Crumbs from the Master's Table

In 1 Kgs. 20:35ff, we read of one of the sons of the prophets who wanted to deceive Ben-hadad, king of Syria (see 1 Kgs. 20:38). So he ...

In 1520 Martin Luther put to print three key works of the Reformation. They were The Address to the German Nobility , The Babylonian Captiv...

The familiar Elijah narrative warrants careful consideration. But this post will only look at those elements that highlight the theme of thi...

In 1 Kings 14, Jeroboam's wife is charged to visit Ahijah, the prophet of the Lord. She meets this word for Jeroboam: "Because I ex...

In the modern West, there is almost universally such a strong sense of progress that the past is incessantly despised or looked upon with co...

So the divided kingdom was ultimately from God (1 Kgs. 12:24). And it would appear that the lion that killed the man of God in 1 Kgs. 13:24 ...

What is murder? Assassination of someone's body. What is slander? Assassination of someone's character. —Colin Gunton, The Christi...

In response to Solomon's request (1 Kgs. 3:9), God was pleased to put wisdom into the mind of Solomon (1 Kgs. 10:24), more it seems than...

I'm taking a one week blog fast. I'm going under for an intensive theology class this week at Wheaton College. When I come up, I...

Here's a pertinent rhetorical question for our land: Ps. 94:20. Never confuse one party or other with the kingdom of God. But never thin...

First Kings 8 records Solomon's magnificent prayer at the dedication of the temple. The depths and heights of biblical theology and typo...

John Owen on the Holy Spirit is quickly proving to be life-changing for me. I don't think I can be the same after working through volume...

So on into the book of Kings. In 1 Kgs. 2:12 we read of Solomon's firmly established kingdom. But how did this come about when Adonijah ...

John Owen on the prominence of the Spirit in the New Testament as an object of our faith: The Holy Spirit, the doctrine concerning his pers...

Yesterday's Lord's Day  sermon  on Eph. 2:1-10, preached by NCC pastor Andrew Fulton, provided liberating food for the dull duty-bou...

Second Samuel 24 begins with God's anger burning against Israel, and so YHWH incites David against them (2 Sam. 24:1). I discussed this ...

Based on Ps. 117, here's a glorious 1719 hymn written by Isaac Watts: From all that dwell below the skies let the Creator's prais...

I bind unto myself today The strong name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three. I bind this ...

Reviewing the names of David's mighty men, 2 Sam. 23:9ff recounts the victories wrought by the Lord: "And YHWH brought about a grea...

In volume 3 of John Owen's works, a discourse on the Holy Spirit, Owen provides his method of proceeding in controversy (and here he is ...

Chapter 22 of 2 Samuel provides a Davidic song that David spoke to YHWH "on the day when YHWH delivered him from the hand of his enemie...

I don't journal. I don't have a diary. A while back I tried. Yet I decided that I'd rather study God's will, works, and ways...

In an earlier post (Part 13) I pointed out David's plea for the Lord to thwart Ahithophel's counsel (2 Sam. 15:31). In 2 Sam. 17:14 ...

It's often said that the book of proverbs contains proverbs from the ANE outside of Israel or proverbs similar to noncanonical proverbs ...

In line with the subject matter of the previous post on Calvinism Everywhere, Part 14, consider also 2 Sam. 16:22-23. In fulfillment of 2 Sa...

Continuing with the fallout of David's sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 13ff, in the light of 2 Sam. 12:10-11, let's consider an intri...

Recall 2 Sam. 12:10-11. This prophetic word from Nathan to David comes within YHWH's rebuke for David's sin. We see this terrible wo...

This post  on mothering at Desiring God is salutary stuff. Oh what a high and glorious calling! The highest! Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said th...

"No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, which is the sum and substance of our Christian profession, but by [the Holy Spirit] (John Owen...

A while back I made a beginning at poking away at John Owen's  Pneumatologia . On account of pressing responsibilities and unforeseen ci...

Is Jesus Lord of all? Uh oh.  That  sounds dangerous. Might get us in real trouble. Like the prophets. Like the apostles. Like the holy sain...

Is 2 Sam. 23:3f a dead letter for rulers and governors? My answer: Not if Jesus rose from the dead. Not if Jesus is Lord of all. Another t...

Chapter 12 of 2 Samuel always hurts to read. It contains, of course, Nathan's rebuke to David, and the fallout of David's sin with B...

Owen commenting on the "ministry of the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:8): The ministry of the Spirit is either that ministry which the Spirit...

In 2 Samuel 10, we read of the Ammonites and the Syrians joining forces to battle Israel. Joab, the commander of Israel's army, saw that...

