INTRODUCTION In the opening section of this chapter, Isaiah prophesies the coming Assyrian siege of Jerusalem (Isaiah 36-37). David’s city is under siege (Isaiah 29:1), yet Yahweh intervenes at the last moment to disperse Jerusalem’s enemies like chaff (v. 5). THE TEXT “Woe to . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 28:28: Grain for bread is crushed. You are God’s field, God’s vineyard. You are His planting, yield from the seed of His Word planted in the ground of your heart. You are the grain and the grapes of His harvest. The Lord is a wise farmer. He knows His land, knows just how much . . . . Continue Reading »
Epiphany is a season about light, about the light that God is, about the Light from Light that God sent, about the light from the Light of Light that shines from the church to draw the nations to the brightness of His rising. Epiphany is also, inescapably, about darkness. Light came into the world, . . . . Continue Reading »
Many of the goddesses of ancient paganism were domestic types. The goddesses were mother goddesses, or weaver goddesses or sometimes associated with higher arts of civilization – writing and other cultivated elite arts. Tikva Frymer-Kensky notes ( In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture . . . . Continue Reading »
The first phrase of Song of Songs 1:5 is usually taken as a contrast – “black but lovely,” though some have noted that this is not a necessary translation of the phrase. It seems the most likely, though, that the blackness is seen as a negative, but in spite of her blackness, she . . . . Continue Reading »
Charles Adams ( Those Dirty Rotten taxes: The Tax Revolts that Built America ) notes that the clash between North and South was exacerbated by the Confederate decision to lower tariffs and create a free trade zone. Northern interests recognized that this would ruin their trade and manufacturing, as . . . . Continue Reading »
In his The Industrious Revolution: Consumer Behavior and the Household Economy, 1650 to the Present , Jan de Vries notes connections between the “Confessionalizing” movement of the seventeenth century and the rise of “genteel” standards of taste and consumption: “While . . . . Continue Reading »
INTRODUCTION Throughout the first half of his prophecy, Isaiah addresses the Assyrian threat and its geopolitical consequences (Isaiah 1-12). In a series of six woes in chapters 28-35, he deals the temptation for Judah’s kings to rely on Egypt for protection (e.g., 30:1-5). Then, Yahweh . . . . Continue Reading »
Deuteronomy 6:7: You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. We don’t worship simply by putting a service on the calendar and showing up. We put the service on the . . . . Continue Reading »
We don’t offer animals on altars, but the Christian life is more sacrificial than the ancient Jews’, not less. For us, the world is a temple, our lives a continuous offering, our actions moments of a daily liturgy. Paul’s rapid-fire series of instructions in today’s New . . . . Continue Reading »
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