Love Truth Blog

The other day someone asked about Deuteronomy 29:32, which goes: “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.” The person was in a bit of a tizzy because when he went to consult a Hebrew text—presumably a Jewish translation of the Old Testament—he came to discover there was no Deuteronomy 29:32. He then let his imagination get the best, speculating the verse must have been added later on by the early church father Jerome, the translator of the Latin Bible. Moreover, he even thought Jerome was guilty of adding to the text! Curious to know what he was talking about, I got on the Internet and found an online version of the Tanakh (an English translation of the Old Testament produced by the Jewish Publication Society). I came to find out that in the Tanakh Deuteronomy 29 ends with verse 31. Not to panic, I kept on reading and the verse was in the very next chapter. So the warning about adding and taking away to the Law in modern...

Visiting another country often includes things like exchanging currency, learning the country’s etiquette system, and familiarizing oneself with the country’s language (even in English speaking countries he still needs to learn a few of the local colloquialism!). In the same way, entering the kingdom of heaven involves a great exchange of values, ideas and ways. It is a transfer from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. One of the values of heavenly citizens is a servant leadership. The ancient near East had its own pecking order. Masters were above their slaves, and Rabbis above their disciples, and some of Jesus’ followers thought they could take to old order of things and fit them into God’s kingdom. Matthew tells us about a time when the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee asked, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left” (Matt. 20:21).* The request to sit at the right and left of Christ in glor...

The first will be last and the last will be first. That is the paradox of God’s kingdom, which makes it like no other. It is a kingdom worth giving up everything for, yet all its wealth and glory is received by grace. It is a pearl of great price. On the other hand, it is often misunderstood by those whose values and ways come from another world. We, therefore, must abandon the ways of this world in other to find the other. The qualification to all these blessings is “many who are first will be last; and the last, first” (19:30). This is the great reversal of all. It is not about who becomes the greatest, but how God looks upon the least, lost, and lowly. It is a paradox founded upon the graciousness of God. Jesus illustrates with this parable: For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about t...

Seeing a certain rich man walk away from Christ on account of his allegiance to the almighty dollar, Peter then asks, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” (19:27). He did leave behind his boat and fishing nets to be yoked together with a Rabbi. Was he being mercenary just in it for the money? Did he have a concern for self and others who gave up so much? The disciple’s motives remain veiled. The question still warrants a response. What does God offer to those who left all behind for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? Jesus offers a twofold promise. First he says, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (19:28). This is a call to have an eternal perspective on things. The Lord points the disciples to the final consummation of all things, and particularly refers to the vision...

“But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and water, and I will remove the sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days” (Exod. 23:24NASB) I remember thinking whether or not this passage meant that women who are part of God’s people would never miscarry or experience infertility. I can never imagine the pain couples experience in being unable to conceive a child, and the even more intense trauma of suffering a miscarriage. But, what of the faithful who experience these tribulations? Is God going back on His Word? Moses is in no way communicating every single Israelite woman would neither experience a miscarriage nor infertility. The fact that elsewhere God clearly indicates some Israelite women would miscarry—as in the case of the law concerning two men fighting and a pregnant woman getting caught in the crossfire and miscarrying her baby (cf. Exod. 21:22-25)—precludes the idea ...