This is the audio (8:31, 3.9 MB) of a homily I gave at Grace Anglican Church, Grove City, PA, on March 25, 2024, the Monday of Holy Week. The Scripture text is Isaiah 42:1–9, which was read before I stood up to speak so it’s not on the recording.
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This is the audio (37:09, 17.0 MB) of a sermon I preached at a chapel service for students in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on March 17, 2024. The Scripture text is 2 Peter 1:16–21, which was read before I stood up to speak so it’s not on the recording.
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This is the audio (29:58, 10.2 MB) of a sermon I preached at New Calvary Church in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on March 10, 2024. The Scripture text is Mark 2:13–17.
Continue readingHere are two sermons I preached recently at Leesburg Presbyterian Church, Leesburg, PA. The videos are hosted on YouTube, and queued to the start of the sermon:
“Deuteronomy 4:5–13: So That It May Go Well With You.” (January 28, 2024)
“Deuteronomy 7:1–16: Chosen for Holiness.” (February 4, 2024)
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This is the audio (32:43, 22.4 MB) of a sermon I preached at Redeemer Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Erie, PA, on February 11, 2024. The Scripture text is Mark 9:1–13.
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This is the audio (26:03, 24.4 MB) of a sermon I preached at the Mill Street (5th-12th grades) campus of Grove City Christian Academy on February 2, 2024. The students have been working through the book of Samuel, and it fell to me to preach from 2 Samuel 7. The Scripture reading by a student was inaudible on the recording, but you can read it here: 2 Samuel 7:8–16, 22–24.
My 13-year-old son came up to be afterward and shook my hand, so I’ll take that as a sign that I didn’t embarrass him (and my daughter) too badly!
Continue readingThis is the audio (21:22, 16.9 MB) of a sermon I preached at the Madison Avenue (elementary) campus of Grove City Christian Academy back on December 8, 2023. The audience was preschool through 4th-grade students, and my texts were excerpts from Jeremiah 18–19.
Continue readingOur family is working through the book of Samuel in our morning devotions. Even having studied this book extensively–taught OT Narrative Lit several times, and written two books and several articles that touch on the subject–I’m struck once again by how intricate and nuanced the stories are. I have other topics I’m writing on at the moment, but I hope to come back and write an article on the laws (economic, ritual purity, vows, etc.) that are presumed behind the book of Samuel.
For yesterday’s reading, we looked at 1 Samuel 28, in which Saul consults the medium at En-dor (not this Endor) in advance of his battle with the Philistines, which turns out to be his downfall. There are many interesting aspects to this passage.
I had a student last year who wrote a paper on 1 Samuel 28 in South Asian context. It was a very interesting paper, informed by his Christian community’s encounters with spiritualists and mediums. One of the things that we discovered as he was doing his research, as that historic Christian interpreters have been divided on the question of what exactly the medium (and possibly Saul) actually witnessed when she conjured Samuel’s elohim.
Continue readingOver at the Heidelblog, R. Scott Clark writes, “Plagiarism And The Ugly Truth About Education.” I agree in large measure with Scott’s essay, but my comment took the issue in a bit of a different direction.
Continue readingNumerous passages in the Hebrew Bible present Israel as having a unique relationship with YHWH. This relationship begins with the choosing of Abraham and the Patriarchs, and is cemented by the rescue from Egypt, the giving of the Law at Sinai, and the granting of the land of Canaan.
32 “For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. 33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? 34 Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? 35 To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him. 36 Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire. 37 And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38 driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, 39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.”
Deuteronomy 4:32-39 (ESV)
1 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
Amos 3:1-2 (ESV)
2 “You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.”
However, there are other passages that seem to point to Israel’s non-uniqueness in at least two of those areas. Other peoples are said to have been brought out the midst of certain nations, and some seem to be granted land near Israel’s allotment.
Amos 9:7, despite the special relationship between YHWH and Israel described in 3:1–2, draws parallels to similar exodoi from Caphtor and Kir by the Philistines and the Arameans, respectively:
“Are you not like the Cushites to me,
Amos 9:7
O people of Israel?” declares the LORD.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?”
In Deuteronomy 2, Moses narrates the Israelites’ journey from the Sinai desert, up through the territory of Edom and Moab, and near Ammon, to their putative location across the Jordan from Jericho. On that journey, the allotments to Edom, Moab and Ammon—peoples descended from Terah—were off-limits to the Israelites. Additionally, the passage describes (from a later vantage point that knows of the Israelite conquest, 2:12c) that these peoples also destroyed/displaced the previous inhabitants, who were giants that the Israelites called Rephaim or Anakim.
| Esau/Edom | Moab | Ammon | |
| Fourth generation from Terah | Through Abraham, Isaac; “our brothers” (2:8) | Through Nahor, Lot (and Lot’s daughters); “the people of Lot” (2:9) “the sons of Lot” (2:19) | |
| Land grant from YHWH; Israel forbidden from taking it | 2:5 | 2:9 | 2:19 |
| Former occupants of the land, tall as Anakim, among the Rephaim | 2:12, 22: Horim | 2:10: Emim | 2:20–21: Zamzummim |
The passage also notes that “Caphtorim from Caphtor” destroyed the Avvim who lived in/near Gaza (2:23). Elsewhere, the Philistines are said to come from Caphtor (Gen 10:14//1 Chr 1:12; Jer 47:4; Amos 9:7)
What to make of these other exodoi and conquests? Was Israel that unique among the nations? Yes, and no. We know nothing of these other migrations/departures orchestrated by YHWH, but Deut 4:32–34 would still indicate that they were nothing as spectacular as the salvation of Israel from Egypt. There is no record in Israel’s Bible of anything like a Sinai covenant or law given to these other nations.
Moreover, at least with the “conquests” and land-grants of Edom, Moab and Ammon: these allotments can be understood as “secondary blessing” because of these nations’ connection to Abraham. In Genesis 21:13 YHWH affirms to Abraham that even though his elder son, Ishmael, is not the child of promise, Ishmael will nevertheless be blessed and become a great nation for Abraham’s sake.
However, it is interesting to consider the Hebrew Bible’s reflections on YHWH-orchestrated exodoi, migrations and conquests, besides the Israelite exodus from Egypt and the conquest of Canaan. Later texts explicitly affirm YHWH’s sovereignty over the actions of great empires such as Assyria (Isa 10:5–19), Babylon (Isa 14:3–21) and Persia (Isa 45)—therefore, he could certainly have had a hand in the migration and liberation(?) of smaller peoples, as well.
think hard, think well 