Tag Archives: Bible Study

Daily Bible Study

June 9, 2024 Bible Study — Others Will Be Drawn to Our Faith When We Remain Strong in the Face of Persecution

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Esther 8-10.

Having exposed Haman’s plot for what it was and thus causing the king to have him executed, Esther begged the king to overrule the edict which Haman had issued in the king’s name.  The king gave Esther and Mordecai permission to issue an edict to counter that of Haman, after reminding them that no edict issued in the king’s name could be revoked.  The edict which Mordecai wrote seems to be nothing more than a mirror of the one which Haman had issued.  It gave the Jews the right to arm themselves and assemble to defend themselves and their families against those striving to carry out Haman’s edict, and to seize the property of those from whom they defended themselves.  The way in which the results of this edict are described suggests that there existed a group of people who had organized to take advantage of Haman’s edict and that Mordecai’s edict empowered the Jews to destroy the members of that group.  Perhaps the most interesting thing about this passage is the fact that it tells us that people of other nationalities became Jews because of this edict.  The lesson we learn here is that God will provide for us when we refuse to cower from those who seek to harm us because of our faith, and others who had not previously shared our faith will be drawn to stand with us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 8, 2024 Bible Study — Accepting the Risk of Doing God’s Will

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Esther 4-7.

When Mordecai asked Esther to appeal to the king on behalf of the Jewish people, she expressed the danger to herself for doing so.  Mordecai points out that she is at risk anyway.  Esther then asks Mordecai to have all of the Jews of the city fast for three days, at the end of which she will approach the king.  Mordecai’s message to Esther contains an important lesson for us.  If we are in a position to act to protect God’s people from harm, if we refuse to take that action out of fear for ourselves, our position of privilege will not protect us.  In fact, God has probably given us that position of privilege in order to act on behalf of His people.  However, there is more to this passage, there is also Esther’s response to that message from Mordecai, “If I perish, I perish.”  Once she heard Mordecai’s message, she knew he was right.  She was in a position of privilege and luxury, God had put her in that position in order to do something.  That did not mean that God would protect her from the risk of taking action, but it did mean that she needed to accept that risk.  In the same way, each one of us must be willing to accept the risk which comes from doing God’s will.  Each of us is where we are in life in order to do something for God.  That something involves taking risks.  We need to be willing to take those risks.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 7, 2024 Bible Study — Lessons About Maintaining a Relationship

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Esther 1-3.

There are multiple lessons we can take away from this passage.  I am going to start with the lessons on relationships we can learn from the account of the interactions between King Xerxes and Queen Vashti.  I am going to make some assumptions about the motivations of those involved which are not spelled out in the passage, but which I think likely.  King Xerxes and Queen Vashti threw joint parties: King Xerxes threw a party for all of the men of significance in his kingdom and Queen Vashti threw one for all of the women.  When both parties were in full swing and King Xerxes was rather drunk, he decided to show off how beautiful his wife was.  So, King Xerxes sent for Vashti to come to him.  I think it is safe to assume that Queen Vashti was probably having a rather good time herself at her party and she didn’t want to leave her party to go be made a spectacle of in front of a bunch of men.  King Xerxes summons to Vashti was likely intended as a compliment to her beauty, but it did not come across that way to Vashti.  Instead, she interpreted it as being objectified, being seen by Xerxes as another one of his possessions (and that might indeed have played a role in his thinking).  So, she refused to come to Xerxes summons.  At this point, from a relationship perspective, both Xerxes and Vashti have made mistakes.  Xerxes mistake was that he summoned Vashti, rather than telling her that he wanted his “friends” to see how lucky he was to have such a beautiful wife and asking her to join him (and perhaps bringing some of her guests with her).  Vashti’s mistake was in angrily rejecting Xerxes summons, rather than coming to him and telling him in person why he had angered her, and thus giving him a chance to correct her misunderstanding of his motivation, or correct his behavior if she was correct.  Xerxes then compounded his mistake by angrily asking his, also drunk, “friends” what he should do about her rejection.  Instead of doing that, and, worse, acting on their advice, Xerxes should have gone to Vashti and talked to her about why he was angry and why she had refused his request.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 6, 2024 Bible Study — Little “Wrongs” Quickly Grow Bigger

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 11-13.

