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God's Covenant of Grace: The Mediator Between Two Agreements
Scripture reveals two distinct covenants between God and man: the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
Isaiah 39:6UniversalGod's righteousness in redemptionChrist as Mediator
The Nature of Angels and Their Relation to Redeemed Humanity
They are the holy ones who stand before Elohim's throne and behold His face continually.
Hebrews 1:16Universalangelic nature and human dignity
Hold Up My Goings: The Believer's Prayer on Slippery Paths
David here stretches out his hand like a little child, crying to his Father: "Hold up my goings." **I.
Psalms 16:6Universaldivine guidance
The Master's Hand Changes Tools, Not Purposes
Yet the narrative turns without hesitation from that lonely sepulcher to the bustling camp and a new leader.
Joshua 1:1-11
Herod's Blindness Against the Magi's Humble Worship
Herod's character bore five destructive marks: blindness to spiritual truth, luxurious indulgence, vengeful anger, susceptibility to flattery, and habitual sin.
Matthew 1:3Universaldivine revelation versus human ambition
Stand in Awe: The Power of Reverent Thought Against Sin
All sin is an offense against Elohim, and nothing corrects it more powerfully than worthy thoughts of God and our relation to Him.
Psalms 4:4Universalreverence before God
The Authority of Jesus Over Human Hearts and Nature
This imperative cuts deeper than His miracles over wind and waves—it exercises mastery over the highest principles of human nature itself.
Matthew 5:44Universaldivine authority
The Feverish Toil of Forgetting God
Judah had forsaken their Rock, their *Elohim* of salvation, and in that abandonment rushed to cultivate 'gardens of pleasures' and 'vine slips of a stranger.' They nursed these alliances with Damascus with frantic care, as Maclaren observes: 'In a day...
Isaiah 17:10-11
Reproof as Sacred Duty: Love's Difficult Gift
Exell's Victorian commentary unpacks reproof as an obligation rooted in love for our neighbours.
Proverbs 28:23Universalfaithful correction
The Ox Knows His Owner: Israel's Forgotten God
but Israel doth not know." The prophet addressed a people surrounded by idolatrous nations, prone to regarding Jehovah as merely one god among many, or worse, as a provincial deity rather than the God of all the earth.
Isaiah 1:3UniversalGod's majesty and tenderness
One Man's Hidden Sin, A Nation's Defeat
Achan's sin was not mere theft; it was *maʿal* (breach of trust), that treacherous departure from God described throughout the Pentateuch.
Joshua 7:1-12
The Angel of the Lord Against Sennacherib's Army
The prophet had learned to recognize God's messengers in natural phenomena—as he wrote, the winds themselves are messengers of Elohim (Psalm 104:4).
Isaiah 35:36Universaldivine providence
God's Secret Revealed to Those Who Fear Him
The Almighty does not merely tolerate the godly; He loves them as His dearest friends, entrusting them with His very secrets.
Psalms 25:14
Dying Prophets Cannot Stop God's Living Word
and the prophets, do they live for ever?' (Zechariah i.
Zechariah 1:5-6
When God's Blessings Become a Curse Through Abuse
God does not pronounce judgment until men have first abused His benevolence and provoked His intervention.
Ezekiel 2:2
Grace and Apostleship: The Inseparable Foundation of Ministry
This dual calling reveals three critical truths about ministerial office.
Romans 1:6Universalthe cost of ministry
The Wicked's Fear and the Righteous's Desire Contrasted
Proverbs 10:24 unveils two destinies: "The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; but the desire of the righteous shall be granted." Who are the wicked?
Proverbs 9:24Universaldivine promise and fulfillment
The Principle of Self-Denial in Following Christ
The principle rests on two foundations: love to Christ involving obedience to His word, and living not unto ourselves but unto God and for others' welfare.
Matthew 15:24Universalfollowing Christ
The Neglected Voice: Instruction Refused and Its Reckoning
Most possess considerable advantages: the pure teaching of Scripture, the living voices of parents and ministers, and the Spirit of Elohim unfolding truth to conscience.
Proverbs 5:13Universalconsequence of disobedience
Forsaking the Guide of Youth: Covenant Broken
We recoil from the depths of human depravity described here, yet the lesson cuts deeper than scandal.
Proverbs 2:17Universalabandonment of faith
Divine Abandonment and the Mystery of Spiritual Hardening
The conduct of Yahweh toward those who have rejected Him is terrible, yet just and adorable.
Mark 4:13Universaldivine judgment
Pilate's Wife: Warning Against Injustice to the Just Man
This intervention—born of her troubling dream—stands as a threefold testimony: the testimony of women to Christ, the testimony of dreams to Christ, and the testimony of suffering to Christ.
Matthew 27:19Universalthe cost of injustice
God's Sovereignty Over Light and Darkness
In Old Testament thought, moral and physical evil are not reduced to a single principle.
Isaiah 45:7Universaldivine sovereignty
Isaiah's Name Reflects His Father's Faith in Yahweh
The rabbis represent Amoz as possibly a brother to King Amaziah, yet his true legacy emerges in his son's very name: *Yeshayahu* (salvation is from Yahweh).
Isaiah 1:1Universaldivine calling
the superiority of redeemed humanity
spiritual weakness
Universal
God's sovereignty over transitions
faith without sight
Alexander Maclaren256 words
authentic worship versus false piety
fear of the Lord as moral restraint
transformation of human nature
Universal
the cost of forgetting God
false security versus divine protection
Alexander Maclaren247 words
love expressed through honesty
Israel's forgetfulness
Universal
hidden sin and corporate consequence
breach of trust against God
Alexander Maclaren240 words
answered prayer
Universal
divine intimacy
hidden righteousness
Charles H. Spurgeon212 words
Universal
God's Word endures beyond human mortality
The permanence of divine utterance
Alexander Maclaren254 words
Universal
Divine judgment and mercy intertwined
Blessings perverted become curses
grace as qualification
the character of God's judgment
personal sacrifice
moral accountability
youth and temptation
spiritual blindness
conscience and divine restraint
theodicy
historical context of faith