Journal Through the Bible: Week 103 Wednesday

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Nehemiah chapter 3

The occupations of the men (and women!) working on the wall are amazing. People from all walks of life - from the nobles and goldsmiths on down - worked on the wall. Although reading the list of workers might be considered by some to be as boring as reading genealogies, it is really quite interesting to see how God used so many people to restore the walls of Jerusalem.

Does God issue any commands?

• God does not speak.

Does God make any promises?

• God does not speak.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• It isn't a harvest that Nehemiah's workers are working, but it is an important assignment given to the people of God. Jesus calls workers as His laborers, too. It doesn't matter whether we use the analogy of working in the fields or building the Kingdom, our Master told us to work!

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• Not that I identified.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 103 Tuesday

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Nehemiah chapter 2

Nehemiah had been praying about 4 months when he was given the opportunity to speak to the king about the need in Jerusalem. His first prayer, the one found in chapter 1, was probably prayed many times during those months, but his second prayer, the one found in chapter 2, was devised hurriedly. Even if it was a quick prayer it seems obvious by the answers that Nehemiah gave to the king and the requests he made of Artaxerxes that he had been considering travel plans and material lists prior to this opportunity. He was ready when God opened the door for him to make his petition to the king.

Once he was in Jerusalem Nehemiah made a preliminary survey on the third evening after entering the city. He had not yet told anyone his purpose for being there. He waited until he had grasped the situation before telling the officials, priests, nobles, and other Jews why he had come.

Does God issue any commands?

• No, God did not speak in this chapter.

Does God make any promises?

• God made Nehemiah no promises, but He did grant him favor with Artaxerxes when he made his request. (2:8, 18)
• When confronted by adversaries in Jerusalem, Nehemiah believed that God would prosper the builders. His belief was based upon the prayers that God had answered.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• Jesus is the God of heaven.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• Nehemiah told the foreigners that attempted to discourage the builders that they had no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem. The same is true about the New Jerusalem. Those who have no citizenship in Heaven have no portion, nor right, nor memorial there. Only those who are God's children, meaning those who have been made citizens through the blood of Jesus Christ, will inherit the New Jerusalem.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 103 Monday

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Nehemiah chapter 1

Ezra had already been in Jerusalem for a few years when Hanani and certain men of Judah returned to Shushan with news of the broken walls and burned gates.

There is a great lesson to be learned from Nehemiah: When something burdens an individual so much that he or she mourns, fasts, and prays about the situation for several days it seems likely that God will put that person in a position to make the needed change.

Notice that Nehemiah did not just make his request known. He also confessed his sins and those of his nation. He followed the ACTS of prayer formula! (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication)

Does God issue any commands?

• No, but Nehemiah referenced God's commands in his prayer.

Does God make any promises?

• No, but Nehemiah referenced God's promises in his prayer.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• In this passage Nehemiah was the intercessor for his people. Jesus is our intercessor.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• This chapter talks of sins, repentance, and better days to come for those who are God's children. All are based upon the hope Nehemiah had in God as a promise-keeper. When we confess our sins we become God's child which entitles us to a glorious future. We believe this because we believe God keeps His promises as given in the scriptures.

TAKE TIME: July 27-August 1, 2015 Schedule

Introduction:  Nehemiah is the last book we will read in the Old Testament chronology. After this we will read any psalms that we did not study previously and Proverbs. Nehemiah was the contemporary of Ezra and Esther.Nehemiah was actually the king's cupbearer. He makes reference to Queen Esther in 2:6.

 Assignment:

• Monday - Nehemiah chapter 1
• Tuesday - Nehemiah chapter 2
• Wednesday - Nehemiah chapter 3
• Thursday - Nehemiah chapter 4
• Friday - Nehemiah chapter 5
• Saturday - Nehemiah chapter 6

Memory Verse

 Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me, And they said, Let us rise up and build. so they strengthened their hands for this good work. Nehemiah 2:18


Prayer Journal (ACTS)

• Adoration - Praise God for being the Great Remodeler! He rebuilds broken lives and makes all things new!
• Confession - Ask God to reveal hidden sin in your life and then confess it.
• Thanksgiving - Thank God for any answers to your prayers.
• Supplication - What are your prayer requests this week? List them for future reference so that you can see how God answers.