When Nehemiah left Jerusalem and returned to the Persian capital, the people of Judah allowed corruption to become the norm once more.  The man in charge of the temple storerooms turned over one of the largest ones to be used by Tobiah, who had previously tried to prevent Jerusalem’s walls from being repaired.  This resulted in the Levites not receiving their portion, which resulted in them leaving temple service in order to provide for themselves and their families.  In addition, some of the people of Judah had begun doing business on the Sabbath, both on their own account and with foreigners who had come to reside among them.  In addition, Nehemiah discovered that some of the men of Judah had married foreign women and were not raising their children with those women to worship God, this even included the grandson of the high priest.  We have a tendency to see each of these as separate incidents, but in fact they each represented a failure of the people to remain faithful.

If the people are buying from foreigners who bring their wares into the city on the Sabbath, why shouldn’t I sell my wares on the Sabbath?  First, if I don’t, I will lose some of my customers to the foreigners because it is more convenient for my customers to buy from them on the Sabbath than wait for a weekday to do business with me.  Second, even without the possibility of losing customers, it is more convenient for them to do business with me on the Sabbath, since otherwise they have to leave their own work to do business with me.  Then, if the people are doing business on the Sabbath, what is the big deal about the guy in charge of the temple store rooms making a little extra money by renting out space that is under utilized (which quickly makes more space “under utilized” so that he can make more money).  Of course that works both ways, if the guy in charge of the temple store rooms is renting out space in them, why shouldn’t I do business on the Sabbath.  So, the little dispensation we allow ourselves, (I mean really, its just a minor rule, it doesn’t make that much difference) soon grows into widespread disregard for honoring God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 5, 2024 Bible Study — Acknowledging That We Have Sinned

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 9-10.

In today’s passage the returned Exiles (which is not an entirely true designation as many of those who gathered were second and third generation after returning) gathered to mourn and repent of their sins.  They separated themselves from those who were not part of their community of faith.  They praised God for the many wonderful things He had done for their ancestors and confessed that their ancestors turned away from God after receiving His blessings.  One could easily focus on their confession of their ancestors sins, but I believe that this recounting actually serves to focus on God’s mercy and forgiveness.  Time and again the people had suffered because they failed to obey God, only for God to show them mercy and bless them once more when they turned to Him and cried out for deliverance.  And the final point is that, after listing the ways in which their ancestors had sinned against God, they acknowledged that the troubles they were experiencing resulted from their own sins, not from the sins of their ancestors, or the sins of anyone else.   Then they entered into an agreement together to faithfully follow God’s commands going forward.  We need to follow their example by separating ourselves from those who are not God’s people and acknowledging that the troubles we face result from our sins, not the sins of the people around us who are not God’s people.  It is worth noting that some of those who were excluded from the assembly in this passage claimed to be worshipers of God, but they did not agree with those gathered as to what it meant to follow God.  Today, there are others who claim to follow Christ, but have a different view of what that means.  We must separate ourselves from them and follow Christ as He has revealed Himself to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 4, 2024 Bible Study — Giving Equal Value to Men, Women, and Children

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 7-8.

I find following the timing of this passage a little tricky because of the inclusion of the genealogical records from when the first Exiles returned to Judah.  However, it reads to me (in yesterday’s passage) that the work on Jerusalem’s walls and gates were completed in the final month of the year.  That means that the assembly described in chapter eight occurs in the seventh month of the year following the completion of Jerusalem’s walls.  I am not sure that any of that is important, but thinking about that led me to here.   The people all assembled to hear the Law of God read to them.  The passage says that Ezra read the Law to the assembly.  The wording here seems to suggest to me that “assembly” here means more than just those assembled.  It seems to me to mean those who had a say in important decisions.  The passage tells us that the assembly included men and women, and “all who were able to understand.”  For the purposes of this assembly, which was to hear, understand, and commit to obey the Law of God, men and women were equal.  Even those who were otherwise considered children were considered equal, as long as they were old enough to understand God’s word.  Men, women, and children are all of equal value to God, and we should also value them equally.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 3, 2024 Bible Study — Do Not Allow Our Enemies to Discourage Us From Doing God’s Work

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 4-6.

