Everything the author has been saying about the Son’s superiority to angels has been building to 2:1 ...
Angels were highly revered by the Jewish people. God had often used angels in the Old Testament to give his people guidance (Genesis 19:17), protection (Psalm 91:11), deliverance (Isaiah 37:35-37), and even judgment for their sin (2 Samuel 24:16-17). As one author writes: “When an angel spoke, people listened.”...
When life gets hard, what do you turn to for comfort? And where do you go for relief when the Christian life in particular becomes difficult? Do you persevere in your walk with Jesus despite the hardship? Or do you return to the comfortable habits and patterns of life that marked your life before becoming a Christian? These were the kind of questions facing the original recipients of Hebrews....
Genesis 23:1-25:18 wraps up the life of Abraham by focusing in the land, offspring, and blessing God had promised him. In Genesis 23, Abraham became the legal owner of a small plot of the promised land when he purchased a cave in which to bury Sarah. In Genesis 24, the focus shifts to the promise of offspring....
Having waited decades for the promised child to arrive, Abraham was tested by God to see if he valued God above all other things, even his beloved son. In the climax of the whole Abraham story, he proved that he did by being willing to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice (see Genesis 22)....
In between God’s initial promise to Abraham of offspring and Isaac’s actual birth were years of waiting as well as numerous trials. But the greatest test to Abraham’s faith in God’s promise wouldn’t come until after Isaac came on the scene. ...
In Genesis 20, Abraham again tried the “Sarah is my sister” ruse out of fear for his life (see Genesis 12:10-20). This time, he tried it with Abimelech, king of Gerar. God intervened to assure that Abimelech didn’t touch Sarah, and for the entire time she was in his palace, the women of Gerar couldn’t get pregnant. After the truth came out, Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham, who in turn prayed for the barren women of Gerar to become pregnant. This begs the question: God can do this for Gerar’s women; when will he do it for Sarah?...
In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham that he would give him offspring and make him into a great nation. Since then, many obstacles have threatened to stand in the way of that promise. Some were circumstantial, such as Sarah’s barrenness (11:30) and eventually her age (18:11). Others were moral, like the incidents in Egypt (12:10-20) and the one with Hagar (16:1-16). On the eve of Isaac’s birth, another moral failure from Abraham threatens the fulfillment of God’s promise....
In Genesis 18:1-15, Abraham was met by three visitors: God himself and two angels. After being treated to Abraham’s remarkable hospitality, God told him that his promise to give him and Sarah a son would be fulfilled in a year. In response to Sarah’s skeptical laughter, God reminds her that because he is God, nothing is impossible for him....
In Genesis 17, God gave Abram several new details regarding the covenant he had made with him in chapter 15. First, Abram was to be the father of not just one nation but many, so God changed his name to “Abraham” which means “father of a multitude”. Additionally, kings would come from him, this covenant would be an everlasting one that included his descendants, and most importantly, God would be their God in a personal way. God also made it explicitly clear that Abraham’s promised child would be born to his wife Sarah....
First Corinthians is Paul’s response both to reports he had heard about the church and to questions the church itself had sent him. Having addressed the report of divisions (1:10-4:21), he now turns to address reports of immorality within the church (5:1-6:20)....
Keep ReadingThis week's passage: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 Discussion guide...
Keep ReadingINTRODUCTION Division within the church is the first issue Paul addresses in 1 Corinthians, and it's an issue that dominates the letter's first four chapters. Having mentioned the divisions in 1:10-17, Paul went on to argue that worldly wisdom lay at the root of them, and that such wisdom is at odds with godly wisdom (1:18-2:6). He then went on to show that only the Holy ...
Keep ReadingINTRODUCTION Having established that the divisions within the Corinthian church were the result of worldly wisdom and that such "wisdom" is incompatible with godly wisdom, Paul now brings this first major section of the letter to a close by reminding his readers how they are to view him as an apostle and as their "father". MAIN POINT Christians should not boast about wh...
Keep Reading