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Bible reading for December 29 -- 31 Dec 29 -- Malachi 2 and John 19 Dec 30 -- Malachi 3 and John 20 Dec 31 -- Malachi 4 and John 21 ================ "But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall."  (Malachi 4:2)  DOING ALL THINGS POORLY (Mal 2-3). As we draw near the end of the Mosaic covenant period, we see that even when the remnant of Israel is spared and returned to the land, they still do not continue in faithfulness and zeal. The Jews have lost their sense of God's greatness and their religion is half-hearted at best. The Lord himself will come to them: "Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts" (3:1). God's Son, Jesus, would himself stand in the temple courts in Jerusa...

  Bible reading for December 22 -- 26 Dec 22 -- Zechariah 9 and John 12 Dec 23 -- Zechariah 10 and John 13 Dec 24 -- Zechariah 11 and John 14 Dec 25 -- Zechariah 12 and John 15 Dec 26 -- Zechariah 13 and John 16 We are in the Christmas holiday season, and so, I'm combining several days' readings. Next week we will be finishing the 2021 Bible reading schedule! Congratulations to those of you who have been reading along with us. Thanks for your kind and helpful notes along the way. And may you and yours have a blessed Christmas! --Sandy ================ "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9)  THREE REMARKABLE PROPHECIES (Zech 9-12) . The prophet Isaiah gave us many wonderful descriptions of the Messiah-to-come, including his miraculous birth. Daniel gave us a sketch of the Messian...

Bible reading for weekend Oct 22 -- 24 Oct 22 -- Daniel 7 and Psalms 114-115 Oct 23 -- Daniel 8 and Psalm 116 Oct 24 -- Daniel 9 and Psalm 117-118 ================   "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14) THE BEASTS (ch 7). The four beasts are four empires in succession -- Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek (Alexandrian), and Roman. Some liberal scholars date the writing of the book of Daniel after these events because they cannot believe a Jewish prophet could possibly predict world empires so accurately, including the breakup of Alexander's empire into four smaller, regional empires. These four beasts a...

  Bible reading for Oct 13 -- 14 Oct 13 -- Ezekiel 46 and Psalm 102 Oct 14 -- Ezekiel 47 and Psalm 103 ================   "And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes." (Ezekiel 47:9) THE PRINCE, THE PRIESTS, AND THE RIVER (ch 46-47). We are continuing to read about Ezekiel's vision of the temple, the city, the leaders, the ministers, and the geography. It is visionary language, and it is in the future from Ezekiel's perspective. There are connections here with Revelation, and also with the Mosaic laws in Leviticus. In these chapters we see that the prince is to lead worship by his example; there are instructions about gates, gifts, offerings, holy spaces, and preparation of food. There springs from the temple a remarkable, ever-expanding stream of fresh water. Also, there is to be fair di...

  Bible reading for Oct 6 -- 7 Oct 6 -- Ezekiel 39 and Psalm 90 Oct 7 -- Ezekiel 40 and Psalm 91 ================   "Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 39:28-29) ISRAEL REGATHERED, GOG DESTROYED (ch 39). The Gog / Magogite alliance fails in their attack upon Israel. One of our readers asked if the re-establishment of Israel as a nation following World War 2 (in 1948) was the fulfillment of Israel's regathering seen in Ezekiel 37? Here's what I wrote back... "I take it that the return from Babylon was one stage in the return to the land, but not long afterwards the Jews rejected the Messiah who came to inaugurate the new covenant. There was a hardening upon Israel...

  Bible reading for weekend September 10 -- 12 Sep 10 -- Ezekiel 13 and Psalms 52-54 Sep 11 -- Ezekiel 14 and Psalm 55 Sep 12 -- Ezekiel 15 and Psalms 56-57 ================   "Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 13:22-23) POPULAR RELIGION CONDEMNED (ch 13-14). Three groups are called out for condemnation: false prophets, and prophetesses, and some key leaders. They were all saying what the people wanted to hear -- things will be all right, peace and security is near, and your best life is arriving soon (cf Jer 6:14; Mic 3:5). It was a popular religion of the day (cf 1 Thess 5:3). All this originated in their own minds and imaginations, which they mistook for the Lord spe...

  Bible reading for September 8 -- 9 Sep 8 -- Ezekiel 11 and Psalm 50 Sep 9 -- Ezekiel 12 and Psalm 51 ================   "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 10:18) BAD LEADERS, BRIGHT PROMISE (ch 11). Israel was chronically plagued by bad leadership (vv 1-12). In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the rulers of Judah and their advisors, along with the popular prophets, urged the people of Jerusalem to hold out against the Babylonian siege. God had plainly told them through Jeremiah to not fight the Babylonians but to peacefully surrender. But in their pride and zeal they resisted and faced a long siege, starvation, disease, and finally, violence and enslavement by the Babylonians. But there's a bright ray of hope (vv 16-20),...

