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! …
Category Archives: Discipleship
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 …
38640 Overview: Ezra-Nehemiah
Many Israelites return to Jerusalem after the exile and face some success alongside many spiritual and moral failures. Originally written together as a single book in the Jewish Scriptures, Ezra and Nehemiah document the fulfillment of God’s promise that Israel will return home after 70 years of exile in Babylon and restore their ruined dwellings …
38641 Overview: Chronicles
Chronicles retells the entire Old Testament story, highlighting the future hope of the messianic king and a restored temple. Like the Books of Samuel and Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles was also written as the single Book of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible. Many readers today, however, skip reading it when they find that it …
31051 God and You
God exists. He is the supreme personal being with intelligence and wisdom who created all things. He exists beyond our time and space. This God is absolutely good, holy, just, beautiful, and powerful. He is love. He is light. He is life! It Was Good God is the designer of all things. His creation was …
32582 Obeying to Get a Blessing
Why did the Israelites repeatedly worship other gods, even after experiencing God’s dramatic deliverance from Egypt through plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, and food falling from heaven in the desert? Perhaps they wanted more control. The appeal of an idol is its simplicity. If you follow the rules, you can expect to get …