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07/20/2014

Textweek ATLAS links September 7, 2014 - Proper 18A Ordinary 23A Pentecost +13

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera18.htm

Proper 18, Ordinary 23, Pentecost +13
September 7, 2014

“Egyptians prized the ability to appear strong, firm, resolute, and unmoved by events.” 

Abstract:  “Several passages in the Old Testament portray Yahweh as behaving in ways that seem unfair or immoral. Two such narratives are the episodes describing the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and the spirit dispatched to deceive Ahab. In each of these two cases, careful attention to the literary context and the final form of the MT shows that Yahweh 's behaviour is best understood as a sign-act directed toward a specific end.”

The section on this text begins on page 374. “Ezekiel gives us another slant on the difficulties inherent in being one of God's prophets. (We have seen aspects of this already in Elijah and Jeremiah.) One of the functions of a prophet is to be a sentinel, a watchman, a lookout who sees the danger coming and tries to rouse people out of their doldrums before it is too late.”

“The preacher's task here is to refocus the church on the need to embrace Christ daily, even moment by moment. Otherwise, the powers of darkness and evil either look more and more appealing or become less and less obvious, so that we are seduced by them as if we were half-asleep (v. 11). The Greek word for sleep is hypnos, and while we cannot attribute the notion of being "hypnotized" to Paul himself here, it is nonetheless true that Christians as well as others can become so accustomed to the normalcy of evil that we live under its spell, as if hypnotized by a power outside ourselves that we cannot discern or dislodge.”

"In far too many churches women and children who have suffered abuse at the hands of parents, spouses, family, and even church officials have been urged to forgive the offenders unconditionally and, in cases of spouses, to continue to live with them. Instead of taking allegations of abuse seriously and becoming the witnesses that the most vulnerable members of our communities need, too many church communities have turned the intent of Matthew 18 on its head and pressured victims to be silent or to leave."

"Part of the problem with conditional forgiveness is that it attempts to turn forgiveness into a formula."

 

 

“This grace does not (and perhaps need not) come to everyone. It is not a matter of magic that we can invoke or a prize we can earn. There are no "should's" in any of this, nor should we hold this in front of survivors of violence as a goal at the end of an emotional or therapeutic process. Perhaps the best pastoral counsel we can give to someone who may be feeling pressure (either internal or external) to forgive an offender is this: Sometimes people may have a feeling of having forgiven another person as a letting go and moving on, but do not blame yourself if you are not "there" in your own emotional life. Forgiveness is a gift of grace, and it may be given to you in God's own good time. In the meantime, don't worry, and don't be preoccupied with something that is God's job to do, not yours.”

07/20/2014 at 07:43 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

07/19/2014

Textweek ATLAS links August 31, 2014 Proper 17A Ordinary 22A / Pentecost +12

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera17.htm

Proper 17, Ordinary 22, Pentecost +12
August 31, 2014

“The story of God's faithfulness did not begin nor did it end with Moses on Mt. Horeb. The faithfulness of God, despite what God's people do in response, is recorded for us in the great stories of the faith, like this story of ‘The Call of Moses.’ The whole canon of Scripture bears witness to this faithfulness.”

“Who has not heard this (divine!) voice? Sometimes we have disregarded it, only later to realize that we have been untrue to our inner center. Other times, however, we have really heard and seen at heart-depth what is taking place. We say ‘That's it—it is enough’ and take a stand. Such is the experience of Moses.”

“This question of thorn-bush theophony was rhetorically raised by Jewish homileticians; what implicit theology or symbolic meaning can be derived from God's choice of a burning thorn-bush? One suggestion is that this was done to underscore the importance of peace.”

“But one suspects that, in the final analysis, these pieces were included in the book because they werethere, and were considered too precious to be left in the wastebasket, as it were. Future readers of the completed Jeremiah book would be forced to ponder the tragedy that befell the nation because of its rejection of the prophetic word; but they might also ponder the tragedy of the rejected prophet, whose word had now been shown to have been true.”

“The confessions of Jeremiah are prayers for people mired in loss and play a major role in the theological and spiritual process of healing. They keep communication with God alive in the midst of destruction and despair.”