  Bible reading for June 2 -- 3 Jun 2 -- Isaiah 34 and Rev 4 Jun 3 -- Isaiah 35 and Rev 5 ================    "And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isaiah 35:10) RECAP. We are coming to the end of what some call the first "book" of Isaiah, which focuses primarily on God's judgment upon Israel and Judah in the late eighth century BC. There will be an historical interlude in chapters 36 to 39, recording how the Lord delivered Jerusalem (under King Hezekiah) from the Assyrian siege in 701 BC. In chapter 40 we will begin what is called the "book of comfort". More on that later. These last two chapters (34 and 35) poetically describe the judgment upon the nations and the restoration of Israel. In both of these chapters we are viewing the "mountain peaks" of prophecy, where the near events (As...

  Bible reading for weekend May 17 -- 18 May 17 -- Isaiah 16 and 1 Peter 4 May 18 -- Isaiah 17-18 and 1 Peter 5 ================    "But now the LORD has spoken, saying, 'In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.'"  (Isaiah 16:14) LAMENTS FOR MOAB, SYRIA, AND CUSH. Within a short period of time these three strong kingdoms, along with Israel, would be humbled. The Assyrian invasion led by Sargon (720 BC) and Sennacherib (713--701 BC) would devastate and bring down these nations. Most amazing would be the conquest of Ethiopian-ruled upper Egypt, called "Cush" or "Nubia", which today would include the Sudan. See the NET Bible for details . This Assyrian sweep would topple Moab first, within three years of Isaiah's words. Some of these prophecies would come to pass soon, but others were long-range, like th...

   Bible reading for May 5 -- 6 May 5 -- Isaiah 2 and Hebrews 10 May 6 -- Isaiah 3-4 and Hebrews 11 ================    "The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day." (Isaiah 2:11) THE PROPHETS. In our Bibles the writings of the Hebrew prophets are placed in a collection together.  There are four "major" prophets (the longer books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and twelve "minor" prophets (minor in the sense of being shorter books). The role of the prophet in the OT was to forth-tell, that is, to proclaim to Israel what was the nature of her problems and to give divine promises, whether of judgment or restoration (or both). Often, with these proclamations the prophet would foretell future events, some in the near future and some in the distant future. This telescoping effect is sometimes called the "mountain peaks" of prophecy, that is, two ...

Bible reading for weekend September 12-13.  2 Samuel 7-9. "And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever." (2 Samuel 7:16) THE DAVIDIC COVENANT. Along with the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and New covenants, God's covenant with David is critical in understanding the history of redemption.  God promises that David's lineage and dynasty would continue in perpetuity. David's descendants  would be disciplined if they were disobedient but God's love would never depart as it did from King Saul's dynasty. How can such a dynasty as David's last forever? It could be through a perpetual line of kings descended from David. But David himself speaks of one to come, his greater Son, whom he calls "Lord" (Psalm 110:1). And the prophet Isaiah tells us that there will be one Davidic ruler who would be eternal: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his sho...

Bible reading for July 14.  Joshua 22 "The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, 'For,' they said, 'it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.'" (Joshua 22:34) A MISUNDERSTANDING. As two-and-a-half tribes recross the Jordan to their inheritance on the east side, they build a large altar to the Lord at their border. Since the Lord had declared that there would be only one legitimate sacrificial site (first Shiloh, later Jerusalem), the tribes on the western side take this as a kind of declaration of independence. The centrality and unity of worship was important to the nation. It almost caused a civil war. Things are explained -- communication is good! -- and the altar becomes a monument that the Jordan River would not divide the nation and that they were all committed to the same God of Israel, the only true and living God.  One lesson: when we feel offended, we should always talk first and ask about intentions befor...

Above, No Compromise was the second album by Christian singer/song-writer Keith Green, released in 1978. WHY STUDY CHURCH HISTORY? "For the past two-thousand years of our history, Christians have wrestled with Scripture. They have preached sermons, written commentaries,  defended orthodoxy (right belief) against heresy (false teaching), and articulated biblically faithful statements of doctrine in form of the historic  confessions of the faith.  If we disregard all this, choosing instead to remain ignorant of this treasure-trove of spiritual wisdom, is that not arrogant  of us?"   REDISCOVERING FORGOTTEN CLASSICS Here's a treasure trove of lesser known works that you may want to investigate. PASTORAL CONCERN ABOUT EVANGELICAL PROPHECY "The belief that God continues to grant special revelation through personal experience fosters unhealthy experientialism." THOMAS MORE'S ANTIDOTE TO MODERN IDEOLOGIES "By now, the recipe is sadly famil...