Michael Easley inContext

As you heard in the recent episode of our Cover to Cover series, it's my opinion that Boaz is the primary character in the book of Ruth. But my dear friend Jeanne Hendricks holds a different view. Join us as we listen to her take on the purpose of this book and who she believes to be the real hero of the story: Naomi. To read a transcript of our conversation, visit http://michaelincontext.com/cove...

Our current series is unlike anything I've ever done before and I'm learning. I sort of know how to prep to teach on a passage, but teaching an entire book is something new. Today we'll look at a high-level overview of the book of Ruth. It's a beautiful story of love, faithfulness, loyalty, and redemption set right in the time when the judges were judging. To read this episode's Show Notes, visit:...

How do we resolve texts we can't reconcile to any sort of order or justice? When the bad guys win, and evil violence seems to have the last word? Dr. Mark Chavalas joins us again to discuss some of the more difficult passages in the book of Judges. Our thanks to Dr. Chavalas for joining us on the show again! To read a transcript of this conversation visit: http://michaelincontext.com/cover-to-cove...

We've moved through the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) and into the Historical Books. If you missed our study of Joshua, listen and review Show Notes Here. Today, we're looking at Judges, which has often been referred to as the darkest days in Israel's history. Judges is a tectonic shift in the storyline, as we look at a generation who doesn't know God. To read this...

We’ve covered the Pentateuch and if there’s a takeaway I want to make sure you have, it’s that it’s a corpus of literature, not five individual books. So often we think of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy as 5 books – but there’s a continuity that carries through each one: Genesis: The beginning of creation Exodus: Redemption from slavery, consecration for worship Leviticus: Ho...

One of my goals for the big book cover to cover study was to emphasize some of the things that maybe are key to a book, but are not necessarily addressed as you've listened to the podcast. Today I'm thrilled to have Dr. Constable here and to answer some of my questions and to talk about the creation of his outlines, which are available to us online for free. You can find links to Dr. Constable's o...

Moses leads his people as far as he will be allowed to go toward the Promised Land and is buried by God in the book of Deuteronomy. This book is much more than a second-telling of the law. It's a recounting of Israel's history and an underscoring of who God is, and what He's promised. Join us as we look today to the fifth and final chapter of the Pentateuch. To read this episode's Show Notes, visi...

Joining us today is historian and professor Dr. Mark Chavalas. How does a Historian read this text? For Show Notes visit:https://michaelincontext.com/numbers-historian/

Years ago we visited the church we had attended in college. As the pastor was preparing to teach, he warned he would be reading a lengthy passage of Scripture and encouraged us: "While I have been nervous about this reading, I want you to remember, ...this is a page of the Word of God and it deserves our attention." As we dive in to an overview of the book of Numbers, let's be reminded that this i...

As we saw last week, Leviticus - though often approached with dread - offered its first recipients a welcome reprieve and freedom. The Law revealed all that was needed to know how to worship a holy God. It’s not just formalism. It’s holiness. Jody Capehart joins us in this episode to help us see how Christ is reflected in the festivals decreed in Leviticus, and invites us to incorporate rest into...

To the first recipients, Leviticus offered freedom from the burden of the Law through instruction for confession and worship. The Pentateuch––the first five books of the Bible––is a whole in five parts. We might even say it's one book with five chapters, and Leviticus is one of them. Leviticus is a trip-up for a lot of us. It's the shortest "chapter" in the Pentateuch literature, and even still, w...

Dr. Ken Boa joins us today to talk about Joseph: a man of great wisdom who thrived in exile, and what we can learn from Joseph's example. For Show Notes visit: https://michaelincontext.com/joseph-man-of-wisdom/ To learn more about Dr. Boa visit: http://kenboa.org

It may be a surprise when we realize that technically only about two chapters of Exodus (Exodus 13:17-Exodus 15:21) deal with the "Exodus proper." So, there is much more for us in these 40 chapters. We're continuing our over-view study of the Scriptures by looking at each book week by week. Join us today as Michael teaches about Exodus. To read today's Show Notes, visit: https://michaelincontext.c...

