Are you satisfied with the way things are in your relationship with the Lord? Do you long for more? Do you long to go deeper? We need a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo and an appetite to know the Lord more deeply than we do now. We need to go deeper in our relationship with the Lord because knowing Him is the greatest gift & the greatest blessing there is! There is nothing greater than knowing the Lord!

"This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent – Jesus Christ." —John 17:3

When we talk about the incredible gift of eternal life, we’re talking about knowing the Lord Jesus personally. This is why eternal life starts at the moment of salvation when your eyes are opened, and you come to personally know the incredible, powerful God of the universe. There’s nothing greater, nothing more important, nothing more amazing than knowing Jesus.

If you could have Heaven with no sickness, all your friends & family, all the food & activities you love, all the natural beauty & physical pleasures… would you be satisfied with that Heaven if Jesus wasn’t there? Heaven is not Heaven without Jesus! It’s His presence & glory that makes Heaven so great!

We want to help you to go deeper in your walk with the Lord in 2025. We want you to experience the Lord in a greater way than you could ever imagine. We want you to know Jesus more intimately & love Him more passionately. Let’s grow deeper in our walk with the Lord this year.

In our Old Testament canon, the last section is referred to as the ‘Minor Prophets.’ In the Hebrew Bible these books are part of what are referred to as the ‘Latter Prophets’ which include Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel and are known as ‘The Book of the Twelve.’ In the Hebrew canon they are located between Ezekiel and Psalms. They are not referred to as minor because of their importance but because of their length. All twelve of the books combined are about the size of Ezekiel. They are arranged approximately in chronological order from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century B.C. Many will mention the name of the King or Kings during which the prophet ministered but some can’t be dated with any certainty. If you are reading in a printed modern translation (not from an app) they will indent sections that are written in Hebrew poetry. You’ll see a lot of Hebrew poetry in these books. Some like Micah and Habakkuk are almost all poetry; some have a mixture of narrative and poetry like Amos and Zechariah, and Malachi is all narrative. Just as the Major Prophets occasionally had messages to or about nations other than Israel and Judah so will the Minor Prophets speak concerning other nations.

If you were to ask our former senior pastor what he was going to preach on the following Sunday, he always answered ‘sin.’ Sin was the reason for the rise of the prophetic ministry in Israel and Judah. From the split of the United Kingdom after the death of Solomon in 931 B.C. the Northern and Southern Kingdoms began a downhill slide into sin. The Northern Kingdom just slid faster and were conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. The Southern Kingdom had a couple of revivals and slid at a slower pace but were conquered and taken into exile by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The sin was addressed by the prophets. In Amos chapter 2:4-8 we read of the sin of Israel and Judah and then beginning in verse 9 God describes what He has done for them. In verses 11 and 12 we read,

That little phrase “yet you did not return to me” is repeated in verses 8, 9, 10, and 11. With all the discipline God brought upon the people they still did not repent.
Bible Project Videos to watch while reading the Minor Prophets.

• How to Read the 15 Prophetic Books in the Bible 
• Hosea Video Summary 
• Joel Video Summary
• Amos Video Summary
• Obadiah Video Summary
• Jonah Video Summary
• Micah Video Summary
• Nahum Video Summary
• Habakkuk Video Summary
• Zephaniah Video Summary
• Haggai Video Summary
• Zechariah Video Summary
• Malachi Video Summary

¹Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

The book of Daniel in our Old Testament Canon, which follows the Greek translation known as the Septuagint, places this book as the last of the Major Prophets. The Hebrew Bible doesn’t place this book among the prophets but rather places it in the last section among the Writings. While Daniel is called a prophet by Jesus in Matthew 24:15 his ministry is quite different from the other major prophets. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel we read ‘the word of the Lord came to’ or ‘the Lord spoke to’ but we never read where the Lord spoke directly to Daniel. Also, the other major prophets had a message given to them for Israel. Daniel seems never to get a message to be delivered to his people. Rather than from a direct word from the Lord, Daniel is given visions and dreams. Many of these dreams and visions are then explained to him by an angelic being who on occasion is referred to as Gabriel. This is the same angel that brought the news predicting John the Baptist and Jesus’ birth in the first chapter of Luke. The Bible Project video summary of Daniel may be found here. A second Bible Project video on Daniel may be found here.

Daniel along with his three friends were among the first Israelites taken to Babylon in 605 B.C. The book contains historical information, prophecy, and apocalyptic literature. The apocalyptic genre is found in the last half of the book. The Holman Concise Bible Commentary has an article on apocalyptic literature on page 659 that you might want to read to better understand this genre. The book of Daniel was written in both Aramaic and Hebrew. The Aramaic section is from 2:4b to 7:28. The fall of Babylon to Persia is covered in chapter 5. Daniel clearly teaches that God is sovereign and rules over the nations. Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon and Darius the King of Persia both acknowledged Daniel’s God, see Dan. 2:47 and 6:26.

Like Jeremiah, the arrangement of Daniel is not always in chronological order. The visions of chapters 7 and 8 occur between chapters 4 and 5. In the Old Testament the dating of events is often given with respect to the year of a king’s reign. This can be confusing as different nations counted the reigns of their kings differently. The Babylonian system seems to be what is used by Daniel (he was trained and schooled in Babylon). Taking our calendar system as an example, in the Babylonian system if a king began to reign in August of 2022 that would be considered his ascension year and his first year would begin in January of 2023. The Jewish system of dating would have his first year in 2022. To see an example of this in the Bible compare Dan. 1:1 with Jer. 25:1.

In the first six chapters of Daniel the question to be answered is how can a faithful Israelite live under pagan rule? Chapter 1 finds Daniel and his three friends tested with regard to the food laws. Ezekiel 4:13 states, “The Lord said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their bread—ceremonially unclean—among the nations where I will banish them.”” [1] Daniel and his friends were faithful to God and still followed the advice of Jeremiah that they should make a new life for themselves in Babylon. They trusted God and did not eat ceremonially unclean food and God honored their faithfulness. In chapter 3 Daniel’s three friends are tested with regard to worshipping idols. They refused and by doing so were thrown into a burning furnace. Again, God honored their faithfulness by rescuing them from the furnace. Dan. 3:12 implies that many of the Jews in exile would have worshiped the idol. In Chapter 6 Daniel is tested as to whether or not he will remain faithful to his God under the threat of death. He also remained faithful. The results of these tests were that the true and only God of Daniel and his three friends received glory. In these first six chapters we also learn that God is sovereign over the kings and rulers on the earth.

Chapters 7-12 deal with visions of the future from Daniel’s perspective. There is general agreement as to the fulfillment of some of these visions such as the male goat in Dan. 8:5 referring to Alexandar the Great. Since this is history and not prophecy for us it’s pretty easy to interpret. With other visions that are not yet fulfilled there is considerable debate. We must read them with humility and grace for those who differ with our interpretations.
[1] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel was a priest. Unlike Jeremiah he was he was exiled to Babylon. From Daniel 1:1, Jeremiah 52:28-30, and 2 Kings 24:8-16 we get the following chronological events concerning deportations to Babylon. In 606/605 B.C. the prophet Daniel was taken to Babylon along with some members of the royal family and other young men recognized for their intelligence. In 597/596 B.C. a large number of Jews were deported to Babylon and Ezekiel was among them. In 587/586 B.C. Jerusalem was destroyed along with the Temple and most of the people that weren’t killed were taken to Babylon. In 583/582 B.C. another group was deported, probably in response to Gedalia’s assassination.

