Malachi accuses Israel of selfishness after the exile and announces that the day of the Lord will purify Israel and prepare them for God’s kingdom. One hundred years after exile, the Israelites who had returned to Jerusalem were as evil and corrupt as their ancestors. The book of Malachi addresses their corruption regarding issues like …
Monthly Archives: May 2020
38631 Overview: Psalms
The book of Psalms has been designed to be the prayer book of God’s people as they wait for the Messiah and his coming kingdom. Written to join the Hebrew Torah, or the first five books of the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms is a remarkable collection of poems from David, Moses, and other …
38632 Overview: Proverbs
The book of Proverbs invites people to live with wisdom and in the fear of the Lord in order to experience the good life. Proverbs offers human words or human wisdom as a vehicle for the divine Word. The two voices we hear in Proverbs 1-9 have been fused together to help us understand that …
38633 Overview: Job
Job explores the difficult question of God’s relationship to human suffering, and invites us to trust God’s wisdom and character. Set in Uz, an obscure land far from Israel, during an unknown time period, the book of Job focuses on questions about God’s justice and why good people suffer. At the same time, it also …
38634 Overview: Song of Songs
The Song of Songs is a collection of ancient Israelite love poems that celebrates the beauty and power of God’s gift of love and sexual desire. A peculiar book in the Bible, the Song of Songs, also known as the Song of Solomon, is not technically a book. It’s a love song between two lovers! …
38635 Overview: Ruth
God uses a faithful non-Israelite to bring restoration to his people. The book of Ruth is a beautifully crafted look at how God’s good purpose interplays with the human decisions. It’s a tale of love, loss, faithfulness, and redemption. The Faithful Gentile Picking up “in the days when the judges ruled,” the book of Ruth …
38636 Overview: Lamentations
A collection of five funeral poems offered on behalf of Jerusalem after its destruction by Babylon. The Book of Lamentations may not be the most popular book in the Bible, but it is an essential ingredient for helping humans to understand an important aspect of their relationship with God – the expression of grief and …
38637 Overview: Ecclesiastes
This book forces us to face death and random chance, and the challenges they pose to a naive belief in God’s goodness. The Book of Ecclesiastes is the critic’s response to Proverbs, which states we live a good life when we fear God and follow wisdom. Can you trust God’s wisdom? This book’s author and …
38638 Overview: Esther
God providentially uses two exiled Israelites to rescue His people from certain doom, without any explicit mention of God or His activity! A classic story of good versus evil, the Book of Esther is a unique account in the Bible. It gives us a glimpse of the Jews who remained outside their homeland after the …
38639 Overview: Daniel
The story of Daniel motivates faithfulness despite exile in Babylon. His visions offer hope that God will bring all nations under his rule. Can there ever be faith again in the midst of darkness, rebellion, and gloom? According to the Book of Daniel, yes, there can. This remarkable piece of Scripture has encouraged the faithful …