The first half of Acts belongs to Peter. His story climaxes in Acts 10-12, where he presides over the “Gentile Pentecost” that brings Cornelius and his household into the kingdom, is arrested and miraculously released and then departs. He reappears briefly, but for the most part his story in Acts is over. The second half of the book belongs to Paul. Luke wrote a “to the Jew first, and also to the Greeks” account of the early church. Fittingly, Peter’s... Read more
Numbers 11:23: Yahweh said to Moses, Is Yahweh’s hand short? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not. Isaiah 50 alludes several times to the exodus. It also alludes several times to episodes during Israel’s wilderness period. “Is my hand too short?” Yahweh asks Moses in the desert. And through Isaiah He poses the same question to Judah. In Numbers, the context has to do with food. Out in the wilderness, the Israelites begin... Read more
Isaiah 50:4-5: Master Yahweh has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. Master Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back. Because of her idolatries, Judah has become disabled. She cannot hear through her closed ears. She can’t sing the Lord’s praise or speak His truth. In Judah, only the Servant has an open ear and a speaking tongue, both gifts... Read more
We’re ready to obey God, but our eagerness often lasts only as long as we have guarantees that obedience will be easy. As soon as obedience causes discomfort, we look escape routes. In a sinful world, easy obedience is impossible. If we are agents of the Lord’s righteousness, we will clash with the unrighteous world. One of the great benefits of observing Lent is the annual reminder of this fact. Each year, we spend several weeks contemplating the suffering obedience... Read more
The song of the twenty-four elders in Revelation 11:17-18 begins with thanksgiving for God’s exertion of power that inaugurates His reign. Verse 18 describes how that reign comes to pass. It is a complexly organized verse. It begins and ends with lex talionis judgments against God’s enemies, and in the middle certain groups of people are rewarded: A. Wrathful ( orgizo ) suffer wrath ( orge ) B. Rewards A’. Destroyers destroyed The central section is a tight little knot... Read more
In an essay on ” Abortion and Personhood ,” Alastair Roberts suggests that “”taking a stand against same-sex marriage is essentially a pro-life matter.” Roberts continues: “the paradigmatic family of liberal ideology is the same-sex couple with adopted children or children born through reproductive technology, a family of purely volitional attachments (every child is chosen) between undifferentiated individual sexual agents for whom gender need not be stipulated, creating a privatized realm of sentimental bonds, where bodies are clearly autonomous and... Read more
One of my students, Susanna Winecoff, pointed to the parallels between the famine that drove Israel into Egypt and the famine in Jerusalem mentioned at the end of Acts 11. For support, one can point to the parallel of Genesis and Acts: “Famine was over all the face of the earth ” (Genesis 41:46); “a great famine all over the world ” (Acts 11:28). In both cases, the people of God in Canaan/Judea suffer from famine; in both cases their... Read more
I report on the Christian revival in the Muslim Middle East next door at First Things this morning. Read more
Isaiah 50:7-9 is structured chiastically. On either side of verse 8 are declarations that “Lord Yahweh will help me” (vv. 7, 9; the clause is identical in Hebrew). In verse 8 itself, we have this structure: A. Near my vindicator B. Who brings a case? C. Let us stand as one B’. Who is my judge? A’. Let him approach (more…) Read more
The “I” of Isaiah 50 – the Servant of Yahweh, or the prophet himself – expects to be justified (v. 8; verb is matzdiqi from tzadaq ). How will he be justified? He will be justified because Yahweh has given him a tongue to “hasten” the weary, to urge them on, and because Yahweh has awakened and opened his ear, once dead and buried. He doesn’t rebel, doesn’t turn back (vv. 4-5). With his ear opened to Yahweh, he presses... Read more
Leithart
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In