“Paul's advice is difficult to swallow. We are challenged to respond personally and to act concretely.”

“This text from Romans contains thirty imperatives—which would merely be another set of moralisms and religious requirements were it not for the "renewing of your mind" that Paul commends in Rom 12:2. Only God in Christ can work that transformation, and only then do Paul’s commands become possibilities.”

“Jesus teaches his followers that conflict with the elite will result in his crucifixion in Jerusalem and God’s resurrection of him from the dead. This event has numerous implications for their lives as followers.”

“Luther understood Jesus Christ as both the bearer and bestower of the cross. May believers hear Luther and learn to receive this and all other things from God's hand when and as He gives them.”

07/19/2014 at 05:39 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Textweek ATLAS links August 24, 2014 Proper 16A Ordinary 21A Pentecost +11

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera16.htm

Proper 16, Ordinary 21, Pentecost +11
August 24, 2014

“The biblical stories can be categorized under two paradigmatic headings, each of which can be sub-divided in turn into two distinct types: (1) The story involves two mothers rather than one. In this case, two possibilities emerge:

a. At least two heroes are born, so to speak. Necessarily, then, one of the newborn children (usually the first) or more will prove to be a '"false" hero; and only one, as time will tell, will become the "real" hero who carries the divine promise (see below).

b. Two mothers (or even three) will produce, between them, one hero (Naomi and Ruth; Moses' biological mother, his sister, and the daughter of the Pharaoh who becomes his adoptive mother).

(2) In stories where only one prospective mother features, two sub-models are in evidence:

a. A single mother has two sons, or more (Eve, Rebecca).

b. A single mother has one son (Samson's mother).”

“Inasmuch as Philo's aim in his essay De Vita Mosis is to present Moses as the perfect example of the royal character, he follows the pattern found in other biographies, concentrating, in particular, on the subject's genealogy, birth, upbringing, and handsomeness.”

"Paul presents Christ's death in language and concepts of Israel's cult, and he is capable of identifying various aspects of it By implication, he is able to describe the Christians' response similarly."

 

“To die in Christ and to live in Christ is nothing short of accepting and receiving a whole new way of thinking and living, which is to say that surrendering to God is at the same time an abandonment of the old ways of self-preservation. To be in Christ is to be reconstructed according to God's building plan and to be renewed continuously by the Holy Spirit. In this way, believers are enabled to discern what conforms to God's will, namely that which is holy, pleasing, and perfect. By faith, God gives us new direction and strength to live in the loving, self-sacrificing manner of Jesus Christ. This is the logical worship (often translated as "spiritual service") of the Christian life.”

"While primarily descriptive, the article shows how exegesis of Matt. 16:16-17 highlights theological debates unique to the time of each thinker, exposes the creativity of interpretive methods, and replicates the logic of larger theological systems in miniature."

 

Abstract: “What did ‘binding’ and ‘loosing’ mean in the earliest tradition, and what did Matthew understand them to mean? commonplace claims regarding rabbinic usage are contradictory and inconclusive. Intertestamental and NT usages typically refer to overcoming demons and liberating their victims. The synoptic Jesus authorized the Twelve to exorcise demons. The Matthean passages arguably reflect the substance of such authorizations. Other early Christian texts corroborate this suggestion. Matthew, however, probably understood the terms more broadly, as authorizing disciples to overrule the power of death, and to determine matters of doctrine and morality for the sake of the church and its members' salvation.”

“A majority of scholars now recognize that the terms ‘to bind’ and ‘to loose’ are best understood with reference to a practice of determining the application of scriptural commandments for contemporary situations.1 The words are used in this regard by Josephus and in targumic materials. Jewish rabbis ‘bound’ the law when they determined that a commandment was applicable to a particular situation, and they ‘loosed’ the law when they determined that a word of Scripture (while eternally valid) was not applicable under certain specific circumstances.”

“The article examines the present meaning of the confession-keys passage in Matthew 16. The story in vv. 13-16 is seen as a type of narrative that culminates in the identification of a divine figure or a messenger of God. The lofty identification of Jesus as ‘prophet’ seems to be inadequate; finally, the account identifies him as ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God’. That identification is approved in a response (vv. 17-19) that pronounces a blessing on Peter and gives him a new name and a special commission.”

