[Twenty-Third in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
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In ancient times, a widow was on her own. She had no means of supporting herself or her family. If she were fortunate enough to have adult sons, they would care for her. If she did not, she was completely at the mercy of her relatives. Most ancient societies placed great importance on descendants inheriting the family name and fortunes. To be a widow without sons meant the family line would die with her.
God’s laws for Israel provided for that. It required a man’s brother to marry his widow. The children born of that marriage would be the deceased’s legal heirs and would inherit all his property. This duty was a disadvantage to the brother. If he declined to perform it, the nearest relative would take his place.
Naomi and Ruth were in an especially tough spot. They were both widowed, and Ruth was childless. They lived in a foreign land where no family lived to help them. Ruth so loved and honored her mother-in-law that she would not hear of abandoning her. In addition, she believed in the God of Israel. So they returned to Naomi’s home — Bethlehem.
God also had not forsaken the two women. He protected them and led them home, where Naomi’s relatives cared for them. She helped Ruth understand the culture of Israel, which enabled them to find food to eat by gleaning in the fields of Boaz, Naomi’s husband’s relative. Even though Ruth was a gentile, Bethlehem received her as a member of his family. Boaz shows the true, selfless character of a redeemer — one who would establish a line for his relative by marrying Ruth and having a child with her, buying back all the property of Naomi and Ruth’s husbands, and preserving it for their descendants.
But, as usual, God had bigger plans for his daughters. It was through their descendants that his Son would be born. The son of Ruth and Boaz was Obed, the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David. Through them, the redeemer of all would be born. When Matthew selected generations to include in the genealogy of Jesus, he did not omit Ruth, one of the very few women on the list. God had redeemed her and, through her, had redeemed the whole world.
Jesus’ Resurrection: New Testament Testimonies by David P. Scaer. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2026. 168+ vi pages. Hardcover: $34.99
(Disclaimer: I served as one of the editors for this volume)
Every so often, a book arrives that doesn’t simply add to the conversation but re‑centers it. David P. Scaer’s Jesus’ Resurrection: New Testament Testimonies is one of those books. It is not merely another entry in the long debate over the historical Jesus; it is a deliberate effort to restore the resurrection to the place the apostles gave it: the beating heart of Christian proclamation, dogmatics, and hope.
This book is written in the voice of a senior dogmatician who has spent decades teaching future pastors. It assumes familiarity with the New Testament, with the history of doctrine, and with the major figures of modern biblical criticism. Readers accustomed to popular‑level Christian books will find this one more demanding. It is not inaccessible — far from it — but it is not entry‑level. General readers can certainly benefit from it, but they should expect to take their time, pause, reread, and occasionally look up a name or concept. Pastors, theologians, and seminary students will feel immediately at home.
Scaer begins with a sweeping historical survey of the thinkers who have shaped modern skepticism — Lessing, Kant, Semler, Strauss, Schweitzer, Barth, and finally Bart Ehrman, who serves as the contemporary representative of this tradition. Scaer is unsparing but fair. He shows that the doubts circulating today are not fresh discoveries but inherited assumptions, often repeated without awareness of their origins.
The heart of the book lies in Part III, where Scaer turns to the Scriptures themselves. His treatment of the resurrection accounts is crisp, confident, and deeply rooted in the canonical shape of the New Testament. He demonstrates how on the third day, the empty tomb and the appearances form a coherent testimony — not a patchwork of competing traditions. His discussion of Paul’s preaching in Acts 2, Acts 13, and Acts 17 is especially strong: the resurrection is not an add‑on but the center of apostolic proclamation, grounded in the Old Testament and preached as historical reality.
Part IV is classic David Scaer: dogmatics with pastoral punch. The chapters on Christology and the sacraments are worth the price of the book alone. He argues that the resurrection is not merely proof of Jesus’ identity but the very mode of His ongoing presence with the Church. Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the preaching office all derive their meaning from the risen Christ who acts through them. His treatment of the descent into hell is brief, bold, and clarifying.
Readers familiar with Scaer’s earlier works will recognize his voice: sharp, witty, occasionally polemical, always confessional. But this book has a reflective quality that comes only with decades of teaching and writing.
For pastors, this book will be a resource for preaching and teaching. For lay readers who are willing to stretch themselves, it will be a substantive guide to why the resurrection matters. For skeptics, it will be a challenge.
Scaer has given us a book that is both timely and timeless. In an age when the resurrection is often treated as optional, symbolic, or merely inspirational, he reminds us that it is none of those things. It is the event by which God has remade the world — and the event by which He will raise us as well. If you want to understand why the resurrection is the center of everything, this book deserves a place on your shelf.
Availability: The quickest way to obtain the book is directly through Concordia Publishing House, where it is already available. It can also be ordered through Amazonor Barnes & Noble, though those retailers may take longer to fulfill early orders.
