I was recently reading Romans and encountered a statement Paul makes about Abraham. He says, “[Abraham] received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised” (Rom. 4:11). Paul makes this pivotal point, that Abraham was credited with righteousness prior…

The whole story of the book of Ruth hinges on the pivotal third chapter. Naomi devises a plan for Ruth to essentially propose to Boaz. And Ruth, astonishingly, agrees to the plan and throws caution to the wind. Christopher Ash says Ruth demonstrates “six facets of covenant faith” in this…

When criticized in ministry we may be tempted to pull out the so-called big guns. If we’re not careful, we may respond to such criticism with some fairly offensive attacks of our own. However, the “I’ll show you” or the “Criticize this” approach won’t get us very far with our…

Prior to the first battle after Israel entered the land of Canaan, Joshua encountered a mysterious warrior. This warrior identifies himself as the commander of the Lord’s army. Who is this commander and what does his appearance indicate? Let’s get some help in understanding Joshua’s encounter with this mysterious warrior…

Hosea anticipated a time when the Lord would renew his covenant with Israel. He did so through the use of the analogy of marriage. By using the analogy of marriage, Hosea graphically described the unfaithfulness of Yahweh’s people and anticipated the time of a new covenant. This would be the…

What can today’s churches learn from the letters to the churches in Revelation? In Revelation 2–3, John addresses seven letters to seven churches in Asia Minor. These notes from the Interpretation Commentary help us see into the challenges facing the seven churches. From this we can identify some of the…