 

07/19/2014 at 04:36 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

07/18/2014

Textweek ATLAS Links August 17, 2014 Proper 15A Ordinary 20A Pentecost +10

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera15.htm

Proper 15, Ordinary 20, Pentecost +10
August 17, 2014

“Certainly this section of Isaiah is full of references to Israel as a light to the nations, proclaiming an inclusiveness that wants to bring together before God those who had previously been excluded (whether outcasts within Israel or because they were foreigners).” 

Hoop, Raymond de, "The Interpretation of Isaiah 56:1-9: comfort or criticism?" Journal of Biblical Literature, 2008.
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“In general, however, it must be concluded that Isa 56:1-9 should not be read solely as a comfort for those possibly excluded from the community but should especially be considered an implicit criticism of the leaders of the community, who, in the view of the author/editor of the passage, hypocritically emphasized only those elements in the Torah that suited themselves.”

Abstract: “In a previous issue JSOT, Victor Matthews treats the garment motif in the Joseph story, but does not include the Judah/Tamar story (Gen. 38) in his analysis. I argue that this chapter is more concerned with garments or personal objects than any in the Joseph narrative, and therefore deserves examination alongside chs. 37 and 39. In all three chapters, garments play a pivotal role in plot development as markers of status and authority by which identities are revealed or concealed. The motif is manifest in a variety of ways: deception through loss or removal of garments, deception through forced recognition, and authority signified via possession of garments or personal items. The Judah/Tamar episode in ch. 38 demonstrably shapes in various ways the reader's understanding of garment-related events in these chapters.”

Abstract: “This article examines the dynamics of good and evil as represented in the Joseph story (Gen. 37-50). It examines the story's plot, the larger conceptual framework of the narrative's Pentateuchal setting, as well as the semantic indicators and associated attitudes/behaviors qualified as good and/or evil. The main objectives of this article are: (1) to identify the main issues within the story's concept of the dynamics of good and evil; (2) to promote a more thorough consideration of the place of Joseph and God in those dynamics; and (3) to generate hermeneutical inquiries about the dynamics of good and evil using the insights gained from this examination—inquiries that are more relevant to contemporary discussion (e.g. understanding human atrocities, forgiveness, and reconciliation).”

“This examination poses a challenge to a number of recent treatments of the same literature that see the idea of divine favoritism (and its reflection in the favoritism exhibited by certain patriarchs and matriarchs towards one special child) as unfair and therefore morally and theologically retrograde…Rather, as will be demonstrated in the following analysis, the Joseph story offers a critique of the human rebellion that occurs when others persecute the elect, as well as when the elect misuse or fail to accept their special status and the responsibilities it entails.”

“I am often amazed at how many Christians forget that Jesus was a Jew, as was the apostle Paul. Romans 9-11 then is not a casual philosophical discourse on issues of election and covenant; they are Paul's concerted, complex, and not always clear attempt to wrestle with the paradox that at least one Jew sees Jesus as Lord, while most of his people do not.

“If the great commission is ever fulfilled, it will mean not the imperialistic triumph of the present form of the church but rather its death, followed by the resurrection of a genuine world-church, catholic in a sense we can hardly dream of. The one thing that would remain the same would be the church's Lord: the Son of David who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). He is already at work in Tyre and Sidon; we obtuse disciples have yet to catch up.”

“This passage, then, appears to be a pivotal one for Matthew's intentions. The woman is an unlikely candidate to be the ideal follower of God, yet that is how Matthew pictures her. She is a Gentile who knows Jesus well enough to use the right terms ("Lord" and "Son of David"). The woman is contrasted with Peter who fails to understand what Jesus is saying in the previous passage (vs. 16-17) and with the other disciples who attempt to chase her away. Therefore, we learn that discipleship is not automatic, even when someone has been chosen by Jesus to be a disciple; instead, a true believer is one who has absolute faith in Jesus.”

