Passage, Paragraph, and Prayer

In explicitly giving “all that lives and moves” to humans for food, God makes two exceptions. The first we covered last week. We now begin covering the second, that human life should not be taken for food, or for any reason, except as punishment for the taking of another human life. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” B...

How and when can we tell the Lord that it is time for him to act? Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Genesis 4:2–4 seems to strongly suggest that humans were already eating meat from animals before the Flood. So why does God specifically sanction the human eating of meat after the Flood? And why does he only give one restriction here, when he gives many more later? Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1...

As Americans, we don’t like the idea of being someone else’s servant or slave. But the psalmist freely confesses that he is God’s servant. In this devotion we consider what being God’s servant means for us. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Why do animals that could easily overpower and kill humans run away from them? Why do bugs and critters and fish fly and scurry and swim away as humans approach? Moses gives us the answer as he continues to record God’s promises to Noah and his family after the Flood. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig,...

In Psalm 119:124, the psalmist asks God to deal with him according to his mercy. What is mercy , as opposed to other love words that are used of God? Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Think of the load of responsibility on the shoulders of Noah and his sons as they look out over the vast and empty earth and realize that the future of mankind depends on them. Except God graciously makes sure it doesn’t. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

In Psalm 119:123, the psalmist literally says his eyes are languishing for the saying or utterance of God’s righteousness. Sometimes “of righteousness” can just be a fancy way of saying that the subject under discussion is righteous (e.g., an act of righteousness is a righteous act). But is that what the psalmist means here? Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No....

Many fear tactics, like the threat of global flooding due to the melting polar ice caps, are used today in an effort to persuade humans to take better care of the earth. We *should* be good stewards of the earth, but God’s promise in Genesis 8:22 makes it clear that such fear tactics are completely invalid. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jes...

In Psalm 119:122, the psalmist pictures himself going with the Lord to the bank, only instead of going to obtain a loan for money, they are going to obtain the psalmist’s well-being, with the Lord serving as the guarantor. In this devotion we explore the Messianic overtones of this picture. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

After Noah and his family left the ark, he killed animals and then put each entire animal on an altar and burned the whole thing to the Lord. Why was this a soothing smell to the Lord, and why did it prompt him to add more promises to his existing promises? Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

The psalmist begins the sixteenth stanza of Psalm 119 with the statement, “I have done what is just and right”—a bold claim, especially after having just talked about his dread of God’s judgments at the end of the previous stanza. How can he make this claim? Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Can you imagine all the thoughts, concerns, and questions that Noah would have had on his mind after disembarking from the ark (after more than a year) onto a completely new and reshaped earth? Yet one thing was on his mind above all, and it was the right thing. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724)...

No one has higher standards, no one is more strict, no one issues worse punishments than God. If we don’t come to grips with this truth, we will never truly come to grips with God’s grace. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Many of us have experienced how, when humans given more power than usual over other humans in a vulnerable position, they are typically very reluctant to give it back up. They like have despotic control. Not God. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

Dross is undesirable material or junk that floats to the top when you are melting metal. The psalmist says that God discards all the wicked of the earth as dross, and that is why he loves God’s testimonies. In this episode we consider what he means by that. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

By the time God finally commanded Noah and his family to come out of the ark, they had been on the ark together, along with the animals, for a year and ten days. We can only imagine what an eternity that must have seemed like. But as always, God’s timing was the right timing. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (...

In Psalm 119:118, the psalmist says that God tosses aside, as if they were junk mail, those who stray from God’s Word and deceive others with their lies. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

“Doves are not considerate birds who bring men tokens of the state of affairs upon the earth. That this dove brought a leaf in its beak [to Noah] is to be attributed alone to an impulse divinely directed” (Leupold, Exposition of Genesis, 1:3:16). In this devotion, we reflect on what this leaf signified for Noah and his family. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schrit...

In Psalm 119:117, the psalmist says that God’s sustaining and saving merits our constant attention to his Word. When we give constant attention to other things, it is usually called an unhealthy obsession. Why is it different with God’s Word? Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Moses definitely wants to draw our attention to the two birds Noah released from the ark. So we give a little more thought to them in this devotion—the unclean black raven that feeds on death and keeps its distance, and the pure white dove that feeds on life and returns to Noah in the ark. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Se...

Do you remember the first time you encountered someone who tried to make you feel stupid and ashamed for having your Christian hope? Sometimes this is a turning point for the worse in the lives of Christians. The psalmist leads us to pray that that doesn’t happen to us. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Since it had taken forty days to flood the earth, Noah waited forty days after the ark came to rest to conduct some experiments to gauge the living conditions out of the ark. For his first experiment, he released a raven. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

Too often we’re eager to go along with the suggestions and plans of evildoers, because what they want to do seems more cool and fun and exciting than what God wants. The psalmist teaches us the correct attitude to have when we’re in the middle of a tug-of-war between evildoers and God. Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Delayed gratification, when people are willing to wait for a bigger payoff down the road instead of gratifying their desires right now, has been called “the most effective trait of successful people.” Christians in the habit of waiting on God’s timetable have long known that patience in God always pays off in the end, including Noah. Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen...