The One Year Bible- 2016!

Welcome to post #1 for 2016 (even though 2015 is not quite over).  For those of you just beginning this journey you are in for a wonderful experience as there is nothing quite like being in God’s Word each and every day of the year.  I welcome back those of you who journeyed with us last year.  The format for this study will be the same as last year.  I will try to give you some insights on what you have been reading and try to connect the dots the best I can. Then I will give you some things to look for in the upcoming reading for the week or some bits of information that I think may be interesting.  This format seems to work well and you can always ask questions by commenting on the blog or by sending me an email. 

Hopefully you have purchased a Bible that says “The One Year Bible” on it.  That is the format that we will be using.  You can also find the assigned readings for the day by going to www.oneyearbibleonline.com.  There you can find the readings for each day of the year and you can use your own bible. 

Each day in The One Year Bible you will find a selection from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, a portion from the Psalms, and a selection from the book of Proverbs. January begins with Genesis, Matthew, Psalm 1, and Proverbs 1. When the year is over you will have read through the entire Bible and have read Psalms twice.

Getting in the Habit
If you are not in the habit of spending time each day in the Word it may be a struggle at first to find time. You will need to experiment and find a time that works for you. For many people, the morning works best, for others it’s after the kids are in bed. Others find that during lunchtime works well. You may want to divide up the reading and do part in the morning and part at night. It will take about 15 minutes to read through the passages for each day. Regardless of the time, you will need to do what works and then do it every day.

Find a Partner
It is always helpful to find someone who is willing to read with you. You can keep each other accountable and bounce questions off of one another as you read. There will also be a weekly on-line study to help keep you on track and to provide a place for questions and comments. Each week (usually Mondays) a new study will be posted at www.bethanylutheran.blogspot.com.

Tips for Comprehension
-Begin your time in prayer and ask God to send His Spirit to guide you as you read.
-Find a place to read that is relatively free of distractions.
-Read the passage aloud and slowly if necessary. The goal is not just to finish, but to understand.
-Make some notes in the Bible and underline key verses. Look back at them later.
-Remember the Bible tells one story. That story is about redemption from Sin by the work of Jesus. Keep that in mind as you read.
-Take your Bible to Church and read along to see what comes before and after.
-Keep a journal about what you read and how it has affected you.
-Memorize key verses.
-Look at a children’s Bible storybook to get a mental image of the stories. This is especially helpful for the Old Testament stories.
-Teach what you have been reading to your children. This will help reinforce the stories for you and introduce them to your children.
-Share what you are reading with coworkers or friends who are not Christians. This can happen especially if you are reading during your lunch hour at work. If they are interested in the Bible point them to 1 John and to Mark.
-Use a daily devotional book (Portals of Prayer, Strength for the Day, etc.) in addition to your reading.
-Look at some Bible maps and get a layout of the land. This is important when talking about events in the Old Testament.
-Don’t worry if you miss a few days. Just double up your readings for a while until you catch up. Don’t try to read it all in one day.
-Some questions to ask as you read: What is the Biblical context of this passage? What is the historical context? Who is speaking and to whom are they speaking? How can I use this information today? Don’t worry if you can’t answer all the questions.

Some things to help you out:
Here are a few websites that I have run across that help me when I am studying the Scriptures:
biblegatway.com - You can search on words or phrases as well as finding texts here.
www.oneyearbibleonline.com -Forgot The One Year Bible at home or even left it at the office? This site will give you the readings for the day. A great help when you don’t have your Bible with you.
www.oneyearbibleblog.com - Want get some in-depth information for the readings of the day? This is the place. It gives you the readings, some artwork and some commentary specifically on the readings for the day. This is a great site. I almost didn’t want to tell you about it because I get some of my info here.

Seth’s Thoughts

This week I want to give you some of the vital stats for the books that we are starting.  Each time we start a new book I will give you the vital stats to give you a road map of where we are going and to give you some background information that will be helpful in understanding the context and the overall story of the book and how it relates to the rest of Scripture.  Next week I will give you some thoughts to the readings so far and help answer any questions you may have.

The Old Testament starts off in Genesis. Here are the vital stats for the book:

AUTHOR: Moses

DATE WRITTEN: c. 1446-1406 BC

PURPOSE: To trace the passing of the promise of God’s Savior from generation to generation, to all Israel and to all nations.
KEY PEOPLE: Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Joseph

LAW THEMES: The curse and death that come with sin and disobedience; humankind’s slavery to evil; families divided by sin.

GOSPEL THEMES: The promise of a Savior; God gives blessings, life, and freedom; God’s goodness and covenant promise for the faithful

The New Testament begins with Matthew’s account of the life of Jesus. Here are the vital stats on the book:


AUTHOR: Matthew (also called Levi)

DATE WRITTEN: c. AD 50

PURPOSE: To proclaim that God’s end-times rule has come in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ.
KEY PEOPLE: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, the disciples, the religious leaders, Caiaphas, Pliate, Mary Magdalene
KEY PLACES: Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Capernaum, Galilee, Judea

LAW THEMES: God’s rule in judgment; repentance; political and religious opposition; authoritative teaching; confronting a brother who sins.

GOSPEL THEMES: God’s rule in mercy; Baptism; compassion; ransom; Lord’s Supper; forgiving a brother who sins.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Matthew is filled with Messianic language ("Son of David" is used throughout) and Old Testament references (53 quotes and 76 other references). This Gospel was not written as a chronological account; its purpose was to present the clear evidence that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior.

Psalms:

AUTHORS: David wrote 73 psalms, Asaph wrote 12, the sons of Korah wrote nine, Solomon wrote two, Etan and Moses each wrote one, and 51 are anonymous.
DATE WRITTEN: Between the time of Moses (around 1440 BC) and the Babylonian Captivity (586 BC)

PURPOSE: To express hope in the Lord God for salvation, using prayers and praises spoken by God’s people at the Tabernacle and Temple or by individuals.

LAW THEMES: Persecutors assail God’s people; suffering brought by personal failures; waiting for God’s deliverance; exile in Babylon.

GOSPEL THEMES: The Lord’s saving righteousness and steadfast love; the Lord provides for and protects His people; prophecies of the Messiah, Jesus; God’s gift of life through the Word.
SPECIAL FEATURES: For the most part, the psalms were not intended to be narrations of historical events. However, they often parallel events in history such as David’s flight from Saul and his sin with Bathsheba.

Proverbs:

AUTHOR: Solomon wrote or at least compiled most of the book with Lemuel and Agur contributing later sections.
DATE WRITTEN: Early in Solomon’s reign as king (10^th Century BC)

PURPOSE: To bestow God’s wisdom.
LAW THEMES: Because foolishness is rebellion against God, fools condemn themselves to destruction; instruction cubs the misdeeds of fools and guides the deeds of the wise.

GOSPEL THEMES: Christ, God’s wisdom, delivers us from self-destruction and brings forth forgiveness.
SPECIAL FEATURES: This is a book of wise sayings, a textbook for teaching people how to live godly lives through the repetition of wise thoughts.  The book uses varied literary forms: poetry, brief parables, pointed questions, and couplets. Other literary devices used in the book include, antithesis, comparison, and personification.

If at any time you have some questions, concerns or just need a pep talk, feel free to contact me, smoorman@bethanylutheran.org, or (562) 420-7783 x. 13. May God richly bless you as you embark on this journey and remember: “All Scripture is god-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” –2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Bethany Bullet - week of December 21, 2015

Ad-Venting: When Trust Requires Validation

Text: Luke 1:18

We all like to vent, to get our frustrations out.  In fact, the literal term for venting comes from the world of physics.  When heating a substance, like a liquid, in a confined space the liquid is often changed into to a gas. The resulting gas will take up a much larger volume. 

If the confined space is not properly vented, a great amount of pressure can build up and can threaten the integrity of the container.  If the container is not properly vented it can cause a catastrophic failure destroying the container and injuring bystanders. 

The same could happen in our personal lives if we are not able to properly vent the emotions or frustrations that get us hot under the collar.  An explosion of emotion can result in injury to ourselves or to others. 

So, it’s OK to vent.  In fact, it’s probably a good thing to do in your own lives on a regular basis.

I’ve heard many people who are frustrated with God or with Faith, vent their displeasure.  In my line of work it goes with the territory. The words often go like this:

·        “Give me a sign!”

·        “I refuse to believe!”

·        “What proof is there for this?”

We are called to have faith, to trust, to believe in Jesus and His plan for us and our lives.  But what happens when trust requires validation?

Have you been there?  Do you know what I am talking about?  Have you asked for a sign or desired proof before you would trust or believe?

If you have, you are in good company. 

“Give me a sign!”  It’s not just words formed on modern lips.  This lament came from the lips of Gideon from the Old Testament book of Judges.  From Judges Chapter 6:

¹² The Messenger of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with you, brave man…You will rescue Israel from Midian with the strength you have. I am sending you.”

¹⁵ Gideon said to him, “Excuse me, sir! How can I rescue Israel? Look at my whole family. It’s the weakest one in Manasseh. And me? I’m the least important member of my family.”

¹⁶ The Lord replied, “I will be with you. You will defeat Midian as if it were only one man.”

¹⁷ Gideon said to him, “If you find me acceptable, give me a sign that it is really you speaking to me. (Judges 6:12,14b-17)

The messenger would give Gideon a miraculous sign by burning up his offering but he still would not believe.  Soon Gideon would test the Lord with a wool fleece.  You probably know the story, eventually he was given a sign and, he believed. 

“I refuse to believe!”  While this vent may come from many in our day it was also spoken by one of Jesus’ own disciples. 

It was the evening of the resurrection.  The disciples were together behind locked doors because they were afraid but Thomas was not there.  When the disciples tell him that they have seen the Lord, he refuses to believe.  “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, put my fingers into them, and put my hands into his side, I refuse to believe.” (John 20:25)

A week later Jesus appears and Thomas is able to see and to touch and he confesses his faith, “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28)

“What proof is there for this?”  A common vent in our day but we also find these words in our Gospel lesson for this morning from Luke chapter 1.  These are words of a priest of God who “followed all the Lord’s commands and regulations perfectly.” (Luke 1:6)  Zechariah served in God’s presence he was faithful, but the words of the angel were unbelievable.  “Your wife Elizabeth will have a son, and you will name him John.” (Luke 1:13)

Zechariah scoffed, “What proof is there for this?  I am an old man and my wife is beyond her childbearing years.” (Luke 1:18)

Soon enough, he was convinced. 

All three of these people had something in common; they all came face to face with the Lord. 

We all have struggled with God’s plan and his promises.  We all have a desire to see, to know, to sense, to experience in order to be convinced. 

The book of Hebrews tells us that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, this is what the ancients were commended for.  This doesn’t mean that they were presumptuous about God. 

It means they believed God for everything he promised. 

It’s important to note what God does promise and what He doesn’t.  He promises that we can be certain about who He is and we can be certain about our relationship in Him, but how the journey plays out is full of uncertainties.   But the end of the story is not!

The last chapter of human history has been written.  Jesus wins!  And all who have been called to faith in Christ will see firsthand that all along the way they have been more than conquerors in Christ. 

This was the promise given to Gideon, to Thomas and to Zechariah as they came face to face with the Lord. This same promise is given to you.  The babe of Bethlehem that we will celebrate this week has defeated death, evil, suffering, sorrow, loneliness, and despair, not to mention the prince of darkness and all his cohorts. 