[Twenty-Second in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
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Through God, the Canaanites were defeated in the land he promised to his people through Joshua’s conquest. He instructed his people to kill all of the residents of Canaan, since they were devoted to particularly evil gods — chiefly Baal and his wife, Asherah. They were fertility gods. Their religion promised many children and abundant crops to their followers. Part of their worship involved sexual relations with temple prostitutes and child sacrifice to influence the gods to give them what they desired. Yet Israel did not listen to God and let some of them live. This would lead to endless trouble for them.
After Joshua died, God ruled the people of Israel directly, primarily through judges. Mostly, this worked well. Yet, because the people of Israel often fell into the temptation of worshipping the gods of Canaan, God allowed the Canaanites to raid or conquer one area of the land or another.
During these years, the relationship between God and the people went through a depressing cycle. When they forgot what God had done for them, they worshipped the gods of the Canaanites. God would send their neighbors to harass and oppress them. They would cry to God for help. He would raise up a judge like Deborah to rescue them. They would honor God as long as the judge lived. With each cycle, the people would grow worse.
Deborah was one of these judges. She is the only female judge mentioned in Scripture. She is also one of the very few prophetesses mentioned among God’s people. Her role was political — to settle disputes between various peoples in Israel and to summon them to battle.
Deborah brought the tribes together to fight against their enemies. The battle was not promising. Israel did not have chariots and faced an army that did. When the battle began, a thunderstorm soaked the field, bogging down the chariots in mud. In the confusion, the Canaanite general Sisera was defeated and fled. Once again, it is God who rescues His people from foreign armies. They turn again to worship Him as long as Deborah lives.
Like the people of Israel, we also go through a similar pattern. When God shows us mercy and blesses us, we honor Him. Eventually, we take his blessing for granted, and he allows us to suffer the consequences of our sins. We call out for help, and God rescues us. Ultimately, it leads to physical death. Yet God has sent the Judge of Judges to rescue us. He did battle with sin, death, and the devil for us. By his death, he destroyed death and earned for us everlasting life. On the last day, the cycle will come to an end once and for all. We will live forever in his blessing.
[Twenty-first in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
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Joshua was a young man when God freed his people from Egypt. When the people of Israel arrived at the border of the promised land the first time, he was one of twelve spies Moses sent into the land. Most of the spies were afraid of the armies in the land, but Joshua was confident that with God’s help, Israel could defeat those who lived there. Because the people were afraid, God decided they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years.
During this time, Moses appointed Joshua as his trusted assistant and designated him as the leader who would succeed him. When Moses died, Joshua took Moses’ place. Not long after that, the Captain of the Army of the Lord appeared to him. Many theologians believe this general is the second person of the Trinity — the Angel of the Lord. Under his direction, Joshua parted the Jordan River and led the people into Canaan. The first challenge was the powerful city of Jericho, located where the Jordan River meets the Dead Sea.
Joshua and Jesus have the same name. It comes from the same Hebrew words that mean God saves. God told Joseph and Mary to name His Son Jesus, because He would save His people from their sins. Joshua’s parents named him Hoshea, which means salvation. Moses changed his name to Joshua. In ancient times, a name was a kind of motto. Joshua depended on God to give the people of Israel victory in war. Because Joshua trusted God, he led the people of Israel to capture Jericho and the rest of the promised land. Jesus lived a perfect life, suffered, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. When He did these things, He paid the price for our sins, won forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Jesus is more than just a man who died for us. He is literally God who saves us.
We name the Ten Commandments, the Decalog, and the Commandments as the command of the Lord from Mt. Sinai, written by the finger of God on two tablets of stone in Exodus 20:1-17, in different ways. There is a numbering system used by modern Jews from the Talmud. Western Christianity, up to and through the Reformation, numbers the commandments another way. And, reformed Christians following the Reformation use yet another system of numbering the commandments.
First, are the commandments actually numbered at all? No, in the scriptures, there are no numbers given to the commandments themselves. They are simply the “commandments” or the “command of Moses.” There is, however, a distinction between the first and second tables of the law. “And [Jesus] said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'” (Matthew 22:37-40)
[Second, must there be ten? We are certainly wise to stick with ten, not only for the benefit of children and catechumens of all ages, but also in keeping with the scriptures speaking within themselves. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, or the The Commands, depending upon translation, are the way scripture names the tablets of Moses that are to be taught. (Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 10:4; Exodus 24:12; Matthew 19:17-19) The particular categorization of the ten has been debated within Christendom (edit thanks to Nathan Jastram).]
The majority of variance exists between the first two and the last two commandments. The Talmudic numbering begins with “I am the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:2) That differs from the Western Christian and Reformed Christians’ “You shall have no other gods.” (Exodus 20:3)
Both Talmudic and Western Christian systems group “You shall have no other Gods” with “You shall not make for yourself any carved image.” (Exodus 20:4) The Reformed alone make Exodus 20:4 into its own 2nd commandment. You may ask, what’s the difference?
