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215 illustrations
The repetition *houtos* (this very one) marks a decisive moment in Israel's history.
Upon this eternal, self-existent fidelity we can repose with safety.
The circle stands as geometry's most perfect figure, and God selected it as His design for creation itself.
Many professing Christians require conversion; many churches require Christianization.
Joseph Exell observed in 1887 that Moses' law was geographically confined to Judea, while other systems adapted to local customs and remained regional.
Weakness becomes the vessel for His empowerment, as vine-sap fills the hollow branch and water flows into the hollowed basin.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
The latter we enjoy now through faith and hope; but the former is present with us, the certain consequence and necessary attendant upon a mind truly virtuous and religious.
His selection springs entirely from His sovereign good pleasure, not from merit or deservedness.
The Hebrew word *mashal* (similitude) carried the weight of mockery—so completely had the nation's condition deteriorated that "a miserable man" would be called "a Jew" in contempt, just as liars were branded "Cretans" and wretched slaves were named "Sardians." This...
One infant—Joash—remained hidden in the Temple storerooms, guarded by his aunt and Jehoiada the high priest.
Exell's Victorian homiletical analysis reveals three cardinal parallels between the Jewish Passover and the Lord's Supper.
When you sit before your meal, you behold a creature that once swam freely in waters or soared through heavens—now placed there by your authority.
Consider the steadfastness of nature itself, dependent utterly upon God's ordinances *mishpatim*—His decrees and established laws.
The distinction between "lively" and "living" reveals Scripture's nature: where *lively* denotes mere animation, *living* (*zōē*) signifies life as an operative principle—comprehensive, generative, self-perpetuating.
God's promises to penitents rest upon three pillars of truth.
David speaks not of mere bodily existence, but of life in its truest sense—union with Elohim himself.
Moses and Pharaoh understood this as warfare between supernatural powers.
The messianic hope, which had embraced all humanity as 'the seed of the woman,' then narrowed to Abraham's seed, then Judah's tribe, now contracted further—to the house of David alone.
The king received a narrow escape when Jeroboam's schism drove faithful priests and worshippers southward, strengthening his kingdom.
First, in *number*: Under the ancient dispensation, spiritual Israel remained comparatively few.
The Victorian homiletics of Joseph Exell (1887) pressed a crucial distinction: godliness genuinely lengthens life, not through magic, but through obedience to Yahweh's wholesome laws.
When Elohim displays His supremacy through knowledge—by announcing events before they occur—He addresses our judgment directly, without the bewilderment that miracles may produce.
This statement carries three profound truths about divine communication and human responsibility.