"Ezra and Nehemiah were both men and books of the Bible. In the Hebrew Bible the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were kept as one book. In Latin Christian Bibles, from the 13th century onwards, the book of Ezra was divided into two texts called the First and Second Ezra. In the mid-16th century, the t...

"When we become Christians, our values change. On the one hand, this is a great asset because we need to allow the righteousness of God, the creator of all that is right and good, to change our lives. On the other hand, it is a difficult transition as we wrestle with God and as people around us w...

"God continued to work in ancient Israel even though many of them had chosen to ignore Him. The ones who didn’t ignore Him were often hated, and sometimes hunted. Chief among those who followed God, at this time in history, was Elisha the prophet. He took over the role of prophet from Elijah and ...

"As 2 Kings progresses, we continue to see God attempting to move Israel and her kings and people back into obedience. While this is happening we see evidence that the LORD is true and kind. Psalm 117:2 says, ""For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the LORD endures foreve...

"As we read about the fall of ancient Israel, I am struck with how their fall had nothing to do with the normal suspects: their military, economy, political structure. Their fall had to do with their spiritual state. They had rejected God. The LORD had called them to move in His ways, not to grow...

"Life as we know it is precious, and God has a lot to say about it. It’s interesting to me that we instinctively cling to life, trying to keep it at all costs. We know that life is good, even though it is hard. Of course, we also believe that life doesn’t end when our bodies end here on earth. Th...

"The Bible records the failures of all people, even His people. We can observe a trend in the Old Testament: cities, nations, and people fall because of their willful sin against God. People are saved because of their acknowledgment of God and their repentance from sin. The city of Jerusalem had ...

"As it is today, there were many religions in the time of Saul the first King of Israel. One of those religions was the worship of Dagon by the Philistines. Though this god shows up in our reading today, this is not the first time he has shown up in Scripture. Remember how the judge Samson tore d...

"Praise has always been a big part of worshipping God. We see it all throughout the Scriptures, from the Old to the New Testaments. Someone once said to me something along the lines of, “Your God sure must have a big ego to actually require worship from people.” But what is praise? If you look it...

"1 Chronicles 18 tells us that King David had a great deal of success against all the enemies of Israel. Chronicles not only gives us the broad details of these successes, it also lets us know about some of the riches that David was able to secure. Specifically, the Bible tells us that in his fig...

"The Bible lets us see the different assignments that God had for the founding kings of Israel. David was assigned to subdue the enemies of Israel, but this focus had marred David. He had shed too much human blood for it to be appropriate for him to build the Temple. Even though he accepted this,...

"One thing David knew was the command of God. He had spent his life practicing how to hear and follow God. We see him asking the LORD whether or not he should pursue an enemy. We read his Psalms where he wrestles with his life and waits for the LORD to answer and move. So, when it came to David’s...

"Leadership is a major factor that determines the future of a nation. As we study the Scriptures surrounding ancient Israel, we quickly see the pitfalls of kingship. When the kings reflected the attitude of God and respected His role in the country, the nation was strong. When they made their dec...

"It is very difficult to know how to respond to the shifts and changes that happen in human governments and leadership. We see hints of the people of Israel and Judah struggling with leadership changes in our reading today. Within Judah and Israel, great shifts had taken place. In Israel, idolatr...

"When you think of prayer, what comes to mind? Why do you pray? How do you pray? First, it is important to remember who exactly it is we are praying to: The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God over everything. Next, we need to check our attitude. How are we approaching God? What we see in o...

"The words recorded in 2 Chronicles 25 sound all too familiar: There are people who serve God, but not with their whole hearts. One of these men was the 9th king of Judah, Amaziah. He was a relatively good king, the Bible says that he served the LORD but not with a completely loyal heart. Amaziah...

"Hezekiah ruled Judah from about 714-686 BC. He had co-reigned with his father, Ahaz, for 14 years, but once his father died Hezekiah had new and good plans for the nation. For his first year as full king, Hezekiah decided that the Temple would be cleansed, and that spiritual order would be resto...

"Although the rebuilding of the Temple had been taking place, work had stopped between the years 535-520 BC. This state of affairs was corrected by God. He called two prophets to speak to the returned Israelites: It was time to resume the building. Haggai and Zechariah prophesied faithfully to th...

"There’s something about the Bible. In my experience, there is often a great response to the reading of the Bible. It’s easy to get used to saying that the Bible is the ‘Word of God’ but it is good to really contemplate that phrase. The Bible contains words from God! The One who created you and m...

"There were two important areas of concern for any ancient city: Spiritual protection and physical protection. Large cities were marked by their defensive walls and gates that protected citizens in times of war. In order to stay spiritually protected the people of a city needed to have an allegia...