Posts from May 2021

Nehemiah, Day 5 Nehemiah Chapter 10 – 11 COVENANT: A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. In Greek, it’s defined as diatheke, which is, however, rendered “testament.”(Easton’s Bible Dictionary). In the back of the old Southern Baptist Hymnals, you could find many things, including, “the Church Covenant.” At Sunday evening services, on occasion, we would read that covenant. It was an “agreement” to abide by certain statutes of…

Nehemiah, Day 4 Nehemiah 8 – 9 I am a terrible reader — I struggle mightily to tune things out and focus on what I’m reading. Almost every time I read there is at least one section of the text where I zone out, my eyes move through the words, I may even mouth them out loud, but when I arrive at the end of the page, I haven’t any idea what I just read. Technically I was reading, but…

Nehemiah, Day 3 Nehemiah 6 – 7 So the wall was finished . . . “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God” (Nehemiah 6:15 – 16). In Whitehall, there is a building that is going up and…

Nehemiah, Day 2 IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER RESTORING SECULAR DEFENSES By Resourceful Entrepreneurs — Chapter 4 By Relentless Endeavors — Chapter 5  Chapter 4 As the Jews were working on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, two Arabs (Sanballat and Tobiah) decided to oppose the rebuilding effort. Nehemiah prayed and asked God to turn their insults back on their own heads. Once the walls reached half of their height, Sanballat and Tobiah, along with the Arabs and Ammonites, became very angry…

Nehemiah, Day 1 IN EVERYTHING BY PRAYER RESTORING SECULAR DEFENSES By Reverent Entreaties — Chapter 1 By Rational Expeditions — Chapter 2 By Resourceful Entrepreneurs — Chapter 3  Background Nehemiah was a contemporary of Ezra. Ezra was a scribe and a priest. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes from 464 – 424 B.C. Nehemiah received a report from his brothers in Jerusalem that the city was in bad shape and the rebuilding of Jerusalem had stopped. The people were…

Ezra, Day 5 Yoked With Unbelievers? Ezra 9:1 – 4, 10:1 – 4 There are some things in life you don’t mess with. You don’t mess with a mother bear and her cubs; not a good outcome if you do. You don’t mess with ice on the road when you are driving; not a good outcome if you do. You don’t mess with gasoline around a fire; not a good outcome if you do. Could you do one of these…

Ezra, Day 4 Chapter 7 THEME: Ezra the priest comes to Jerusalem to establish the Law of Moses “Now after this” (verse 1). Go back to Chapter 6, where Darius the king issued a decree to search the archives where a declaration was stored. A scroll was found, issued by Cyrus the king, to have the house of God rebuilt. Darius decreed to have it be done with all diligence. Who was Artaxerxes? He was king of Persia from c.…

Ezra, Day 3 Ezra 5 – 6 In Ezra 5 – 6, we find the nation of Israel beginning work on the rebuilding of the temple. This work is immediately met with opposition and questions about the legitimacy of this project. Leaders in that region wanted to know on what authority they had been granted approval for this project. What I find interesting is the response of Israel. They did things in a way that honored God. If I were…

Responding to Oppression And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel.  Ezra 3:10 In the third chapter of Ezra, we read about the moment when “the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid.” At that moment the younger generation broke into worship and praise with…

Ezra, Day 1 GOD IS FAITHFUL TO HIS PEOPLE The Decree of Cyrus — Chapter 1 List of Returnees — Chapter 2  Background Here is a little history to set up the book of Ezra. The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. The Southern Kingdom (Judah and Benjamin) continued to exist. Babylonia invaded the Southern Kingdom at Jerusalem in 605 BC and destroys Jerusalem and burns down the Temple in 586 BC. Some Jews scatter…