Latest Commentaries

Faith Without Works is Unhelpful: James illustrates how it is not useful to have faith but to fail to take action. If someone is suffering, and a believer merely wishes them well, rather than helping, what good is that? If we do not add action to our faith, our faith grows cold and inert.

When Jesus is in the home of Simon the leper, a woman anoints His head with expensive perfume. The disciples see this as a waste of money and resources. Jesus informs them that she has done a good thing and that it prepares His body for burial. This event is commonly referred to as "Jesus’s Anointing at Bethany."

Meanwhile the chief priests plot with their high priest, Caiaphas, how and when they will destroy Jesus. They decide it is best to do this away from the crowds. This event is commonly known as “The Plot to Kill Jesus.”

Jesus informs His disciples that He will be crucified in two days during Passover.

Exodus 2:11-15 explains Moses’s sudden departure from Egypt.

Gomer’s probationary period illustrates Israel’s experience in captivity, where the nation will live with no political or religious entity. After this period, Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and will experience complete restoration.

Hosea obeys the LORD’s command and buys his wife Gomer back. But to discipline Gomer, Hosea asks her to live in complete abstinence of sexual relations for many days, to stop playing the harlot, and to refrain from marrying another man, before the two of them can resume their normal married life.

The LORD commands Hosea to retrieve his wife Gomer in love, even though she is an adulteress. This gracious act illustrates God’s love for Israel who turns to other gods.

We are incapable of fully understanding how flawed and fallen we are. But we can ask God for forgiveness for the mistakes we do not even realize we have made. Further, we ought to ask God to keep us from intentional sins that would enslave us. God is the only true support and savior of humankind.

God’s commandments are perfect. Those who follow them are made wise, their hearts are glad, their souls are healthy. Through obedience to God, we find great reward.

God’s creation speaks of His glory. The heavens, the stars, the sun, all speak of His essence as Maker and Lord of all.  

There is a believer in the coastal city of Joppa named Tabitha. She is well known to be charitable and kind. But she falls ill and dies. The disciples of Joppa send for Peter, who is not far in the town of Lydda. He comes to Joppa and prays for Tabitha. He tells her to arise, and she wakes up from death. Her resurrection becomes well known throughout the city, and many believe in Jesus because of it. Peter remains in Joppa for a time.

A time of peace for the church begins. Peter visits many of the churches throughout Israel. In the town of Lydda, Peter heals a paralyzed man named Aeneas. Seeing this disabled man now walk, all who live in Lydda and the surrounding area believe in Jesus.

When Saul returns to Jerusalem, the other disciples reject him for a time out of fear. But the charitable and generous disciple Barnabas befriends Saul and takes him to the apostles. They learn of his vision of Christ on the road, and his ministry in Damascus. Saul begins preaching throughout Jerusalem. Soon the Greek—speaking Jews plot to put him to death, so the apostles send Saul away to his hometown of Tarsus.

Saul immediately begins preaching in Damascus that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah. Everyone is amazed. They knew Saul beforehand as a persecutor of believers, and now he was a believer himself. Some of the Jews in Damascus plot to kill him for his betrayal, but he catches wind of this and escapes the city by night.

Jesus speaks to a believer in Damascus named Ananias, telling him to go to Saul and heal his blindness. Ananias understandably hesitates, since this Saul is famously persecuting the church, and had arrived in Damascus with the intention to arrest believers, bind them, and take them away to Jerusalem. Jesus tells Ananias that Saul has been chosen to spread the gospel and suffer for His sake. So Ananias obeys. He puts his hands on Saul, and Saul’s sight returns. Saul is baptized.

Saul the Pharisee continues his aggressive campaign against believers. He sets out on a journey to Damascus in Syria to arrest any disciples of Jesus there. When he has almost arrived to his destination, a light from heaven flashes and knocks him down, blinding him. The voice of Jesus asks Saul why he is persecuting Him. Saul goes into the city, still blind, and does not eat or drink for three days.

After Moses’s recitation of the song and final exhortation to Israel, the Suzerain God commands him the same day to go up Mount Nebo to view the Promised Land from afar and to die there on the mountain.

After reciting his song to the Israelites (vv. 1-43), Moses exhorts them to covenant faithfulness, calling them to take everything to heart to live long in the Promised Land.

Moses now comments on the LORD’s speech as he invites the nations to join in the celebration of God’s gracious acts on Israel’s behalf.