Yesterday we heard the story of Deborah and Barak. (Say, that name sounds familiar!) Barak doesn't get the glory for his notable defeat of Israel's enemy, Sisera. Instead the crowning glory goes to a woman named Jael, who happened to see a new use for a tent peg. The poem in chapter 5 includes taunts to Israel's tribes who 'sat on their hands' and didn't get involved in the war.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/jdg.6.nlt
This Psalm 81 has a mysterious part in v5, where an unknown voice (or perhaps ‘language’) speaks to us. But afterward the first person ‘I’ is used for God, who speaks directly to us.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/psa.81
In Galatians 2 Paul used the word ‘sinners’ in several different senses. The Jews called non-Jews sinners because they did not follow the Law of Moses. But the Jewish Christians themselves also become ‘sinners’ if they leave the old system of relying on the Law, but then require non-Jews to be circumcised. The important thing is to be joined as one with Christ, not simply being followers of a religion. Being joined to Christ means dying (considering ourselves to be dead) to old things (including religious practices).
Translation notes:
1Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast [this/an] evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.
3How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives [with the power of//in] the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
6In the same way, “Abraham [fully] believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his [believing/faith].”b
Here is a good example showing the reason for why I change NLT’s noun ‘faith’ to the verb ‘fully believe’. Faith has come to have too many un-biblical meanings in our culture! One could easily think— given the text before, that ‘faith’ was something different (or mystical) than the verb ‘believe’ just above in the same sentence. They are NOT different. In Greek the two are simply the verb and noun form of the same verb. Compare verse 14.
7The real children of Abraham, then, are those who [fully believe//put their faith] in God.
8What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their [fully believing//faith]. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”c
9So all who [fully believe//put their faith] in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his [fully believing//faith].
11So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through [fully believing//faith] that a righteous person has life.”e
12This way of [believing/faith] is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”f
14Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promisedh Holy Spirit through [fully believing//faith].
Here is another place where both the verb and noun form (believe/faith) occur in the same verse. We don’t receive the Holy Spirit by some vague and mystical faith, but by believing in clear content.
23Before the way of [fully believing//faith] in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of [fully believing//faith] was revealed.
24Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through [fully believing//faith]. 25And now that the way of [fully believing//faith] has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
26For you are all childrenm of God through [fully believing//faith] in Christ Jesus. 27And all who have been [joined/united] with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.n
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/gal.3
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