Episodios

  • Job - Why God? - Part 7

    Job - Why God? - Part 7
    Mar 27 2026
    Study 7 : Job 29-31 Job’s self-assessment. We now come to two long speeches: the first by Job, summarizing his thinking, is 3 chapters long; the second by a new guy, Elihu, is 5 chapters long. Job cannot have been an old man when the disasters struck him. However long he lived (another 140 years according to the last chapter) he was only middle-aged for he had time to have another complete farming career and a considerable family. But much of what he describes in these chapters is remarkably similar to the common experience of an old person in western culture. Up to about 100 years ago most people in the world only lived in one or two or three places their whole lives long, often one as they grew up and just another subsequent to marriage. Consequently as they grew old they would be surrounded by people they had known for a very long time: family, friends and acquaintances. For many today things are very different. Education and job opportunities take us to live in many different places. Sometimes parents demand a weekly visit but that tends to be a disaster, as it leaves one not really belonging in either the place of residence or the parent’s home area. As a result of this mobility we will often enter old age and retirement surrounded mainly by strangers. The situation Job describes in a totally different culture and for very specific reasons is extraordinarily like that which may be your experience, as in part it is mine, or as it may be yours at some future date. JOB 29: 1 – 6. Assuming you are or have been married and had a family you will remember that it was great fun when you were in your prime and they were growing up. We then did all sorts of things: building sand castles, playing with toy trains etc. that we now have no excuse to do! JOB 29: 7 – 25. Our experience would have been, in detail, very different from Job’s yet it probably had much the same effect. We probably had a job, which gave us status. We mattered. We were somebody. Even if we had no very exalted role, not in charge of anybody else, we still had a position in some firm or organisation or in the family. We may not have realised it at the time but we drew strength from that sense of significance. But, if like me you are old, you will find it easy to relate to what Job says next. JOB 30: 1 – 15. What a magnificent phrase that is: “God has unstrung my bow”. Job no longer has the strength, or the will, to pull the bowstring back far enough to send an arrow far enough to matter. I used to pride myself on my ability to run upstairs two, or even three, steps at a time. No longer. Now an old man I go up sedately one step at a time. That is my equivalent to having my bow unstrung. Question: if you are getting older – what is your equivalent to the unstrung bow: loss of strength or beauty or what? More significantly, with retirement often comes a great loss of status. (More in Western societies than in those of the Third world where there is usually some role even the aged are expected to fulfil). No one now looks for your advice; no one looks up to you as someone that matters. Question: that is not true in all societies. How good is the one in which you live at using the advice and gifts of old folk? If circumstances mean that you, an older person, no longer live where you spent most of your working life then it may well feel as though you are being mocked by younger people as Job was, even when they are being polite to you. JOB 30: 16 – 41. Old age commonly brings aches and pains in joints and muscles! Job thinks of these as the work of God “tossing me about in the storm”. We think about such things in a very different way but the experience is just as real; my right ankle, left knee and left shoulder all ache! It is indeed like being tossed about in a storm. Unfortunately Job’s final chapter is a bad note to end on, here it is: JOB 31: 1 – 40. Each of us will have a different life story to tell. As we get older we tend to reminisce more and more, telling the old stories of what has happened to us and what we have done. Family and friends may get fed up with stories of the “good old days” if we tell them too often, and they may not have been all that good. It is easy to fail to realise how much the world, and probably our society has advanced during our lifetime. In our society, and many others, loneliness coming from the mobility of our lives or the smallness of our family can be the curse of old age for many. It probably was not Job’s problem although the depth of his grief will have tended to isolate him from other people. The element in the equation that is not considered in the book of Job is the role that the company of the Lord’s people should play in the life of those in distress or in old age. In Job’s day they were the people of Israel – but Job was probably not an Israelite – and in our day it is the local church. Sadly, because of the extreme individualism in modern Western ...
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    21 m
  • Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 22

    Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 22
    Mar 27 2026

    Jesus Teaches About Himself 2

    Matthew 17:1-13 After six days Jesus took only Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone.Jesus’ appearance changed in front of them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah and Moses appeared to them and were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s put up three tents—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (Peter didn’t know how to respond. He and the others were terrified.) Then a cloud overshadowed them. A voice came out of the cloud and said, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Suddenly, as they looked around, they saw no one with them but Jesus. On their way down the mountain, Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen. They were to wait until the Son of Man had come back to life. They kept in mind what he said but argued among themselves what he meant by “come back to life.” So they asked him, “Don’t the experts in Moses’ Teachings say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus said to them, “Elijah is coming first and will put everything in order again. But in what sense was it written that the Son of Man must suffer a lot and be treated shamefully? Indeed, I can guarantee that Elijah has come. Yet, people treated him as they pleased, as Scripture says about him.”

