Know Your Bible

All 66 Books of the Bible Summarized and Explained

David Dailey

PUBLISHED BY:

David Dailey

Copyright © 2013

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Chapter 1: Tips For Reading The Bible

Rely on God to help you.

Talk about the Bible with other Christians.

Get a good translation.

Read the Bible regularly.

Don’t read too much at one time.

Don’t worry about figuring out whether a story in the Bible “really happened” or why certain passages contradict one another on small details.

Start with the New Testament.

Use This Guide—Sort Of

Chapter 2: A Summary of The Christian Faith

God

Israel

Sin

Jesus

Church

Heaven, Hell, and the Future

Chapter 3: Guide For Answering Common Objections About Jesus’ Resurrection

Myth: The gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are too different from one another to be telling the truth.

Myth: Jesus did not really exist.

Myth: Jesus was crucified and was wounded, but not killed, and came back later. The disciples saw him and claimed he rose again.

Myth: The disciples stole Jesus’ body and then claimed he arose.

Myth: The disciples were so grief-stricken, torn apart with sadness by Jesus’ death, they convinced themselves Jesus was alive.

Chapter 4: How To Become A Christian

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Ruth

1 Samuel

2 Samuel

1 Kings

2 Kings

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Ezra

Nehemiah

Esther

Job

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Songs

Isaiah

Jeremiah

Lamentations

Ezekiel

Daniel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah

Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah

Malachi

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Acts

Romans

1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy

2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

Hebrews

1 Peter

2 Peter

1 John

2 John

3 John

Jude

Revelation

Chapter 1: Tips for Reading the Bible

The Bible, although central to our faith, the most important book anyone can ever read, can be confusing. Here are some tips for approaching this sacred book.

Rely on God to help you.

God is with you, helping you understand the Scriptures, helping you follow what the Bible says and applying it to your own life. As John 14:26 says, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (NIV). So don’t panic if you don’t understand what you are reading. God the Holy Spirit is guiding you. This means the Bible should be read in a spirit of prayer, of constant communication with God. It doesn’t have to be fancy. But as you read, talk to God: “How does this fit in my life?” “How can I be more like Jesus/Moses/Mary/Paul/whoever?” “Help me know you better through these words.” “Show me what you mean here.” Read slowly enough, with an open heart and mind, to see how God might reply within you and within the text. God will guide you.

Talk about the Bible with other Christians.

In the early church, Christians studied Jesus’ and the apostles’ teachings together (Acts 2:42), and ever since group Bible study has been a key part of the church’s life together. If you can’t join a group study, or even if you can, talk about Scripture in everyday life with other Christians. You can learn from one another. Another believer might have a new perspective on a passage you never thought of, and similarly, you might be able to enlighten him or her. God might be guiding you through this group study. As the Bible repeatedly shows, God loves to work through other people.

Get a good translation.

It is hard to grow from God’s word if you do not understand the meaning of the sentences you are reading. Look for easy to understand translations. Often, the translations with more obscure language, like the King James Version, are less faithful to the original Hebrew and Greek anyway. The versions quoted in this guidebook, like the NRSV, ESV, and NIV (especially good for beginners), are great versions to read.

Read the Bible regularly.

The more you read the Bible, the more you will learn and the more comfortable with it you will become. In Joshua 1:8, God tells Joshua to mediate on the law day and night. While that might be too high a goal right now, over time the Bible will become part of how you live and think and pray, day and night. But that won’t happen if you don’t start reading.

Don’t read too much at one time.

Don’t try to read a whole book of the Bible in one sitting. Often, just one story, verse, or chapter is too full of meaning and power for us to take in anymore at that time. It is better to truly grow from reading a small portion, than to skim over the entire Bible and learn nothing.

Don’t worry about figuring out whether a story in the Bible “really happened” or why certain passages contradict one another on small details.

Did God create the world according to the account in Genesis? Did Abraham, Noah, Jacob, and Joseph really live lives exactly as the Bible says? Most scholars would say, “Probably not,” to these questions. And did Jesus drive out the money changers from the temple at the beginning of his ministry, as John reports, or at the end, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke say? This is one of many disagreements on little details in the Bible. All of this should not hurt our faith in God or the Bible. The Bible is not a history book. Its purpose is not to inform us about the past. Its purpose is to help us know God and become more like him.

Start with the New Testament.

The entire Bible is inspired by God and is meant to show us Jesus and make us like him. However, especially when we are just beginning our walk with the Christian faith and Bible study, certain books of the Bible are easier to understand than others. Consider beginning with the gospel of John to learn more about who Jesus is. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are also good starting points. After that, take a look at Romans, I and 2 Corinthians, Acts, Psalms, Genesis, and/or Exodus, for sure. There is no rule that says you have to read the Bible in order. And doing so keeps you out of the New Testament, the most important building blocks of the Christian faith, for quite a long time.

Use This Guide—Sort Of

Do use this guide and other resources to help you study the Bible, but don’t only rely on them. You will probably see truths in the Bible in ways the writer of this and other guides did not see. You might disagree with some of what you read here or other guides—and that’s okay. As 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, we see through a glass darkly; in these bodies and minds, there is plenty we don’t know.

Chapter 2: A Summary of the Christian Faith

God

There is one God made up of three Persons—God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. These three Persons are all God, but they are united as one Being. (Hard to wrap your brain around, but then, this is the God of the Universe!)

God created the world.

God is eternal; he will never stop living.

God knows everything and can do anything he wants to do (but is trustworthy and will not break his promises.)

God is a God of perfect justice. He never sins or does evil.

God is a God of perfect love. He loves every person whom he has made as much as he loves Jesus.

“The Lord” is another way the Bible refers to God, showing he is our master.

Israel

God loves all people, but chose the nation of Israel to be a people especially devoted to him. The story of Israel’s growth in God is laid out in the whole Old Testament, which is the first half of the Bible. These people spoke Hebrew, which is why the Old Testament is originally written in Hebrew.

People who are part of that nation are called Israelites or Jews. But the Old Testament also makes clear anybody, even a non-Jew, could worship God and be part of God’s plans. It also makes clear that God cares for, even back then, all people, not just Jews.

Everyone who believes in God and Jesus is part of Israel, no matter whether our family is Jewish or not. When reading the Old Testament, Christians often (but not always; it depends on the passage) should read themselves and the church as part of Israel.

Sin

Sin is anything wrong that we do, including not doing something we should have done. We sin when we hurt other people or do not follow what God says to do. All of us sin in many ways every day.

God is perfect and never sins. We can’t be friends with God if we are sinners. God’s perfection can’t tolerate our sins. So Jesus took the punishment for our sins (read more in the “Jesus” section.)

Jesus

We read about Jesus starting with the New Testament. The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell about the life of Jesus and are called “gospels.”

Jesus is both completely God and completely human, born to the human mother Mary by the supernatural power of God the Father, not through the normal means of conceiving a child.

Jesus lived in bodily form from about 6 CE to 33 CE in Israel, growing up in the tiny town of Nazareth.

Jesus gathered a group of disciples. Jesus taught, preached, and healed the sick. Jesus taught that people should believe in him and follow him, that God is doing a new thing through him, that people should love God and one another.

The temple officials did not like Jesus because people were following Jesus instead of them, and also because he called them out for being bad, selfish leaders who did not care about God or the people whom they were supposed to be leading.

They had Jesus crucified, which means killed by being nailed to a wooden cross and left there. Jesus, being fully God, could have stopped himself from being crucified. But God the Father wanted Jesus crucified so Jesus could be an atoning sacrifice. That means Jesus took on himself all the bad things everyone has ever done (also known as sins), that Jesus was punished instead of us for our sins. If Jesus were not crucified, we would all be punished because a perfectly holy God cannot accept us, people who sin. Instead, Jesus took the punishment we deserve. All we have to do to be friends with God and live forever after death is to believe in Jesus and what he did for us.

Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead. Christians celebrate this on Easter and call this special event the resurrection. When Jesus was resurrected, this meant many things—in part that we, too, will rise again and death is beaten by God.

Jesus is also referred to as Lord, God’s Son, Son of Man, Christ, or Messiah (the last two terms, which are the same word coming from Greek and Hebrew, respectively, recognize Jesus as the promised figure prophesied about again and again in the Old Testament.)

Church

Jesus soon after He rose up to heaven sent God the Holy Spirit to live with everyone who followed him. The people who followed Jesus worked together with God and one another to tell others about Jesus, to pray together, to help others and one another, and to read the Bible. This group of people became known as the church.

Ever since then, God expects everyone who believes in Jesus to be part of a church, if possible, regularly meeting with other Christians.

God the Holy Spirit guides us as we live in the church to be more and more like Jesus and less and less sinful. This is called sanctification.

The New Testament, after the gospels, tells how the church came to grow. Most of the people who were in the church then knew some Greek, which is why the New Testament was originally written in Greek.

Heaven, Hell, and the Future

After a follower of God dies, he or she goes to be with God and other believers in heaven even though his or her body is buried in the ground.

Jesus is returning to earth in the future at some time known only to God the Father, and this is known as the second coming. When Jesus comes he will judge everyone. But those who believe in Jesus do not need to be afraid, because Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross means God looks at them as not having sin, just like Jesus.

Then God will make a new, perfect world where this is no pain or sickness, and God’s people will live with God safely and forever in new perfect bodies. We will rise out of the ground like Jesus arose on Easter.

People who totally refuse God’s work in their lives (whether they have heard of Jesus or not), will have no place in this new world. They will suffer forever in hell. But only people who have repeatedly turned their backs on God will be there. Even people who never heard of Jesus but did the best they could with the grace God gave them, with what they did know of God, will not be in hell but will be part of the new creation since Jesus’ blood shed on the cross covers them, too.

Chapter 3: Guide for Answering Common Objections about Jesus’ Resurrection

Many people today believe Jesus did not rise from the dead, and furthermore, anyone who believes he did is just foolish. But there is real historical evidence that Jesus arose. His return from death is the foundation of the Bible and our faith.

We should never argue with people to convince them to believe in Jesus. Arguing does not show Jesus’ love, and it usually pushes people away from God. But being aware of the evidence Jesus is who he said he was strengthens our faith and helps us answer people who are genuinely open to learning more.

Myth: The gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are too different from one another to be telling the truth.

If you think of a beloved relative who has since died, everyone will have slightly different memories of that relative. Maybe one person remembers a certain silly joke Grandpa told, but another person forgot the joke and instead remembered Grandpa’s fondness for pulling pranks. The same is true of Jesus, especially because Jesus did so much in his time on earth. Of course Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John remembered Jesus differently, because they were different people writing some years after Jesus left them. They don’t contradict one another on the important details.

One detail all four gospels share is that women were among the first to see Jesus alive again and to report this news to everyone. But back in the ancient world, women were not even allowed to testify in court. Their witness was seen as useless. Why would the gospel writers make up this then-embarrassing detail if it were not true?

Myth: Jesus did not really exist.

False! Serious scholars, even scholars who are not Christians, all agree Jesus lived. How else could the Christian community get started without a real person named Jesus who really lived?

Myth: Jesus was crucified and was wounded, but not killed, and came back later. The disciples saw him and claimed he rose again.

Nobody survived getting beaten nearly to death and then being nailed to a cross. The Romans were expert killers. If by some fluke Jesus did survive, he would have been very badly wounded. Why would the disciples believe in and die for an almost-dead guy?

Myth: The disciples stole Jesus’ body and then claimed he arose.

Again, why would the disciples die for a lie? It’s important to realize their faith totally changed after Jesus arose. The group of Jews who became the church, as Christians, believed very differently from how they believed before Jesus. Before, they focused on obeying ceremonial rituals and religious laws. After, they said that because of Jesus, there was no need. Before, these Jews believed a Messiah was coming who would overthrow Rome. After, they believed Jesus was the Messiah, even though he didn’t wipe out evil in the world—yet. Before, they worshipped God the Father, only. After, they thought God the Son had come to the world in Jesus. Before, they celebrated Passover. After, they celebrated Holy Communion, which was partly based on Passover, except now Jesus is our Passover lamb, now Jesus saved us with his own blood like the sacrificed lamb.

Religions do grow and change over time. But this group of Jews that became the church changed their faith totally over a few years—with many of these changes beginning literally right after Jesus disappeared. And many were killed for believing in Jesus, and many more were hated by friends and family. How could this happen? The simplest explanation is the disciples really saw Jesus rise again and were thoroughly convinced.

Myth: The disciples were so grief-stricken, torn apart with sadness by Jesus’ death; they convinced themselves Jesus was alive.

Yes, the disciples were sad. But people back then were very familiar with death, even more than we are now since the medical care was worse than what we have today. Why would they all make up such a story? It does not make sense.

Overall, historical study makes a strong case for Jesus really having risen again. Knowing the historical analysis supports our faith makes being a Christian, and talking to others about becoming Christians, much easier.

Chapter 4: How to Become a Christian

Becoming a Christian is perhaps the most beautiful and terrifying thing a person can do—beautiful because it brings you into a life of real purpose, lived with God and other, and terrifying because it means you now belong, body and soul, to Jesus and not to yourself.

To become a Christian, you simply recognize Jesus died to save you from your sins, and you claim his blood for yourself. You proclaim that you deserve to be punished forever, far away from God, because your sins offend our perfect God. After doing this, you are a Christian, and you will live forever with God, now and after you die and into eternity.

No need to do this according to a script or to repeat a special prayer. Believe in Jesus, and you too will be saved.

But do go join a church, if you haven’t already, that will help you grow in your new faith. When you are ready, ask the pastor to baptize you. During worship, he or she will sprinkle you with water (or dunk you in water, depending on your church). Jesus commands that new Christians be baptized (Matthew 28:20), showing that your sins are washed away now. It is a wonderful ceremony that celebrates your new life and reminds you and your church that you are now part of God’s family.

Welcome to the best adventure possible.

Genesis

Author

The author of Genesis is unknown. Many scholars think there are three sources of tradition contributing to Genesis as we know it now—the Yahwist tradition (known as J), calling God “Yahweh” and emphasizing God’s presence on earth; the Elohists (known as E), calling God “Elohim,” the Hebrew word for God and emphasizing God’s presence in heaven, and the Priestly tradition, focusing on the role of the temple and priesthood in Israel’s history.

Date

Determining a firm date for Genesis is impossible. Some of these stories could date to 1000 BCE or even earlier, but Genesis probably did not achieve its final form until the 500’s BCE or later.

The Greatest Love Affair God created and loves people.

People Learn To Live With God

God creates the world in seven days out of nothing but the formless void. God plants a garden named Eden, and a man, whom he says can do anything he wants but eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God also makes a woman to be the man’s partner. A snake tempts the woman to eat from the tree which God said not to eat from, and she listens to the snake. The man eats, too, and they hide from God. God finds them and punishes them by making them leave the garden, by condemning them to work and the woman to the pain of childbirth.

They have two sons, Cain and Abel. Abel sacrifices sheep to God, and Cain sacrifices grain. God does not respond to Cain’s sacrifice because only animal sacrifices are acceptable. (A life was needed to make up for sin; this is why Jesus had to give his life to be our sacrifice for our sins.) Cain is so angry he kills his brother, and God punishes him by leaving him nothing but to wander the earth.

People grow more and more evil and ignore God, completely turning away, and God decides to wipe out humanity. Noah is not evil, however, and God asks him to build a huge boat for his whole family and two of every animal. Then God sends a flood to the world and starts over with Noah’s family, promising never to wipe out the world again.

Noah’s family repopulates the world. Generations later, people build a huge tower so the whole world can live in one spot. God confuses their language so people will live all over the globe and stop trying to live in a single tower; God wants people to be diverse.

God tells Abram to leave his family into a new land, because he plans to make Abram a great nation. They pass through Egypt, and Abram is afraid the Egyptians will kill him in order to take his wife Sarai, who is beautiful, so he pretends they are brother and sister. The Egyptian king sees and kidnaps her, planning to marry her, and God strikes his house with plagues. The king lets her go.

Sodom and Gomorrah, two evil towns, capture Lot, Abram’s wealthy nephew. Abram leads an army to rescue Lot. King Melchizedek, king over what later became Jerusalem, blesses Abram. Abram later asks God why Abram has no children, and God says Abram will have more descendants than there are stars in the sky. Sarai, however, is incapable of having children. She suggests Abram have sex with her servant Hagar to produce a child. Sarai and Hagar have an argument and Hagar runs away. God comforts her, sends her back to Sarai and promises her son Ishmael will be father to a great nation. God also renames Abram “Abraham,” meaning “father of a multitude,” and Sarai, “Sarah.”

God plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, two evil cities. Abraham asks God to reconsider if there are fifty good people there, and God agrees, right down to ten good people. Lot, meanwhile, is back in Sodom and God urges Lot and his family to escape before God destroys the city. Lot’s wife keeps looking back and wanting to return, and God turns her into a pillar of salt. They escape and Lot’s daughters are in poverty, with nothing to their name. They get their father drunk and become pregnant by him in order to start a family and a new life.

Abraham passes through Gerar and just like in Egypt claims Sarah is his sister. King Abimelech takes her and plans to marry her, but God warns him in a dream that Sarah is married. Shortly after, Isaac, Abraham’s and Sarah’s son, is born as God promised. They send Hagar and Ishmael away, with God’s promise to make Ishmael great, and God cares for them in the wilderness.

God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, by now a boy, on the mountain of Moriah. He takes Isaac up there and holds the knife, ready to kill, when God tells him to stop and praises Abraham for his faithfulness.

Years later, Sarah dies and Abraham, by now very old, asks his servant to help Isaac find a wife. The servant goes to the well and prays for the right woman to allow him to take a drink from her jar. A beautiful woman named Rebekah does so and marries Isaac. Abraham remarries and has more children, and years later dies. Ishmael has many children, as God promised.

Rebekah bears Isaac twin sons, Esau and Jacob. When they are grown, Jacob is cooking stew and Esau is famished. Jacob says he will give Esau stew in exchange for Esau’s birthright, his greater share in the inheritance as the oldest son. Esau agrees. God sends Isaac to Gerar, and like Abraham Isaac pretends his wife is his sister. The king discovers and becomes angry. Isaac becomes more and more wealthy and the king sends him away.

Isaac, near death and blind, asks Esau to go hunt meat and cook for him, and he will bless Esau. Rebekah tells Jacob she will prepare dinner for Isaac and for Jacob to put animal skin on his arms and neck so when Isaac touches him he will think it is the rough-skinned, hairy Esau. Jacob pretends to be Esau and Isaac blesses him and promises the inheritance. Isaac and Esau later discover what Jacob has done, and he runs away in fear for his life.

Jacob is in the wilderness and God promises him blessings in a dream. Jacob falls in love with Rachel and works for her father Laban seven years to marry her, but Laban tricks him, giving him Rachel’s sister Leah in marriage instead. Jacob works another seven years to marry Rachel, too. Rachel and Leah fight and compete to bear children. Laban becomes angry with Jacob because Laban’s sons convince their father that Jacob is becoming too wealthy managing the flocks. God sends Jacob and his family back to Canaan, the Promised Land, and Laban makes Jacob promise to care for his daughters.

Esau sends messengers to tell Jacob he is nearby. Jacob sends lavish gifts and prays that Esau will not kill him. That night, waiting to see Esau the next day, an angel wrestles with Jacob. Jacob refuses to let go until the angel bless him, and the angel does, while also breaking his hip and renaming him Israel, meaning “One who strives with God.” The next day, Esau and Jacob reconcile.

Jacob’s daughter Dinah is raped by Shechem, a prince. Her brothers are enraged and tell Shechem’s father they will give Dinah and other women in the family to them in marriage if they become circumcised. They do, and while they are healing, Dinah’s brothers kill them. God sends Jacob and his family to Bethel, and appears to Jacob and reiterates his blessings to Jacob. Jacob’s youngest son Benjamin is born and his mother Rachel dies in childbirth.

Jacob’s son Joseph is the favorite son, given a special coat and other favors. Joseph dreams of his brothers bowing down to him, and they become jealous. They sell Joseph into slavery and tell their father he was killed by a stranger. The wife of Judah, one of Jacob’s sons, dies, and so does one of Judah’s sons. Judah asks his son Onan to have sex with his widowed sister-in-law Tamar so Tamar can have a child who will support her in her old age. (This was ancient custom.) Onan refuses, so Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and sleeps with Judah. She bears twin sons as a result.

Joseph, sold into slavery, ends up in Egypt and ultimately a servant to the king. The king’s wife claims Joseph raped her and Joseph is thrown into jail. Joseph gains a reputation for interpreting dreams, even in prison, and interprets the king’s dream to mean a famine is coming and they must prepare. The king makes Joseph governor of Egypt. Some years later, Jacob and his family are very hungry from the famine but hear they can buy grain in Egypt. Joseph recognizes the brothers that do come and claims they are spies, saying he will imprison them unless the entire family comes to Egypt. They all come, and Joseph tells who he is, and they are reconciled. They stay in Egypt for some years, and Jacob blesses his sons, all twelve of whom are to become the twelve tribes of Israel.

Quotable

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” Genesis 1:26 NRSV

“Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man she was taken’” Genesis 2:23 NRSV

“You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master” Genesis 4:7 NLT

“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son” Genesis 18:14 NRSV

“Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good” Genesis 50:20 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Genesis is a baffling, beautiful book. These ancient stories take place in a world seemingly foreign to ours. And yet, upon reflecting on Genesis it becomes clear there are connections in it to every time and place. These characters struggle with family conflict, with fears, with violence, and with waiting on the promises of God.

Some of the stories are frightening. What kind of God would wipe out the whole world, leaving only one man’s family and a group of animals? What kind of God asks a man to sacrifice his son? The book of Genesis reveals a God desperate for relationship with humanity. When the world rejects him, he has no choice but to start over. God is always trying to get closer to people in Genesis, quite literally wrestling with Jacob, letting Hagar name him. Perhaps that sheds light on God’s request for Abraham to kill Isaac; God wants Abraham to prove to himself and to God that Abraham loves God more than anything, that God is his most important friend.

But we rob these striking, often bizarre stories of their power if we give simple explanations. Sometimes it is enough just to retell them, as they have been retold through the centuries and still are in churches all over the world.

Genesis celebrates the radical love of God, who helps desperate, often sinful people. Abraham lies about his wife being his sister, showing mistrust in God and putting her life in danger. Yet God makes him the father of the Jewish people. Jacob cheats his brother, but God protects him and blesses him. No sins can disqualify us from God’s use and blessing unless we completely turn our backs on God.

Genesis also raises the question of historical and scientific accuracy perhaps more than any other book. Scientific research says that the world and animals and humanity evolved over millions of years, but Genesis said God brought creation to life in a week. Moreover, historians have no proof Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or any of these characters ever lived. Does that we must either declare the book worthless or science and history evil? No! We can praise God that Genesis fulfills its purpose—teaching us about God and revealing truth through story, not answering scholarly scientific questions.

So What?

Genesis celebrates the powerful, sometimes terrifying, always strong love of God.

Exodus

Author

Nobody knows who wrote Exodus, but most scholars think it evolved from the J, E, and Priestly traditions (see the Genesis entry for more information).

Date

The J and E stories probably came from 600 BCE—500 BCE, and the priestly history was probably later, as late as the 400’s BCE. But there is no way of knowing for sure.

The Greatest Adventure

God saves us, claims us, and guides us.

Israel’s Adventure with God

Egypt has conquered Israel and forced the Israelites to be slaves. The Egyptians are very harsh to the Israelite slaves and Pharaoh (the Egyptian name for “king”) makes a rule that every Israelite baby boy is to be killed. One Israelite woman has a son and sends him down the river in hopes he will be saved. Pharaoh’s daughter finds him and hires an Israelite woman to take care of the baby, who ironically turns out to be the boy’s mother! Pharaoh’s daughter names him “Moses.”

When Moses is grown, God comes to him in a bush that burns, but is not consumed. God calls Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses pleads with God to pick someone else, but God refuses.

Moses obeys God and asks Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. He says no and makes the Israelites work harder. God tells Aaron, Moses’ brother, to ask Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, and Pharaoh refuses. God then turns all the rivers in Egypt to blood, and has Moses ask again and Aaron stretches out his rod to make this happen. The same thing happens again, but this time God sends frogs all over the land. There are ten more plagues, after all of which Pharaoh refuses to let the Israelites go. Then God has Moses tell Pharaoh that the next plague will be the death of every Egyptian firstborn son.

God tells each Israelite household to kill a lamb and smear its blood on their front door. They will then quickly eat the lamb. When God passes through the land to kill the Egyptian sons, he will see the blood on the doors and not kill the Israelite sons. They should also quickly eat unleavened bread, bread that has not risen, preparing to leave the land. That night, the Egyptian boys die and Pharaoh orders the Israelites to leave right away. This holiday celebrating this night becomes known as Passover.

The Israelites leave, led by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. Pharaoh soon changes his mind and sends his army after the Israelites, crossing the Red Sea. God parts the Red Sea so the Israelites can cross, but then rolls the waters back over the Egyptian soldiers and drowns them. Moses and Miriam, his sister, lead the people in songs of praise to God.

God provides the people water and bread from heaven for the journey. God has them stop near Mount Sinai and prepare themselves for God to speak. He gives them Ten Commandments for right living, the first of which is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. God then tells Moses more commands to give the people, including regulations for slavery and prohibitions of violence. The people tell God they will follow God’s commands. Then they sacrifice some oxen to God as a way of showing they are serious about following his commands. Moses then sprinkles some of that blood on the people and tells them to remember the blood of this covenant, this relationship they have entered into with God.

God tells the Israelites to give offerings; however much they feel moved to give, to build a tabernacle for worship. They also make an ark of the covenant, a holy box that symbolizes their relationship with God. God lays out many rules for tabernacle worship and the rules of the priesthood.

While Moses is talking to God on the mountain, some of the Israelites decide to melt their gold into a golden calf to worship instead of God. God becomes very angry and has the Levites, the men who are going to be priests, go kill some of those people who melted their gold.

God then shows Moses his back, and Moses falls on his face in adoration. Then God gives more rules for the people. The Israelites work together to follow God’s rules for building the tabernacle, and God’s glory enters it.

Quotable

“God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you” Exodus 3:14 NRSV

“I will take you as my people, and I will be your God” Exodus 6:7 NRSV

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, doing wonders?” Exodus 15:11 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

There are parts of Exodus that may seem troubling to modern readers. Why does God kill the Egyptian soldiers and firstborn sons? Was it fair of God, too, to ask the Levites to kill some of the worshippers of the golden calf?

One lesson that seems clear—sin hurts many people. The Pharaoh’s refusal to obey God led to many Egyptian deaths. We also know there is life and a judgment day beyond death. Egyptians who responded to the limited knowledge they had of God, who did not reject God’s grace, will surely not go to hell simply for being born the wrong race. The worshippers of the golden calf, though, did know God and in building that calf chose to reject God permanently and so God punished them, confirming their choice to cut God out of their lives.

Does God want us, like the Levites, to kill sinners? We have no way of knowing who has permanently rejected God and who simply has entered a time of sin and will emerge to glorify God. Moreover, we are in a very different stage of God’s time. We are now in the church age, in which we are waiting for Jesus to come judge the world, not to enact God’s judgment now.

The laws and tabernacle rules in Exodus, and throughout Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, may also seem pointless for Christians to read. The New Testament makes clear that we do not have to follow ceremonial rules. Christians need not worry about animal sacrifice or food rules because Jesus’ death and resurrection form our path to God, not ceremony and ritual. However, Exodus is still part of God’s word. In many cases, there are principles behind these laws that can instruct us and are still binding for our lives, even though we are not ancient Israelites.

For example, the priests must wear special clothes when approaching the temple. Today, when we pray and worship we should remember we come before a holy God far greater than us, and should prepare ourselves, clothing our hearts with worship.

So What?

God has rescued us and made us his people, giving us rules to follow and guiding us, just like the Israelites in Exodus.

Leviticus

Author

We do not know who wrote Leviticus. Most scholars think it was written by the Priestly tradition, who was most interested in ritual and the role of the priesthood.

Date

It was probably put together sometime between 500 BCE-200 BCE, but there is no way to know for certain.

Becoming the People of God

We should be holy because God is holy.

God Shows the Israelites Rules for Holiness

Leviticus gives rules for how burnt offerings are to be given. Some offerings are given as an atonement; the animal dies in place of the person giving the animal to God, dying because the person sinned and deserves to die. Other offerings are given simply to thank and praise God. Offerings should be the best the person has to give, not a sick, wounded animal. Flour could be an offering to God, too, so even the poor could perform offerings.

After God gives these rules, Aaron and his sons are ordained to the priesthood. Two of the new priests, Nadab and Abihu, immediately break the rules about how incense is to be burned. God consumes them with fire as punishment for deliberately choosing to misuse their power and disregard God’s rules.

Then God gives the rules about which foods are considered clean and unclean, unfit for the Israelites to eat. Women must purify themselves after childbirth. People with skin diseases are unclean and must be checked by the priest to make sure they do not get others sick. Male genital discharges also render the man unclean, and he must purify himself. Women on their menstrual period are unclean, too, and must purify themselves.

There is also to be a special day of atonement once every year. A bull and goat are sacrificed, in place of the Israelites, who deserve to die because of their sins.

God then gives rules for sex. Incest in any form is forbidden, as is homosexuality, sex with animals, and sex while the woman is having her menstrual period.

Witchcraft and rituals from other religions are forbidden. Kindness to the poor is required. Adultery, lying, and cheating are forbidden.

God then discusses some holidays the Israelites must celebrate—Passover, a celebration of the exodus from Egypt, the offering of the first fruits of the harvest to God, the day of atonement, and several others.

Blasphemy and murder are also forbidden upon penalty of death. The Sabbath, a day of rest at the end of every week, must be followed. God will reward the Israelites for following his commands, but punish them if they disobey.

People can also make a special vow to give themselves, houses, and animals to God. However, everyone must tithe—giving ten percent of what they have to God.

Quotable

“Through those who are near me I will show myself holy, and before all the people I will be glorified” Leviticus 10:3 NRSV

“You shall be holy, for I am holy” Leviticus 11:44 NRSV

“You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God” Leviticus 18:3-4 NIV

“I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord” Leviticus 22:33 NRSV

“And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people” Leviticus 26:12 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

So much of Leviticus seems unusual to modern ears, especially because we know the New Testament explains we do not have to follow these rules since Jesus, not rituals, provide the way to God. Still, Leviticus is God’s word and there are principles behind these commands that are still binding on us Christians today.

Why sacrifice animals? For the same reason Jesus had to die—because we are sinners and deserve to die. But God allows another living being to die in our place. The animal sacrifices in Leviticus point to Jesus, the perfect sacrifice who truly takes away sins, more completely than any goat or bull can.

Animals were also sacrificed to thank and praise God. In Israelite society, where nearly everyone farmed, giving a goat or cow to God was a huge sacrifice. Do we give up things that are important to us to praise God? For us today, that could mean giving up time to read the Bible and pray, or money to the church or the poor, or using our talents in art or music to worship God.

Food rules and purity laws surrounding the body and sex seem confusing. But we must not interpret them to mean sex is dirty. The Bible makes clear that sex is a gift of God we should celebrate in marriage. No; the rules in Leviticus are important because they forced the Israelites to be different from the rest of the world. They did not eat pork and they washed themselves after genital emissions because God said so, and being part of the people of God means we are set apart from the rest of the world. Today we can eat any food we like, but we should live with the awareness we are supposed to belong to God, not to the world.

So What?

We are part of God’s people. We should live every day as a set apart, special people devoted to God’s purposes.

Numbers

Author

Exactly who wrote Numbers is unknown. Like much of the Old Testament it probably contains tradition dating back centuries before it was put together. Like Exodus, Numbers most likely has strands of traditions from the Yahwist, Elohist, and Priestly traditions. Numbers was shaped and edited into its final form by the priestly groups.

Date

Most scholars think Numbers reached its final form as we know it today shortly after the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE.

Who Are We, Anyway? God wants to possess his people entirely.

