In Hosea 1, God gave the prophet Hosea the assignment to marry a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom. This was to be a sign, a kind of living parable, of Israel's whoring after other gods. Hosea takes Gomer to be his wife and has three children: Jezreel, No Mercy, and Not My …
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, "What road do I take?" The cat asked, "Where do you want to go?" "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't really matter, does it?" Without a destination in mind, choosing a path is rather pointless. After all, the point …
Continue reading The Telos of Education: One Thing Is Necessary
Discipline is an act of love. The author of Hebrews notes that all discipline is painful at first, "but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Indeed, whenever God disciplines us, we ought to be encouraged that He is treating us like sons. The opposite of …
My eyes long for your promise;I ask, “When will you comfort me?”For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke,yet I have not forgotten your statutes Psalm 119:82-83 ESV The psalmist began this stanza with a desire for salvation: "My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word." Given the context of …
Continue reading When Will You Comfort Me? | Psalm 119:82-83
"The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself" (1689 Baptist Confession, I.9). Scripture illuminates Scripture, and one portion of the Bible must be interpreted through other portions. The full sense of Scripture is not manifold but one, just as Author Himself is one. I always have that principle in mind as I …
Counted, centered, guarded, assigned, cleansed, consecrated, blessed, spoken, purified, and equipped. Over the course of these first chapters of Numbers, God has been doing all of these things to prepare His people for leaving Sinai. And, now, Israel actually marches out. Israel spent nearly a year at the base of the mountain of God. For …
Here is an extended quote from G. Campbell Morgan's teaching on Luke 8:19-39, concerning Jesus calming the storm on the sea. The next thing that we observe is the concern of the disciples. They did everything they could before they woke him, and do not forget that they were not novices. They knew how to …
Going on a journey requires planning and preparation. Since Exodus 19, the people of Israel have been camped at the base of Mount Sinai, and these opening chapters of Numbers have been about Yahweh preparing His people to leave and enter the Promised Land. Chapters 1-7 moved from broad to specific, focusing first on the …
Continue reading Equipped: The Passover, the Cloud, & the Trumpets | Numbers 9:1-10:10
During the last two years of his life, Seneca wrote a series of letters to his friend Lucilius, in which he gave his friend moral counsel. They are often published as "Letters from a Stoic" today. Interestingly, Seneca was an advisor to Nero and very likely could see the pattern of untimely deaths among those …
Continue reading Saving Time: A Reflection on Seneca’s First Letter
My soul longs for your salvation;I hope in your word. Psalm 119:81 ESV A new stanza is begun with this verse, wherein each line begins with the Hebrew letter kaph. And the psalmist begins with his soul: My soul longs for your salvation. In Hebrew, soul (nephesh) is not only the spiritual component of a …
Continue reading My Soul Longs for Your Salvation | Psalm 119:81
B. C. Newton 