Bible Fiber

This week we are continuing our study of the book of Ezra, diving into chapter 5. After the plotting and scheming of Judah’s oppositional neighbors, all work on the temple stopped around 535 BCE, still during the reign of Cyrus. The returnees had laid the temple foundations, an event that attracted negative attention from the people of the land, and for the next fifteen years did nothing to move t...

When the temple preparations got underway, the locals made what seemed like a reasonable proposition to Zerubbabel and the family leaders: “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of King Esarhaddon of Assyria, who brought us here” (4:1).  The narrator introduces the local people as “the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin” (E...

This week we are continuing our study of the book of Ezra, diving into chapter 3. This portion of the narrative is full of victorious moments. The first wave of returnees from Babylon to Judah rebuilt an altar to the Lord, resumed their religious calendar of worship, and commenced work on the Temple foundations.  If chapter 2’s theme was continuity within the community, chapter 3 stresses the cont...

This week we are continuing our study of the book of Ezra, diving into chapter 2. The first six chapters of Ezra revolve around two missions: rebuilding the sanctuary and rebuilding the community. I admit that a first pass of Ezra 2 is about as riveting as reading a rollcall. In case once was not enough, the same extensive list of volunteers will be repeated in Nehemiah 7. As tedious as these gene...

Today we are launching our study of Ezra-Nehemiah. I am referring to the two books together because historically, in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, Ezra and Nehemiah were considered one scroll. Early Church fathers, like Origen and Jerome, later distinguished Ezra and Nehemiah as separate books in the Christian canon.  Ezra and Nehemiah do not present a straightforward literary scheme or a...

For both the Jewish and Christian faith, the whole of the Hebrew scripture is divinely inspired. However, rabbinic Judaism has long favored studying Torah over the prophets, while Christianity from the earliest days “attached itself more to the prophets than the law.” [1] Jews sought teaching and instruction on the Torah and Christians sought teachings that illuminated the gospel. My Jewish friend...

We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before I switch modes entirely, I am doing a mini lecture series, a Prophets 101 class. Previously, I discussed the institution of the prophetic office in the B ible, and last week I explored the Jewish understanding for why prophecy ceased after Malachi. To...

We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before we switch modes entirely, we are doing a mini lecture series, a Prophets 101 class. Last week we discussed the Institution of the Prophetic Office. Today I want to explore the Jewish understanding for why prophecy ceased after Malachi.  In Jewish unde...

We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before we switch modes entirely, I want to take advantage of the pause to talk about the institution of the prophet. We have been doing deep dives into the biblical books, but I want to zoom out and share more generally what constitutes a prophet and what is...

Last week, after finishing the 52nd episode in fourteen months, I got a lot of emails and messages asking what was next for Bible Fiber. Before I answer that question, and I will, I want to thank all of you for joining me in this Bible reading challenge. I was talking to a friend from church who is also a listener and she said it was like being in a Bible study with me, but one where I got to do a...

This week we are reading Malachi 4:4-6, Malachi’s epilogue, a short summation of his whole message. Four hundred years of silence separate the close of Malachi from the coming of Jesus. The famine of God’s words, as predicted by the prophet Amos, was close at hand. Amos foretold, “people will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will n...

This week we are reading the sixth, and final, disputation which covers Malachi 3:13-4:3. In Malachi, God consistently speaks in first person to the people, a fact made more significant knowing Malachi is the last of the writing prophets. God is the dominant speaker in the first, second, fifth, and sixth disputations.  The sixth disputation demonstrates that the spirit of cynicism has taken deep r...

This week we are reading Malachi’s fifth disputation. God speaks directly to the people without mincing words: “Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” (3:8). In other words, they are not tithing adequately. That may seem like a narrow materialistic charge, lacking the heavier moral and ethical challenges of previous prophets. However, embedded in the message of judgement is a message of hop...

