Bart Byl on Leviticus 16.

Series: Christ in the Old Testament

Nocturnal emissions and menstrual cycles. Hair loss and skin discoloration. Mold in your walls and mildew in your clothing. Lists of clean and unclean foods. It’s hard to see the relevance of the regulations and rituals described in Leviticus. But this third book of Moses is really describing God’s deep desire to dwell with a people made holy by the sacrificial work of his appointed priest. And that’s what the Day of Atonement, at the very heart of the very centre of the Pentateuch, is all about.

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Bart Byl on Exodus 2:23-3:14.

Series: Christ in the Old Testament

From first to last, Exodus is the story of the mighty acts of God, who delivers his people “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm”. Unlike all the other gods, this God sees the misery of the oppressed and he hears their groans. He rides to their rescue, he sweeps away the most powerful army on earth, clearing a path for the twelve tribes who can only watch in awe as God moves on their behalf. This God is not a much bigger Pharaoh, who is going to feed on the Israelite nation to keep himself alive. Because God does not need anything, the giving only goes one way: from God down to his creation. Exodus provides the paradigm for salvation and redemption for Israel, and when Jesus shows up, he comes to lead Israel in a new and greater Exodus — not from Egypt this time, but from the far greater enemies of Satan, sin and death.

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Bart Byl on Genesis 22:1-19.

Series: Christ in the Old Testament

The story of the binding of Isaac is one of the most evocative stories in the Bible. Abraham and Sarah had received Isaac in their old age. He was the child of promise: the one through whom the whole world would be blessed. And now God had commanded Abraham to take his son, his only son, the son he loved, and sacrifice him on the mountain God would show him. Amazingly, Abraham set out in faith to obliterate his own future, confident that somehow God would provide.

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Bart Byl on Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17, 3:1-15.

Series: Christ in the Old Testament

These first chapters of Genesis, ‘the Old Testament of the Old Testament’, contain the primeval history of the world. God created the universe by the word of his power and declared all things good. He fashioned humanity from the soil into his own image, and placed Adam and Eve in a garden. The test of their free will took place in the most optimal conditions imaginable, but tempted by the serpent, they unleashed every evil into creation. These early chapters record how the human race goes from bad to worse. Yet, incredibly, at their lowest moment, God shows up with the promise that one day, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.

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Bart Byl on Micah 7:18-20.

When we are trapped in sin, we need to remember that our God delights in mercy. God lifts off the crushing burden of our sin and its terrible consequences, no longer looks at us us dirty and stained and unloveable, but chooses to remember our evil no more. The bad things we’ve done, which seemed so irreversible, will never again come up as a factor in our relationship with God. And then we stand up straight, overwhelmed and amazed, and join in Micah’s great chant of exultation in our incomparable God. There is no God like this God!

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Bart Byl on Luke 9:27-36.

Christ’s transfiguration on the mountain was a theophany: a revelation of his divine glory to Peter, James, and John. Incredibly, the glory of God is shining out of a human face. Jesus’ humanity is not an obstacle to his divine glory: on the contrary, it’s the vehicle for it. Like the burning bush that Moses saw, human nature burns with the divine fire but is not consumed. And therefore, this story in Luke tells us that our own humanity is not an obstacle to bearing the divine glory: on the contrary, it’s the vehicle for it. The transfiguration is the story of what we ourselves are becoming by grace, as God conforms us to the image of his Son.

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Bart Byl on Proverbs 25:11.

“A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”

Wise words build relationships; foolish words destroy them. That’s what communication is all about, this marvellous gift of speech that God has given us and that separates us from the animals. Words form societies and build communities: but they can also destroy them. It doesn’t even require deliberate malice: just a general thoughtlessness self-absorption can be just as effective in hurting people around us. What we need is to acquire prudence: the virtue of knowing what the good is in a given situation, and the right way of achieving it. 

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Bart Byl on Proverbs 28:17.

“The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit,

   and whoever protects their master will be honored.”

It’s a basic principle of economic justice that those who work hard and faithfully and well are rewarded and honoured for it. In this sinful world, hard workers are often treated ungratefully, forgotten by the executives and shareholders, and even exploited. But there’s one place we can be certain that our work will not be in vain, and that’s in God’s Kingdom. The eye of the Master sees and records and will reward even the smallest act done out of love for him.

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Bart Byl on Proverbs 15:17.

“Better a small serving of vegetables with love

than a fattened calf with hatred.”

Wise people prioritize relationships over wealth, status, and consumerist lifestyle experiences. Most of us would assent to the truth of the proverb, but does the way we spend our time, our energy, and our time demonstrate that we care about close relationships more than anything?

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Bart Byl on John 16:12-15.

The deepest hunger of every human being is to participate in a communion of perfect love. This is what our Triune God has created all of us to experience. The Father pours out all that he is and has to the Son, so that the Spirit in turn make share the infinite riches of God himself with all believers. 

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