From time to time throughout this series we'll release bonus episodes consisting of interviews with experts who are able to bring more nuance to some of the themes and characters in the books we're studying than I'm able to teach in a single episode about that book. In this first Bonus Episode in our Cover to Cover series, I spoke with with Dr. Mike Lawson about the creation of Eve and the first m...

Over the years, verse-by-verse has been my love and I think it's lacking in churches today, but after doing this for 40 years, one thing that's struck me is that people don't seem to know the big picture anymore. How do we re-engage with an overview of what the Bible is about? We study it as a whole. Join us for The Big Book–Cover to Cover: A teaching series the entire Bible, book by book. For thi...

Recently, Dr. E was invited to sit with Dr. Darrell Bock to be a guest on his podcast, The Table, produced by Dallas Theological Seminary. We hope you enjoy this valuable conversation about the role of the church in our culture. To view a full transcript of this Bonus Episode, visit: https://michaelincontext.com/the-table-church-and-culture/

As an adversary, satan hates Christ. He is our enemy and desires that we would live eternally separated from God. Yet God, in His sovereignty, is using Satan. Talking about Satan can bring up anxieties and worrisome thoughts for some. If you're prone to worrying about this, remember that, though Satan may tempt us, we have the Holy Spirit who can indeed bear any temptation. Join me today as I fini...

Did you grow up in a home that taught that Satan was real? Maybe you were taught that when anything bad happens, any consequence that isn't what we intended, it's spiritual warfare. Satan is behind it. Or perhaps you were raised in a home where you were taught that Satan is a myth, no more real than nursery rhymes. But we need to understand him from a biblical context, not with what we grew up wit...

The Holy Spirit, which seals our Salvation, is a person at work. How does He empower us, fill us, indwell us? Unless we stop, rest, and spend time studying the work and role of the Holy Spirit in God's Word, it will remain a mystery to us. But I have confidence in His word and in His Spirit that as we spend time there, we will understand more and more His role in our lives. Learn more about the wo...

Concerning the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, some of us come from stoic backgrounds and Holy Ghost language gives us the heebie-jeebies. Others of us come from more pentecostal or charismatic backgrounds and we tend to put great emphasis and trust in our experiences of what we perceive to be the Holy Spirit. But what, specifically, does Scripture tell us about the person and work of God's Holy Spir...

Justification is not "just as if I'd" never sinned. It's much more than that. Justification is the work of Jesus Christ to declare you righteous. Grace, of course, is the means by which we are saved. It's not just that God decided to overlook our sins the way we overlook a child's minor disciplinary issue. Grace is His unmerited favor in the face of deserved wrath. How do we embrace this? Let's le...

The word "saved" is an odd word and we assign a lot of meanings to it, which get especially confusing when we add religious overtones. But to own and to be able to articulate why we believe what we believe about how a person is saved is perhaps the most important theme of the Bible. Join us today as Michael teaches part one on the Doctrine of Salvation–or, the big word, Soteriology. This series wa...

"A defining question for a Christian is, "who was Christ?" and I don't think it's sufficient to conclude that he was a great thinker or a philosopher, because actually He went around saying He was the Messiah. That’s why He was crucified: He said He was the Messiah. So, either He was the Son of God–or He was nuts." Who do you say Jesus is? In this episode Michael concludes his teaching on the Doct...

Once in a while we find ourselves in a conversation with a friend who wants to know about this Jesus, this Christ we believe in and what He means to us. How would you explain Jesus Christ if you were asked an unassuming question from a person that didn't know Him? Michael teaches part one of two in today's episode on the Doctrine of Christology. To read and review the Show Notes for this episode,...

The world has a lot of opinions about Christianity. And truth be known, we deserve some of the maligning some of the time. But sometimes they make my blood boil! Many opinions are formed when parts of scripture are taken out of context and used to make wide-reaching statements about God and Christianity as whole. In this episode Michael encourages us to study the scriptures from a broader perspect...