Character in Context

There is so much context here! But what stands out in Genesis 22 more than anything are the conflicting emotions and turmoil. Tired of platitudes and pat answers to the hard questions? Me too. There is a lot going on here that too many people don’t even want to acknowledge. This is a text tailor made to be wrestled with and we aren’t given any easy answers to important questions so why pretend oth...

Although what we see today in Jerusalem is more like tabernacling for a week in some pretty elaborate, luxurious, and comfortable “temporary dwellings,” the original command to observe the festival of Sukkot was a memorial to those difficult wilderness years when diligently following the cloud and fire and gathering the daily manna was a mater of life and death. How does this relate to Yeshua’s/Je...

Yom Kippur, apart from being the holiest day of the year, was also the happiest. There’s just something about setting things right with God that is incredibly satisfying. Yes there was fasting and somber reflection because it isn’t joyous to have to watch the High Priest clean up the defilement of the community through blood cleansing, and it wouldn’t have been appropriate to be feasting, but ther...

Chag Sameach! Happy Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah/Feast of Trumpets! This is a series I did for an online conference back when I was younger and thinner and not hacking up a lung. Just kidding, my lungs are right where they belong but they aren’t happy about it. Since I am under the weather this year in a big way (I shouldn’t hug and kiss sick people but that’s why I get everything that comes through t...

I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am that I can teach this chapter without having to go into gory details about sexual nonsense and, as such, anyone can listen to this Context for Kids supplemental teaching on the first portion of Gen 21, which covers the birth of Isaac and the exile of Ishmael and Hagar. Things won’t get awkward again until Gen 29, thankfully—at least not in ways I would...

I am about to begin teaching the kids about Genesis 20 and 21 over on Context for Kids and so it is time to explore the disturbing implications of what is said in Genesis 20 back to what wasn't said in Genesis 12 when Pharaoh took Sarai. Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2024/06/episode-189-genesis-20-abrahams-sister-a-headache-of-a-chapter/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/CD1jhyK8sZU

Ugh. When I started my Context for Kids radio show, I was just dreading this series. Genesis 19—really the only chapter in the Bible I would want to teach even less is Judges 19. But, I can’t skip it over, right? I will be teaching the kids Genesis 19 interpretation by using the prophets and how they viewed and spoke about Sodom—as an unhospitable and oppressively wicked society—and leave sex out...

Now that we’ve covered the ancient rules for hospitality, I want to talk about the commonly misunderstood accounts of Rahab, Yael and Abigail. And we’ll also talk about how the world had changed by the time of the apostles with a quick look at Lydia. Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2024/03/episode-187-hospitality-or-not-rahab-yael-abigail-and-lydia-in-context/ YouTube:  https://youtu.be/n...

Genesis chapters 18 and 19 read as very shallow morality tales without an intimate understanding of the social dynamics going on in the arena of hospitality expectations. This is the first of two teachings describing the established parameters and rituals associated with dealing with strangers to a community and the who, what, when, where and why’s of offering sustenance and lodging. What did Abra...

This is a companion and more intensive lesson for adults based upon my current series on Context for Kids on "being like Jesus."  Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2024/01/episode-185-are-we-modeling-good-fruit-or-folly/ YouTube:  https://youtu.be/qh8SjoSnwiA

A huge early theme of the Gospel of Matthew that carries throughout is the portrayal of Yeshua as the latter and greater Moses. In addition to this, He also declares Himself to be greater than the Temple and a whole lot of other sacred cows of the first century. This week we will investigate these claims and find out why they are so important to Matthew’s particular audience. Transcript: https://t...

What is the Kingdom of Heaven and how does it differ (if at all) from the Kingdom of God spoken of by Mark and Luke? How is it to be compared with the Kingdom of the Beast and the worldly systems of honor and shame culture? Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2023/11/episode-183-gospel-of-matthew-2-honor-and-shame-in-the-kingdom-of-heaven/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/RYrRBigIdo0

Why is the Gospel of Matthew called a biography when it looks absolutely nothing like our modern biographies? What were the rules of writing an ancient life story and how did Matthew use this genre to communicate the story of the Messiah to his very unique audience at a very tumultuous time in history? Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2023/10/episode-182-matthew-1-the-who-what-why-and-when...