The Bible Project Summary for Ezekiel is in two parts. Here is the link for Part 1 covering chapters 1-33 and the link for Part 2 covering chapters 34-48 may be found here.
One phrase that is found over and over is “you will know that I am the LORD,” or “they will know that I am the LORD.” As judgment comes upon the people it confirms what the earlier prophets have said. You will notice Ezekiel’s message to those who were taken into exile agrees with what Jeremiah said, they were there because of their sin. Psalm 137 was written by one of those in exile,


Ezekiel like Jeremiah will use symbolic acts to reinforce his message. In Ezekiel chapter 5 he is instructed to cut all the hair on his head. For most this wouldn’t seem like a difficult thing to do but for a priest it was forbidden. Lev. 21:5 states,5“Priests may not make bald spots on their heads, shave the edge of their beards, or make gashes on their bodies.”² This would be seen as shameful for a priest. Dividing his hair into three bundles then burning one bundle, cutting up one bundle and throwing one bundle into the wind to scatter it is interpreted in Ezek. 5:12. A third of the people would die from plague and famine, a third would die from the sword and a third would be scattered. But verse 3 says Ezekiel was to take a few strands of hair and secure them in his robe. There is always a remnant because God is always faithful to His promise to provide a savior from the line of David.

Ezekiel 5:10 is difficult for us to accept, is it hyperbole? Ezekiel wasn’t in Jerusalem to write from personal experience, but only what God told him would happen. Jeremiah, however, was there to see what was happening and he recorded similar things in Lamentations 4:10. In Deut. 28:53-57, written almost 1,000 years earlier, God had told Moses what would happen if his people did not obey and now it has come to pass.

But just as Isaiah and Jeremiah look for a future Messiah who will bring salvation to God’s people so does Ezekiel offer hope to those in exile. See Ezekiel 34:11-16, 23-31.

¹Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²ibid

The book of Lamentations consists of five chapters of Hebrew poetry. The first four are acrostic poems. This means the letter of the first word in each verse will follow the Hebrew alphabet in chapters one, two, and four. Chapter three has three verses per letter, so for instance chapter three verses 1, 2 and 3 begin with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph. The sixteenth and seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet are Ayin and Pe which are the first letters of the first word in Lam. 1:16 and 17 respectively. These two letters are reversed in chapters two through four. Commentaries will usually mention this but don’t give an opinion as to why they are reversed in these chapters. The CSB translation gives the Hebrew letter as well as the name at each verse. The Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) discusses this on page 311 under the article on Literary Form. The link to the Bible Project Summary Video may be found here.

While Lamentations is anonymous since it doesn’t state the author’s name, tradition says that Jeremiah was the author. One reason for the tradition is found in 2 Chron. 35:25 which says that Jeremiah composed a lament or dirge for Josiah. Then at the end of the verse it says that these laments or dirges are written in the Laments or Dirges. Most Old Testament scholars however don’t believe this refers to the book of Lamentations but to a document that has been lost. The Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint has an introduction to Lamentations that states that Jeremiah was the author. One early English translation of this Septuagint introduction says, “And it came to pass, after Israel was taken captive, and Jerusalem made desolate, that Jeremias sat weeping, and lamented with this lamentation over Jerusalem, and said”¹ then gives the translation of what we know as Lamentations. Josephus as well as early Jewish tradition and the early Church Fathers agreed that Jeremiah was the author.

Lamentations was written after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and most of the people that weren’t killed by the Babylonian army or had died from starvation during the two-year siege were exiled to Babylon. This was a horrible time for Jeremiah who witnessed the starvation and defeat of his people. It was made even more emotional for Jeremiah because he had preached a message for forty years that if the people had believed and responded to God’s word their suffering could have been avoided. Second Kings chapter twenty-five provides a summary of the fall of Jerusalem. Lamentations is far more descriptive in telling the story of Jerusalem’s destruction. Some have even described Lamentations as the saddest book in the Bible. As you read these five chapters you will notice that it is the people’s sin that brought about the judgment by God. Even during these horrific times for the Jewish people, Jeremiah remained faithful. In Jer. 3:22-24 he wrote,
Lamentations chapter four gives a graphic description of the two-year siege of Jerusalem. Stephen Smith in his commentary on Lamentations warns, “Lamentations 4 is not suitable for all audiences.”<sup>3

1</sup>Brenton, Lancelot Charles Lee. 1870. The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament: English Translation. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons.
²Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
³Smith, Steven. 2019. Exalting Jesus in Jeremiah, Lamentations. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Jeremiah was a youth when God called him to be a prophet in the thirteenth year of King Josiah’s reign in 627 B.C. Scripture doesn’t give Jeremiah’s age when he was called. He states that he is not up to the task because he ‘doesn’t know how to speak and is only a youth or child’ (Jer. 1:6). The Hebrew word here for youth/child is used for a newborn and is translated ‘boy’ in 1 Sam.4:21, a 3-month-old translated ‘child’ in Ex 2:6 and a 17-year-old translated ‘young man’ in Gen 37:2. Some O.T. scholars suggest he was around 13 others under 20 when he was called. He may have been around the same age as King Josiah. He ministered during the last five kings of Judah and even beyond that when Judah was defeated and taken to Babylon in 586 B.C. All five of the kings are mentioned in Jeremiah, they are Josiah (640-609 B.C.), Jehoahaz also known as Shallum (608 B.C.), Jehoikim (608-597 B.C.), Jehoiachin also known as Coniah (597 B.C.), and Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.). If you have the Holman Concise Bible Commentary you will want to read the Historical Background section on page 292. Also watch the Bible Project Summary Video of Jeremiah here.

In addition to being a prophet, Jeremiah was also a priest who lived in Anathoth, which was a priestly town located about 3 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Solomon banished the priest Abiathar to Anathoth in 1 Kgs 2:26. Several O.T. scholars think that Jeremiah might have been a descendent of Abiathar. Jeremiah was not popular with other priests living in Anathoth, even members of his own family, see Jer. 11:21; 12:6. Jeremiah’s life was probably one of loneliness and few friends as God had told him not to marry or have children (Jer. 16:2). He was also not allowed to attend funeral events (Jer. 16:5). He complains in Jer. 15:10,


There are two passages in Jeremiah that are often referred to as Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon. They are found in chapter seven and in chapter twenty-six. The chapter twenty-six sermon is stated to be at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim and many believe it is a summary of the chapter seven sermon. The people felt that because God’s Temple was there, they were safe. Jeremiah’s message was that the Temple wouldn’t save them. They needed to repent. He named the sins that they were guilty of specifically in the account of the sermon in chapter seven, they included oppressing the alien, fatherless, and widows. They were also involved in idol worship. In other passages we learn they sacrificed their children to pagan gods (Jer. 19:5; 32:35). His preaching was so disliked that threats were made to his life.

In chapter thirty-six God instructs Jeremiah to write on a scroll all the words that God had given him and to have it read to the people. Since Jeremiah at this time was forbidden to go to the Temple he had his scribe Baruch take the scroll and read it before the people on a day of fasting. A day of fasting was called when there was a crisis facing the nation, see Joel 2:15-17. The scroll was read to the people and was eventually read before King Jehoiakim who would cut it up and throw the pieces in a warming fire. Jeremiah and Baruch had to go in hiding to preserve their lives from the angry king.
Jerimiah is known as the ‘weeping prophet’ for good reason. In Jer. 9:1 he writes, “If my head were a flowing spring, my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night over the slain of my dear people.”<sup>2

1</sup>Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Ibid.

For Immediate Release

Hickory Withe Baptist Church is pleased to announce Daniel Jerkins will assume the role of Senior Pastor, following a vote on September 22. The vote passed with 97% approval.

Daniel joined Hickory Withe’s staff in 2008 as Students and Recreation Minister, serving and expanding these ministries. Beginning in 2012, Daniel’s position shifted to Associate Pastor administering and leading alongside Brother Eddie Little. Daniel holds a Masters’ of Divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

Following Brother Eddie’s retirement, Hickory Withe formed a pastor search committee of members with various backgrounds, who began to pray and consider who the Lord had in store to lead Hickory Withe. After several months of prayer, collecting and reviewing resumes, and interviews, the committee believed that Daniel was who the Lord had chosen for Hickory Withe.