Living As Children of a Jealous God

Numbers begins with God asking Moses to take a census of all the Israelites, revealing that the Israelites have grown into a much larger people than they were in Egypt. God gives rules for the various tasks of the priests.

Adultery is strictly forbidden and there are rules provided for the Nazirite vow—a special kind of vow people could take to make themselves specially set apart for God. God then teaches the priests how to bless the people.

Numbers 7 then begins a “flashback” to when the tabernacle was just built, recalling the gifts each of the tribes of Israel offered to God. Then God gives rules for the purification of the priests and the celebration of Passover. The movement of the cloud and fire told the Israelites whether God wanted them to move or stay. Priests are also must blow trumpets to gather people or for celebration of festivals. Then God leads them out of Mount Sinai.

The people keep complaining about the manna, the bread that God sent from heaven, saying they want meat, too. They wish they were back in Egypt where they had meat. Moses tells God he is tired of leading the people and wants God to kill him. God decides to give the Israelites so much quail that they will be sick of it, and to give Moses companions to be leaders, too.

Aaron and Miriam, Moses’ brother and sister, become jealous of his authority. God tells them to stop being jealous of Moses and gives Miriam leprosy, a skin disease. God sends some spies to go Canaan, the land he is giving Israel. All of the spies except for Caleb say it will be too hard to invade Canaan.

The people weep and decide they want to go back to Egypt. Joshua and Caleb tell the people not to rebel against God, that God can bring them into the land. But the people threaten to kill Joshua and Caleb. God considers abandoning Israel, and Moses begs God to reconsider. God decides to forgive the people, but says none of the adults will enter the Promised Land, except for Caleb and Joshua. They will stay in the wilderness for forty years, until all of the adults die, and then the children will go into the land.

God then gives more rules for proper offerings and sacrifices and orders that the people where blue fringes on their clothes to remind them to follow God’s commandments.

A group of Levites become angry with Moses and Aaron for being the top leaders and try to test their authority. God tells Moses and Aaron he will kill the whole congregation, but they beg him to reconsider. God decides just to kill the Levites who questioned Moses’—and by extension, God’s—authority.

God gives more rules to the priests about some of the offerings becoming theirs. He then gives rules for the purification of people who have touched a dead body and so become unclean.

Then the people complain that there is no water or fruit, and that they want to return to Egypt. God tells Moses and Aaron to call water out of a rock, but they disobey and hit the rock with a rod instead. So God tells Moses and Aaron they will not enter the Promised Land.

Israel becomes impatient yet again and told God they wanted to go to Egypt again. So God sends poisonous snakes to bite the people. They ask for forgiveness, and God tells Moses to make a bronze snake, and everyone who looks at it is healed. The Israelites win several different battles.

The king of Moab, one of Israel’s enemies, wants to pay the Mesopotamian prophet Balaam to curse Israel. God tells Balaam not to, and Balaam obeys. The king asks Balaam to go Moab again, and God tells Balaam this time he should go, and he agrees. The angel of the Lord stands in the middle of the road, but Balaam cannot see the angel. Balaam’s donkey keeps trying to go to the angel, and Balaam finally beat the donkey. The donkey talks asking Balaam to stop. The angel of the Lord tells Balaam to go to the kingdom but to say only what God commands.

God tells Balaam to refuse to curse Israel and to bless Israel and praise God in front of the king, which Balaam does.

Some of the Israelites begin worshipping the god Baal of the nation Peor. God kills some of the people for this sin, and Phineas, the high priest, kills several in a fit of rage. God praises Phineas and ends the punishment. Then there are more censuses and rules about inheritance of property. God then gives more rules for offerings and vows, then sends them to war against the Midianites and plans future conquests. Then there are several more rules given on inheritance

Quotable

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” Numbers 6:24-26 NRSV

“At the command of the Lord they would camp, and at the command of the Lord they would set out” Numbers 9:23 NRSV

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not’” Numbers 11:23 NRSV

“But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall see it” Numbers 14:24 NRSV

“So you shall remember and do all of my commandments, and you shall be holy to the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the Lord your God” Numbers 15:40-41 NRSV

“You will not make the land in which you live unclean, the land in the middle of which I reside, for I the Lord reside among the Israelites” Numbers 35:34 CEB

Unique and Unusual

Numbers, and all of the books of the law, can be very confusing. At points God kills people and even threatens to abandon Israel entirely. Is this the same God revealed in Jesus Christ? Yes. God does punish people who willfully choose to cut God out of their lives entirely, the God who was leading them by cloud and fire and his own voice, whom they could see far more clearly, physically, than we can see God after Bible times.

God mercifully gives Israel many second chances in Numbers. Yes, there are times when God says he is going to abandon Israel. But he never does. God promises many times never to abandon his people. Instead, he seems to want Moses and Aaron to pray on the people’s behalf. These episodes in the book of Numbers shed light on the question of why we should pray, if God already knows and can do anything. God involves Moses and others constantly in his actions—God wants Moses to pray in order for God to enact his mercy. God wants Moses to build the bronze snake the Israelites look to be healed, for the Israelites to make the tabernacle themselves. Prayer is one way God involves us in his work, which he often refuses to complete without our involvement. Why?

As Numbers makes clear, God possesses his people. God frees the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to become his own. Throughout the law, God says, “I am the Lord your God.” God and God’s people belong to one another. God wants to consume our lives, and wants us to be as involved as possible in his works.

So What?

God is a jealous God—jealously longing for us.

Deuteronomy

Author

Deuteronomy probably originated with many years of oral tradition and came together through later editing. There is evidence of some influence from Yahwist and Elohist (see Exodus entry for further explanation) historians, but Deuteronomy was mostly the product of the Deuteronomist historians, who also wrote Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings.

Date

Deuteronomy contains many years of tradition and editing. It probably came totally together as we know it now by the 500’s BCE.

A Fork In The Road We can choose God and blessings, or reject God and choose cursings.

The Landscape of Our Choices

After forty years of wandering in the wilderness, God gives the nation of Israel more laws and instructions. God gives theTen Commandments that form the foundation of the rest of the law, of which the first commandment is to worship God only. God tells his deep love of the Israelites, that he will bless them if they obey but punish them if they reject God. They must be especially careful not to forget God when things are going well for them. The Israelites must tell their children about the commands and teach them to worship and follow God daily. They must not worship other gods and must keep the food regulations about what is clean and unclean.

God also reviews the rules for keeping various celebrations and reminds them that the firstborn of all the livestock belongs to God. Magic and divination are strictly forbidden.

God will also raise up other prophets in the future, including one special prophet who will be like Moses. (John 6:14 and Acts 7:37 make clear that the special prophet is Jesus, who like Moses is a go-between for God and the people).

There are also rules for trying cases of murder. Sex outside of marriage is forbidden. Workers must be paid fairly and kindness shown to the poor and to foreigners. The people must give ten percent of what they have to God, including the first fruits of their harvests. God reminds them again to obey, to choose life rather than death.

God then decides Joshua will be the new leader of the people after Moses dies. Before he dies, Moses sings a long song urging the people to obey God and praising God for his love for his people. God reminds Moses he will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land because Moses disobeyed God’s commands about drawing water from the rock as described in Numbers. Moses then gives a long blessing to Israel, praying for each of the tribes. God then shows Moses the beauty of the Promised Land and Moses dies.

Quotable

“For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?” Deuteronomy 4:7 NRSV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” Deuteronomy 4:4-5 NRSV

“Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive” Deuteronomy 6:24 NRSV

“Know in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord your God disciplines you” Deuteronomy 8:5 NRSV

“You shall also love the stranger, for you were the stranger in the land of Egypt” Deuteronomy 10:19 NRSV

“Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land” Deuteronomy 15:11 NRSV

“Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you” Deuteronomy 16:20 NRSV

“See, I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity” Deuteronomy 30:15 NRSV

“He is the Rock, his ways are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong—upright and just is he” Deuteronomy 32:4 NIV

Unique and Unusual

As with all the books of the law, parts of Deuteronomy can seem boring and unimportant for Christians. The New Testament makes clear that we do not have to obey food laws and other ceremonial rules to be made right with God; we just have to believe in Jesus. Yet there are important principles behind the rules that are still binding on our lives. We can eat whatever we want—but we should live with the awareness that we are God’s people, set apart for his work. Deuteronomy repeats many times that obeying God leads to blessing, but disobeying God leads to punishment. This message may seem confusing. The New Testament says that Jesus took our punishment for sins. But we should still obey God, even though we are forgiven because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (and if we totally refuse to obey God’s rules, pointing to Jesus’ sacrifice as our forgiveness, God will not forgive us, as the New Testament explains—God does not accept this attempt to “game the system,” to pollute his grace that is meant to make us holy like him). Obeying God will lead to rewards, in this world and the world to come. They might be material blessings, or non-material blessings, but God will bless obedience to him.

Some false teachers, and other people who are simply confused, have pointed to these promises in Deuteronomy to support a “prosperity gospel.” In other words, if bad things have happened to you, you must have sinned. And if you obey God, God will make you rich. But a careful reading of Deuteronomy, and the rest of the Bible, makes clear that this is a false teaching. Deuteronomy repeatedly teaches that God’s people must help the poor, without any hint that the poor are poor because they sinned. And if we do help the poor and follow God’s commands, we can trust that God will richly bless us.

So What?

Following God will lead to a more blessed life than we can ever imagine. Praise God!

Joshua

Author

We do not know exactly who wrote Joshua. Most scholars think the same group of historians who wrote Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings, wrote Joshua. Scholars call this group the Deuteronomists because their theology can best be seen in the book of Deuteronomy.

Date

Some parts of the book we know now as Joshua were probably written by the reign of King Josiah, by 640 BCE. The final form of the book did not likely come together until the 500’s BCE.

Don’t Just Stand There We should fight for God, and if we do, we’ll win!

With God on Our Side

God tells Joshua he is the new leader now that Moses has died, and that God will be with him always. Joshua sends some spies into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land. They go stay at Rahab’s house, a Canaanite, a non-Israelite. The king asks Rahab if the Israelite men have come to her house, but she says she sent them away. Rahab hides the spies in her house and tells them she knows God is the only true God. They promise to keep Rahab and her family safe. Rahab ties the red cord in her window so the Israelite army will know not to attack her house.

God sends the Israelites to cross the Jordan River. God parts the Jordan as they carry the Ark of the Covenant, the box that reminds the Israelites of God’s promises and presence with them. They build a memorial of twelve stones to remember what God did that day. Then all the Israelite men are circumcised as a reminder they belong to God, and then they celebrate Passover.

They march around the city of Jericho every day for six days, and then on the seventh day, they conquer Jericho and kill all the people of Jericho except for Rahab and her family. All of the gold they find is supposed to be devoted to God, but some Israelites take the gold for themselves, and many soldiers die in their next battle at Ai. Achan took a large amount of gold, and refuses to repent. The Israelites kill him. After that, they totally destroy Ai. Next, they build an altar and make sacrifices to God. Joshua reads all of God’s laws to the people again.

The Gibeonites have heard of all God has done for the Israelites and they know that if God tells the Israelites to attack them, they will all die. So they tell Joshua that they live very far away from the Promised Land, and are just passing through to explain this to the Israelites. They make a treaty and Joshua promises not to attack them. Joshua later finds out the Gibeonites lied, but he still spares them. Most of them end up servants of the Israelites, however.

Another group of tribes decides to attack the Gibeonites for standing with the Israelites, and God tells Joshua to attack them. They do, and they win. God even makes the sun stand still. They go on to win more victories. There is still more of the land of Canaan left that God plans to give the Israelites, but Joshua is now very old and God decides to have the Israelites settle in the land they have conquered now. They divide the land up into portions for each tribe.

Joshua will die soon, and he reminds the Israelites to follow God. They promise to do this, and then Joshua dies.

Quotable

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9 NIV

“But hold fast to the Lord your God” Joshua 23:8 NRSV

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” Joshua 24:15 NIV

Unique and Unusual

The book of Joshua can be very confusing. It may seem unfair and even evil of God to have the Israelites kill the foreign peoples surrounding the land God promised to the Israelites. But the book of Joshua makes clear that the Israelites are carrying out God’s judgment against these tribes. These people had heard of God. Joshua says several times that God’s acts of power were famous all over the land. The Israelites even march around Jericho for seven days, giving the people plenty of time to give themselves to God instead of choosing to fight against him. Rahab chose to worship God and she was spared, although she was a prostitute. And the Gibeonites decide not to fight God and they are spared, even though they lie about where their home city is located. But as the Bible repeatedly shows, those who choose to totally, permanently reject God are judged. Some people may object that not every person in these tribes had heard of God or had the opportunity to escape the Israelite army—babies, for instance. Yet the Bible makes clear that people are judged only by the way they respond to the grace given to them—we can be assured none of these holy innocents will be in hell.

So What?

When we are on God’s side, we always win the battle, sooner or later.

Judges

Author

Most scholars think Judges was put together by the Deuteronomist historians, who wrote several other books of the Bible and whose beliefs are best seen in the book of Deuteronomy. The stories in Judges were probably part of Israelite tradition and storytelling for many centuries, however, even before the Deuteronomists put it together into a book. We can be assured God, who inspired the whole Bible, guided this process.

Date

Judges was probably finished during the 500’s BCE.

Show Them Who’s Boss: God should be the king of our lives!

When People Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes

God leads the Israelites to take a couple more cities in the Promised Land. Some of the Israelite tribes did not obey God, not bothering to take the cities God has asked them to take. God explains they will experience problems with the Canaanites because they did not obey. The Israelites weep and make sacrifices to God. Some Israelites begin worshipping other gods, and God punishes them. God gives judges over the nation to help guide them, but the Israelites do not obey God. This happens under the first judge, Othenial.

The next judge, Ehud, kills the king of Moab secretly. They win a battle against Moab. The book of Judges does not say that Ehud was supposed to do this, however. After him, Deborah is judge of Israel. She prophesies that God will give up the Caananite King Sisera to a woman. The Israelite army wins the battle and Jael, a woman, kills the king. Deborah sings a long song of praise to God.

Midian, another nation, oppresses Israel. God calls Gideon to be a prophet. Gideon asks the angel of the Lord why Israel has been oppressed. The angel tells Gideon God wants him to lead the Israelites. Gideon is frightened and asks God for a sign. So God sends a fire to consume some unleavened cakes. Gideon is terrified and worships God. Gideon obeys God and tears down an altar to the false god, Baal. Gideon asks for another sign, and God grants it by keeping the fleeces dry of morning dew. God sends Gideon to command the Israelite army, even cutting down the size of the army by sending some men home, and they defeat the Midianite army. The Israelites ask Gideon to be their king, but he refuses, saying God is their only king. He asks them to give some of the gold they captured to make an ephod, a temple artifact. But the Israelites turn it into a god to worship instead of worshipping the true God.

Gideon’s son, Abimelech, kills his brothers, and some Israelites make him king. Jotham runs away and remains the only brother surviving. He prophecies against Abimelech and the people who crowned him king. Abimelech becomes king, but God sends trouble between him and the lower rulers. Abimelech and his men lose in battle, and an unknown woman kills Abimelech.

Two more judges, Tola and Jair, rule. Israel turns to other gods, but then repents and God forgives them.

Jephthah is the next judge. His brothers want to drive him out of the house because his mother was a prostitute and they do not think he should have any of the family wealth. Then the Ammonites attack Israel, and his brothers change their mind and ask him to help lead the people. Jephthah tries to keep peace, but it becomes impossible and God helps the Israelites defeat the ammonites. Jephthah promises to sacrifice the first being he sees, which ultimately is his daughter. She says he must keep his vow to God. Judges emphasizes that she had no children; many scholars think the sacrifice was that she had no children, not that she was literally burned as a sacrifice. The Bible says in many places that human sacrifice to God is a terrible sin.

Several more judges rule, and then Samson is born. God tells his mother that her baby son will belong completely to God and bring Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Monoah, Samson’s father, asks God to send his angel again to repeat this good news. God does, and Monoah offers to prepare dinner for the angel, who refuses gently and explains that he is the angel of the Lord. Monoah panics and gives God a burnt offering.

Samson has more strength than any other man, able to kill a lion with his bare hands. He marries a Philistine woman, as God wants him to do. But she is given to another man and Samson cannot marry her. Enraged, he kills a thousand Philistine soldiers with a single donkey’s jaw. Later, a woman named Delilah tempts Samson with her charm and beauty to reveal the source of his strength. Eventually he explains that God commanded him not to cut his hair, and if his hair is cut his strength will be gone. While Samson is sleeping, Delilah cuts his hair and the Philistines capture him. Samson prays for strength and God gives him the power to destroy the whole palace by knocking down a pillar, and thousands of Philistines die.

The Israelites fall away from God again. A woman is raped and killed, and her husband cuts her body into twelve pieces and sends one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel as a sign of the evil happening in the land. The men who raped her were from the Benjaminite tribe. Some other tribes kill the Benjaminites in revenge and kidnap women from the Benjaminite tribe to replenish their supply of people. Judges ends by saying that in those days, throughout this whole book, people do what is right in their own eyes, instead of following God.

Quotable

“Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing, I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel” Judges 5:3 NRSV

“The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior” Judges 6:12 NRSV

“In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes” Judges 21:25 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

At times, Judges is a difficult book to read, full of violence and disobedience to God. The idea of a king is explored throughout Judges and is central to understanding this sad book. There is no king, Judges repeatedly tells us, in Israel. At one point, the people ask Gideon, a judge who obeyed God and led the people to victory, to be their king. But he refuses, explaining God is the only true king. After hearing this message, the Israelites worship a memorial Gideon built as a god! They refuse to make God the king of their lives, their center and their purpose. Tragically, Judges ends with a rape and murder of an innocent woman, a bloody battle, and many kidnappings of more innocent women from the enemy tribe.

So What?

When we refuse to crown God the King and Lord of our hearts, evil will ultimately result.

Ruth

Author

The author is unknown. Most scholars think this story was told and developed over many generations.

Date

Scholars are unsure. Some think Ruth was quite old, written around the 800’s BCE. Most place it later, from the 500’s-300’s BCE. The book leaves few clues.

What It Means To Really Care: Love means going the extra mile for others.

How Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz Give Everything for One Another

Ruth is a Moabite (non-Israelite) woman whose husband has just died. Her only living relative is her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi, whose husband is also dead. There is a famine in Moab and Ruth and Naomi are hungry. Naomi weeps and questions God’s faithfulness, planning to return to Israel alone. Ruth tells Naomi she will go with her to Israel, even though Ruth’s home is Moab. Ruth promises to stay with Naomi for the rest of her life, and Naomi reluctantly agrees, crying all the way against God.

They make it back to Israel, and Naomi decides they should go to her relative Boaz’s fields. They pick from the fields, since it is God’s law that the poor are able to pick food from fields so they do not starve. Boaz notices Ruth and asks her to stay, offering her water. He says he has heard how Ruth chose to stay with Naomi and asks God to bless Ruth. Boaz invites her to eat dinner with him and to pick extra food from his fields. Ruth has a lot of food picked by this time and takes it back to Naomi, who is too old to glean from the harvest.

This arrangement continues for a while, until Naomi suggests Ruth go talk to Boaz alone at night. While Boaz is sleeping, Ruth enters his room and lies down beside him. She asks him to marry her and give her children, since he is a near relative by marriage and Ruth and Naomi are poor and need help. Boaz agrees if nobody else will, since by Israelite law a closer relative would be expected to do this duty. But he allows her to sleep in his bed the rest of the night.

The next day, Boaz talks to that closer relative. It turns out that relative is using a field that should belong to Naomi. Boaz basically says he is allowed to continue using the land, but he will marry Ruth and the land will belong to Ruth’s child. Boaz and Ruth marry, and they have a son, Obed, whom Naomi helps care for. Obed later becomes the grandfather of King David.

Quotable

“Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God” Ruth 1:16 NIV

Unique and Unusual

Ruth is a beautiful story that models for us even today what true love is like. Love goes the extra mile, takes time and energy, for others. Ruth leaves her homeland to make sure her mother-in-law will be safe and cared for. Boaz repeatedly makes sure Ruth and Naomi have enough to eat, even though he is a busy man in charge of an entire farm and many servants. Boaz fights for Ruth’s and Naomi’s inheritance rights in court, marries Ruth—a widow and a non-Israelite, both strikes against her in the society in which they lived. Boaz and Ruth also allow Naomi to stay with them after their marriage and to help care for their son. This is the way God wants us to love others, going far beyond politeness or “being nice.”

The book of Ruth challenges our simple, casual ideas about what love is. It also challenges our ideas about what is “right” or “proper.” Naomi, who is grieving the death of her husband and sons, who is nearing the end of her life, cries out in anger to God. Like Naomi, we should courageously tell God about our hurts, knowing he is big enough to handle our anger and bitterness.

Ruth is a non-Israelite, but she worships God, lives as a model of how God wants us to love, and ultimately becomes part of King David’s—and Jesus’—family tree. God uses anybody willing to be used by God. If we think, like Naomi, that we are too old or as some might think of Ruth, that we have the wrong background, we are wrong. God uses us still, if we will only follow.

So What?

Too often, we are too busy, too afraid, and too shy to really love others. Like Ruth, Boaz, and by the end Naomi—caring for her grandson by marriage like her own son—we should go the extra mile to love and go with others, no matter the cost.

1 Samuel

Author

Most scholars think the Deuteronomist historians wrote 1 Samuel. For more about them, see the “Author” entry under the book of Deuteronomy. The stories probably originated from traditions over many generations, however.

Date

1 Samuel was probably put together in its final form around the 500’s BCE.

God or Power? We all must make that choice

The Troubled Beginning of the Monarchy

A woman named Hannah is unable to have children. She goes up to the temple and prays for a son whom she will give back to God. God answers her prayer and she has a son, Samuel. Once he is weaned she takes him to live in the temple and sings a long song of praise to God.

When Samuel is older, he hears a voice calling his name. Samuel realizes the voice is God, who tells Samuel that he must tell his mentor, Eli the high priest, that God is going to punish Eli’s sons for disobeying God.

The Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence, from the Israelites. The Philistines become afraid and give the ark back. Samuel is grown up now and tells the Israelites they must worship God only, leading the people as a judge. Samuel appoints his sons as judges, too, but they do not follow God. The Israelites decide they want a king instead of keeping God as their king. God tells Samuel to grant their request.

A man named Saul becomes their king. Saul leads the army to defeat the Ammonites. Samuel then gives a long speech to the people, reminding them to serve God. Later, in battle again, Saul has a large group of troops rallied around him. He waits seven days as Samuel instructs him, and then offers a priestly sacrifice even though Samuel has, in God’s name, forbidden this. Saul makes the burnt offering because he is afraid the troops will abandon him after seven days of just waiting. Samuel explains that God will eventually take away the kingdom from Saul for this sin of disobeying God’s command and using sacrifice to maintain his power instead of honoring God.

They go into battle against the Philistines, Jonathan (Saul’s son) and his armor bearer making a sneak attack beforehand that kills twenty men and leaves the Philistines ill-prepared.

Saul does not know Jonathan has done this and makes an oath cursing anyone who eats that day after the battle is complete. Jonathan was not present when the oath was made and so eats some honey he finds along the way home. Some soldiers see and tell Saul. Saul asks God if they should attack the Philistines again, but God does not answer. The priest explains that somebody among them is guilty, and by casting lots they discover it is Jonathan, who admits that he ate the honey and is prepared to die. Saul, enraged, says Jonathan must die, but the people demand that Jonathan live, so he does.

God asks Saul to lead the people in battle against the Amalakites, which he does, but then refuses to destroy their livestock, gold, and other valuables as God commanded. That night God tells Samuel he is sorry he made Saul king, and Samuel weeps all night long. The next day Samuel goes to Saul, who immediately brags to Samuel that he has obeyed God. Samuel insists that Saul has disobeyed and tells him God has rejected him as king. Saul at first denies this, but then sees the truth of Samuel’s words and repents. Samuel helps him repent and prays with him, but explains that God is taking away Saul’s position as king. Samuel then kills the king of the Amalakites as Saul was supposed to do, but did not.

God then sends Samuel to Jesse’s house, explaining the next king will be one of Jesse’s sons. Samuel sees several handsome, older, strong sons, all of whom God tells him are not the one. Finally Samuel asks Jesse if he has any other sons, to which he replies yes, his youngest son David is tending the sheep. God says this is the one, and Samuel anoints David there in the presence of his family.

One night, Saul is full of anxiety because God has taken his spirit away from him. One of Saul’s men suggests he fetch David, a man of God, a great warrior and harp player. Saul agrees and makes David his armor bearer. David plays the harp for Saul anytime he is feeling distressed.

Later, a Philistine named Goliath who is ten feet tall tells Israel that if any single man can fight and kill him, the Philistines will serve Israel, but if Goliath kills the Israelite, than Israel will serve the Philistines. David’s brothers are in the Israelite army, and David brings them food from home and sometimes stays with Saul’s men, and other times goes home to feed the sheep. David hears about Goliath and, enraged, decides to face him. Saul gives his blessing and some armor, but it is too big for David.

David faces Goliath, who taunts him. David replies that he fights in God’s name, uses his slingshot and knocks Goliath over, then cuts off his head with Goliath’s own sword. David becomes head over the armies and best friends with Jonathan. Saul becomes jealous of David’s successes and popularity. Saul tries to kill David twice, but is unsuccessful and God continues to bless David. David marries Saul’s daughter Michal and kills a hundred Philistine enemies as Saul asks.

Saul plots to kill David again, this time telling his men about the plan. Jonathan hears, tells David, and persuades Saul not to kill him. Saul asks for David to play the harp and throws a spear at him, which David just barely escapes. Michal helps him go into hiding and puts a statue in their bed so Saul thinks David is lying there, sick, giving David enough time to get away.

David goes to be with Samuel in the city of Ramah, and Saul’s men find out. They nearly find them, but God sends them into a frenzy of craziness, making them strip naked and cry out, and they do not find David.

David asks Jonathan for help, who agrees to help him hide and they promise to love one another. They arrange some signals for David to know if it safe to be near the palace or if he must stay in hiding. Saul wonders why David is not at the new moon festival dinner, and Jonathan replies that David has gone home to be with his family (although he is really in hiding.) Saul tells Jonathan that he is angry with him for being friends with David and throws a spear at him. Jonathan goes to find David in the fields and explains he must go away from the palace, and they weep and embrace.

David and a group of his men go and they eat the bread of the presence in the temple, which was not supposed to be moved, because they are starving. Saul continues to search for David and even has a large group of priests killed whom he suspects are helping David. One priest among them survives, name Abiathar, and joins David. God then tells David to attack the Philistines as Keliah, which David obeys and thereby saves the people living in Keliah. Saul pursues David there and he barely escapes. Soon thereafter David has a chance to kill Saul, cutting off a piece of his cloak, but instantly feels guilty and tells Saul so. Saul admits he knows God wants David to be king. Samuel dies after that.

Wandering, they find a wealthy man named Nabal and ask him for some food since they are all so hungry. Nabal refuses to help them and David, enraged, tells his men to strap on their swords. Nabal’s wife Abigail takes food to David secretly and tells him not to seek revenge on Nabal and reminds him God is with him. David thanks Abigail for keeping him from sinning and later marries her. David then gets another opportunity to kill Saul, and refuses, telling Saul so. Saul blesses David again, but David knows he does not mean it and hides himself and his men in Gath, away from Israel.

Saul disguises himself and consults a medium, a woman who talks to the dead even though God has said this is a sin. He asks her to call up Samuel, and she obeys. Samuel tells him Israel will lose to the Philistines and the next day Saul and his sons will be dead. The king of Gath, meanwhile, sends David to the Philistine land, afraid David and Saul could reconcile and Israel will be stronger than ever. David learns that the Amalekites have killed many Israelites in the town of Ziklag. He attacks the Amalekites and rescues the remaining people. The Philistines attack Saul’s army and Saul kills himself.

Quotable

“There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God” 1 Samuel 2:2 NRSV

“But if you will not heed the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king” 1 Samuel 12:15 NRSV

“The Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand” 1 Samuel 17:47 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

1 Samuel may seem like a boring history book. But it is really a fascinating study on how God deals with humanity and how people can rise to greatness or descend to failure in God’s eyes.

Israel demands a king and God grants their wish, even though God says repeatedly he wants to be their king. God gives people free will to make choices and experience the consequences of those choices. God is also extremely patient—he does not reject Israel for choosing to have a king even though they are sinning against God by trying to dethrone him from their lives. They have not totally rejected God and so God still remains with them.

Later in the book, after Saul repeatedly sins against God, God says he is sorry he chose Saul to be king. Saul has the free will to be a good king or a bad one; God does not direct Saul’s choices. 1 Samuel shows that God is personal; a being with emotions, capable as any human of being hurt. And God is hurt by Saul and by Israel’s demands for a king. We, too, must remember that sin grieves God’s heart.

1 Samuel also shows the danger of power as Saul becomes corrupted by his position as king—performing burnt offerings and disobeying God’s command just to rally troops, trying to kill David out of jealous rage. We, too, must be on guard for the dangers of power. Samuel repeatedly explains to Saul that God is displeased with him, but Saul is far more focused on killing David and winning fame than turning back to God. God tells Saul he will take away the kingdom from him, but leaves open the chance for Saul to restore his relationship to God, which Saul repeatedly ignores, obsessed with power.

Finally, 1 Samuel shows David and Samuel as role models of service to God. Samuel inspires us to speak the truth no matter what the consequences, to pray for others—as Samuel does even for Saul and the Israelites who sinfully beg for a king, to weep with God for the pain of evil and sin. David models deep faith in God and perseverance, anointed by Samuel to become king as a teenager but running from Saul for years. God’s promises and plans may not come exactly when we would like them to. As with David God may be forming our hearts and souls through the time of growing and waiting.

So What?

No matter where we are spiritually, 1 Samuel leads us deeper into the heart of God while inspiring and warning us to follow him.

2 Samuel

Author

Much of 2 Samuel was written by the Deuteronomist historians, although formed by years of traditional storytelling. Some scholars think parts of 2 Samuel were formed by, or perhaps written by, a source very close to David, like an advisor or friend, because the book portrays David quite intimately.

Date

2 Samuel was probably finished by the 500’s BCE.

No Such Thing As No Hope God can use us even if we have done evil

David, a Man after God, a Man after Blood

David mourns for Saul and Jonathan, punishing the Amalekite who tried to kill Saul by execution. Abner, Saul’s commanding general, anoints Saul’s son Ishbosheth as king over Israel (a name for the northern kingdom of the whole nation of Israel) and David becomes king of Judah, the southern half of the nation. Abner’s and David’s armies fight for years, and David’s armies eventually win.

Abner and Ishbosheth fight over one of Saul’s concubines and Ishbosheth’s lack of appreciation for Abner. Abner tells David he would like to negotiate. David demands his wife Michal back, who is still living in Saul’s old palace. Abner agrees and tells David he will make sure David gets the northern kingdom, too—which readers know is because Abner fought with King Ishbosheth. Joab, David’s general, kills Abner without David’s permission. David mourns Abner and tells Joab that he was wrong to seek revenge.

Two of Saul’s old military leaders kill Ishbosheth and bring his head to David, thinking David will be impressed. Instead, David is angry and has them executed. He then becomes king over all Israel. He wins an important battle against the Philistines and has the Ark of the Covenant, the holy box symbolizing God’s presence with Israel, brought to Jerusalem, the new capital of Israel. Uzzah, one of the attendants, grabs the ark and is killed suddenly because nobody is allowed to touch the ark directly. David has the ark stay in a house and only later has it brought to Jerusalem, this time more carefully and with sacrifices along the way, recognizing the holiness of the ark. David dances before God with joy, and Michal, one of his wives, makes fun of him. They fight about the incident and never conceive a child together.

