Neh. 1-3 I notice a trend among the likes of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. These are arguably some of the more righteous men of the exile, yet all three of them acknowledge their personal part ...
Day 358 – Ezra 8-10; Rev 15Day 358 – Ezra 8-10; Rev 15
Ezra 8-10 Ezra found himself in a little bit of a dilemma. He and the people had declared a bold testimony about God before the king. They had told him, “The hand of our God ...
Day 357 – Est 9-10; Rev 14Day 357 – Est 9-10; Rev 14
Est. 9-10 I can’t help but think of Joseph when I read about Mordecai. Both Jewish men had plots against their lives by people who intended to destroy them. Yet both somehow rose to become ...
Day 356 – Est 6-8; Rev 13Day 356 – Est 6-8; Rev 13
Est. 6-8 I love the story of Esther! The poetic justice runs deep. It says in Psalm 7, “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil…His mischief returns upon his own head” (Ps 7:14a, 16a). It is ...
Day 355 – Est 3-5; Rev 12Day 355 – Est 3-5; Rev 12
Est. 3-5 I marvel at Mordecai’s confidence. God is never mentioned in the book of Esther, but His presence in the story, and especially in Mordecai, is evident. Mordecai was obviously aware of God’s promise ...
Day 354 – Est 1-2; Matt 1; Luke 3Day 354 – Est 1-2; Matt 1; Luke 3
Est. 1-2 I know the book of Esther is not Queen Vashti’s story, but I wish I knew more about her all the same. We aren’t told why she refused to come to the king ...
Day 353 – Ezra 5-7; Rev 11Day 353 – Ezra 5-7; Rev 11
Ezra 5-7 Clearly God made Himself known to the foreign kings under whom the exiled Israelites served. Cyrus and Darius both obviously recognized the power of God and the importance of supporting His people. Not ...
Day 352 – Ps 107, 126; Rev 10Day 352 – Ps 107, 126; Rev 10
Ps. 107, 126 God is in the restoration business! He takes the bad things that happen to us and the bad things that we do and, when we cry out to Him, He turns them ...
Day 351 – Ps 84, 90; Rev 9Day 351 – Ps 84, 90; Rev 9
Ps. 84, 90 I had kind of an off-hand thought from today’s reading in the Psalms. It came from Psalm 84:3. “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where ...
Day 350 – Ps 81-83; Rev 8Day 350 – Ps 81-83; Rev 8
Ps. 81-83 The human heart is a stubborn thing. Why on earth, when we have a God who wants to give us all good things, do we insist on going our own way? Why would ...
Day 349 – Ps 79-80; Rev 7Day 349 – Ps 79-80; Rev 7
Ps. 79-80 I don’t know if it was Asaph or some of his sons who wrote these Psalms, but I feel like whoever wrote them paid attention to the words of God’s prophets. Their prayers ...
Day 348 – Ps. 77-78; Rev 6Day 348 – Ps. 77-78; Rev 6
Ps. 77-78 The writer of Psalm 77 is greatly troubled. As he is considering his situation, he asks a series of questions. “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast ...
Day 347 – Ps. 74-76; Rev 5Day 347 – Ps. 74-76; Rev 5
Ps. 74-76 I don’t know that this is the case, but it seems to me that part of conquering a people back in Bible times would have involved destroying the temple/s of their god/s. I ...
Day 346 – Zech 13-14; Rev 3-4Day 346 – Zech 13-14; Rev 3-4
Zech. 13-14 “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zech. 123:1). A fountain. I like that. ...
Day 345 – Zech 11-12; Rev 2Day 345 – Zech 11-12; Rev 2
Zech. 11-12 I don’t know how anyone can believe that the Bible is not God’s work. It is far too linked together and detailed in ways that shouldn’t be possible. This passage in Zechariah is ...
Day 344 – Zech 9-10; Rev 1Day 344 – Zech 9-10; Rev 1
Zech. 9-10 In Zechariah 10:3a, God says, “My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders”. The Hebrew word translated as “leader” in this verse is actually “male goats”. Given what ...
