Thy Strong Word from KFUO Radio

After Nehemiah leads the people to finish building the wall around Jerusalem, one would think he would take some time and relax, perhaps have a festival to celebrate? Unfortunately, there’s no time for that. Instead, he does what any good project manager would do--he starts taking inventory. Nehemiah opens the old genealogical records and starts a full-scale census of everyone in the city: all 42,...

When you're doing something truly important for God, expect the enemy of God to increase his resistance and opposition. Today's hostile news media, social media attacks, and lies and false rumors against God’s people aren't new tactics. In fact, they're ancient strategies of the Accuser. Today on Thy Strong Word, we witness Nehemiah facing his fiercest opposition yet from the surrounding leaders....

Ordinary Judean families cry out under crushing debt, famine, and heavy Persian taxes, while their own nobles and officials exploit them for profit. Nehemiah responds with righteous anger, confronting the elites in a public assembly and demanding immediate restitution. He calls them back to God’s Law, reminds them of their covenant duty, and sets the example himself when, as Governor over Judea, h...

The sound of hammers echoes across Jerusalem’s broken walls, but so does the laughter of their enemies. They mock. They scheme. They threaten the Hebrews, yet God’s people continue to build but now armed! Half hold spears, swords, and bows, and half hold trowels, but all of them trust that God will defend them from every attack, and so the wall continues. This chapter serves as an example of peace...

The call to “rise up and build” is immediately answered as chapter 3 provides a roll call of Jerusalem’s rebuilders. From the high priest at the Sheep Gate to perfumers, rulers, goldsmiths, and even daughters, a diverse community finds their specific place on the wall. This long list, which sounds like a church project sign-up sheet, actually serves as a blueprint for the Church, showing how every...

With Persian King Artaxerxes’ permission and timber in hand, Nehemiah reaches Jerusalem, surveys the ruined walls by night, and calls to the remnant: “Let us rise up and build.” Mockery from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem (symbolizing the enemies of God’s people on all sides) hears from a confident Nehemiah, “The God of heaven will make us prosper!” This section demonstrates prudent planning, coura...

Have you ever gotten news that knocked the wind out of you? Some news stops you in your tracks. A phone call in the night, a diagnosis, a letter from the IRS. Suddenly you’re sitting down, head in your hands. That’s Nehemiah in chapter one. He’s a man with a powerful position, a good life in Persia, and yet when he hears about Jerusalem, he breaks down and prays. This prayer will set in motion a c...

From rubble to renewal, Nehemiah shows how the Lord rebuilds not just walls but hearts. Brick by brick and prayer by prayer, we follow God’s people through repentance, courageous leadership, fierce opposition, covenant renewal, and joyful dedication. This verse-by-verse series keeps Law and Gospel front and center, tracing the story from burned gates to the greater Builder — Christ Jesus — who sec...

The exiles have returned, the temple is rebuilt, and worship has resumed. Ezra has led the people in prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving. It feels like a high point. But almost immediately, the celebration collides with reality. In chapters 9 and 10, Ezra discovers that the people, priests and leaders included, have compromised themselves with the surrounding nations. The joy of restoration gives wa...

In AD 325, over three hundred bishops gathered to answer a question that threatened to tear the church apart: Was Jesus Christ truly God, or merely the greatest of God's creatures? Their answer, refined at Constantinople in 381, became the Nicene Creed - the most universally confessed statement of Christian faith across all denominations. Pastor Tim Winterstein is the author of the new book “Worsh...

Ezra leads 1,500 men and their families on a dangerous 900-mile journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, transporting 35 tons of gold and silver without military protection. When he discovers no Levites have volunteered for the journey, he must recruit worship leaders before the caravan can depart. Through fasting, prayer, and careful accountability, Ezra demonstrates what it means to stake everything o...

Nearly sixty years have passed since the events of the previous chapter. Now, a new king reigns over the Persians—Artaxerxes. Ezra receives extraordinary royal authorization from Artaxerxes to lead another group of exiles back to Jerusalem. The episode examines the remarkably generous terms of the king's letter, granting Ezra sweeping authority to teach the Law, collect temple offerings, and appoi...

