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Bible reading for Nov 17.  1 Chronicles 9-10. "...besides their kinsmen, heads of their fathers' houses, 1,760, mighty men for the work of the service of the house of God." (9:13)  NAMES AND NUMBERS (ch 9). We now come to the people who returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Central in this list are the priests, gatekeepers and singers who served at the temple. The focus of Chronicles is upon the worship of God at the temple in Jerusalem. We notice that, instead of the phrase "mighty men for war", we read "mighty men of the service of the house of God" (v 13). Israel had a tendency to rest upon its military strength (or on alliances with other strong nations) instead of being faithful to dedicated worship of the Lord their God. A sidebar: reading genealogies can be tedious. A professor once said to us in seminary, "All of the Bible is equally inspired, but not all of it is equally profitable." That is, God has fully inspired both ...

Bible reading for Nov 13.  1 Chronicles 1-2. "These are their genealogies..." (1:29) PARALLEL HISTORY. Now we step back to read a parallel account of Israel's history, focusing on Judah (the southern kingdom), King David and his descendants, and the temple in Jerusalem. First and Second Chronicles are two volumes of one original work, Chronica , in the Hebrew OT (the Tanakh), coming right after Nehemiah. This was most likely written by, or compiled under the oversight of, Ezra the scribe, sometime in the fifth century BC after the Jews had returned from Babylon. It is an additional witness to the history recorded in 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings.  GENEALOGIES. The first two chapters open with genealogies, as all good Jewish history should! You can compare this with the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke, for example. God's work spans the generations. Here the names focus on David and Caleb, and a portion on Edom (descendants of Esau). These were the main famil...

Bible reading for May 18.  Numbers 27. "Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd." (Num 27:16-17) CHAPTER 27. The Lord makes provision for the daughters of Zelophehad (and others) to inherit land when there were no male heirs.  This shows God's care for women (and mothers and widows ) under the law.  In the new covenant men and women alike inherit eternal life and the blessing of the Holy Spirit in this life (Joel 2:28-29; Gal 3:28).  Moses views the promised land from Mount Abarim and appoints Joshua as his successor. To have a "shepherd" was to have a leader to lead, guide, protect, and care for you (Ps 23; John 10:10-16).  God's people always have need for such leadership (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet 5:1-4). DO YOU THANK G...

There's some good insight in these articles (cited below) on the way we speak of "generations" and how we dismiss views based upon perceived generational differences... "There are, in fact, no 'generations' except in the biological sense. There are only categories and crises of temperament [which] crisscross and defy and deny chronology."  ( Cynthia Ozick )  Note to boomer self: not all boomers are boomers...  "Almost all of the truly interesting so-called Boomers, that is to say, are in fact anti-Boomers."  ( Joshua Glenn )   "When you’re noticeably younger than the people we tend to see in leading roles on TV and in the movies, or noticeably older, your age is registered and then deployed as a causal agent — almost always in order to dismiss your ideas."  ( Alan Jacobs ) I am reminded again (in the last verse of the Old Testament) just how the work of God in conversion changes the way we view those older and younger than our...