Leo Holt is an assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel of Casa Grande.

The next time you think your life has problems take a look at Hosea's.

Ron Dozler is pastor of Calvary Chapel, Myrtle Beach, NC.

“Gloom, despair, and agony on me.

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery.

If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.

Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”

So goes the words to a song written by two Country and Western singer/songwriters, Buck Owens and Roy Clark. The song was made popular by their television program from the early 1970’s through the 80’s called “Hee-Haw”. It was meant to be a humorous song, sung by those that were down and out and the whole world turned against them.

Last week we spoke of the fact that of the 66 books in our Bible, Solomon is credited with writing the major portion of three of them: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. I also shared with you that I personally feel that the books in our Bible are out of order as far as the timing of their writing. Within the context of Solomon’s life it would seem as though the order would have been Song of Solomon, Proverbs, then Ecclesiastes.

Of the 66 books of our Bible, three of those books have historically been attributed to Solomon as the author (or primary author): Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Along with Job and Psalms, all three are a part of what is called the Poetic Literary style. Yet each of the three is a different style of Hebrew Poetry and thus unique unto themselves.

The oldest hymn book we have has no written notes or melodies for the 150 different songs it contains. This particular hymn book is well known: the Episcopals, Lutherans, Baptist, Presbyterians, and Non-Denominational all know it, yet very few, if any people sing directly out of it anymore. Some of the songs are short, some of them extremely long. Some are songs of praise and worship, while others are cries for help and declarations of feeling abandoned.

The book of Job is listed among the Poetic forms of literature within the Bible, but it still none the less, a true story of a real man dealing with issues of life that are difficult, if not impossible for the finite mind to understand. It is an Ancient Problem, we still deal with today.

Haggai and Zachariah were both written during the same time frame as Ezra and Nehemiah. However, as the Babylonian/Persian exiles were released to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple and then later the walls of the City of Jerusalem, there was about an 18 year delay in the construction activity.

When Ezra and Nehemiah were commissioned to return from captivity to rebuild the Temple and walls of Jerusalem, many of the Jews left Babylon with them. However, there were still many Jews who remained in the foreign country and (in essence) made their home there.

It was in 605 B.C. that Babylon defeated the armies of Egypt, the ally of the Southern Kingdom. During this time, Jehoiakim, the King of Judah determined he would no longer pay tribute to Babylon. As the rebellion arose, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Judah and took many of their people into captivity.