Here at Corinth Church, we are reading through (most of) the Old Testament, week by week, book by book. Below you will find Bible passages and corresponding questions for daily reading, as well as a sermon on each book that we’ve covered. However you got here, feel free to participate. And also come join us on Sunday!
Thanks for being here.
-Dave
Sunday, Cyrus’ Edict: Ezra 1: 1-7
God uses the “king of the world” to bring about the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple. Does God’s use of “outsiders” to bring about his will resonate with your experience of God in your life?
Monday, Weeping and Shouts of Joy: Ezra 3: 8-13
We aren’t very good at allowing weeping and laughing to co-mingle. The same sight brings joy to the young and tears to the old. How can we better respect each other’s strong emotions?
Tuesday, Pagan Wives: Ezra 9: 1-4, 10: 1-5, 44
The divorcing of foreign wives and the sending away of them with their children is an untenable idea to us today, and is also at odds with the witness of the Bible as a whole (see Ruth, and Jonah, let alone the New Testament!) . But it does highlight a truth that we know all too well. Marrying the wrong person is a mistake that is very hard to unmake.
Are these mistakes preventable?
Wednesday. Rebuilding the Wall: Nehemiah 2: 17-20
First Israel rebuilt the Temple, then they rebuilt their community, and last they turned their attention to their security and dignity by rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. The wall keeps people both out and in. There is a kind of “wall” around a congregation as well. What purposes does it serve?
Thursday, Charging Interest: Nehemiah 5: 1-13
This passage is especially relevant to the situation in our world today! Notice how Nehemiah himself admits that he was also charging interest in verse 10. When does interest charging become a sin? And what responsibility do those who charge it have to those who pay it?
Friday, Don’t Stop Working: Nehemiah 4: 15-23
What work is so important that no one could make you stop if they tried?
Saturday, Joy, Nehemiah 8:1-12
Contemplate the words of the French Nobel laureate André Gide (1869–1951):”Joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”
What are the differences between joy and happiness?
Sermon Scriptures: Ezra 1:1-5Nehemiah 1: 1-10
After 70 years in captivity, the people are allowed to return. A remnant returns to Jerusalem at the command of Cyrus of Persia, to whom God had spoken directly, the king of the universe speaking to the then king of the known world. They returned. And they rebuilt. They worked in fits and starts. It’s a very easy and quick read, and I encourage you to read the whole thing.
A remnant of the people returned to Jerusalem. And they rebuilt the temple. They rebuilt their community. And they rebuilt the wall.
I taught about the temple last week. The second temple was just as important as the first. It was the White House and the National Cathedral and your childhood home all rolled into one, in the center of the holiest city in the world. The remnant rebuilt it and began once again to worship God through sacrifice.
But who I’d like to focus on today is Nehemiah, Read the rest of this entry »
Are you getting a sense of the sweep of the story of the Old Testament so far? Particularly of the story of Israel? Last week, I just preached about the life of David. And if I were going to do this series all over again,…don’t worry, I’m not going to…I would have spent more time with the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah.
I would have talked about Elijah the prophet, and his adversarial relationship with King Ahab of Israel and his evil wife, Jezebel. I would have talked about Elisha, his successor and his healing of Naaman the foreign warrior. I would have talked about the role of prophets in a society that has abandoned God. But luckily, we’ll have a chance to look at the prophets soon enough.
You see, Samuel and Kings told the historical story of Israel and Judah in as near to complete detail as the writer thought was necessary, but the book of Chronicles does not. The book of Chronicles is primarily concerned with the Temple and the right worship of the Lord God. It was written by a priest. And so it approaches history from the perspective of a priest. Just as a businessman would be most interested in the financial systems throughout history and a general would be most interested in the wars and the military strategies used to fight them, a priest’s main concern with history would be the maintenance of divine worship. And so from the first man onward, that is the the lens that the writer of Chronicles looks through.
And today, we are going to look at three things in the book of Chronicles that as Christians studying the Old Testament, we absolutely need to know.
Sunday, The Purpose of Life: 1 Chronicles 28:9
David tells Solomon that the purpose of life is to seek God, in the words of scripture and in the worship of the temple. How do you seek God?
Monday, Sacred History: 1 Chronicles 1-9 (more for glancing than reading) Also compare to Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3: 23-38
The ancient saint Jerome said the Chronicles contained “the whole of sacred history.” What makes sacred history sacred? What is sacred about your personal history? And how far back does it go?
Tuesday, The end of “Bible times”.
Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah bridges the gap from “Bible times”, where God’s hand is seen visibly and often, to a world much like our own. For instance, the most holy happening in the book of Chronicles is the building of the Temple, brick by brick. Is it hard for us to see God in the “brick by brick” happenings in our world? Why?
Wednesday. The Last Book: 2 Chronicles 24: 17-22
In the Bible Jesus read, Chronicles was the final book. In the same way that today you might hear someone say, “from Genesis to Revelation”, people in Jesus’ times would say “from Genesis to Chronicles”. In fact, Jesus does say something like this in Matthew 23: 35. He refers to the first murder and the last murder in the Bible as he knew it.
Thursday, Asa’s Faith: 2 Chroniciles 14: 8-11
What other recourse do the powerless have against the mighty than the help of almighty God? Do we take advantage of all that God has to give?
Friday, Uzziah’s Downfall: 2 Chronicles 26: 16-23
Do you think Uzziah lit the incense himself out of devotion to God, or out of pride? Would it matter either way? Did he get what he deserved?
Saturday, Facts vs. Meaning
As “sacred history”, Chronicles isn’t concerned with recording everything that happened. “Rabbi Herbert Tarr imagines that the Chronicler’s defense against the charge that he passed over great chunks of Israel’s story: ‘I’ve chronicled not all that actually happened, but what truly mattered. The world is drowning in facts, suffocating in statistics. What’s needed is meaning’ “(Tuell, 1 and 2 Chron. p. 77)
What is the difference between fact and meaning?
A comprehensive study of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings would take months. These books are an epic history of the destruction (and occasional good) that the monarchy brings to God’s people. There are dozens of fascinating and faith-building stories in these books, as well, but none convey the “big picture” of Israel’s development from the time of the Judges to the Babylonian exile, a period of 500 years. Reading all four books is highly recommended, and is worth the investment of time and energy.
Sunday. The Call of Samuel
Full version: 1 Samuel 1-2:11, 3:1-21
Abridged version: 1 Samuel 1:1-2, 9-20, 24-28, 3:1-21
Samuel is dedicated to serve the Lord from birth. When he is just a boy, he hears the voice of God calling him in the night. It is because of Hannah’s faith and her decision that he leads the life he does. Are we doing the same for our children and grandchildren? What is the best age to begin training a child to follow Christ?
The book of Ruth is a story of friendship. It shows us three things about friendship. And in a few minutes, we’ll see what the first one is. It is a very short story, and after all of the turmoil of Judges, it’s nice to have a story of something good happening. But just like today, good news isn’t always news worthy. This is a story of friendship. It is a story of the families we make for ourselves when we have no family left.
Sunday: Read the whole book of Ruth, chapters 1-4. It should only take 15 minutes. What jumps out at you about the story?
Monday, Ruth’s Vow, Ruth 1: 16-18
Many couples choose this verse to be read at their wedding ceremonies, as it expresses the nature of a vow between people more than any other verse in the Bible. Can you name all of the parties mentioned in Ruth’s vow? How is Ruth’s vow similar to the marriage vows? How does it differ?
Tuesday, Call Me Bitter, Ruth 1: 19-21
Naomi demonstrates such honesty in her response to the women of the city. What can we, who are so often “fine”, learn from Naomi about when, where and with whom to be honest? Do you think Naomi had it right?
Wednesday, Hesed Ruth 2: 8-12
The word for kindness in verse 11 (and in the rest of the book) is hesed. It can also be rendered lovingkindness, faithfulness, or loyalty.
“In the Hebrew Bible hesed refers to an action by one person on behalf of another under circumstances that meet three main criteria. First, the action is essential to the survival or basic well-being of the recipient; it is not a matter of taking care of some casual or frivolous whim or desire. [Second] the needed action is one that only the person doing the hesed is in a position to provide; while it is not impossible that there could be some other provider, none is apparent on the immediate horizon of the situation. [Third] an act of hesed takes place within the context of an existing, established and positive relationship. It is not done ‘out of the blue’; it is not done in order to establish a relationship not yet existing.”(Sakenfeld, Ruth)
Have you experienced hesed, as a giver or a receiver? Have you experienced kindness that didn’t meet all three conditions of hesed?
Thursday, Salvation by Courage Alone: Ruth 3: 1-14
The story of Ruth’s midnight trip to the threshing floor is very ambiguous. It really is up to the reader to imagine what happened there. But one thing is sure: Ruth risked everything to follow Naomi’s plan. Already a foreigner, she could have been labeled far worse; Boaz’s speech here makes clear the risk Ruth took. Why do you think Ruth took this risk?
