You Can Read the Bible Guided Podcast

The story of God’s covenant people from the reign of David through the exile is told in multiple layers, as though filling a bowl.  The books of Kings and Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, are the large rocks that fill most of the space and have to go in first.  Next comes a bucket of gravel – Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel fill in a lot of the gaps that the historical books leave, but not all of them.  The twelve prophets are like fine sand, working alongside the chroniclers and more expansive prophets, and striking precisely at the issues the LORD wants to address.  They don’t really make sense without the larger historical context, and they furthermore make that history more complete.    

Hosea begins the twelve writings known popularly as the Minor Prophets.  They are distinguished from the “Major” prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel – mostly by their brevity.  You’ll also notice that almost every one of these twelve has a singular concern on which to focus, unlike their longer brethren.  Many of them are contemporaries of prophets we’ve already read, and some of them, such as Haggai and Zechariah, are mentioned elsewhere. 

Around 760 B.C. the word of the LORD came to Hosea, the son of Beeri.  The opening sentence of his work tells us that he ministered during the days of Jeroboam II in the north, and a variety of kings in the South.  Interestingly, though he outlives Jeroboam by at least 25 years, Hosea mentions none of the successors who warred over his throne. 

And that opening sentence is the only time this reading will feel safe.   Before you dive into the first chapter, I’m going to remind you of what we’ve seen in the prophets.  In Isaiah, the prophet cycled through themes of idolatry, justice, worship, condemnation, and restoration.  In Jeremiah, the prophet agonized with and for his people.  In Ezekiel, the LORD commissioned vivid, living metaphors.  And to Daniel, the LORD revealed wisdom that made him the envy of his peers. 

These writings express the range and intensity of the LORD’s emotions.  They reveal His passion for His covenant people and His determination to be known in all the earth.  Keep all of this close as Hosea’s ministry begins with the LORD’s command: “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom.” 

Our verses for this week are Psalm 37:4-5: Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.

Hosea 1 through 3.  Now let’s read it!

“…Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.”

The author somehow knows that Haman has privately revealed his singularity: nothing matters so long as Mordecai hangs.  Hyperbolic, to be sure, but hyperbole that reveals deeply held values.  The same could be said of Esther’s reflection, “Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”  Haman no more wants to give up his status than Esther wants to die.  But each character kneels before deeper motivations. 

You know that the plot has turned when Haman’s question, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” is answered.  But listen closely to the prophecy of Haman’s wife that closed yesterday’s reading: “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.”  Follow the clearly-stated logic: If Mordecai is a Jew, then you will not be able to overcome him, based on that fact alone.  This is similar to Mordecai’s certainty in chapter 4, that even if Esther remains silent, “…relief and assistance will rise for the Jews from another place.”  To the characters, and the author, the plot turn isn’t just a twist of fate. 

Hold onto that while I heed another detail.  Have you noticed that the name of God is never mentioned in Esther?  Not just the God of Israel; no god is mentioned.  No other book of the Bible holds that distinction.  Just as the author hides exactly why Vashti refused to come and why Mordecai refused to bow, all of the LORD’s activity or interest must be inferred.  It’s impossible to prove, but also impossible to ignore, that the author must have a purpose in this approach.  The LORD remains silent; yet the characters’ confidence speaks for Him. 

Before you head into this final reading, I want to remind you of the subtle details of the royal edict in chapter 3.  Haman never names the Jews before Ahasuerus, only that a certain people… do not keep the king’s laws.  Ahasuerus took his signet ring from his hand and gave it to Haman,  who then commissioned the edict to annihilate the Jews.  Remember that Esther had not made known her kindred or her people… So the king, with incomplete knowledge, has no idea of how the fates of Haman and Mordecai and Esther will intersect – of course – at a feast. 

Our verses for this week are Psalm 37:4-5: Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act.

Esther 7 through 10.  Now let’s read it!