Nathan, a prophet tells David that God plans to give him a descendent who will be perfect, who will sit on the throne forever and make the kingdom have peace. (Christians believe this prophecy refers to Jesus.) David worships God with joy and wins important battles against the Philistines, Ammonites, and Arameans. David then stops participating in battle and one afternoon sees a beautiful woman named Bathsheba. They have sex and she becomes pregnant. Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, is a great warrior in the Israelite army. David encourages Uriah to go home and have sex with Bathsheba so Uriah will think the child is his own. Uriah refuses to leave the battle, so David asks Joab to make sure Uriah is killed in the fighting. Uriah does die, and David marries Bathsheba. Nathan tells David that he has sinned terribly and that God will punish David with political trouble and the loss of his wives. God will forgive David, however. David repents and weeps before God, and the child he had with Bathsheba dies. He and Bathsheba conceive a son, Solomon.

Joab begins fighting another battle and asks David, rather frustratedly, to come back to the battle. David agrees and wins. Then, David’s son Amnon becomes infatuated with his half-sister, David’s daughter Tamar. Amnon pretends to be sick and asks for Tamar to bring him food. Amnon then rapes her and sends her away, yelling at her. She cries and remains heartbroken, never marrying. David hears about this but does nothing. Absalom, Tamar’s full brother, orders his servants to kill Amnon. Absalom then flees, and David is heartbroken.

Joab sends a woman to go talk to David. Following Joab’s orders, she pretends to be mourning her son who killed his brother and ran away. She asks David to promise to protect her son, and he agrees. The woman then says he is sinning by agreeing to protect her son, a murderer, but doing nothing to reconcile with his own son, Absalom. David agrees and sends Joab to find Absalom. Absalom moves back to Jerusalem, assured now that he will not be punished for killing Amnon. But David refuses to speak to Absalom for two years. Absalom finally goes to the palace and they reconcile, but their relationship is still troubled.

Absalom starts convincing people, especially those from the northern tribes that David is not interested in helping them and that Absalom himself would be a better leader. Absalom then becomes king over Hebron, a city in Judah.

David eventually has to flee Jerusalem. Ahithophel, Bathsheba’s grandfather, joins Absalom’s side. He plans to have David’s concubines raped in the palace and suggests Absalom attack David now. Hushai, another advisor, suggests Absalom attack later. Hushai is actually on David’s side and purposely gives Absalom this bad advice. Hushai advises David to flee further, unsure if Absalom might attack. Ahithiophel realizes Absalom’s cause is cursed and kills himself.

The two armies fight, and David does not fight, but asks his men not to hurt Absalom. Joab sees Absalom hiding in a tree and kills him. Absalom’s army is defeated, but David is filled with terrible sadness because his son is dead. Joab tells David he needs to go praise and be with the troops who risked their lives for his cause. David does so, and tells the northern tribes that even though they supported Absalom, he wants to be their king. Upset with Joab for killing Absalom, David replaces him with Amasa as his general.

Ziba, one of Saul’s generals, tells David Mephibosheth (Jonathan’s son) was plotting against David. Mephibosheth goes to David and claims Ziba was lying, and they dispute over who should have the family’s land. David, weary of fighting, has the estate divided in two. Some of the northern tribes welcome David as king, and some do not.

Sheba, part of Saul’s tribe, stirs up trouble and convinces the northern tribes to follow him instead of David. David sends his men to fight Sheba. Joab kills Amasa, David’s general, and the troops rally around Joab to kill Sheba. A woman prophecies to Joab that they will throw Sheba’s head over the city gates, which they do.

Then there is a long famine, and David discovers it is because Saul killed many Gibeonites, a people whom Israel made a treaty with in the book of Joshua not to harm. God wants David to deal with this problem, so David talks to the Gibeonites, who agree they will be reconciled to Israel if some of the men involved are punished. David has seven members of Saul’s family killed.

Nearing the end of his life, David sings a long song of praise to God. 2 Samuel ends by reporting the names of David’s mighty men, a story of David taking a census of his men against God’s will, and David refusing the offer of free animals to sacrifice to God, paying for them instead.

Quotable

“You are great, O Lord God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard our ears” 2 Samuel 7:22 NRSV

“Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die” 2 Samuel 11:13 NRSV

“The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation” 2 Samuel 22:47 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

2 Samuel is a very bloody book. It can be difficult to read murder after murder, intermixed with rape, suicide, polygamy, and betrayal. How can God speak to us through this violence?

2 Samuel shows that sin and evil are a very serious matter that hurt others. David may have thought that raping Bathsheba would affect only him—but ultimately it affected the whole nation. Even if we are not national leaders, our sins hurt other people. But the cycle of hurt can be broken, as 2 Samuel shows. David starts out on the right path, mourning for his enemy Saul and refusing to punish Saul’s associates. If, at any point throughout this story, people had decided not to take revenge on enemies, the violence could be stopped.

Reading 2 Samuel shortly after 1 Samuel, Saul and David begin to look very similar—both commit serious mistakes, both value power more than God, more than doing the right thing. What is the difference? David follows God and repents of his mistakes. 2 Samuel shows that God forgives everyone willing to be forgiven, even if we have committed terrible evil, like murder, rape, revenge.

So What?

If, like David, we follow God despite our sins, God will forgive us and use us in mighty ways.

1 Kings

Author

1 Kings was mostly written by the Deuteronomist historians, probably including traditional stories as well.

Date

1 Kings was likely mostly finished by the 600’s BCE and then put together in its final form after the exile.

Have No Fear; God Is Here We should not be afraid to follow truth in the midst of evil

Prophets Who Dare Speak To Kings

King David is very old and ill, and his son Solomon becomes king. David gives Solomon advice for being king, urging him to follow God and to have Joab and Shimei killed, neither of whom are truly loyal to Solomon. David then dies. Adonijah, Solomon’s half-brother, tries to become king, and Solomon has him killed and fires the priest who supported Adonijah. Solomon then has Joab killed, who also supported Adonijah and wrongly killed Abner and Amasa in 2 Samuel.

Solomon follows God and leads well. God offers Solomon anything he wants, and he asks for wisdom, which God grants along with fame and money. Solomon becomes very wise, able to judge disputes and composing many proverbs and songs. God asks Solomon to build God a temple, which Solomon does with the utmost care over seven years.

Solomon gives a long speech of praise to God and urging the people to obey God. The land is full of peace and prosperity, and the Queen of Sheba comes to learn from Solomon’s wisdom. However, Solomon falls into sin. He marries one thousand women and falls into worship of other gods. God becomes angry with Solomon and explains that he will take away the kingdom from Solomon’s descendants. God also sends enemies to fight with Solomon.

God tells a young man named Jeroboam that God has chosen him to be king over every tribe but one, and Solomon tries to kill him. But Solomon fails and soon after dies. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, becomes king and decides to tax the people and make them do more labor than Solomon did, who was famous for being extreme in both areas. The northern tribes rebel and crown Jeroboam their king, but Rehoboam becomes king of Judah, the southern half of the kingdom. Jeroboam, however, becomes jealous that the people are going to the southern kingdom to Jerusalem, where the temple is. So Jeroboam gets many people to worship golden calves in the northern kingdom and hires new priests.

A prophet tells Jeroboam God will tear down the altar, which happens right after the prophet speaks, and Jeroboam tries to grab the prophet, but his hand begins to whither away. He begs for forgiveness, and his hand is restored. The prophet goes on his way, but somebody invites him over for dinner. The prophet goes even though God has told him not to eat in the northern kingdom, and he is attacked by a lion and dies. Another prophet speaks against Jeroboam and one of his sons dies. The kings following Jeroboam and Rehoboam commit evil against God, too, worshipping other gods.

King Ahab of Israel, the northern kingdom, is the worst king of all. He marries Jezebel, who is not a Jew, and worships Baal, a new foreign god, and builds temples for other gods. Elijah, a prophet, tells Ahab there will be no more rain. God tells Elijah to hide and has the ravens feed him. God sends Elijah to Zarephath, a city where Baal is worshipped, outside the land of Israel, to a widow’s house. She worships God, but has little food. Her son is dying and she thinks she will soon die, too. Elijah tells her to cook the rest of her food for the three of them, and God will provide enough food and oil, which he does. God heals the widow’s son through Elijah, too.

By now there is little food in Ahab’s kingdom. Elijah returns there and meets Ahab, who blames the drought on the prophet. Elijah asks Ahab to gather all the people together, and Elijah preaches to them, challenging them to call on their god to consume a sacrifice with fire. The bull remains untouched, although the people pray to Baal to consume it. Elijah asks God to consume the bull, which he does. Elijah has the prophets of Baal killed and the drought ends. Jezebel tells Elijah she will kill him, and he runs away. He becomes depressed, asking God to kill him. God sends an angel to strengthen him, and comforts him in a still, small voice. God then tells Elijah to anoint new kings and Elisha as a new prophet, adding that there are still thousands left who worship God.

Israel goes to war with Aram, and a prophet tells Ahab God will cause Israel to win, which comes true. Ahab disobeys God and does not kill the king of Aram. A prophet goes to Ahab and explains that Ahab will be severely punished for this disobedience. Ahab then decides he wants more land for the palace and asks Naboth, the owner of the land, to sell it to him. Naboth refuses, and Jezebel has Naboth falsely accused of blasphemy and executed. God sends Elijah to tell Ahab God will punish him and bring great disaster. Ahab finally repents to God, who decides to delay the disaster.

King Jehosophat of Judah and Ahab plan to attack Aram. Jehosophat consults the prophets, who say God will give them victory. Ahab asks if Jehosophat if there are any other nearby prophets, to which he replies yes, there is Micaiah. Micaiah explains that God will not give them victory and will punish them, that the other prophets are not speaking God’s word. Enraged, Jehosophat throws Micaiah in prison. Ahab dies in the battle, which Israel loses. 1 Kings adds that Jehosophat was not a bad king, although he did not get rid of idol worship. Ahab’s son becomes king and commits evil just like his father.

Quotable

“Therefore devote yourselves completely to the Lord your God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as this day” 1 Kings 8:61 NRSV

“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel” 1 Kings 18:36 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Under King Solomon, a temple is finally built, a permanent, holy place for the Israelites to worship God. However, the temple becomes a source of conflict as the kings of Israel, the northern kingdom, try to prevent their subjects from going to the temple in Jerusalem, the southern kingdom. 1 Kings shows the moral failures of so many kings who see their own power as more important than their relationship with God or the well-being of the people. Fortunately, 1 Kings leaves us with positive role models, too—prophet after prophet who dares to speak God’s truth to the powerful kings. We should pray that God will make us like these brave prophets, who unlike the kings value their God above power, popularity, even their own lives. We should also worship God for his patience, as he sends messenger after messenger, waits year after year, to get the kings to change their ways. Our Father God punishes and disciplines as a last resort.

So What?

Like the prophets, we should value God’s purposes above all instead of making our power the center of our lives, like the kings do

2 Kings

Author

2 Kings was originally together with 1 Kings. The two were not split until the Bible was translated into Latin, centuries after the books were written. See 1 Kings entry for information about authorship and history.

Date

See 1 Kings entry.

Leaving A Legacy We should want to be remembered by our faith, not our accomplishments

The Legacies of Kings

King Ahaziah of Israel, the northern half of the kingdom, has a serious fall and asks his messengers to ask the false god Baal if he will recover. God sends the prophet Elijah to tell the king that God is the true God (which Ahaziah already knows, deep down), and that he will not get better. Ahaziah tries to order Elijah around, and he refuses to obey and fire from heaven consumes the king’s messengers. Ahaziah dies.

A chariot made of fire takes Elijah to heaven and Elisha picks up his mantle off the ground. The other prophets confirm that he is, indeed, a prophet. Elisha makes a spring produce clean water in God’s name. Then he goes up to Bethel, where a group of young men taunt him to go up to heaven like Elijah did. Elisha curses them in God’s name and bears kill them. The Moab goes to war with Israel, and the king asks Elisha for help. He prophecies that God will help Israel defeat Moan and the land will overflow with water. This comes true and the Moabites are surprised and lose.

Like Elijah before him, Elisha meets a widow who has nothing to live on, and he multiplies the oil in her house so she can sell it and not be poor any longer. Another woman invites him to her house, and he finds out she wants to have a child but is unable. He prophecies that she will have a son, and she does. Years later, the son dies, and the woman sets out to find Elisha. She shoves his servant Gehazi out of the way and begs Elisha for help. He sends Gehazi to revive her son, but he fails. Elisha heals him.

Later, a famine strikes the town of Gilgal and the group of prophets make stew with wild vines. While eating they realize the vines are poisonous, but Elisha tells them to put flour in the pot and the stew will be all right. It is, and they share it with the people. He also multiplies a couple loaves of bread into enough to feed one hundred hungry people.

Naaman, a military leader in Aram, another nation, hears about Israel’s God. Naaman has leprosy and sends a letter to the king of Israel, who asks Elisha for help. Elisha sends him to wash in the Jordan River seven times, which confuses and angers Naaman but finally cures him. He worships God and tries to give Elisha a gift, but he refuses. Gahazi, Elisha’s servant, runs after Naaman and asks for money, which Naaman joyfully gives. Gahazi instantly gets leprosy himself.

The group of prophets decides to build a place to live, and one of them drops his ax in the water while building, which Elisha makes float so it is not ruined. Elisha also advises the king of Israel with God’s advice on beating the Aramites who are attacking Israel. The king of Aram tries to kill Elisha, and Elisha’s servant panics. God gives the servant a vision of chariots of fire around Elisha, and he is filled with faith. Elisha prays for the Aramites to be made blind, which God does. Then he leads them to Samaria, where God opens their eyes. Elisha’s servant is eager to kill them, but Elisha instead prepares a feast for them and they never attack Israel again.

Years later, a different group of Aramite soldiers attacks Samaria, part of the northern kingdom of Israel. The people have nothing to eat and the king of Israel, angry and frightened, vows to kill Elisha. He goes to the home of Elisha, who calmly tells the king the famine will end tomorrow. A group of lepers, starving, go away from the city and realize the Aramites have run away and left plenty of food, livestock, and gold behind them. The lepers tell the king who makes sure all the people go and are fed.

Elisha sends one of the younger prophets to anoint Jehu king of Israel. The current king, Joram, and King Ahaziah of Judah, try to attack Jehu, who kills them both. Jehu makes sure all of Joram’s family and friends are killed too, since they were an evil group who turned away from God. Jehu also kills the priests and worshippers of Baal, people who knew the God of Israel but denied him for a false god. But Jehu did not get rid of the golden calves King Jeroboam built many years before to keep people from going to Jerusalem in the southern kingdom to worship.

Athaliah, King Ahaziah of Judah’s mother, starts killing all the young men in the family so they will not become king and she can be queen. Ahaziah’s sister makes sure his little boy Joash, however, is hidden safely. The high priest Jehoida anoints Joash king of Israel several years later and has Athaliah killed. Joash starts off a good king who obeys God and makes sure the temple is repaired, since people have been worshipping Baal and barely using the temple. However, like Jehu he does not get rid of the idols started by Jeroboam. Elisha, by now near death, lays his hands on Joash and prophecies that because of his sins they will win some victories against Aram, but not many, and the prophecy comes true. Elisha dies, and a body thrown into his grave is suddenly resurrected.

Amaziah then becomes king of Judah. He obeys God in many areas, but allows idolatry to continue. He punishes the people who killed his father but does not seek revenge on their families and wins a victory against Edom. Amaziah attacks Israel, but Joash leads Israel in victory. A group kills Amaziah and the people make his young son Azariah king. Jeroboam II, Joash’s son, becomes king of Israel. Jeroboam II increases the size of Israel’s land, as God commanded, but like Jeroboam I allows idolatry to continue.

Azariah, the new king, obeys God mostly but does not stamp out idolatry. God punishes Azariah with leprosy. Zechariah then becomes king of Israel, and does not follow God. Shallum kills Zechariah and is the new king. Menahem kills Shallum and attacks another territory against God’s will, dying far away from God. His son Pekaiah becomes the new king and likewise rebels against God. Pekaiah’s captain Pekah kills him and captures the throne. While Pekah is king, the Assyrians capture some of the land and Hoshea captures the throne from Pekah, becoming the new king of Israel.

Meanwhile, Jotham is king of Judah. He does honor God, building a gate for the temple, but fails to get rid of idolatry in the land. His son Ahaz becomes king and worships false gods, even making his son a burnt sacrifice. Aram and Israel, the northern kingdom led by King Pekah, attack Judah. So King Ahaz asks the Assyrians for help, even taking valuables from the temple and giving them to the Assyrian king.

Hoshea becomes king of Israel. Assyria soon conquers Israel, which has mostly stopped worshipping God. God has warned the Israelites many times, but they refuse to listen. Hezekiah becomes king of Judah and stamps out idolatry. The king of Assyria demands gold from Hezekiah, which he gives out of the temple. He taunts Hezekiah and the nation, asking why they would trust in God since they just gave away gold from God’s temple. Hezekiah forbids anyone from answering, repents before God, and asks the prophet Isaiah for help. Isaiah prophecies that the Assyrian king will go away, but the Assyrian king tempts him to surrender again. Hezekiah begs God for help, and Isaiah prophecies that God will rescue Israel. That night thousands of Assyrian soldiers die suddenly, and also their king, in the temple worshipping Assyrian gods. Hezekiah becomes very sick and begs God to heal him, which God does and confirms the promise by making the sun go backwards on the sundial. God heals him, but years later he dies.

Manessah becomes the next king, bringing idolatry and child sacrifice to false gods to Judah, and his son Amon is a similarly evil king. The next king, Josiah, reforms the temple finances and the high priest reads the book of the law to the king. Josiah tears his clothes in sadness and the female prophet Huldah explains God will punish the people who did not obey the law but is pleased with Josiah’s repentance. Josiah brings all the people together to hear the law read, to make a covenant to obey God, and to destroy the idols. They also have a Passover celebration. Josiah keeps following God, but the next king, Jehohaz, heavily taxes the people to give money to Egypt. God punishes Judah for refusing to follow him, sending Babylon to conquer them.

Quotable

“They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger” 2 Kings 17:17 NRSV

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord” 2 Kings 2:19 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

2 Kings is an unusual account of history. Often, after briefly describing a king, the writer says we can learn more by reading some other book, which by now has been lost to history. This can make 2 Kings a frustrating, seemingly incomplete book. Yet 2 Kings’ odd style points to what God sees as truly important—not their battles or wealth, but whether they followed God. 2 Kings sums up each king’s life by saying whether or not he walked in God’s ways—usually not! This is a good lesson for today, when our tasks and possessions can distract us from following God. While reading 2 Kings, we should pray that God and those we know remember first of all the way we followed God.

So What?

Who are we and what have we done? It doesn’t matter how other people answer these questions, because God is the only judge.

1 Chronicles

Author

Scholars argue about the background of the writer or writers of 1 and 2 Chronicles and what sources they may have used. Some think the writer was a priest because the book contains a lot of detailed information about the priesthood. But ultimately we cannot know.

Date

Most scholars think 1 and 2 Chronicles were written after the Babylonian exile, written to inspire people to keep believing in God the way King David did and to hope in God’s promises to David even though the people had been conquered by the Babylonians and things looked grim.

How to Truly Live: Be a friend of God, like David!

More about David, the Man after God’s Own Heart

1 Chronicles begins with a long genealogy beginning with Adam, the first man, up through many generations, showing that like Adam, Abraham, and King David, the original Jewish readers, too, are part of God’s people. (And so are non-Jewish Christians, as the New Testament repeatedly explains, becoming “children of Abraham,” as Galatians 3:7 says.)

David becomes king of Israel and captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites. He has a group of mighty men that keeps growing, from many different tribes. They have a celebration moving the Ark of the Covenant (the holy box symbolizing God’s covenant with Israel) to Jerusalem, but Uzzah grabs the ark, which is against God’s rules. He dies, and the ark is moved later. David wins many victories against the Philistines. They have a new celebration to bring the ark, this time following God’s rules about the Levites carrying it. David dances for God and they make offerings to God. David sings God’s praise in front of the whole nation, and they all cry, “Amen!”

David wants to build a temple for God, but God tells the prophet Nathan to tell David not to, but that God will bless David and David’s son will build the temple. God also promises one of David’s descendants will be king forever (this promise was fulfilled in Jesus.) David worships God with joy and wins more battles. He cares very much about the people and rules over them well.

David has every soldier in his army counted, which is a sin because he does so out of pride in his power and the army’s power instead of trust in God. He asks God to forgive him, and God says he will punish David, but David may choose the punishment. He chooses a famine. The famine comes and some die; David begs God to punish him instead. God tells David to build a heart, which he does. He pays with a large amount of gold for oxen to sacrifice to God. God takes away the famine.

David says the temple will be built there and helps his son Solomon, the next king, get ready to build the temple. He explains the Levites, the priests, will not minister in the tabernacle forever, but soon in the temple. 1 Chronicles continues listing the people who serve in different areas—as priest, gatekeepers, judges, etc. David gathers all the people together and first urges Solomon and the people to obey God. He gives away a huge amount of gold for building the temple and asks the people to give, too. David praises God and Solomon is anointed the new king.

Quotable

“Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works” 1 Chronicles 16:9 NRSV

“There is no one like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears” 1 Chronicles 17:20 NRSV

“Be strong and of good courage, and act. Do not be afraid or dismayed; for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished” 1 Chronicles 28:20 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

1 Chronicles’ account of King David’s rule is very different from 2 Samuel’s account; 2 Samuel focuses on David’s mistakes, but 1 Chronicles celebrates David’s faith in God. David talks to God freely, praises God publicly, and even dances for joy because of God. While 2 Samuel draws our attention to God’s use of David despite his sins, 1 Chronicles highlights ways David is an example in the faith for us to follow. We should pray to have this close, joyful, enduring relationship with God David has.

The story of David and the census is puzzling. Why does God punish Israel for David’s sin? The Bible repeatedly says that God only holds people accountable for their own sins. Perhaps God wanted David to step up and sacrifice himself, like a good king, a good shepherd over the flock of Israel, as David does. The fact that the place where David builds the altar becomes the site of the temple shows that we encounter God when we repent, that we can always turn around and find God again.

So What?

1 Chronicles is about loving God authentically, joyfully, as we wait on God to finish fulfilling his promise to King David, that one of David’s descendants—Jesus, as we know now—will truly be king and there will be peace forever. When Jesus returns and gets rid of all evil, death, and pain, this promise will be complete. Until then, like David we must wait and worship God.

2 Chronicles

Author

See the author information for 1 Chronicles; they were originally part of the same book and only have been split centuries after they were written.

Date

See the date information for 2 Chronicles.

Trust and Obey It all comes down to who we trust

Kings Who Trust God, Kings Who Trust Themselves

Solomon, David’s son, becomes king. He leads all the leaders of Israel to go pray in the tabernacle. That night, God offers to give Solomon anything he wants, and Solomon asks for wisdom to be a good king. God gives it, and also wealth and fame. Laborers from Trye help build the temple, and Solomon pays them well. It is a beautiful building, and the people come together to worship God there. Solomon praises God and prays for the nation. God’s glory fills the temple. Later that night, when Solomon is alone, God reminds Solomon that he must follow God, and if he does not, God will punish Solomon. Indeed, Solomon makes sure the temple worship and upkeep remains in accordance with God’s law.

The queen of Sheba hears that Solomon is the wisest man in the world, and goes to visit him. She is very impressed by him, praises God, and gives Solomon lavish gifts. He gives her some fancy gifts, too, and becomes wealthier and well known. Eventually, he dies.

Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, becomes king. The people cry out because their taxes are just too high. Rehoboam’s older officials say he should lower the taxes, but the king’s friends say he should raise them. The people of Israel, the northern kingdom, rebel and Rehoboam is forced to go to Jerusalem, part of Judah which is the southern kingdom. He assembles an army to fight Israel, but God tells Rehoboam not to fight. He obeys and rules well for three years. Then Rehoboam stops following God. A huge army from Egypt comes to destroy them, but Rehoboam and his officials turn back to God. God says he will save the people, but the army will still take away royal treasures, and so it happens.

Abijah is king next over Judah and goes to war with King Jeroboam over Israel. Abijah explains that God is on their side because Jeroboam is not supposed to be king. Judah wins because they trust in God. Asa, Abijah’s son, is king next and follows God, taking away all worship of false gods. The Ethiopians attack Judah, but King Asa prays for help and God helps them win. God sends the prophet Azariah to encourage King Asa. Israel sets up a wall to prevent anyone from going into or coming out of Judah. Asa asks the king of Aram for help instead of praying and shortly Asa becomes sick, but does not pray to God, and dies.

Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, is the new king. He follows God and takes away worship of false gods. King Ahab of Israel asks Jehoshaphat if he will go to war with Israel against Aram. Jehoshaphat says he would like to but they must talk to God first, and consults a group of prophets. They say God wants him to go to battle. Jehoshaphat asks Ahab if there are any more prophets, and he says yes, Micaiah, although he always prophecies disaster. Micaiah says he sees an evil spirit tempting Ahab to go to battle against God’s wishes, and that if Ahab leaves the battle safely, they will know Micaiah was wrong. Ahab throws Micaiah into prison.

They go ahead with the battle anyway and Ahab disguises himself, entering the battle. The Aramean soldiers see King Jehoshaphat, thinking he is king, and try to attack, but God protects him. Ahab is killed in battle, though everyone thinks he is a regular soldier. God tells Jehoshaphat he was wrong to befriend Ahab without challenging his sinful behavior. He apologizes to God and appoints leaders, judges, and priests who follow God.

The Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites plot to attack Judah. Jehoshaphat leads the people in prayer for God’s help. The priest Jahaziel prophecies that God will help Judah win the fight. Everyone, including the king, falls on their knees and praises God. Jehoshaphat leads them in battle the next day, including a group of singers praising God, and they defeat the enemies. Jehoshaphat shortly after joins with King Ahaziah of Israel, who did not follow God, and Jehoshaphat stops following God himself.

Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son, is the next king and has all his brothers and sisters, and political opponents killed. He also leads the people in worship of other gods. The prophet Elijah sends King Jehoram a letter explaining God will curse him and his family, and give him a terrible bowel disease. Other nations also attack Judah and kidnap most of Jehoram’s family and take his possessions.

Jehoram’s son Ahaziah becomes king and completely turns away from God. While visiting Joram, the son of the king of Israel, Jehu (a military leader in Israel), kills him. Ahaziah’s mother plots to kill everyone in the family so she can be queen, but Ahaziah’s daughter hides away her young brother Joash. Athaliah reigns as queen for two years.

A group of priests, led by Jehoida, decide they will make sure Joash is king. They lead the people to stand up against Queen Athaliah and put her to death. The priests lead people to follow God again and Jehoida helps young Joash be a good king. Together they make sure the temple is working properly and people are worshipping God there according to the law. After Jehoida dies, Joash listens to his officials who convince him to worship false gods and refuses to listen to the prophets who beg him to stop. Zechariah, Jehoida’s son, says God has abandoned King Joash. Enraged, he kills Zechariah. The Aramites attack Judah and King Joash, whose servants leave him to die because they are so disgusted with his killing of Zechariah.

Joash’s son Amaziah becomes king. He plans to have some foreigners be part of the Judean army, but a prophet explains God opposes this. Amaziah obeys, but shortly after a battle with Edom starts leading Judah in worship of other gods. A prophet says God is unhappy with this, but the king threatens to kill the prophet. Israel and Judah go to war and King Amaziah is killed. His son Uzziah becomes king and follows God, remembering the teachings of Zechariah, whom his grandfather killed. They win many battles and Judah gains more power. Uzziah becomes proud of his success and stops following God. He goes into the temple and does what the priests are supposed to do, disobeying God’s law. God instantly gives Uzziah leprosy, which he has until his death.

Jotham, Uzziah’s son, is the next king and follows God. He has many military and political victories and dies still following God. Ahaz, his son, is the next king and worships many false gods. He encourages his people to stop worshipping God and even sacrifices his children as burnt offerings to false gods. The Aramites defeat King Ahaz. The people of Israel plan to make the Judeans their slaves, but the prophet Oded tells the military leaders this is wrong, against God’s will. They reluctantly agree. Judah suffers more military losses under Ahaz, who refuses to follow God, even to the point of stealing from the temple.

Hezekiah is the next king, who repents for his father’s sins by making sure the temple is run properly and the things Ahaz stole are replaced. Temple worship is restored to how it is commanded by God’s law. He also commands that all Judah, and asks that all of Israel and Ephraim, keep Passover as the law demands. Hezekiah has them destroy old idols and objects of worship for other gods.

Soon after, Assyria invades Judah. The people are afraid, but Hezekiah assures them God will help them defeat their enemy. This comes true, and many people honor Hezekiah. Soon he becomes very sick, and prays for God’s healing, which comes to pass. But then King Hezekiah grows proud and begins turning away from God, but then turns back.

Manessah is the next king, worshipping many false gods, sacrificing his children, and practicing witchcraft. Assyria draws near to attack and capture King Manessah. While in prison, he begs God for forgiveness and God lets him be king again. He gets rid of the worship of other gods and the people, also, turn back to God. His son Amon, the next king, does as much evil while king as Manessah did. Amon never turns back to God, though. Amon’s servants kill him, but the people demand that Amon’s young son Josiah be the next king.

At the age of sixteen, Josiah seeks God and tries to get rid of the worship of false gods. He also makes sure the temple worship is continuing properly. His servants find the book of the law (probably the book of Deuteronomy) and read it to Josiah. As he hears it, he feels terrible that he and the people are not following God the way they should and tears up his clothes. The prophetess Huldah tells the king that God will punish the people worshipping false gods, but God is pleased with King Josiah’s repentance. Josiah reads the book aloud to all the people and has Judah properly celebrate the Passover. Later, the king of Egypt asks King Josiah to let them pass through Judah peacefully in route to fight other nations, because God has promised this. Josiah refuses and is killed because he did not listen to God speaking through the Egyptian king.

His son Jehoahaz is king for just a few months before the Egyptian king kidnaps him to Egypt and his brother Jehoiakim is the new king. Babylon similarly kidnaps Jehoiakim. Zedekiah is the new king briefly, but then Babylon conquers Judah. 2 Chronicles ends by explaining King Cyrus of Persia will help rebuild Jerusalem and allow the exiles back.

Quotable

“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven or on earth, keeping covenant in steadfast love with your servants who walk before you with all their heart” 2 Chronicles 6:14 NRSV

“But whenever they were in trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out, they found him” 2 Chronicles 15:4 NLT

“He gave them these orders: ‘You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord’” 2 Chronicles 19:9

Unique and Unusual

2 Chronicles, interestingly, contradicts the book of 2 Kings in many ways. For example, 2 Chronicles portrays Solomon as a great king and leader; 2 Kings says that towards the end of his reign he began worshipping other gods. Reading 2 Chronicles, we can be inspired by Solomon’s deep commitment to building God’s temple and to gaining wisdom.

2 Chronicles still shows many kings who failed to honor God and lead the people to God. What can people who are not kings learn from them today? Many of the kings are led astray by other people. Ahab encourages Jehoshaphat to become involved in a battle God did not want Judea to fight. Rehoboam angers the people and ultimately causes the kingdom to split in two because his friends thought Rehoboam should flaunt his power. The examples in 2 Chronicles go on and on. We should be careful whom we are listening to and think about how our friends influence our behavior. Do we care more about what God thinks, or what other people think? Even great kings fell into these dangerous traps, and we might today.

Why else did these kings fall away from God? 2 Chronicles says many of them were “proud,” like King Uzziah who was so intoxicated with military success that he thought he could break God’s temple rules. Sometimes success or power can keep us from remembering God. We think we can make our own rules and we become our own god. We should pray for help to keep God at the center of our lives, especially when we are succeeding or becoming proud.

Ultimately, 2 Chronicles shows it comes down to trust. Kings who rely on foreign armies to help them in times of trouble are cursed by God. But the ones who pray for help, like Asa when confronted with the Ethiopians, are blessed. Many of the people trust the king, worshipping false gods if the king does. Do we trust sources of power—like foreign armies or kings, or maybe employers, the government, teachers, or doctors—to save us? Or do we trust God?

Reading 2 Chronicles helps us see God is the only true king. The kings who disobey God ultimately end up losing their power. The kings who worship God, who know that God is the real ruler of all, are blessed.