There is a reason to retain the Western Christian grouping of other gods and carved (graven) images together. (Exodus 20:3-6) Just a little while later, in Exodus 36-38, Moses describes “graven” (unliving) images in great detail for the tabernacle. The distinction here is between images for the house of the Lord and “for yourselves.” The images for the house of the Lord are specifically commanded, not forbidden. So, the prohibition against images for yourselves must reside under the command to have no other gods.
A little later still, the congregation of Israel will be set upon by fiery serpents. God doesn’t take away the serpents from among them. He gives them a thing to see. “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 21:8-9) The lifeless image of a serpent on a pole is the life-preserving gift of God against the punishment for their grumbling. God does not break His own commandments here. He gave Israel an image that reminded them of the work of the Lord.
In a similar pattern, there’s no disagreement about grouping Exodus 20:8-11, concerning the sabbath/the holy day together. This serves to reinforce rather than detract from the v. 3-6 grouping. Things concerning having other gods and the sabbath day are in a similar group for teaching.
This more expansive teaching of the commandments is in line with the way the Lord Jesus Christ also teaches us to hear them concerning the fifth & sixth commandments. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. … You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28)
For the ninth & tenth, we could easily go either way. All coveting could easily go together. My neighbor’s wife, livestock, or anything else I may seek to deprive from my neighbor. But pursuing it is certain to cause trouble. (Exodus 20:17) Or, we could retain the distinction in the name of the catechetical benefit of the 10 commandments rather than more or less.
Unsurprisingly, I think the text itself, the way Moses and Jesus present them to us, and the common division we have received best support the Western Christian numbering of the commandments: 1) No other Gods, 2) No misuse of God’s name, 3) Remember the sabbath (holy) day, 4) Honor father and mother, 5) No murder, 6) No adultery, 7) No theft, 8) No false witness, 9) No coveting neighbor’s house, & 10) No coveting neighbor’s wife or anything else.
In good practice, numbering the commandments provides a helpful way to teach them. We have a shared understanding of how to recall them and their content for a current application. We learn them by heart, and have the commandments always with us.
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar Sole Pastor Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool La Grange, TX
God made the Israelites his people by saving them through the Red Sea. He led them by the pillar of cloud and fire, and then claimed them at Sinai. Before He gave them the Ten Commandments, He reminded them that He is the Lord their God, who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.
For the Israelites, the Ten Commandments and the laws that followed them described the kind of people God wanted them to be. These commandments are a summary of the whole of God’s law, showing them how to love the Lord with all their being and their neighbors as themselves. When they lived this way, it would be a testimony to the nations around them of who their God is.
In the same ways, God loves us, so He saves us in Baptism through water and His Word. At the font, God rescues us from the kingdom of darkness, gives us His Name, and brings us into the family of Christ. We do not work our way into His household — He brings us in. At Sinai, God wasn’t simply giving laws. He was giving Himself — His rescue, His name, His promises, and a way of life shaped by love.
So now, when teaching children the Ten Commandments, we can say to them: “This is how God wants us to live.” But there is much more to it. The commandments show us howto thank God for making us His children. They are the everyday pattern of gratitude, the way redeemed people live in the world.
Once the people of Israel were safe on the other side of the Red Sea and the joy of freedom faded, they realized they had to provide for themselves. They grumbled at Mara that they were thirsty, and God provided water to drink. Once they reached the Wilderness of Sin, they grumbled that they had nothing to eat. God told Moses that he would provide them with bread in the morning and quail at night to eat.
When the people saw the bread God provided, it looked so strange to them that they said, “What is it?” They called it Manna, which means “what is it? ” in Hebrew. Moses answered that it was the bread God had provided for them. God provided this food for six days, doubling the amount on the sixth day. On the Sabbath, manna did not come.
From the time people first planted crops until this very day, bread has been a staple food. God fed His people in the wilderness with manna to teach them to trust their Heavenly Father for daily bread.
God would do other miracles with bread. The prophet Elijah would feed the widow and her son with bread, flour, and oil that never ran out. Elisha would feed one hundred men with a few loaves. Later, Satan would tempt Jesus to make stones into bread rather than trust Him. Jesus quoted what Moses said to Israel about Manna: man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.. (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus fed crowds in the desert with a few loaves and fish. The crowd knew what it meant. Jesus was the Messiah, and like Moses and Elijah.
Jesus also used bread in another way. During His Last Supper, He took bread, broke it, blessed it, and gave His body for them to eat. To this day, when we gather for communion, Jesus feeds us with His body — the true Bread from Heaven. When we receive this bread, we are given strength for our journey through this life to life everlasting.
