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Bible reading for weekend April 23 -- 25 NOTICE: Google will no longer be supporting the Feedburner email service which has been a part of this website. This service will soon be phased out. So, if you receive this newsletter by email directly from the myburg website, you will need to subscribe to the newsletter via this service . If you are using an RSS aggegator, like Feedly, no change is necessary. Thanks for reading! Apr 23 -- Ecclesiastes 10 and Titus 2 Apr 24 -- Ecclesiastes 11 and Titus 3 Apr 25 -- Ecclesiastes 12 and Philemon  ================    "The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd." (Ecclesiastes 12:11)  WISDOM WRAP-UP (ch 10-11). The book winds down with a collection of proverbs relating to authority (dealing with rulers), work, and speech. When we read of kings and other rulers in the Bible we should think about the one truly good King to come (whom Solomon calls "th...

Bible reading for April 21 -- 22 NOTICE: Google will no longer be supporting the Feedburner email service which has been a part of this website. This service will soon be phased out. So, if you receive this newsletter by email directly from the myburg website, you will need to subscribe to the newsletter via this service: https://buttondown.email/Sandy. If you are using an RSS aggegator, like Feedly, no change is necessary. Thanks for reading! Apr 21 -- Ecclesiastes 8 and 2 Timothy 4 Apr 22 -- Ecclesiastes 9 and Titus 1 "Who is like the wise?  And who knows the interpretation of a thing?  A man's wisdom makes his face shine,  and the hardness of his face is changed."  (Ecclesiastes 8:1)  WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT WISDOM (ch 8-9)?   One question spans both chapters here, and that is, if calamity may befall the righteous (even as prosperity comes to the wicked), and if time and chance occur to both the righteous and unrighteous, and if we are limited in what we ...

Bible reading for Nov 4.  2 Kings 17. "'You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.' However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner." (2 Kings 17:38-40)  FALL OF SAMARIA. This chapter reports the Assyrian siege against Samaria and the resulting fall of the northern kingdom in 722/21 BC. The divine explanation is given in full. The northern tribes are lost, not in the sense that they are off wandering somewhere, but that they are resettled and mixed with the surrounding peoples. Their ethnic identity will be mixed (vv 6, 24). It's a sad conclusion to the story of the northern kingdom of Israel. Here's the summary: "'And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You sha...

Bible reading for Nov 3.  2 Kings 16. "...but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel." (2 Kings 16:3)  NO SANITIZED HISTORY HERE. When I was in elementary school learning about American history, our presidents were presented in a very sanitized form. About the worst I learned about George Washington was that he cut down a cherry tree. Not so for Jewish children. Their national history, being recorded in the inspired Scriptures, is described from God's perspective, meaning the people there are painted with all their blemishes and moral failures. King Ahaz was an imitator (he wanted to be like Assyria) and an innovator (he wanted to change the way Jews would approach God). We have plenty of that going around in the world today -- people wanting to come to God however they'd like. And we can see here how imitating the worl...

Bible reading for Nov 2.  2 Kings 15. "And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin." (2 Kings 15:28) THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT. This chapter records for us the long reign of King Uzziah (= Azariah) in Judah for 52 years, and a succession of several short reigns in Israel. There's more detail on King Uzziah's leprosy in 2 Chron 26. Uzziah is followed by the good reign of Jotham. During this time the Assyrian empire is expanding its power into Israel, beginning about 730 BC (vv 19, 29). Also, the prophet Isaiah's ministry occurs during this period (Isa 1:1; 6:1; 7:17-18). PERSISTANT SINS. You'll notice that some of the moral failures we read about span the generations. In the south they can't seem to get rid of the high places (popular alternative worship sites)(vv 4, 35) and in the north they "did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam" (alternate worshi...