The Esther story is hard to date, but it probably picks up a few decades earlier than Ezra and Nehemiah, midway between the completion of Zerubbabel’s temple and Ezra’s journey.  The Jews have been scattered throughout the empire for over 100 years.  As evidenced by Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, some of them had earned high respect from the palace, but as a people they were viewed with suspicion.  Scattered.  Vulnerable.  There were no walls at Jerusalem; no army; no king, save the throne in Susa, from whence help would have to come. 

 “…for the king had so commanded concerning him…” This is the thread that connects Mordecai and Haman with the prologue story about queen Vashti, who refused to come at the king’s command.  Did you notice yesterday why Mordecai refused the king’s order to bow to Haman?  Neither did I.  It wasn’t stated.  Nor was it stated why Vashti refused to come when the king called.  Instead of providing exposition, the author draws as many details as possible and allows you to imagine the moments in which the queen and Mordecai refused.  You can conjecture without concluding.  You’re allowed to sense, to feel, the three dimensions. 

“…and they do not keep the king's laws, so that it is not to the king's profit to tolerate them…”  Look beyond the sinister and study the king.  The Vashti narrative is an A-B-C-D sequence that is repeated with Mordecai: the king gives an order; a subject refuses that order; advisers warn that such insubordination is a mortal threat to the kingdom; and finally, the king buys his adviser’s conclusion.  To what end will these tensions be resolved? 

“And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa was thrown into confusion.”  This final line of Act I establishes the environment in which Act II will be performed.  We return to the gates of the capital, “When Mordecai learned all that had been done…”

Our verse for this week is Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Esther 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!

Opening the Bible to read Esther is like entering another world altogether.  It is a compact and complete story – no foreknowledge required.  It unfolds some secrets carefully while others remain hidden, with incredibly little exposition, as though the author is inviting us to just sit down and watch the show. 

The prose is packed with rich details and thorough characters, most of whom you’ll meet today.  The cast (in order of appearance): Ahasuerus, or Xerxes, the Persian king, who reigned from India to Ethiopia… Vashti, the queen, who refuses to play the part imposed upon her… the king’s advisors, heightening the tension in their supporting role… Mordechai, whose allegiance to the king has firm boundaries… Esther, the young woman fated to gain the king’s affection… and Haman, whose pique at Mordechai’s transgression becomes a vendetta. 

It seems that every noun has an accompanying adjective.  You’ll notice a lot more details than I can list here, but I want to highlight a few.  Notice the scenes that are pictured: white cotton curtains with violet hangings… the oil and myrrh and spices and ointments as part of the regular period of beautifying… the casting of lots from the first month till the twelfth month…  the attention paid to the separate worlds of women and men… the emotions, the juxtaposition of small kindnesses and obtuse ruthlessness.

And, finally, you’ll notice the perilous stakes.  The opening sequence shows us what happens when the king feels he’s been slighted.  Pay attention to the rhythms of chapter 1 as you would to the prologue of a movie: the setting, the roles, and especially the character’s motivations... 

Our verse for this week is Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Esther 1 through 3.  Now let’s read it!

Remember me, O my God, for good.  – Nehemiah 13:31

This phrase is repeated often by Nehemiah.  This book, unique in the Old Testament, is part personal journal, part official record.  Surely Nehemiah needed to give an account of his activities to the king back in Susa.  But Nehemiah’s repeated concern is not for the king’s approval, but for the LORD’s.  It is as though we are peeking into one man’s prayer that God would find him faithful. 

Our final reading begins after the preamble of a covenant that the people of Jerusalem are composing.  Remember that the original covenant, delivered on Sinai and reaffirmed in Deuteronomy, was one-directional.  It was not negotiated; it was given by the LORD to His people, who then affirmed it.  The Nehemiah covenant is not new, but is a reaffirmation by the children of Israel to the LORD’s stated obligations of them.

Their initial promise, therefore, is “to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his statutes.”  This boldly reveals their understanding of the LORD: almost a thousand years after the covenant was established on Sinai, God’s people acknowledge that neither the LORD nor His expectations had moved.  They follow with commitments to refrain from intermarrying with the nations around them, to honor the Sabbath day and year, and to “not neglect the house of God.” 