    Jesus has now taken Peter, James and John with him on a trip up a high mountain. When they arrived there, as if to confirm their confession of Jesus as the Christ Messiah, Jesus transfigures into the glorified Son of God! Moses, the first great law-giver of Israel and Elijah the first great prophet of Israel also appear with Jesus! WOW that must have been an amazing moment! According to Luke’s account, they talk with Jesus about his coming death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.

    The yeast talked about by Jesus was their hypocrisy and evil. This was seen in evidence in our last study where they asked Jesus for a sign. Yeast in the New Testament is often used to illustrate evil. A little evil can spread a long way, much like yeast can in bread. Just as false teaching can decimate a church. Jesus was also warning his disciples to be convinced of the signs they had already seen, without coveting yet more signs!

    On the way back down the mountain to join the remaining disciples, conversation ensues. Again they were not to tell anybody else about what happened on the mountain top. If knowledge had become widespread, chaos would have ensued around Jesus. He would be surrounded by excitable crowds of people wanting to make Him their political King. All this happening, when He wanted to concentrate on his final preparation of his disciples. Jesus tells them again about his resurrection –his coming back to life after his death. Still Peter, James and John have difficulty grasping it and squabble amongst themselves.

    They go on to raise some of the teachings of the scribes about how Elijah would return before the Messiah Christ would come anoint the Messiah as King and then everything would be restored back to perfection. Jesus affirms what they are saying, but not that he agrees with it. Still the disciples don’t understand the correlation between suffering and glory. Jesus also affirms that the Elijah prophesied about was indeed John the Baptist! The religious teachers had missed this as had the disciples. Just as John the Baptist was rejected and killed by the religious authorities, so would the Christ. Jesus explains that the road to glory for the Messiah was through his death and suffering.

    Come back tomorrow for Day 23 of our series AGOG, as we continue to look together at that extraordinary man, Jesus Christ, through the Gospel accounts! We shall see together Jesus preparing His disciples for when He leaves them! See you soon at Partakers!

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    6 m
  • Job - Why God? - Part 6

