These verses are advice to remember God while we're young – or at least, before we are so old and frail that we don't enjoy life and are no longer active. They also contain some of the most beautiful poetry in the Old Testament, with love...

Hebrews was written by a Jewish Christian to other Jewish believers to encourage them in a time of persecution. It's extraordinarily rich theologically, and deeply rooted in the Old Testament. These opening verses speak of the absolute supremacy...

There's a repeated pattern in Exodus of the people complaining about how hard their lives are, and God stepping in to correct them or rescue them. It's as though they have to learn, after all their years of slavery, how to live as free people.

Paul could be crabby and rude, and comes across in his letters as a flawed – and therefore very human – individual. But being human means that as well as being prone to fall very low, we're also capable of rising high. In this chapter Paul ...

This chapter deals with orderliness in worship, including the issue of 'speaking in strange tongues'. This probably refers to the spiritual prayer language, unintelligible to its speakers or hearers, held to be one of the gifts of the Spirit.

This chapter is Paul's great exposition of the resurrection. He defends it to the hilt: Christ was really raised from the dead, he says, and without it Christians are all wasting their time: 'And if Christ has not been raised, then your fai...

1 Corinthians is a real letter to real people, rather than an abstract piece of theological writing. This closing chapter makes this clear – Paul has people's names and faces in mind as he writes, as he often does. That doesn't mean he pu...

The Exodus from Egypt – the word means 'going out' in Greek – was one of the foundations of Israel's identity. The people had been slaves, and God rescued them. It's an extraordinarily powerful story.

The crossing of the Red Sea is an event of tremendous drama. Older generations might remember Charlton Heston in the famous scene in The Ten Commandments (1956), in which the water literally forms walls in the sea on either side of the fleeing Israe...

The Song of Miriam is an outpouring of praise to God for his great act of salvation in bringing the people out of Egypt. After this high, however, there comes another low – three days of wandering through a waterless wilderness.

The Israelites had to cope with hunger and thirst in the desert, and they were not very patient. Now, though, there is another threat: a hostile tribe, the Amalekites, attack them. Moses stands on a hilltop with his arms outstretched in prayer; as lo...

The new nation of Israel is coming into existence, and its institutions have to be created from scratch. Everyone has questions, there's much to be decided and Moses feels he's the only one who can do it. He makes himself permanently availa...

Exodus 19 depicts God as someone to be feared – not just in the sense of awe and respect, but in the sense of terror. The presence of God on Mount Sinai is life-threatening to all except his chosen mediators, Moses and Aaron.

After the terrifying display of God’s power and holiness that ends with the giving of the Ten Commandments, these last few verses of Exodus 20 are remarkably undramatic. An altar of earth seems nothing special. It is not ornate or valuable in itsel...

In this chapter Paul is continuing his encouragement to the Corinthian Christians to be generous in their giving. His words are inspiring, but need to be read with care. When he says that 'the one who sows many seeds will have a large crop'...

In chapter 10, the tone changes. From writing a beautiful hymn to generosity, Paul becomes more combative. He is facing opposition from people who don't think he is a very impressive figure (verse 10) and are questioning his authority – and th...

Paul's irritation at those who criticised his ministry sometimes boils over. This is one of those times – he is frustrated that the Corinthians are being led astray by smooth talkers who don't really grasp the heart of the gospel (verse 4...

We shouldn't, of course, think that Paul's life of discipleship was one of unrelenting suffering, as the previous chapter might suggest. Far from it: he was given visions of glory that sustained him in his discipleship.

At the end of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he moderates the fierceness of his tone towards them with expressions of loving care. He prays that they will be 'perfect' (verse 9) and blesses them (verse 13). He has been sharp with th...

The healing of the man at the pool of Bethzatha, or Bethesda, makes a very rich story. The pool is known as a place of miracles – it was believed that an angel disturbed the waters from time to time, and that the first person in the water after tha...