In over seventy episodes over the course of two years, we have done a deep dive into the 12 Minor Prophets, a monthlong minicourse on why prophecy ended, and then tackled the postexilic books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The next book on the horizon for Bible Fiber is Ezekiel. But before we start a new book, I am giving a minicourse on the Peoples of the Bible. One of the many things we have learned since October 7th is that neighbors really matter, and neighbors can be very problematic for the tiny nation of Israel. Israel did not exist in a bubble during biblical times, and it does not live in a bubble now. 

This week we are learning about the Babylonians, one empire that seems to have permeated the entire Old Testament story. The name Babylon occurs 289 times in the Hebrew scriptures, starting in Genesis and ending with Habakkuk. In Genesis, even though the story of the Tower of Babel is critical of Babylon’s misplaced arrogance, it credits Babylonia as being the birthplace of many cultures, languages, and civilizations. After Genesis, Babylon was synonymous with evil and greed. God used Babylon to punish Judah when she had strayed too far from the covenant and refused to repent. Despite serving as God’s agent of punishment, Babylon then becomes the target of God’s wrath as he swore to vindicate his covenant people. They are the villains of the Old Testament because they were the army that ransacked Jerusalem, looted, and burned the First Temple, and carted off Judeans into captivity.  

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

When the biblical authors recorded Israel’s history, they presumed their audience was familiar with the Assyrians, Babylonians, Philistines, Amorites, Edomites, and the list goes on. I am sure that was a safe assumption at the time they wrote their story. However, most modern readers see the names of foreign people groups in the Bible as mere names on a page. 

Unless you are well-versed in ancient Near Eastern history, you are unlikely to know the distinction between Edomites and Ammonites or what led to the domination of the extensive empires, like the Assyrians and Babylonians. Thankfully, the grand theological and ethical lessons of the Bible do not require believers to also be students of history. The most Christ-like people in my life are not history nerds. However, I believe learning more about all the characters and peoples in the Bible is helpful for going deeper into the narratives and prophecies. 

For the next seven or eight episodes of Bible Fiber, I will debrief you on the major Peoples of the Bible: the Canaanites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Arameans, and Hittites. We will do an overview of their history, language, politics, and religion. And I will outline how, when, and why each group interacted with biblical Israel. We are going to start with the Assyrians, because they are the empire in the Bible that gets the most textual real-estate, especially in the prophets. 

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

This week we are studying Nehemiah 13. I divided the chapter into two parts to avoid rushing through the last nine verses of Nehemiah, which are thought-provoking to say the least. 

I have had part two of Nehemiah 13 written for weeks, but the events of October 7th took center stage in my mind and life and I assume they did for many of you as well. The first few days after Hamas’s killing spree, I was encouraged by the response of world leaders who unequivocally condemned the murder of innocent civilians. 

We have come to know more about Hamas’s disgusting tactics through the confessions of captured Hamas operatives, the footage from their body cameras, the recordings of their phone calls, and the evidence from the charred and mutilated bodies of their Jewish victims. And yet, support for Israel’s right to retaliate has weakened. Even worse, the details of Hamas’s incursion have emboldened the pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas crowds. Their chants of death to the Zionists and Jews make me fear it is the 1940s all over again. 

But we will press on as an organization as we find ways to support modern Israel, confront the anti-Israel forces in America. We study the Bible as our foundation for why we do what we do and believe what we believe. Also, I got an email from one of Bible Fiber’s Jewish listeners in Virginia who asked that we keep pressing on in our study. So, Am Israel Chai and back to Nehemiah.

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

Welcome to Bible Fiber. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern. 

I have had the Bible Fiber episode on Nehemiah 13 written for weeks, but I have not had the power or will to release it as our regular scheduled Bible Fiber rollout. October 7th changed everything, and nothing has felt regular or routine. Like any organization, we always have a monthly plan for our written and digital communications to our audience. With Bible Fiber, I have the great advantage of being able to plan even further out since the Bible never changes. 

But right now, even the words in the Bible are all framed through the horror and trauma of October 7th. My mind is unable to separate what is playing out in Israel from the words on the page in my Bible. 

