Luke traces Jesus’ lineage through the paternal line (unlike Matthew, who traces it through the maternal line, with some startling surprises). Luke produces a pedigree of fathers and sons. The single dominant refrain of the entire passage: “he was the son of….”
Read More acceptance, redemption
Our first response after reading this chapter may be that it unfolds like “R” rated movie. But we need to read this story in the context of the time it was written.
The main point of this story is the preservation of the line of Judah.
Read More redemption, Tamar, prostitute“Let my people go” (8:2). This is the focus of God’s Story in Exodus. The book opens in slavery and closes with Israel in freedom to worship God. It is tempting to look at the plagues God brought to Egypt simply as agents of destruction but their purpose was to save his people. God is in the business of redemption. Why frogs? They were considered sacred, a symbol of fertility, by the Egyptians.
Read More redemption, MosesThe Israelites are instructed to take the blood of a perfect lamb, apply it to their doorposts, so that death would pass over them as it ravaged Egypt. The Lord required Israel’s participation in the final plague but not the others. They were not automatically exempt from the substitution of a life for a life. Obedience to God’s plan protected them and provided the escape from judgment
Read More Passover, redemption, Jesus
This psalm is different. It’s unique among the 150 psalms in the Bible because it presents us with various vignettes of redemption—brief stories or scenes where the Lord rains down his mercy and rescues the wayward and downtrodden.
In verse two the psalmist declares, “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.”
Read More mercy, redemptionNaomi is not alone. There are times when we all wallow in bitterness so thoroughly that we are blind to God’s solution to our problems. We all suffer that sickness at some point.
In Naomi’s case, she has traveled all the way from Moab to her hometown, a journey estimated to take at least a week on foot. Yet, apparently, it never crossed her mind to ask a kinsman to redeem Ruth.
Read More hope, redemption, kindnessThrough Jesus, we can have a full life (John 10:10), overflowing with blessings (Psalm 23:5-6).
In the story of Ruth’s life, we see what that looks like, what it means to be redeemed, to be bought back from a life of limited hope, or no hope. We see how God responds to those who genuinely pursue him, even Ruth, a woman who once worshiped false gods (Ruth 1:15), and even Naomi who was bitter toward him.
Read More blessing, redemption, women, SaviourLuke traces Jesus’ lineage through the paternal line (unlike Matthew, who traces it through the maternal line, with some startling surprises). Luke produces a pedigree of fathers and sons. The single dominant refrain of the entire passage: “he was the son of….”
Maybe nothing locates us as quickly and precisely in the human story as that little prepositional clause, the son of…. So much distils into that.
Read More acceptance, redemptionI recall being hurt by a “brother.” He claimed to believe, live and love the same God as I did and yet he hurt me. And the hurt he caused me was real and unjustified!
I can remember thinking, “One day he will pay for how he hurt me. God, either I or both of us will be able to make him pay! And when he does, I hope they won’t ask me to ever pay him tribute!”
Read More grace, forgiveness, redemptionThe world that is, is not what was intended to be. We were meant to eat without having to wrestle our bread from the earth, to build without breaking our bodies to do it, to love without our hearts being broken. But the world was warped and broken by sin, and all things were bent away from their original intention. Death crept in through the cracks that had opened in the universe, and with it came things that were never meant to be: sickness and war, and famine and disease.
Read More redemption, brokenness