BibleSF

Nahum and Zephaniah – God’s Purifying Judgment and Promised Restoration Readings: Nahum and Zephaniah History is a glossary of failed social and political experiments on  human stewardship and governance. The prophets Nahum and Zephaniah remind us that as much as the empires of man can be good, they’re woefully broken and corrupt at their core, doing much more damage to countless numbers of people...

Micah - God's Justice and Mercy as Our Standard Micah’s name means “Who is like Yahweh?” which is significant in that Micah’s ministry tries to explain what God is like to a people who are busy enjoying the world and have long since abandoned an interest in the ways of God for their lives. Micah prophesied during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham (750-732 B.C.), Ahaz (732-715 B.C.), and He...

Why Suffering: God's Handiwork in the Hard Seasons of Life BSF Lesson 22 has us reflect on the presence of suffering in our lives. Why does God allow suffering and why do good people suffer? What is the purpose of suffering and how should we as Christians live with suffering in our lives? Nobody asks for suffering, but suffering comes. Suffering reveals things we had not been aware of. My college...

Isaiah  Part4: The Suffering Servant and His Coming Glory Passage: Isaiah 49-66 The book of Isaiah speaks long, frequently and repeatedly about the reasons for exile, judgment, and the coming deliverance. The final chapters talk about the great Hope of God that they can look forward to. Isaiah speaks triumphantly about God’s deliverance with words like “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too s...

Isaiah, part 3  Chapters 40-48 The Deliverance of God's People It is said that you can learn a lot about a person by asking them about their view of God. What they think and know about God will affect their understanding about themselves, their self worth, their life purpose and reason for existence, and their future. It is with this understanding that western academic traditions centered the...

Our guest lecturer today is Hollie Roberts, the President of Bible Study Fellowship (since 6/2021). We're continuing in our study of Isaiah, reviewing chps 1-39. Isaiah is referenced or alluded to over 400 times in the New Testament, and has 21 direct quotations. Jesus teaches directly from the Book of Isaiah when speaking of His identity as the promised Messiah described by the prophet. The name...

Isaiah: Mission and Message. Part 1 in the Study of the Book of Isaiah We know Jesus held the book of Isaiah in high esteem because Isaiah taught the Jews about Himself. In this lesson, we'll explore Isaiah and his calling. We'll look Isaiah's holy vision of God sovereign and greatly lifted up. We'll also look at the broken and defiled nation he was prophesying into. Isaiah’s ministry took place u...

Judah's Path into Exile / covering Manasseh, Amon, Josiah 2 Kings 21-25 and 2 Chronicles 33-36 Judah's exile did not happen by some sudden judgment of God; it was years and generations in the making with many warnings given by God through many many different prophets by various means of illustrating an idolatrous and rebellious people. God has shown mercy to Israel and Judah time and again but bot...

Israel’s Exile and Judah’s Reforms 2 Kings 15–20; 2 Chronicles 26–32 In order to grow up, we have to clean up. In this lecture talk, we're looking at the period of the kings right before Israel's exile into the Assyrian Empire, and King Hezekiah's dramatic spiritual reform in Judah during which God rescues them from a similar fate. We see bad kings who lead into bad worship or defiled worship of i...

Hosea - God's Redemptive Love The Prophet Hosea is very unique mission among the prophets as he was called to marry a woman prone to adultery. The unfolding drama of Hosea's marriage to his promiscuous wife would become a living witness - a heartbreaking drama - to God's people of their abandonment of God’s love. Hosea's prophetic message was lived out as a public exhibition that will break his ow...

Prophets Joel and Obadiah - Hope amid Judgment  BSF Lesson 14 Passage: The Old Testament Prophetic Books of Joel and Obadiah  Judgement is a difficult concept. We don't like to be judged and the current cultural ethos around any kind of judgment makes it seem cruel and unfair. The Bible teaches us that God must judge because God is just. If we believed that he shouldn't judge evil and wi...

Amos - Upholding God's Justice / BSF PPKD Lesson 13 Amos is a book about judgment,a topic most of us would rather avoid. It’s like that uncomfortable feeling of being in the room when dad is giving my brother a scolding knowing I am next. The prophets wrote to us about judgment because it is one of the most critical and important messages in the Bible, and the reason Christ came to die for us. Jud...

Jonah, the Reluctant Prophet - BSF PPKD Lesson 12 Passage Reading: Jonah 1-4 Does obeying God really matter? Does it matter if I submit to God's will or rebuff and run away from it? How can my little life make any difference in the larger scheme of things. And why should I be happy about God's grace and mercy with the deplorable peoples of the world. Shouldn't they get their just desserts? Today,...