These commitments will be tested in the final chapter, as a series of vignettes from twelve years in the future reveal that not everyone is taking the covenant seriously.  After a respite in Susa, Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem to find Tobiah living in the temple, the Levites destitute, the Sabbath dishonored, and the priests among those who had taken foreign wives, just as we saw in Ezra. 

Now that this book is closing, reflect back on the presence of God in Ezra and Nehemiah.  On no occasion did “The word of the LORD” come directly through any of these characters.  The activity of God is observed in, through, and around these men, by them and others, but besides brief mentions of Haggai and Zechariah, there is little sense of the prophetic.  This is much different from what we experienced in previous generations with Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.  Rather, the movement of God is inferred and discerned, in powerful ways that caused the actors to conclude that surely “the hand of God was on me.”

Our verse for this week is Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nehemiah 10 through 13.  Now let’s read it!

At the end of chapter 6 Nehemiah’s initial objective was completed: Jerusalem was a walled city, more secure than it had been in 130 years.  The project timeline of just 52 days is indicative of Nehemiah’s skilled leadership and the amount of hands and materials already at his disposal. 

However, we also learned at the end of the trouble that still lay before him.  Many Jewish nobles had interconnected business and family relationships with Tobiah the Ammonite, and were hedging their bets against Nehemiah.  This information helps set up the tensions at the end of the book. 

In the first chapter today we see Nehemiah taking firm administrative hold of the district around Jerusalem.  His first task is to assemble a new genealogical record, tracing the covenant through the first exiles who returned with Zerubbabel. 

We also discover that he is accompanied by a man of similar faith and ability: Ezra the scribe, the priest, who enters the gathered assembly to read from the Book of the Law.  Notice the great, reverent detail that goes into this scene: where Ezra stands, which direction he faces, and how the people respond.

At the end of chapter 7, after the genealogy, notice this insertion: “And when the seventh month had come, the people of Israel were in their towns.”  Remember the importance of the seventh month from Leviticus: the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  Two of the most important feasts in Israel’s year, when they were to recognize their need for repentance and the LORD’s sustenance of their forefathers in the wilderness.   

This sets up the events that come next: feast and confession.  Ezra and Nehemiah command the people not to weep, but to “Go your way.  Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord.  And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” 

Our verse for this week is Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nehemiah 7 through 9.  Now let’s read it!

Through Zerubbabel and Nehemiah we see the tenuous nature of life in the province Beyond the River.  Both of them had received royal decrees allowing them to undertake their work – Zerubbabel rebuilding the temple and Nehemiah the city walls.  But the royal army was far away, the inhabitants of the region that Assyria had settled there had a two-century head start on establishing order, and they did have a point about Jerusalem’s history of rebellion against foreign kings. 

Remember in Ezra 4, that from Artaxerxes’ letter we learn that his concern wasn’t peace in the region or prosperity for its residents; his concern was tribute for the royal treasury.  This was typical: neither Assyria, nor Babylon, nor Persia cared about local affairs, so long as problems didn’t foment rebellion or invite foreign invasion. 

This is why Jerusalem’s walls were needed in the first place.  Cities were a place of refuge against raiding parties that the Persian army wasn’t going to do anything about.  They were also a mark of pride, of identity, for their inhabitants.  Ezra served an important role for the Jews, but he also served the king’s purposes: if Ezra keeps the peace, the king won’t have to.  The favor granted to Nehemiah was much more substantial: he simply wanted to provide safety and security for his kinsman.  But as we saw yesterday, “the good hand of [his] God” was upon him.

Today’s reading follows this good hand of God through substantial trials.  In chapter 4, Sanballat and Tobiah discourage and threaten the work, and in chapter 6 they attempt to remove the head.  In between, Nehemiah takes up the cause of those who are being enslaved and exploited by their Jewish brothers. 

And through all this movement, a wall is being built, and a detailed record is being kept.  Listen for Nehemiah’s observations, as well as a revelation of his greater concern. 

Our verse for this week is Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nehemiah 4 through 6.  Now let’s read it!

