Commuter Bible OT

The temple is finished. The wall is finished. The people have rededicated themselves to the Lord’s house, and on today’s episode, the remnant of Israel rejoices. With the work completed, Nehemiah returns to Persia to serve under King Artaxerxes as he had before, just as he had promised. All is right with the world, and God’s people serve Him faithfully from then on, right? Wrong! In fact, not long...

Now that the work of rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the walls surrounding Jerusalem is complete, the exiles from Israel gather together to hear Ezra read from the book of the Law. The Levites explain the law to the people as it is being read, and when the congregation understands the extent to which they have broken the Law, they mourn over their actions. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites enco...

As we began to see our last episode, the governors who oversee region west of the Euphrates, which includes Judah and Jerusalem, are unhappy that Nehemiah has been sent to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Feeling threatened, Sanballat and other officials create false rumors and even bribe others to attempt to deceive Nehemiah. They make every attempt to stop or delay the work, but in just 52 d...

As mentioned previously, Nehemiah is a continuation of the Ezra, recorded the history of Israel and their return from exile. Nehemiah, an exile who lived in Persia’s capital and served King Artaxerxes as his royal cupbearer, hears news that Jerusalem has been laid waste. The wall surrounding the city had been greatly compromised and the gates that would have maintained a secure entrance had been b...

In our last episode, we were introduced to Ezra, a scribe in exile who had been trained in the law of Moses and who had “determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach it’s statutes and ordinances in Israel.” King Artaxerxes has expressly commanded Ezra to do just that. After we review some of the family heads who accompanied Ezra for the journey back to Jerusalem, we dis...

Haman’s wrath against Mordecai and the Jewish people has returned on his own head. On today’s episode, Esther continues to represent her people before the king, turning a day of mourning into a day of rejoicing. As we finish Esther we’ll be turning back to the historical narrative recorded in the book of Ezra in which we learn of a new Persian king named Artaxerxes. While historians differ, it is...

Haman, the royal official who hates Mordecai for being disrespectful and insubordinate, has tricked King Ahaseurus into giving him even more power and authority. With the king’s signet ring in hand, he devised a scheme to wipe out the Jewish people, whom he hates because of his hatred for Mordecai. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall,” and tha...

The account of Esther, the Jewish orphan who becomes the queen of Persia, is neither a Cinderella story, nor a how-to guide for righteousness. It does, however, give us a picture of the God who graciously uses broken people to achieve His glorious ends and fulfill His covenant promises. The names that the two Jewish characters operate under, Esther and Mordecai, are not Israelite names, but are in...

Today, Zechariah symbolically takes on the role of a shepherd of those sheep who were raised for purpose of being slaughtered, for the shepherds had not cared for them; they only used them for personal gain. The prophet then proclaims that Jerusalem will be secure from warring nations and that they will be blessed further through spiritual reconciliation with God. The Lord will pour out a spirit o...

We’re picking up where we left off in the collection of visions that Zechariah saw, today looking at visions six, seven and eight. The vision of the flying scroll is an indication that God’s just law is about to be executed in the land. Wickedness is personified as a woman who is taken captive and sent away to Babylon to be worshiped. The eighth vision, like the first, includes four horses who pat...

The prophet Zechariah was a contemporary of the prophet Haggai and you probably remember hearing his name mentioned along with Haggai in our last reading. Both prophets spoke to the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem, but while Haggai focuses mainly on rebuilding the temple, Zechariah sees visions of a future king. As such is the case, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John incorporate mor...

Within the historical account written down in the book of Ezra, we learn of a prophet named Haggai who turned the hearts of the people toward the Lord. We’ll begin this episode by reading from the book of Haggai wherein the prophet addresses the people of Judah. Having just returned from exile they had prioritized making their homes comfortable while neglecting to rebuild the Lord’s temple. This l...

Our chronological reading of the Old Testament is approaching completion, which means we are now beginning to cover Israel’s return to the land of promise. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally part of one book but they got separated along the way as the book was translated. We’ll use these books as our historical backbone in the final weeks reading Haggai, Zechariah, Esther, and Malachi...

Contrary to Victorian era illustrations and Michelangelo’s chubby cherubs in the Sistine Chapel, angels are always described as glorious and fear-inducing.  Whenever someone sees a vision of an angel in Scripture, the person who sees them is dumbfounded and crippled by fear. In most instances, the angel has to tell the person not to fear and followed by supernatural help to recuperate. Such is the...

We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and the kings who come from them. Some of what Daniel sees is explained within the text itself while some remains the topic of debate and speculation to this day. Some, however, has clearly been fulfilled, l...

There are a few different ways to look at the structure of the book of Daniel, and one of them is to note that the first six chapters are comprised of narratives that contain prophecy , while the last six chapters are prophecies that contain history . The first four chapters occurred under Nebuchadnezzar, while today’s chapters occur in further successive time periods under Belshazzar, Darius the...

Through their wisdom and through their service to the king, Daniel and his friends bear witness to the power and glory of God through their faithful witness. Many of us know the account found in today’s reading, wherein Daniel’s friends (here called by their Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) are forced to decide between paying homage to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol or burning alive in a g...

God’s people are now in exile in the land of Babylon, which brings us to the book of Daniel, an extraordinary account of a young Judean exile who receives interpretation and prophecy from the Lord while serving foreign kings. Of particular significance in today’s passage is the statue that Nebuchadnezzar sees in a dream. The statue’s head of gold represented Babylon; its silver chest and arms: the...

Joel is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament and is divided in two parts. The first half describes a plague of locusts that invade the land and destroy the land’s produce, threatening the survival of animals, people, and even grain offerings before the Lord. That section ends with a plea for God’s people to confess their sins, transitioning to the second half of the book, which contains...

For modern audiences like us, these concluding chapters may feel more drudgery than delight, but for the original audience, these final depictions would have been the most exciting. Ezekiel once brought a message of condemnation and despair, but now that those prophecies have come true and Israel has spent 25 years in exile, Ezekiel brings a message of hope and restoration. Some of today’s revelat...

To put today’s passage in context, it’s important to spend a moment considering when this vision occurred and what had happened up to this point. Remember that God had declared through Ezekiel that his glory had left the temple. Over time, the Lord’s temple had become defiled and desecrated by idols, so the Lord sent the Chaldeans to demolish it. Jerusalem was made a desolation, and the people wer...

There are different takes on the exact meaning of the temple Ezekiel sees in today’s passage, some say it is symbolic, others heavenly, while others take note of it’s cross-shaped floor plan. Here’s what we know. First, it was never built. Second, this passage is the longest recording of a revelation in Scripture and it gives very specific dimensions for a temple design with measurements that diff...

You may have noticed this turn already, but ever since the mention of Jerusalem’s fall in chapter 33, God’s message to His people has become one of promise and hope for a restoration that will take place in the future. In our last episode, God promised to send a shepherd to his people, one that would be a prince among them from the line of David. Today, the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy to a v...

Up next in the list of nations being rebuked by the Lord is the nation of Edom. Edom was on the short list of nations receiving prophetic rebuke along with Ammon, Moab, and Philistia when this section began back in chapter 25. Recall that the nation of Edom stems from Jacob’s (aka Israel’s) brother Esau, and they have been at odds more or less ever since the womb. Most recently, Edom participated...

In today’s passage, Ezekiel recalls the day when, 12 years into exile, he first hears word that Jerusalem has been overtaken. Those who remain behind want to claim the land as their own property, but the Lord sees their wickedness and vows to make them a desolate waste. The Lord also sees the shepherds of Israel, those leaders and rulers who have been entrusted with taking care of God’s flock. Rat...