This week we are reading Malachi’s fourth disputation. Previous disputations charged the priesthood with negligent worship and condemned Israelite men for their pagan marriages. Those prophetic messages were harsh and pointed. Still, the restored community remains obnoxiously unaware of their shortcomings.  Malachi uses his prophetic pulpit to explain why God is indeed withholding blessing. Howeve...

This week we are reading Malachi’s third disputation which covers Malachi 2:10-16. The disputation is short and to the point. Israelite men are divorcing their Israelite wives to marry pagan women and God is not pleased! While the second disputation targeted the priesthood, the third disputation addresses the whole community. Malachi’s disputations often begin with a question where the answer is a...

This week we are reading Malachi’s second disputation which is unfortunately not marked off by chapter divisions. Normally, I prefer to keep it clean and do the reading challenge by order of chapters, but with Malachi it will be messier. It makes more sense to study the book one disputation at a time rather than chapter. The second disputation is the longest stretching from Malachi 1:6-2:9, so buc...

This week we are starting Malachi, the last of the Minor Prophets, the last of the writing prophets, the last book in the Christian canon. Malachi’s modern chapter divisions are arbitrary and therefore not the best guides for ordering our study of the book. Structurally, six tightly patterned prophetic disputations makeup the prophetic work. Most translations mark off the disputations with subtitl...

This week we are reading Zechariah 14, the last chapter in a book that has taken over three months to complete. Because I have spread out this study, putting every chapter under the interpretative microscope, I want to pause and zoom out to remind everyone again of the importance and influence of Zechariah, especially on the New Testament. Zechariah is quoted from or alluded to seventy-one times i...

This week we are reading Zechariah 13. When the people saw the pierced figure of chapter 12, the nation erupted in mourning and repentance. Chapter 13 provides God’s reaction to those heartfelt cries. As a symbol of his forgiveness, God graciously provides a spring to cleanse the royal family and all of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. Just as the mourning was communal, so will be the cleansing. The verse...

This week we are reading chapter 12. Zechariah makes a sudden about-face from the gloomy language and depressing outlook of chapter 11 where God declared the end of his covenant relationship with his people who he no longer pitied (11:6). Yahweh abandoned the flock doomed to slaughter, leaving them to their cannibalistic desires, saying “what is to die, let it die” (11:9). Zechariah resigned as sh...

This week we are reading Zechariah 11, arguably the most enigmatic gloomy section of the whole book. The chapter’s prelude (11:1-3) is a dark poem with the vivid portrayal of personified trees wailing over their own destruction. Shepherds and lions join in with the trees’ lament, mourning their own loss of pasture and thicket. Lebanon’s cedars and cypress burn while Bashan’s oaks tumble in a casca...

This week we are studying Zechariah 10. Our previous chapter ended with the promise of such agricultural fertility that “grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women” (9:17). The guarantee of satiated bellies carries over into today’s reading with Zechariah reminding the petition the Lord and he will send the “spring rain” and “the vegetation in the field” (10:1).  After e...

This week we are studying Zechariah 9. Three units make up the book of Zechariah: the vision sequence in chapters 1-6, the prophet’s answer to Bethel in chapters 7-8, and eschatological oracles in chapters 9-14.  I will get it out in the open. The oracles in the last six chapters of Zechariah are quite different than the first eight chapters. The writing style pivots and the focus changes. In Zech...

This week we are studying Zechariah 8, a continuation of the prophet’s response to the Bethel delegation’s question about fast days. In chapter 7, the question provoked a somewhat testy sermon from Zechariah. He warned the people about the consequences of straying from God and the pitfalls of hypocrisy and empty religion.  In chapter 8, the tone changes from rebuke to reassurance. The prophet enco...

Welcome to Bible Fiber where we are encountering the textures and shades of the prophetic tapestry in a year-long study of the twelve minor prophets. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.  This week we are studying Zechariah 7. Zechariah 7-8 is a distinct unit, a narrative e...