Commuter Bible OT

Friends, this is our final episode in our chronological reading of the Old Testament, the book of the prophet Malachi. Not much is known about Malachi, (whose name means “my messenger”), but contextu…

The temple is finished. The wall is finished. The people have rededicated themselves to the Lord’s house, and on today’s episode, the remnant of Israel rejoices. With the work completed, Nehemiah ret…

Now that the work of rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the walls surrounding Jerusalem is complete, the exiles from Israel gather together to hear Ezra read from the book of the Law. The Levites e…

As we began to see our last episode, the governors who oversee region west of the Euphrates, which includes Judah and Jerusalem, are unhappy that Nehemiah has been sent to help rebuild the walls of J…

As mentioned previously, Nehemiah is a continuation of the Ezra, recorded the history of Israel and their return from exile. Nehemiah, an exile who lived in Persia’s capital and served King Artaxerxe…

In our last episode, we were introduced to Ezra, a scribe in exile who had been trained in the law of Moses and who had “determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach it’s …

Haman’s wrath against Mordecai and the Jewish people has returned on his own head. On today’s episode, Esther continues to represent her people before the king, turning a day of mourning into a day o…

Haman, the royal official who hates Mordecai for being disrespectful and insubordinate, has tricked King Ahaseurus into giving him even more power and authority. With the king’s signet ring in hand, …

The account of Esther, the Jewish orphan who becomes the queen of Persia, is neither a Cinderella story, nor a how-to guide for righteousness. It does, however, give us a picture of the God who graci…

Today, Zechariah symbolically takes on the role of a shepherd of those sheep who were raised for purpose of being slaughtered, for the shepherds had not cared for them; they only used them for person…

We’re picking up where we left off in the collection of visions that Zechariah saw, today looking at visions six, seven and eight. The vision of the flying scroll is an indication that God’s just law…

The prophet Zechariah was a contemporary of the prophet Haggai and you probably remember hearing his name mentioned along with Haggai in our last reading. Both prophets spoke to the exiles who had re…

Within the historical account written down in the book of Ezra, we learn of a prophet named Haggai who turned the hearts of the people toward the Lord. We’ll begin this episode by reading from the bo…

Our chronological reading of the Old Testament is approaching completion, which means we are now beginning to cover Israel’s return to the land of promise. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were origina…

Contrary to Victorian era illustrations and Michelangelo’s chubby cherubs in the Sistine Chapel, angels are always described as glorious and fear-inducing.  Whenever someone sees a vision of an angel…

We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and th…

There are a few different ways to look at the structure of the book of Daniel, and one of them is to note that the first six chapters are comprised of narratives that contain prophecy, while the last…

Through their wisdom and through their service to the king, Daniel and his friends bear witness to the power and glory of God through their faithful witness. Many of us know the account found in toda…

God’s people are now in exile in the land of Babylon, which brings us to the book of Daniel, an extraordinary account of a young Judean exile who receives interpretation and prophecy from the Lord wh…