07/18/2014 at 04:06 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Textweek ATLAS Links August 10, 2014 Proper 14A Ordinary 19A Pentecost +9

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera13.htm

Proper 14, Ordinary 19, Pentecost +9
August 10, 2014

 

 

" ...if we accept the tradition of our early Pseude- pigraphic source, we learn that the children of the handmaids, and especially Dan and Gad, with whom Joseph had had a special relationship in his early years, evolved into his implacable enemies, spearheading his kidnapping and sale."

 

Abstract: “In a previous issue JSOT, Victor Matthews treats the garment motif in the Joseph story, but does not include the Judah/Tamar story (Gen. 38) in his analysis. I argue that this chapter is more concerned with garments or personal objects than any in the Joseph narrative, and therefore deserves examination alongside chs. 37 and 39. In all three chapters, garments play a pivotal role in plot development as markers of status and authority by which identities are revealed or concealed. The motif is manifest in a variety of ways: deception through loss or removal of garments, deception through forced recognition, and authority signified via possession of garments or personal items. The Judah/Tamar episode in ch. 38 demonstrably shapes in various ways the reader's understanding of garment-related events in these chapters.”

Abstract: “This article examines the dynamics of good and evil as represented in the Joseph story (Gen. 37-50). It examines the story's plot, the larger conceptual framework of the narrative's Pentateuchal setting, as well as the semantic indicators and associated attitudes/behaviors qualified as good and/or evil. The main objectives of this article are: (1) to identify the main issues within the story's concept of the dynamics of good and evil; (2) to promote a more thorough consideration of the place of Joseph and God in those dynamics; and (3) to generate hermeneutical inquiries about the dynamics of good and evil using the insights gained from this examination—inquiries that are more relevant to contemporary discussion (e.g. understanding human atrocities, forgiveness, and reconciliation).”

“This examination poses a challenge to a number of recent treatments of the same literature that see the idea of divine favoritism (and its reflection in the favoritism exhibited by certain patriarchs and matriarchs towards one special child) as unfair and therefore morally and theologically retrograde…Rather, as will be demonstrated in the following analysis, the Joseph story offers a critique of the human rebellion that occurs when others persecute the elect, as well as when the elect misuse or fail to accept their special status and the responsibilities it entails.”

“A teenager once told her father, ‘You'll never learn to dance if you're always thinking about how you look on the dance floor.’ You and I will never learn to live if we pay too much attention to all that is working against us. We will sink for sure!”

“Could it be that absolutely no help comes from Jesus until we admit we need help and ask for it? When we cry to Jesus for help, Jesus reaches out and catches us, saying, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And then we get back into the boat, and the wind ceases, and we continue the journey to the other side, worshipping Jesus as the Son of God.”

“The Christ who promised to be with his church is always with us, even in the storms.”

“At the core of this text lies the existential question "what must we do to be saved?" How can things be put right with God? This is the fervent question plaguing the woman in the weekly Bible study whose husband never comes to church. It is the unformed question murmuring in the heart of the heartbroken parents who hobble to the state prison to visit their son. It is the question rippling through the ruling board's debate about the ordination of homosexual persons, the question weighing down the woman who lies in a hospice bed waiting to die.”

“This article attempts to locate Rom. 10:5-13 within the tension of orality and literacy. There has been a debate concerning the precise nature of the relationship between Lev. 18:5 cited in 10:5 and Deut. 30 cited in 10:6-8. Here it is argued that Paul emphasizes the antithesis between the orality of the Gospel and the literacy of the Torah because he understands himself as living and working in the tradition of the ‘herald’ of Isaiah 52. Against the orality of the Gospel he stresses the literacy of the Torah when he introduces the Leviticus citation with ‘Moses writes’ in 10:5.”

"Just as the typical biblical scenes of a prophet’s initial call can and do help many discern and understand their initial calls, so perhaps the story of Elijah s “recall” can aide others in the process of evaluating what form of Christian service ought to come next in a life long-committed to a different task."