[Nineteenth in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
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The night of the first Passover, the people of Israel prepared for the darkest of the plagues God sent to Egypt to free them from slavery. They killed a perfect lamb for the feast. They spread the blood on their doorposts to mark their homes. They prepared dinner quickly and prepared to leave Egypt in haste. They made their bread without leaven. They wore traveling clothes.
That night, God himself visited every home in Egypt and took the life of every firstborn in Egyptian households. He did this through the destroying angel. The outcry was great, and Pharaoh finally let God’s people go, telling them to leave quickly.
God led the people out of Egypt to the shore of the Red Sea, where they camped. He did so with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. In this pillar, the Angel of the Lord was present to lead them. Soon, Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued Israel with his army. The pillar moved from before the people to stand between them and the Egyptians.
God directed Moses to hold his staff over the waters of the Red Sea. Winds blew for hours, parting the sea. God then had Moses lead the people through the sea on dry land. Once they were on the other side, the pillar of the cloud of God’s presence moved from between Israel and the Egyptians to the front of the people. The Egyptian army charged into the sea, where the wheels of their chariots bogged down. God then had Moses put down his staff. The sea closed over the Egyptian forces, drowning them. The people of Israel were now free and safe.
When Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him and spoke about Christ’s coming Exodus (a word that gets lost in translation; most English versions use “departure” for it). Through His death and resurrection, He would lead all God’s people through death to life. St. Paul tells us that the cloud and the Red Sea were a kind of baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2), which points to the Sacrament of Baptism. In baptism, our sinful nature is drowned, and we are free to serve God as His redeemed people.
[Eighteenth in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
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Nine times, God sent plagues on Egypt to show Pharaoh and his people that their gods did not have the powers claimed for them. Nine times, Pharaoh had agreed to let the people of Israel go to worship God. Nine times, God brought the plague to an end, and Pharaoh went back on his word. Now, the last and greatest plague would be sent. Every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, other than those of the Hebrews, would die. This was the reverse of what a previous pharaoh had tried to do by ordering the firstborn male babies to be killed. Now the one that had escaped, ironically at the hand of a daughter of Pharaoh, would pronounce God’s answer to that outrage.
God marked the day by establishing a feast. A young lamb would be killed for each Hebrew family. The blood of that lamb would be spread on the doorframe of each of their homes. The lamb itself would be the entrée of a feast called Passover because on that night, the Angel of the Lord, the Son of God (Exodus 12:23) passed over every house marked in this way. and prevents the destroyer from entering.
The death of Pharaoh’s heir and every firstborn in Egypt was finally enough. Pharaoh let them go, and their Egyptian neighbors gave the people of Israel riches so they would leave quickly.
Every year since that first Passover, Jewish families remember that day of freedom. The Passover is a kind of Old Testament sacrament, bringing union with the God who saves. Luther believed that the Passover, sacrifices, and circumcision drew their power to forgive from the cross, which was yet to come, just as our sacraments draw their power to forgive from the cross, where the Lamb of God, Jesus, was sacrificed for us.
By instituting the sacrament of Holy Communion during the Passover, Jesus used all its symbols to point to what He would do for us. Now He offers His Body and Blood to us with bread and wine, bringing with it freedom from slavery to sin and the power of the devil.
[Seventeenth in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
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The Pharaohs of Egypt thought of themselves as gods, the sons of Osiris. They were supposed to be the intermediaries between the gods and people. The people would turn to them for rain and floods that caused crops to grow, for fertility and other good things. They would, in turn, approach the gods for these things. To free the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, the true God would do battle with the gods of the superpower of the ancient world.
Having been raised in Pharaoh’s household, Moses was familiar with this. Moses and Aaron would function like the pharaoh of the God of Israel in the view of the Egyptians. Moses confronted Pharaoh and demanded that Pharaoh release the Israelites to worship him. When Pharaoh did not comply, God used disasters or plagues to demonstrate that He is more powerful than the gods of Egypt.
The serpent represented the god of wisdom, fertility, and healing to the Egyptians. When Moses’ snake swallowed the magicians’ snakes, God demonstrated His superiority over them. The Nile River fed Egypt and the ancient world. The Lord showed power over the god that controlled it by turning it into blood. The Egyptians saw frogs as symbols of the goddess of childbirth. They also worshipped flies and beetles. The earlier plagues showed Yahweh’s power over them.
The rest of the plagues attacked the food supply that the gods were supposed to supply through Pharaoh. While they convinced many Egyptians that the God of the Hebrews was almighty, Pharaoh did not, since it did not affect him personally. He was trying to haggle with God to get the best possible deal for himself and his people. When God took the pressure off, he backed down. Eventually, the plagues reached the point where even Pharaoh’s advisors urged him to relent. Pharaoh did not let them go. This led to God unleashing the Angel of Death, the last and greatest plague of all.
