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Matthew 15:21-28, consider the disciples in this story, they are often treated as secondary characters, bystanders who wanted her dismissed and got shown up, but consider their reaction carefully, something more interesting is happening. These are men who have been with Jesus for a substantial...

Matthew 15:29-39, the God of Israel, commentators have noted for centuries that this phrasing is strange if the crowd is Jewish, you do not praise the God of Israel as if it is a new discovery if that is already your God. That language is the language of people encountering something for the...

Matthew 15:21-28, was Jesus testing the woman? This is the question that has divided scholars and preachers and ordinary readers for 2,000 years and the reason it matters so much is that the answer changes the entire moral character of the story. If Jesus was testing her, then the silence and...

Matthew 15:26-27, it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs. 2,000 years of readers have stopped cold at those words and here is the first thing you need to understand, the thing that most English readers miss entirely, because it is buried in a translation decision...

Matthew 15:22, Mark writing for a different audience, calls her a Syrophoenician Greek, Mark 7:26, that label is more precise geographically, but does similar work. She is Gentile, she is Greek-speaking, she belongs to the dominant Hellenistic culture that had spread across the Mediterranean...

Yahweh is an elohim, but no elohim is Yahweh. Yahweh’s being is unique, there is only one of him. Among all the elohim, there’s this one that is completely unique. The second Yahweh figure begins to emerge, because that second figure is going to turn out to be Jesus. So their being is going to...

Galatians 5:19, these are not just evil acts, it’s divided hearts, it’s not just what you do with your body, its what you harbor in your spirit. Anger, jealousy, selfishness, envy, these are not just bad habits, they are fruit of the flesh, that means the flesh has fruit too and it is just as...

Galatians 5:16, the line is drawn, because there are only two paths, there is no third, either you are walking by the flesh or you are walking by the spirit, there is no neutral zone, no spiritual Switzerland, you are either being led by sin or led by God. The flesh is not passive, it is...

Real grace produces real change, not perfection, but visible progress, not absence of struggle, but clear direction, not immediate elimination of all problems, but genuine transformation that others can see and if that transformation isn’t happening, then there’s a serious problem that needs to...

1 Corinthians 15:31, this daily death is not a defeat, it is actually the path to freedom, because when the flesh loses its power, the spirit gains space to lead. When selfish desires are surrendered, Divine purpose begins to emerge. When pride is crucified, humility opens the door to wisdom...

Matthew 15:21, for a Jewish rabbi in the first century, traveling there voluntarily was not just unusual, it was almost unthinkable, the history between Israel and the Phoenician coast went back centuries and almost none of it was good. The prophets Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, all of them had...

The Spirit is restoring the life and blessing of Eden to the people of Jesus. But these people aren’t priests, they’re merchants and fishermen, soldiers and slaves, tax collectors and the poor, they work in the world, not in temples. And yet, they talked and behaved as if they were priests, they...

Matthew 22:12, now the king speaks, hetaire, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? The English language says friend, the Greek says something profoundly different, hetaire is not philos, philos is the warm word for a beloved friend. Jesus uses philos in John 15, when he tells his...

Adam and Eve forfeited their calling as the Royal Priesthood, but God promised that one of their descendants would be an even better priest, who will defeat evil and intervene on their behalf to restore the blessings of Eden. This descendant would be a Royal Priest like Melchizedek, that Abraham...

Matthew 22:12, the Greek word is ephimothe, it comes from the Greek verb phimoo and phimoo does not mean to be silent, it does not mean to be at a loss for words, it means to muzzle, to close the mouth with a physical restraint, to gag, every major Greek lexicon confirms the primary definition...

A spiritual condition of the heart, you know you’re saved, but you constantly feel like you’re outside the room, you believe God tolerates you more than he delights in you. You perform to earn his attention, you carry a low-grade fear of abandonment, even with God. Romans 8:15, but when the...

Romans 7:19, for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do, these words expose the inner tension that every believer knows, but often feels ashamed to admit. The desire to do good exists, yet the pull of the flesh continues to fight back, Paul did not hide this...

The true unspeakable horror is the multitude the adversary convinced to become the darkness for him, they were thrown from a mountain in the land of Eden through the gates of hell, for thousands of years, the people of Bashan believed this region was a gateway to the supernatural realm, Caesarea...

God’s inviting everyone to be priests, like Adam and Eve were priests in Eden. But, it turns out the people are afraid of God, and they don’t want to come close to God’s presence and so, Moses goes alone up to the top of Mount Sinai. Moses famously gets the Ten Commandments, the first two being...