Thirteen years after Ezra began his mission, Nehemiah received this report from Jerusalem: "The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire." 

Nehemiah says he sat down and wept and mourned for days.  He prayed to the God of heaven: “LORD GOD of heaven… who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keeps His commandments… we have acted very corruptly against You… Remember the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me… I will gather [you] and bring [you] to the place that I have chosen, to make My name dwell there…”

Only at the end of this prayer do we learn of Nehemiah’s position.  Four months pass between chapters 1 and 2.  Again Nehemiah prays.  Following on the heels of Daniel and Ezra you probably know the story.  You’re familiar with the challenges internal and external to Nehemiah’s mission. 

What you’re unfamiliar with – because it’s unique in the Old Testament – is the exclusively first-person account that we receive here.  Even intense biographical narratives such as Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s jump between third-person narration and personal memories.  Here, “The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah” opening launches an official report.  Perhaps Nehemiah will let us know to whom he’s reporting. 

Remember what you learned by reading Ezra.  Remember that Artaxerxes had ordered the rebuilding project in Jerusalem to stop, lest they cease tribute payments.  Remember the resettled Samaritans who warned that it was a rebellious city…and if the walls are finished, you will then have no possession in the province Beyond the River.  And remember the difficulties Ezra faced when Artaxerxes finally sent him to establish order.   This is what faces Nehemiah as he asks the LORD to “give success to [His] servant this day…”

Our verse for this week is Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Nehemiah 1 through 3.  Now let’s read it!

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you… and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them… You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.”  - Deuteronomy 7:1-4

After arriving at Jerusalem and fulfilling his duties at the temple, Ezra is given sobering news concerning the task before him: “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands and with their abominations… for they have taken some of their daughters to be wives…  Even more distressing, he learns that in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.

The camera keeps its focus on Ezra.  All through this book there has been the question of compromise: Cyrus’s limited concern for the God who is in Jerusalem; the people of the land, whose children’s children feared the LORD and also served their carved images; and the choice they gave Zerubbabel: let us join you, or we’ll petition the king to thwart your efforts.  At the climax of the book, this question is now put before Ezra. 

His first response is to sit appalled.  All day, in fact.  His next response is to pray, and listen to the rhythm of that prayer, how humility and gratitude and repentance and worship reach a crescendo with: “Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this.”  And finally, he calls an assembly, and the proceedings bear the marks of the faithful and detailed scribe whom we met yesterday.

I’ll leave you with an important literary note: in chapter 9, when the Jewish officials apprise Ezra of the intermarriage problem, they refer to themselves as “the holy race…”  Remember that the deep meaning of “holy” is “set apart” and that LORD Himself had commanded the people of Israel to be “holy,” set apart from the nations around them.  There is no reason to read arrogance into their statement.  They are alarmed, as is Ezra, at how un-set-apart the children of Israel have been, and they have a righteous fear that the anger of the LORD would be kindled against them. 

Our verses for this week are Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Ezra 9 and 10.  Now let’s read it!

Today we finally meet the title character of this book.  Ezra is described as a descendant of Aaron, the chief priest, a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the LORD the God of Israel had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.  Accepting the dates of both this chapter and Persian records, Ezra is sent to Jerusalem around 458 B.C., almost sixty years after the temple was completed. 

With the king’s commission he was to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God… to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel… to buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings… and to appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach.

This commission has a multifaceted purpose.  On the one hand, Ezra thanks the God of our fathers, who put such a thing in the heart of the king to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem.  Ezra also has authority to appoint magistrates and judges, which releases control to the ancient laws, customs, and people of Judah.  The king is not only supporting worship of the LORD.  He is trusting Ezra to maintain order in Jerusalem, which we’ve already read is notorious as a rebellious city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and that sedition was stirred up in it from of old.

Notice little details in this short narrative: how Ezra’s wisdom and knowledge of the law are revealed… how Ezra recognizes the hand of the LORD is on him… how he stops to pray for humility and safety… and how the administrative and worship details are carefully attended to and recorded. 

Our verses for this week are Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Ezra 7 and 8.  Now let’s read it!