Women's Bible Study - September 28th, 2022
September 28, 2022 · Deborah
Scripture referenced 21 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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John 14:27 key verse on peace that Jesus gives, which the world cannot give
27 Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
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Keep this verse
Matthew 19
Jesus quoting Genesis, defining marriage as between male and female
1 When Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan.
2 Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
4 He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,
5 and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’
6 So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”
7 They asked him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?”
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.
9 I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to him, “If this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.”
11 But he said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but those to whom it is given.
12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
13 Then little children were brought to him, that he should lay his hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.
14 But Jesus said, “Allow the little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me; for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to ones like these.”
15 He laid his hands on them, and departed from there.
16 Behold, one came to him and said, “Good teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”
17 He said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder.’ ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ‘You shall not steal.’ ‘You shall not offer false testimony.’
19 ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
20 The young man said to him, “All these things I have observed from my youth. What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sad, for he was one who had great possessions.
23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Most certainly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with difficulty.
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”
25 When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
27 Then Peter answered, “Behold, we have left everything, and followed you. What then will we have?”
28 Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
29 Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life.
30 But many will be last who are first; and first who are last.
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Genesis 2
quoted by Jesus in Matthew 19 about male and female and becoming one flesh
1 The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.
2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
3 God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.
4 This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
5 No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
6 but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.
7 Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8 Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became the source of four rivers.
11 The name of the first is Pishon: it flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 and the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and onyx stone are also there.
13 The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel. This is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
16 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
17 but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
18 Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
19 Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.
20 The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him.
21 Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22 Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.
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1 Corinthians 7
Paul addressing sexual immorality by calling each man to have his own wife and each woman her own husband
1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2 But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
3 Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife her husband.
4 The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife.
5 Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that Satan doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6 But this I say by way of concession, not of commandment.
7 Yet I wish that all men were like me. However each man has his own gift from God, one of this kind, and another of that kind.
8 But I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain even as I am.
9 But if they don’t have self-control, let them marry. For it’s better to marry than to burn.
10 But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband
11 (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.
12 But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her.
13 The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.
14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
15 Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.
16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
17 Only, as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.
18 Was anyone called having been circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised.
19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
20 Let each man stay in that calling in which he was called.
21 Were you called being a bondservant? Don’t let that bother you, but if you get an opportunity to become free, use it.
22 For he who was called in the Lord being a bondservant is the Lord’s free man. Likewise he who was called being free is Christ’s bondservant.
23 You were bought with a price. Don’t become bondservants of men.
24 Brothers, let each man, in whatever condition he was called, stay in that condition with God.
25 Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who has obtained mercy from the Lord to be trustworthy.
26 Therefore I think that because of the distress that is on us, that it’s good for a man to remain as he is.
27 Are you bound to a wife? Don’t seek to be freed. Are you free from a wife? Don’t seek a wife.
28 But if you marry, you have not sinned. If a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have oppression in the flesh, and I want to spare you.
29 But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;
30 and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess;
31 and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.
32 But I desire to have you to be free from cares. He who is unmarried is concerned for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;
33 but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.
34 There is also a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.
35 This I say for your own profit; not that I may ensnare you, but for that which is appropriate, and that you may attend to the Lord without distraction.
36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and if need so requires, let him do what he desires. He doesn’t sin. Let them marry.
37 But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no urgency, but has power over his own will, and has determined in his own heart to keep his own virgin, does well.
38 So then both he who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and he who doesn’t give her in marriage does better.
39 A wife is bound by law for as long as her husband lives; but if the husband is dead, she is free to be married to whomever she desires, only in the Lord.
40 But she is happier if she stays as she is, in my judgment, and I think that I also have God’s Spirit.
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Ephesians 5
a man leaving father and mother and joining his wife, used as illustration of Christ and the church
1 Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
2 Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
3 But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate; but rather giving of thanks.
5 Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7 Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
9 for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
10 proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
12 For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.
13 But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
14 Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
18 Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;
21 subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
24 But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;
26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
27 that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.
28 Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
29 For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly;
30 because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.
31 “For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.”
32 This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly.
33 Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
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Genesis 1:28
God creating male and female and telling them to prosper, reproduce, and fill the earth
28 God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
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Psalm 127:3
children are a gift from God
3 Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
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Ephesians 6:4
children obeying parents and parents not provoking their children but bringing them up in the instruction of the Lord
4 You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
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Genesis 9
human government founded after the flood
1 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.
2 The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand.
3 Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.
4 But flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat.
5 I will surely require your life’s blood. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man’s brother, I will require the life of man.
6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
7 Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.”
8 God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
9 “As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,
10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ship, even every animal of the earth.
