When we experience sorrow, grief or disappointment, it's easy to believe God has abandoned us. The Babylonian Exile was that kind of experience for God's people. God allowed the Babylonians to take his people as slaves in a foreign land (the undoing of the Exodus) as a consequence of their sin. But, in fact, God…

When God gives Old Testament Israel his laws, he builds in a way of getting forgiveness. Because God is gracious and patient, he allows people who make mistakes to be made right. Yet we can abuse God's grace. When we take God's forgiveness as a licence to sin, our piety becomes empty religion. And God…

Intuitively, we think that if God is a powerful God, then his people should also be powerful. But if we look at God's people in the Bible, we often see God using people who are anything but powerful. God is glorified in our weakness. It is precisely because we don't have glory of our own…

Christians often wonder what to make of the Old Testament laws in our New Testament era. Old Testament Israel had lots of rules that Christians don't follow today. So are we being unfaithful? How do we understand the Old Testament Law in the New Testament? Our first option is to follow the letter of the…

When we look at the Exodus story, it likely seems obvious that God is liberating his people from physical slavery. What isn't as obvious to us is that God is working to bring his people freedom from spiritual slavery as well. The Israelites had been slaves for generations and likely believed God had abandoned them.…