    Job - Why God? - Part 6
    Mar 26 2026
    Study 6 : Job 26-28 Glorious Wisdom. This study falls into 2 parts. First there are the chapters after number 23 and up to chapter 28. But I am going to skip over these. They do not add a great deal to what we have already thought about and, indeed, appear somewhat muddled. So much so that many scholars think they have got scrambled somewhere between Job and us. Two bits are worth reading. The first is as much for amusement as anything else! Job has already called his friends “miserable comforters” and he now unleashes a real blast of sarcasm against them in 26:1–4.. Much more positively Job once again states that nothing will make him give up his faith in the Lord and his righteousness. Theses are words worth hearing in these days when so many are prepared to give up their faith and thus their integrity for the thinnest of reasons. Hear that in 27: 1 – 6. But then the steady progression of argument between Job and his friends is suddenly interrupted by a beautiful poem in chapter 28. At first sight it seems to cut across the main argument of the book and not to be about the same sort of things at all, but in fact it takes us back to and reminds us what the whole book is really about. This is indicated by the last verse of this chapter repeating the main points of the very first chapter of the book. The argument in this chapter 28 is so subtle we reach v 12 before we are told what the subject of the poem, and therefore of the book really is. Though even before we learn that we can still understand the writing as an extended metaphor of all the to-ing and fro-ing that has occurred so far. Here are those first 11 verses of chapter 28. Isn’t that magnificent? Just like miners, Job and his friends have been hacking away in the dark hoping to find some precious idea that will light up the gloom that surrounds Job. Neither the lion nor the eagle can get anywhere near what the miners are after. It is only mankind that has any interest in things like this. We finally learn what it is all about in v12. And this is expanded on in the rest of the chapter: first with a great statement of praise of how important it is and then the statement that it is ultimately a spiritual attribute and can therefore only be obtained from the Lord. Here is the rest of this chapter. Wisdom is a very important Biblical concept that is much neglected so we will explore it in some detail. The word ‘wisdom’ is used in several different ways in the Bible of which we are interested in three: living well in the practical life of every day, equating to the Way of the NT,God’s knowledge and creative power,the personification of this second meaning of Wisdom, with the NT revealing Jesus is that personification. There are associated concepts of: the Sage, the Wise Man (or Woman), and the books of Wisdom (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and some Psalms; also Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha). We, like Job, are most interested in the first of these: how can we live well in this difficult world. There is plenty of wisdom, knowledge and understanding all around us. We use it everyday when we watch the TV or go out in a car, but none of that sort of wisdom says anything about the meaning of life and how we can best navigate all the difficult situations, which are an inevitable part of living. In short, that sort of wisdom is not about what I have called living well. To reach that goal, i) in my list, will mean that we have to understand ii) God’s knowledge in Creation and iii) the role of Jesus in imparting wisdom to us. None of this is being wise in any sense of becoming a graduate, or getting a Master’s, let alone gaining a Doctorate, in either a secular field of study or even a Biblical one. No, it is something well within the reach of each and everyone of us. It may be a little old lady, like my lovely, long dead, grandmother, who is the wise person in this Biblical definition of Wisdom. It is all about something difficult to describe but easy to recognize when you meet a truly wise person. It is about living well, living contentedly, making good decisions, fitting into one’s world well, and relating well to other people. We can all do all those things but we can also all fail horribly to do them! Question: of the people you know well, who lives wisely? Try to work out what it is about those people that made them go to the top of your private list of wise people. We cannot live well by accident. Living well doesn’t just happen. We have to think out what our aims and objectives in life are before we will get anything right. It is really sad that so much of western culture refuses to do so. We are like Israel in the time of the Judges when ‘everyone did what was right in their own eyes’. In the ancient world Jewish scribes and Greek philosophers argued about what was the best way to live. We don’t. We just try to accumulate more and better material things, thinking, quite ...
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    19 m
  • Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 21

    Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 21
    Mar 26 2026

    Jesus Teaches About Himself 1

    Welcome back to our series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 21 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

    Mark 8:31-33 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man would have to suffer a lot. He taught them that he would be rejected by the leaders, the chief priests, and the experts in Moses’ Teachings. He would be killed, but after three days he would come back to life. He told them very clearly what he meant. Peter took him aside and objected to this. Jesus turned, looked at his disciples, and objected to what Peter said. Jesus said, “Get out of my way, Satan! You aren’t thinking the way God thinks but the way humans think.”

    We recently saw that Peter confessed who the disciples think Jesus is – the long awaited for Messiah! Jesus is now starting to tell his disciples more about his role as Messiah. Jesus starts elaborating on previous teaching and includes what suffering he must undergo as part of his mission to earth. He is teaching them that his mission would include rejection by both the religious and secular leaders. The Jewish religious leaders would scrutinize Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah, then reject Him deliberately. However, the real danger was failing to pass the scrutiny of God!

    That this mission will include Him being killed. But… But… Jesus says that death will not get victory over him! No! Jesus said that He shall come back to life! Just as He had told the religious leaders when he cleared the Temple courtyard of the traders and money exchangers. Jesus was very clear in this teaching to them, so the disciples could be in no doubt what he meant! They could not make any mistakes regarding this part of Jesus teaching. Yet…

    Peter, who we saw earlier coming along as the spokesperson for the disciples, took Jesus aside to rebuke him. Peter had great zeal obviously but didn’t want to rebuke His master Jesus in front of the others. Peter’s view was that it was absurd the Messiah should be crucified and die! Peter was holding Jesus and telling Jesus “Get a grip, man! Why on earth are you talking like this?” He tries to restrain Jesus from exposing Himself to death.

