LEVITICUS IS ESCHATOLOGY
No one rejects Leviticus outright, but it’s hard for modern readers to engage. It just sits there, forgotten… Leviticus is not a description of a world that passed away. It's a vision of a world that is still yet to come. Leviticus is eschatology.
THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVE & THE INCONVENIENT EXISTENCE OF ISRAEL
“The message of the Bible has an explicitly eschatological thrust centered on the future redemption of Israel. There is simply no way around it. This message was not only handed down to the Jewish people; it hinges on their own redemption. That is, ‘if their rejection brings reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?’”
THE FUTURE PULLING US FORWARD
There is a kind of waiting that wears you down. And there is a kind of waiting that reveals what is in you. Peter is not only addressing a theological question about the timing of Jesus’ return. He is addressing the condition of the heart. What happens in us while we wait?
ISRAEL, THE CHURCH, AND THE ETERNAL COVENANT •PART I
Do we really have two covenants in opposition and contrast, or rather one eternal covenant with different facets that progressively unfolds and renews itself in order to fulfill God’s purposes and demonstrate His faithfulness?
THE REMNANT NOW, ALL ISRAEL THEN: PAUL’S EXPLANATION OF THE PROPHETS
From the beginning, God has been telling a story of redemption. It is a story that is unfolding on the world stage. It is important that we understand this story.
TO BUILD A TABLE
No one in this day and age is tasked with creating the fixture that will host the manifest Presence of the Holy. Still, as with so much of Scripture, we can glean from and lean on principles set forth in the stories. This neglected element of the Exodus serves us with something of our own blueprint: To honor the dignity God gives to the creative, beautiful excellence of artisans made by Him to make things that reflect Him, and to provide beautiful means for a nation to encounter the beautiful Truth. Perhaps we need this now more than ever.
PROMISE & PURSUIT • ABRAHAM’S HOLY DREAM
“Abraham staked his entire life—and that of his covenantal son—on the dream given to him through promises: the city whose builder and maker is God.”
WHAT IS (REALLY) HAPPENING IN IRAN?
“Why would the friends of Israel suffer demonic oppression? Because the Devil never forgets who sides with the Jews.”
HUMILITY AND ESCHATOLOGY
“Humility permeates the teachings of Jesus as a conviction of the certainty of God’s coming Day. The table will most certainly be reorganized one day.”
THE BENEDICT OPTION AT MY SYNAGOGUE
“Such stories matter because they remind us who we are: people of faith, people of the Book, and a people who know that friendship with the world is enmity with God. We lose our way when we fail to distinguish ourselves from the world—that is, from the broader culture. That is how you lose your identity, your faith, and ultimately how we lose our children to secularism and godlessness.”
PAUL’S ANGUISH & THE HEART OF GOD • PART IV
“The more we long for the return of the Lord, the more we will find ourselves drawn into His purposes among the nations—especially in the Middle East, the central stage of the redemptive drama.”
THE SON NOT SPARED
Passover & the Return of Messiah: The holy plot twist, and what it means for the next time He'll part creation to make a passageway.
C.S. LEWIS & THE CONTROVERSY OF ZION
“Asking someone to teach the Bible without mentioning Israel is a bit like asking a professor to teach the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe without mentioning Narnia.”
DISTRACTION, NUMBNESS AND THE CARES OF THIS LIFE • PART II•OUR EYES
“Jesus tells us that ‘The eye is the lamp of the body.’ He says this right after warning us ‘not to lay up treasures on earth but in heaven,’ and right before saying we ‘cannot serve God and money.’ Is there a direct connection between what we set our eyes on and what becomes our desire, attracts us, and eventually becomes our drive in life?”
ANTICIPATING HORSES & THICKETS
If you have raced with runners and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
PAUL’S ANGUISH & THE HEART OF GOD • PART III
“Throughout history, the descendants of Ishmael have indeed become a vast multitude—but they have not yet become a great nation in the purposes of God. That promise still awaits fulfillment before the end of this age.”
CAPTIVES, HOSTAGES, AND PROMISES
If we want to have clarity today and endurance through our remaining tomorrows, we would do well to become literate in the prophets ourselves, remembering a critical principle: The Scriptures are no ordinary texts vulnerable to the scrutiny of our own wavering criticisms; we must submit to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are under no burden to submit to us.
THE GOSPEL OF WEAKNESS
There is hardly a better apology for the state of weakness on the pages of the Bible. In a world and culture that extolled power and success (always a pagan obsession), the apostle Paul embraced everything that made his life miserable.
DISTRACTION, NUMBNESS AND THE CARES OF THIS LIFE • PART I•PRAY
“The warning is clear and so relevant for our days: it is possible to be so engaged in normal, daily activities; to be so distracted by news and events; so busy pursuing hobbies and inoffensive passions, that we become numb to the prophecies, careless about the times we are living… and That Day of Judgement catches us surprise.”
GEN Z •MIRACLES & MARTYRDOM
“The primary goal of our lives in this age is to bear witness to the King and the Kingdom that’s coming. Sometimes God will use miracles to accomplish this witness; often He uses our faithfulness through suffering instead.”