Packer on faith: "Faith is . . . an empty hand stretched out to receive Christ, grasping him and holding him fast." Luther on fa...

". . . the rule that operates in preaching, as in all teaching and instruction of any sort, is that you can say what you can see. When ...

In 2 Samuel, David rises to the throne. And he "became greater and greater." Why? Or how? "For YHWH, the God of hosts, was wi...

Here's a good word to fathers from Doug Wilson, entitled  Love Tanks . Loving fathers are crucial and yet in short supply. We live in a ...

In noting a number of texts that point up the Lord's absolute sovereignty, particularly in Samuel through Chronicles, it seems that some...

Moving through Samuel, God's sovereign glory continues to shine brightly. After the Lord rejects Saul from being king, he provides for h...

So we're pressing on with beholding theocentrism everywhere, because we're pressing on with reading the Bible and pressing on in a G...

"The highest end and happiness of men is to view God's excellency, to love him and receive expressions of his love; and that theref...

In confessing Jesus as Lord (e.g., Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 12:3), we Christians are not simply saying that Jesus is a great king. That he is, to b...

Recently it was raining and thundering hard. It was awesome. The sovereign Lord was baring his arm in the heavens yet again. I love this dis...

Ambrose Bierce's definition of abdication seems apropos for the current leadership of the White House: "An act whereby a sovereign ...

Here are yet more glorious texts telling of the glorious reign of God over all (and they just keep coming, being everywhere as they are): 1 ...

" Peace in the New Testament carries all the dimensions of meaning that the great Hebrew word shalom , to which it corresponds, had co...

Another glorious text highlighting God's glorious governance of all things: 1 Sam. 2:6-8: "The LORD kills and brings to life; he ...

How does Prov. 14:34 fit into American exceptionalism? One might wonder sometimes whether Americans think their dung doesn't stink.  

Joel Belz records this eye-opener in the June 4, 2011 edition of World : Seems strange these days, but in the mid-'70s, Newsweek didn...

"The things of the gospel are depths. The things of the gospel . . . are the deep things of God" (Thomas Goodwin, Works , vol. 4, ...

Here are a slew of texts highlighting God's glorious governance of all things (note the italics): Judg. 10:6-8: "The people of Is...

At Doug Wilson's  Blog and Mablog , you'll find a fine, succinct account of marriage biblically defined. Here's a clipping: A m...

More texts in Judges showing the sovereignty of God everywhere (with comments along the way), which is what Calvinism at its truest and best...

So here begins a series of posts that simply point out the inescapable glory of God's sovereignty everywhere. Repeatedly (and this has h...

Calvinism everywhere. That's my religion. And I'm sticking to it. Why? you ask. Well, because it's biblical, and it's everyw...

"If America was better educated before we established a Department of Education than it has been since, why do we continue to have such...

"There are many knowing souls, but there are but a few wise souls. . . . It is not the most knowing Christian, but the most wise Christ...

"It has been rightly said concerning the first chapter of Genesis that it's impossible to exhaust it in preaching. It's the gre...

Some time ago Carl Trueman posted two helpful posts about Luther's thoughts on what makes a good preacher.  Take a look at  part 1  and ...

Many big fat books pour forth today on interpreting Scripture. Hermeneutics, traditionally described as the science and art of interpretati...

I cite the following approvingly. Don't ever let any Roman Catholic say that works are not essential in Luther, not to mention the Prote...

Is humility obvious? I mean, can we spot it when it's really in someone? We think we know what it looks like, or feels like, or sounds l...

Fasting is good and biblical. And it does not always have to be from food, though that is a good practice for those of us who are almost alw...

It is no news that the NT widely uses the Septuagint (LXX) and that this was the OT of the Church until the Reformation when the Hebrew (Mas...

Perhaps you also have puzzled with me over the common practice (and therefore unquestioned practice) of so many (probably easily the majorit...

Calvin on the prophets speaks powerfully and stirringly. Here's a comment on Hos. 1:2, where it says, "The beginning of the word of...

Martin Luther said many fine and provocative things with which we should disagree. But with the following word about children at the Table o...

Two texts in Deuteronomy have given me pause over the years, even puzzled me. They are Deut. 5:2-3 and 29:1. And the pause and puzzlement su...

In recent weeks, both in sermons and in my reading, I have bumped up against John 3. Or, more aptly, John 3 has met me like a mighty rushing...

Here's a cut-to-the-chase, no-nonsense post  on missions with all sorts of sound thinking (even if offensive). I've thought similar ...

How does one overcome the power of sin, the seduction of Satan, the worldliness of the world, and the onslaught of hell? Thomas Brooks answe...