Concordia Publishing House

This post is adapted fromGospel Sermons: Volume 1by C. F. W. Walther.

Today’s text [Matthew 2:1–12] related the first revelation of the newborn Savior to the heathen. In the past twelve days we have, so to speak, celebrated the Christmas of the Jews. Today we celebrate the Christmas of the heathen; this concerns us above all, we who descend from heathen ancestors. Therefore, we are in order to mention today that work by which ever more heathen should be brought to the knowledge of their Savior; I mean mission work.

This post is adapted from Luther's Works, vol. 18 (Lectures on the Minor Prophets I).

When the destruction of the Jewish people was imminent, when the new age and kingdom—namely, Christ—were coming, God sent many great prophets to cry out and lament about the coming destruction of the entire people so that at least some who heard the preaching of a threatening evil might believe, be converted, and, thus converted, be saved. In this way they might delay that terrible and wretched destruction. Thus at the same time prophesied Amos, whom I regard as the first, Hosea, who must be counted after Amos, and Micah. Isaiah also prophesied at the same time, although he would have been the last of these. Now all of them prophesied about the destruction of the old people and the bringing in of a new people, about the abolition of the external kingdom and the establishment of a new spiritual kingdom which would happen through Christ.

This post is adapted from Commentary on Luther's Catechism: Confession and Christian Life by Ablrecht Peters. 

This is an adapted excerpt from the Concordia Commentary on Micah by Jason R Soenkensen.

Up until the late nineteenth century, the book of Micah was regarded as the work of the prophet Micah of the eighth century BC. Jeppesen surveys the progression of critical views on the book in detail, but included here are a few highlights. In his second edition of Die Propheten des Alten Bundes, Ewald estimated that chapters 6–7 did not come from the prophet Micah. In an 1881 article, Stade theorized an even smaller corpus of genuine material; it included chapters 1–3 with the exception of 2:12–13.25 Marti affirmed the positions of his predecessors but further limited the corpus of Micah’s material, excluding 1:2–5a, 7, 10–15; 2:5; and 3:3b.

This post is an adapted excerpt from Concordia Commentary: Proverbs by Andrew E. Steinmann. 

Those who read Proverbs today, like all modern readers of Scripture, are separated by a great distance in time and place from the original writers and audience. The challenge of applying the proverbs to contemporary life can be daunting when they refer to long past customs and situations that no longer exist (e.g., arbitration in the city gate). However, the timeless advice of the Book of Proverbs has spoken to every generation since the proverbs it contains were first written. In order to take advantage of the wisdom offered by this book, we need to explore a number of principles that apply to the unique challenges of interpreting this Wisdom book.

This blog post is an excerpt from Commentary on Luther’s Catechisms: Confession and Christian Life by Albrecht Peters.

This post is adapted from On the Resurrection of the Dead and On the Last Judgment by Johann Gerhard.

Have you ever looked at the Book of Proverbs through the lens of the Ten Commandments? A new Bible study, Provoking Proverbs, guides you through these  beautiful, insightful works of the Bible to help bring new light to the Ten Commandments and how they are woven into each part of God’s Word. Elizabeth Pittman, host of the Concordia Publishing House Podcast, sat down with Rev. Dr. David Coe, the author of this new study, to speak about the new book and his favorite Proverbs. Read below to see part of his interview and listen to the entire podcast to hear the full discussion with Coe.