Nehemiah 1-3

Now, I’m not entirely clear on why the wall wasn’t rebuilt after the temple. Did they just not have explicit permission to rebuild anything more of the city than the wall and they were too afraid to do so? It would make sense. They were surrounded by some pretty nasty people. I only wonder because …

Ezra 7-10

I was ‘supposed’ to read chapter 7 with yesterday’s passage, but I didn’t read the plan correctly. Oh well. Can I just say that “this Ezra” to be a fairly comedic line? I mean, his lineage is traced for 16 generations. That Ezra. You know, not one of those other Ezra’s whose lineage appears identical …

Ezra 4-6

So I read this passage, and the first thing that came to mind was “ain’t always the way?” They get back to Jerusalem after a a pretty gruesome time of it and start rebuilding. Folks start rubber necking and wander over, offering to ‘help.’ Now, I reckon they probably had some fairly sinister intentions from …

Ezra 1-3

I have two things to say. First, they built the altar before they even started on the foundations of the temple. They had their priorities. They immediately, upon returning to the city from exile, rebuilt the altar so they could practice the sacrifices God required. The altar wasn’t seen as the crowning glory of the …

Ezekiel 45-48

The river flowing from the temple is a fascinating. In the middle of a seemingly practical tour intended to provide instructions, the blueprints for rebuilding, there is this image of a river. A very dramatic and miraculous river. Where this river flows, there is life. It clarifies salt water, brings life to a desert: it …

Ezekiel 40-44

Man. Okay, I know exile is pretty extreme. Siege and the horrible things that are done within the walls of a starving and frightened city are extreme. Judah faced pretty harsh judgment for their idolatry and profanity. But the personal nature of this judgment on the Levites is special. They are to tend the temple, …

Ezekiel 37-39

Prophecy is difficult. There’s a passage here that sounds fairly Messianic. David will rule over them once more. Christ is of the line of David, and Christ will come to redeem them. But then you stop and think about it and you realize the people didn’t exactly accept Christ all that whole heartedly, and they …

Ezekiel 34-36

So, being familiar with Psalm 23, David, and the metaphor of Christ as shepherd, it’s fairly easy to read this prophecy as a metaphor, as about more than just the shepherds. So when it get down to the more explicit statements, it’s not much of twist or reveal. I wonder, though, whether the people that …