When I teach the kids, they call me Miss Tyler, but today I am Auntie Tyler. Privilege is a concept that appears all over the Bible and in every sort of literature within it. Privilege is incredibly important within the Biblical narrative--but why? I want to peel back a lot of the rhetoric, talking points, and misinformation out there to take a hard look at how Christians should view privilege and...

Or maybe you think they don’t need to learn about Circumcision. Fair enough, but I can’t teach them anything about Genesis 17 and the foundation of the Land Grant Covenant without dealing with it. Neither of us can teach them about the important Scriptural meta-narrative of the circumcision of the heart that they will need to understand in order to live as disciples in the New Creation life we wan...

There are many misconceptions about Yom Kippur but the most grievous is the lack of understanding of exactly what is cleansed and what is forgiven and what is not. Yom Kippur was good news for the community but not necessarily for the individual so this week we will talk about why. Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2023/09/episode-179-what-yom-kippur-cant-fix/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/G46U...

There is so much debate about this Psalm. Not only does it contain two words that we don’t know what the heck they mean, but the context is quite the mystery. Is the Psalmist (David?) being lied about? Are the Kingdom elites resorting to Ba’al worship in order to bring an end to a famine? Is this Psalm 3 part 2 where David’s advisors are defecting to Absalom? Lots of questions and lots of debate....

What is a Psalm of David? Or is it a Psalm by David? A Psalm in the style of David or about him? This week we will talk about irritating Hebrew conjunctions and why context is incredibly important—and sometimes unknowable. And what about the fourteen titled Psalms? How do we read this one in light of David and Absalom? The Bible is a messy book about messy people and messy situations and so this P...

Psalm 2 is one of the most famous “Messianic” psalms out there but it also pairs with Psalm 1 to teach the readers how to view the entire collection of hymns, laments, and royal tributes. How do Psalm1 and Psalm 2 work as a team in introducing the rest of the psalter? Why is it important for wisdom and kingship to dwell side by side in Covenant relations? Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2...

This is the beginning of a new series exploring the Psalms. I am going to alternate between the Psalms and the Gospel of Matthew because knowing the Psalms will help with understanding this Gospel and Yeshua’s/Jesus’s role as the Greater Moses as well as the Greater David. It won’t be obvious at first, but after a while it really will begin to make sense. Transcript: https://theancientbridge.com/2...

I have actually been dreading this moment since I began the Context for Kids radio show and knew that one day, I would have to cover the Biblical account of Abram and Sarai’s use of Hagar to produce a child. In context, it’s an ugly tale, albeit a common one in the ancient world. I can’t be as blunt about the situation with the kids as I can be with adults and so I am devoting a program over on th...

What is inerrancy? Depends on who you ask. And yet, with so many definitions and no absolute agreement even on the basics, people sure do a lot of fighting about it. It’s a word that means different things to different people and so, based on what we have covered so far in the study series, what can we believe about the Bible? And does the Bible claim to be inerrant, or something else entirely? Tr...

How come, when forty percent of the Psalms are laments, plus whole sections of the prophets and the entire book of Lamentations, are worship songs so focused on how hunky-dory life is? Sure, some of the Psalms are praises, but there are fewer praises than sad songs of complaint and hopelessness. As my next series is going to be about the Psalms, it is important that we have a healthy and balanced...

We’re almost done with genre studies, I promise, so next week will be it. But this time, we have to look at the differences between the Sermons that Yeshua/Jesus delivered and the letters to specific congregations written by Paul, Peter, James and others. When we read a letter (aka epistle) as though it is a sermon, it can lead to some really bad problems. Maybe most importantly, how are we suppos...

Last summer, I did a series on my kids show about gender identity issues and I wrote this at that time to help adults understand how it is absolutely not the kids or just the liberal media who have created this problem—we’ve been just as bad and even worse as believers. How can that be? What can we do? This week we are going to explore just that. There is an extensive book list on this issue at th...