Contrasting Israel with God's Servant.
...continue reading "Isaiah 50"Category: Dark Night of the Soul
Isaiah 40
We now enter a new section of Isaiah. Most commentators distinguish two "halves" of the book. The dire prophetic judgements of the "Old Testament" half, with the tragic end of Israel and much of Judah by the Assyrians, and the more hopefully, Messianic, "New Testament" half in which Isaiah has amazingly accurate prophesies regarding Babylon. This second second begin with chapter 40.
...continue reading "Isaiah 40"Isaiah 38
This is the second of three events we see in the "historical interlude" in the middle of the book of Isaiah, all related to King Hezekiah. These are cross-referenced in II Kings 20 and II Chronicles 32.
...continue reading "Isaiah 38"Isaiah 28
For years now, between bible studies and whenever I have "extra time", I've been reading and blogging my way through the Old Testament chronologically. Following Hosea, I'm back in Isaiah.
...continue reading "Isaiah 28"Hosea 2 (Israel)
Hosea has a wife and three kids that all tell the tales of an Israel who has forsaken God and God has disowned, while still giving His longsuffering hope for the future.
...continue reading "Hosea 2 (Israel)"Jonah 3
When last we saw Jonah, he had scooped up by a great fish at the bottom of the ocean, stubbornly spent three days and nights in its belly, and finally repented and was saved by God. He had been spit out on dry ground at the end of chapter 2.
...continue reading "Jonah 3"Turning 50 and Nehemiah 13
I start with a confession. I've been in a mood as of late. And not a godly mood. Not everyday and not all of the time; but building for the last couple of years since I was at a graduation party and someone pointed out that my brother and cousin were turning fifty years old. And in the final days before my own 50th birthday, last week, this mood left me weepy and fully self-pity and entitlement.
...continue reading "Turning 50 and Nehemiah 13"Ecclesiastes 9-12
Solomon decides that anything can happen to anyone. There is no formula for making God do what you want. And everyone is going to die.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes 9-12"Ecclesiastes
I'm waiting on a commentary for II Kings before I move on with the chronological study. So I thought I would take a detour through Ecclesiastes. I had planned to read this with all of the other David and Solomon reading; but the failed attempt at Psalms stopped that plan.
...continue reading "Ecclesiastes"I Kings 19: The Lord is Our Shepherd
We've settled in to the wicked kings that ruled over Israel once it split from Judah. We are currently during the reign of the infamous King Ahab. Elijah and Ahab have gone head to head as Elijah shamed and then had slain the 450 prophets of Baal who professionally served Ahab and Jezebel's court.
God has proven himself as real and Baal has been proven as silent and unresponsive.
Ahab is racing back to Jezreel to meet up with his wicked wife, Jezebel; but God blesses Elijah with the strength to overtake Ahab on foot and get to Jezreel first. This is where the story picks up in Chapter 19.
...continue reading "I Kings 19: The Lord is Our Shepherd"