·        Need a sign?  It’s right here in bread and wine.

·        Having trouble believing?  Look to the cross

·        Need some proof?  Look around. The proof is in this place and those gathered here with you this morning.

When your trust is running short, when you feel that your faith is running out, when you need validation to continue, when you need to vent, go to the foot of the cross, come into his presence in this place and there you will see him as he comes to you in his word, in wafer and in wine and in the witness of his people.  This is the only validation we need. 

But don’t necessarily look for God to fill in all the blanks. Don’t wait for him to remove all the uncertainty.  Realize that he may actually increase the uncertainty and leverage all the odds against you, just so that you will know that in the end it is not about you but about his power working through ordinary means and through your gifts along with others that bring validation to the uncertainties of life. 

When trust requires validation, leave your doubts at the cross and come face to face with the God who will fulfill all of His promises in Christ.

-Pastor Seth Moorman

The One Year Bible- December 21st

We are almost at the end of 2015 so that means this is the last post for the One Year Bible for this year. Next week I will post information on reading the Bible next year.  January 4^th will be post #1 for 2016 as we start fresh again. I hope you all will be joining us next year as well. If you were at all like me, seeing the end of the book is both exciting and rewarding. It is no small task to read the entire Bible. There are parts that are not much fun to read and there are parts that are hard to relate to. I think the best part for me is seeing how all the pieces fit together. The story as a whole is so much more powerful than some sections taken out of context. I hope that as you hear scripture being read in worship, you can fit it into its context and fill in some of the blanks in your mind to get the whole picture. I have finished my reading so this post will make reference to some things that you may have not read yet. Don’t worry, you can always come back and read the post again. With that, on to the last study of the year...

Seth’s Thoughts

The Old Testament

This week we spent time in the book of Zechariah. The book of Zechariah is a post-exilic book, meaning it was written to the people who had returned to Jerusalem at the end of the exile in Babylon. It has many interesting and detailed images written in apocalyptic form. It was nice that we were reading from the book of Revelation at the same time since John seems to have used Zechariah for some of his imagery. This is not to say that John plagiarized his book but he did use other sources to help him make sense of what he was seeing. Many scholars have a difficult time with the prophecies in the book because there is no consensus on the historical context of many of the images. We know that some are obviously Christological (The Branch, illusions of Palm Sunday (9:9), looking on the one whom they have pierced (12:10)) and others must have some context in the day that we are too far removed to see. Eric Hartzell has this to say in his commentary on Zechariah: Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai. He too had seen the captivity and had returned. With Haggai, he say the people’s apathy toward building God’s house. He joined in the message of Haggai who spoke for God...”Build my house!” The book of Ezra tells us. “Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them” (Ezra 5:1) There are many striking pictures in the book of Zechariah. Some of them are surrealistic and in kaleidoscopic colors. Some are stark and strange. Zechariah painted with prophetic brush on the imaginations and consciences of his people. We come upon these paintings today and see that over the years the colors have not faded and the images have not been blurred. He painted hell and heaven; he preached God’s law and his gospel. Zechariah was also a prophet who spoke words directly describing the coming Savior. In this book we hear words that we recognize from the Passion History of our Lord. Zechariah knew the Savior by inspiration and by prophecy.

A few more days in 2015 sees the reading of the book of Malachi and the finishing of Revelation.

Here are the vital stats for Malachi:

PURPOSE: To confront the people with their sins and to restore their relationship with God

AUTHOR: Malachi

TO WHOM WRITTEN: The Jews in Jerusalem and God’s people everywhere

DATE WRITTEN: about 430 B.C.

SETTING: Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah were post exilic prophets to Judah. Haggai and Zechariah rebuked the people for their failure to rebuild the temple. Malachi confronted them with their neglect of the temple and their false and profane worship.