But 2 Chronicles also repeatedly shows God’s grace. God gives the kings many chances to turn back to him, sending prophets and often waiting years to punish them for their sins. God only punishes people as a last resort. Even King Manessah, who sacrificed his own children to false gods, asks God for forgiveness, and God joyfully does.

So What?

If we worship God as the only true King, we will be blessed, too.

Ezra

Author

Nobody knows for sure. Some people think the same tradition that produced 1 and 2 Chronicles produced Ezra and Nehemiah, but other scholars disagree. Many scholars think different parts of Ezra were written at different times. We do know that the earliest versions of the Old Testament combine Ezra and Nehemiah into one book, and they were divided into two after the time of Jesus.

Date

Scholars also argue about when Ezra was written. Most guess around 450 BCE for the majority of the book. Many scholars think Ezra continued to be edited in the form we now have for hundreds of years after.

Rebuilding The Temple, Rebuilding Life: We should turn to God and be totally devoted to him

The Jews and Their New Beginning

God has told Cyrus, king of Persia, through the prophet Jeremiah that Cyrus is supposed to help rebuild the people of Judah after the Babylonian exile. (Persia now rules over Babylon.) Cyrus does so, telling the people they are free to go back and rebuild their temple. Cyrus takes back the sacred artifacts in the temple and gives them to the people. The book of Ezra then gives a long list of names of people under exile.

All together in Jerusalem, the people prepare for worship. Jeshua, Zerubbabel, and the other priests set up an altar to sacrifice burnt offerings, and they follow other festivals, too. Jeshua oversees the plans to build a new temple. After the foundation for the building is laid, the priests lead the people in singing praises to God. A group of non-Jews living nearby called Samaritans pretend to want to help build the temple in hopes they can actually stop the temple. Jeshua and Zerubbabel tell them no, and then these people try to scare the Jews about building this temple.

These people write a letter to King Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, saying that the Jews are a rebellious people who will not pay taxes or honor Persia and now they are rebelling by rebuilding their temple. The king forces the Jews to stop, and rebuilding efforts are stalled for years.

Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah encourage the Jews to keep building the temple in God’s name. Tattenai, the Persian governor over the Judean territory, asks them to stop. The Jews reply that they will not stop because they are serving God and King Cyrus gave them permission years ago.

King Darius allows the building to continue and, according what Cyrus said, gives them Persian funds to pay for the entire temple. The people finish and have a special ceremony to dedicate the temple to the glory of God. They also celebrate Passover.

Ezra, a priest and an expert on Jewish law, is deeply devoted to God. The Persian king asks Ezra to manage the Persian funds used to help build the temple and to appoint judges and officials over the land. Ezra praises God that the Persian king is so eager to obey God and takes courage for the task God and the king have given him.

Ezra asks the people to fast and pray for safety and chooses twelve priests to be leaders over the rest of the priests. They count and keep track of what supplies they do have for the temple and sacrifice burnt offerings to God. Ezra soon discovers many of the people have married non-Jews who are leading them away from God, and he mourns their sins. He begs for God to forgive them and other people cry with him over this evil. They send away the foreign wives out of Israel.

Quotable

“And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, ‘For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel’” Ezra 3:11 NRSV

“Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it” Ezra 10:4 NRSV

“Now make confession to the Lord God of your ancestors, and do his will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives” Ezra 10:11 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Ezra is a difficult book. Why did Ezra send away the foreign women? It seems cruel, a far cry from the mercy of God. How can this book be useful to Christians today?

First, there were not many of these mixed marriages, but the Jewish men who had non-Jewish wives were important officials, many of them priests. For them to continue in these marriages might signal to the people that marrying non-believers is okay, and more generally that taking God’s commands seriously is not truly necessary. Quick public action was needed. (Also, some translations, following the Greek text, mis-translate that the children were sent away, although a proper reading of the Hebrew indicates only the wives were sent away.)

We cannot read the book of Ezra as a statement that God only cared about Jews during Old Testament times. The non-Jewish kings of Persia worship God and carry out God’s purpose in helping with the temple. It seems, then, that these foreign wives were worshipping their nations’ gods, or else there would be no problem with their staying in Israel.

Does God want Christians with non-Christians husbands or wives to get divorces? The New Testament answers a firm, “No!” (1 Corinthians 7:12-13). It seems the people of Israel, just leaving the time of exile and struggling to be a holy people of God after that dark time, needed different rules about marriage and divorce than we, the people of the church, have now.

But the New Testament agrees with Ezra that marrying non-believers is wrong (2 Corinthians 6:14). As God’s people, we are supposed to be more devoted to God than anyone or anything else. We should care about and be friends with people are not believers, but we should be different from them. And we should cut out of our lives (or very much loosen ties with) people and places and activities that lead us away from God. It might be painful, the way it was surely painful for these Jews in the book of Ezra to divorce their wives. But the path to holiness can be painful.

We can also learn a lot from the example of Ezra. He diligently studies the Bible and gathers the people to pray together before doing any more building. He also cares deeply about the people he is leading, weeping and praying on their behalf and by his example brings many of the people to pray and repent, too. Finally, the decision to send away foreign wives is not Ezra’s alone. The book makes clear that the people pray and think for a long time about this painful decision. Ezra is a leader, not a dictator.

So What?

Like these Jews starting a new life devoted to God after the exile, we need to be more committed to God than anyone or anything else.

Nehemiah

Author

See the author information for Ezra, since these two books were originally one and only separated many years after they were written.

Date

See the date information for Ezra.

Being A Hero For God: Heroes pray and give their all to God and God’s people.

Nehemiah, Hero and Role Model

Nehemiah, a Jewish royal official for the Persian king, learns that the city walls of Jerusalem have been burned down and prays for help. The king sees that Nehemiah is sad and allows him to go back to Judah to help rebuild the wall. Groups begin working on rebuilding. The Samaritans make fun of the Jews rebuilding the wall and plot to break it again. The people are exhausted by now, but Nehemiah directs men to hide in the wall, ready to attack the Samaritans if they try to damage the wall. The Jews take shifts from dawn to night to protect Jerusalem.

Many of the farming families are struggling, with wives left to tend farms by themselves while men are working on building, and with rich people lending money and supplies to farmers with high interest rates. Nehemiah demands that the lenders take away interest and help the poor in the land, and they do. Nehemiah only eats what he needs and does not acquire any property, which he easily could as governor of Judah. He gives a lot of food away to the hungry, both Jews and non-Jews.

The Samaritans plan to trick Nehemiah by asking to meet him alone so they can hurt him, but he gently refuses, saying he needs to keep working on the wall. Then the Samaritans say the Jews are planning on rebelling against Persia and Nehemiah wants to be king, neither of which is true. People pretending to be God’s prophets who were hired by the Samaritans keep encouraging Nehemiah to stop working on the wall and to go into hiding, but he refuses. Finally the wall is finished, and Nehemiah appoints his brother Hananai as governor of Jerusalem and composes a genealogy of the people living in Jerusalem.

Ezra, the teacher of the law and the same Ezra in the book of Ezra, reads the Law of Moses (probably the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) aloud to all the people and teaches them the meaning. There is feasting and rejoicing in the whole nation.

The people publicly confess their sins and praise God. The priests lead people in worship. The people promise to obey God. The book of Nehemiah then gives some more genealogies listing who lives in Judah.

Nehemiah returns to Persia, back to his job as a royal official, for some years and then comes back to Jerusalem. He discovers the high priest has allowed a Samaritan official who tried to stop the building of the wall to live in the temple and throws all of this furniture out of the room. He also discovers some problems with the way people are not properly tithing and the payment of the priests and fixes them. He also sees many people are not keeping the Sabbath and gives orders for businesses to stop selling on the Sabbath. He has priests guard the walls to make sure nobody is selling on the Sabbath and forbids marriage with foreign women, even beating the people who do so and kicking a disobedient priest out of the temple. The book ends with Nehemiah praying for God to remember the good things he has done.

Quotable

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I fasted and mourned before the God of heaven” Nehemiah 1:4 NIV

“I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. Then they said, ‘Let’s start building!’” Nehemiah 2:18 NRSV

“You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you” Nehemiah 9:6 NIV

Unique and Unusual

Nehemiah is a great role model in the faith, especially for leaders in the church and out. Interestingly, God does not come boldly to Nehemiah in the form of a vision or spoken word, asking him to come lead the building project. Instead, in prayer he finds himself more and more worried about God’s people in Jerusalem with the burning walls, and finds himself drawn to go help. Sometimes God will call us to do something for him through prayer, through quiet moments, through his compassion growing in our hearts. We should be listening to God’s small voice and remember that sometimes he prefers this way of working to dramatic miracles and loud voices.

All throughout this book, Nehemiah is praying for help, forgiveness, and guidance. Clearly the Jews have a lot of work to do in rebuilding the wall, and especially so for Nehemiah, the new governor of Judah. But even so he finds time for prayer, seems to regard it as essential to his work. If the great Nehemiah had time to pray, we can find time, too, and must if we want to be a hero of faith like him.

But Nehemiah is also very humble. He comes to look at the burnt, old wall at night and quietly. He never tries to become king and works together with the priests. And when the wall is completed, he hands off power over Jerusalem to his brother. Nehemiah does not see himself as the savior of Israel or the solution to all the Jews’ problems. He is deeply devoted to God and to the people, not to personal glory.

Nehemiah is also not afraid to be bold for God, ordering the Samaritans to stay away from the wall and angrily casting the Samaritan official out of the temple. Sometimes we think that standing up to evil isn’t nice or loving the way a Christian should be. But in reality, there are times God is counting on us to fight evil, the way Nehemiah does.

So What?

Just like Nehemiah, we are called by God to pray, to be humble, to fight evil, to love God and God’s people.

Esther

Author

Nobody knows who wrote the book of Esther and the book provides few clues.

Date

Scholars argue about the date. King Ahasuerus, who is king in this story, ruled from 486-465 BCE. Most scholars think it was written no earlier than 400 BCE and was possibly as late as around 150 BCE.

When It Seems Like All Is Lost: God is still working

God behind the Scenes

King Ahasuerus, king of Persia, has a great festival. Drunk, he calls out Queen Vashti to come display her beauty in front of everyone. She refuses and he is embarrassed, and decides to kick her out of the palace. The king looks for a young woman to be the new queen.

Mordecai is a Jew and a royal official to the Persian king and has raised his niece, Esther, whose parents died. Esther joins the group of women trying to be the next queen. The king decides he likes Esther and wants her to join his harem. Mordecai tells Esther not to reveal yet that she is a Jew. Mordecai learns that a group of royal officials are planning to kill the king and alerts Esther, who tells the king. The king has the officials killed.

Haman replaces one of the dead officials and asks everyone to bow down to him. Mordecai refuses, explaining he is a Jew and only worships God. Haman decides he wants to kill all the Jews and persuades the king agrees this is a good plan.

Mordecai and the other Jews in Persia mourn and pray. Mordecai tells Esther what has happened and suggests she might be able to stop this. She asks Mordecai to gather all the Jews to pray for her and says after three days she will act.

After those three days, Esther asks the king and Haman to have a feast with her, and they do. The same happens the next night. Haman secretly has some gallows built on which to kill Mordecai. That night the king cannot sleep and reads the book of royal records, remembering that Mordecai saved his life and has Haman hold a parade in Mordecai’s honor the next day. Haman, the king, and Esther eat together again and she says her people are about to be killed. The king is confused and asks who is doing this, and she says it is Haman. Haman attacks Esther and the king has him killed on the gallows where Mordecai was supposed to die. She begs the king for help. Since none of the king’s decrees can be taken away, he makes a rule that on the day the Jews are supposed to be attacked, they should defend themselves. A small group does still try to kill the Jews, but the Jews win and Mordecai gains more power in the royal palace. The Jews have a great festival in celebration.

Quotable

“Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this” Esther 4:14 NRSV

“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” Esther 4:16 NRSV

“For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed?” Esther 8:6 NLT

Unique and Unusual

Esther is a very unique book in the Bible because it never once mentions God! Why would a book without God be in the Bible? But the truth is that God is very much present in the book of Esther. As Mordecai says, Esther seems to have become a queen so God can use her to save the Jews. God works subtly, through the people involved, to accomplish his aim to protect his people. Where is God at work in our lives? Even though it might not seem like God is doing anything in our lives, the book of Esther shows God often prefers to work quietly, seen only through the eyes of faith and moving through the hearts of those devoted to him.

Many readers forget that prayer is all over this book. The Jews pray when they hear of the king’s decree, Mordecai prays for Esther, the Jews pray for Esther when she decides to go talk to the king, and Esther prays for herself. God loves to work through prayer, as this book shows. When we pray we are working together with God to accomplish his purposes, participating even in miracles.

We might look at ourselves and think we have little to offer God. Esther is a young woman among many of the king’s women, and has chosen to be part of a palace where Jewish food laws are not kept and her husband does not worship God. Esther might easily look at herself and think she could do little for God or for her people, and yet God works powerfully in and through her. So What?

We can be like Esther.

Job

Author

Nobody knows who wrote the book of Job. Some people speculate multiple people wrote it at different times as the book gradually came into the final form we know of it today. Others think we should understand it as one complete story.

Date

Nobody knows—some scholars guess as early as the 900’s BCE to as late as the second century BCE.

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People? We can’t know. But we can know God.

When Some Really Bad Things Happened To a Really Good Guy

Job is a great follower of God. He has a lot of money, a huge farm, and many children. An angel tells God that Job only follows God because Job is so rich, and that if Job were to have bad luck, he would no longer worship God. God tells the angel he can do whatever he wants to Job. Soon Job loses all his livestock to foreign invaders and fire from heaven. Then, all of his children die. Job is very sad, but continues to worship God.

The angel points out that Job himself is not suffering physically, and says that if he were he would quit worshipping God. God tells the angel he can do anything to Job except for killing him. The angel makes Job break out in painful, itchy sores. Job’s wife tells him just to give up on God, but Job refuses.

Job’s friends come over and sit with him. Finally Job curses the day of his birth and goes on and on about how miserable he is. Then his friend Eliphaz tells him to stop complaining because Job is probably being punished for some sin and ultimately this suffering is part of some grand plan. Job howls in misery against God again, and his other friends repeat that Job is being punished and there is a purpose for the pain.

Then, finally, God appears to Job out of a whirlwind. He asks Job a series of questions—was Job there when, for instance, God told the seas how far to go before they must stop for the land? How, then, can Job confront God? God then tells Job’s friends he is angry with them for not speaking rightly about God. He also tells Job to go sacrifice a burnt offering to God on behalf of Job’s friends for their sins. Job then gains back all his wealth and has more children.

Unique and Unusual

Job is a fascinating, confusing book about which there are many different opinions.

Many scholars, Christians, and Bible translators think that the angel in this story is Satan or the devil as the New Testament and later thinkers understand him—a cosmic, spiritual being that tempts many people, that fell from God’s grace and now fights against God. But the book of Job was written long before God’s people came to understand Satan or Jesus for that matter. Nor does the Hebrew or the plot of the story demand readers think of the angel as the devil.

Instead, the point seems to be this angel is not God. God does not cause all of these problems to happen to Job. He allows them to happen but does not cause them. It seems one thing we can learn from Job is that many bad things that happen are not directly caused by God or are God’s way of punishing. If somebody’s child dies, we should not conclude “God needed that baby in heaven” or “God decided it was his/her time” or “The parents must have done something wrong.” Job’s friends make similar conclusions and God ultimately says they were wrong.

The question the book of Job grapples with, the question haunting so many people today—“Why do bad things happen to good people?” ultimately has no answer. As God tells Job over and over, Job was not there when God created the world and is not with God now ruling over nature. Neither were we. Human beings just can’t understand why so many things happen the way we do. But we can be comforted that the book of Job shows in many cases bad things are not punishments and not part of some plan.

The book of Job also makes clear, along with the rest of the Bible, that it is okay to question God and pour out our agony before him. We can borrow Job’s sad, frustrated words anytime something really bad happens to us and we want to fight with God about it. God is big enough to handle our anger. The text repeatedly points out that in all of this questioning of God, Job is not sinning.

Sometimes, we are not “Job” but find ourselves with someone who is—a friend or family member who has suffered terribly. In those times we should try out best not to be like Job’s friends, telling him he must have sinned and God must have caused this to happen as part of some plan (both of which the text shows are not necessarily true when bad things happen.) Instead, we should do what Job’s friends started to do at the beginning of the book. They simply sat with him. Often, gentle prayers and loving presence is all we have to offer. And with God’s grace, it is enough.

So What?

We have a God who is with us in the midst of the struggles of life and the relentless, unanswerable question of why those tragedies occur.

Psalms

Author

Nobody knows who wrote the psalms. Many of the psalms say they were written by King David. Most likely, the majority of those psalms were not really written by King David, but the writers added his name for a variety of reasons. (In ancient times, many writers said their writings were written by somebody else, a beloved past teacher or hero, as a way of honoring that person. It was not seen as a lie.) Sometimes the writer adds David’s name because the psalm is inspired by a certain event in David’s life, or because the writer was inspired by David’s faith in God.

Date

Scholars argue about when the psalms were written. Some were probably written very early in Israel’s history, like 1000 BCE or even earlier. Others seem to have been written around the time of the Babylonian exile (587-539 BCE), while still others were probably written even later, like around 200’s BCE.

Let’s Talk, Lord!

We can talk to God whenever about whatever!

Learning How to Talk To God

The psalms are a collection of 150 poems about God, most of them being prayers to God. They cover many different moods and topics. Some psalms celebrate God’s goodness, praising him over and over for his blessings. Other psalms rage against enemies, expressing deep anger and asking God to punish the psalmist’s enemies. Still other psalms look forward to a coming king who will rescue Israel, whom we know to be Jesus! A large group of psalms deal with pain and suffering, occasionally expressing anger and frustration with God himself. Through and through, when reading the psalms we see that we can express any feeling to God. God is big enough for joy, anger, sadness, hatred, love, depression, fear… anything! God cares about us and wants to hear from us. Of course, sometimes it is hard to pray. Praying through the psalms is a great way to learn.

Quotable

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” Psalm 19:1 NIV

“O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest” Psalm 22:2 NRSV

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” Psalms 23:1 NIV

“I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” Psalm 34:1 NRSV

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me” Psalm 51:10 NRSV

“O God, break the teeth in their mouths!” Psalm 58:6 NRSV

“O God, you are my God; I see you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” Psalm 63:1 NRSV

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness” Psalm 84:10 NRSV

“When I thought, ‘My foot is slipping,’ your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up” Psalm 94:18 NRSV

“O sing to the Lord a new song; sing the Lord, all the earth” Psalm 96:1 NRSV

“If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your right hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast” Psalm 139:9-10 NRSV

“May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may their humiliation cover them like a cloak” Psalm 109:29 NLT

“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Psalm 150:6 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

The psalms are, for the most part, prayers written to God. Not everything in the psalms should be taken at face value as “the truth” God wants us to know. For example, Psalm 37:13 says that God laughs at evil people. But the rest of the Bible, especially the prophets and the gospels, show God as feeling very sad when people decide to reject him—not laughing at them.

Does that mean Psalm 37:13 is not the word of God? No. We know that the entire Bible is inspired by God. Instead, we can read this as the psalmist’s feelings expressed to God. The psalmist is angry at his or her enemies and is laughing at their suffering—and wants God to laugh, too. He or she is sharing this rage and pain with God. And that is the most important point to take away from the psalms. The psalms teach us to bring all our thoughts and feelings to God, and give us words to do this, too.

So What?

The psalms are our best guide to learn to pray. They teach us that prayer is not about saying fancy words or showing off to God. Prayer is about being real with God, about trusting him to handle all that we are and all that we feel.

Proverbs

Author

We do not know who wrote the book of Proverbs. The book claims to have been written by King Solomon, but most scholars think that is unlikely. Instead, different sections were probably written by many different people at different times. The editor(s) who put those sections together attached King Solomon’s name because the Bible says King Solomon was given special wisdom by God. So in saying the book of Proverbs was written by Solomon, the editor honors Solomon and shows that this book contains special wisdom from God.

Date

Many scholars think it was put together around 200 CE.

Life’s Instruction Manual

If we seek wisdom, God will give it to us

Wisdom: the Instructions for How to Live, God’s Way

Proverbs is a book about wisdom. The book begins by praising wisdom and encouraging us to seek wisdom above everything else. This is not wisdom from the world, but wisdom from God—God’s instructions for the right way to live. The rest of the book contains hundreds of short sayings that covey this kind of wisdom. Common themes throughout Proverbs include working hard, not loving money too much, listening instead of speaking quickly, and avoiding sin.

Quotable

“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” Proverbs 2:6 NRSV

“Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom” Proverbs 11:2

“Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished” Proverbs 17:5 NLT

“If one gives an answer before hearing, it is folly and shame” Proverbs 18:13 NRSV

“Avoiding a fight is a mark of honor; only fools insist on quarrelling” Proverbs 20:4 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Proverbs 8 talks about wisdom as being a female being that was present with God when the world was created and has lived forever. Many people have read that passage and thought of Jesus. Jesus is certainly wise and the New Testament makes clear that Jesus was part of the work of creation. Many parts of the Bible also show God as a mother or female; after all, women were created in God’s image just as men were. Perhaps we should think of Jesus as Wisdom, made flesh to show us God’s way of living.

So What?

Life can be confusing. Proverbs reminds us that what matters most is to seek after God’s wisdom.

Ecclesiastes

Author

Date

What’s the Meaning of Life?

Life has no meaning—without God, anyway.

Why So Sad?

Life seems meaningless. Why bother working hard? Everything just drags on. Even wisdom seems pointless, because you can never know everything and the more you learn the sadder you become. Solomon has tried buying lots of things to be happy, but that didn’t work. He has tried working hard, but that didn’t help. He realizes that with God, though, he can have joy. However, God keeps us from knowing a lot of his plans and purposes.

And we all die eventually, and the world is full of injustice and evil, making life seems meaningless. But we should try to find friends to give life some joy and meaning. We should also be quick to listen to God and hesitant to follow grand dreams. Unfortunately, the rich will oppress the poor, so the poor should try to find joy in eating, drinking, sleeping, and working.

Ultimately, possessions do not last forever. Sorrow is better than joy. There are almost no wise people. We should obey the government and try to enjoy life as best as possible. But bad luck will come to all of us eventually. But we should work hard and try our best to gain wisdom and obey God.

Quotable

“Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless’” Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV

“Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God long ago approved what you do” Ecclesiastes 9:7 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Ecclesiastes is a very confusing book, and many scholars and believers disagree on what to think of it. Ecclesiastes seems hopeless at times, although the Bible holds a message of dear hope in a faithful God. Yet as we read Ecclesiastes, most people will find themselves eventually agreeing. Who can deny that injustice is real, death unfair, complete wisdom beyond our reach? This book guards its readers from an overly cheery, naïve understanding of life. Yet the repeated message to enjoy our food and drink and hard work is a good one. Ecclesiastes reminds us to remember how pointless life is without God and to, even so, enjoy the simple pleasures of life that God has given.

Indeed, 11:11 says the sayings of this book are like “goads,” which are for prodding cows to keep going. Ecclesiastes does not spell out everything God wants us to gain from the book. Instead, through this fascinating book God pushes us to keep moving, keep thinking, starting from and not sticking to its words.

So What?

All of life is a “so what?” apart from God.

Song of Songs

Author

Traditionally thought of as King Solomon, although most scholars do not think he wrote Song of Songs. Instead, the writer probably attached Solomon’s name as a way of showing the wisdom we can find by reading this book. King Solomon was supposed to be the wisest king who ever lived.

Date

Probably written around 200 CE.

Falling in Love

Romance is a special gift of God.

What Falling in Love Looks Like

Song of Songs begins with a woman praising her beloved and confidently expressing how beautiful her dark skin is. The man replies by praising her beauty. They exchange compliments, eventually giving way to deeper and deeper expressions of love.

Quotable

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me” Song of Songs 7:10 NRSV

“Many waters cannot quench love” Song of Songs 8:7 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Song of Songs may be the most unusual book in the whole Bible! It is basically a long romantic poem. How can Song of Songs stand beside, say Genesis or the Psalms? How can it possibly bring us nearer to God?

At its heart, this book is a celebration of romance. It affirms that God created and is glorified by romance. Sometimes we are so concerned with pleasing God we think only certain feelings and experiences are holy. Yet romance, too, is holy. The lovers in this book have a very deep, pure love for one another, praising the physical and spiritual beauty in each other. Those of us in serious romantic relationships can read Song of Songs to understand how a healthy romance looks. Do we freely praise our spouse or partner as these lovers do? Do we, like these lovers, feel that we belong to our spouse or partner? Those of us who are not yet in serious romantic relationships can read Song of Songs to understand how romance should blossom, too. Of course, it takes time for a romance to reach the depth of that portrayed by this book. But it gives us an example of where a romance can, and should, go.

Some people like to interpret Song of Songs as a picture of Jesus’ relationship to the church, as well. Others think Song of Songs should only be read as a romantic poem. There are good Christians on both sides of this issue. While there are places in the New Testament that compare Christ’s love for the church to a marriage, using this intense romantic imagery for Christ’s rule over the church can become problematic. That language can make us forget that Jesus is our King whom we must obey. It can also be confusing and uncomfortable for men. However, many good Christians have seen deep, mystical meaning with this interpretation of Song of Songs. Ultimately the Holy Spirit can guide us in many readings of Scripture.

So What?

A good romance is deep, beautiful, mutual, and full of respect and attraction. It is also a gift of God, not something sinful or unholy.

Isaiah

Author

Most scholars think the book of Isaiah came from several sources—one before the fall of Jerusalem, one around the time of that fall, and a third source during the return of the exiled from Babylon.

Date

Nobody knows for certain. Probably the first source was around 742 BCE-689 BCE, the second source after 540 BCE, and the third after 537 BCE, when the return began.

God, Heartbroken Parent God weeps over our sins but is preparing a new world

The Sadness and Joy of God

God has raised his people like children, but now they have rebelled against God, and God is deeply saddened. They pretend to worship, but do not really mean it, and God is tired of hearing their services. They need to do justice and love others. If the people truly return to God, he will heal them.

One day, many people will come to Jerusalem to learn about God. (This prophecy refers to the fact many non-Jews have to worship God through Jesus Christ, God on earth as a Jew.) And one day there will be peace on earth.

Right now, people need to return to God! They need to trust in him, not in themselves, not in false gods. God is taking away all their support and giving them over to political oppressors so they can realize God alone is trustworthy. God is especially angry with how they have treated the poor in Israel.

The prophet Isaiah sees a vision of God on his throne and immediately realizes that God is so holy and he, Isaiah, so unholy. God forgives Isaiah’s sin and sends him out to show the people their sin, even though they will not listen. Then, after disaster strikes, a group will finally turn back to God and God will rebuild them.

The king of Aram and the king of Israel are threatening to attack Judah. Isaiah prophecies to King Ahaz, the king of Judah that soon God is punishing those nations and Ahaz need not be afraid. God explains that people should not be afraid of people or political power—they should only be in awe of God.

But there will be a son from God, born for everyone, who will rescue Israel and be king forever (this prophecy refers to Jesus.) For now, God is punishing the people for rebelling against him, using foreign nations as a tool for that punishment but then turning around to punish them. But the group in Israel that is following God does not have to be afraid.

A descendent of David will be full of God’s Spirit and will rightly judge the earth; after the judgment there will be peace and everyone will know God (this prophecy refers to Jesus.) God will rescue the people who follow him in every nation, and they will live happily together with God forever. As for now, a day of judgment is coming against foreign nations that have turned against God.

Everyone should praise God because he is a safe place for the poor and needy and punishes evil. One day there will be perfect peace, and God will get rid of death. Everyone will eat together in joy, because God has rescued them. But God will punish people who reject him and refuse to turn back.

He will especially punish priests and prophets who hurt the people. So many of the people are living as though they made a covenant with death and not with God. But God wants to get rid of that covenant with death and rescue the people. God longs to have mercy on them, if only they will turn to him, if only they will stop worshipping and trusting others.

God’s chosen servant (a prophecy fulfilled in Jesus) will be a plain looking man rejected by others, but he will bear all the sickness and pain of the people. He will be struck down by God, punished for the people’s sins, and because of his sacrifice everyone will be made whole.

God loves his people, will never stop loving them, and longs for them to come eat God’s bread of life. He has waited for his people over and over, and will create a new heavens and earth for them. But those who turn their backs on God, permanently hardening themselves toward him, will have no share in the new heavens and earth.

Quotable

“ ‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’ ” Isaiah 1:18 NIV

“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” Isaiah 2:4 NIV

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’” Isaiah 6:8 NRSV

“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and his named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6 NRSV

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and defense; he has become my salvation” Isaiah 12:2 NIV

“I, the Lord, will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless” Isaiah 13:11 NLT

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him” Isaiah 30:18 NRSV

“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever” Isaiah 40:8 NRSV

“For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear; I will help you’” Isaiah 41:13 NRSV

“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Isaiah 49:14-15 NIV

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” Isaiah 55:2 NRSV

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” Isaiah 60:1 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Isaiah is one of the most beautiful books of the Bible. It takes readers deep into God’s heart. Readers experience God’s deep pain over the fact his children have turned away—over and over God bursts out in anguish. The book of Isaiah makes clear that God loves people more than anybody can imagine that God never enjoys punishing people.

God’s love and pain are woven throughout the book of Isaiah, but so is God’s anger. How can we understand the anger of a loving God? This is a fiery anger, a beautiful anger—all throughout the book of Isaiah God is fighting for his people. This is why, in the sixth chapter, God gives the prophet his mission to “Make the mind of this people dull,” but then turns around and has Isaiah name his son, “Shear-jashub,” meaning “A remnant shall return.” God punishes and disciplines these people who “rebelled” (1:2) against him, who utterly turned their backs on him, so that some “remnant” or group will return. Isaiah displays repeatedly that God’s anger and punishment comes from the pain of God’s awesome love. God punishes those who have completely turned away and refuse to return in hopes that the world will learn to do evil no more, to choose God again. God punishes those who might return in hopes they will return to their Maker, their King.

Does that mean every trouble that comes, comes from God to discipline us? No—the Bible makes clear in many places, like the book of Job that many troubles are not from God. But some are; God will go to any lengths to get back his people, whom He loves with many tears and cries as we see throughout the book of Isaiah. Punishments simply spell out to a dull people the truth of what their rebellion has caused—“The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint” (1:5). God’s punishment is a hurting that is meant to heal.

Isaiah also shows, perhaps more clearly than any book of the Bible, that God gives his people free will. God does not force us to love him. God wants real love, freely chosen love. How can we turn our backs on a God who loves us this deeply?

Isaiah has also been called “the fifth gospel,” because like the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John reporting on the life of Jesus, Isaiah shows over and over who Jesus is and the gifts he will share with those who follow him. Of course, Isaiah does not say, “Jesus of Nazareth,” but the book does reveal what God’s chosen servant, the King who will sit forever on King David’s throne, will be like. We see that he will be a teacher, a judge of the whole word, that he will bring many non-Jews (like this writer and the people reading this book!) to the God first worshipped most clearly by the Jews, and that he will die for the sins of the whole world (53:5). We can believe that Jesus is truly God’s Son in part because of all these prophecies made so long before his birth.

So What?

God loves us and longs for us.

Jeremiah

Author

Nobody knows, and the book of Jeremiah itself is not very clear. Most scholars think there were multiple authors, but there is disagreement over how many and who they were.

Date

Jeremiah was definitely written after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 BCE—but most scholars think the book was written over a long period of time after.

A Most Holy Sorrow God will punish sin

Jeremiah, Weeping Prophet to a Weeping God

God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet. Jeremiah protests that he is too young, but God replies that he will be with Jeremiah. Jeremiah must prophesy to the people that disaster is coming because they have worshipped other gods instead of the true God, and God will keep Jeremiah strong.

God reiterates his sorrow that the people of Israel have wandered away from him. The priests and rulers are especially far from God. But so many of the people have trusted in themselves or other countries, not in God. They pray, but keep doing evil and do not mean what they pray. They are rich and do not care about the poor. God begs the people to return, but they refuse, and so he must punish them.