    Yet Jesus censures of Peter. It may appear at first to be very harsh. Peter was using human wisdom but Jesus was urging his disciples to use wisdom from the Father, just as they had done when they confessed that He was the Messiah. Peter’s actions were an offense to Jesus. But Jesus sees who is really behind this – satan. It was satan that had prompted Peter to try to talk Jesus out of dying on the cross and following God’s will and intention. The suggestion was not blasphemous or crude but a smooth temptation.

    As we saw yesterday, it was a hard concept for the Jewish people to believe that their Messiah would suffer and die. For Israel, the coming of the Messiah would be the climax of their development as a nation and the fulfilment of their history! All this is seen in the Old Testament scriptures. It is equally true that these same Scriptures show that the Messiah would also suffer and die. We saw glimpses of that at Jesus’ baptism, in the Messiah being the Suffering Servant. Through His suffering, Jesus would be able to fully empathise and identify with humanity. Without this identity, He would be no Saviour Messiah and not able to overcome the root of evil in the world. It was only by taking on death, and overcoming it, that Jesus as the Messiah would usher in the new kingdom. Not a temporary physical kingdom that was expected by people, but a spiritual kingdom that would be everlasting!

    Such was Peter’s haste to rebuke Jesus that he along with the other disciples seem to have missed that last part of teaching. That yes, the Messiah would die but also be raised back to life 3 days later! Peter and the other disciples had not fully understood what Jesus was talking about. The idea of a resurrection, being bought back to life after death, was a concept that they would be familiar with. Only the Sadducees rejected a resurrection. But the disciples were discounting a resurrection that would happen in the present, because they accepted the resurrection was for a time in the distant future in the “last day”.

    Come back tomorrow for Day 22 of our series AGOG, as we continue to look together at that extraordinary man, Jesus Christ, through the Gospel accounts! We shall see together another example of Jesus teaching about Himself! See you soon at Partakers!

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    6 m
  • Job - Why God? - Part 5

    Job - Why God? - Part 5
    Mar 25 2026
    Study 5 : Job 20-23 Job begins to see his way forward. In chapter 20 Zophar is clearly convinced that Job is a sinner and is suffering as a direct consequence. He doesn’t say so directly but it is the obvious implication of what he says. In the Bible sin is almost always a result of how somebody has failed to live well in relationship to other people. It is seldom about a failure to live well directly towards God by failing to worship correctly or failing to follow the correct prescribed religious observances. So Zophar criticizes Job in his actions towards other people. Zophar raises another and more difficult question. He seems to suggest that there is a major difference between good and evil in how long they last. He says that evil is inherently short lived, unlike good that lasts. Well, he doesn’t actually say that good lasts longer but that, again, would seem to be strongly implied by what he says. Listen out for those two implications as I read the chapter. Question: what do you think? Is it true that those who delight in evil things know that they do not last? Are they always looking over their shoulders wondering whether they will be found out? Are good things always more enjoyable than those that are not good? Answer: that is a really difficult one, but it is worth thinking about. Think of the things that you do. Is it true that the enjoyment of the good lasts longer than the enjoyment of the not so good? I think it is because I am happy to remember the good things I have done but always try to forget the bad things. But that is a personal opinion with which not everone would agree. Have you got a friend you could argue it out with? In the next chapter, 21, Job vigorously repudiates the implied accusation against him. He points out that some people behave very badly but God does not punish them. He reckons that we all, good and bad alike, have to live in the middle of the NCL, the Normal Chaos of Life. Here is chapter 21. I introduced the idea of the NCL early in these studies, which may have surprised or even shocked you! My justification for doing so is here in this chapter and will be confirmed in chapter 23. Very often preachers and teachers will take a very simplistic line: good things happen to good people, bad things to bad people. This may be very subtly done. When we were teaching in a school in Pakistan many of the staff would tell the kids: your parents are doing good things so no harm will come to them. They had a difficult time explaining what had happened when one of the parents was killed by a falling rock on a straightforward local walk. The NCL exists, as Job says. In the next chapter Eliphaz accuses Job of wrongdoing, particularly to the defenceless – widows and orphans. I will read that now. READ. I find that accusation interesting because we have been watching a TV drama series, Downton Abbey. It tells the story of a large household belonging to a senior nobleman, the Earl of Grantham. He is portrayed as having to take the decisions for a great many people, family, friends and servants. It is apparent that in many things, because he is the controlling boss man, he takes views that are strikingly different from those of just about everybody else around him. Perhaps this is what Eliphaz is highlighting here. Job had a huge household, before the disasters hit him, and had to make many decisions, being the controlling boss to an even greater extent than the Earl of Grantham. So, for instance, we read in v6 that he took clothes from the poor to guarantee payment of a debt. Faced with conflicting demands on his resources Job has opted for the rich man’s solution. He has been taking a rich man’s view of what is right and what is wrong and needs to revise his thinking. So we read in v13 – 14, “Do you think the deep darkness hides you from God? / Do thick clouds cover his eyes , as he walks around heaven’s dome high above the earth.” And in 23 – 26 “If you return to God and turn from sin, all will go well for you. / So get rid of your finest gold, as though it were sand. / Let God all powerful be your silver and gold, and you will find happiness by worshipping him.” That all makes good sense. The trouble is that it is all wrong; it is not a true picture of Job. Job’s self portrait in chapters 29 and 32 is very different and fits much better the view we get from all the rest of the story. He was an essentially good and righteous man. To return to what Eliphaz said: the NT equivalent is when Jesus said to the rich young man “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Are you rich? Am I rich? Our probable reaction is to say – of course not! But by the standards of the ages we are rich. You are using a computer or a tablet to hear or read this. That is an item of enormously ...
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    23 m
  • Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 20

    Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 20
    Mar 25 2026
    Teaching the disciples 2 Welcome back to our series, AGOG - A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 20 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Today we look briefly again at Jesus teaching his disciples! Matthew 16:13-20 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will have been and will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been and will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Here we have a climax of the Gospels! Jesus has asked his disciples who they think he is. The disciples start out by saying who others thought he was. John the Baptist some say, yet others say Elijah or one of the prophets. In Matthew's account of this conversation, they also say Jesus was Jeremiah! So let us have a look at a couple of those. Firstly, John the Baptist! Some people were saying that Jesus was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Or perhaps he is Jeremiah raised from the dead! Of course, there is some similarity between the two men. Jeremiah was the 'weeping prophet', and Jesus was the 'man of sorrows'. Jeremiah called the people to true repentance from the heart, and as we know Jesus did. Both men were misunderstood and rejected by their own people. Both Jeremiah and Jesus condemned the false religious leaders and the hypocritical worship in the temple and were persecuted by those in authority. But that's where the similarity ends! Now we come to a climax of the Gospels. Confession of who Jesus is Jesus asks His disciples: "That's who others say that I am. But what about you? You have been with me for a while now, who do you say that I am?" Peter rushed to answer "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!" Peter is emerging as a spokesperson for the disciples. Finally the eyes of the disciples are beginning to open to who Jesus truly is! Unlike a few days ago while crossing the Sea of Galilee, when they were whinging about a lack of bread while forgetting that Jesus had twice created bread out of nothing! Jesus then imparts a blessing on Peter! "You are Peter, and I can guarantee that on this rock I will build my church." It was revealed to Peter by God the Father. It is a play on words as the name of Peter means 'rock'! Peter is not the rock on which the church will be built but rather what he confessed when he said Jesus was the Christ Messiah! On this confession by Peter about who Jesus really is, the disciples or apostles would be the foundation of the church! Death or satan would not be able to stop and overcome the Church - the Church would be living and dynamic! Jesus then goes further and says to all the disciples, not just Peter, that the keys to the kingdom will be given. Here Jesus is giving authority to all the disciples to establish His church and be its leaders! Jesus who holds the keys of David (Isaiah 22:22 & Revelation 3:7) gives his own key to the disciples. Binding means to legislate and demonstrate. Loosing means to reprimand and excommunicate where necessary. The disciples have received from Jesus the authority to determine true doctrine, punish false teachers and unrepentant sinners! They were to exercise complete authority in the church. They were also to go about and tell people the good news of Jesus and what that means for people! Why did Jesus tell the disciples to keep quiet about Him? Now Jesus warns the disciples to keep quiet about him for now. Why did Jesus do that? There are various reasons. These disciples still had much to learn about him and what it meant to follow him. Additionally, the Jewish people were expecting a victorious Messiah who would free them from their slavery under the Romans (Isaiah 11v1-5). However, they had forgotten that their Messiah must suffer and die (Isaiah 53:1-12; Luke 24:26). The Jewish people also thought that the Messiah would set up an earthly kingdom, but Jesus came to set up an everlasting spiritual kingdom (Isaiah 9:7; Daniel 7:13-14; Luke 1:33; Revelation 11:15). If the disciples had gone from this place immediately proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, people would have tried to force Jesus to be the Messiah they wanted him to be and make him their king. Rather than letting Jesus be the Messiah he was to be, who the Servant ...
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    6 m
  • Job - Why God? - Part 4

