can […]