God continues to urge Jeremiah to prophesy God’s wrath to the people, since all the prophets beforehand have proclaimed peace when there was no peace. God longs to guide the people, but they refuse. God and Jeremiah both mourn for the people.

People are tired of hearing from Jeremiah about their sins and God’s judgment, and continually threaten him. He cries out to God in anguish and rage that the wicked in Israel are prospering. God explains that he is suffering, too, and tells Jeremiah again of the plight of the people. God promises that he will heal the people after they are punished if they are then ready.

God tells Jeremiah to buy a loincloth (what people wore instead of underwear in those times), which he must not ever wash, and then to go to another town and bury it. God explains that he wants his people as close to him as a loincloth, but they refuse. Now they are good for nothing, as useless as dirty underwear and buried. God instructs Jeremiah to go preach this message, and he obeys.

Jeremiah, in anguish, pours out his hurt to God and wishes he had never been born. God explains Jeremiah must continue to serve God as a prophet, and the people will not be able to defeat him. Jeremiah must not marry, mourn the dead, or eat rich food because the great punishment from God is coming and there is no time for these things. God promises again he will rescue the people after punishing them.

God further explains that he is like a potter with the right to do whatever he wants to the people, his clay. But if they turn from evil right now, he will not punish them. Sadly, the people still will not follow God. Jeremiah cries out in sadness to God. God tells him to break a clay jug in front of the people and to explain God is breaking them since they will not follow God.

The high priest puts Jeremiah in the stocks of the temple, angry about these prophecies, and Jeremiah prophecies that the Babylonians will conquer Jerusalem and the high priest himself will die there. Jeremiah cries out to God, claiming God forced him to be a prophet and to speak painful words, but then praises God for being with him.

God sends Jeremiah to the king of Judah to tell him that the rest of Judah, if they will turn to God, will be spared from the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem. God is also angry with the royal officials who were focused on having lavish houses instead of knowing God.

The leaders, prophets, and priests are supposed to be like shepherds and care for the flock of people like sheep. Instead they have driven the sheep away, and God is going to punish these bad shepherds. He will raise up new, better shepherd leaders for the people. And God will bring them a righteous king to live forever (this prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus.)

Jeremiah goes to the temple and prophecies that disaster is coming to the people, but if they will repent, God will take the disaster away. Temple officials yell at Jeremiah and say he must die. Jeremiah replies that God is punishing these officials and will punish them further if they put Jeremiah to death. These elders argue about what to do, and some point out there is another prophet, Uriah, prophesying the same way Jeremiah is.

God tells Jeremiah to strap a yoke around his neck, explaining that the people will be under the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, during the exile, just like animals are under the yoke of their masters. The people will live if they obey the Babylonians, but for now they must begin by following God and no longer listen to the false prophets.

Hananiah falsely prophecies that God will actually take away the yoke of the Babylonians. Jeremiah replies by gently correcting Hananiah, who breaks the yoke Jeremiah is wearing and claims God will do the same, and continues to spread false prophecy. Jeremiah says God will strike him down that year, and indeed, several months later, Hananiah dies.

Jeremiah writes a letter to the people in exile, explaining that after seventy years in Babylon God will gently gather them out. The people who stayed behind in Judah have disobeyed God and will be punished, but those who took God’s saving punishment of exile in Babylon will be rewarded.

God promises that he will return the people to the land, over and over, and that he has always loved them.

God explains that he will in the future make a new covenant with Israel, to write God’s laws on their hearts. (The New Testament shows in many places that this prophecy is fulfilled by Jesus’ death and resurrection, by God’s grace which forgives our sins through his blood and makes us new, just like Jesus.) God explains again he never has and will never stop loving his people. Indeed, he has Jeremiah buy a new piece of land even in the midst of the Babylonian invasion as a way of prophesying that one day everyone will be buying land and the invasion will be gone. God promises again and again that he still loves the people and will rescue them soon.

God asks Jeremiah to write down all of the messages God has given him, hoping the people might hear and turn away from their sins, and to ensure the words are read in the temple worship service. Jeremiah is not allowed inside the temple because the priests dislike his prophecies, so he asks a man named Baruch to write the messages on a scroll and read them. Baruch does this, and goes to the palace to read to the royal officials, too. King Zedekiah burns the scrolls and Baruch and Jeremiah go into hiding. God asks Jeremiah to write the scroll again and explains the king will soon die.

The king sends for Jeremiah, and Jeremiah repeats what God told him to say about the coming punishments. King Zedekiah throws him in prison. He grants permission to an angry mob to throw Jeremiah in a muddy pit to die. Ebedmelech, a royal official and an Ethiopian, tells the king this is wrong and Zedekiah allows him to pull Jeremiah out of the pit with a rope made of old rags.

The king sends for Jeremiah yet again, promising not to put him to death. Jeremiah prophecies in God’s name that if Zedekiah surrenders to the Babylonians, God will bless him. But if Zedekiah does not surrender, Jerusalem will suffer even more and the king will die. He begs Jeremiah not to tell anybody about the conversation and protects Jeremiah in the palace. Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians and God rewards Ebedmelech. Jeremiah chooses to stay behind in Judah under Babylonian rule.

God promises the people in Judah that he will rebuild them and they must stay instead of trying to escape to Egypt. Johanan, a Judean military commander, takes the people to Egypt, including Jeremiah. There in Egypt, Jeremiah prophecies that Babylon will conquer Egypt and that God will punish the people who disobeyed by going there by the sword since now they have begun worshipping other gods.

God promises to rescue and heal Israel (except for those who have completely rejected God by going to Egypt and worshipping other gods). God plans to punish the nations which have disobeyed him, including Babylon. God sends Jeremiah to read these prophecies against Babylon in the midst of their territory and to throw a large stone into the river to show Babylon, too, will sink.

Quotable

“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a boy,” for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you” Jeremiah 1:6 NRSV

“Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord” Jeremiah 7:11 NRSV

“It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” Jeremiah 10:12 NRSV

“If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak anymore in his name,” then there is within me something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in; and I cannot” Jeremiah 20:9 NRSV

“I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me” Jeremiah 33:8 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Like the other prophetic books, Jeremiah shows God’s aching love for his people, the painful choice he must make to punish the people in order to correct them. God gives the people so many chances in this book. Over and over Jeremiah is supposed to prophesy about the coming destruction with the possibility and hope the people will listen, will turn back to God and God need not punish them. It is never too late to turn back to God.

There are many object lessons in Jeremiah, with clay pots, dirty underwear, a yoke, and more. God loves to show us truth through everyday experiences. We should be on the lookout for God’s grace working around us constantly.

Poor Jeremiah is nearly killed, hated by most of the people, forced to bear this terribly sad message, and drug into the land of Egypt, where he did not want to go. We should not expect that serving God will be easy. Like Jeremiah we will face many challenges. People might hate us for following God. Reading about Jeremiah, we might think to ourselves, I could never serve God that way. I’m not strong enough. Funny enough, Jeremiah said the same thing!

When God first asks him to be a prophet, Jeremiah says he is only a boy (1:5). Throughout the book Jeremiah complains about how hard it is. But God promises, “I am with you” (1:7), and continually draws Jeremiah back to his mission—to speak God’s coming judgment and love for the people. God gave Jeremiah the strength to do God’s work. And God will give us strength, too, even if the work he wants us to do isn’t so glamorous.

Lamentations

Author

A lot of people throughout history have guessed the writer is the prophet Jeremiah, since he is known as a “weeping prophet,” and there is plenty of sadness to be had in Lamentations. But most scholars today think they were written by priests or worship leaders that were trying to help the community talk to God in worship about the fall of Judah to the Babylonians.

Date

Judah fell to the Babylonians in 586 BCE, so Lamentations was probably written shortly thereafter.

When You’re Heart Breaks Open: Take it to God!

Why the Judeans’ Hearts Are Broken

Judah was once a beautiful place but now is empty, and its people serve other nations. Jerusalem is crying because God has punished her. The people are crying out for help and mercy, and God will indeed help them.

Unique and Unusual

Lamentations, like Psalms, is entirely people praying to God. The despair and desperation the people feel can be hard to read today. Today, we might think—I’m not from Judah, captured by the Babylonians. Why read the book of Lamentations?

In bad times, when we feel overwhelmed by life and confused by our own feelings, as the Judeans surely were, it can be hard to talk to God. Lamentations gives us words we can use to start praying. Fortunately, Lamentations shows us no feelings are too “bad” to share with God—sadness, depression, anger, disappointment…God is right there to listen to it all, even when we, like the Judeans, have turned away from God.

So What?

We need not suffer alone. God is there.

Ezekiel

Author

Many scholars think a priest named Ezekiel wrote or inspired most of the book, and that later editors added some sections. Scholars disagree on the details of this process.

Date

Ezekiel continued his work until 571 BCE, so it was probably written around this time

God Is Not Dead God is real, fiercely loving and judging.

Where Is God In The Exile?

Ezekiel is a priest with the exiles in Babylon and sees visions from God. There are four creatures—a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle—and a wheel, and a huge dome, and fire. This is an image of the glory of God. Ezekiel falls down in worship. God tells Ezekiel he is sending him to prophesy to the people, and he must not be afraid. God tells him to eat a scroll that has sad words about Israel’s future. Ezekiel eats it, and it tastes sweet. God says the people will not listen to him.

God forces Ezekiel to stay in his house, bound and unable to speak, until God is ready for him to speak. Ezekiel is to lie on his left side for three hundred and ninety days in mourning for Israel, and then on his right side for forty days in mourning for Judah. He is to burn his hair and eat simple food to symbolize Israel’s future suffering. God is sending famine to Israel since they have made the temple unclean and do not care for God.

Ezekiel prophecies to the mountains that God is coming to bring a sword to strike down the idols worshipped on them. God brings Ezekiel to a place between earth and heaven to see unclean animals and filth in the temple. He hears the priests say that God is not listening and sees people praying to other gods. God sends Ezekiel to place a mark on the foreheads of everyone who is still faithful and angels to strike down those who do not have the mark. Ezekiel sees God’s glory leave the temple. God says he will give the people new hearts to follow him and sends Ezekiel to tell his visions to the people.

Ezekiel is to carry a suitcase, acting like an exile, to show the people they will be exiled again if they do not follow God. God insists that judgment is coming soon. The prophets who prophecy falsely and women who practice witchcraft are condemned. God begs the people again to get rid of their idols. Israel has become like a vine that produces no fruit, fit for nothing but to be thrown away. Israel is like God’s bride, beautiful and beloved, but now is cheating on God her husband. God will therefore judge her as an adulterous wife and kick her out. But God insists he will forgive Israel and stretch out the covenant to them yet again.

God explains that parents are punished for their sins and children for their own sins that children do not bear the punishments deserved by parents. God insists he will forgive those who turn back to him and that he hates having to punish people. Ezekiel is charged to repeat to Israel its story of being rescued by God in Egypt, that God has always loved and cared for them and they must return to him. Ezekiel is supposed to weep and groan for the misery the people must endure.

God says Jerusalem is a bloody city, where parents are disrespected, foreigners are robbed, and orphans and widows impoverished. People do not follow the Sabbath or God’s rules on sex. Bribery and robbery are everywhere. God will melt the people like one melts metal to purify it, making them like precious silver after enduring punishment.

Ezekiel’s wife dies, but God says he is not allowed to mourn as a sign to Israel. God will destroy the temple, which Israel loves as Ezekiel loves his wife, but they must not mourn because they are being punished. God will also judge the foreign nations that have wandered away from him.

The people continue to say God is being unfair, but God keeps replying that if they only turn away from their sins he will take them back. Jerusalem falls completely and God prevents Ezekiel briefly from speaking, telling him he must soon tell the people God is destroying their pride.

Ezekiel is to prophecy against the leaders in Israel who are like shepherds that take care of themselves instead of their sheep. The sheep are scattered, wandering everywhere. God says he will rescue the people from these shepherds. God says he alone will be their shepherd who is also a descendent of King David (this prophecy is fulfilled in Jesus, who compares himself to a shepherd in John 10).

God will put a new heart and a new spirit in the people and cleanse them from their sins. God shows Ezekiel a valley of dry bones and tells him to prophecy to the dry bones that they will live. The people feel their hope is cut off completely, but God will heal them. God will make them one nation under one king, the descendent of David (this will be fulfilled when Jesus returns and builds a new world). God gives Ezekiel a vision of a new, holy temple where God’s glory will return and people worship God.

Quotable

“I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 11:19 NRSV

“Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be fulfilled, says the Lord God” Ezekiel 12:28 NRSV

“Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is unfair.’ O house of Israel, are my ways unfair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?” Ezekiel 18:29 NRSV

“As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you” Ezekiel 20:33 NRSV

“You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord God” Ezekiel 34:31 NRSV

“Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord’” Ezekiel 37:4 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

There are many strange images in the book of Ezekiel. The book begins with a bizarre yet beautiful description of the glory of God, reflected in four exotic creatures and fire and a spinning wheel. Whatever these symbols mean, they surely point to the complexity and diversity in our God.

Like all of the prophetic books, Ezekiel emphasizes that God loves the people, hates to punish but only does so to get them to return or to stop others from going that sinful way. But more so than in any prophetic book, Ezekiel must act out this drama, not simply speak it. He must lie on his side in mourning, and then he is not allowed to mourn his dead wife. He must eat simple food cooked over dung to symbolize the people’s plight. God is desperately trying to get our attention, whether we realize it or not.

The people have largely casted God aside as irrelevant, even dead. They are in exile and by turn hopeless and in denial, worshipping other gods and claiming their God does not listen. But the God revealed in the book of Ezekiel is very much alive—his glory incomprehensible, his hands forcibly silencing Ezekiel, his signs to the people striking.

So What?

God is alive! And God will punish those who think they can live apart from him, but God also wants to gather and restore his people.

Daniel

Author

Unknown. Most scholars think the book of Daniel had multiple authors at different times.

Date

Unknown. Many scholars guess around the third century BCE.

There’s A New World Coming God is coming to earth to defeat death

Visions of Love Come Down

When Babylon attacked Israel, they took a small group of Jews to become government officials for Babylon. Daniel was one of them. He decided not to eat food that Jewish law declared unclean. So he and his friends asked if they could just eat vegetables and water. The Babylonian officials agreed, and after ten days Daniel and his friends were healthier than those who ate the palace food. God caused the Babylonians, and King Nebuchadnezzar in particular, to like Daniel and his friends. God also gave Daniel the ability to interpret dreams and visions.

King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream he did not understand. He told Daniel that if he could not interpret it, he would kill Daniel, his friends, and all the wise men in his court. Daniel and his friends prayed for God to reveal the meaning of the dream, which God did. Daniel saw that the king dreamt of a huge statue that was broken by a stone which then turned into a mountain. The dream meant that after Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, another kingdom would arise, which would eventually be stricken down by a kingdom that will reign for all eternity, set up by God. Daniel explained that God revealed the meaning to him, not that Daniel had any special powers himself.

Later, the king built a golden statue everyone was supposed to worship. Daniel’s friends refused to worship the statue, and were thrown into a furnace of fire. They were not harmed and God stood with them in the furnace. Nebuchadnezzar was amazed and made a law that nobody could speak against the Jewish God.

Then Nebuchadnezzar dreamt about a tree where many animals rested. Then the tree was cut down. He asked Daniel to interpret the dream. Daniel explained the tree represented the king himself, who is now great but will be driven away from society until he learns that God is the one true King. This came true, and after his lonely exile he worshipped God.

A new king, Belshazar, was having a feast when suddenly a hand wrote on the wall, but nobody could read the writing. Finally he asked Daniel for help, who explained, the writing meant God was taking away Belshazar’s power because he refused to worship God. That night, Belshazar died.

Then a group of officials plotted against Daniel. They convinced the new king, Darius, to set up a law that anybody who prayed to anyone but the king would be thrown into the lion’s den. Daniel continued to pray to God and was thrown into the lion’s den. God rescued him and he was not harmed by the lions.

Later, Daniel had a vision of terrifying beasts, and a divine man who lived forever taking a throne. Everyone worshipped him. (This refers to Jesus.) The angel Gabriel also told Daniel that there will be many wars and a period of seventy weeks before a terrible abomination in the temple would take place. In the end there will be a day of judgment and a resurrection of the dead. Some would rise to eternal punishment and others to new life, shining like the stars.

Quotable

“Daniel said, ‘Blessed be the name of God from age to age, for wisdom and power are his” Daniel 2:20 NRSV

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true and he is able to humble the proud” Daniel 4:37 NLT

“In my vision at night I looked, and there was before me one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” Daniel 7:13-14 NIV

Unique and Unusual

Daniel contains a lot of details about the end of the world that are very confusing. Scholars still argue about what they mean. We should not be discouraged if most of the book of Daniel baffles us. Daniel describes seeing a “son of man” rule over the world, who was both divine and human. In the gospels, Jesus often refers to himself as “the son of man.” This means Jesus thought of himself as both God and man, prophesied about way back in the Old Testament, and the final judge and Lord of the earth.

So What?

Daniel is a confusing book. But Daniel’s faith in God no matter what the Babylonian kings did to him and the visions that point to Jesus can inspire us still.

Hosea

Author

The book says it was written by the prophet Hosea.

Date

It was probably written around the time of the reign of the kings against which Hosea prophecies, ranging anywhere from 786 BCE- 687 BCE.

God, The Jilted Lover God loves like a husband who’s been cheated on

Winning Back the Bride of God

God asks the prophet Hosea to go find a wife for himself who is a prostitute, because God is like a husband to Israel, and Israel, like a prostitute, is faithless to God. So Hosea marries the prostitute Gomer and they have a son. God tells Hosea to name him Jezreel. Jezreel is the name of a city where the past King Jehu killed many people. Israel still acts like Jehu did, and God will punish them. Hosea and Gomer then have a daughter, whom God tells them to name Loruhamah, which means “not pitied,” because God is angry with Israel for their sins. Then they have a son, named “Loammi” by God’s orders, meaning “not my people.” This is because the people who repeatedly sin against God in Israel are no longer God’s people. But God will gather Israel together as he promised.

God asks Hosea to plead with Israel that they stop sinning, because God loves them all like a husband loves a wife who is cheating on him and breaking his heart. God will speak lovingly to Israel and ask her to come back.

Because of the violence in Israel, all nature cries out. The priests and prophets are not correctly teaching the people, and so God will remove them and ignore them. God will also punish Israel for worshipping other gods.

God cries out again in misery, so upset by Israel’s faithlessness. Then God explains Israel is also like his son, whom he raised and loved, but now has turned away from his father. Like a loving parent God is distraught. But if Israel returns, God will heal them.

Quotable

“The Lord said to me again, ‘Go, show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love their sacred rice cakes” Hosea 3:1 NIV

“Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!” Hosea 14:1 NIV

“O Israel, stay away from idols! I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me” Hosea 14:8 NLT

Unique and Unusual

Hosea compares the relationship between God and his people to the relationship between a husband and a wife. This is a great image that helps us understand the depth of God’s love for us and to see God has feelings like we do. God cries and has his heart broken as we do, and his tears are all over the book of Hosea. How comforting to know God loves us this way, to know God does not enjoy punishing people, to know God understands what it is like to have a broken heart. But, we must be careful with this image of God as husband. It does not mean wives are supposed to worship their husbands or obey them like God. Nor does this image mean God only loves women or that God is male. We often think of God as male and use “he” and “him” when talking about God as the Bible does, but the Bible also uses a lot of feminine words and images for God. God goes beyond gender. Instead, the image of God as husband and Israel as wife portrayed in Hosea shows the power and pain of God’s love.

So What?

God’s heart is aching for us to follow him. His love goes beyond what we could ever imagine. Let’s return to him!

Joel

Author

The book is attributed to the prophet Joel. We do not know anything about Joel, nor do we have any idea who else may have written the book.

Date

Scholars are unsure exactly when Joel was written, but guess around the 5th century BCE based on the style of Hebrew, the fact Judah and Israel have not yet split into two nations, and some other historical markers referenced in Joel.

Loc Us Praise God: God used locusts to remind us the Day is coming!

The Day of the Lord Draws Near

A terrible outbreak of locusts has devastated Israel’s crops. Joel reminds the people that the day of the Lord is near. God’s judgment is coming. God wants the people to come back to him, to change the way they were living and worship him anew. Everyone needs to come to God now; even the bride and groom on their wedding night need to stop and repent before God. God, moved, promises to keep the northern army away from Israel. The crops will come back to life, even better than they were before the locusts came. Then, God will come live with Israel and pour out his Spirit on everyone. After that, God will gather all the nations together and punish evil. The nations that do not know God will be very afraid on the Day of Judgment. But Israel will be safe with God. After that day, the land will belong to Israel alone, and God will live with them forever.

Many of these promises are clarified and celebrated in the New Testament. Right before God pours out his Spirit, Joel reports God’s promise: “You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel” (Joel 2:27 NRSV). God was in the midst of Israel in Jesus, fully God and fully man walking among the people. In Acts, God pours out the Holy Spirit on everyone who believes in Jesus, and Acts quotes from this passage promising the Spirit in Joel. The New Testament makes clear that Jesus is returning to judge the world, as Joel describes. The book ends with the promise that after the nations are judged, “the Lord dwells in Zion” (Joel 3:21 NRSV). The New Testament promises that in the new world Jesus will set up after his return, God will be right there; we will see his face!

In Joel, we see that God can use frightening events like a locust outbreak to remind us life is finite, and a day of judgment is coming. We should turn back to God now. God loves us and longs to be close to us.

Quotable

“Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing” Joel 2:12-13 NRSV

“Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!” Joel 2:21 NRSV

“You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other” Joel 2:27 NRSV

“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh” Joel 2:28 NRSV

“Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” Joel 3:14 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

The entire first chapter consists of Joel complaining about how terrible this locust situation is! Being a person of faith does not mean denying problems exist. Pouring out your hurt is a healthy thing to do. After his outburst, Joel was able to hear from God a far deeper message about the Day of Judgment, the need to repent, and more. We can hear from God like Joel did if we are honest about our circumstances and carry the pain to God.

So What?

The Day of Judgment is coming. If we follow God, he will pour out his Spirit on us and protect us on that day. Then he will live with us more fully than ever before. God reminds us of that truth even through terrible events like a plague of locusts. Praise God!

Amos

Author

The book claims to have been written by the prophet Amos. Most scholars think parts of it were written long after Amos died and added to the book. In chapter 7, Amos explains that he is no prophet, just a farmer whom God asked to prophesy.

Date

Most scholars place parts of the book during Amos’ ministry around the 750s BCE. Other parts were probably written during the Babylonian exile of the 500s BCE.

One Of The Surest Ways To Annoy God If we hurt the poor, we hurt God.

When People Don’t Care About People or God

Amos begins by declaring that God will punish the nations for their attacks on Israel. God will also punish Israel for refusing to keep God’s laws. People in Israel are oppressing the needy, committing sexual sins, and worshipping other gods. God loves and cared for Israel, but now they are mistreating the prophets God has given them. God has tried sending drought, food shortage, sickness, and war to Israel, but still they have not repented. God is heartbroken that all this has happened. Amos begs Israel to seek after God and live. The king tries to send Amos away, who replies that God sent him to preach this message. Because the king tried to get rid of Amos, God will punish him by sending him away. God declares again that he will punish them for harming the needy, cheating, and turning away from God. He will make them mourn and keep them from hearing God’s words. God will raise up a new king who rule the whole world (this prophecy refers to Jesus). There will be justice for the poor and Israel will live safely in the Promised Land (this refers to the new world Jesus will establish after he returns).

Quotable

“The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honorable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals” Amos 2:6 NLT

“I brought hunger to every city and famine to every town. But still you would not return to me, says the Lord” Amos 4:6 NLT

“For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind. He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!” Amos 4:13 NLT

“Come back to the Lord and live! Otherwise, he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely. Your gods in Bethel won’t be able to quench the flames” Amos 5:6 NLT

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream” Amos 5:24 NRSV

“Amos answered [the king], ‘I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel” Amos 7:14-15 NIV

Unique and Unusual

As quoted above, Amos tells the king that he is not a prophet! Yet the book seems to be the work of a prophet. It seems Amos does not think of himself as somebody special who should be a prophet. We may not think much of ourselves. We may even think we are spiritual nobodies. But God can use us anyway! God’s plans for us may be different from what we think we are good at, but ultimately his place for us is best.

So What?

The book of Amos is a strong warning against hurting the poor. It seems the way Israel treated the needy is what upset God the most. We should all think about how we treat those less fortunate than we are. We may not have a lot of money, but we can give some away to our churches and other places that help the poor. And those in positions of power can make sure they treat customers and employees fairly. Hurting the poor means we are hurting God, and if we keep that up, God will punish us.

Obadiah

Author

The book says it is a vision seen by Obadiah. We know little else about the authorship. Many scholars think Obadiah was part of the small group left behind in Jerusalem after the city was conquered.

Date

Jerusalem was conquered around 587 BCE, so Obadiah may have been written a few decades after that.

Beware of God: God will punish evil!

The White Hot Wrath of a Loving, Just God

This prophecy concerns Edom, a nation intent on destroying Israel and on opposing God. Edom is proud, refusing to worship God, so God will punish them. Edom will experience the same shame which they forced upon Israel. The Day of Judgment is coming, and all the nations opposed to God will be punished exactly as they attacked Israel. After the Day of Judgment, Israel will have all of its land back again and will belong fully to God.

People who totally turn their back on God, like the nation of Edom, will be punished. We need to watch ourselves for attitudes of pride in our hearts, one of the things about Edom that angered God. Ultimately, people like the Edomites who mercilessly attack God’s people will be punished. Until the Day of Judgment comes, we can relax knowing God will even the score.

Quotable

“Your proud heart has deceived you, you that live in the clefts of rock, whose dwelling is in the heights” Obadiah 3 NRSV

“But on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them” Obadiah 17

Unique and Unusual

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament. Yet it packs a powerful punch to God’s enemies. Sometimes we are squeamish about God’s punishment. But doesn’t it make sense for God to punish people who have cut God completely out of their lives and who have chosen to hurt as many of God’s people as possible? Obadiah makes clear that God does punish such people in this short prophecy.

So What?

God is the Judge, and we can rest assured evil never wins. If we are Christians, we are on the winning team!

Jonah

Author

Unknown. There is no hint in the text or anywhere else.

Date

Many scholars, based on the style of Hebrew, estimate around the 5th or 4th century, but there is no way of knowing for sure.

You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide God has work for us to do, and will needle us until we do it!

The Very Reluctant Prophet

God tells Jonah, a prophet, to go to Nineveh, an evil city, to tell them God is angry and plans to punish them. Jonah does not want to obey. He gets on a ship going the opposite way. God makes a terrible storm on the sea. The other people on board cast lots to see whose fault the storm was. The lot lands on Jonah. Jonah then admits he is running away from God. The sailors are afraid. Jonah tells them to throw him overboard. The sailors try to steer away from the storm. Then the sailors, who before were praying to other gods, ask God not to punish them. Then they throw Jonah overboard. A huge fish swallows Jonah whole! The sailors become even more afraid and worship God.

Jonah stays in the fish’s belly for three days and three nights. Then he praises God for saving him. The fish spits Jonah out. Jonah then goes to Nineveh, and the people repent and turn to God. God decides not to punish them.

Jonah becomes angry at God for forgiving them, asking God to kill him. God creates a bush to shade Jonah from the hot sun. The next day, God sends a worm to infect the bush, which then withers away. Jonah asks God to kill him again. God explains to Jonah that he was concerned about the bush, but God is even more concerned about the people of Nineveh, which is why God sent Jonah to them.

Quotable

“Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish” Jonah 2:1 NRSV

“[God said] But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” Jonah 4:11 NLT

Unique and Unusual

The book of Jonah is the story of what happened to a prophet, not what God told a prophet to say. And what a great story it is! Jonah ran from God, didn’t care about the people he was supposed to help, asked God to kill him several times, and cried out angrily against God. God used Jonah in mighty ways, even though he was far from perfect. God can use us to do great things, too, even when we sin and drag our feet along the way.

So What?

There is so much we can learn from this beautiful story. Perhaps the biggest lesson is that God is patient with us and with those we don’t like, even if that makes us mad!

Micah

Author

Micah claims to have been written by the prophet Micah. Many scholars think the book actually contains sections by multiple authors and editors.

Date

Most scholars think parts were written, as the book says, during the kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiahm from 742 to 686 BCE. Other parts, based on their different topics and vocabulary, were probably written much later. There is no way to know for sure.

You’re Going the Wrong Way! Turn around! Come back to God!

Getting Back on Track

God is going to punish Israel, but is very sad that he has to do this. He is weeping with a broken heart over Israel. There are people who wake up plotting evil, trying to get more wealth and cheating the poor to do so. They try to get the prophets to stop preaching against them, but God will still judge them anyway. Even the government officials hurt the people of Israel and fight against God. They pray, but God will not answer. The prophets who have lied to Israel and say everything is all right will also be punished. The priests just try to get money instead of serving God and people. God will never give them a message again, but he has filled Micah with power to declare to Israel these things.

In the future, Israel will be pure. Other nations will come to Israel to learn about and worship God. A great teacher will come from Israel, and he will judge the world and create a new world of peace, where there will be no more weapons. The poor and sick will be healed. God will punish the enemies of Israel, too. Most Christians believe this promised teacher is Jesus.

From Bethlehem, a great ruler will come who has lived forever. He will take care of the people and build a world of peace. This ruler, too, is Jesus.

God will cut away from Israel the people who follow other gods and punish the nations who do evil.

The book switches back to the present, while God asks Israel why they are not following him. God brought them out of Egypt and cares for them still. God wants them not to bring offerings and sacrifices, but to be just and kind while following him. God will punish Israel for dishonest business practices and lying. They will not be fully satisfied or happy.

The prophet Micah, his heart broken, searches Israel for people who love God and instead finds violence, cheating, lying, and fighting. He decides instead to lift his eyes to God.

The book ends with a message of hope, that God will forgive and restore Israel, if Israel is willing.

Quotable

“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin” Micah 3:9 NRSV

(This prophecy refers to Jesus) “He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn way anymore” Micah 4:3 NRSV

(Also referring to Jesus; Bethlehem is where Jesus was born) “But you, O Bethlehem, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days” Micah 5:2 NRSV

“No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” Micah 6:8 NLT

“But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear met” Micah 7:7 NRSV

“Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy” Micah 7:18 NIV

Unique and Unusual

There are several prophecies that clearly were fulfilled by Jesus, as explained above. Micah 4 in particular says “many nations” will come to Israel to learn about God when this great teacher comes. All non-Jewish Christians are part of those “many nations”! God knew we would come to Jesus, the Jew, and read the Old Testament, the story of Israel, way back when Micah was written! Sometimes, for us non-Jewish Christians, the Old Testament feels like it was written for Jews only. But this is proof all who believe in Jesus are now part of Israel, and we can learn from the whole Bible.

So What?

God loves us and longs for us to follow him. He doesn’t want to punish us, but he will if we refuse to follow him. God has also given us a great ruler and teacher who will judge the world and bring peace, and we know the rest of the story. That great King is Jesus!

Nahum

Author

The book says it was written by the prophet Nahum.

Date

Many scholars guess, based on the wars mentioned in the book, that it was written around 610 BCE.

Mad As Heck and Can’t Take It Anymore: God is angry and will punish Nineveh.

The Story of God’s Rage

God is angry and powerful, master over nature and judge of evil. Nobody can stand against his anger. He will punish the enemies of Israel who do not know God, in particular now, the city of Nineveh.

Quotable

“The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty” Nahum 1:3 NRSV

“The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it” Nahum 1:5 NIVE

“Why do you plot against the Lord? He will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice” Nahum 1:9 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Perhaps more than any other book in the Bible, Nahum dwells on God’s anger. Sometimes Christians are so quick to praise God for his love, we forget God is also angry. Because of his love for Israel, he will not let Nineveh, the city that has tried to attack Israel, go unpunished. Because God loves every person he has created, he is angry with those who turn their backs on him and refuse to love him in return. God’s love and anger are both very real. Nahum praises God for his justice and power, before which we can only bow in worship.