Isaiah and Jeremiah both had long prophetic careers and each have supporters claiming that they are the greatest of the Old Testament Prophets. Jewish tradition said that Isaiah met his death by being sawn in two during the reign of Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son. According to the article Isaiah, Martyrdom of in the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary several early Christian writers were familiar with this tradition and believed Hebrews 11:37 referred to Isaiah’s death in this way. Additional Jewish tradition claimed that Isaiah was the cousin of the King Uzziah, see the article on Isaiah in the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.¹

There are two Bible Project Videos covering Isaiah. The video on chapters one to thirty-nine may be accessed here and the video on chapters 40-66 can be found here. For background information be sure to read an introduction article to Isaiah in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary or a good Study Bible.

One of Isaiah’s favorite descriptions of God is ‘The Holy One of Israel.’ He uses the phrase 25 times in the book. The phrase is found only six times in the rest of the Bible. It is an important concept in Isaiah’s theology. Gary Smith in his commentary quoting J. J. M. Roberts, “if there is any one concept central to the whole book of Isaiah, it is the vision of Yahweh as the Holy One of Israel….Isaiah saw the splendor of the “Holy One” when he was recommissioned to serve God in a new way in 6:1–13, and this changed his life and transformed his thinking about God.”²

We know far less about Isaiah’s personal life than that of Jeremiah. We are told that he was married to a prophetess in 8:3. There is no record of any prophesies given by his wife and it may be that she is called a prophetess because of her marriage to Isaiah. Isaiah also had two sons whose names were portents. In 8:18 he writes “Here I am with the children the Lord has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion.”³ The first name is mentioned in 7:3 and is Shear-Jashub which means ‘A Remnant Will Return.’ This implies that an exile will occur. The next son mentioned in 8:3 is Maher-shalal-hash-baz whose name means something like “Speed the Spoil; Hasten the Plunder.”⁴ The background for these chapters in Isaiah can be found in 2 Kings 16. Assyria was a major power and Israel and Syria had joined forces and wanted Judah to ally with them against Assyria, but Judah refused. The Syrian king Rezin and the Israelite king Pekah then decided to attack Judah, remove its king and install a puppet king that would join them against Assyria. This resulted in what is called ‘the Syro-Ephraimite (Israelite) War and lasted from about 734-732 BC with Judah suffering serious losses, see 2 Chron. 28. King Ahaz requested help from Assyria and did not follow the advice of Isaiah. After Ahaz’s death his son Hezekiah became king. Hezekiah changed course and stopped a lot of the idol worship in the land and had the Temple cleansed. Hezekiah also sought Isaiah’s advice.

As a prophet Isaiah was not only a forthteller but was also a foreteller. He prophesied about many nations in chapters 13-23. His most famous prophecy was the promise of a virgin conceiving and giving birth to a son whose name would be Immanuel (7:14). He told about a child that would be born named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace (9:6). In chapter 53 he talked about a Servant that would be punished for our iniquities. In chapter 40 he told of one coming to ‘prepare the way of the Lord,’ the servant of chapter 53. These prophesies have earned Isaiah the title of the ‘Evangelical Prophet.’

¹Brand, Chad, Charles Draper, Archie England, Steve Bond, E. Ray Clendenen, Trent C. Butler, and Bill Latta, eds. 2003. In Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Smith, Gary V. 2021. Isaiah 1–39, 78. Edited by E. Ray Clendenen and Brandon D. Smith. Christian Standard Commentary. Holman Reference.
³Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
⁴Easley, Kendell. 2003. Holman Illustrated Guide to Biblical History: With Photos from the Archives of the Biblical Illustrator. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

‘Song of Songs’, also known as ‘Song of Solomon’, or in the Douay-Rheims translation of the Latin Vulgate used by Roman Catholics, ‘Canticle of Canticles.’ The Bible Project Summary Video found here takes the position that Solomon was not the author of the book. For arguments that Solomon was indeed the author and the male lover in the story read the introduction to this book in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary and/or the introduction in the CSB Study Bible. Instead of Song of Songs having no structure and being composed of individual love songs, Craig Glickman sees a chiastic structure for the whole book, a modified structure from his article follows:

The Song of Songs is a poem whose components form a chiastic structure. A chiasm takes the form:

A             Their Story Begins (1:2–2:7)
B               Invitation to Enjoy a Spring Day (2:6–17)
C                Night of Separation Preceding Wedding (3:1–5)
D                 Wedding Day and Night (3:6–5:1)
C′                Night of separation following wedding night (5:2–7:9)
B′              Invitation to Enjoy a Spring Day (7:10–8:4)
A′            Their Story Complete (8:3–14)

where A and A′ mirror each other and where the central element, D, conveys the main point of the poem.¹

Modern English translations usually have a heading to identify who is speaking in the song. They determine this by context and whether the 2nd and 3rd Hebrew personal pronouns are singular or plural and whether they are masculine or feminine. Hebrew 1st person pronouns are not distinguished by gender. Using these methods translators will usually agree but not always. For example, the NKJV on 2:15 says the speaker is ‘her brothers,’ while the CSB has the speaker as the ‘woman’ with a footnote on the word ‘woman’ that reads, “The speaker could be the woman, the man, or both”² and says nothing about any ‘brothers.’

The Bible Project video mentioned that both Jewish and Christian interpreters have used allegorical methods to interpret this book. They mention Jewish interpreters have seen the book as God’s love for Israel while Christian interpreters have believed it showed Christ’s love for the church. This was the standard method of interpreting the book by Christians until the middle of the eighteenth century. As an example of how individual verses were interpreted 1:13 reads, “The one I love is a sachet of myrrh to me,

spending the night between my breasts.”³ Jewish interpreters “Rashi and Ibn Ezra said this phrase refers to the tabernacling of God over the ark of the cherubim.”⁴ Matthew Poole (17th century)” wrote, “Or this phrase may note the church’s intimate union with and hearty affection unto Christ.”⁵

Duane Garrett got it right, “The Song of Songs, therefore, should be taken as it stands. It is a song of love and an affirmation of the value of the bond between a man and a woman. In this way it adds greatly to our appreciation of God’s creation.”<sup>6

1</sup>Glickman, Craig. 2017. “Song of Songs.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 1022. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
³Ibid.
⁴Rooker, Mark F. 2011. “The Book of the Song of Songs.” In The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament, 548. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic.
⁵Poole, Matthew. 1853. Annotations upon the Holy Bible. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers.
⁶Garrett, Duane A. 1998. “The Poetic and Wisdom Books.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 255. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

This past Sunday, September 15, 2024, The Pastor Search Committee at Hickory Withe Baptist Church presented Daniel Jerkins for consideration for the role of Senior Pastor. We are excited for what the Lord has in store for Hickory Withe.

Voting will take place September 22 during service.

The book of Ecclesiastes is about Solomon’s experience of life. We know it’s about Solomon because he states in Eccl. 1:1 that he is the Son of David and in Eccl. 2:1 that he has been King over Israel in Jerusalem. Solomon was the only son of David to be King over Israel in Jerusalem. After Solomon died the kingdom split and Solomon’s son Rehoboam became king over Judea and Jeroboam, who was not descended from David, became king over the northern tribes who were then referred to as Israel. The Northern Tribes never had a king that was descended from David. Eccl. 1:1 reads, “The words of the Teacher” in some translations and “The words of the Preacher” in others. The Bible Project video found here discusses the meaning of the Hebrew word behind Teacher/Preacher. The footnote in the CSB at the word ‘Teacher’ states, “Or of Qoheleth, or of the Leader of the Assembly”¹ Qoheleth is the transliteration of this Hebrew word and is understood as a proper noun by some. The verb form of this Hebrew word is translated ‘assembled’ in 1 Kgs. 8:1 where Solomon called the leaders of the people to assemble when the ark was brought back to Jerusalem. Also, in looking at the cross references in one reference Bible I counted twenty-two references to the book of Proverbs in just chapter seven of Ecclesiastes. There are a lot of links between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

You will notice when reading Ecclesiastes that you will see a refrain used over and over. The Bible Project has a good discussion of the Hebrew word ‘hevel’ found in this refrain and used 38 times in this book and depending on your translation is translated ‘futile, vanity, or worthless’. Interestingly in Isa. 57:13 we read,

When you cry out,
let your collection of idols rescue you!
The wind will carry all of them off,
a breath will take them away.
But whoever takes refuge in me
will inherit the land
and possess my holy mountain.² (Bold typeface added)

The two bold lines are an example of synonymous parallelism. Note ‘wind’ is parallel with ‘breath’ and ‘carry all of them off’ is parallel with ‘take them away.’ The word translated ‘breath’ in this passage is the Hebrew word hevel.