KEY VERSES: “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace...But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall” (4:1-2)

LAW THEMES: Rejection of Edom; condemnation of unfaithful priests; divorce; unfaithfulness in offerings; the day of the Lord.

GOSPEL THEMES: Love for Israel; the Lord’s faithfulness; the messenger of the covenant; deliverance from evil.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Malachi’s literary style employs a dramatic use of questions asked by God and his people.

The book of Malachi is another post-exilic book and has many connections with the book of Nehemiah. Kenneth Barker in the book introduction of Malachi in the NIV Study Bible says:

Although the Jews had been allowed to return from exile and rebuild the temple, several discouraging factors brought about a general religious malaise: (1) Their land remained but a small province in the backwaters of the Persian empire, (2) the glorious future announced by the prophets had not yet been realized and, (3) their God had not yet come to his temple with majesty and power to exalt his kingdom in the sight of the nations. Doubting God’s covenant love and no longer trusting his justice, the Jews of the restored community began to loose hope. So their worship degenerated into a listless perpetuation of mere forms, and they no longer took the law seriously. Malachi rebukes their doubt of God’s love and the faithlessness of both priests and people. To their charge that God is unjust because he has failed to come in judgment to exalt his people, Malachi answers with an announcement and a warning. The Lord they seek will come—but he will come “like a refiners fire”. He will come to judge—but he will judge his people first.

Malachi ends with a warning of the Day of the Lord. As we have discussed before in this blog, this Day is always referring to the Day of Judgment; the day that God will put an end to the wickedness of this world once and for all. It is never a good day for those apart from God, but for those who believe it will be a good day.

The New Testament

It would take me weeks to give you all the info needed to understand the book of Revelation. One of my seminary classes was devoted to this book and we spent hours trying to figure out what it all meant and to try to make some applications for ourselves. For that class I read the biggest book of my scholastic career (almost 700 pages!!). I learned a lot and I am struggling trying to figure out how I can give you the condensed version. I will give you some highlights from my big commentary authored by Louis Brighton:

The book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible. Whether it was written last or not, the church was led to place it at the end of the canon because she saw in it the completion of God’s revelation. Nothing further would be revealed by God until the second coming of Jesus Christ. Revelation is thus the culmination of the entire story of salvation contained in the Bible. It is the end point of all that is written in both the OT and NT. for it draws all of revelation, both prophetic and apostolic, to its final goal: the exalted reign of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of lords and the fulfillment of the promise of the new heaven and earth. As the last book of the Bible and the completion of God’s revelation to his church, it is the lens through which the entire Scripture is to be viewed. Revelation reveals and confirms that Christ was prophetically promised and that his incarnation, death and resurrection happened so that God’s creation could be restored to its original glory and righteousness. Revelation thus points to the final meaning and the final answer to all that is revealed in the Bible. In addition, as the last book, Revelation puts an official stamp on all of God’s revelation, a final confirmation of the divine truth and origin of God’s spoken and written Word. This finality points to the urgency of the last times, in which all things will be brought to an end—an urgency which reminds the Christian to Hold fast to the faith and which encourages the church to complete her mission.

Brighton goes on to say:

The message of Revelation reveals two ongoing phenomena: the terrifying sufferings and horror on earth, and the reign of Jesus Christ as Lord in his heavenly exalted glory. As these two phenomena are described, God’s people on earth are encouraged to cling in hopeful faith to the eternal heavenly glory that beckons them in Christ. In turn they also are strengthened and encouraged for the work of Christ’s mission on earth. The tribulations and sufferings portrayed lead the Christian not to pessimism and despair but to realism. The adversities and troubles prophesied will come to pass, and Christians will suffer because of and through them, as will unbelievers. Such plagues and distresses demonstrate God’s wrath and judgment for the purpose of motivating the godless to repentance. God’s own people also experience these same sufferings and plagues, for the dragon, Satan uses these sufferings and plagues in his attempt to destroy the church and her witness.