So What?

Nahum isn’t about a scary God that likes to smite and kill. Nahum is about a just, holy God who both loves and judges.

Habakkuk

Author

The book says it is written by Habakkuk, and we know no more than that.

Date

Scholars are unsure of when Habakkuk was written. Based on various historical events that seem to be referred to in the book—but again, it is uncertain—many date the book around 600 CE.

There Are No Stupid Questions: Bring God your doubts. He’s the ultimate judge!

From Doubt to Faith

Habakkuk begins with the prophet crying out to God, demanding to know why God is not stopping evil from prevailing. Isn’t God endless and holy? Then why is he letting this happen? God lets his people get caught like fish by evil fishermen! God answers Habakkuk, asking him first to write down God’s answer. God’s people must be patient, since God’s promises will be fulfilled. People who hoard up wealth and proudly oppose themselves to God will be punished. What is the point of violence and idol worship? God is real. Habakkuk worships God and promises to wait for God to punish evil. Until then, he will praise God and be strong in God’s strength.

Quotable

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” Habakkuk 1:2 NRSV

“I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says, and how he will answer my complaint” Habakkuk 2:1 NLT

“For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie” Habakkuk 2:3 NRSV

“Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by faith” Habakkuk 2:4 NRSV

“But the Lord is in holy temple; let all earth keep silence before him!” Habakkuk 2:20 NRSV

“O Lord, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work” Habakkuk 3:2 NRSV

“Though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a dear, and makes me tread upon the heights” Habakkuk 3:19 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Habakkuk has the guts to really question God. His opening question—“How long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” sounds rude, even blasphemous. But it also reveals a profound faith. He trusts God enough to keep praying, keep questioning, and keep struggling. God rewards this faith by reassuring Habakkuk, who ends by praising him.

So What?

We should strive to bring God our pains and doubts, to listen to God, and to praise God, just like Habakkuk.

Zephaniah

Author

The book claims to be written by Zephaniah. Some scholars think this book was written by several authors and edited along the way, but there is no way of knowing for sure.

Date

The book claims to be written during the reign of King Josiah, around 622 BCE. Some scholars think portions of the book were written much later, after there were no more kings, even as late as 200 BCE. Again, we cannot know for sure.

Just Passing Through There is a world and a lifetime beyond this one

Images of Another Reality

God is going to punish Israel, especially the priests who worship other gods and do not really seek after the true God. God will also punish businesspeople whose business practices are dishonest and people who think God is not really going to judge them. The Day of Judgment is coming, and money can’t save anyone from God’s wrath. Those who humbly seek God will be safe from God’s wrath. God will punish the nations who fight against God and Israel. Sadly, Jerusalem has been particularly evil. It has not accepted any correction, nor has it trusted God. Its priests, judges, government officials, and prophets do evil constantly, and are not ashamed. After the Day of Judgment, God will remove these evil people from Israel. Only the humble people will be left. They will be protected by God and will praise him continually. God will on that day rejoice with singing together with his righteous ones, and heal all the sick, and all will live in joy and safety in their new home.

Quotable

“I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad” Zephaniah 1:12 NLT

“Neither their silver not their gold will be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath” Zephaniah 1:18 NRSV

(Spoken to the people of Israel who are humble, who do not commit evil): “The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love” Zephaniah 3:17 NRSV

“At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord” Zephaniah 3:20 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Although Zephaniah is a tiny book in the Old Testament that is not read often, it speaks very well to society today. There are so many people who think “the Lord will do nothing.” Many of us have heard stories of rich business leaders who cheat their employees and customers to make even more. And we all know people who trust in their money more than God. Zephaniahs tells us that if these people do not change their ways, God will punish them. We must avoid being taken in by the sins of the world around us, and instead humbly seek after God.

The final verses describing the world God will build after he judges and punishes evil are beautiful. God will live with us, right beside us. In Zephaniah, God says, “I will bring you home.” This world, this lifetime is not our home. The life to come, when we will sing praises to God and he will sing over us, is our real home!

So What?

We can rest secure in the fact God will judge evil. But we should also watch ourselves that we are trusting in God—not money, not ourselves. If we stay faithful, we will be part of God’s new, perfect world he will build after the Day of Judgment.

Haggai

Author

The text says it was written by the prophet Haggai; we know no more than that.

Date

The events described occurred in 520 BCE, after Jews returned to Israel after the exile.

Building and Loving We should build up God’s work, not our own selves

The Triumph of the New House of God

The temple has not been rebuilt yet. The people never seem to have enough because, as God tells Haggai, they have not been bothered to rebuild the temple. God will be with the people if they build the temple and they will be blessed. God will also punish evil forever on the Day of Judgment.

Quotable

“Go up into the mountains and bring down the timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the Lord Almighty. Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house” Haggai 1:8-9 NIV

“The silver is mine and the gold is mine, declares the Lord Almighty” Haggai 2:8 NIV

Unique and Unusual

The people listened to Haggai’s words from God! They obeyed and worked on the temple, as the next book in the Bible, Zechariah, explains more fully. Most of the prophets in the Bible are ignored or even persecuted.

So What?

The people were focused on their crops and homes—on their lives, not on God. Do we get wrapped up in our jobs, families, and friends, while ignoring the church? Maybe our church needs more money, but we can’t give because we’re saving for ourselves. Or the church needs volunteers, but we are too busy. If we act this way, we are sinning the same way the people in the book of Haggai sinned. God will punish us, too, if we do not turn around and “build the temple,” however that looks in our lives. And those other things we were worried about building will not succeed. Even if our company grows, we will never be as truly blessed as we are when we build the Lord’s temple.

Zechariah

Author

The book says it was written by the prophet Zechariah, but most scholars think it was written by several people at different points in history and edited into the form we now read it.

Date

Most scholars think the first eight chapters were written before 515 BCE, when the temple was finished. The last chapters may have been written around 200 BCE, when the exile had ended.

The Confusing, Loving, Judging God We don’t know every detail, but God loves, saves, and judges

Image after Image

God asks Israel to return to him, and God will return to them. Zechariah sees a vision of horsemen patrolling the earth, and an angel explains that God is jealous for Israel and will bless them because they are rebuilding God’s temple. He then sees four animal horns, all that will be left of the nations that have hurt Israel. Third, he sees a man with a measuring tape, who says he is measuring Jerusalem, which will soon be overflowing and God will be in its midst. Next, he sees Joshua, the high priest, wearing dirty clothes and the angel giving him clean clothes. God is forgiving Joshua and the whole nation, since they are building his temple. Then Zechariah sees a vision of a lampstand and two olive trees. The trees represent Joshua, the priest, and Zerubbabel, the governor, whom God has blessed and promised the temple will be completed. He also sees the eyes of God watching over the earth. After that, he sees flying scrolls condemning liars and thieves that will enter their homes and consume them. Then, Zechariah sees a basket with a woman in it representing worship of other gods. The basket is sent far away from Israel. After that, he sees God’s chariots patrolling the whole earth.

God tells Zechariah there will be a coming chosen one, a descendent of King David, who will rule the world. There will be a priest beside him (many Christians interpret the king as Jesus and the priest as the fact Jesus was both king and priest. Others think it refers to a priest who will serve Jesus in the future). Then God asks Israel to care for the poor and love one another. If Israel does not listen, God will devastate the land. God is jealous for Israel. He will make them a holy land where people will be happy and live forever (this is a picture of what the world will be like when Jesus comes back and sets up a new, perfect kingdom.) And soon many people will come to Israel to learn more about God (a prophecy of many non-Jewish people believing in Jesus, the Jew, and worshipping God).

God is also sending a King who will rule forever who will bring peace to the whole world and come in riding on a donkey, not a war horse (this is fulfilled when Jesus walks into Jerusalem on a donkey, as happens in all four gospels, and people wave palm branches before him.) God one day will save all of Israel, but he will punish Israel’s enemies and the priests who do not follow God. The shepherds (meaning pastors and religious leaders) who do not take care of the sheep (meaning the people), will be punished. Zechariah ends with a vision of the perfect world God will make after the Day of Judgment, where everything will be holy to the Lord.

Quotable

(Referring to Jesus) “Thus says the Lord, Here is a man whose name is Branch: for he shall branch out in his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord” Zechariah 6:11 NRSV

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another” Zechariah 7:9-10 NRSV

“On that day the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his people, for like jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land” Zechariah 9:16 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Zechariah communicates through many strange images, some of which are not explained in the text and are very difficult to understand. Why might God’s word be so confusing?

The Bible teaches us many things about God. But it does not explain everything we want to know in perfect detail, in part because our God is so holy, so higher than we are that we could not possibly understand all of his plans. Zechariah uses images in part because there are not words to express the powerful meaning behind these images. For example, Zechariah’s image of a scroll destroying a house might help us think about how God’s words are strong enough to break through places we think are safest, where we think we can hide from God and God’s judgment. But thinking about this image is much more meaningful than just repeating words about the image.

Sometimes people also think that God, especially in the Old Testament, is focused on punishing people who do not worship him, but does not care how we treat other people. Zechariah shows that God actually really, really wants us to be kind to others. To sin against other people is to sin against God. For example, the flying scroll breaks into the homes of thieves and of those who misuse God’s name. Both are choosing a life of sin without seeking God’s forgiveness or healing, and both are punished.

So What?

God is sending Jesus to set the whole world right and will punish those who try to stand in the way.

Malachi

Author

The book claims to have been written by the prophet Malachi. We know no more than that.

Date

Unknown. Many scholars guess around 530’s- 330’s BCE, after the exile.

Better to Give Than Receive: Give all you have to God!

How Should We Give? Malachi Explains

Malachi begins with God’s promise that he loves Israel, even though they question God’s love. God also complains against Israel for sacrificing sick and blind animals to God, instead of giving up the best that they have for God. God also plans to curse the priests since they are not really serving God or correctly teaching the people. The men have been cheating on their wives and marrying wives who do not worship God, and God is asking them to stop. God is also frustrated because the people keep saying God will not punish evil.

So God is sending a messenger to prepare the way, and then God will suddenly come into the temple in the midst of the people. The messenger will purify the people and get them to repent. Then God will come and judge the world. (This messenger is John the Baptist, the prophet who prepared the way for Jesus. The promise God would suddenly come is fulfilled in Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, and who will soon return to judge the world.)

God says the people of Israel are robbing him by not tithing, which means to give ten percent of your income to the church. God promises that if they tithe, he will bless them.

God is keeping a book of remembrance of all the people who are following him. The Day of Judgment is coming. But the people who do follow God will rise and see the sun of righteousness. Malachi ends with a promise to send a prophet Elijah before the judgment to help the people repent (this is John the Baptist, a prophet like the prophets of old such as Elijah).

Quotable

“Isn’t there one father for all of us, one God who created us? Why does everyone cheat each other to make the covenant of our ancestors impure?” Malachi 2:10 CEB

“For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless” Malachi 2:16 NRSV

“Bring the full tithe in my storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing” Malachi 3:10 NRSV

“But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture” Malachi 4:2 NLT

Unique and Unusual

Malachi says that the people of Israel are robbing God by not giving the money to the temple they should give. This seems confusing. How can people steal from God? God does not need our money. He can get along fine whether we give to the church or not. But God wants us to give, wants us to show love. Because God loves us so much, when we fail to give we really disappoint him. The same is true with God’s disappointment with sacrifices of sick animals. We do not give animal sacrifices anymore, since Jesus came and was our sacrifice on the cross. But when we give other kinds of offerings to God, like our singing in worship or prayers, are we giving our best?

So What?

Malachi reminds us to give all we have to God, and that God planned for John the Baptist and Jesus to come long before they did!

Matthew

Author

Unknown. Later tradition says the disciple Matthew wrote this gospel, but most scholars see little evidence either way. This book may have come out of Syria or Galilee because early in the second century, writers from those places quote Matthew.

Date

Because Matthew uses Mark, but is quoted early in the second century by different Christian writers, Matthew was probably written somewhere between 70-100 CE.

The Great Good News Jesus wants to make us like him!

The Best News, the Greatest Challenge

A man named Joseph is engaged to Mary, who is pregnant, but not with his child. Joseph plans to break the engagement, but God tells him in a dream that the Holy Spirit is the father of Mary’s child, and they must name him Jesus. Joseph marries her and she gives birth to Jesus. A group of wise men go to see the baby Jesus, giving him gifts and worshipping him. King Herod has all the babies in Bethlehem, where Jesus is born, killed because the wise men told him Jesus was supposed to grow up to be a king. But God tells Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt until Herod dies a few years later.

John the Baptist, years later, baptizes people and encourages them to turn back to God. He baptizes Jesus, too, on whom God then opens the heavens and declares, “This is my Son, the Beloved.” Then, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where Satan tempts him, but Jesus does not give in. Jesus emerges from the wilderness to call some disciple and begins teaching and healing.

Jesus gives the Sermon on the Mount, a long sermon that summarizes his teachings. He emphasizes that believers are supposed to be the light of the world, living differently from nonbelievers. Jesus says that murder is wrong, but so is anger with a friend, that adultery is wrong, but so is lust. Divorce and oaths are forbidden; revenge is forbidden and kindness to everyone demanded. Jesus condemns people who publicly display their faith just to get attention. We should pray simply to God, our Father, remembering that God only forgives our sins if we forgive others. We should also store up treasure in heaven, not store up money on earth. Furthermore, there is no need to worry because God is taking care of us. Likewise, we should not judge others because God is the Judge.

Jesus heals a leper and the servant of a Roman soldier, breaking purity laws and the unspoken social rule that Romans and Jews are enemies. Later, the disciples are sailing in the midst of a terrible storm, while Jesus is sleeping. Terrified, they wake Jesus up, and he asks them why they were afraid, and then calmly stops the storm. Jesus heals more people and groups of tax collectors (seen as thieves and traitors by most Jews, since they worked for Rome and often collected extra money for themselves) join the disciples.

Jesus sends the disciples out two by two to preach about Jesus and the coming kingdom. He explains they will run into trouble, but God is watching over them, knows even how many hairs are on their heads. Jesus adds that everyone must take up their cross and follow Jesus, even to the point of losing friends and family. But God will reward everyone who does this.

Jesus casts evil spirits out of a sick man. The temple officials, who do not like Jesus because he is teaching new teachings, because the people like Jesus better, and because Jesus points out the ways they fail to care for the people, say Jesus is working by the power of Satan. Jesus says anyone who fails to see God at work through him will go to hell. They demand to see a sign from Jesus, and he says the only sign they will see is when he rise again after three days, but they do not understand.

Jesus tells many parables (stories that illustrate a point about God or God’s kingdom.) For instance, he says that the kingdom of heaven is like hidden treasure that someone finds hidden, and joyfully sells all he has to buy it. The “kingdom of heaven” or “kingdom of God” in the gospels is a complex phrase, referring to God’s reign. So in any situation or place where God’s will is being done, where people encounter God’s grace, is the kingdom of God. And Jesus says we should give up all we have for the kingdom.

More and more people gather to listen to Jesus—at one point five thousand men and many women and children come from far away to hear him preach. Jesus knows they are very hungry, and he multiplies a few loaves of bread and fish into enough for everyone to eat. The disciples get into a boat, but Jesus does not come sailing with them. Another storm comes and Jesus walks on the water to them. They are terrified, but Jesus asks Peter to walk out towards him. Peter obeys, but starts sinking. Jesus catches him and gently asks why he doubted.

Jesus asks the group of disciples who they think he is. Peter says Jesus is the Christ (meaning the figure referred to by Old Testament prophets whom God is sending to save and judge the world), and God’s Son. Jesus says God revealed this to Peter, and Peter (and everyone else who believes Jesus is the Christ, God’s Son) will have the keys to God’s kingdom. Jesus says again that the disciples must take up their cross and follow Jesus. A few days later, Peter, James and John go with Jesus up to a mountain and see Jesus transformed into a shining, heavenly figure, talking to Moses and Elijah, and hear God proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son.

Jesus goes to the temple and sees people buying and selling. He kicks them all out, turning over their tables and saying that the temple is supposed to be a place of prayer for all people. He tells the temple officials that God is taking away his kingdom from them. They become very angry and want to kill him. Jesus tells a parable about a king who prepares a great feast, but the people invited do not want to come, and some of them actually kill the king’s servants. The king then invites everyone he can find to the feast. The people who do not come are like these temple officials, and Jesus wants everyone listening to come to the feast and not be like the officials who are too angry, too preoccupied to come.

Jesus gives a long prophecy about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and about how he is returning to judge the world and create a new, perfect world. But nobody knows when Jesus will come back, not even Jesus himself; only God knows. So we all need to get ready. Jesus says that at the judgment, he will invite many people into the kingdom who fed him, visited him, cared for him. Those people will say, “When did we see you sick, hungry, lonely?” And Jesus will say, “Whenever you did this for anyone else, you did it for me.” But those who did not visit the sick or feed the hungry, Jesus will say they did not care for him, and will send them to hell.

Jesus invites his disciples to a Passover feast. He breaks the bread and says they should eat it, that it is his body given for them, and pours a cup of wine, saying this is his blood given for them. (This refers to Jesus’ death on the cross, when he gave himself up for us.) During dinner, Jesus tells Peter he will soon deny ever knowing Jesus, but Peter insists he will not. Afterwards, they go to a garden, where Jesus throws himself on the ground and prays for God to take away this suffering on the cross he must endure, but promises he will do whatever God wants.

Jesus is arrested, and Judas, one of the disciples, secretly reveals to the authorities where he is. The high priest demands to know if Jesus is the Christ. Jesus says he is, and that everyone will see Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven. The high priest screams that this is blasphemy, because Jesus is claiming to be God. Peter, who along with the other disciples ran away when Jesus was arrested, is asked by a group of people if he knew Jesus. Scared, he insists he never knew Jesus—then he remembers what Jesus said at dinner and weeps. Judas feels so guilty he kills himself. Meanwhile, the Roman governor Pilate, urged by the temple officials, agrees to put Jesus to death on the cross.

They whip him over and over and then crucify him. Crucifixion (being nailed to a cross) is an extremely painful punishment, in part because the victim slowly stops being able to breathe because of the way he or she is hung. (Jesus, of course, suffered far more than anyone else who was crucified because he was being punished for our sins.)Everybody sees Jesus and makes fun of him. Eventually, he cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” and dies. Three days later, two of the disciples go to his tomb. They see an angel who tells them Jesus is not there, but has risen! They run away, afraid and excited, and see Jesus. They worship him, and he says they should not be afraid, but should go tell everyone.

Soon all the disciples learn Jesus has risen and they worship him together. Jesus tells them to go make disciples of all nations and that Jesus is with them always.

Quotable

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people’” Matthew 4:19 NRSV

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11 NRSV

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” Matthew 10:29-31 NRSV

“But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid’” Matthew 14:27 NRSV

“For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” Matthew 18:20 NRSV

“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted” Matthew 23:12 NRSV

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins” Matthew 26:28 NRSV

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

The gospel of Matthew emphasizes that Jesus wants us to go above and beyond for others. The expectations Jesus lays out for his followers in Matthew are steep—no anger, no hating enemies, no divorce. We are supposed to give up everything we have for this “pearl of great price” as the parables say. Jesus loves us where we are—that much is clear, from the one who calls tax collectors, humble fishermen, people who never knew God, to his side. But Jesus wants us to become much more than what we are now. Jesus wants us to be like him, giving ourselves in love for others the way he gave himself on the cross. Matthew’s Jesus, in particular, has high expectations. Can we ever meet them?

When Jesus first calls the disciples, he says, “I will make you fish for people.” He will make us turn our whole lives around, giving up our everyday activities like fishing for a life oriented toward catching others to tell them the great good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus does not say, “Fish for people, and good luck learning how!” This is a promise—I will make you fish for people. When the disciples are confused about the parables, when they argue about who is the best and even deny knowing Jesus—Jesus gives them second, third, fourth, and thousandth chances.

When we read Jesus’ high expectations in Matthew, we can read them with joy. If we believe in Jesus, he will help us meet those expectations and be part of this great new kingdom.

So What?

Jesus wants us to have entirely new lives following him.

Mark

Author

Unknown. Centuries after it was written people thought Mark, a companion of Barnabas and Paul mentioned in the book of Acts, wrote Mark, but most scholars think this is unlikely since the text itself is not in any way identified with that Mark. Many scholars think it came out of a Christian community in Rome because Latin phrases in the gospel are not translated.

Date

Mark was probably written around 65-70 CE since it was the first gospel written (Matthew and Luke borrow a lot from Mark, so Mark had to have been first) and during that time there was a wave of persecution of Christians in Rome. The gospel seems to have a lot of wisdom for people enduring persecution and during such a time having the written teachings of Jesus would be very helpful. It is impossible to be sure, however.

Who? Who is Jesus? He’s God and man!

Telling the Story of Jesus

John the Baptist comes baptizing and encouraging people to repent and turn to God. He baptizes Jesus, and after Jesus comes out of the water, the Holy Spirit comes down on him and a voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, the Beloved” (Mark 1:11 NRSV). Then the Holy Spirit takes Jesus into the wilderness for forty days, where he is tempted by Satan but does not give in. Then Jesus preaches and gains a following of disciples.

Jesus casts evil spirits out of people and heals sicknesses, too. Jesus also spends time with tax collectors, who were hated because most stole money while collecting taxes. The Pharisees, a group of Jewish religious leaders, ware angry that Jesus spent time with “sinners,” but Jesus says that sinners are the very people he came to call to himself.

Almost all of the stories in Mark point to Jesus being God the Son, far more than a regular man (but also fully human). The evil spirits he casts out call him the “Holy One of God.” Jesus dares to break the laws the Pharisees set up. For instance, he gathers grain on the Sabbath, the holy day of rest, which the Pharisees have forbidden. He replies that he is “lord of the Sabbath.” And Jesus calms the sea, which in the Old Testament is repeatedly spoken of as something only God can do.

Throughout Mark Jesus calls himself “the Son of Man,” which is a reference to Daniel 7, in which the prophet Daniel sees “one like a Son of Man,” both God and human, ruling over the world and judging evil. By calling himself the Son of Man, Jesus is claiming to be divine, too, and saying that he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about a coming king.

The Pharisees hate Jesus for breaking their rules, for pointing out the ways the Pharisees hurt the people by making so many new rules, for having so many followers and so much attention, for calling himself, essentially, God. Ultimately, this is why they get him killed, as detailed later in Mark.

Jesus also tells the disciples that if they are really going to follow him, they will have to give up everything for him—“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:34-35 NRSV).

He also teaches that the most important commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second most important commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus also predicts that the temple, the great center of the Jewish faith, would be destroyed. (The temple actually was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE). Jesus also explains that there will be many wars and persecutions, but Jesus will come back to judge the world.

On Passover, an important Jewish holiday celebrating that God led Israel from slavery in Egypt as described in the book of Exodus, Jesus hosts a meal. But Jesus changes the ritual of the meal. He gives the disciples bread and says, “Take, this is my body”; then he gives them wine and says, “Take, this is my blood.” This is why churches celebrate Communion. Jesus does this the night before he is crucified. Because of Jesus’ death to forgive our sins, we are fed and freed from slavery to sins like Israel was freed from slavery to Egypt.

Jesus prays for God not to let him be crucified, but ultimately tells God he will do whatever God wants. Then Jesus is arrested, his location given to the authorities by Judas, one of Jesus’ disciples. Jesus is put on trial for blasphemy. He tells the high priest he is the Messiah and “Son of Man.”

The governor, Pilate, agrees to crucify Jesus since he claimed to be “King of the Jews,” which would be a threat to the authority of the government. Then the soldiers beat Jesus and whip him, and then they nail him to a cross to die. He dies, and three days later several disciples go to visit his tomb. But Jesus is not there, and an angel tells them Jesus has risen, that he is not in the tomb. The disciples run away, afraid.

Quotable

“Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” Mark 3:35 NRSV

“Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” Mark 9:35 NRSV

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” Mark 13:31 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

There are a couple of confusing passages in Mark that can be especially troublesome to new believers—and more seasoned believers who have just discovered them. For example, Jesus says, “Whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness” (Mark 3:38 NRSV.) Some anxious believers think they have accidentally committed this sin and are damned to hell. No Christian could perform this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is Jesus’ way of saying a person has totally rejected God to the point of not letting him in, ever. This goes beyond doubt or even rejecting the faith temporarily, as Paul does in Acts and then becomes a fervent Christian. This blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is what the Pharisees portrayed in Mark 3 have done. They think Jesus is actually working for the devil and so have closed themselves off to God, refusing ever to accept Jesus. So they can’t be forgiven, because they will not let God forgive them. God does not force forgiveness upon people who reject him.

Another troublesome passage is Jesus’ explanation of why he tells parables (little stories Jesus tells that illustrate a point)—“in order that they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand” (Mark 4:12 NRSV.) Why would Jesus want to confuse people? Similar to the point made above, some people have already made up their minds that they will never believe in Jesus. So Jesus’ parables serve to separate those who have totally dismissed him from those who want to know him more. Even the disciples do not understand. But they stick around to hear Jesus’ explanation, and that is the difference.

Finally, when Jesus is talking about his return and the signs of the end of the world, he says, “Truly, I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (Mark 13:30 NRSV). Yet clearly, all the disciples have died but Jesus has not yet returned. Right before Jesus makes this comment, he mentions the fig tree, whose tenderness and leaves let you know the figs will come soon. The leaves are signs, and so Jesus is saying all the signs of his coming just mentioned—the destruction of the temple, wars, and persecution—will happen before that generation of disciples passes away. Which was true, and means Jesus could return any time, and his return is being delayed, as 1 Peter says, only because God is waiting for more people to turn to him.

So What?

Jesus is God’s Son. We must follow him by giving our lives completely to God, sacrificing ourselves the way Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross.

Luke

Author

Tradition, and many scholars, say Luke the physician who accompanied Paul on mission journeys in Acts, wrote the gospel of Luke. Luke the doctor was never a famous figure, so how could the tradition of Luke having written this gospel get started if it were not true? Other scholars, however, say Acts (clearly written by the same person who wrote Luke since it calls itself a continuation of Luke and its style is very similar) could not have been written by Luke because it disagrees in places with Paul’s accounts of his travels in his own letters. Overall, it is impossible to say for sure who wrote the gospel of Luke, except to say it was inspired by God to convey a glimpse of the glory of his Son, Jesus.

Date

Probably between 70-100 CE—long enough after Mark’s gospel was known because Luke borrows and expands on a lot of Mark.

There Is No “In-Crowd”

Jesus is for everyone who will listen.

All about Jesus, and Who He Hung Around With

A young woman named Mary is approached by an angel, who tells her the Holy Spirit will put a son in her womb who will be God’s Son. Mary is not married, but agrees to let God do this. She praises God and her friend Elizabeth, too, becomes pregnant. Elizabeth is old and supposedly incapable of bearing a child, but God miraculously intervenes so Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah have a son. Their son is John the Baptist. Mary’s son, however, has no human father; his father is God.

Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, is from Bethlehem, and given the decree they must register in their hometown to pay taxes, they go to Bethlehem. There is no place for them to stay, and Mary ends up giving birth to Jesus in a barn.

Year later, John the Baptist baptizes people and preaches that they must turn away from their sins. He baptizes Jesus, who is then sent into the wilderness, where Satan tempts him, but he does not give in. Jesus then heals many people and gains a following of disciples. Jesus also preaches about many topics, including being generous, loving others, and following him no matter the cost.

Luke emphasizes that Jesus loves even people who are not “acceptable” to society, like a Roman soldier, whose slave Jesus heals, and a prostitute who anoints him with oil, and her own tears and hair. Jesus forgives her sins.

In Luke, Jesus talks a lot about prayer, emphasizing that God loves to answer prayer and give good gifts to his children. Jesus also preaches against the Pharisees, the religious leaders who hate him and create extra rules for people to follow instead of teaching the people about God, a God of love. Jesus also emphasizes that Christians do not need to worry or be afraid, because God cares for us.

In fact, God lovingly seeks out sinners. In one of Jesus’ most famous and most beautiful parables, he tells the story of a son who runs away and wastes all his father’s money, and is left broke and starving. He goes back to his father, expecting to have to beg for food. But instead his father runs out of the house to him, kisses him, and throws a big party because his son is found. Likewise, God loves us even when we run away, waits for us to decide to return to him, and runs after us, overjoyed that we are following him. Because God is so forgiving, we too, must forgive people who hurt us, or else God will not forgive us.

Jesus also predicts the destruction of the temple and his own return to judge the world and set up a new, perfect world where we will live forever. Then, as in the other gospels he changes the Passover meal into a celebration of his gift of his body and blood to forgive our sins. He is arrested and found guilty of “blasphemy” for claiming to be God’s Son.

He is then nailed to a cross and left to die. While on the cross, Jesus prays for God to forgive the people crucifying him. A thief crucified beside Jesus asks Jesus to remember him. Jesus tells the thief they will soon both be in heaven together, emphasizing again Jesus loved those who weren’t “supposed” to be part of God’s kingdom—criminals, non-Jewish people, tax collectors, prostitutes, etc.

Three days later, the disciples go to Jesus’ tomb and are astonished to see he is not there, but an angel is, saying Jesus has risen. Later, two disciples are out walking and a stranger joins them, explaining about how Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfilled the Old Testament promises. Then, the disciples’ eyes are opened and they see the strange is Jesus! Jesus also appears to a group of the disciples while they are eating, asking them to touch him and give him a piece of fish so they can see he is not a ghost. Jesus then asks them to go tell the whole world about him, and then he returns to heaven.

Quotable

“When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed [Jesus]” Luke 5:11 NRSV

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back” Luke 6:38 NRSV

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?” Luke 6:46 NRSV

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” Luke 11:9 NRSV

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” Luke 12:32 NRSV

“For the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost” Luke 19:10 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Luke is the only gospel that reports Jesus telling the now-famous parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). In this story, a man is robbed, beaten, and left to die. A priest and a Levite, a priest in training, pass by the man. But a Samaritan stops to take him to the doctor, pay for his treatment, and even leave extra money with the doctor. Most Jews hated Samaritans, but Jesus portrayed a Samaritan who gave up a lot of time and money to care for a Jew. This story has some important lessons to teach—about God’s kingdom including people we would not expect, about going above and beyond to love others, about not being too busy to do God’s work.

Overall, the gospel of Luke emphasizes that Jesus is God’s Son, who came to lead anyone to God who will listen, even people who others think aren’t supposed to be religious. Even the hated Samaritans. Jesus came to show us God loves everyone and searches out every person he has made to follow him. We can pray to God any time because he is always listening and waiting to give us good gifts.

So What?

Jesus wants us to be part of a new kingdom, a new plan of God that encompasses the whole world and surpasses even our wildest dreams.

John

Author

We do not know who wrote the gospel of John. Tradition has suggested it was written by John, one of the twelve disciples, but we have no way of knowing if that is true. The gospel itself does not give an author.

Date

Most scholars think John was the last gospel written, around 90 CE or perhaps later.

The Key to Salvation

Believe in Jesus and you will live!

Jesus, Our Way

John begins with a long and beautiful poem praising Jesus as the Word—revealing to us what God is like and yet the Word himself is God. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus and calls him the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus then calls some of the disciples. Jesus and his disciples are invited to a wedding, and eventually the hosts run out of wine, a very embarrassing problem. Jesus turns several large jars of water into wine, the best wine any of them have had. Then, at the temple, Jesus angrily kicks out the people that are there selling things, turning God’s house into a store.

One night, Nicodemus, a Pharisee (recall that Pharisees were religious leaders at the time whom Jesus criticized sharply for not believing in him and for creating many extra rules for the people to follow instead of helping them follow God’s rules), came to visit Jesus secretly. Jesus explains that Nicodemus needs to be born again, to be a whole new person, and if he believes in Jesus, God will do this for him.

