St. Irenaeus Ministries

Timothy was a convert to Christianity, a product of a mixed marriage between a Jewish mother and a pagan Greek father, and a Christian of some note in Lystra by the time of Paul's second visit to that city. Timothy would have heard Paul's preaching that afflictions would be necessarry to enter the kingdom of God. In addition to the basic rules that Gentile Christians must follow, the prohibition o...

This study of the Pastoral Epistles of Paul comprises the two epistles to Timothy, the epistle to Titus and also the epistle to Philemon, which is not considered part of the pastoral epistles. Paul had a marked ability to find and train men to as parts of a missionary network, and while these letters show the sort of care and relationship Paul had with his men, they were also meant to be read. Man...

We must know God's word if we are His people, but we must also have it in our hearts. This word is for all of us, not just the clergy. We must drill it into our children's hearts so that we can act on it rather than knowing the word but not acting on it. We must act with justice toward all in the Christian community, as we cannot lift out hands to God if there is injustice in the community. Zerubb...

There are many lessons to take from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The story is told in such a way as to mirror the Exodus and the settlement of Israel. This is a restoration of the people of God, and if the people are to serve as an example of God's great deeds, the people must be seen as a blessing and as a witness, and the people cannot be that unless they are a people apart. This necessarily...

Israel gave a portion to the temple, but the high priest Eliashib gave space in the temple for the donations to Tobiah, who was forbidden to be in the assembly of God because he was an Ammonite.  Nehemiah threw Tobiah's things out of the temple and likewise shut down the merchants who sold goods to the Jews on the Sabbath.

After the city is protected by the walls and the people and the city are blessed, Jerusalem must be repopulated to maintain a civilization to support the temple. Some volunteer to live there, but many are chosen by lottery.

After the people had heard the law, they confessed their sins and worshipped God. Ezra traces the history of God's people, from His mighty deliverance from Egypt through the presumptuous sins of the people to the establishment of the land of Israel.  The people came into the land but turned away again and were sent into exile. God brought them back, and the people are now rededicating themselves t...

After the completion of the wall, in the month of Tishrei, the people gather before the Water Gate to dedicate themselves as the people of God. It is around this time that the Festival of Booths occurred in the time of Moses, but the feast had fallen into disuse, as well as the day of atonement. The people call for Ezra to bring the book of  the law and read the law and pledge themselves to the Lo...

The famine in Israel was deep enough that farmers are going into debt and some are requiring extreme amounts of collateral to cover their debts. Nehemiah is so concerned that he demands that all debt collections stop and the payments are reversed. As the building of the wall comes to a close, Sanballat, through his agents, tries to convince Nehemiah to discuss Nehemiah and Judah's role in the area...

Nehemiah came in to a dispirited land and brought about a seemingly unanimous decision to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Even Jews as far away as Gibeon and Mizpah came to assist in the rebuilding, though some were more dedicated than others. Even what little some may do is made more difficult by a famine in the land. Sanballat, a Samaritan, prepares to launch an attack on the Jews who are rebuil...

Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem and evaluates the work to be done but does not immediately tell anyone of his plans. When confronted about the rebuilding of the temple, Nehemiah tells his critics that God will restore the Jews to Jerusalem. It is when Nehemiah begins this rebuilding that Daniel's messianic prophecy of seventy weeks of years begins. Nehemiah is known for his intercession, an important...

Nehemiah came to prominence as a leader of the Jews 13 years after Ezra's time. Powerful men had taken issue with Ezra rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, which had contributed to a decline of Ezra's influence. Nehemiah, cup bearer to Artaxerxes, pleads to the king to rebuild Jerusalem, since Judah's neighbors were exploiting the unprotected nature of the city. Artaxerxes agrees, perhaps believing...

Ezra has a meeting with some of the leaders of the group returning to Israel where they discuss the plans for the return and take a tally of some of the gifts they are bringing with them. It is with this group that Ezra would later meet and discuss the fact that many of the people had returned married to people who were practicing a pagan worship. Ezra declared that these marriages with people who...

Ezra was a priestly scribe of some import in the Jewish community in exile who was moved to bring his people back to the law. He comes to Israel in the seventh year in the reign of Artaxerxes I, 60 years after the completion of the temple. The Persian empire makes special provisions for the Jewish faith and for Ezra in particular. As God's people, the Jews are called to be consecrated and separate...

Zec 4:6-10 tells Zerubbabel that he will restore the temple, but by God's power, not by his own. The people of the lands around Israel attempted to frustrate or co-opt this building of the temple for the with their own worship. This harassment would go on in some form for around 70 years. Playing on the fears of the Persians, they were able to halt construction on occasion, but God shepherded the...

Paramount importance was placed on creating an altar to God, as Moses had commanded of the original altar. This is appropriate, since sacrifice is the Old Testament way that sinful men can approach a holy God. These sacrifices are ways that men would pray that God would remember the covenant.

The book of Ezra continues with the story of the people separated (or set aside) for God, starting with a census. Some were not able to prove their lineage, and were given a separate designation. Professed priests who fell into this category were excluded as unclean until the Urim and Thummim could be consulted. These people came back to a dry, desolate land with high ideals and many gifts for the...

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah mark the greatest reform of God's people in the Old Testament. God gave the law to Moses, a temple and kingdom to the Israelites, and prophets to proclaim that the people would be carried into captivity if they were not faithful. The people remained lukewarm, and were carried off to Babylon. In the Babylonian captivity, we see the Israelites become the Jewish people,...

Central to the incarnation is the fact that it is a great act of humbling God's self. The God of the universe exists outside of time and space, and knows the incarnation, the passion, and even the fall of Adam before creation. It is humbling in  the extreme to know that we were created even knowing the fall would come.

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, united in something called a hypostatic union. Some have called into doubt just how much He knew about His divinity at different points in His life on Earth, but it is clear that Jesus knew from earliest times that He is God. He knew that He should be about His father's business in the temple, He proclaimed Himself as the Son of God, not as an adopted sonsh...

Melchizedek is an impressive priest.  He blesses Abraham, which implies that even father Abraham is inferior to him.  This is an order that would be described as hieros, rather than the usual term used in the New Testament, presbuteros, and coms not by descent from Levi, but is an order that allows sacrifice to be offered from the rising of the sun to its setting.

All of the Bible leads to the conclusion that God will come to be with us, but sin separates us from God. Sometimes we are tempted to downplay our sin, but that downplays God's holiness. We see God's holiness overpower many people in the Bible. We also see that the Messiah is prophesied to have a priestly role, who will finally end sin by sacrifice of Himself, and that He would come in what we cal...

We can be confident that God will save us if we call on His name, but salvation is a process, and is not a magical proclamation that assures us Heaven no matter how wicked we are in this life. We must rejoice in our hope and in our sufferings, and know that to the extent that we cooperate with God's grace, we are rewarded in the next life.

Throughout all of biblical history, God has rewarded those who hope in Him. There are those who will deny the action of God in their lives, even as the Hebrews ignored the explicit miracles they saw in the times of the Exodus, but those who have a fear of the Lord or who have an expectation the Lord's grace in the world are praised in the Bible.

In 2 Sam 7, David seeks to make a house for the Lord, but God declares that He will establish a house for Israel, a promise fulfilled in Christ. Isaiah 7-12 concerns a prophecy to King Ahaz. A virgin or young woman will bear a son, and call him Immanuel, or God with us. This may have been a double prophecy, with multiple meanings, but it is clear that by the time of the translation of the Septuagi...