Wade Johnston, Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis: MO, 2025.
This ancient “tale of two mothers” concerns far more than theological semantics—it is the difference between a God who sends and a God who comes.
This story points us from our unlikely heroes to the even more unlikely, and joyous, good news that Jesus’ birth for us was just as unlikely and unexpected.

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This is an extremely important chapter and it speaks to the motif of DEATH and RESURRECTION in a powerful way.
Why would God warn his people not to trust in horses? Let's take a look at the ancient Near East to see how horses were connected to sun worship and military muscle. Along the way, let's see how the "Name of God" is another title for the Son of God.
The LORD your God is one—He is your LORD. Therefore, you may/can/shall live as His child, and this is what that looks like!
The full effect of the Law had been visited upon God's people, but now the LORD will remember His people and return them to the land of promise and to Holy Jerusalem.
A little or a lot, great is the joy of the child of God for the meaning of life is not defined by stuff, but rather by the cross.
The Son of God is still God the Son in the Incarnation.
Martha’s pain is not met by a to-do list. Jesus’ reply is not that she should try harder or change her behavior
We must be careful in how we use Bible verses to establish Scriptural truth both to others and to ourselves.
God will establish justice and righteousness even in the midst of the most uncertain and evil times. This we know because of the hope based upon the promise.
God and Jeremiah may have been looking at the same person, but they were seeing very different things.
God has in fact executed his plans for his people, plans of peace (probably a better translation than welfare), a future, and a hope in Jesus Christ.
The goal of language in the mouth of a Christian isn’t to hold power for ourselves but to give it.