Later, Jesus is walking through Samaria, a place near Israel where the Samaritans lived. They did not like Jews and Jews did not like them, to the point where, as John says, they would not even share the same dishes or talk to each other. But Jesus went to a well and seeing a Samaritan woman there, asks her for a drink of water. She is surprised Jesus, a Jew, would speak to her. Jesus explains that he can give her living water, water full of life that will give her eternal life. She is confused, but Jesus is speaking spiritually, metaphorically, about how a life of following him is like the best water you can drink.

Jesus does other miracles, healing the sick and even turning a couple of loaves of bread and fish into a meal to feed five thousand people. While feeding the five thousand, he explains that to truly live, we must eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood. The crowd finds this disgusting, but Jesus is really saying that to live we must trust in his sacrifice on the cross to forgive our sins. In this way we “eat” Jesus.

Jesus also calls himself the good shepherd that takes care of the sheep. If we believe in him, we are his sheep and he will protect us. Then Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead, explaining that Jesus himself is the resurrection and the life.

Meanwhile, the Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus. They hate him for calling himself God and for showing the Pharisees the ways they are sinning. They also hate that the people are listening to Jesus far more than they listen to the Pharisees. Jesus knows they are planning to kill him. The night before he is to die, right before Passover, Jesus has a Passover meal with his disciples.

Before they eat, Jesus washes all of the disciples’ feet. He explains that they, too, must love and serve one another, even to the point of doing dirty tasks like washing feet. Jesus goes on to explain that he is the way to God, and after he dies and rises again he will send the Holy Spirit to be with the disciples. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Advocate” or the “Comforter,” who will guide them, teach them, and stay with them forever. Jesus explains that he is like a vine, and the disciples are like branches growing off of him. After the meal, Jesus prays for his disciples and for everyone who will come to believe in him, emphasizing especially that they will be united and love each other like God the Father loves Jesus.

Then, Jesus is arrested and put on trial for blasphemy, for claiming to be God. He is also tried before the Roman governor Pilate for claiming to be a king, thereby challenging the authority of Cesar, the Roman king. Jesus is found guilty and nailed to a cross. He dies and three days later, Mary Magdalene, one of the disciples, goes to his tomb. She sees that Jesus’ body is not there. She turns around and sees Jesus, alive and in a new, perfect body. He tells her to go tell the other disciples that he is risen.

Jesus then appears to the other disciples, who are frightened but believe, several different times.

Overall, the gospel of John emphasizes that we are forgiven and have new life—starting new and continuing after we die—if we believe in Jesus. This means trusting Jesus’ death as a sacrifice to forgive our sins and following him.

Quotable

“Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” John 1:14 NRSV

“For God so loved the world he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16 NRSV

“But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” John 4:14 NRSV

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work’” John 4:34 NRSV

“Very truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life” John 5:24 NRSV

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day” John 6:54 NRSV

“For you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he” John 8:24 NRSV

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand” John 10:27-28 NRSV

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” John 13:14 NIV

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me” John 14:1 NRSV

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6 NRSV

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you” John 14:26 NRSV

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” John 15:5 NRSV

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” John 14:9 NRSV

“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” John 17:12 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

John is very different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the other three gospels. John shows us who Jesus is by long sayings of Jesus, not by events and short parables as the other gospel writers do. John’s style is definitely different. But like the other gospels John shows us that Jesus is God the Son, and died to give us life forever and forgive us of our sins. Because John shows this more clearly and simply than the other gospels do, John is a great book for new Christians to read.

So What?

Jesus is God in the flesh who came to give us new life, better life than we could ever imagine, that will last forever—now and after we die and for all of time. All we have to do is believe!

Acts

Author

Most scholars agree the same person who wrote Luke wrote the book of Acts.

Date

Jesus Rose Again and Went Back To Heaven. Now What? The church is born and thrives.

How a Small Group of Disciples Becomes a Huge Church

Jesus has already risen from the dead and promises the disciples that the Holy Spirit will come. Jesus goes back to heaven and sometime later, the Holy Spirit comes to all the believers. They speak in other languages and tongues of fire come on them. Peter tells everyone around them that God promised to give his Holy Spirit to everyone who believes in Jesus. Many people believe and join the church. The believers take care of each other, and they pray and study Jesus’ teaching together. They also tell others about Jesus, and more and more people believe.

Peter and John see a handicapped man at the temple and they heal him in Jesus’ name. Everyone is shocked, but Peter explains that Jesus wants to heal them and give them life, if only they will follow him and turn away from their sins.

There are still people at the temple who did not like Jesus when he was on earth and want the church to stop talking about him. Peter says they will never stop talking about Jesus. The believers pray for God to help them boldly, bravely speak about Jesus. They also choose a group of people to help make sure nobody is going hungry. One of these men, Stephen, is arrested by the temple scribes for following Jesus.

Stephen gives a long speech explaining that God has tried and tried to reach out to the people, but so many have turned their backs on God, including these scribes who arrested Stephen. Filled with anger, they kill Stephen.

Phillip, Peter, and John go to Samaria to talk about Jesus. The people believe and are baptized, including a magician who tries to buy the Holy Spirit with money but quickly repents and joins the church. God then sends Phillip down to Ethiopia, where he explains to a confused royal official an Old Testament prophecy about a man “like a sheep led to slaughter.” This prophecy is about Jesus. The official is baptized and the Spirit snatches Phillip up, carrying him back to Israel to keep preaching the good news.

Saul hates Christians, tries to arrest them, and even killed Stephen. He is on the road to Damascus to go kill more Christians when he sees a light from heaven and Jesus asking Saul why he is hurting him. Saul goes blind for three days but with the help of his friends makes it to Damascus. God tells Ananias, a Christian in Damascus, to go where Saul is staying and to lay hands on Saul so he can see again. Ananias does not want to, but God explains he has chosen Saul to preach the good news. Ananias obeys and soon after Saul preaches about Jesus. (This is the same man “Paul” who wrote many books in the New Testament. “Paul” means “Saul” in Greek and so many non-Jews in his churches and most everyone today calls him “Paul.”)

Peter raises Tabitha from the dead, an old woman in the Philistine city of Joppa who did many good deeds for the poor. Soon after, a Roman military officer named Cornelius starts praying to God, but has not heard of Jesus. God tells Cornelius to go send for Peter. Peter then has a vision of many animals considered unclean by Jewish law, and God asking Peter to eat them. Peter refuses, but God explains that he has made the animals clean. Cornelius’ servants ask Peter to go to Cornelius’ house, and he agrees. Upon Peter getting there, Cornelius and his family and friends worship Peter, who asks them to stop. He tells them about Jesus, even though they are not Jews, even though they are like the “unclean” animals. They all want to become Christians, and are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. The church decides even people who are not Jewish can become Christians now.

The government, which disliked Jesus, now wants to stamp out the church, too. The king has James killed and arrests Peter. An angel leads Peter safely out of jail. Herod has the guards killed and gives a big speech praising himself in public. God strikes him down.

While many Christians are praying together, the Holy Spirit tells them to send Barnabas and Saul/Paul on a mission journey. They tell many people about Jesus, and by Jesus’ power Paul strikes the magician Elymas blind who is trying to keep people away from Jesus. Elymas then believes in Jesus. Paul heals a crippled Greek man, and the people start trying to worship Paul and Barnabas. They preach about Jesus, but some Jews who hate Jesus try to kill Paul, but he survives. Paul and Barnabas help organize churches in the areas where they have preached and appoint pastors to the churches.

Now the church in Jerusalem is arguing over whether people who are not Jewish can be Christians. Peter tells about the vision of animals he saw and Paul and Barnabas tell about the non-Jewish people they met who began to follow Jesus. The apostles together with the whole church decide that anyone can be a Christian! They ask the non-Jewish people to keep just a couple Jewish rules out of respect for the Jewish people, though.

Barnabas and Paul argue about whether John Mark, a young disciple who abandoned them on an earlier trip, can come back. They separate, Barnabas going with John Mark and Paul going with Silas, Timothy, and Luke.

They met a Roman slave girl with an evil spirit in her making her tell the future. Paul casts out the spirit in Jesus’ name. Paul and Silas are arrested and thrown into prison. They pray and praise God, and God sends an earthquake that tears the prison apart. They tell the jail guard about Jesus, and he and his family are baptized. They preach in other places too, like in Athens where they build an altar for this “new god” they heard Paul worships. Paul explains there is only one God who knew them and cared for them long before Paul came to them. He also tells about Jesus, and some people believe.

Paul stays longer in Corinth, setting up a church for over a year. Most of the Jews there reject Paul and Jesus, but many non-Jews in Corinth join the church. He also sets up a church in Ephesus and other nearby towns. There is a big business in Ephesus for selling statues of the god Artemis, and the people involved are angry at Paul for turning people into Christians who worship one God. There is a huge riot and Paul leaves. Paul returns to Ephesus later and encourages the people in their faith, then explains he will not be able to come back to Ephesus again. They cry and Paul goes on to Jerusalem.

Some people in the church tell Paul not to go into Jerusalem because God told them he will get killed. Paul says he is ready to die.

He is arrested in the temple then tells his life story and how he came to know Jesus and follows him now. Paul is nearly killed several times by Jews waiting in ambush, and is transferred to several different non-Jewish government authorities. He spends years in jail and almost brings some of the authorities to believe in God. They send him by ship to Rome, and there is a violent storm on the sea. Paul calmly explains God told him everyone would survive the shipwreck, and this comes true. He lives for a while on house arrest on the island of Malta then is moved to Rome. In Rome he is allowed to be mostly free and stays for several years preaching and teaching.

Quotable

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” Acts 1:8 NRSV

“The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers” Acts 2:42 CEB

“In [God] we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:28 NRSV

“But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace” Acts 20:24 NRSV

“I do my best to always have a clear conscience toward God and all people” Acts 24:16 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Acts talks a lot about “the Holy Spirit,” which can be confusing. Christians believe in one God, but three persons making up this one God—God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. As Acts (and other parts of the New Testament, too) shows, when we become Christians we receive the Holy Spirit—to guide us, comfort us, challenge us, use us to glorify God and help others.

In Acts, the Holy Spirit does some miracles through Christians, like healing people who can’t walk and making people speak in other languages. Most people today have not experienced the Holy Spirit doing these types of miracles (but some have.) We might wonder why that is. This is a complicated issue that true Christians might think about differently.

It’s important to remember many Bible stories tell a deeper truth than the “facts” of the story. The Holy Spirit will certainly help us heal other people, although in many cases that healing might help them walk spiritually and not physically. The Holy Spirit will help us speak to people in new ways to guide them to Jesus, although the Spirit might not make us talk to them in, say, Portuguese!

The Bible says several times not to “test God.” When we look out for miracles just to prove God is there or to seem flashy and cool, instead of as signs pointing to deeper truths about God, we are testing God. People who do this misunderstand Acts and the Holy Spirit’s activity.

Also, even in Acts the Holy Spirit interacts with different people, differently. James, for example, is killed around the same time Peter is released from prison. Does that make Peter a better person than James? No way! Acts never says that, but shows that God is at work all around us, sometimes through obviously spectacular events and other times through quieter but equally beautiful works—like James’ faithful death, for example.

So What?

Let’s go be the church, working together with the Holy Spirit’s power to grow closer to God and to make sure everyone knows the good news about Jesus!

Romans

Author

Almost all scholars agree that Paul wrote the book of Romans.

Date

Most scholars guess around 57 CE, right before Paul planned to go to Spain, as he explains here in Romans.

The Best News the World Has Ever Heard

Jesus died for us! We are forgiven!

More about the Great Good News

Romans begins by explaining God is rightly angry with humanity. Humans do not praise or thank God, even though God created them. They commit sexual sins without thinking twice. Even worse, they hate God and hurt people. People who do worship God judge others, thinking they are holy and everyone else is not. In reality, judging others offends God and even those who judge have sinned. God has written his rules inside our hearts. We know, deep down, good from evil. We know it is wrong to hurt people and we know we should worship God, but we do not. The whole world is guilty before God.

But God has a solution. God is making us righteous through Jesus. If we believe in Jesus, if we accept that his death on the cross was a sacrifice to save us from our sins, God will forgive us of all the bad things we have done. We are saved by Jesus, not by anything good we do.

Paul then answers the question: “If God forgives us because we believe in Jesus, not because of anything good we do, then why do anything good at all?” He explains that when we become Christians, we are forgiven and promised eternal life, but more happens to us than just this. We are transformed slowly into new people, becoming holy and loving like Jesus, because of God’s grace. If we decide to keep on sinning anyway (not just sin occasionally, but really and truly decide we do not care about following God’s rules), we will be slaves of sin, not of God, and we will not be forgiven.

The Holy Spirit is now guiding all of us who believe in Jesus, assuring us that we are loved and prayed for. God is working through everything that happens to us for his good purposes. So we always know God is on our side and loves us, since he gave up his own Son, Jesus, to be nailed to the cross to forgive us. Nothing can ever separate us from God’s amazing love!

Paul goes on to explain how sad he is that so many Jews have rejected Jesus. But nobody, Jewish or non-Jewish, can be saved without Jesus, and if we reject Jesus, we are not forgiven. So many Jews, even though Jews are supposed to be God’s chosen people, are rejected by God because they rejected Jesus.

Romans ends by explaining how Christians should behave, using our gifts to build up the church, and loving others, even those who hurt us. We should also avoid judging others and focus on helping others, even if that means giving up some of our “rights.” Paul then explains some of his travel plans and greets various people in the Roman church (among them Junia, a female apostle!)

Quotable

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” Romans 5:1 NLT

“So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God” Romans 5:11 NLT

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” Romans 6:11 NIV

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 6:23 NRSV

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans 8:1 NRSV

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28 NRSV

“No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38-39 NRSV

“If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” Romans 10:9 NRSV

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” Romans 12:4-5 NLT

Unique and Unusual

A common response to hearing the good news that God forgives us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross is: “What about the people who have never heard of Jesus? What about the Muslims/Hindus/Buddhists/etc.?” How could a loving God send a faithful Muslim who never heard the good news to hell?

Romans can help answer this question. Romans 3:25 says God “passed over” the sins people committed before Jesus came. Moses and Abraham will not go to hell for being born in the wrong century! Similarly, how could God send someone to hell for being born in the wrong part of the world where they never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus? Romans 5:8 also explains that Jesus died for us before we believed in him, while we were still sinners. Jesus died for the whole world, and so God has already forgiven us if we choose to accept that grace. Jesus died for that kid who was never taken to church, for that African farmer who follows a tribal religion, for that Muslim who daily recites his Qur’an. God loves them as much as he loves Christians, and can forgive them because Jesus died for them.

We are saved because of what Jesus did for us, not because we believe or have some kind of special faith. That would make faith a kind of “work of the law” people do to get closer to God apart from Jesus. As Romans 6:23 says, we are saved as a “free gift” from God.

We need to go tell everyone the good news that Jesus died for them and God forgives them. Their whole lives will be turned upside down, for the better. If they reject the good news and miss out on the greatest adventure they could ever know, only then will God, with deep sadness, consign them to hell.

So What?

Jesus died for us! We are forgiven! We will live with Jesus forever, starting today and going on long after we die. All we have to do is believe the good news.

1 Corinthians

Author

Almost all scholars agree that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians

Date

Most historians think it was written around 53-54 CE.

No Lone Rangers We all have a place in God’s church

The Corinthians Stumble and Tumble into Learning to Be the Church

Paul begins by explaining how much he thanks God for the Corinthians, then continues that they need to stop fighting and splitting into different groups. Jesus Christ is the only kind of wisdom that matters. And as we grow in the faith, God brings us to deeper knowledge through the Holy Spirit. Paul and the other apostles and teachers are just helping the Corinthians know God. They should not get attached to one leader or another over Jesus. Paul continues, saying how much he loves them and has given up for them. He desperately wants for them to start getting serious about following Jesus.

There has also been sexual sin in the Corinthian church and lawsuits between believers. Christians need to honor God with their bodies, because Jesus died to save us.

Sex between husband and wife is not a sin; it is a good thing. People who are not married should marry if they want to. People whose spouses are not Christians should stay with their spouses and continue to show them what being a Christian is like. Once people become Christians, they do not need to change their marriage status or job unless God asks them to. People who are not married should consider staying that way, since they can use their extra free time to serve God more and more. But it is not sinful to get married.

Paul discusses that we have rights, like the right to go eat food that has been sacrificed to false gods without feeling guilty, or the right for a pastor to be paid. But we should give up our “rights” if necessary to benefit God’s work. If our “right” hurts somebody else, we need to give it up. We should do everything we can for God’s glory.

God has given every Christian spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Like the human body, there are many parts, and each part is different, but each is needed for the body to work. Then Paul writes a beautiful poem in 1 Corinthians 13 about love, which is the most important thing we can do. Without love, life and faith are meaningless.

God raised Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day after he died on the cross. God is going to raise each one of us from the dead, too, after Jesus comes back to judge the world. We will have new, perfect bodies. Death will be totally destroyed!

After this message of victory in Jesus, Paul discusses his travel plans and greets different people.

Quotable

“God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” 1 Corinthians 1:9 NRSV

“[God] is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” 1 Corinthians 1:30 NRSV

“For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NRSV

“For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” 1 Corinthians 6:20 NRSV

“So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” 1 Corinthians 10:31 NRSV

“A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good” 1 Corinthians 12:7 CEB

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” 1 Corinthians 12:26 NRSV

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 15:57 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

1 Corinthians 11 says that women must wear head coverings while in the church because it would be “unnatural” not to. This is a confusing passage to read today. Are women who do not wear veils in church terrible sinners? Even more baffling, Paul says, “For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man.”

Scholars disagree on what these passages mean, especially because Genesis 1:27 says men and women were created in God’s image. The whole Bible, including 1 Corinthians 10:31, show that men and women can glorify God and were made for God. Paul himself explains that man and woman come from one another (1 Cor. 11:12).

We also know that in Corinthian culture, female prostitutes and idol worshippers would cut their hair very short and would not wear a veil. Perhaps Paul wanted to make sure Christian women were not wearing their hair like those women. We also know that almost all women in Paul’s day wore veils often—unlike today, where in most cultures a veil is just for a bride on her wedding day.

What can we conclude from all this confusion?

1 Corinthians 11 definitely shows that women were speaking in church, even praying and prophesying (v. 4). Anyone who tries to use these verses to say women cannot lead in the church is not reading them correctly. Perhaps Paul is urging women to dress for church in a way that honors God and reflects culturally appropriate standards. Today, this might read, “Don’t wear itty bitty shorts to church!” He contextualizes this discussion with assertions that women have a similar relationship to men as Christ has to God. We know that Jesus was God, yet depended on God the Father while God also took care of Jesus. Perhaps Paul is saying also that women and men are equal, like God and Christ, but men should cherish and care for women, while women should also love men and accept this arrangement. For a woman to dress in a way the culture sees as shocking and wrong means that woman is rejecting that holy arrangement. But this is just a guess; these verses are difficult to understand.

A related, difficult section in 1 Corinthians: “Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?”  (14:34-36).

These verses have caused a lot of head scratching and silent, oppressed women and girls who grew up thinking God made church a man’s world. But the traditional interpretation that women are not allowed to speak in church makes no sense. 1 Corinthians 11, as just discussed, says women should wear veils when they speak in church! How could Paul turn around and say God demands the women be silent? Also, there were many female leaders in the church, like Prisca, mentioned at the end of this letter.

More likely, as some scholars have pointed out, this saying that women should be silent in church and ask their husbands questions at home is Paul quoting what the Corinthian men are saying. (There were no quotation marks in Greek. Since Paul is writing to the Corinthians, they would know this is their saying and would not be confused.) Paul’s answer—“Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you (Corinthian men) the only ones it has reached?” No! God’s word has clearly come to men and women, and as 1 Corinthians shows, God has placed men and women in the body of Christ to serve him, one another, and the world.

So What?

God wants us to be part of his church, a body of believers sent out to change the world for Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians

Author

Almost all scholars agree that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. Some think 2 Corinthians might be a collection of letters Paul wrote at different times to the Corinthians, however, since in places the transitions are jerky. There is no way to know for sure.

Date

Most likely during the 50’s CE, but exactly when is unknown.

Get It Together Let’s buck up and follow Christ!

The Corinthians Get Back On Track

Paul begins by repeating how much he loves the Corinthians and how much pain he has been through because of his dangerous missionary trips. He asks for prayers for himself and his companions. God’s work of ministry, however, is something every Christian must do, with God’s help as God transforms us to be more like Jesus. It is like treasure in clay jars; God is the treasure and we are the clay jars, nothing special except that God is in us and using us. God calls us to bring other people to him, to share the great good news that Jesus died for everyone so everyone’s sins can be forgiven. Paul also encourages the Corinthians to give generously to the church, like Jesus gave generously to us. If we give, we will be rewarded.

Paul goes on to explain the Corinthians should trust him, gently laying out all the reasons why they should see he is a true follower of God and loves the Corinthians very much. He warns them to look closely at their faith and to get serious about following God, ending by repeating his love for them.

Quotable

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

“It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God” 2 Corinthians 2:5 NLT

“And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” 2 Corinthians 2:18 NLT

“But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” 2 Corinthians 4:7 NRSV

“And [Jesus] died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them” 2 Corinthians 5:15 NRSV

“So if anyone is in Christ: there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSV

“For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT

“For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” 2 Corinthians 8:9 NRSV

“And God will generously provide all your need and plenty left over to share with others” 2 Corinthians 9:8 NLT

“We take every thought captive to obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5 NRSV

“[God] said to me, ‘My grace is enough for you, because power is made perfect in weakness’” 2 Corinthians 12:9 CEB

Unique and Unusual

In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul discusses his “thorn in the flesh,” some kind of problem he experienced over again. We do not know what this problem was. Some think it might have been a physical illness or injury; others suggest it was a temptation to sin. Whatever this problem was, Paul asked God three times to take it away from him. But God said no! God told Paul that God’s grace was enough for Paul to help him deal with this problem, and that God’s power and glory would shine through this problem.

How reassuring to know even the apostle Paul did not get everything he prayed for! Sometimes we think that if we love God enough, if we do enough good things, God will give us everything we want. (Of course, there is no harm in asking God to take away our struggles. The Bible is clear that we can and should pray about anything and everything!) But sometimes, as Paul tells us here in 2 Corinthians, God wants to use problems to do good things.

So What?

God wants us to stop, turn around, and seriously follow him. We can do anything he asks through the strength of his power.

Galatians

Author

Almost all scholars agree Paul is the author of this book.

Date

Most scholars think Galatians was written around 55 CE.

Only One Way In

Jesus died for us. He’s our only way to God!

More about Following Jesus, the Only Way

Paul begins by expressing his shock and disappointment that the Galatian church has turned away from the gospel. Paul discusses how God called him to be a minister of the gospel, and the true gospel really does come from God. The problem has come in when certain Jews are trying to tell non-Jewish Christians they need to keep hundreds of Jewish rituals and rules in order for God to accept them. Paul says quite firmly this is not true; because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross, we are already accepted by God. All we have to do is believe in Jesus! If we try to keep special rules or even do good things for God to forgive us, we will fail. We are sinners and God, who is perfect, will not forgive us no many how many good things we do. God will only forgive us because Jesus died on the cross in place of us, taking the punishment we deserve for our sins.

So Christians believe in Jesus and so are forgiven and free. The Galatians, if they try to earn God’s favor by keeping rules, will not be forgiven by God. Paul ends by explaining how Christians should act and how the Holy Spirit transforms Christians into better people. But we do not do good things to earn God’s love; God has already loved and forgiven us because of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins. Instead, we do good things because God is changing our hearts to be more like him, wanting to live good lives.

Quotable

“Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law” Galatians 2:16 NLT

“But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.’ So 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 faith that a righteous person has life’” Galatians 3:10-11 NLT

“But Christ rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing” Galatians 3:13 NLT

“For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith” Galatians 3:36 NRSV

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28 NRSV

“So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir” Galatians 4:7 NIV

“For freedom Christ has set us free” Galatians 5:1 NRSV

“You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness” Galatians 5:4-5 NRSV

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another” Galatians 5:13 NRSV

“By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV

“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up” Galatians 6:9 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Galatians talks a lot about circumcision. Circumcision was done to all Jewish baby boys as a way of marking them as Jews, as part of God’s chosen people. During Paul’s time, some people wanted to use circumcision and other rituals as a way of controlling non-Jewish Christians, forcing them to keep a lot of rules to be real Christians.

Even today, some Christians want to turn smaller issues into a series of hoops to jump through to prove you’re really a Christian, forcing people to try do good things to get right with God instead of believing in Jesus the way God wants us to. For instance, some churches have complicated rules about clothes, and if you break them, you are kicked out. Beware of anyone trying to tell you what you “have” to do to be a Christian or a part of their church. The Bible says you are made right with God when you believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins, and that ought to be good enough for everyone else.

So What?

Jesus died for you. Do not try to rely on anyone or anything else to make you right with God.

Ephesians

Author

Scholars disagree about whether Paul wrote Ephesians, or whether a disciple wrote it in Paul’s name to honor him, a beloved teacher. Ephesians’ sentence structure in Greek is more convoluted than the Greek in the letters we know Paul wrote. Also, Ephesians uses the same metaphors and images used in those letters definitely written by Paul in new ways, but Paul’s writing style could easily have changed as he got older. The ideas expressed in Ephesians definitely agree with Paul’s thought overall. In the end, we can’t know who put pen to paper to write Ephesians, but we do know it was inspired by God.

Date

If Paul wrote Ephesians, it was probably written toward the end of his life (late CE 50’s/early CE 60’s), after he was a very well-known apostle in a position to give advice to the Ephesian church. If Paul did not write Ephesians, it was probably written in the mid-late decades of the first century.

Saved for the Family of God: We are forgiven and given a place in the church.

More about the Life of the Family of God:

Ephesians begins with a long declaration of praise for Jesus, for the ways we are forgiven, blessed, protected, and strengthened in him. The book reminds us we are dead in sin apart from Jesus—but in him we are prepared to do good works, forgiven of our sins, and given a place in the family of God, the church. Paul’s ministry specifically has been to Gentiles, non-Jewish people, helping them to be part of the church. This was a new idea at the beginning of the church, when nearly everyone who had ever heard of Jesus was Jewish. Ephesians emphasizes that there is one holy universal church, in which God is bringing everyone to know God more deeply. Because we are given new life in Jesus, we have to live out that new life, turning our back on sin. Husbands and wives, children and parents, and employees and employers must love and honor each other. Ephesians ends by reminding us to be strong in God’s power. We need to put on God’s armor to fight against sin and evil, especially in prayer.

Quotable

“We have been ransomed through his Son’s blood, and we have forgiveness for our failures based on his overflowing grace” Ephesians 1:7 CEB

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our life” Ephesians 2:8-9 NRSV

“But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift” Ephesians 4:7 NRSV

“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger” Ephesians 4:26 NRSVV

“Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” Ephesians 4:29 NRSV

“Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts” Ephesians 5:19 NRSV

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people” Ephesians 6:7 NIV

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power” Ephesians 6:10 NRSV

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” Ephesians 6:18 NIV

So What?

God has saved us through Jesus and calls us to be part of his church, while giving us his own strength to fight evil.

Philippians

Author

Almost all historians agree that Paul wrote Philippians, most likely, as the letter says, while in jail for spreading the gospel, which Rome had outlawed. Some think Philippians may actually be a collection of bits and pieces of multiple letters Paul wrote, since parts of Philippians seem very choppy. Others argue that ancient writings often lacked transitions, and Paul especially liked to jump from topic to topic, since he had so much to say.

Date

Probably during CE 50’s, or as late as CE 62 if Paul was killed shortly after this imprisonment.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Rejoice! God has forgiven us and given us a mission.

The Greatest Joy Imaginable

Paul begins by declaring how much he loves the Philippians and fervently prays for them. He explains that he is rejoicing even though he is in jail. He is confident God will use this time in jail for good. Paul knows that when he is released from jail he will see the Philippians working hard for God and loving one another. We must all be like Jesus, who was God, yet humbled himself to being a man in a human body and getting crucified, as God the Father wanted him to do. For this, one day every human being will worship Jesus. Paul explains that nothing matters except Jesus, and he is glad to do anything for him, even to be in prison, suffer pain, and die. Paul finds his identity in Jesus and holiness that comes from Jesus’ death on the cross. Like all Christians, Paul must therefore press on and win for Jesus. Christians can look forward to getting new, perfect bodies after Jesus comes back and we all rise from the dead into a new, perfect world. We must rejoice in God. We don’t have to be afraid, because through God, we can do anything and will always have enough.

Quotable

“I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance” Philippians 1:19 NRSV

“For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well” Philippians 1:29 NRSV

“At the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth” Philippians 2:10 NRSV

“It is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure” Philippians 2:13 NRSV

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death” Philippians 3:10 NRSV

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:14 NRSV

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” Philippians 3:20 NRSV

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” Philippians 4:4 NRSV

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” Philippians 4:13 NRSV

“And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:19 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

In Philippians 4:2-3, Paul urges Euodia and Syntyche to stop fighting. He adds that they were his “coworkers” in the gospel and that they “struggled beside” him. Euodia and Syntyche were also women. Women can be leaders in the church just like men—although nobody, male or female, should be fighting in the church! We should not discriminate against women, because God doesn’t. We can learn from male and female pastors and teachers alike. And all church leaders are human beings who sometimes sin, like these women fighting, like Paul who admits he has not yet “been made perfect” (Philippians 3:12). God is the only church leader without sin and the only one worthy of worship.

So What?

Paul wrote this letter, so full of hope and joy in the promises of Christ, while in prison. Many people today feel trapped, not necessarily by a real jail, but by any number of circumstances—depression, family troubles, unemployment, and more. We can have joy because of what Jesus has done for us, and is doing for us, despite these problems. And we can know God will use any problem, even a jail sentence, for good.

Colossians

Author

Scholars are divided on whether Paul wrote Colossians or not. Some think a disciple of Paul’s wrote this letter in Paul’s name as a way of honoring him and passing on Paul’s teachings to a new generation. The style is a little different from the style of letters we know Paul wrote. But, an earthquake wiped out the city of Colossae around the time of Paul’s death, so why would somebody else write a letter addressed to the Colossian church if the whole city had been destroyed? Ultimately, we cannot know whether Paul wrote Colossians or whether his life and teachings inspired a disciple to write Colossians.

Date

If Paul wrote Colossians, it had to have been written before he died around CE 60. Most likely, it was written towards the end of his life, maybe in the 50’s, because Colossians is concerned about disproving rival false teachings, a concern that did not begin until later in the church’s history. If Paul did not write Colossians, we do not know when it was written, except to say it probably was written towards the mid to late first century.

Keep The Main Thing the Main Thing: Worshipping Jesus and being like him is all that counts!

The Colossians Focus

Paul (or the writer posing as Paul) is praying for the Colossians. He praises Jesus as the image of God, Creator, Ruler of the church, and Savior. He reminds the Colossians that through faith in Jesus, they are forgiven. They must not let anyone confuse them about the truth of the gospel: Jesus is fully God and fully human, and through his death on the cross he conquered evil. So the Colossians should not worry about special holidays or rituals. Jesus is what really matters. Since Jesus died for us, we need to embrace the new life he has given us instead of falling back into sin. Paul then urges husbands and wives, parents and children, and employers and employees to love one another. He ends by encouraging the Colossians to pray and catching them up on news about other Christians outside of Colossae.

Quotable

“We have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” Colossians 1:9 NRSV

“He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son” Colossians 1:13 NRSV

“[Christ] himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have the first place in everything” Colossians 1:17-18 NRSV

“But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” Colossians 1:22 NIV

“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body” Colossians 2:9 NLT

“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” Colossians 2:13 NLT

“When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” Colossians 3:4 NRSV

“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart” Colossians 4:2 NLT

Unique and Unusual

Many scholars think this letter was written to fight a group of false teachings that later became Gnosticism (from Greek, gnosis, meaning knowledge.) Gnostics thought the goal of faith is to get special knowledge—instead of the good news of the gospel that the Bible insists we should spread to everyone. Gnostics also thought anything relating to the body was sinful—but Colossians reminds us that Jesus was fully God and fully human. Plus, Gnostics liked to invent secret rituals and new holidays. Colossians explains that what really counts is following Jesus, who already died to forgive our sins. We don’t need to invent special religious rites to bring us to him.