With all this being said, the most important thing to get out of a reading of the book of Revelation is that God is in control, his wrath is coming, it is time to repent, God will be victorious and all those who put their trust in him will have the blessings of eternal life. If this is all you got out of the book, then great. The other stuff is there to help make this point clear.

Bits And Pieces

I think the best way to finish out this study is to quote from the last Psalm, number 150:

Praise the LORD.

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD.

I cannot say it any better myself. AMEN!!!

The Bethany Bullet - Week of December 13, 2015

Ad-Venting: When God Hides It Under a Bushel

Text: Philippians 4:4-7

THE VENT, the typical, traditional, generational vent from the prophet’s that we’ve heard this Advent season has ultimately been:  “Where God, are you in this?”  When “this,” the life of the Child of God has situations that are at odds, expectations, and circumstances that are contrary to what was calculated; we are tempted to wonder if God is hiding.

Paul is writing to the Philippians from prison.  Prison isn’t the last place you’d expect God to let the apostle settle?  As missionary to the Gentiles, Paul might have expected travel’s glamour…but the slammer? And should that shackled servant lay paper to pen, the last thing you might expect to read is, “Rejoice!” 

Rejoice in the Lord always.  Paul said it again, rejoice!  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I don’t know what your bars are built of?  Burdens you care, bruises you bare, the brokenness that constrains you tight and causes you to fall apart?  I know not what shackles you…sorrow, shame or sickness?  I don’t know of what your chains are cast…cancer in your body or feeling cloistered from everybody, credits rating or what credit card is carrying. I know not your prison…the past, the present, the lack of prospects for tomorrow. But I know this…at some point, whether it is just in general due to the ways of the world in which you live or in specific due to the weight of the world that you seem to carry; you’ve been imprisoned, shackled, behind bars, and by nature are prone to wonder, “Where God are you in this?” 

·        How can I trust His nearness at a time like this? 

·        How can I keep from being anxious?

·        How can I rejoice and how can His peace guard my heart and mind when all this is on my plate?

Perhaps the prophet not the apostle seems more real!  Paul knew and grew to trust that God was not hiding, even when He was hidden in sorrow, suffering, and shame and such.    

                             

Though circumstances or situations might make it appear that God is absent (in hiding) He is simply hidden (present, working through even the worst of things, for the good of all things as He knows best.) 

The hymnist captures the profundity of this truth in “Let All Together Praise our God.”  The Father sends Christ from His throne to be an infant small and lies there poorly mangered now in a cold dismal stall.  Within an earthborn form he hides his all creating light to serve us all he humbly cloaks the splendor of his might.  He undertakes a great exchange, puts on a human frame, and in return gives us His realm, His glory and His name.  If in such hiding (dismal stall, infant small, humble cloak, earthborn form) He is working His greatest wonder ever, will He not also work in and through all things for your good, as He knows best, even in situations that are at odds with expectations and when circumstances are contrary to what was calculated?

-Pastor Kevin Kritzer

The One Year Bible- December 14th

As Christmas fast approaches, so does the completion of our journey through the Bible this year. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. This journey never really ends but can be the beginning of some new habits. I hope this year has got you in the habit of daily time in God’s Word. I hope you will continue with this habit whether it is reading the Bible again in this same format or it is another way to study, please keep up the hard work. This is the second to last post for this year. Next week I will wrap up all the readings for the year and then the first of January we will start it up again.  On to today’s study...

Seth’s Thoughts

The Old Testament

The book of Jonah is famous for its fish story, and in many respects, that is one of the keys to this book. Jonah tried to run from God. His fear got the best of him and he tried to get away from it. I found it interesting that even in the midst of his flight from God, the Lord was honored. Did you catch it when the men on the same boat as Jonah threw him overboard and the storm stopped? “At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.” (Jonah 1:16 NIV). One great connection to Christ in Jonah comes from mouth of Jesus himself, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40 NIV). Jesus used Jonah to help teach what was going to happen to him; yet again another great connection between the Old and New Testaments.

