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At Pentecost, the disciples heard 'a sound as of wind'—yet Maclaren draws a crucial distinction that arrests the imagination: Luke's language carefully distinguishes between the *phonē* (sound) and actual wind. No air rushed through the chamber. No hair on any...
Luthardt identifies seven critical aspects: God's kingdom surpasses all earthly kingdoms; amidst the collapse of human rule, men seek one that endures; it is founded upon moral goodness rather than external might; it originated in Elohim's *protē noēsis* (primeval thought);...
Yet Maclaren finds in this incompleteness not defeat but a divine principle.
Rather than dismiss these prayers as expressions of unholy personal malice, Exell proposes a principle: examine what Yahweh Himself declares about such utterances.
Isaiah 58:16 declares: "Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles." This remarkable promise describes the Church's sustenance through the wealth, power, and resources that nations and kings willingly contribute to her growth. The imagery is maternal, not predatory....
In earthly transactions, once a covenant is confirmed between two parties, neither can annul it or add fresh clauses—the agreement stands in all integrity.
The Hebrew exclamation *hoy* (הוי) — often translated "Ah" — expresses God's judicial anger, not mere regret.
The Lord Yahweh endured the unspeakable sorrows and agonies of crucifixion in perfect, marvelous silence—the scourging, the mockery, the nails, the darkness.
When Yahweh commanded the Twelve to take neither two coats nor extra provisions, He was not imposing arbitrary hardship. Scholar W. M. Thomson, D.D., observed the cultural context that made this instruction spiritually wise rather than materially cruel. In the...
In Old Testament thought, moral and physical evil are not reduced to a single principle.
"Four young men have I slain with the sword . . . yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord." God's dealings with nations and individuals during trial proceed not from vindictiveness but from love and compassion, designed...
The benefit of trials is entirely lost when we despise the Lord's chastening or faint under His rebuke.
Maclaren observes that the Hebrew *choli* (sicknesses) and *makob* (sorrows) resist our modern distinction between bodily and spiritual disease.
The pedigree of true believers consists of two movements: first, they were once *in* the world, characterized by practical atheism (living without God in spirit and conduct), imperial materialism (recognizing no spiritual universe), and dominant selfishness (each governed by selfish...
2:13), where every meat-offering required salt as a preservative, Christ establishes a profound contrast between two destinies.
Each represents a distinct posture before the throne of the Almighty.
The first, *El* (אל), designates Elohim as the Mighty One—the Supreme Power who sustains all creation.
Note three truths: First, Elohim hath already given the very greatest thing to set before salvation: what every parent who had but one beloved son would surely feel as the greatest of his treasures.
David declares, "In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word." This dual invocation reveals a profound commitment transcending circumstance.
Exell identifies how the term "conversion" suffers constant misapplication—a Chinaman becoming American, a philosopher abandoning materialism, or someone transferring denominational membership.
Concrete sorrows—starvation, displacement, loss—paradoxically sharpen our vision of the Lord's presence.
First, he is a *hagios* (saint)—a separated one, taken out of the world and set apart for God's purposes.
Isaiah 25:11 presents a figure of Yahweh frustrating the drowning efforts of Moab in the dungpit—a scene that Professor S. B. Driver interprets as divine power subduing iniquity. The homiletic tradition that follows offers this vivid image: God as a...
The cedar of Mount Lebanon towers with extended branches offering shade.