For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4 NASB Crept in unnoticed – Who are these terrible people? Who are the ones who crept in to the…
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living [g]person. Genesis 2:7 NASB Living person – You’ll notice the little footnote in the NASB text. The footnote reads “Or soul,” but that is about as misleading as you could get. God does not…
He also chose His servant David and took him from the sheepfolds; from the care of the ewes with nursing lambs He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with his skillful hands. Psalm 78:70-72 NASB Ewes with nursing lambs – “The…
Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a warrior overcome by wine. He drove His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting disgrace. He also rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved. Psalm 78:65-68 NASB Rejected – Now the politics comes…
And He gave up His strength to captivity and His glory into the hand of the enemy. He also turned His people over to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance. Psalm 78:61-62 NASB The hand of the enemy – Okay, let’s agree that Asaph is a poet, not an historian. Let’s agree that he…
When God heard them, He [ac]was filled with wrath and He utterly rejected Israel; Psalm 78:59 NASB Utterly rejected – If God “utterly rejected” Israel because of their disobedience in the wilderness, then why couldn’t He do it again when they rejected the Messiah? Seems logical, doesn’t it? Even if the Jews claim an “eternal covenant” with God, doesn’t…
For they provoked Him with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images. Psalm 78:58 NASB Provoked/ jealousy – Yesterday we realized that the children of Israel turned back (sûg) toward Egypt in their hearts because they could not emotionally trust God. Their feet kept going forward, around and around in the wilderness waiting, waiting,…
But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned aside like a treacherous bow. Psalm 78:57 NASB Turned back – Don’t be mistaken. This Hebrew word is not שׁוּב (šûb) (re)turn. šûb is “turning back” to God. Jeremiah uses this Hebrew verb in seventeen different ways, all connected to returning. But Asaph doesn’t employ šûb. …
They did not remember His [w]power, the day when He redeemed them from the enemy, Psalm 78:42 NASB Not remember – In the next ten verses Asaph lists all the mighty works that God did to redeem His people from Egypt. You might notice that his list isn’t quite the same as the sequence of events in Exodus. For…
How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! Again and again they [v]temptedGod, and pained the Holy One of Israel. Psalm 78:40-41 NASB Tempted – We’re all familiar with James’ declaration: “No one is to say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He…