07/18/2014 at 03:23 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

07/17/2014

Textweek ATLAS Links August 3, 2014 Proper 13A Ordinary 18A Pentecost +8

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera13.htm

Proper 13, Ordinary 18, Pentecost +8
August 3, 2014

“Jesus' feeding the multitude is found in all four gospels. People want to be reminded of the compassion of Christ, the bountiful care of God, and the connection that we have to our neighbors, both now and in the kingdom that is coming.”

"Psalm 145 is a masterful poetic composition and a masterful theological composition. It is indeed worthy of the same repetition as the Shema. In the repetition of words, the reciter builds a world, "speaks a world into being." In the repetition of Psalm 145, the reciter builds a world in which God is king for all time and in all generations and all flesh blesses God's holy name for all time."

“The cost of faithful discipleship includes the hard lesson of accepting the injustice of divine grace, and grace is a challenge to all our notions of ‘meritocracy,’ about who deserves what. But the invitation, thank God, is to all: Ho, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters . . . and inquire of God while he is near.”

“These old texts might again ‘teach us to pray’ (cf. Matt. 6:9). Were that to happen, church practice in prayer might again have a sharp edge of urgency and buoyancy against the denial—therapeutic and consumerist—so powerful among us. As in the ‘model prayer’ of Jesus, true prayer is unabashed imperative, in which the speaker for a daring moment becomes the governing party to the conversation with God, and conversely, is cast as a willing respondent, available for the legitimate ‘commands’ of the one who hears the prayer.”

“The purpose of the paper is to answer a question that is hardly ever asked by the exegetes: 'Where were Jacob's wives and children during his famous single combat at the Jabbok?' Identifying and analyzing topographic data scattered in Genesis 32, especially in vv. 23-24 (Eng. vv. 22-23), I argue that the text shows the patriarch trying to survive not only by fleeing the Promised Land—in spite of the deity's command to return there—but by using his family as a human shield against approaching Esau. Skillfully using the geographical setting of the episode, the narrator represents Jacob's outrageous treatment of his household as a part and parcel of his overall cowardice and faithlessness and thereby implicitly denounces patriarchy as a corrupting, ineffective and ultimately ungodly system.”

“Ultimately, an authentic Christian reading of the Bible calls for appropriating the story ‘out there’" in such a way as to create a new story, our story, my story. What the actual scene in biblical interpretation seems to be saying is that the interpreter must free the Scripture from all that prevents its being heard on its own terms. The classic critical methods remain valid. But we are called to move beyond. After having been caught up, too much perhaps, with a scholarly study of the background and the elements of the text, a return to the powerful immediacy of the text, of the actual story, is salutary. Structural methods force us to do just that. Psychoanalysis confronts us with the depth-dimension of symbols. A political exegesis can help us to unmask our ideological biases. But each approach, by itself, runs the risk of becoming partial. The full impact of the scriptural story will be enhanced if we are willing to trust in a complementarity of methods.”

“As in all five biblical occurrences of [face to face], the four inherent elements of divine initiation, profound intimacy, intentional solitude, and supernatural verification are clearly evident in Gen 32:23-33. For example, Jacob's wrestling match was caused by the sudden appearance and unexpected attack of the heavenly sent "man" during the night. Ironically, Jacob had spent the previous day preparing for a dramatic encounter, but he was expecting to meet his brother Esau, not the powerful messenger who was declared to be “D^H^K”. Not only was Jacob's encounter physically intimate, but it also involved the very essence of his identity—the identification and the change of his name. The physical touch, the name change, and the personal blessing all serve to portray the profound intimacy experienced between Jacob and the divine messenger.”

 

07/17/2014 at 06:00 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

07/16/2014

Textweek ATLAS Links July 27, 2014 - Proper 12A/Ordinary17A/Pentecost 7 July 27, 2014

Studying lectionary texts? Here are some starting places for study at ATLA this week. If you are the graduate of an accredited U.S. theological school, you may have free access to these articles through your school. Check ATLAS access options. You can find full lists of ATLAS recommended articles for this week at The Text This Week's page for this week's texts:

http://www.textweek.com/yeara/propera12.htm

Proper 12, Ordinary 17, Pentecost +7
July 27, 2014

“Whether the relationship between Leah and Rachel was more tragic than that of Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, or Joseph and his brothers is debatable. In each case, a degree of reconciliation can be seen toward the end of the story. The biggest difference between the stories of the brothers and that of the sisters is that the brothers experienced significant periods of separation, while the sisters had to live with the tensions of their situation in proximity to one another.”