    Job - Why God? - Part 4
    Mar 24 2026
    Study 4 : Job 16 - 19 Job continues to struggle, In these chapters Job says some truly astonishing things that we may otherwise overlook. To give you an idea of what is to come these are: in chapters 16 and 17 he reckons that he has been attacked by God, which leads to him saying that he has been abused by God; and then after a further statement from Bildad in chapter 18, which implies that he, Job, must be a wicked man, Job says in chapter 19 that although God is against him he has a strong hope that he will be able to state his case before the heavenly court and he hopes to be supported by an effective advocate. Who exactly that advocate will be is not clear to him – though perhaps it is to us! First, the relatively easy passage, Job 16:1–5, where Job is asking himself how he would do if he was trying to comfort a friend who was suffering as he is suffering. Here it is. If someone else is suffering it is so easy to stack up a heap of conventional phrases such as ‘you will soon feel better’ even when we know that our friend is dying, or, when we visit someone in hospital ‘cheer up, I’ve brought you some grapes’ which we then proceed to eat while our friend cannot face food of any sort, and so on. Question: how do you do as a comforter? How would you rate yourself? Answer: up to you, of course. Paul never actually lists comforting as a gift. He does tell the Christians in Corinth that we should all be good at comforting because we claim as our Father God the ‘Father of compassion and God of all comfort’, but I do think some people are given a very real gift to say the right and helpful thing more than others do when faced with suffering. Some people are more adept at saying the wrong thing, than the right and helpful thing when someone is having a very hard time. If you are a gifted comforter make sure you use your gift as much as possible. Now we come to the difficult passage 16:6 – 17. Job says his God is his enemy, his attacker and that there is such a thing as divine violence and abuse. Here it is. Is it really so, or is Job just lashing out with words in his frustration and bitterness at what has happened to him, and his, for no reason he can begin to understand. I have been fortunate enough to live a peaceful life without any major traumas but many of you listening or reading this may well be shut in, unable to get out much because of some major trauma in your life or struggling in other ways, so I must be careful what I say from a position of inexperience. There are other statements like this in scripture. The Psalmist says ‘Your arrows have pierced me, 
 and your hand has come down on me’, but then goes on to say ‘because of my sin’. Lamentations chapter 3 talks at length of the violence of God but the writer cannot believe that will go on for ever because ‘of his unfailing love’ and traces the problem back to sin. Job never does that. There will eventually be comfort for Job when we get to the last chapter of the book. But there was no comfort for The Jewish members of God’s ancient people who died in the holocaust less than 100 years ago. There are, I think, 3 lessons here. In extremes of anguish we may, and even perhaps should, shout at God without losing our faith and our standing before him;God is with us, as he was with Job, and will be in the succeeding chapters, whatever may happen;Usually, but not always, there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are always subject to the NCL, the normal chaos of living. That is the way God created the world. We are in that world and therefore have to accept that world the way he designed it – even when we do not understand the design principles. Jesus taught us to think of God as our loving heavenly Father, contrasting sharply with the most obvious OT picture of a creator/ruler/judge, even though there God is also a covenant God of steadfast love and faithfulness. Job evidently thought mainly of the creator/ruler/judge God and could not resolve the apparent conflict between that God and the covenant God. Neither will we ever be able to do so. We have to live with that conflict, holding to both images, not despairing because we cannot resolve the paradox, continuing to honour and trust the Lord and drawing strength from both Biblical pictures. Only that way will we be able to live with the complexities of life that we cannot fully understand or resolve. Job is very ready to give up. He says this in the vivid pictures of chapter 17. Next Bildad speaks up in chapter 18. He makes a fundamental mistake. He thinks the line between good and evil passes between people with some on one side some on the other. But in the real world it is not so. The line between good and evil runs through all of us; some of you, some of me, is on one side, some on the other. We are, like all the human race, made in the image of God, but on the other hand have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But Bildad...
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    20 m
  • Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 19