There are two things I want to look at in today’s passage.  The first thing I am going to write about comes in the middle of the passage.  While the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls was going on, something being done as a community project with everyone contributing as their abilities allowed, some of the less well-to-do and the poor complained to Nehemiah about the way the wealthy were getting wealthier at their expense.  When Nehemiah looked into it, he realized that they were right.  So, he called the elites together and demanded that they stop charging interest on loans to their fellow believers and that they refund the interest they had already collected (including returning the land which had secured some of the debt which had not been paid).  However, the key part of this demand by Nehemiah was his acknowledgement that he and his family had also been guilty of getting wealthy at the expense of the poor.  Nehemiah also refunded the interest he had collected and returned the lands which he had taken in lieu of repayment.  Nehemiah led by example.

When the enemies of the Jews heard that they were rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem, they were initially dismissive and ridiculed the effort.  The passage makes it clear that the ridicule was intended to discourage the Jews from continuing.   When the Jews continued to work, and made real progress, their enemies plotted to intervene with violence.  Nehemiah worked with the leaders to plan how they would protect themselves from such an attack.  The enemies continued to plot to attack the Jews, while making sure that the Jews knew about their plan.  The key here is that God’s people did not allow their fear to stop them from continuing to work.  When that failed, the Jews’ enemies tried to convince Nehemiah to meet with them some place where they could arrange to ambush him.  They went so far as to tell Nehemiah that the purpose of the meeting was to offer Nehemiah an opportunity to address rumors that Nehemiah was planning to revolt against the king of Persia.  And when that failed, they tried to discredit Nehemiah by scaring him into hiding from assassins.  Nehemiah refused to meet with the enemies of his people and he refused to hide from the threat against him.  So, while we need to prepare for the obstacles our enemies, God’s enemies, put in our path, we should not stop doing the work God has assigned to us.  We should not spend any time worrying about what our enemies are saying about us.  We should not spend any time worrying about what the enemies of God say about His followers.  And we should not hide from threats of violence.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 2, 2024 Bible Study — Praying, Fasting, and Seeking God’s Guidance

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Nehemiah 1-3.

For many years I thought that the description of Jerusalem which Nehemiah’s brother gave him described the state in which the Exiles found it when they returned from Exile.  In actuality, Nehemiah lived a couple of generations after the first Exiles had returned to Jerusalem.  Those who had first returned had rebuilt Jerusalem, but then something had happened to lead to the walls being broken down and the gates being burned, perhaps bandit attacks, perhaps something else.  In any case, the sad state of Jerusalem’s walls and gates is a change from what Nehemiah expected to be true.  So, greatly saddened by this news, Nehemiah fasted, prayed, and sought God’s guidance on how to make this better.  In his prayer, Nehemiah acknowledged that the state of Jerusalem was because of the failure of God’s people to faithfully obey God’s commands.  In the same way, we need to recognize that the sad state of our country also results from the failure of God’s people to faithfully follow God.  We, also, need to follow Nehemiah’s example to fast and pray, seeking God’s guidance on what He wants us to do in order for God’s people to faithfully follow Him.  Some of us will be called to lead people in the rebuilding, but most of us will merely be called to do our small part, just as most of the people in Judah were called to work on just their small part of the wall around Jerusalem.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

June 1, 2024 Bible Study — Remembering to Deal With Each Sinner as a Person

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 9-10.

