A lot of people wait for God to act in their lives before they start to obey him. This shouldn’t be the case. It’s best to first obey and then expect God to intervene. In Luke 17 we read the story of ten lepers who came to Jesus at a distance...
The book of Ruth tells the story of two disenfranchised women (Naomi and Ruth) who are reintegrated into God’s covenant people through the grace of a man (Boaz) who is both compassionate and faithful to his familial duties. The women in the story...
The themes of temple and kingship fit naturally together as the temple is the place from which the King reigns. We see this in Psalm 2, which works alongside of Psalm 1 as the introduction to the Psalter. As the introduction, Psalm 1 tells its...
The book Psalms is the praise book of God’s covenant people. Yes, the Psalms contain prayers (Pss 17, 86, and 142), laments (Pss 3–7, 9–10, 12–14, 17, 22, 25–28, and many more), wisdom psalms (Pss 1, 19, 37, 49, 50, 73, 78, 112, and 119)...
Hanukkah reminds us that holiness (i.e. non-assimilation) is at the center of the Gospel. Hanukkah (“dedication” in Hebrew) is the Jewish Festival of Lights. The festival commemorates the dedication of the temple after its desicration by the anti...
The content of this post is to be published in a forthcoming volume by the Francis Asbury Press. This post will only be temporarily available at mattayars.com All rights reserved. Numbers continues the story of the fulfillment of God’s promises of...
The content of this post is to be published in a forthcoming volume by the Francis Asbury Press. This post will only be temporarily available at mattayars.com All rights reserved. Leviticus continues the story of the exodus by taking a deeper dive...
Genesis establishes the context for understanding who God is, what it means to be human in the creation, and God’s plan to rescue the creation through Abraham. In Exodus, the new creation motif that began with the patriarchs in Genesis becomes more...
The content of this post is to be published in a forthcoming volume by the Francis Asbury Press. This post will only be temporarily available at mattayars.com All rights reserved. The first time the word “holy” (Heb. qōdeš) appears in the...
Humanity has an honesty problem. The problem of dishonesty pervades every aspect of our lives. Dishonesty is why we have locks on our doors, banks, contracts, courts, law enforcement, passwords, firewalls, and the list goes on for eternity. People...