The Psalms, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes especially pulsate with relevance in their call for vindication and judgement on Israel’s enemies. They also provide comfort that the God of the Jewish people will not forsake or abandon them at this hour. The emotional whiplash of the prophets has never felt so appropriate to the national mood in Israel. 

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

After 12 years of governing in Judah, Nehemiah journeyed to Susa to check-in with King Artaxerxes. Recall that the king had readily given Nehemiah permission to go to Jerusalem, but the king’s only stipulation was that Nehemiah would eventually return (2:6). Nehemiah kept his word by reappearing in the Persian court to give a report of all the happenings in the Judean province. With the city walls rebuilt, Jerusalem repopulated, and the people recommitted to covenant obedience, Nehemiah likely felt it was a safe moment to take a sabbatical from his governorship.

Support the show

Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

Support the show

Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

This week we are studying Nehemiah 11. The last three chapters of the book make up Ezra-Nehemiah’s final literary unit. 

Ever since the edict of Cyrus, the returnees had their sights set on Jerusalem. The first wave of arrivals rebuilt the temple under the leadership of Jeshua and Zerubbabel. Seventy years later, Nehemiah’s arrival in Jerusalem moved the restoration process into phase two: rebuilding the city walls. The wall project was complete in 52 days. Although the wall completion was viewed as a thrilling miracle, Nehemiah was disappointed that Jerusalem still seemed empty. Nehemiah vented “the city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been built” (7:4). 

What was the point of rebuilding the walls if Jerusalem remained underpopulated? That is the predicament that Nehemiah’s final initiative attempted to solve. 
 

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

This week we are reading Nehemiah 10. After the community got reacquainted with the teachings of the Torah and repented of their sins and the sins of their ancestors, they held a covenant renewal ceremony to affirm their commitment. Nehemiah’s three-step plan was reading, repentance, and renewal, in that order. For the Jewish people, returning to Yahweh meant returning to his commands. And for repentance to be sincere, life transformations had to accompany it.

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

This week we are studying Chapter 9 when the people stopped feasting and began fasting. Although Chapter 9 is a continuation of the previous chapter’s theme of Torah revival, the national mood shifted from joy to sadness. 

When the High Holiday period ended on the 22nd of the month, the people gathered two days later for another general assembly in Jerusalem. This was their third public reading of the Torah in a month. 

Ezra’s first public reading of the laws and statutes made the congregants cry spontaneously as they realized how far they had strayed from God’s calling (8:9). Although the scriptures stirred up a wellspring of emotion, Nehemiah and Ezra told the people to lock it up and swallow the lump in their throat, just maybe not in those words. They needed to put off any display of sadness because of the celebratory nature of the holiday season. Like Ecclesiastes says, there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:4).

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.

This week we are studying Chapter 8 and believe it or not this is the section I have been looking forward to the entire study, Ezra’s public reading of the Torah. 

The passage begins on the first day of the seventh month when “all the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate” (8:1). On the Jewish calendar, the seventh month is jampacked with ceremonial holidays: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The builders finished the city wall just in time for the first holiday when the celebrants were heading to Jerusalem (6:15; 8:2). The Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah, marks the beginning of the Jewish year and is associated with the blasting of shofars, reconciliation, and temple sacrifices (Lev. 23:25). Ezra and Nehemiah took advantage of the influx of Judeans for the High Holidays by calling for a national assembly.

Ezra’s public reading, and the people’s enthusiastic response, marks a permanent shift in the storyline. Ezra and Nehemiah until now focused on rebuilding the temple and the city. But they realized they also had to rebuild the people by centralizing the Torah in their hearts. What Martin Luther’s nailing up of the 95 Theses is to Protestantism, Ezra’s public reading of the Law of Moses is to Judaism. 

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Consider donating (one-time or recurring) to www.TheJerusalemConnection.us so we can continue to bring valuable content via podcasts free to the public. Help us increase our audience reach and improve production quality. Your donation is 100% tax-deductible to our non-profit organization. Bible Fiber and The Red Alert Report are available via YouTube and all major podcast platforms. The Jerusalem Connection also engages in additional educational and advocacy programs. Check our "Projects" tab for all the endeavors we invite YOU to be part of.