Genesis Marks the Spot

What does it mean to call the temple a place of refuge? In this episode of the Refuge series, we look at the temple and tabernacle as more than places of sacrifice. In the Old Testament, sacred space is also associated with God’s presence, protection, purification, justice, rest, provision, and ordered life. We trace that picture through texts including Psalm 46, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Micah. Along the way, we consider why sacred space can be both protective and danger

What does refuge actually preserve—and what is it ultimately for? In Numbers 35, the manslayer is protected from death but remains cut off from his land and possession until the death of the high priest. That strange legal arrangement becomes the starting point for a wider biblical-theological exploration of judgment, preservation, land, seed, and inheritance. In this episode, we look at the avenger of blood, the Hebrew goel, the death of the high priest, and what Numbers 35 does—and does

The waters of Genesis 7 do a remarkable amount of the acting. Meanwhile, after Yahweh shuts Noah in, Noah does nothing until he opens the window in Genesis 8. In this episode, we follow the verbs and grammatical subjects through Genesis 7–8 and ask what we see when we read the flood as a narrative before reducing it to a set of theological propositions. We’ll look closely at the Hebrew gabar, the word translated “prevailed,” and the crescendo created as the waters gain and sustain mastery

Fish as divine beings, divine fishermen, and dolphins in the sanctuary? Beginning with Jonah’s great fish, this episode follows fish and water imagery through the mighty warrior water of the Flood, the cultic ancient Near Eastern world, the Tabernacle, and the prophets. We peer into waters as places of life and judgment and see the fish as a creature adapted to a realm humans cannot inhabit, with Mesopotamian apkallu and fish imagery, Egyptian associations with fertility and protection, and the

Jonah is one of Scripture’s strangest prophets—not simply because he disappears into the sea and is swallowed by a great fish, but because almost everyone in his story seems more responsive to God than he is. In this episode, we move into the prophets through the Book of Jonah. Jonah has already appeared in 2 Kings as a prophet of undeserved restoration for Israel. But when that same divine compassion reaches Nineveh, Jonah resists the mercy he already knows God is capable of giving. We fo

Continuing the refuge series through Exodus 3–14: beginning with the burning bush, God’s presence becomes increasingly visible in fire, cloud, Passover, and the crossing of the sea. Israel is sheltered inside marked homes, led into the wilderness, and brought through a place of danger that becomes the path of deliverance. Along the way, we look at Israel as God’s firstborn son, the contrast between serving Pharaoh and serving Yahweh, the protective meaning of Passover, and the sea as both ref