“No Mercy” No More

The theme of the book of Joshua could be stated as, “Show no mercy.” When the walls of Jericho came a tumbling’ down, the Israelites “devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.” (Joshua 6:21) No mercy. Then they moved on to...

Hunger and Thirst for Justice

There is little about the 4th Beatitude—“Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness”—that we get right. Let’s start with our concept of “righteousness.” We have made it a general term for “sinlessness.” “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). This is the verse I was told to...

The Power of Meek

Nobody likes to be called meek. In a culture that values the assertive, the decisive, and the forceful, meek seems weak. Weak is indeed what we think of when we think of meekness, but there is a big difference between the two. Weakness is lacking power. It’s wanting to do something but unable to pull it...

Mourning Comfort

When Job lost everything—his children, his livestock, his wealth, his health, literally everything—his wife comforted him by telling him to curse God and die. Yay marriage! Then his best friends told him not to curse God, because it wasn’t God’s fault at all. It was Job’s fault. He must have done something...