The Journey: Chronological Bible Study

Why are there four Gospels and who are these Gospel writers?

What is the deal with the Dead Sea scrolls anyway?

What happened between the old and new testament? Where did the Pharisees and Sadducees come from? Who are the Maccabees? What are the Essenes? What are the dead sea scrolls? What is the Septuagint? Why is the Bible comprised of some books and not others? Who decided? Who is Herod? All these and more will be part of our journey for the next few weeks.

The last two books of the Old Testament in our Chronological Bible although truly difficult to tell chronologically where they go.  Nonetheless, they share similar themes of calling for reformation among the priests in particular.  and they do signal the beginning of a new era for the jews where they recognize their ability to flourish with or without the temple; a shifting of the priest...

Nehemiah guides us almost all the way to the end of the Old Testament as we wrap up his bittersweet narrative. 

Nehemiah is an extremely focused and disciplined leader.  Somehow he knows exactly when to respond to distractions and when not to.  Chapters 4- 6 show us what a great example Nehemiah is and how we can respond in our own lives, whether in leadership or not.

WE wrap up the book of Ezra in his own words.  

This amazing story, unique in that it never mentions God by name, is one of the strongest pictures of God's involvement in human lives, in all scripture.  And it's funny

Zechariah continues to be our guide this week as he, through visions and object lessons much like Ezekiel, continues to encourage the Israelites to embrace their freedom and get that temple built!  Even as he does this though he continues to remind them of what's even more important to who they are.

Zechariah, in the style of Ezekiel with many visions and visual lessons, continues to encourage the Israelites to start back up with the temple work.

It's been 16 years since the Jews returned to Jerusalem specifically to rebuild the temple, but no work has actually been done for a decade and a half.  Haggai and Zechariah are sent by God to confront this neglect.  How will the Israelites respond this time?

Daniel's amazing prophecy 400 years into his future, and beyond (?)

The Restoration begins as Ezra begins to lead people in the rebuilding of the temple.  Meanwhile Daniel gets word of a more complete restoration to come.

Two of the most famous stories about Daniel, we get to see exactly why he's such an admirable figure.

Our guided tour through the grand new temple continues.  What are we to make of it all?

Ezekiel's grand vision of a temple that's never been built.  What's that about?

Apocalyptic Literature of Ezekiel

Crazy Zeke continues to earn his reputation as the performance artist prophet of his day, strange, unpredictable and unerringly accurate. 

Jeremiah's interrupted retirement.

Jeremiah grieves the loss of his country through formal acrostic poetry.

Ezekiel 25, 29(1-16),30 (20-26), 31(1-18)  Jeremiah 34, 21, 32

Ezekiel 18-24.  God answers several more objections about the upcoming judgement and increases the sense of urgency that such a judgement is very close.

Ezekiel 12-17

"Hezekiah's Proverbs". Proverbs 25-29

Isaiah 5, 13-16, 2 Chronicles 28-31