Bible book and topic index here
They didn’t know the route…
…but they trusted who they were going with.
For Matt and Steph.
1 Timothy: an overview
This was produced for Contagious in 2024 as a big-banner image for a series on 1Timothy. The quality of the final banner was really great… please excuse the obligatory selfie…
Joseph
This is a piece completed for the Contagious summer 2025 series on Joseph from Genesis 37-50.
Key to the numbered sections:
1. The Creation
2. The Fall
3. God promises a reverse of the fall in Genesis 12.
4. Isaac is born to a very old Abraham. He marries Rebekah who has twin boys Esau and Jacob.
5. Jacob deceives his brother. He is in love with Rachel.
6. Jacob has four wives and many children. His favourite is Joseph (and later Benjamin) via Rachel.
7. Joseph shares with his brothers a God-given vision of the future where they will bow down to him.
8. They almost kill him.
9. Joseph is sold into slavery to Egypt - Jacob is told that he is dead.
10. Judah badly mistreats Tamar but is also caught out by her.
11. Joseph is blessed by God as he serves in Potiphar's house.
12. Joseph is wrongly accused of abusing Mrs Potiphar.
13. In prison, Joseph correctly interprets the dreams of Pharaohs wine taster...
14. ...and Pharaohs baker.
15. Joseph asks for the taster to remember him when he is free.
16. He is forgotten for two years.
17. Pharaoh has two terrible dreams which no one can interpret.
18. The taster remembers Joseph and he is brought before Pharaoh.
19. Joseph is given the interpretation from God: seven years of great harvesting followed by seven of extreme famine are coming.
20. Joseph is elevated to become Pharaoh's main guy: Zaphenath-Paneah.
21. Joseph stores grain and then provides for the many who suffer in the famine.
22. Joseph's brothers come to Egypt to get grain. They don't recognise him.
23. Joseph devises a plan to bring Benjamin to Egypt by first accusing them of being foreign spies.
24. Joseph hides a silver cup in (25) Benjamin's grain sack.
26. Joseph accuses them of theft and threatens imprisonment - but Judah offers to take Benjamin's place to pay for the crime.
27. Joseph reveals his identity to great surprise.
28. Jacob is reunited with Joseph in Egypt (God reassures him that this is part of the big plan).
29. Jacob blesses each of his sons before he dies. Joseph is an example of thriving with God's grace even when things are tough. Judah is given a special message: his descendant will be like an awesome lion.
30. Jacob is buried and the brothers are reminded of their guilt in betraying Joseph so many years ago.
31. Instead of revenge, Joseph pours out forgiveness on his brothers. God's big good plan enables him to do this.
32. Joseph trusts God's plan: because his home is not in Egypt, he gives special instructions about his bones.
33. Many generations later - Jesus, the Lion of Judah - fulfils the promise given to Abraham (34) through his death and resurrection.
35. This wonderfully fulfilled promise and plan is for all people in every age.
Freedom from the Babelian Quest
Wow - it’s been almost two years since I’ve posted anything here. Anyway - the day job has changed so I expect to start putting some fresh materials up. This is a meditation based on the Babel chapter in Chris Watkin’s excellent “Biblical Critical Theory”.
Matthew 13: Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
Wow it’s been a while since I posted something here!
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
You have heard that it was said/i say to you
Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”
5 lies of identity
Colossians 2:8-10
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
The Rich Young Ruler
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Mark 10:17-31
Tsunami of Grief/countered by Eternal Growth
“This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. “ 1 Peter 1:4-6
Rewards
5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew 6:5-6
Psalm 63
Psalm 63
A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
Roots and Fruits
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The Parable of the tenants
He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
“Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
“But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
Luke 20