    Jesus - A Glimpse Of God Part 19
    Mar 24 2026
    Jesus Teaches His Disciples 1 Welcome back to our series, AGOG – A Glimpse of God. We are on Day 19 of our adventure, looking together at the life of the most amazing person in human history - Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Mark 8:13-26 He got into a boat again and crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples had forgotten to take any bread along and had only one loaf with them in the boat. Jesus warned them, “Be careful! Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod!” They had been discussing with one another that they didn’t have any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying and asked them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you don’t have any bread? Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you catch on? Are your minds closed? Are you blind and deaf? Don’t you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets did you fill with leftover pieces?” They told him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many large baskets did you fill with leftover pieces?” They answered him, “Seven.” He asked them, “Don’t you catch on yet?” As they came to Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus. They begged Jesus to touch him. Jesus took the blind man’s hand and led him out of the village. He spit into the man’s eyes and placed his hands on him. Jesus asked him, “Can you see anything?” The man looked up and said, “I see people. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes a second time, and the man saw clearly. His sight was normal again. He could see everything clearly even at a distance. Jesus told him when he sent him home, “Don’t go into the village.” Jesus and His disciples have now crossed the Sea of Galilee. Jesus on the journey across the sea had warned them about the yeast of the Pharisees, Sadducees and King Herod. Why does Jesus include King Herod? Jesus mentioned King Herod because he was a fickle ruler who was mean and treacherous. Herod would do everything to compromise with others for his own benefit alone. Both groups had wanted further signs from Jesus! The Pharisees and Sadducees as we saw yesterday! Herod we discover later from Luke 23, had longed for Jesus to give him a further sign! The yeast talked about by Jesus was their hypocrisy and evil. This was seen in evidence in our last study where they asked Jesus for a sign. Yeast in the New Testament is often used to illustrate evil. A little evil can spread a long way, much like yeast can in bread. Just as false teaching can decimate a church. Jesus was also warning his disciples to be convinced of the signs they had already seen, without coveting yet more signs! The disciples however, were discussing between themselves the problem of not having enough food. They were thinking that the yeast Jesus was talking about was yeast which went into bread. Jesus knew what they were talking about. They had obviously forgotten that they had witnessed the great feeding of the masses, and that Jesus had the power to feed them. No wonder Jesus seems exasperated with them and rebukes them! It is as if he is saying to them “Look,guys! Don’t you realise who I am yet? Even though we have been together for a while now! Two times you have been with me and collected the leftovers after we fed the crowds together!” Oh the disciples had seen and heard but they still were lacking spiritual discernment and were spiritually blind and deaf. Their hearts were still hardened towards him in that aspect for now. It was also an act of ingratitude towards Jesus, that having twice seen bread created from nothing, they were now showing anxiety about not having enough bread. Then as if to exacerbate the point, Mark puts here a little story that isn’t in the other gospels. When they get to Bethsaida, a blind man is bought to Jesus. First Jesus heals his eyes in part. The man looks and sees people walking as if they were trees, so there is no clarity yet with his vision – but at least he can see in part! Then a second time, Jesus heals the man’s eyes fully and his sight is restored. Jesus didn’t want to be seen as only a healer and miracle worker, so he tells the man not to say anything. Mark is making the point that the disciples at this time were like that blind man. They were like the man at the first stage of his healing. They couldn’t see the spiritual truths and lacked understanding. To the disciples at this time, Jesus was still only a miracle worker, wise man, prophet and healer. It would not be until later that they would fully see! What about you? Again, I ask, who do you say Jesus is? What are you waiting for? Jesus is offering you free eternal salvation, by grace alone through faith alone! The choice is yours! Jesus loves you and because He loves you, He will not force you to love Him in return! But His love is compelling and He is calling you to come and take up ...
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