Exodus 20:1-22:15 When I was a kid, I used to collect baseball cards. I specifically collected cards of Tony Gwynn, my favorite player. Whenever I received one of his cards I put it in a special binder set apart from all the others. In Biblical terms, they were holy. Holiness is most often used to describe people and not things and is meant to be an accurate description of us. God calls Israel, an...  Read More

Exodus 16:1-19:25 Good teachers reiterate the same lessons multiple times. They recognize their students are quick to forget what they learned and therefore, teach through repetition. The same is true with the best teacher, God. From a few days after the Israelites left Egypt until months, years, and decades later, they continued to struggle with complaining and grumbling. To teach them, God imple...  Read More

Exodus 13:1-15:27 Even before children can talk, they become experts at whining. Sadly, this quickly acquired skill is never unlearned. We grow older, but our whining and complaining skills often only increase. After being freed from slavery, it is not long until the Israelites begin to whine and complain. They go so far as to ask God to allow them to go back to slavery in Egypt, rather than remai...  Read More

Exodus 10:1-12:51 God can work in the darkest of circumstances for the good of his people and for his glory. While Moses is dialoguing with stubborn Pharaoh, we are told God is hardening his heart so, "I may perform these signs among them that you may tell your children...and that you may know that I am the Lord" (Exodus 10:1-2). God has worked in a way that may confuse us but for the express purp...  Read More

Exodus 7:14-9:35 Life is often filled with difficult relationships. We may find this strain in our families, at work, in our neighborhoods, or even at the church. This strain is evident in the series of confrontations between Moses and Pharaoh. Ultimately, this conflict is emblematic of the greater confrontation between God and those who oppose him. These chapters are essentially the story of God ...  Read More

Exodus 4:18-7:13 God is a promise-maker and a promise-keeper. God promised the appropriately named Promised Land hundreds of years before Moses. He reminded the people again and again that he would bring them into a land of great blessing. When Moses and Aaron came to Egypt and reminded the people of God's promise, they grew excited and some of them probably began to pack with the expectation it w...  Read More

Exodus 1:1-2:25:1 Chronicles 6:1-3;Exodus 3:1-4:17 We live in a God saturated world. God is omnipresent and always at work, but we often miss what he might be doing. We see God at work in Exodus by sustaining the nation of Israel in the face of opposition, slavery, and infanticide. We see God saving a little baby boy floating down the Nile River. We see God using a murderer to deliver his people o...  Read More

Job 40:6-42:17 I’m sorry. I’m wrong. Will you forgive me? These are some of the hardest things for our sinful hearts to say, but it is a necessary part of the Christian life. When confronted with the reality of God, Job is forced to confess his sin and error. In his repentance, he draws near to God and experiences a renewed intimacy with him. Like Job, we all have need to repent. We need to acknow...  Read More

Job 38:1-40:5 After thirty-seven chapters of people speaking in Job, God finally intervenes. God begins by declaring his superiority over everything. He wants Job to understand that he is God, and Job is not. As God, he created the world and sustains everything. As God, he knows all things and humans do not. Job is forced to acknowledge he was wrong in claiming God was unjust. He thought God was b...  Read More

Job 35:1-37:24 Ends do not justify the means. The philosophy which embodies this mindset is consequentalism. It is the idea that anything can be rationalized if it leads to a positive outcome. Elihu interprets Job as a proponent of this mindset by saying that he pursued holiness and yet reaped suffering on earth, so there was no reason or purpose for obeying God. Think about how narrow that perspe...  Read More

Job 32:1-34:37 After Job has been hounded by three friends for an unknown amount of time, a fourth individual steps up to the plate to confront him. Elihu says he waited to speak because he was younger than the other men but once he begins to speak, he comes to a similar conclusion as the other friends. He believes he knows exactly what is happening behind the scenes of Job's life and what God is ...  Read More

Job 30:1-31:40 Job feels like everything and everyone is against him. He feels like he is being mocked and opposed by his peers and society. Even more significantly, he feels like God is against him. He says that God does not answer him (Job 30:20) and has turned on him ruthlessly (Job 30:21). What a terrifying plight: to think that you are all alone and have been abandoned by everyone. Though Job...  Read More