Solomon himself seems to define the word in Eccl. 1:14 when he says that everything done “under the sun is futile (hevel) a “pursuit of the wind” as the CSB translates. This phrase “pursuit of the wind” is found nine times in the book. How useless is the activity of pursuing the wind or chasing the wind or trying to catch the wind. The book of Ecclesiastes seems pessimistic to many and even depressive to some, but one commentator has said, “So, in the end, I am not convinced that words like pessimistic or optimistic best describe what Ecclesiastes is all about. I prefer realistic.”³

Many people today, including Christians, seek joy, happiness and fulfillment in knowledge, pleasure, possessions, employment, wealth, honor, fame or power. Solomon tells of his personal experience in seeking enjoyment in life through all these pursuits and more and declared they were all hevel. His conclusion is found in the last two verses of the book – ‘fear God and keep His commands.’ And then he warns of a judgment to come.

¹Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
³Moore, David G., and Daniel L. Akin. 2003. Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Edited by Max Anders. Vol. 14. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference.

The book of Proverbs along with the book of Psalms are for many Christians their favorite books in the Old Testament. Many will read one chapter of Proverbs every day based on the day of the month and read an additional chapter or chapters at the end of month when necessary. The purpose of the book is stated in Prov. 1:2-6. The NLT translation of these verses reads,
The Holman Concise Bible Commentary in an article on the Themes of Proverbs states, “The bulk of Proverbs takes up the practical application of wisdom. What to do in specific, day-to-day situations was often not directly addressed by the Old Testament laws and the prophets. These problems included how to relate to spouses (12:4; 31:10–31), parents (23:22), and children (19:18). How was one to relate to kings (16:10–15) and subjects (27:23–27), to friends (18:24) and enemies (25:21–22), to rich and poor (14:20–21)? How was one to respond to poverty and riches (18:11; 30:7–9)? Wisdom literature offered the ancient Israelites God-given counsel on such everyday matters.”²

In Proverbs you will find many of the forms of Hebrew poetry found in the book of Psalms. If you need a refresher on Hebrew poetry reread the blog on Psalms for information on how Hebrew poetry works. Here is a link to an additional YouTube discussion of Hebrew poetry. Here is the link to The Bible Project Summary Video on Proverbs.

That Proverbs are not promises or absolute laws to be followed all the time can be seen by comparing Proverbs 26:4 and 26:5. The CSB translates,


So, are we to answer a fool or not answer a fool? The answer is yes. It requires ‘wisdom’ to know in any given situation which to apply. The book of Proverbs has as its purpose to provide us with wisdom as we noted in Prov. 1:2-6. Prov. 1:7 says, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ and Prov. 9:10 says, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ Contrast this with what is said of the fool in Psa. 14:1 and Psa. 53:1 where the fool says in his heart, “there is no God.” While Proverbs doesn’t repeat this information concerning a fool it does have a lot to say about fools. Take note of these verses that speak of fools as you read this book.

¹Tyndale House Publishers. 2015. Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
²Waltke, Bruce K. 1998. “Themes of Proverbs.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 238. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
³Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Before we had ‘smart’ phones where we could have the complete Bible in many translations with us, we had ‘pocket’ New Testaments. These small print New Testaments, usually in the KJV, also had the Old Testament books of Psalms and Proverbs. Psalms and Proverbs were included because of their popularity among Christians. Proverbs contain wise advice for living and with reference to Psalms Jim Hamiliton has said, “Does any literature in the world compare with the book of Psalms? The Greeks have Homer, the Romans Virgil, the Italians Dante, and the British Shakespeare. But nothing sings like the Psalms.”¹ Another Old Testament scholar has written, “As we read the Psalms, we are entering into the sanctuary, the place where God meets men and women in a special way. We will see that the conversation between God and his people is direct, intense, intimate and, above all, honest.”² Click here for the Bible Projects Summary of Psalms.

Again, you’ll want to supplement the Bible Project Video by reading the introduction to Psalms in your Holman Concise Bible Commentary pages 213-215. You’ll also want to look at the charts on pages 217-220 and notice the characteristics of God and Man found in the Psalms. Where the book of Job was written mostly in Hebrew poetry, the book of Psalms is written completely in Hebrew poetry except for the superscriptions at the beginning of most of the Psalms such as found in Psa. 22, “For the choir director: according to “The Deer of the Dawn.” A psalm of David.”³ These superscriptions are considered part of the Psalm in the Hebrew Bible so this would be verse 1 of Psalm 22 in the Hebrew Bible and our verse 1 would be verse 2 in the Hebrew Bible. A few of the Psalms have the superscription taking two verses in the Hebrew Bible. All but 34 of the 150 Psalms have a superscription. Also, the numbering of the individual Psalms will sometimes differ in the Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint (LXX) from the Hebrew Bible. The LXX numbers our Psalm 10 as Psalm 9:22-39. The LXX also combines our Psalms 114 and 115 making Psalm 113 in the LXX. There are other changes in numbering that result in the numbers being back in agreement in Psalms 148-150. Roman Catholic translations that follow the Latin Vulgate such as the Douay-Rheims will have the Septuagint numbering.

You might want to reread pages 199 and 200 of the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (available in the church library) to refresh your memory of how Hebrew poetry works or read an article on poetry in a good Bible Dictionary. Alternatively, you can find a reasonable explanation on the Internet by Jean E. Jones at this link. If you would prefer a short lecture on Hebrew poetry a YouTube lecture by Dr. Brian Russell a Professor of Biblical Studies is available here. Psalm 37 has many of the elements of Hebrew poetry. For example, the parallelism in verses 1, 2, 6, and 12, is synonymous, verses 9, 10&11 combined are antithetical, verses 3, 4,5,7, and 8 are synthetic. Jim Hamilton says of this Psalm, “Psalm 37 is a chiastic acrostic. In general, every other verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet.”⁴

I believe Psalm 22 may be the most quoted and alluded to Psalm by our New Testament authors. Psalm 23 is a favorite of many, and Psalm 51 is worthy of detailed study and meditation for its theology. Charles Spurgeon wrote a seven-volume study on the Psalms that was titled The Treasury of David that has become a classic. The HCBC on page 215 lists various types of Psalms. When you find a Psalm that speaks to your situation spend some time praying it back to God.

¹Hamilton, James M., Jr. 2021. Psalms. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger. Vol. 1, p.1. Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic.
²Longman, Tremper, III. 1988. How to Read the Psalms. Downers Grove, IL; Nottingham, England: IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, pp. 11-12.
³Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
⁴Hamilton, James M., Jr. 2021. Psalms. Edited by T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger. Vol. 1. Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic.

Job is commonly referred to as ‘wisdom literature’ in our Old Testament. Most of the book is composed in Hebrew poetry except for chapters one and two and a narrative section at the beginning of chapter thirty-two. All of the speeches by the various individuals are presented in Hebrew poetry. Many newer translations will use indentation to indicate Hebrew poetry. You can see if your translation indicates Hebrew poetry by comparing the print in Job chapter two with Job chapter three beginning with verse 2. It should be easily noticeable. There is a good concise article on Hebrew poetry in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) on page 199 written by an Old Testament Professor at SBTS. This same article with some additions is also in the CSB Study Bible (CSBSB) on page 761. Dr. Garrett will discuss the use of parallelism and chiasm in poetry and wisdom literature. Chiasm is also found in portions of the Old Testament that we don’t refer to as poetry or wisdom literature. In our last six months of reading, we will be reading a lot of Hebrew poetry. If you don’t have the HCBC or the CSBSB you can read the article in the church library. The Bible Projects Summary video is very helpful as an introduction to Job, you will find the link here.

