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How to Swallow Your Pride JOSHUA 9: 22- 10: 11 In the church where I was a young assistant pastor, I shared a house with an older man called Charles who in U.S.-speak would be called the janitor but in Brit-speak was called the caretaker. I don’t remember how he had been appointe…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - I'm Not the Hero; the Hero Is God

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I’m Not the Hero; the Hero is God JUDGES 8: 1-35 One of my fond memories of our sons’ childhood is of reading Bible stories to them at bedtime, stories that had been rewritten and illustrated for children; I have now passed on the set of books to the son who has children of his o…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Introduction

by SPCK - John Goldingay

INTRODUCTION As far as Jesus and the New Testament writers were concerned, the Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the “Old Testament” were the Scriptures. In saying that, I cut corners a bit, as the New Testament never gives us a list of these Scriptures, but the body of writ…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - It's Over Even When It's Not Over

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Importance of a Game Plan JOSHUA 8: 1-21 Three weeks ago I went to my first American football game. It was also my first experience of tailgating in the warm sunshine and of eating breakfast burritos, which (accompanied by mimosas) were perhaps the highlight of the day. I was…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Just One River to Cross

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Just One River to Cross JOSHUA 1: 1-18 As I write, I listen to CDs, or rather I half-listen. I do not pay too much attention to the words, though sometimes they catch me out. One day the title phrase of Jimmy Cliff ’s “Many Rivers to Cross” caught my attention, and I listened mor…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Living as Women in a Man's World

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Living as Women in a Man’s World JOSHUA 15:1- 17:11 I was talking to a student who was disillusioned with her denomination because of its attitude toward women’s ministry. Women had played a key ministerial role in the movement that issued in the denomination, but the denominatio…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Looking Forward and Backward

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Looking Forward and Backward JOSHUA 4: 1- 5: 1 Yesterday I was comparing notes with a woman who lost her father the same month I lost my wife. She mentioned that her mother wasn’t prepared to look forward, to imagine what the future would be like, and was only prepared to look ba…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Love Actually

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Love Actually JUDGES 16:1-21 After the incident a few weeks ago when a man on a plane bound for Detroit tried to blow up himself and the plane as an act of terrorism against the United States and the Western world in general, an extraordinary piece of background to the event emer…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Meanwhile, in the Whorehouse

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Meanwhile, in the Whorehouse JOSHUA 2: 1-24 In this commentary, Joshua 2 is the only chapter for which I will not attempt to provide an opening story in accordance with the usual format of The Old Testament for Everyone series. How could I compete with this actual story about the…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - No Compromise

by SPCK - John Goldingay

No Compromise JOSHUA 10: 12- 27 Six months ago, a doctor who performed late-term abortions was shot dead in church in Kansas, and at his funeral people from another Kansas church carried posters declaring, “God Sent the Killer.” Their declarations affirmed that the doctor’s own w…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On Getting Your Feet Wet

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On Getting Your Feet Wet JOSHUA 3: 1-17 So the people crossed over near Jericho. 17The priests carrying the chest of Yahweh’s covenant stood steady on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan while all Israel was crossing on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing o…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight JUDGES 5:31b- 6: 24 I have just been talking to a couple I have not seen for a year or two, exchanging news about our children and their marriages and their families. This other couple has several daughters. The last of these was almost th…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Real Life Is More Complicated

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Real Life Is More Complicated JUDGES 1:1- 36 This week Barack Obama made what might be the most fateful decision of his young presidency in sending thirty thousand more soldiers into Afghanistan. By the time you read this commentary, we may know whether this produces the desired …

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Roots; or, Home Is Where Your Share Is JOSHUA 17:12- 19:21 Waiting for the jazz to start last night, I was reading a book about the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel (other people who are on their own stare at their iPhones). It noted how the list of names occupying the bulk o…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - She's a Moabite, for Goodness' Sake!

by SPCK - John Goldingay

She’s a Moabite, for Goodness’ Sake RUTH 1:19b-2: 9 I was just reading the story of a man called Maxo who died in the earthquake in Haiti a couple of weeks ago when his house collapsed on top of him. His cousin in New York called Maxo a hustler, but his story showed how he was al…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Choice

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Choice RUTH 1:10-19a When my wife’s multiple sclerosis was first diagnosed, I wrote to tell her pastor, who had also been a mentor of mine. I remember reading his reply. He told us how that morning he happened to have been studying the story of Jesus’ making the water into wi…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Country That Remains to Be Possessed is Very Great

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Country That Remains to Be Possessed Is Very Great JOSHUA 13:1- 14:15 At my wife’s memorial service in England this past summer, I saw one of my cousins whom I had not seen for over a decade, and this week I had a Christmas card from her. She wrote, “Various members of the fa…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The God of Coincidences

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The God of Coincidences RUTH 2:10-23 When I was thirteen, I was walking home from school one day and met a teacher from the Sunday school I used to attend but had left two years previously to go to another church. She told me that my old church was about to start a new youth fell…

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