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Baruch ben Neriah (Jeremiah 45)

Paul Gustave Doré(b: January 6, 1832; d. January 23, 1883) The Text “The word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: You said, ‘Woe is me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my…

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The Rape of Dinah

Rape of DinahBy Giuliano Bugiardini (b. 1475)Public Domain, Wikipedia Commons The Text “Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the region. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force. 3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly to…

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THE SOUL’S DEEP LONGING (Psalm 84)

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:2). There is a hunger built into the human heart that nothing earthly can satisfy. The psalmist captures this profound truth with visceral language that speaks to our deepest experience. He does not merely say he wants to go to the temple or that he thinks worship is important. He…

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Praying the Psalms: Finding Your Voice in Israel's Prayer Book

A New Devotional Journey Through All 150 Psalms There is a book in the Bible unlike any other. It does not simply tell us about God. It teaches us how to speak to God. For three thousand years, the Book of Psalms has been the living prayer book of the people of God, carried through the wilderness, sung in the Temple courts, whispered in exile, chanted in cathedrals, and murmured at bedsides in…

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“Leave Me Alone”: Divine Pathos, Prophetic Intercession, and the Repentance of God in Exodus 32:7–14 – Part 3

“Why does your anger burn” (Exodus 3212) Part 1 – Click Here Part 2 – Click Here Theological Synthesis: Prayer, Repentance, and the Triumph of Love The Efficacy of Intercessory Prayer The first theological affirmation that Exodus 32:7–14 yields is the genuine efficacy of intercessory prayer. The narrative is constructed in such a way that Moses’ intercession is the decisive turning point. Before…

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“Leave Me Alone”: Divine Pathos, Prophetic Intercession, and the Repentance of God in Exodus 32:7–14 – Part 2

“Why does your anger burn” (Exodus 3212) Read Part 1 by clicking here. A Close Reading of Exodus 32:7–14 The Transfer of Ownership and the Irony of “Your People” The dialogue in Exodus 32:7–14 opens with God addressing Moses in an immediately startling manner. Rather than speaking of “my people,” the standard covenantal designation for Israel, God says: “Go down at once! Your people, whom you…

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“Leave Me Alone”: Divine Pathos, Prophetic Intercession, and the Repentance of God in Exodus 32:7–14 – Part 1

“Why does your anger burn” (Exodus 3212) “Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them” (Exod. 32:10 NIV) Abstract This essay on divine repentance originated as a lecture delivered to students at Northern Seminary and has been further developed from course notes prepared for my Old Testament Theology seminar, also taught at Northern Seminary. The essay…

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Leah, The Unloved Mother

Jacob and Leah with their SonsFrancesco Zuccarelli (1702–1788)Wikimedia Commons – Public Domain The Unloved Mother On this Mother’s Day, we pause to celebrate the women whose love, sacrifice, and endurance have shaped the lives of their children and the course of human history. This is a day for children to honor their mothers and for husbands to express gratitude for the remarkable women who…

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Zipporah, Moses’ Wife

Moses and Zipporah by Charles Lebrun (1687)Public DomainWikimedia Commons The figure of Zipporah presents a compelling case study in the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and narrative authority within ancient Israelite literature. As the Midianite wife of Moses, Zipporah occupies a liminal position that challenges conventional boundaries between insiders and outsiders, the sacred and the…

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He Is Risen

He Is Risen “He is not here” (Mark 16:6). [Note: This sermon was preached on Easter Sunday, Sunday, March 31, 2002, at Trinity Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois]. I. The Darkness of Calvary When Jesus died upon the cross at Calvary, darkness covered the earth. The evangelist Mark records that from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over the whole land (Mark 15:33). That physical…

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Ur and Haran: Abraham’s Background

The migration of the patriarchs from their place of origin into the land of Canaan is emphasized several times in the Old Testament as an integral ingredient of biblical history. In fact, the early life of Abraham is characterized by his migrations from Mesopotamia to Canaan, to Egypt, and back to Canaan. This emphasis is consistent with the biblical view that the patriarchs came from outside of…

"Leave Me Alone": Divine Pathos, Prophetic Intercession, and the Repentance of God in Exodus 32:7–14 - Part 1

“Why does your anger burn” (Exodus 3212) Abstract This essay on divine repentance originated as a lecture delivered to students at Northern Seminary and has been further developed from course notes prepared for my “Old Testament Theology” course, also taught at Northern Seminary. The essay examines the theological significance of the divine-human dialogue recorded in Exodus 32:7–14, with…

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Page H. Kelley (1924–1997)

Page H. Kelley Today, March 13, marks the anniversary of the death of Page H. Kelley, one of the most distinguished Old Testament scholars and educators produced by the Southern Baptist tradition. He died on March 13, 1997, in a Louisville, Kentucky, hospital following a recent heart attack. He was seventy-two years of age. This essay is a tribute to his life, his work, and his enduring…

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Establishing Weights and Measures in Ancient Israel

This article, published in Biblical Illustrator, Winter 2011-12, explores the metrological systems used in ancient Israel, tied to the biblical passage Deuteronomy 25:13-16. Origins of Israel’s System Israel’s weights and measures were derived from Mesopotamian — primarily Babylonian — systems. The Babylonians developed an elaborate sexagesimal (base-60) system as early as the third millennium…

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The Good Son: Redemption Through Choice

NOTE: Years ago, I served as a curriculum writer for the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, where I developed Spanish-language lessons to help adult Sunday School teachers prepare their classes. One series of lessons focused on the book of Ezekiel, which was published in 1986. I have since translated these lessons into English, updated the content, and reformatted them as…

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Joel: The Treasure of Stories

My new book, From Sinai to Sunday: Old Testament Studies from Jeff Griffin’s Sermons, represents a distinctive collaboration between the academy and the pulpit — two worlds that too rarely speak to one another with the depth and mutual respect they deserve. My pastor, Jeff Griffin, Senior Pastor of Compass Church in Naperville, Illinois, has an uncommon passion for preaching from the Old…

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Acquiring Wealth in the Ancient Near East

This article, published in Biblical Illustrator, Summer 2013, examines how wealth was accumulated and understood across ancient Near Eastern cultures and connects it to biblical texts. Mesopotamia was the cradle of wealth creation, driven by fertile land, irrigation systems, textile manufacturing, and trade. Society was stratified — landholding elites, free citizens, and slaves — with kings,…

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