Job addresses the age-old question of ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ Is it Satanic? Is it punishment for sin? Is it corrective discipline? Ezekiel mentions Job as righteous along with Noah and Daniel, see Ezek. 14:14. In the N.T. Job is also mentioned by James who refers to Job’s endurance/perseverance/patience in Ja. 5:11. A second Bible Projects discussion on Job as wisdom literature can be found here.
Chapter 28 deals specifically with wisdom. D.A. Carson gives a brief introduction to this chapter,


There is a lot about Job we just do not know. It’s generally believed that he lived during the time of the Patriarchs, Abraham or Isaac. Most scholars do not believe that Job was Jewish or that he lived in the Promised Land. They place the location of Uz either in Edom or Syria. Arguments can be made for either of these locations. His three friends seem to have been Edomites. A fourth mysterious person shows up in chapter 32 named Elihu that confronts Job’s three friends as well as Job. His speech is a long one from chapter 32 through chapter 37. Neither Job nor his friends answer Elihu and when he finishes speaking then the Lord speaks to Job. After God’s address to Job, he will no longer complain he responds in chapter 42,

 
¹Carson, D. A., ed. 2018. NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, 847. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
²Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

The book of Esther is unique in our Bible. God is never mentioned nor is the Law of Moses. The Sabbath doesn’t seem to be observed nor the food laws or it would seem Esther’s identity as a Jew could not have been kept secret. There is no mention of Jerusalem, the Temple, or even the land. The book doesn’t have what we would expect to find in our Old Testament. The Greek version of the Old Testament known as   the Septuagint has added verses that include a long prayer by Mordecai and a prayer by Esther, but these verses are not included in the Hebrew text. If you have the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) its introduction to the book covers many of the controversies surrounding the book on pages 191 and following. The Bible Project Video Summary of Esther may be accessed here.

Esther is a welcome relief from all the genealogies we have been reading and is an interesting story to read. We see the Providence of God in it even though God is not mentioned in the book. This is probably what the author of the book intended. God is sovereign and controls events to protect His people. Mordecai’s belief in God’s providence may be implicit in his statement to Esther recorded in 4:14 “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will be destroyed. Who knows, perhaps you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”¹

The villain of the story is a man named Haman. In Esther 3:1 he is said to be an Agagite. Agag was the name of the King of the Amalekites that Saul spared and Samuel killed (1 Sam. 15:3). Josephus says Haman was an Amalekite (Ant. 11.209). The Amalekites were descended from Esau (Gen. 36:12). They attacked the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings (Ex. 17:8) and Moses gave these instructions concerning them in Dt. 25:17-19,


In addition to Haman being linked to Agag and the Amalekites, Mordecai is linked to King Saul, as both were from the tribe of Benjamin and descended from a person named Kish (Est. 2:5, 1 Sam. 9:1).

In chapter 1 Queen Vashti refuses to do the King’s bidding. This refusal does not just affect her but also all the women in the empire. Esther 1:19b-20, ‘Vashti is not to enter King Ahasuerus’s presence, and her royal position is to be given to another woman who is more worthy than she. 20 The decree the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom, so all women will honor their husbands, from the greatest to the least.”’ Likewise, we read in Esther 3:2, “The entire royal staff at the King’s Gate bowed down and paid homage to Haman, because the king had commanded this to be done for him. But Mordecai would not bow down or pay homage.” Mordecai’s lack of following the King’s order would result in the edict to kill all the Jews. Both the King and Haman were angered and embarrassed by what they perceived as a lack of respect. Fallen human nature is no different today.

1All Scripture quotations are from the Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Ezra and Nehemiah like Kings and Chronicles were a single book in the Hebrew Bible. Be sure to watch the Bible Project Video on Ezra-Nehemiah here. You will get in a few minutes a good summary of what is taking place in these books. A refresh of the timeline of the events you will be reading about will help in understanding these books. Judah and the Temple were destroyed in 586/587 BC by the Babylonians. The final deportation of the people then took place with Judah going into exile in Babylon. Babylon was defeated by the Persians in 539 BC. Cyrus the Persian ruler had a different philosophy than the Assarian and Babylonian rulers in that he didn’t force conquered peoples into exile. After defeating Babylon, he allowed all of the exiled people who wished to return to their homeland to leave Babylon. The first of the Jewish exiles to head back home were led by Zerubbabel in 538 BC. The returning exiles desired to rebuild the Temple but ran into such opposition that the rebuilding effort stopped until 520 BC. The Temple was finished about 516/515 BC. The second group of exiles to head back were led by Ezra in 458 BC and the final group were led by Nehemiah in 445/444 BC. Dating many of the Biblical events is difficult to do with precision. If you have the Holiman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (HIBD) there is an article titled Chronology of the Biblical Period on page 287 in the Revised and Expanded edition that explains how dates are determined for Biblical events. Also, if you have the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) there is a chart with some dates of the main events on page 188. Don’t forget to read the introductions to these two books in the commentary.

When you watch the Bible Project Video listen carefully around the 3 minute 50 second timeframe for a different interpretation of the events in Ezra chapter nine and ten from the interpretation given in the HCBC pages 180 and 181. Which do you believe has the stronger argument? What do you believe is the correct interpretation? It might make for a lively discussion in your DGroup.

In the HCBC on page 176 in the section titled Purpose and Theology under point number 2 the author mentions the Cyrus Cylinder. This a barrel-shaped cuneiform document that was found in 1879. It’s nowlocated in the British Museum. The HIBD has a photograph of the cylinder in the article on Cyrus. The picture doesn’t give the dimensions but the cylinder is about 9 inches in length and 4 inches in diameter. The cylinder mentions the achievements of Cyrus and although it doesn’t specifically mention allowing the Jews to return to Judah it does mention his policy of allowing captured people to return to their homeland.
Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem about 13 years after Ezra. Most of the book consists of memoirs of Nehemiah, you’ll notice these sections are written in the first person. Referring to Deuteronomy chapters 28 through 30 one Old Testament Scholar wrote:
Moses foretold of judgment, exile, and restoration in Israel’s future. In truth, the book of Nehemiah recounts what was already foretold by the Lord to Moses many years earlier thus underscoring the fact that the God of Israel is the sovereign judge of the nations, including Israel, as well as the God of amazing grace.

If you would like to read this journal article by Dr. Betts you can view or download the pdf version by clicking this link SBJT Vol 9. 1 Betts, Terry J. 2005. “The Book of Nehemiah in Its Biblical and Historical Context.” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology Volume 9, no. 3: pg 5.

First and Second Chronicles were one book in the Hebrew Bible like the books of Kings and Samuel. Chronicles was the last book in the Hebrew Bible. It actually makes a lot of sense being placed last. It holds to a promise of another King from David’s line who will govern His people. We follow this in our Bibles with the introduction of King Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. While much in First and Second Chronicles will seem to cover stories that you’ve recently read in Samuel and Kings the emphasis will be more theological. You can watch the video for the Bible Project Summary of Chronicles here where they will discuss some of the distinct purposes of Chronicles. If you have the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) be sure to read pages 155-156 where the differences between Chronicles and Samuel/Kings are discussed and pages 163-164 where the purpose and theology of Chronicles are discussed. If you don’t own this commentary, you can borrow it from the Church Library. When you read these introduction pages a lot of Scripture references will be given to support the conclusions reached. I know it can be time consuming to look up and read these references, but the time spent will be well worth it. It’s always helpful to ask if the Biblical text supports any author’s conclusion. This more detailed study will also help you as you read the Bible itself to become more aware of what the author wants his first readers to understand. Sometimes we find ourselves just reading ‘words’ and not getting involved with the text. This is not the purpose of Bible reading.

