The structure of the Bible bears a specific resemblance to a blockbuster Hollywood film. Blockbusters start by presenting us with a problem to be solved. They introduce a hero or heroes, and at the end of the film we discover if or how the problem is solved. The Bible varies from conventional Hollywood film structure […]
When we’re caught in the middle of an emotional crisis, under incredible pressure yet simultaneously trapped, the question arises: what do I do? Which tool in the emotional toolbox do I turn to? The answer is vulnerability. In our patriarchal society, we confuse vulnerability with weakness. The Old Testament has a particular negative view of […]
The journey to Christ is a perplexing one, an endless series of shifts, reversals and abrupt changes of direction. It’s like a stock market graph—gradual gains over an extended period interspersed with calamitous crashes as we experience breakdowns and breakthroughs. The last word we’d associate with this journey is balance. In the midst of this […]
The Christian mystic William Blake wrote that “It is an easy thing to triumph in the summer’s sun / And in the vintage and to sing on the waggon loaded with corn”. At such times it’s easy to be content with out lot in life. What happens when the waggon of our life isn’t loaded […]
There are many references to love in the Bible. A drop-down list on Bible Gateway of the various kinds of love references ‘love is patient’, ‘love your enemies’, and ‘love God’. Yet there is not a single reference to self-love. The most extraordinary declaration of love in the Bible is in John 3:16. “God loved the […]
The Old Testament is an incredibly accurate emotional account of its time. In it, I see the eternal brilliance of God shining through very temporal commands. Paul understood their transient nature: “[The Law] was only supposed to last until the coming of that descendant who was given the promise.” (Galatians 3:19) Then came Jesus: “The kingdom […]
The first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch—contain 613 commands [1]. Rules were necessary to bond tribes together against outsiders, to stop tribes weakening themselves through infighting, and to normalise the taboos on all things feminine that arose from environmental stress: Reward togetherness: “You will get more and more cattle, sheep, silver, gold, and other possessions.” […]
Famine appears in both Books of Kings: “For three years no rain fell in Samaria, and there was almost nothing to eat anywhere.” (1 Kings 18:1-2) “The Lord has warned that there will be no food here for seven years.” (2 Kings 8:1) Famines in East Africa in the 1970s revealed the impact of environmental […]
We know that the Old Testament took place in the context of the desert. That’s not precise enough. It actually took place in the context of desertification—the onset or increase of desert. The difference is crucial. The Middle East wasn’t always a desert. The Middle East wasn’t always a desert [1]. Prior to about 4000 BC […]
Forgiveness is a word that gets bandied around a lot. Phrases like “forgive and forget,” or variations, like “I will forgive but I won’t forget,” trip easily from our tongues, often with little thought—let alone genuine—attached to them. Yet Jesus is explicit on the reciprocal nature of forgiveness. “If you forgive others for the wrongs they do […]