11 I will establish my covenant with you: All flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 God said, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 When I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud,
15 I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
17 God said to Noah, “This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
18 The sons of Noah who went out from the ship were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.
19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the whole earth was populated.
20 Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard.
21 He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.
22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
23 Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.
24 Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.
25 He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”
26 He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.
27 May God enlarge Japheth. Let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.”
28 Noah lived three hundred fifty years after the flood.
29 All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, and then he died.
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Genesis 10
descendants of Noah scattering into geographical boundaries by clan, family, and language
1 Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
2 The sons of Japheth were: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
3 The sons of Gomer were: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4 The sons of Javan were: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5 Of these were the islands of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in their nations.
6 The sons of Ham were: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
7 The sons of Cush were: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah were: Sheba and Dedan.
8 Cush became the father of Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9 He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, “like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh”.
10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11 Out of that land he went into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah,
12 and Resen between Nineveh and the great city Calah.
13 Mizraim became the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim.
15 Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,
16 the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,
17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,
18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad.
19 The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon—as you go toward Gerar—to Gaza—as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim—to Lasha.
20 These are the sons of Ham, after their families, according to their languages, in their lands and their nations.
21 Children were also born to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth.
22 The sons of Shem were: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram.
23 The sons of Aram were: Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
24 Arpachshad became the father of Shelah. Shelah became the father of Eber.
25 To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided. His brother’s name was Joktan.
26 Joktan became the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
29 Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
30 Their dwelling extended from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east.
31 These are the sons of Shem, by their families, according to their languages, lands, and nations.
32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their generations, according to their nations. The nations divided from these in the earth after the flood.
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Genesis 11
origin of languages at the Tower of Babel and the rejection of one world government
1 The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
2 As they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they lived there.
3 They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
4 They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth.”
5 Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
6 Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.
7 Come, let’s go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
8 So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.
9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Yahweh confused the language of all the earth. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.
10 This is the history of the generations of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.
11 Shem lived five hundred years after he became the father of Arpachshad, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
12 Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and became the father of Shelah.
13 Arpachshad lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Shelah, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
14 Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber.
15 Shelah lived four hundred three years after he became the father of Eber, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
16 Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg.
17 Eber lived four hundred thirty years after he became the father of Peleg, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
18 Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu.
19 Peleg lived two hundred nine years after he became the father of Reu, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
20 Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.
21 Reu lived two hundred seven years after he became the father of Serug, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
22 Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor.
23 Serug lived two hundred years after he became the father of Nahor, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
24 Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah.
25 Nahor lived one hundred nineteen years after he became the father of Terah, and became the father of more sons and daughters.
26 Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.
28 Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.
29 Abram and Nahor married wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran who was also the father of Iscah.
30 Sarai was barren. She had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife. They went from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran and lived there.
32 The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.
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Isaiah 59
truth stumbles in the streets and honesty has been outlawed
1 Behold, Yahweh’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one sues in righteousness, and no one pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
6 Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. desolation and destruction are in their paths.
8 They don’t know the way of peace; and there is no justice in their ways. They have made crooked paths for themselves; whoever goes in them doesn’t know peace.
9 Therefore is justice far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind. Yes, we grope as those who have no eyes. We stumble at noon as if it were twilight. Among those who are strong, we are like dead men.
11 We all roar like bears, and moan bitterly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has fallen in the street, and uprightness can’t enter.
15 Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.
18 According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; he will repay the islands their due.
19 So shall they fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which Yahweh’s breath drives.
20 “A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Yahweh. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says Yahweh, “from henceforth and forever.”
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Mark 15
Pilate realizing the priests arrested Jesus out of envy and then handing him over to please the crowd
1 Immediately in the morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him up to Pilate.
2 Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered, “So you say.”
3 The chief priests accused him of many things.
4 Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they testify against you!”
5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate marveled.
6 Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whom they asked of him.
7 There was one called Barabbas, bound with his fellow insurgents, men who in the insurrection had committed murder.
8 The multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do as he always did for them.
9 Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
10 For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead.
12 Pilate again asked them, “What then should I do to him whom you call the King of the Jews?”
13 They cried out again, “Crucify him!”
14 Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they cried out exceedingly, “Crucify him!”
15 Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and handed over Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified.
16 The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort.
17 They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.
18 They began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
19 They struck his head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowing their knees, did homage to him.
20 When they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, and put his own garments on him. They led him out to crucify him.
21 They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear his cross.
22 They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, “The place of a skull.”
23 They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn’t take it.
24 Crucifying him, they parted his garments among them, casting lots on them, what each should take.
25 It was the third hour, and they crucified him.
26 The superscription of his accusation was written over him, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
27 With him they crucified two robbers; one on his right hand, and one on his left.
28 The Scripture was fulfilled, which says, “He was counted with transgressors.”
29 Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, “Ha! You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days,
30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!”