Day 343 – Zech 5-8; Jude 1Day 343 – Zech 5-8; Jude 1
Zech. 5-8 God spoke a lot through His prophets about how faithless His people had been. He destroyed Jerusalem, His chosen city, and left it desolate because of this faithlessness. But now, in Zechariah 8:3, ...
Day 342 – Zech 1-4; 3 John 1Day 342 – Zech 1-4; 3 John 1
Zech. 1-4 What a fantastic book, Zechariah is! I don’t understand all of the visions by any means, but the message of hope and renewal is unmistakable. He prophesied of the coming of Jesus and ...
Day 341 – Hag 1-2; 2 John 1Day 341 – Hag 1-2; 2 John 1
Hag. 1-2 The exiles who returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple delayed in their task. I get it. Life is busy and building a temple is a BIG project. I imagine the people felt ...
Day 340 – Ezra 3-4; 1 John 5Day 340 – Ezra 3-4; 1 John 5
Ezra 3-4 I noticed a familiar pattern in the tactics of the people who opposed the rebuilding of God’s temple. When they first came to the Jewish exiles, they offered to help with the rebuilding, ...
Day 339 – Ezra 1-2; 1 John 4Day 339 – Ezra 1-2; 1 John 4
Ezra 1-2 I wish I knew the back story of Cyrus king of Persia. What did God do in Cyrus’ life to position his heart to make the declaration that he did during his first ...
Day 338 – Ez 47-48; 1 John 3Day 338 – Ez 47-48; 1 John 3
Ez. 47-48 The land portions that God allotted to His people were important to Him. There were many laws about not moving the boundaries or taking someone’s inheritance away. There were also provisions, such as ...
Day 337 – Ez 45-46; 1 John 2Day 337 – Ez 45-46; 1 John 2
Ez. 45-46 Gotta say, I’m still at a loss with all of this temple stuff. And I’m still curious as to why all of these structure and service details were supposed to make the house ...
Day 336 – Ez 42-44; 1 John 1Day 336 – Ez 42-44; 1 John 1
Ez. 42-44 Wow – I really have no idea what this whole temple vision is all about. It seems, however, that I am not alone. I did some very brief research on it, and there ...
Day 335 – Ez 40-41; 2 Pet 3Day 335 – Ez 40-41; 2 Pet 3
Ez. 40-41 I am willing to bet that for anything described with this much detail, there is significance in all those details! Sadly, I have no clue as to what any of it means. I ...
Day 334 – Ez 37-39; 2 Pet 2Day 334 – Ez 37-39; 2 Pet 2
Ez. 37-39 Once again, there is much that I don’t understand about all of this prophecy. But I know the end result. God will gather all of His people to Himself, and He will be ...
Day 333 – Ez 35-36; 2 Pet 1Day 333 – Ez 35-36; 2 Pet 1
Ez. 35-36 God had gloriously redeemed His people out of slavery to Egypt. He then led them through the wilderness and gave them possession of a great land occupied by other nations, miraculously driving out ...
Day 332 – Ez 33-34; 1 Pet 5Day 332 – Ez 33-34; 1 Pet 5
Ez. 33-34 We read about watchmen and shepherds today. I’m no prophet, and I’m not a leader of Israel, so what do these chapters have to do with me? Likely far more than I can ...
Day 331 – Ez 30-32; 1 Pet 4Day 331 – Ez 30-32; 1 Pet 4
Ez. 30-32 There is a lot of prophecy against Egypt and Pharaoh too. I wish I understood some of the deeper meaning behind these prophesies. To me, it all just looks like an extremely long ...
Day 330 – Ez 27-29; 1 Pet 3Day 330 – Ez 27-29; 1 Pet 3
Ez. 27-29 God’s declaration of His coming judgment for the nations seems to have shifted. What was first due to their treatment of Judah is now due to their pride. And a good portion of ...