“When we apply this definition to the narratives of Genesis, we find that over a quarter of its chapters contain an episode of deception! Additionally, this does not even include the much greater amount of material that deals with the lead-up to the deception or its subsequent effects. We are also not even considering those cases where there is some ambiguity about whether or not a deception took place. Only allowing for clear cases of unambiguous deception, we find no fewer than fifteen!”

Anderson, John E., "Jacob, Laban, and a divine trickster? The covenantal frameowrk of God's deception in the theology of the Jacob Cycle," Perspectives in Religious Studies 2009.
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“I have sought in the foregoing analysis to understand theologically the image of God as deceiver in the Jacob narratives—no doubt a difficult task!—by using Gen 31:1-16 to define the theological "problem." My contention is that deception is not a category utterly alien to God, but rather, when read within the appropriate context of covenant, promise, and blessing established throughout the ancestral narratives, makes a strong theological statement about God's character, more specifically about His covenantal fidelity. With the intent of bearing out this context, I examined four passages in Genesis from the Jacob/Laban cycle of stories: 28:13-15, 29:31-30:24, 30:27, and 31:24. These four texts revealed that the primary divine concern moving the narratives forward is grounded in the covenant and the ardent desire that God would fulfill His promise and blessing, seemingly at the expense of everything else.”

Pyper, Hugh S., "Judging the Wisdom of Solomon: The Two-Way Effect of Intertextuality," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1993.
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“In his recent article in JSOT on 2 Kings 6.24-33 (Lasine 1991), Stuart Lasine raises the issue of the relationship between that story and the Judgment of Solomon in 1 Kings 3 and how our reading of 2 Kings 6 is illuminated by our knowledge of 1 Kings 3. This response to that article is a tribute to the stimulation Lasine's work has been to me in trying to understand the interaction of such stories and the effect of this on the reader. In this case, however, I want to draw attention to an aspect of the matter that I believe Lasine has not examined: the influence of 2 Kings 6 on our reading of 1 Kings 3.”

Seow, Choon Leong, "The Syro-Palestinian Context of Solomon's Dream,," Harvard Theological Review, 1984.
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“While materials from Egypt are often helpful in our understanding of biblical texts, it seems methodologically sound to begin one's exegesis with parallels from within the Bible itself and from the corpora of West-Semitic inscriptions. Indeed, any Egyptian influence on 1 Kings 3 may be secondary, having filtered into Israel through her Canaanite neighbors. It is necessary, therefore, to give due attention, if not priority, to the parallels mustered in this essay. Finally, it must be reiterated that the references to the sacrifice and the dream of the king are not mere details in a good story: they are integral elements in the legitimation of Solomonic kingship.”

“…in our passage for today, Paul sets out three great hopes.”

Mc Millon, Phillip, "Psalm 105: History with a Purpose,"Restoration Quarterly, 2010.
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(scroll down a couple of pages from the link to this article) “Psalm 105 calls for both praise and obedience. At the core of the psalm is the story of what God did on behalf of his people. God showed his love for his people through his care for them at various stages of their history, God called, guided, protected, and delivered the people of Israel. Only after Israel had seen the work of the Lord were they called to respond in obedience and in praise. Perhaps Ps 105 can serve as a reminder of this important lesson that is still significant today.”

Toussaint, Stanley D. and Jay A Quine, "No, Not Yet: The Contingency of God's Promised Kingdom," Bibliotheca Sacra, 2007.

“Whatever view one takes of the kingdom in Matthew, all agree that the parables of Matthew 13 are descriptive of the present age. The first parable (w. 3-23) serves as an introduction to all the parables and explains why the Lord spoke in parables. This, He said, would conceal the truth from unbelievers and reveal new truth to His disciples (w. 11-13). The parable of the sower and the soils illustrates this well.”

07/16/2014 at 04:09 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)