Passage, Paragraph, and Prayer

Why is double-crossing and deceitfulness so disgusting to God? Why should it be disgusting to us?

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Moses tells us in Genesis 11:5 that “the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men had built.” How are we supposed to understand expressions like this?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

In this devotion, we reflect on the “even though” verses of Psalm 119, where the psalmist states some hardship or difficulty he must endure in the first half of the verse, but affirms his dedication to God and his word in the second half of the verse.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

The building of the enormous tower in the Shinar settlement was also symptomatic of humanity’s disobedience toward God. But this tower also betrays the root cause of all their disobedient symptoms.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

“Your compassions are many, O Lord,” the psalmist says. It’s one of the many statements of the Bible that seem to be grossly understated. NOTE: Stay tuned after the usual sign-off message for information about how you can listen to even more audio Bible content.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

The humans after the Flood wanted to settle together in a fertile area and build a permanent settlement with quality building materials. What was wrong with that?

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

How are you saved? What are the works that are pleasing to God? Just as important, do your answers to those questions originate with you or some other human, or with God?

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

God had told Noah and his sons and their wives to “throng in the earth and multiply in it” (Gen. 9:7). But we don’t get the impression that humanity wanted to do that, even a century after the Flood. (In the bonus content, we consider possible dates for the settlement in Shinar.)

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).

It seems pretty bold to ask the holy and almighty God to take up your case, as if he were some nonprofit legal organization seeking justice for the innocent. But in Psalm 119:154, the psalmist encourages us to do so. In this devotion we consider how we can.

Music Credit: Johann Sebastian Bach, Trio from Brandenburg Concerto, No. 1, Movement 4

Even when we speak the same language as someone else today, we can’t always understand them. But from the beginning of the world up to about a century after the Flood, humans all spoke the same way and shared the same vocabulary.

Music Credit: J. S. Bach, “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten,” aria from “Jesu, der du meine Seele,” BWV 78 (Leipzig, 1724).