Friday, The Minor Characters: Ruth 1: 14, 4: 1-8
Orpah and the Nearer-Kinsman are not criticized for their behavior. They do nothing wrong. Neither do they do anything great. They only do what is expected. We all have the instinct to be a minor character in life, doing nothing great or terrible. In doing this, what do we risk? What do we gain?
Saturday, Thou Shalt Be Normal? Matthew 1: 5,
In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, he lists four women. One is Ruth, the others are Tamar, Rahab, and “the wife of Uriah” (Bathsheeba). What they all hold in common is that “none of them fits in with the way things are ’supposed’ to be” (Gaventa) One of the most compelling facets of our salvation in Christ is the recognition of the way things are, as opposed to the way things were meant to be. Much of the Old Testament seems to be concerned with “the way things are supposed to be”. Do you think that the book of Ruth serves as a rebuttal?
If this is your first time with us today, you are joining us seven books in on our journey through the old testament in 2009. This year, we start out every week with a sermon that in fifteen minutes tries to express the central message of one whole book of the Bible. What? Okay…a sermon that in twenty minutes tries to express the central message of the book. And then during the rest of that week, there are readings and questions printed in the bulletin that guide us through more of the book. We do the readings and discuss the questions with our families, or over the phone, and some of us gather in small groups to do the reading and discuss the book.
We started out in Genesis, which is a good place to start, and saw how God created the world and everything in it, and even though the people that he made to take care of the world turned away from him, still God pursued them and redeemed them. And God decided to be present in the world, and to give all people his blessing, through one particular people: Israel. In Exodus, we saw that God’s people Israel had become slaves in Egypt and how God sent Moses, to save them from Egypt, not just so they could be free from slavery, but gave them the Law, so that they could be a light to all people, and promised them a Land so that they could follow the Law and be true to him.
Sunday, Disobedience and Defeat: Judges 2: 6-19
This passage is the Reader’s Digest version of the whole book of Judges. What caused the people to do evil in the sight of the Lord? Could this have been avoided? If the previous generation forgot one of the instructions of the Lord in Deuteronomy 6, what do you think it was?
Monday, Ehud the Leftie: Judges 3: 12-30
Ehud’s assassination of Eglon brings about 80 years of peace for Israel, more than any other judge brought about. What does Ehud teach us about cunning?
Tuesday, Gideon’s Tests: Judges 6: 33-40
God honors Gideon’s hard-headed request for multiple signs. Have you ever asked God for a sign? Did you get one? What did it mean to you? Would you have made the same decision without it?
Wednesday. Joash’s Response: Judges 6: 25-32
In response to the first sign given to Gideon, he destroys the alter to Baal and remakes it into an alter to the Lord. When the worshippers of Baal seek his life for heresy, his father gives the response in verse 31. What can we learn from Joash’s response?
Thursday, 300: Judges 7: 1-8
In the movie “300”, 300 spartan warriors defeat the entire Persian army. The same thing happens here in Judges. What is the advantage of small numbers? What do you lose in large numbers?
Friday, Adding to God’s Promises: Judges 11: 29-40
Why do you think Jephthah thought he needed to add to God’s promise? And why on earth did he keep his vow? This passage calls our own views of vows into question, namely: why are we so relaxed concerning the vows we make?
Still, Jephthah has some serious explaining to do.
Saturday, Samson isn’t Bright: Judges 16: 1-22
We think the heroes of the faith should be above the kind of trouble that Samson gets himself into, time and again. But they aren’t. Samson gets involved in the same kind of hurtful, unhealthy relationship that many of us get involved in as well. But instead of cutting him off, God uses Samson’s disfunction for his own glory.
Where have you seen this happen recently?
Bonus. Everyone did as he saw fit: Judges 17-21
The last chapters of Judges chronicle a horrible and bloody civil war in Israel. Unlike the previous chapters, which would be stories of heroes, the genre here is horror. It is all summed up by the last verse.
And don’t forget to read the story of Deborah, the woman judge, in chapters 3-4
I have a feeling that over the course of the rest of this year that you will hear me say a variation of the next sentence an awful lot… It’s hard to preach a sermon on the whole book of Joshua. Now the two scriptures we read this morning, those were made to be preached on. “Be strong and courageous” and “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. Those are great inspiring scriptures. But they come at the beginning and the end of the book. It’s all the stories in the middle that make this such a difficult book to preach, and for one reason in particular.
There’s an elephant in the room and it’s sitting in several places in Joshua. One place you can see it is in Joshua 6:16-17 and 21. It’s called “the ban”.
Some people have a real problem with God ordering the execution of women and children and I would be one of them. And before we can deal with anything else, we need to deal with that. There are three real options.