I have always been bothered by this passage because, on a surface reading, it seems cold, uncaring, and xenophobic.  However, a closer reading indicates that it is more nuanced than it seems at first glance.  First, I need to summarize what the passage says happened.  Some of the leaders of the returned Exiles came to Ezra and complained about the returned Exiles intermarrying with the pagan peoples who had been living in the land while they were in Exile.  Ezra was distressed by this information and publicly prayed about how terrible such intermarriage was.  The people gathered and demanded that those who had intermarried put aside their foreign wives and the children they had by those wives.  As I said, this seems cold and uncaring.  I first realized that it was a little more complicated than it seems at first when I paid attention to the fact that the people responded to the decision that the men should separate themselves from their foreign wives and children by saying that it could not be done in a day or two.  That was followed up by the appointment of men to investigate each of the cases.  If it was just a matter of, “You married a foreign woman, send her and her children away or be shunned by polite society,” it would not have required any investigation.  Then I looked a little closer at Ezra’s prayer.  In his prayer he said, “Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices?” The key here was that the foreign wives were still practicing the worship of idols, and raising their children to do so.  It still feels cold and uncaring, but the fact that it took them three months to resolve all of the issues tells me that it was not the simple, uncaring thing which it reads as.  At least part of what was going on here was that some of these men had married their wives in order to enter into business and economic deals with pagans (in his prayer Ezra mentioned God’s prohibition against the Israelites signing treaties of friendship with the pagan peoples).  I still struggle with how this passage describes how they handled this.  However, I think it is important to realize that they strove to find a way to deal with their disobedience to God’s commands, and they did not use a one size fits all solution.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

May 31, 2024 Bible Study — Rather Than Be Embarrassed Because of Our Faith We Should Be Embarrassed by Our Lack of Faith

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ezra 6-8.

Yesterday’s passage described how, after their help in building the temple was rejected, those who had lived in the land while the Jews were in Exile had managed to prevent work on the temple beyond relaying the foundation to come to a halt.  It also described how a new generation under the prodding of Haggai the prophet and of Zechariah resumed work on the temple only to be interrupted by those whose forefather’s help had been rejected.  This new generation attempting to prevent the rebuilding of the temple appealed to Darius, the king of Persia.  However, when Darius had a search of the archives made he discovered that Cyrus had ordered the rebuilding of the temple.  So, Darius ordered those who had attempted to prevent the rebuilding of the temple to provide sufficient resources to the Jews, the returned Exiles, for them to complete the rebuilding.  Thus God proved that Haggai and Zechariah were indeed speaking His word when they prompted the people to resume work on rebuilding the temple.

Sometime after the temple was completed Ezra appealed to Artaxerxes and was granted an edict to go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices on behalf of the king.  As part of that trip, Ezra and those accompanying him received a large amount of wealth to take with them.  Apparently, the amount of wealth which was given to the pilgrims was more than Ezra had anticipated (or, just as likely, he had given no thought about the wealth they would be transporting until it was gathered).  In any case, having proudly told the king that not only was God able to protect them from any harm but that He would be with them on this journey, Ezra was too embarrassed to ask the king for a military escort to protect them, and the wealth they carried, from bandits.  So, Ezra divided the treasure they were transporting up among several different people, making each person responsible for a portion of the treasure being transported to Jerusalem, and called upon the entire group to fast and pray, asking God to grant them a safe journey, both for themselves and their possessions.  When they arrived in Jerusalem and made an accounting of the treasure, it had all survived the journey.  We learn two important lessons here.  First, Ezra, and those traveling with him, fully put their faith in God for safety because they were embarrassed as to what people would think if they asked for guards to protect them.  Sometimes God uses our fear of what others will think of us in order to motivate us to act in faith.  And, as a corollary to that, sometimes it is good to brag up our faith, so that we will be embarrassed to not fully put our trust in God.  Second, while putting his faith in God, Ezra still took steps to mitigate the risk.   By dividing the treasure they were transporting up among several people, and making those to whom it was given responsible just for the portion they were given, Ezra made it less obvious how much wealth their caravan was transporting.  Just because we trust God to protect us does not mean that we do not take action to reduce the risk.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.