So What?

A lot of these Gnostic ideas are still around today. Sometimes they even creep into the church. For example, many religious people now think they have secret wisdom others don’t, just like the ancient Gnostics. Reading the Bible, especially the book of Colossians, and worshipping God will keep us from being sucked in by these false teachings.

1 Thessalonians

Author

Almost all scholars today believe Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians. Timothy and Silas are listed as co-authors, but Paul is generally accepted as the one doing most of the writing. We have no way of knowing how involved Timothy and Silas were with 1 Thessalonians.

Date

Probably around CE 50.

Don’t Fall Away Now! Stay committed to God, and he will keep you faithful.

Jesus Is Coming—Let’s Get Ready!

Paul and his companions Silas (or “Silvanus” as his name is listed in some Bibles) and Timothy are writing a friendly letter to a congregation they helped build in Thessalonica. The letter begins by praising the Thessalonians for being so faithful to the Lord. Paul continues by explaining how much he, Timothy and Silas care about the Thessalonians. He encourages them to keep being faithful to God, especially by avoiding sexual sins and fighting with other believers. Apparently some of the Thessalonians had lost loved ones, but Paul reminds them Jesus will return and those who have followed God will rise again, just like Jesus did. We don’t know when Jesus will come back, so we must not grow lazy. Paul finishes by reiterating how much he loves the Thessalonians and asking them to pray for him, Timothy, and Silas.

Quotable

“So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own selves, because you have become very dear to us” 1 Thessalonians 2:8 NRSV

“Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about people who have died so that you won’t mourn like others who don’t have any hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with him those who have died in Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 CEB

“[Jesus] died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him” 1 Thessalonians 5:10 NRSV

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the well of God in Christ Jesus for you” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NRSV

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

1 Thessalonians is probably the first book written in the New Testament, about twenty years after Jesus died. It gives an exciting window into the early church. Clearly, not long after Jesus’ death, people were worshipping him as the “Lord Jesus Christ,” as Paul repeatedly calls him. They also believed Jesus would return to set up a new kingdom on earth and that non-Jewish people could be Christians, as 1 Thessalonians explains. All of this evidence points to Jesus having really risen again shortly before this book was written. How else could all these revolutionary new ideas have gotten started so quickly?

So What?

Paul, Silas, and Timothy were like pastors to the Thessalonians. The three of them and the Thessalonians cared about each other very much, as can be seen clearly through this letter. We should try to build strong, close relationships with our pastors and teachers, too. We should also be strong in our faith and wait expectantly for Jesus’ return.

2 Thessalonians

Author

2 Thessalonians begins, “Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy: To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Many scholars think a disciple of Paul actually wrote 2 Thessalonians in Paul’s name as a way of honoring Paul’s ministry. 2 Thessalonians and 1 Thessalonians have a very similar structure and content, but different vocabulary and style. This suggests that the writer may have known Paul and loved 1 Thessalonians, and wanted to write an updated version. 2 Thessalonians also mentions Paul’s “other letters,” suggesting by the time this book was written Paul’s other writings were well-known. Some scholars think that because 2 Thessalonians is so similar to 1 Thessalonians, Paul might actually have written 2 Thessalonians as a kind of “part two” to clarify misunderstandings on 1 Thessalonians. Ultimately, it is impossible to say for sure.

Date

If Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians quickly after 1 Thessalonians, it was probably written around CE 50. If somebody else wrote it after Paul died and his letters were well known, it may have been written around CE 70s or later.

Balancing Preparation and Fear: Be ready, but not afraid, for Jesus’ return

Understanding the End Times

The book begins by explaining the Day of Judgment is coming. Jesus will come back and punish everyone who has rejected God and refused to live a Christian life even though they have heard the gospel. These people will be in hell forever. Before Jesus returns, there will be a very evil man who tries to force people to worship him as a god. There will be more evil in the world than ever before, although even now this evil is beginning. Satan is trying every trick to keep people from believing in God. Some people have permanently closed their hearts to God, completely turning their backs on him, and God has confirmed these people’s choice. But Christians are already being saved by God as the Holy Spirit makes them more and more like Jesus. Christians need to do their part and hold to the truth. God will guard Christians from Satan. 2 Thessalonians ends by encouraging Christians to keep working hard, not to grow lazy waiting for Jesus to return.

Quotable

“We always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith” 2 Thessalonians 1:11 NRSV3

“But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one” 2 Thessalonians 3:3 NRSV

“Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right” 2 Thessalonians 3:13 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Many interpreters think that the Thessalonians were so excited and nervous about the coming judgment day that they quit their jobs and just sat waiting for Jesus to return. Thus, the book ends with a strong warning that Christians need to work hard, both in the faith and at their jobs.

So What?

The idea that Jesus is coming back to judge the world, to punish the people that rejected him, and start a new world is scary and exciting. 2 Thessalonians helps Christians not to be afraid. Yes, we must obey God and fight evil. But we do not need to live in dread of Jesus’ return, because God will keep us from being led astray and will not send us to hell if we believe in Jesus and follow God.

1 Timothy

Author

1 Timothy claims to have been written by Paul to Timothy, a younger disciple and teacher whom Paul loved like a son. We do not know for sure if this is true or if another disciple wrote 1 Timothy in Paul’s name to honor Paul after his death. Many scholars doubt Paul wrote 1 Timothy because the vocabulary and style are different from letters we can be reasonably sure Paul wrote. But, Paul’s style could have changed over the years. Also, 1 Timothy explains that Paul left Timothy behind in Ephesus, which is not true according to the book of Acts—unless there were multiple journeys to Ephesus, which is possible. 1 Timothy is also a very personal letter—Timothy is encouraged to “take a little wine” for his stomach troubles, for instance—which supports the idea of Paul writing the book. In the end, we cannot be sure who wrote 1 Timothy, but we do know whoever wrote it, it was inspired by God.

Date

If Paul wrote 1 Timothy, it was probably written in CE 60’s. If Paul did not write it, the date is unknown, but unlikely to be before this time period because it deals with problems of false teachers and family dynamics the church did not confront in its beginning.

Get Going! Work hard for Jesus!

A Young Christian Gets Growing

1 Timothy starts with warning about the dangers of false teachers. It goes on to praise God for his love, even for great sinners like Paul, who before he became a Christian, have members of the church killed. Then requirements for good church leaders are listed. Timothy is encouraged to train himself to become a better and better disciple of Jesus. The church should take care of widows and pay church leaders fairly. Money should not be considered important—what is really important is following Jesus. But rich people should use their money to help the church. Above all, Timothy and all Christians must fight the good fight of faith.

Quotable

“But the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith” 1 Timothy 1:5 NRSV

“And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” 1 Timothy 1:14 NRSV

“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them” 1 Timothy 2:1 NLT

“There is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all” 1 Timothy 2:5 NRSV

“Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith: Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit. He was seen by angels and announced to the nations. He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory” 1 Timothy 3:16 NLT

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” 1 Timothy 4:12 NIV

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” 1 Timothy 6:6-8 NIV

Unique and Unusual

1 Timothy says that women should not be teachers in the church—“I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man.” These verses have caused a lot of debate in the church. Some Christians insist this means God wants women not to have any leadership in the church at all. Yet many women feel called by God to be church leaders and angry that other Christians are preventing them from following God. There are many committed Christians on both sides of this issue. However, from the rest of 1Timothy it is clear that the women in Ephesus were causing a lot of problems with their gossiping and lying. They were not ready to be church leaders, as 1 Timothy says. The rest of the New Testament, including Paul’s letters, discusses women who were church leaders—deacons, pastors, teachers, even an apostle. The lesson 1 Timothy seems to be teaching is that people who are not ready to be leaders should not be leaders. But those who are ready and called by God, men and women alike, need to do this “noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1).

So What?

1 Timothy provides a lot of guidance to church leaders while also helping all Christians persevere in the faith and praise God for his awesome love.

2 Timothy

Author

2 Timothy says it was written by Paul to Timothy, a younger disciple and teacher whom Paul loved like a son. Whether it was really written by Paul or by another disciple who wanted to honor Paul is unknown for certain. 2 Timothy suggests that Paul was on trial previously and was released, but now is about to go on trial and will almost certainly be executed. Neither trial fits with the story of Acts. More importantly, the vocabulary and style of 2 Timothy in Greek is very different from that of the letters we know Paul wrote, like 1 and 2 Corinthians. On the other hand, 2 Timothy is a very personal letter; the “Paul” and “Timothy” portrayed by it are very close. And it is possible Paul’s style of writing changed over time. Overall, it is impossible to know for sure who wrote 2 Timothy.

Date

Again, the date is unknown. If Paul wrote 2 Timothy, it was probably written around CE 66 or 67, right before he died. If not, 2 Timothy could not have been written much earlier since it is concerned about false teachers and church offices, issues that came up later in the growth of the early church.

We Do Not Live In Vain

God will reward us if we live for him

More about Earning That Crown of Life

Paul, or the writer on Paul’s behalf, expresses deep love for Timothy and Timothy’s family. He reminds Timothy to be brave and strong in Jesus, a good soldier of Christ. Reading the Bible in particular will strengthen Timothy and the church. False teachers and ungodly people are threatening the church, but Timothy must remind people of God’s truth. God will ultimately give a crown of life to everybody who endures.

Quotable

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” 2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

“[God] saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace” 2 Timothy 1:9 NRSV

“Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” 2 Timothy 2:3 NRSV

“The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” 2 Timothy 2:11-13 NRSV

“Warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening” 2 Timothy 2:14 NRSV

“Shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart” 2 Timothy 2:22 NRSV

“Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” 2 Timothy 3:12 NRSV

“Every scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character, so that the person who belongs to God can be equipped to do everything that is good” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 CEB

“At last the champion’s wreath that is awarded for righteousness is waiting for me. The Lord, who is the righteous judge, is going to give it to me on that day. He’s giving it not only to me but also to all those who have set their heart on waiting for his appearance” 2 Timothy 4:8 CEB

Unique and Unusual

Whether Paul wrote 2 Timothy or not, it is clear Paul and Timothy had a very close relationship. As Paul is waiting to be killed by the government because being a Christian was illegal, Paul took the time to think of Timothy and encourage his faith. Paul and Timothy were also clearly very different. From Acts and Paul’s letters, we can see Paul was a bold person who never had a problem speaking up. Yet Timothy has to be encouraged here not to be quiet and timid. Timothy also grew up with a family that followed Jesus, but Paul’s family was devoutly Jewish and never mentioned as being Christians. Even though Paul and Timothy were very different, God brought them together and used them to encourage each other. Just because another Christian might be different from us, we should still love them and learn from them. Also, like Timothy we should look for a Paul, a Christian who is stronger in the faith to encourage us and mentor us. And like Paul we should look for Timothy’s, younger Christians who could use some love.

So What?

2 Timothy is addressed not just to Timothy or even just to church leaders. Every Christian can be encouraged by 2 Timothy’s message to keep fighting the good fight for Jesus.

Titus

Author

Titus claims to be written by Paul to “Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share,” a teacher in Crete. Whether Paul himself wrote this letter or whether it was written by a beloved disciple in his name is disputed. The book of Acts does mention Titus and that Paul did go to Crete, but whether Titus was in Crete at any point is unknown. It is also unknown whether Paul returned to Crete, as the book of Titus implies, since Acts suggests Paul was not planning to go east of Rome after released from Roman imprisonment. Overall, whether Paul wrote the book of Titus or whether a disciple of Paul’s wrote Titus as a way of honoring both Paul and Titus is unknown.

Date

If Paul wrote Titus, it was probably written around CE 60’s, after he was released from Roman imprisonment. If not, we cannot know for sure. Given that false teachers are considered a serious issue for the church in Titus, it could not have been written very early after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Pay Attention!

Focus on God!

More about Avoiding Distractions from the Gospel:

Paul, or the writer posing as Paul, is writing to Titus, whom he has left behind in Crete to care for the church and appoint elders. He gives some criteria for picking out elders for the church. Titus must tell the Cretans to discipline themselves and follow God. Older women especially need to watch themselves and encourage younger women in the faith. Cretans must also remember that God has saved them by grace because of Jesus’ death on the cross. The community must also avoid silly fights and arguments because they distract from the gospel.

Quotable

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say, “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” Titus 2:11-14 NIV

“He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and a new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life” Titus 3:5-7 NLT

“But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and useless” Titus 3:9 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Titus says, referring to the Cretans, “It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, ‘Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12 NRSV). It is a little shocking to read such a comment in the Bible! Reading further and looking at the whole book of Titus and the Bible in general, it seems that Paul or whoever wrote Titus is gently, humorously pointing out that Cretans were an especially sinful people. Clearly, Paul, Titus, and God loved the Cretans Even though we might act like Cretans, God hasn’t given up on us, either.

So What?

Titus has a lot of suggestions for church leaders on shepherding the church. It also reminds all Christians, new and old, to discipline ourselves and celebrate God’s extravagant grace.

Philemon

Author

Almost all scholars agree Paul wrote Philemon.

Date

Scholars are not sure exactly when Philemon was written—probably late 50’s CE or early 60’s.

When Bonds of Love Get Broken God wants us to help repair them

From Brothers, To Broken, and Back Again

Paul is writing to Philemon, a fellow Christian and dear friend. He is thankful for Philemon’s love and encouragement for Paul and for others. He asks Philemon to do his duty in Christ, to warmly welcome Onesimus, who was with Paul during Paul’s house arrest. Onesimus and Philemon parted ways earlier, but now Paul hopes they will stay together. Paul asks Philemon to prepare a guest room for Paul, in hopes Paul is released from prison and can see Philemon soon.

Quotable

“So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me” Philemon 17

Unique and Unusual

In addition to being one of the Bible’s shortest books, it ranks among the most confusing. What happened between Onesimus and Philemon? Why is this short, cryptic letter even part of the Bible? Many interpreters think Onesimus used to be Philemon’s slave, but there is nothing in the book of Philemon that confirms this absolutely. More reasonably, we can say Onesimus and Philemon are not getting along right now. Paul is trying his utmost for them to get along again, and more than getting along, to be brothers in Jesus Christ. Like Paul, we might encounter Christians whose bond has been broken, and we might be called by God to help them—gently, lovingly, as Paul does here—repair the damage.

So What?

God wants us to sensitively, carefully bring peace to Christians whose bonds of fellowship have been broken.

Hebrews

Author

Unknown. The writer does not identify him or herself at any point in the book. Given the very frequent and complex references to the Old Testament, the writer must have been a Jewish Christian.

Date

Also unknown. The book was probably not written very soon after Jesus’ death and resurrection because it refers to the teachings we received from “those who heard from Jesus,” meaning the gospel message had been spreading a while when Hebrews was written. But the writer does not mention the destruction of the Temple in CE 70, which would seem very important to the message of the book about God ending the temple and sacrificial system because of Jesus’ saving death. So it could have been written anywhere from about CE 50 until CE 70.

Why Should We Care About Jesus?

Jesus died for us to save us from our sins

The Scoop on the Savior:

Hebrews begins by explaining that Jesus is the Son of God, not an angel. But Jesus was also a human, and had to be in order to free us humans from sin and death. Also, because Jesus lived as a human he understands our temptations and problems and can help us. Jesus is greater even than Moses. We have to open our hearts and listen to Jesus, because if we reject him God will punish us. Jesus is also a great high priest who takes away our sins, not with animal sacrifices but by actually sacrificing himself. Jesus is also a mediator, standing between us and God to bring us to God. We need to be confident in what Jesus did for us and have faith. Hebrews mentions many heroes of faith throughout the Old Testament whom we should try to be like. We must try to persevere in our faith while remembering that if we fall away and reject God’s grace, God will have no choice but to punish us with hell.

Quotable

“[Jesus] is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things with his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” Hebrews 1:3 NRSV

“Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” Hebrews 2:18 NRSV

“But we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end” Hebrews 3:14 NRSV

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” Hebrews 4:16 NIV

“This is why [Jesus] can completely save those who are approaching God through him, because he always lives to speak with God for them” Hebrews 7:25 CEB

“[Jesus] entered the holy of holies once for all by his own blood, not by the blood of goats and calves, securing our deliverance for all time” Hebrews 8:12 CEB

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds” Hebrews 10:24 NRSV

“Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness” Hebrews 12:10 CEB

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” Hebrews 13:8 NRSV

“For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” Hebrews 13:14 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

Hebrews quotes a lot of Old Testament passages, saying they really refer to Jesus even though they were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. The whole Bible—in fact, all of human history—points to and glorifies Jesus.

So What?

Hebrews is an important reminder that Jesus was and is far more than just a great teacher or spiritual guy. He is God’s Son, and he died to save us from our sins and is gradually transforming us to make us more like him.

1 Peter

Author

Tradition says that the apostle Peter wrote 1 Peter, and the book does begin, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” But most historians think this is unlikely because the Greek in 1 Peter is very sophisticated, beyond what a lower class Galilean Jew would know. Also, this book is clearly written to non-Jewish Christians, and Peter is repeatedly portrayed as the apostle to the Jewish Christians. Most likely, a believer in a church Peter started who knew Peter and grew from his teaching wrote 1 Peter in Peter’s name to honor his former teacher. The book probably came out of a church in Rome, since this is where Peter did a lot of his ministry.

Date

1 Peter likely was written by a Roman disciple of Peter’s, and the book mentions a lot of persecution of the church. There was a wave of persecution of non-Jewish Christians in Rome later in the first century, so 1 Peter was probably written, at the earliest, around CE 70.

Who Are We?

Christians are a chosen, holy people

Understanding Who We Are In Christ

The book begins by celebrating the hope believers have in God, adding that God uses suffering to make our faith and hope stronger. Throughout the book the idea of “exile” is used. Christians must live holy lives because we are exiled, not really part of this world but instead part of God’s kingdom. We are also all stones together forming a spiritual house and a chosen, holy priesthood. Also throughout the book, the writer celebrates that Jesus died for our sins and so we are forgiven. Christians, too, will have to suffer in the world, but God will reward us if we are suffering for his cause. The book ends by looking forward to Jesus’ return, after which he will establish a new world where there is no more suffering.

Quotable

“And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see” 1 Peter 1:5 NLT

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” 1 Peter 1:15 NIV

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s chosen possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” 1 Peter 2:9 NIV

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” 1 Peter 2:24 NRSV

“And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts” 1 Peter 4:10 NIV

“Be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to the world” 1 Peter 4:13 NLT

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” 1 Peter 5:7 NLT

Unique and Unusual

A lot of Christians think of priests, pastors, and ministers as somehow above or better than other Christians. But 1 Peter says all Christians are “a royal priesthood.” All Christians are holy and are called, like priests, to worship God and help other people worship God. Also, interestingly, 1 Peter quotes a lot from the Old Testament even though the book is written for non-Jewish Christians who probably did not know much about the Old Testament. This means all Christians should, like the writer of 1 Peter, regard the Old Testament as inspired by God, as important, sacred Scripture, and try to read more of it.

So What?

1 Peter celebrates God’s grace and reminds believers to live holy lives. This world is not our home, as 1 Peter explains, but we are foreigners, waiting for Jesus to return and create a new world where we can be truly at home.

2 Peter

Author

Tradition says that the apostle Peter, one of the twelve disciples, wrote 2 Peter, and indeed, it begins, “Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.” However, most historians doubt this, because the Greek is very formal, beyond what a Jewish, Aramaic-speaking fisherman like Peter would know. 2 Peter also talks about Paul’s letters and the past “apostles,” suggesting the book was written long after Peter died. Most likely, someone from a church Peter started wrote 2 Peter in his name as a way of honoring Peter, a common practice in the ancient world. So in a spiritual sense, Peter “wrote” and inspired 2 Peter, but a later disciple who learned a lot from Peter wrote the words of the book.

Date

Again, the references to Paul’s letters as already written and the past generation of apostles suggest this book was among the last written in the whole Bible, around CE 90 at the very earliest.

The Return of the King

Jesus is coming back. We must hold firm to the gospel!

Soon, and Very Soon, Jesus Is Coming

The book begins by emphasizing God’s power and promises and explaining that we need to respond to those promises with faith. Also, we can trust in the truth of God’s promises because Jesus really lived and the disciples saw him. The author goes on to mention the danger of false teachers and to promise God will punish them with hell. Furthermore, the church should remember Jesus is returning to judge the world and create a new, better world without sin and pain. People will say that Jesus is never coming back, that he should have returned by now, but the church should remember God will keep his promise. God is waiting, not sending Jesus until more people repent and turn back to God. In the meantime, the church should wait expectantly. 2 Peter ends by encouraging us to strengthen our faith and not get carried away by false teachings.

Quotable

“By his divine power the Lord has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by his own honor and glory. Through his honor and glory he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, that you may share the divine nature and escape from the world’s immorality that sinful craving produces” 2 Peter 1:3-4 CEB

“You must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 NRSV

“So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove you are really among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away” 2 Peter 1:10 NLT

“But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness” 2 Peter 3:13 NLT

“I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing” 2 Peter 3:17 NLT

Unique and Unusual

2 Peter mentions Paul’s letters and even says “there are some things in them hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:15 NRSV). It’s comforting to know that even the writer of a book in the Bible thinks the books Paul wrote can be confusing!

So What?

2 Peter reminds us of God’s grace, which called us to the life of faith and continues to provide for us. But we have to respond to that grace with Christian living, otherwise we aren’t really Christians. Like many of the other biblical books, 2 Peter warns about false teachers, since they can hijack our faith. We must also wait patiently for Jesus’ return and not forget he will come to judge and start a new, beautiful world.

1 John

Author

Unknown. Some people think it is the same person who wrote the gospel of John because the style of both books is somewhat similar. Many historians think the writer of 1 John read the gospel of John and was inspired to write this sermon based on its themes.

Date

Thought to be around CE 90-110.

All You Need Is Love

God loves us and his love helps us love others.

More about God’s Amazing Love

1 John is a sermon from a teacher or group of teachers to a community of believers. The book talks about God’s forgiveness of our sins and God’s transforming believers into new people who are more like Jesus. I John also emphasizes that Christians must love God and love people, and anybody who refuses to do these things is not a real believer. Love has to be real, not just nice feelings or even nice words. We are supposed to love other people as much as Jesus loves, even sacrificing for others since Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross. In 1 John, light is an image for God and for life lived with God, and darkness is an image for life apart from God and from loving other people. This book dwells on spiritual danger, which comes from hating somebody else, loving money and possessions, and from “antichrists.” Here, antichrists are people who purposely teach others ideas that go against the truth of Jesus. Believers must carefully listen to pastors and teachers and not be afraid to reject any teachings that are against the Bible. Above all, believers in Jesus must remember they are God’s children even as God transforms believers into new people, better people who love and live as Jesus did. Indeed, God’s love is the foundation of the gospel; because of God’s love, we are forgiven and made able to love others. God loves so much that 1 John says “God is love” (4:16).

Quotable

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9 NIV

“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” 1 John 2:17 NIV

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” 1 John 3:1 NRSV

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” 1 John 3:16

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1 NIV

“All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.” 1 John 4:15

Unique and Unusual

A lot of Christians today focus so much on God’s love they forget God still wants us to obey him and love others. Or, they spend so much time loving people they forget God loves them. 1 John stays away from either problem. It celebrates God’s love, but says God’s love enables us to love others and that if we refuse to love, we never were Christians at all.

So What?

1 John is a great book for new Christians to read. It’s beautifully written in simple language and covers the most important foundations of the Christian faith.

2 John

Author

Unknown. Unlike 1 John, this seems to be really and truly a letter, not just a sermon, from a traveling teacher/pastor to a church he helped start that he has not seen for a while. Tradition says that the same person wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, but historians don’t know for sure.

Date

Unknown. Most historians guess around CE 90-110.

I Can’t Hear You

We shouldn’t listen to teachings that are against the Bible.

A Reminder about Closing Our Ears

The writer begins by telling this church how much he loves its people. (“The elect lady” is probably a metaphor; the lady is a poetic way of saying “church.”) He continues by reminding them to love one another. He also cautions them to be on guard against teachers and teachings that are against the truth of Jesus. The writer’s deep love for this church he helped build and has pastored is very clear. It contrasts strongly with the false teachers he warns against who not only do not love the people, but lead them away from God. People who stop listening to wrong teachings and who keep loving others and following God will be rewarded by God.

Quotable

“This is love: that we live according to his commands. This is the command that we heard from the beginning: live in love” 2 John 6 CEB.

“Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what we worked for but instead receive a full reward” 2 John 8 CEB

“Anyone who goes too far and does not continue in the teaching about Christ does not have God. Whoever continues in this teaching has both the Father and the Son.” 2 John 9 CEB

Unique and Unusual

Most historians think the writer of 2 John is fighting against a specific kind of heresy, a fancy word for a teaching that goes against the Christian faith. That heresy was a form of Gnosticism, which among other things taught that Jesus was not really a man, but was God who just looked human. 2 John has very strong words for the teachers who taught this wrong idea. Today there are many kinds of wrong teachings out there, about who Jesus was and other important parts of the Christian faith.

So What?

Although 2 John is a tiny little book, Christians today need to listen to 2 John’s powerful warnings about wrong teachings and to listen to good teachers, like the writer of 2 John, who love their people and want to teach them the truth of the Bible. This book’s reminder that we must love others and not lose hope, because God will reward us, is also a very good one.

3 John

Author

Unknown, although possibly the same person who wrote 2 John and 1 John, since the language and style are similar. Here, the writer is a pastor writing a letter to a man named Gaius, probably a leader in the church.

Date

Unknown, although again, probably not before CE 90.

How to Tell a Bad Egg: Teachers who always do evil are not from God.

Thinking Carefully About Our Pastors and Teachers

The writer tells Gaius how much he cares about him and how proud he is of Gaius for his work in the church. He mentions Dioetrephes, who has been spreading rumors about Gaius and the writer and who has thrown people out of the church for welcoming traveling teachers. The writer promises to publicly tell all about Diostrephes’ behavior. The writer adds that people who do good things are from God and bad things are not from God, and this is how Gaius and other Christians can know which teachers not to follow. Applying this test, then, Diostrephes is a teacher to avoid. This is not permission to judge fellow Christians, but a command to carefully think about the pastors and teachers we listen to.

Quotable

“Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God” 3 John 11 NLT

Unique and Unusual

3 John is the shortest book in the entire Bible. Even so, it contains important truths.

So What?

The writer loves Gaius very much, repeatedly calling him “beloved.” God wants us to be this close with other Christians. God also wants us to beware of teachers like Dioestephes and if they repeatedly do evil, we should avoid them so they don’t lead us away from God.

Jude

Author

Unknown, although the letter says it is written by “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.” (Although, as already mentioned, in the ancient world, writing something using somebody else’s name was a way of honoring that person.) The gospels of Matthew and Mark list a man named “Jude” as one of Jesus’ brothers. Whether the book of Jude was written by Jesus’ brother Jude is unknown. The book does talk about the time of the apostles as being in the past and false teachers, suggesting the book was written a long time after Jesus died and Jude, Jesus’ brother, would have been dead by that time. There is no way to know for certain.

Date

Again, unknown. If Jude, Jesus’ brother, wrote this book, it was probably written around CE 50-60 at the latest. If not, it may have been written CE 90 or later given the focus on false teachers.

Keep On Keeping On: Keep following God, not evil.

On Staying In Love with God

Jude warns the church about false teachers, specifically those who encourage the church to sin. He says that God will punish those teachers in hell. To avoid them, Christians must continue to work on improving themselves, pray, praise God for his love, and encourage people who are wandering away from the faith to come back. Jude ends by praising God, who will keep Christians growing in faith if we do not choose to wander away.

Quotable

“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” Jude 20-21 NIV

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God and Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen” Jude 24-25

Unique and Unusual

The writer starts about by saying he planned to write a letter about salvation, but the Holy Spirit told him he needed to write about false teachers instead!

So What?

God really wants us to steer clear of false teachers. We must be always on the lookout for spiritual dangers and focus on staying spiritually healthy, while remembering that God will keep us from falling away—if we don’t wander off on our own.

Revelation

Author

Nobody knows for sure who wrote the book of Revelation. He probably was a Jewish Christian who moved to the island of Patmos to preach the gospel. This “John” is probably not the same person who wrote the gospel of John or 1, 2, or 3 John, since the writing style of Revelation is very different.

Date

Scholars disagree about when it was written. Most guess around the 90’s CE.

An Ending, a Beginning: Jesus is returning to start a new perfect world!

Visions of Judgment, Return, and Peace

John is writing to the seven churches in Asia to tell about what God showed him through this great revelation. John sees Jesus in all his glory, shining brighter than the sun, his words like a sword, and worships him in terror. Jesus tells John to send a message for each church. Jesus encourages each church to follow him more, but some are warned to avoid false teachers, to stop trusting in riches, or to be prepared for coming trouble.

John sees heaven opened and angels and humans worshipping God on his heavenly throne constantly. One angel holds a scroll and asks who is worthy to open it. Nobody is found worthy except for Jesus, who appears as a slaughtered lamb. (This represents Jesus’ death on the cross for the sins of the whole world.) Everyone worships this holy Lamb of God.

The Lamb opens seven seals that represent all kinds of trouble—violence, hunger, and poverty on earth, but still people on earth do not follow God. But then John sees huge numbers of people whom God has sealed, who are in heaven worshipping God and waiting for Jesus to come back. There are people from every nation, time, and place in this group.

Angels blow trumpets and there is more trouble on earth, but still many people refuse to follow God. A dragon, representing evil, tries to harm God’s people. But the angel Michael defeats the dragon and throws him down to earth. The dragon tries to defeat the people who believe in Jesus. Many people worship the dragon and a beast whom the dragon worships instead of God. Even still, the Lamb and the many thousands who worship the Lamb keep themselves pure. Angels preach the gospel, mourn the sins of the earth, and proclaim God’s judgment on the people who worship the beast.

God’s wrath is poured out on the world, and finally Babylon, which represents evil everywhere, falls. Everyone in heaven praises God. Jesus rides in on a white horse, finally ruling over the world and destroying evil forever. He conquers the beast and the beast’s armies. The dead are judged.

God creates a new earth and a new heaven, and God comes to live with people on earth. The earth is more beautiful than anyone can imagine now, and the people there who followed God will be there, perfect now and no longer sinning. There will be no sickness or pain, and they will live in harmony with one another and with God.

Jesus is coming soon to judge the world, and when he does, those who believe in Jesus will live with him in this perfect world.

Quotable

“I am the Alpha and the Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” Revelation 1:8 NRSV

“Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God” Revelation 2:7 NRSV

“If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name” Revelation 3:12 NRSV

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” Revelation 4:11 NRSV

“For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their tears” Revelation 7:16 NRSV

“And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” Revelation 20:10 NRSV

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away. And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’” Revelation 21:4-5 NRSV

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” Revelation 22:17 NRSV

Unique and Unusual

This is a very confusing book, and scholars and believers throughout time have disagreed about the meaning behind the strange symbols and details. We should not be troubled by Revelation’s baffling imagery, however. There is plenty here that is clear—that Jesus is coming to judge the world, that evil is very real, that being a Christian can be difficult and dangerous in a world that does not understand why we worship God, that if we believe, we will live forever with God in a new, perfect creation.

Sometimes we focus so much on God’s presence and blessing we experience now, and on living rightly in this world, that we forget God has promised us a new world and a new life with him after Jesus returns beyond what we could ever imagine. Reading Revelation reminds us of this in a very powerful way. This world and its troubles are passing away!

Revelation also reminds us not to be afraid of death—everyone who followed Jesus during their lifetimes is together with Jesus after death, safe and praising God.

So What?

Our lives, the church’s life, the history of the world, are all coming to a definite ending in judgment and—for those who believe in Jesus—a perfect, beautiful start.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Disclaimer

Chapter 1: Tips for Reading the Bible

Chapter 2: A Summary of the Christian Faith

Chapter 3: Guide for Answering Common Objections about Jesus’ Resurrection

Chapter 4: How to Become a Christian