Ezra 5–6 reads like a bureaucratic standoff: a nosy governor demands paperwork, and the Jews don’t have it on hand. Yet, hidden in the royal archives of a pagan empire is a dusty old decree from King Cyrus himself. Suddenly, along with King Darius’ decree, the state not only permits the temple to be rebuilt, but it also pays for it. In an age where “separation of church and state” is often weaponi...

Seventeen centuries ago, in the bustling town of Nicaea, over 300 bishops from across the Roman Empire gathered, summoned by Emperor Constantine to resolve a crisis shaking the very foundations of Christianity. At stake was nothing less than the identity of Jesus Christ: was He truly God, co-eternal and of the same substance as the Father, or merely a created being—a divine yet lesser creature? To...

It often feels like the world is unraveling. Nations rage, foundations shake, and evil seems to advance on all sides. We see the siege and feel the battle is nearly lost. We look for a hero, a victory, a final turning of the tide. But human plans fail. The prophet Zechariah paints a picture of that final day. The battle rages, the city is taken, and all hope appears gone. Then, the Lord Himself ap...

There are moments you wish you could forget: A word spoken in anger or selfishness that caused another to hurt.   The feeling that follows is a unique kind of grief. It's a sense of mourning over what you have caused. We know what it is to wound a friend or a family member. But can we comprehend wounding God Himself? The prophet Zechariah speaks of a day when the people of Jerusalem will look upon...

Zechariah gives a stark image of this faithlessness. He tells of shepherds who value God's people so little that their worth is calculated at a mere thirty pieces of silver—the price of a slave gored by an ox. This paltry sum, their shepherd's wages, is then contemptuously thrown into the house of the Lord. It is a chilling prophecy of betrayal, revealing the heart of worthless leaders and pointin...

If you were to imagine an ancient king entering his capital city, you would likely picture a man sitting atop a powerful warhorse. You might see behind him a gleaming parade of chariots and a conquering army marching in formation. The king displays overwhelming strength and portrays an image that demands submission. This is how the world understands power. But the prophet Zechariah paints a radica...

What if God isn't impressed with our religious habits and pietism? For seventy years, the people of Judah thought they were doing the right thing by sticking to a solemn tradition they started themselves. It was a yearly memorial filled with mourning and weeping over the destruction of the temple. But, seeing as how they were rebuilding the temple, they asked God for a break from this ritual. His...

Zechariah's final vision sends four powerful chariots from between bronze mountains to patrol the earth, executing God's sovereign judgment. But the vision gives way to a startling command: Zechariah is to craft a royal crown and place it not on the governor, but on Joshua the High Priest. Why would God command the merging of the royal and priestly offices, an act forbidden in Israel's history? Or...

After promising His work is fueled "not by might, nor by power," God gives Zechariah two startling visions of judgment. A flying scroll carries a curse to cleanse the land of sin, and a woman named "Wickedness" is captured, sealed in a basket, and carried into exile. How does the promise of the Spirit's power relate to the necessity of purging sin? We explore how God's Spirit both empowers and pur...

What happens when you stand accused in the heavenly courtroom and the charges are true? In this episode, we study the stunning vision of Zechariah 3, where Joshua the High Priest stands before the Angel of the LORD in filthy garments, with Satan himself as the prosecutor. Discover how God's verdict is not a judgment, but a gracious silencing of the accuser. This vision is a breathtaking preview of...

In ancient times, a city without walls would be a sitting duck: defenseless, vulnerable, and a ripe target for hostile nations. Writing to discouraged exiles who had returned to a ruined Jerusalem in 520 BC, Zechariah delivers God's stunning promise delivered to him in a third vision: Jerusalem will become a city without walls because of the multitude of people God will bring to it, and the YHWH H...

With the temple rebuilding stalled and God's people discouraged, the prophet Zechariah receives a series of stunning night visions. Who are the angelic horsemen patrolling a world that is dangerously "at ease"? And what are the four powerful horns and four mysterious craftsmen that signal a clash of cosmic powers? Professor Reed Lessing joins us as we explore God's passionate call to return, His p...

You finally commit to that project you've been putting off for years. You dive in with enthusiasm, start making real progress, and then reality hits. It's smaller than you dreamed, less impressive than you imagined, especially when compared to what others have accomplished. That's exactly where we find God's people three weeks into rebuilding the temple. The older folks who remembered Solomon's ma...