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Exodus 7:1-7
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider As we all know, life is full of hard, impossible questions. And the question “why?” often tops the list – especially when we’re looking at events that simply don’t make sense to our human brains. We hear anguished parents cry it at the graveside of a child. We hear…
Joshua 6
Comments and Observations I imagine if you were brought up in a faith tradition, at some point in your church education (Church School/Sunday School) you acted out this story from Joshua 6. I have a very vivid memory of lining up with my classmates and quietly tip-toeing around a wall of cardboard boxes six times,…
Nehemiah 8:1-12
Comments and Observations It must have been a long, hot, tense six months. The book of Nehemiah tells the story of the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah secures permission to return to his home land in order to rebuild the walls. But not everyone is pleased by…
Genesis 27
Comments and Observations The future of God’s promise hangs in the balance of a family fraught with trouble. The LORD had made a promise to Abraham that he would bless his descendants, and that through them, the whole world would be blessed. Abraham’s son Isaac was the result of that promise. Now, it is for…
Genesis 50:15-26
Comments and Observations The book of Genesis is about the God who makes and keeps promises – often in the unlikeliest of situations. Early in the story, God calls Abraham, and promises that he will give him a family. Through that family, the LORD promises to bless him, make him into a great nation, give…
Exodus 2:11-25
Comments and Observations Sometimes deliverance takes a long time. The Israelites lived in Egypt for almost four hundred years before God raised up their deliverer. In the midst of forced labor and the murder of their infant sons, Moses was born. Miraculously, God delivered him from what should have been a certain death, because he…
Numbers 16
Comments and Observations Who has the LORD chosen? Who belongs to him? Who is holy? These are the questions at the heart of our passage. But how we ask often matters as much as the content of the questions themselves. The people who oppose Moses and Aaron’s leadership, led by Korah, ask these questions with…
Joshua 1
Comments and Observations These notes focus on Joshua 1:1-9 Joshua was in need of strength and courage. The narrator of our passage doesn’t reveal Joshua’s feelings here…but we do hear the LORD tell him three times with increasing intensity: “Be strong and courageous” (v. 6), “Be strong and very courageous” (v. 7), and “Be strong…
2 Samuel 15:1-22
Comments and Observations David’s sudden and dramatic turn from king to fugitive did not come out of the blue. A whole series of consequences from David’s actions – and inactions – now come to a terrible convergence. Perhaps it started with David’s sin against Bathsheba and Uriah. David had known that Bathsheba was married, but…
Psalm 29
Epiphany 1C
Psalm 29 may feel a little hard on ears that are tired and worn down by all the recent holidays’ noise. It is, after all, a “noisy” hymn of praise that the poet fills with the sounds of music, thunder, wind and even the sound that earthquakes make. It’s a psalm that the psalmist also…
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