Micah is one of those gloom and doom books of the latter Old Testament. It has a similar message to many of the other books, i.e. destruction is coming, turn back to God. But there is a huge gem of prophecy in chapter 5, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel” (Micah 5:2 NIV). This is one of the great Christmas prophecies and shows why the Messiah had to be born in the small town of Bethlehem. Just one chapter later we see some great practical advice to the exiles as they live in captivity. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8 NIV).

The prophet Nahum writes some of the most comforting and the most disturbing things in the Old Testament. He reminds us that the Lord is slow to get angry (1:3) and he is our refuge (1:7), but what will happen to those who don’t believe (i.e. Nineveh) will be something awful.

I am glad the book of Habakkuk is not so long because most of it is depressing and bad news. Thank goodness for the last two verses of the book, “yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” (Habakkuk 3:18-19 NIV). This is the key to the book. It reminds me in a way to the book of Job who said, “I know that my Redeemer Lives!”

The key to the book of Zephaniah is in Chapter 2, “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility” (Zephaniah 2:3 NIV). Even in the middle of this destruction that will come as a direct result of sin, God still reminds them to do right.

Haggai writes to those who have returned to Jerusalem but were busy building their own houses and not a house for the Lord. Haggai gives the people encouragement to get to work on building the new temple and gives them a reminder that God is with them

The New Testament

I think maybe I need to back up and give you some perspective on the book of Revelation. Without seeing the whole picture, the details will only confuse you. First of all as I have written before, the book of Revelation is in the genre of other apocalyptic books; as the American Heritage Dictionary defines as: Involving or portending widespread devastation or ultimate doom. The book of Revelation looks at this in regards to the end of the world and it looks at it from different angles. As one of my seminary professors said, John sees a vision of the end of the world from three points of view. Each point of view is like a different camera angle shooting the same scene. Each camera sees the action and the characters from a different point of view. Each angle provides certain aspects of the story to be emphasized. Some angles completely obscure the action and something may be lost. When John writes about what he sees we must keep in mind that this is not all happening in linear time as we are used to. John sees the complete destruction of the world with the seven seals on the scroll opened by Jesus himself. Then he sees the destruction of the world again with the seven trumpet blasts. This time different parts of the same story are emphasized. A bit later we will see the seven censers of God’s wrath being poured out. This time John will describe the end of the world from another point of view. In the middle of all of this is the cosmic war between Satan and Christ. We must remember that the war was won for us on the cross and the open tomb. We are part of the group that has been sealed in baptism and we have the mark of God on us. Therefore all of this bad stuff will not affect us. We are assured of our place in heaven already. I hope this give some perspective to you as you read. I will spend some more time next week getting into some of the details.

Bits and Pieces

Only two books to go.... Here are the vital stats for Zechariah:

PURPOSE: To give hope to God’s people by revealing God’s future deliverance through the Messiah

AUTHOR: Zechariah

TO WHOM WRITTEN: The Jews in Jerusalem who had returned form their captivity in Babylon and to God’s people everywhere

DATE WRITTEN: Chapters 1-8 were written about 520-518 B.C. Chapters 9-14 were written about 480 B.C.

SETTING: The exiles had returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, but the work had been thwarted and stalled. Haggai and Zechariah confronted the people with their task and encouraged them to complete it.

KEY VERSES: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey...He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and form the River to the ends of the earth." (9:9-10)

LAW THEMES: A call to return to the Lord in repentance; dishonesty condemned; the whirlwind among the nations; the doomed flock.

GOSPEL THEMES: The Lord chooses His people; the Branch prophecy of forgiveness; the temple restored; nations seek the Lord; the coming King; the day of the Lord.

SPECIAL FEATURES: The book is the most apocalyptic and Messianic of all the Minor Prophets.