One Chapter One Thought

God calls Ezekiel to the prophetic ministry. Ezekiel will minister to Israel, even though they are a stubborn and rebellious people. 

While in exile, Ezekiel has a vision of divine glory. 

Pastor Chris introduces the book of Ezekiel. For many Christians, the prophetic books of the Old Testament transport them to a strange world filled with bizarre visions and obscure historical details. Because of the complexity of many of these books, many Christians avoid them or completely misread them. And the book of Ezekiel is no exception. In this bonus episode, Pastor Chris provides some imp...

Two competing voices call out every day: wisdom or folly. People should listen to wisdom. 

Wisdom calls out to be heard and followed. Wisdom's origin pre-dates the creation of the world. 

Solomon recounts how the seductions of an immoral woman work. He admonishes his son to avoid her charms at all costs. 

The wise person avoids entanglements with debt and laziness. He avoids adultery because the consequences are dire. 

Solomon's son must avoid the immoral woman. 

Solomon provides wise fatherly advice. 

The wise person trusts in the Lord. 

Solomon explains the benefits of wisdom. 

Solomon shares the purpose of proverbs. He exhorts his son to acquire wisdom. Personified Wisdom calls out to the foolish to gain wisdom. 

Pastor Chris introduces the book of Proverbs and provides tips for reading the book well. He covers who wrote the book and why. He shows how Proverbs fits into the larger story of Scripture. He also explains the differences between English poetry and Hebrew poetry and how it impacts our understanding of Proverbs. 

Instead of expanding to fill the earth, humanity congregates in one place. God confuses their languages to scatter them across the earth. The rest of the chapter provides the genealogy of Abram. 

The second genealogy of Genesis covers the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. 

God confirms his covenant with Noah. The rainbow becomes the sign of God's covenant to spare the world from judgment by a flood. After planting a vineyard, Noah gets drunks. He curses the descendants of one of his sons. 

The flood eventually recedes. After leaving the ark, Noah makes sacrifices to the Lord. 

The rains come and the flood covers the earth. All life perishes, except that which is inside the ark that Noah built. 

The world is filled with corruption. God is sorry he made the world. God decides to send a flood of judgement to cleanse the world. He tells Noah to build a large boat to save his family and the animals. 

Genesis 5 records the first genealogy found in the Bible. It traces the lineage of Adam down to Noah. 

With humanity infected by sin, Genesis 4 records the first murder. Cain rises up against his brother Abel and kills him. God confronts Cain and banishes him from the land. Cain settles in the land east of Eden and begins a family. 

The devil slithers into the Garden to tempt the woman. The woman—and the man—disobey God and sin. Their sin brings disastrous consequences upon the world. 

God rests on the seventh day. He creates man from the dust of the ground and places him in the Garden to work and keep it. Finding no suitable helper for him, God creates woman to be his counterpart. 

God creates the world. He makes human beings in his image and tasks them with being with stewards in the world. At the end of his creative work, God declares the world he made, "very good." 

The Old Testament can seem like a strange place. But on this bonus episode of One Chapter One Thought, Pastor Chris lays out some things to keep in mind as you read the Old Testament, which will hopefully make it easier to understand.