In the HCBC in the Purpose and Theology we read, “The dominant motif is the temple and its service. Chronicles focuses on the institution of worship, especially music, and the role of the Levites.”[1] In 2 Samuel 6:12-18 we read the account of David bringing the ark to Jerusalem. Verse 12 reads, ”  It was reported to King David, “The Lord has blessed Obed-edom’s family and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God.” So David went and had the ark of God brought up from Obed-edom’s house to the city of David with rejoicing.”[2] The passage then goes on to report on the rejoicing that ends with David’s wife Michal’s disgust with his actions. Contrast this with the account given in 1 Chron. 15:1-25,


David is seen very positively in Chronicles; you won’t read anything about his affair with Bathsheba or the difficulty he had with his children. Criticism of Solomon is also avoided in Chronicles. Note 1 Kings 11:1-40 where Solomon’s many wives are mentioned, and his worship of pagan gods are discussed will not be paralleled in 2 Chronicles. As the last book in the Hebrew Bible, it ends looking forward to the Temple being rebuilt and a hope for God’s people once again in the land. The true hope will be found in the New Testament with the arrival of a new King in David’s line whose name is Jesus.

¹Mathews, Kenneth A. 1998. “The Historical Books.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 156. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
²All Scripture quotations are from theChristian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

The books of First and Second Kings like the books of First and Second Samuel were originally one book in the Hebrew Bible. Once again you will find a good introduction to these books in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC). The Bible Project Summary Video may be found here. First and Second Kings cover the time from the end of David’s life to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Samuel had warned the people of the results of having a King in 1 Sam. 8:10-18,


Due to Solomon’s unfaithfulness to God and the heavy taxation and burden he placed on the people and the foolish advice his son Rehoboam took from his young advisers the Kingdom of Israel split after Solomon’s death, dividing the Kingdom between the North and the South. From First Kings chapter twelve to the end of Second Kings we learn of the history of these kingdoms, Israel in the North and Judah in the South. Dates given for the split of the kingdom vary from about 930 B.C. to 922 B.C. You’ll notice when reading that the dates for the reign of a Northern King are given with reference to the reign of a Southern King and the date of the reign of a Southern King are given with reference to the reign of a Northern King. Understanding this dating scheme has proved difficult, and scholars have debated how these time references should be understood. Edwin R. Thiele researched the Biblical records and wrote a book titled The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. The difficulties that look like errors in the text are now explainable because of his research. One example of the difficulties can be seen by carefully reading these verses, 1 Kgs. 15:25 & 28,

“25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Judah’s King Asa; he reigned over Israel two years…28 In the third year of Judah’s King Asa, Baasha killed Nadab and reigned in his place.” The problem is not with the Biblical data but our understanding of how the ancient Hebrews calculated dates.

In an article by Kirk Lowery we read, “First Kings 15:25 says Nadab’s rule over Israel began in the second year of Asa of Judah. Since Israel used a non-accession-year system, the second year of Asa would be the first year according to Judean accession-year dating. Depending upon which source the author was using, the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings (1 Kg 14:19) or the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings (1 Kg 14:29), the calculation of the regnal years and the synchronization between two kings must take these differences into account.”²

In addition to accession and non-accession year dating methods, there were also co-regencies and overlapping reigns making some passages even more confusing and difficult to understand. Page 77 in the HCBC and page 528 in the CSB Study Bible have helpful charts with the kings listed.

¹All Scripture quotations are from the Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Lowery, Kirk. 2007. “The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah.” In The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith, edited by Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen, Paul Copan, and J. P. Moreland, xxxvii. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

First and Second Samuel were originally one book in the Hebrew Bible. The Holman Concise Bible Commentary has a good introduction to these books and discusses how and when they became separated into two books and how they are referred to in different traditions. An early English translation in the Roman Catholic tradition that was produced at the end of the sixteenth century and revised a couple of centuries later to remove the archaic words is known as the Douay-Rheims translation. In this Bible 1 Samuel is known as 1 Kings and the book we know as 2 Kings is there called 4 Kings. A more recent English translation for Roman Catholics is known as the New American Bible and it uses the book names that we are familiar with, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, etc. The Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint (LXX) refers to these books as 1-4 Kingdoms. You may in your study of the Old Testament run across a commentary or an article referring to 1 Kings or 3 Kings or 2 Kingdoms and you will need to be aware of these differences if their reference just doesn’t make sense.

Here are links to the Bible Project summaries of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. These summaries are very good and well worth the few minutes to watch.

Samuel was the last judge and also served as a priest. He was the Kingmaker. This brought him concern as God told him to go to Bethlehem and anoint someone else as king. The account is found in 1 Sam 16. There are a couple of things that we can wonder about when we read this story. Samuel is afraid that Saul will be told of his activities and have him killed. The first thing in this section that seems strange in this account is the elders that go out to meet Samuel and do so trembling and ask if he is coming in peace. The HCBC doesn’t mention any reason for their fear however the CSB Study Bible may give us a clue as to why they feared seeing Samuel coming with a young cow. On 1 Sm. 16:2 it reads, “Samuel had told Saul that God had rejected his kingship and had chosen another to lead Israel. Consequently, Samuel’s travels would be of great interest to Saul. Samuel feared Saul would consider it treason if he anointed another man as king. A young cow might be sacrificed in a region where an unsolved murder had occurred (Dt 21:1–9). It is also possible that bringing a sacrifice to the Lord merely provided a pretext for Samuel to hide the primary purpose of his journey.”¹ While the CSB Study Bible doesn’t explicitly give this as a possible reason for the fear of the elders, some full-length commentaries will suggest it. The second thing where differences of opinion exist in this chapter is found in 16:14 where an ‘evil’ spirit is sent from Yahweh to torment Saul. The HCBC does have good coverage of this controversy on pages 114 and 115.

In 1 Sm. 28 we read the strange story of Saul and the Medium of Endor. The HCBC refers to this person as the ‘Witch of Endor.’ One unusual feature of the CSB Study Bible are its word studies. On page 454 they have a word study on the Hebrew word translated ‘medium’ or ‘spirit in the CSB.’ The word is found 16 times in the Old Testament and 14 of these are usually translated as ‘medium’ in most of our English translations. The two exceptions are in 1 Sm. 28:8 and Isa. 29:4 where the translations will vary. One Hebrew dictionary gives the meaning of the word as ‘ghost’ or ‘one who consults a ghost.’ In Dt. 18:11 we are told that one of the many sins practiced by the people in Canaan that would bring God’s judgment on them was consulting mediums and inquiring of the dead. Saul was right in attempting to rid the land of these practices but turned to them when he could get no answer from God.

Fortunately, we have God’s word and the Spirit to guide us in finding God’s will. Saul had been told God’s will but would not accept it. Do we sometimes know God’s word and will on a matter but also refuse to accept it?

¹Beyer, Bryan E. 2017. “1 Samuel.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 434. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

The book of Judges shows the effect of Israel not obeying God and driving out the Canaanites. Over and over God will discipline them and when they cry out, He will inspire a deliverer for them. But the trajectory is basically down. No real lasting revival will occur. Be sure and watch the Bible Project Summary of Judges. You can see it by clicking Judges here.

When you read the book of Judges it seems that it is arranged in chronological order with one judge following another. 1 Kgs 6:1 says, “Solomon began to build the temple for the Lord in the four hundred eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of his reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month.”¹ Judges 3:7-11 gives the account of the first judge, named Othniel. We are told that Israel worshiped the Baals and Asherahs and were oppressed because of that for 8 years when Othniel delivered them. We then learn that the deliverance brought by Othniel lasted 40 years until the cycle repeats itself. In the next cycle the oppression lasted 18 years see Judges 3:14 then God raised up Ehud the second judge and after his deliverance the land had piece for 80 years. A fun task would be to continue going through the book and noting how long the oppression lasted and how long the peace lasted for each judge. Then add up all the years of oppression and deliverance. Note there are a few judges mentioned with no mention of how long the oppression lasted and there is at least one with no mention of how long he judged. When you do this exercise and consider the 40 years of wondering in the wilderness under Moses, the period of Joshua’s leadership, the period of Samuel’s ministry, the time of Saul’s reign as king and the time of David’s reign as king and compare with the statement in 1 Kgs 6:1 for the time period from the Exodus to the beginning of the building of the temple under Solomon you may decide that the numbers just don’t add up. If that is the case, what conclusions can you draw? Could some numbers be round numbers or maybe symbolic? Could some judge’s terms be contemporaneous and not successive or chronological? If you look up the locations of the different judges (the CSB Study Bible has a map on page 365) you will note that their hometowns are located over most of Palestine. Does this help you in your explanation of these numbers?

