Ecclesiastes This can be a tough book to navigate, particularly because it seems to say so many things that contradict the rest of the Bible. The best way to understand it as the honest reflections of a great king who learned that all that the world values ultimately isn’t worth anything. What does matter? Throughout… Read More »
This book is another one that does not seem to have “an order.” There are two parts to the book, and it is good to pay attention to this. The first part, chapters 1-9, is really an introduction to the whole book, and it explains the value of wisdom. One of the ways it does… Read More »
I’m not sure if I still have any readers after my vacation and recovery, but if so, I ‘ll continue the Bible Reading Guide with Psalms. I ‘ll just say by way of preface that in my arguments, I spent more time with this book than any other (two weeks compared with not more than… Read More »
Job is a tough book. The beginning (chapters 1-2) and the end (chapter 42) are easy to understand, but it’s everything in the middle that can be difficult to follow. On top of that, at the end of the book, God condemns Job’s three friends for their advice. Even Job repents. So how can you… Read More »
One of the unique things about this book is that it takes place entirely outside of Israel. An even stranger thing is that it never mentions the name of God! This is not an accident, and it helps us to understand what the author wanted to communicate. In short, the story of Esther teaches that… Read More »
The third return from exile occurs thirteen years after Ezra the priest comes back. While Ezra was mostly concerned with the purity of the community, Nehemiah is focused on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. The walls matter not only because they protect the city, but they also define it and allow God’s people to separate… Read More »
Ezra continues the history of 2 Chronicles, as you can see from the fact that the beginning of the book is the same as the end of 2 Chronicles. Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one book, and they tell the story of what happened to the exiles when they came back to the land of… Read More »
1 Chronicles This book takes you all the way back to the beginning, all the way to Adam! The first nine chapters are rather boring genealogies, but they were important if you needed to know who your family was! Why would this matter? Well, you couldn’t serve in the temple as a priest if you… Read More »
1 Kings This book tells about what happened after David died. It’s mostly a sad story, because most of the kings disobey God. When the kings disobey, most of the people disobey. That means that God is going to punish them. Pay attention to chapter 11, because this explains that because Solomon was wicked, the… Read More »
1 Samuel The book starts off with stories about Samuel. This is important because it proves that Samuel is speaking for God (he is a prophet). Therefore, when he anoints Saul king, we know that is what God wants. When he rejects Saul and anoints David instead, we know that that is what God wants.… Read More »