31 Likewise, also the chief priests mocking among themselves with the scribes said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself.
32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe him.” Those who were crucified with him also insulted him.
33 When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
35 Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.”
36 One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to take him down.”
37 Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit.
38 The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.
39 When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
40 There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;
41 who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and served him; and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
42 When evening had now come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
43 Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent council member who also himself was looking for God’s Kingdom, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus’ body.
44 Pilate marveled if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead long.
45 When he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
46 He bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.
47 Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid.
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Hebrews 4:12
the word of God is alive, powerful, sharper than any sword, judging thoughts and attitudes
12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
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2 Timothy 2:15
working hard to correctly divide the word of truth and not be ashamed before God
15 Give diligence to present yourself approved by God, a workman who doesn’t need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth.
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Hebrews 11:3
God spoke the world into being by the power of his word
3 By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.
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John 1:1
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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Proverbs 12:6
words can destroy or build up
6 The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
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Proverbs 18:21
the tongue has the power of life and death
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.
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2 Timothy 3:16
all scripture is inspired by God and useful to teach what is true and the right way to live
16 Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
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2 Peter 3:17-18
be on guard against deception and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Deborah taught from John 14:27 on the peace Jesus promises even as the world grows more chaotic, and she connected that peace to a clear-eyed understanding of God's design for human society. She walked through four institutions God established in scripture, showing how each one is being redefined in the current cultural moment. The lesson was a call to know the truth well enough to live it without apology.
What was said
Deborah opened with Elizabeth Elliot's summary of what it means to trust God under suffering: at the end of the day, you either believe God knows what He is doing or you believe He doesn't. If you don't, you are at the mercy of chaos rather than cosmos. Elliot's life in Ecuador, her husband's murder, and her eventual testimony that God is good served as the anchor for everything that followed. The question the whole lesson kept returning to was whether we will choose to believe God tells the truth.
From there Deborah laid out what she called the four divine institutions: free will, marriage, family, and nationalism. She argued these are not human inventions but God's design, woven into the Mosaic code long before they appeared in any founding document. The freedoms Americans recognize, she said, trace directly back to what God wrote into that code, including the freedom of religion, the right to own property, and the right to pursue a vocation.
On marriage, Deborah brought in research from Louise Perry, a self-described secular feminist, whose study of the sexual revolution led her to conclude that monogamous marriage produces richer, more stable societies with lower rates of child abuse, domestic violence, and crime. Deborah's point was that Perry reached a biblical conclusion without starting from biblical premises, which she took as confirmation that God's design works whether or not people acknowledge the designer.
She treated the family and nationhood the same way, noting that God's scattering of peoples at Babel was a deliberate check against the kind of one-world consolidation of power the Tower represented. She connected that directly to the present, arguing that the push toward a globalist framework follows the same pattern, and that people who love their particular country, language, and community are not expressing something sinister but something God built into human life.
To show how openly these institutions are being contested, Deborah quoted a speech by Italy's newly elected prime minister, who asked why family, national identity, religious identity, and gender identity have all become targets at the same moment. The answer the prime minister offered, and that Deborah agreed with, is that a clearly defined identity makes a person harder to reduce to a consumer or a category. She also cited a GK Chesterton line the prime minister quoted: that a day would come when fires would be kindled to testify that two plus two equals four.
Deborah then walked through the story of Pilate, who knew Jesus was innocent, whose own wife warned him in a dream, and who still handed Jesus over because he wished to please the crowd. She held that moment up as the picture of what happens when the desire not to cause offense overrides the knowledge of what is true. The crowd's power to name and shame, she said, has always been the mechanism for silencing truth, and history's worst regimes understood that, which is why burning Bibles was typically one of the first acts of totalitarian governments.
She closed the main teaching by pressing on the authority and living power of scripture itself, drawing on Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 3:16, and on neuroscientist Lisa Feldman's research showing that words physically reshape the brain and regulate the nervous system. Her argument was that the war on truth is not incidental. The enemy knows how powerful the Word is, and so do the people who want to silence it. The answer she offered was not political strategy but the same one Elizabeth Elliot came to: choose to believe God does not lie, and then know His word well enough that living it becomes possible.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Elizabeth Elliot said that at the end of the day, you either believe God knows what He is doing or you believe He doesn't. Has there been a moment in your own life when trusting God's order was genuinely hard? What did that look like?
- Deborah walked through four divine institutions God established: free will, marriage, family, and nationalism. Which of these do you see under the most pressure in your own community right now, and why?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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