Judges 6:25 reads, “On that very night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull and a second bull seven years old. Then tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.”² Worship of Baal and Asherah will plague Israel until God sends them into exile. But what was the appeal of these foreign gods? Within the Old Testament there is little to inform us about the worship of these deities. Also, there is little that archeologists have found in Canaan that give any significant information. But in 1929 excavations began at a location known as Ras Shamra or Ugarit. It was a city located about 70 miles southwest of Syrian Antioch where the church sent Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. It was north of the area we know as Canaan. Archeologists spent from 1929 to 1939 excavating the area but had to stop because of World War II. After the war in 1948 they began digging again and continued until 1976. What they found were thousands of clay tablets written in several languages and many in an unknown cuneiform script that became known as Ugaritic. In these Ugaritic cuneiform tablets once they were able to read them, they found information about the religion of the area including Canaan. The Hebrew word Asherah was determined to be the name of a Canaanite fertility goddess. Baal is also seen as a fertility god and a god of the thunderstorm. Some of the texts have Asherah as the mother of Baal others seem to say she is his consort. The Hebrew word Asherah can also refer to a wooden pole associated with her worship locations. It would seem that scholars are still learning from the Ugaritic texts. This can be easily seen by comparing Bible Dictionary articles on Asherah from dictionaries published in the twentieth century compared to dictionaries published more recently. If you don’t have an updated Bible Dictionary think about purchasing one as they can be a valuable resource to understanding Scripture.

¹Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Joshua is the story of the fulfillment of the promises made to give the Israelites a land flowing with milk and honey and to give them rest in that land. Joshua is the new leader, and their trip begins much like their fathers with a miracle allowing them to walk across a body of water. Near the end of the book we read of the fulfillment of the promises in Jos. 21:43-45, “43So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44The Lord gave them rest on every side according to all he had sworn to their ancestors. None of their enemies were able to stand against them, for the Lord handed over all their enemies to them. 45None of the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled.”¹ It was ‘the Lord that handed over their enemies.’ The sovereignty of God is seen throughout the book, Israel can’t do it on their own. The link to the Bible Project Summary can be found by clicking here.

The most difficult problem we face when reading this book is how to understand the death and destruction of some of the cities. In some locations, men, women, children, and their animals were all killed. Several approaches have been taken in attempting to understand this holy war. One early attempt to understand these actions was promoted by a heretic named Marcion. He lived in the middle of the second century and started his own religious sect known as the Marcionites. His solution to the problem was a belief that the god of the Old Testament was a different god than the god of the New Testament. The god of the Old Testament was mean and warlike while the god of the New Testament was loving even to his enemies. To make this work he had to have a different canon of Scripture. He only accepted an edited version of the gospel of Luke and ten of Paul’s letters which were also edited. He accepted none of the Old Testament as Scripture. This resulted in what became known as the Marcion canon. Another approach taken by some liberal Bible scholars is that it represents a primitive stage of religion. The ‘holy war’ was misunderstood and didn’t come from a revelation from God. This won’t do either. Bible believing evangelicals have also taken several approaches to understanding these actions. Some have referred to a concept called ‘corporate personality.’ This concept states that an individual is seen as a representative of a whole group. For example, Adam sinned and all of his offspring are guilty even though they did not sin like Adam, Rom. 5:12-14. Or an individual priest offers a sacrifice on the Day of Atonement as a representative of all the people or the punishment for Achan’s sin in Josh 7. Others have argued that not all the people were killed and see some statements as hyperbole.

If we limit ourselves to what the Scripture actually says we find in Gen 15:13-16 that God informed Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in another country, but he would bring them out of captivity and give them the land when the iniquity of the people in the land had reached its full measure, requiring judgment. This level of sin was similar to that requiring judgment in Noah’s day. Leviticus 18 gives a list of the sins that were occurring among the Canaanites. Dt. 9:4-5 states, “4When the Lord your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the Lord will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness. 5You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the Lord your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” See also Dt. 20:16-18. Where the flood was the method used by God to bring judgment in Noah’s day, Israel was the instrument to bring judgment to the Canaanites.

Paul in Rom. 15:4 writes, “4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.” How is our culture similar to that of the Canaanites?

¹All Scripture is from Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

The book of Numbers covers the period of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. The Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) mentions in the introduction to Numbers that the Hebrew name for the book is bedmidbar meaning ‘in the desert.’ The Hebrew names for our Old Testament books generally come from the first or first few words of the Hebrew text. Our English names for the books come from the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible referred to as the Septuagint. The Hebrew name for the book of Leviticus that we just finished could be translated ‘then called.’ Most of the time the names in the Septuagint are more informative about the book than the Hebrew name. But for the book of Numbers the Hebrew name is more informative. The book is about the wanderings of the Israelites ‘in the desert or wilderness’ for almost 40 years. The name ‘Numbers’ comes from two censuses found in chapter one and twenty-six of the book. Introduction devotional video.

Numbers is almost like a travel journal of Moses as God led them through the Sinai Peninsula. You would expect a travel journal to be arranged chronologically. But Moses doesn’t record everything in chronological order. In Num. 1:1 we have a time reference to the first day of the second month of the second year after leaving Egypt. Num. 7:1-9:15 occurs in the first two weeks of the second year, before what’s described in Numbers chapter one, see Num: 9:1 and Ex. 40:2. Also there are several genres or literary types found in the book of Numbers. From census lists to narrative history, cultic laws and rituals and even poetry. See the list in HCBC pages 50-51 under Literary Forms. Many newer print English translations will have a way to indicate Hebrew poetry. The CSB, ESV, NASB, NIV, and NLT will use some form of indention to indicate the section is Hebrew poetry. Look at Num. 23:1-17 in your newer translations and you will see the different indentation style for verses 7b through 10. This formatting feature may not be shown in your Bible app. It is shown in the Logos Bible app. As we continue through our reading of the Old Testament, we will see quite a lot of the text is Hebrew poetry. What is Hebrew poetry anyway? There is a basic explanation in the HCBC beginning at the bottom of page 199 by Duane Garrett. It reads,


In an acrostic poem each line or section begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first begins with aleph, the second with beth, the third with gimel, and so on. The twenty-two stanzas of Psalm 119, the Bible’s largest acrostic, have eight verses for each consecutive Hebrew letter.¹

If you didn’t purchase the HCBC there is a copy in the Church Library. Garrett also discusses chiasms and other literary structures that are found throughout the Old Testament. Recognizing these literary structures will bring even greater appreciation of the Biblical authors and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

¹Garrett, Duane A. 1998. “The Poetic and Wisdom Books.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 199–200. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

The book of Deuteronomy along with Isaiah, Psalms and Genesis are the Old Testament books most referred to by the New Testament authors. It was finding and reading the book of Deuteronomy, while repairs were being made on the Temple during King Josiah’s reign, that brought about revival in Judah, see 2 Kgs 22:8-11 and following. It was the book of Deuteronomy that was quoted by Jesus to counter all three temptations of the devil in Matthew 4:1-11.

You will want to be sure to watch the Bible Project overview of the book in your YouVersion app or you can find the video here. Also read the introduction to Deuteronomy in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) pages 61-63.