Our Lecture on Lesson 11 PPKD today is presented by Dr David Talley, Talbot School Of Theology , who gives us an overview of God's ministry through prophets. He explains who prophets are, what their work entailed, and how to distinguish true from false prophets.  Passage readings: Amos 3:7; 2 Chronicles 36:15; Romans 15:4 The outline of his talk is as follows: 3 Kinds of Prophets Found In The...

Lesson 10  A Promise / Covenant Keeping God, Elisha, and Many Kings Passage: 2 Kings 6:8–14:29; 2 Chronicles 21–25 Doctrine: God's Covenant God cares about His Covenant but the Israelite kings failed to understand God's will for the nation as a witness to the nations and empires around them. They showed little desire to bring Israel in alignment to God's greater plan. Despite this, God contin...

Elisha's Miracles Demonstrating God's Compassion to Ordinary People Passage: 2 Kings 4:1- 6:7 Have you ever thought about just how quickly we would all fall into utter despair and hopelessness if it wasn’t for the reality of God’s love and presence in Jesus? I look at the utter despair of the wise writer of Ecclesiastes who had everything a man could want and he concluded, "Vanity vanity, all is v...

PPKD Lession 8: Elijah and Elisha 2 Kings 2-3 What would happen if God reacted to our grave mistakes and shortcomings the way we wish every sin and evil in the world would be immediately eradicated as soon as they happen? We would be in ignorance of many important truths. We would not know the character of His grace. We never know how truly detestable and horrific sin was and why God cared so much...

Jehoshaphat's Reign in Judah - Obedience and Compromises Lecture 7 Why is idolatry such a hateful sin in the Bible? Why does it keep coming up again and again, and the kings keep falling into it as if they're totally unaware of its dangers? We'll see in this lesson how idolatry causes a deep distortion in our sense of purpose and view of ourselves. And most importantly, it erodes our knowledge of...

Israel's Kings: Turning Away from God 1 Kings 22 - 2 Kings 2 Are leaders important? Are you a leader? What kind of ripple effect do you have on those around you? Today we’re looking at God’s persevering patience and grace on Israel’s defiant leaders, king Ahab and his successor Ahaziah. Leaders play an important role in society. They create archetypes of the kind of models that we aspire to imitat...

PPKD Lesson 5 Elijah's Crisis, Israel's Calamity. 1 Kings 19-21 Why is God so gracious so that bad people don't immediately get the judgment they deserved? Elijah saw the power of God's power at Mount Carmel. Then after Jezebel's decree to have him killed, Elijah ran to Mount Horeb where many years ago, God commissioned the Israelites through Moses, gave them the Law, and reminded them of His Cove...

People of the Promised, Kingdom Divided Lesson 4 Elijah: Prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel : 1 Kings 15:25 - 18:46 Elijah, one of the most notable of the prophets that God sent to Israel after a time when king after king escalated idolatry and evil work to a critical point. Consequently, the people suffered and the land wasted. We read that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord, committing...

People of Promise Kingdom Divided Lesson 3 Lecture Kings of Judah; Abijah and Asa 1 Kings15:1-24; 2 / 2Chronicles 13-16 Superficiality or authenticity of faith? What's the difference? Jesus says: "Whoever hears my Words and does them is like a man who built his house on the rock." The Old Testament kings were instructed to inscribe God's commands and statutes and then to meditate on them all their...

Divided Kingdom: Rehoboam and Jeroboam 1 Kings 11-14 and @ Chronicles 10-12 If you notice the abundance of leadership books on the market today, you get a sense that we place a high value on good leadership. Leaders not only impact the nature of our work and whether we'll enjoy what we do, they set the tone for the organization's culture, outlook, mission and vision, and generally accepted attitud...

People of the Promise, Kingdom Divided Have you noticed that many times when Christians share the Gospel message, the Old Testament is oddly missing from their explanation of Jesus's life and atonement? When the early believers testified of Jesus, they always referred back to the Old Testament which they called the words of Moses and the Prophets. Jesus explains the Gospel Himself in this way to t...

People of the Promise Kingdom Divided - The Part of the Bible We Skimp Over Welcome back to BSF study in the Minor Prophets. You might think these prophets were in the minor leagues but that's a totally incorrect notion. They were messengers of God in a major way, addressing issues of their day not at all too different from the idolatry and ideologies of pagan cultures of their day. They were stan...