Moses has led the Israelites for 40 years and the first generation that left Egypt as adults with the exception of Moses, Caleb and Joshua have all died (see Num 26:52-65). These three men and the second generation of Israelites are now camped in the plains of Moab which were located just north of the Dead Sea and east of the Jordan River. For the route of the Exodus see the HCBC on page 32, the maps in your Bible or in a Bible Dictionary. Moses knows he will not get to lead the people into the Promised Land but will soon die (Num. 20:12; 27:13-14). He wants to lead this second generation into a covenant relationship with Yahweh as he had led the first generation and he wants to warn them of the consequences of not obeying God. He does this through three messages or sermons he delivers. The Hebrew name for this book, mentioned in the HCBC on page 61 is “these are the words.” The first message or ‘words’ are from Dt.1:1-4:43. The second ‘words’ are found in Dt. 4:44-28:68 while the third ‘words’ are from Dt. 29:1-30:20.

The Bible Project summary mentions the importance for the Jew of Dt. 6:4-9 known as the Shema. Shema is the transliteration of the Hebrew word translated as ‘hear’ or ‘listen’ in our English versions. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary says,


One section that deserves serious reflection is Dt. 10:12-22. Paul House writes,
Moses completes the book’s second major section by defining love as total respect (fear) and careful obedience. Respect and love lead to service (10:12). Wholehearted love leads to complete obedience (10:12–13). Acceptance of God’s ownership of all creation (10:14), a claim that excludes all other gods from power on earth or in heaven, means that God may choose whomever he wishes, and Yahweh has chosen Israel (10:15). God’s character is flawless, uncontaminated by greed or prejudice, filled with kindness for the weak (10:17–18). This knowledge should move Israel to internal faith (10:16), external kindness to non-Israelites (10:19) and open worship of the Lord who created and protected their nation (10:21–22). Covenant faith operates from the soul to the world, not the opposite. Faith that is not internalized will not result in God-pleasing works.<sup>2

1</sup>Brand, Chad, Charles Draper, Archie England, Steve Bond, E. Ray Clendenen, and Trent C. Butler, eds. 2003. “Shema.” In Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1481. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²House, Paul R. 1998. Old Testament Theology. 180. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Many people that begin a Bible Reading Program starting with Genesis do pretty well through Genesis and Exodus but just can’t make it through Leviticus and quit. Then the next year or two they will try again and once again end up quitting with Leviticus. The Bible Project summary video devotional introduction to Leviticus is a big help in understanding this difficult book. If you’re not using the YouVersion app to access it, you can watch here.

A large part of Leviticus deals with subjects that just don’t seem important to us today. There are all these rules for sacrifices that are not applicable to us because Jesus has fulfilled them. There are festivals described in detail that we as Christians don’t observe. We even have a different calendar system than was used by the Israelites. There months were controlled by the cycle of the moon. The first day of each month began with the New Moon. The first month of their religious calendar year occurs in our March-April time frame. This all seems so confusing and irrelevant to us. There are these strange laws about what animals could be used for sacrifice and for food. They were referred to as clean and unclean. These food laws were also done away with in the New Testament, Mark 7:19 reads, “For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean,).¹ Again we wonder about the relevancy of this book for us. There were many things that would cause a person to become unclean and require a certain sacrifice to be made or a particular ritual to be followed to restore them to fellowship with God. Strange skin diseases are mentioned that required a priest to examine and diagnose as clean or unclean. The person that was unclean would then have to follow specific steps to become clean. Certain skin issues even required the afflicted person to be quarantined. Women giving birth to a baby would be unclean for twice as long if they gave birth to a female compared to a male. These ‘laws’ seem so foreign to us that we often fail to see any application of these passages to our lives at all and yet we read in 2 Tim. 3:16 that all Scripture is profitable. One CSB reference Bible has 173 cross-references in the New Testament pointing back to the book of Leviticus. Our understanding of what is taking place in the New Testament is informed by what we read in Leviticus.

In the Holman Concise Bible Commentary we read, “The overall burden of the Book of Leviticus was to communicate the awesome holiness of Israel’s God and to outline the means by which the people could have access to Him.”² Psalm 15:1 asks the question, “Lord, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?1 Morales comments;

The answer will involve sacrifice and obedience, purification and sanctification—both within the transforming Presence of YHWH, who alone is the efficient cause of reconciliation and holiness. As such, Leviticus is about reconciliation between God and humanity through the (temporary and symbolic) means of the tabernacle cultus.³
Let’s remain faithful to our reading of the book of Leviticus as we discuss what we learn each day.

¹Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
²Merrill, Eugene H. 1998. “The Pentateuch.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 37. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
³Morales, L. Michael. 2015. Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology of the Book of Leviticus. Edited by D. A. Carson. Vol. 37, 110. New Studies in Biblical Theology. England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press.

When the book of Exodus begins, the Hebrews have been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. In the middle of the covenant ceremony that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15, Abraham was told that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land for 400 years before being delivered (Gen. 15:13-14). We can understand their move to Egypt to avoid starvation but were there reasons even behind that? Eugene Merrill in the Holman Concise Bible Commentary (HCBC) offers his suggestion,

Israel’s role as the people of promise was being jeopardized by their acceptance of the loose moral standards of the native Canaanites. The incest between Reuben and his father’s servant-wife (35:22) hints at that moral compromise. Judah’s marriage to the Canaanite Shua and his later affair with his own daughter-in-law, Tamar, makes the danger clear. To preserve His people, Yahweh removed them from that sinful environment to Egypt, where they could mature into the covenant nation that He was preparing them to be.
This explains the Joseph story.¹

The importance of the book of Exodus and the events it describes would be hard to overstate. Most reference Bibles have about 1,300 cross-references to the book of Exodus in the books of Joshua through Revelation. In Ex. 3:13-15 at the ‘burning bush’ Moses learns the covenant name of God. If you have a copy of the HCBC be sure and read the article on page 25 ‘Names of God.’ The name revealed to Moses in this passage has the Hebrew consonants YHWH and is usually spelled Yahweh. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘tetragrammaton’ meaning four letters. The HCBC article mentions that it is usually translated as LORD or GOD, not to be confused with Lord or God. Some translations will occasionally translate the Name as Jehovah. In the longer form found in Ex. 3:14 the CSB translates as “I AM WHO I AM” with a footnote that reads “Or I AM BECAUSE I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”[2] God’s name points to the fact that He is. Recall in the Gospel of John the many times Jesus referred to Himself as ‘I Am.’

In the Bible Project videos of Exodus, (available here for chapters 1-18, and here for chapters 19-40) they mention that the Tabernacle was like another Garden of Eden. The purpose of the Tabernacle was to allow God to again dwell with mankind as He did in the Garden of Eden. This is mentioned in Ex. 25:8 where the CSB translates, “They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them.”2 The same thought is found in Ex. 29:45-46. In John’s Gospel we read in Jn. 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”2 The CSB has a footnote on the word ‘dwelt’ that reads, “Or and dwelt in a tent; lit and tabernacled,” With the incarnation God literally ‘tabernacled’ again with mankind or as Matthew records in Mt.1:23, “See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”²

If you purchased the HCBC you’ll find an article on the Tabernacle on page 54 that you’ll want to read. The article mentions that thirteen of the forty chapters in Exodus relate to the Tabernacle or its furnishings. It gives the size of the Tabernacle as 45 ft. by 15 ft. with the Holy Place at the entrance of the Tabernacle 30 ft. by 15 ft. which was separated with a curtain from the Holy of Holies which was 15 ft. by 15 ft. The height of the Tabernacle was 15 ft. making the Holy of Holies a perfect cube. When the Tabernacle was replaced by Solomon’s Temple the Holy of Holies was again a cube this time of about 30 feet (1 Kgs. 6:19-20). Then in the book of Revelation, in chapter 21, we read there is no Temple in the New Jerusalem but the city itself is a cube of 12,000 stadia and God is again dwelling with His people.

¹Merrill, Eugene H. 1998. “The Pentateuch.” In Holman Concise Bible Commentary, edited by David S. Dockery, 19. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
²Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.