Search the Scriptures

Look for references for each of the following:

• Promises that God made and to whom He made them. Do they apply to you?
• References that either refer to or infer something about future events.
• What does this passage teach about Jesus?
• Commandments that God made and to whom He made them. Do they apply to you?

Putting the Word into Action
It is time to rise up and build. The work is never easy but the needs of the Kingdom are great! One day the New Jerusalem will appear on the New Earth and we will not need to work on its walls. But for now there is a great amount of work to be done. Find your place on the wall and begin to work there. (The opportunities are available for great mission work to be done. Don't let the obstacles keep you from doing the work of the Great Commission, the commandment for building that Jesus gave to us before He returned to Heaven.)

Journal Through the Bible: Week 102 Saturday

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Malachi chapter 4 

Does God issue any commands?

• God tells those of Israel to remember the law of Moses that was given to him in Horeb.

Does God make any promises?

• God promises healing through the Sun of righteousness for those who fear His name. He also promised that they shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.
• God promised to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• Jesus is the Sun of righteousness in verse 2.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• Verse 1 describes a future event that will overtake the wicked. See Revelation chapters 8 and 9 for comparison.
• Verse 2 also describes a future event. This one is what happens to those made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ.
• Verse 3 describes the ashes under the feet that result in the destruction of the wicked. The Bible declares in several places that the earth is God's footstool, and sometimes it specifically means the Son's, footstool. See Isaiah 66:1, Acts 7:49, Matthew 5:35, Psalm 110:1 for examples. Ashes of the burnt sacrifices were also to be taken outside the camp. These sacrifices represented sins and their ashes were to be taken outside of the main camp and deposited there. In verse 3 we see that the wicked will finally be sacrificed and the ashes will be underfoot.
• Elijah is yet to come as the forerunner of that great and terrible day of the LORD. After Elijah's ministry in the last days the Day of the LORD will come and the earth will be destroyed before the New Earth and Heaven are ushered into existence. See Revelation 11:3-14 for more information. 
• When Elijah comes he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers. This will be during the last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation. Some obviously will be reached by his message and ministry before his death and resurrection in Jerusalem. (Remember that he has not yet died but was translated to Heaven awaiting his final ministry upon the earth in the last days.)

Journal Through the Bible: Week 102 Friday

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Malachi chapter 3

Does God issue any commands?

• God commanded the people to return unto Him.

Does God make any promises?

• God promised that if the people returned unto Him He would also return unto them.
• If the people would bring their tithes into the storehouse God would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (I feel the fulfillment of this promise myself every time I reorganize and donate the excess to a charitable organization.)
• God promised if people would return to Him and tithe He would rebuke the devourer and also protect the crops. All nations would call Israel blessed and a delightful land because of her blessings.
• God keeps a book of remembrance of those who fear Him and speak often one to another about Him. (This reminds me of the book of remembrance Ahasuerus kept where Mordecai's good deed was written. It foreshadowed the downfall of the evil Haman and the rising of the righteous Mordecai. Can God's book of remembrance be any less significant?!) God promised that those whose deeds are kept in His book of remembrance shall be His on the day when He makes up His jewels. This will lead to discerning between the righteous and the wicked.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• Verse 1 is Jesus talking about His forerunner, John the Baptist, and His own incarnation. He says, "Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. Obviously, this is the LORD talking here (Jehovah) but since the speaker claims that the messenger would come "before me" this is Jesus speaking. That means Jesus is also the LORD of hosts. There is no way around it: Jesus claimed to be Deity in both testaments!
• Jesus is like a refiner's fire and fuller's soap. (Remember the old hymn? "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow!")
• Jesus shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
• Jesus is the judge of all the unrighteous (such as are listed in verse 5).

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• The last few verses imply a time of rehearsing the deeds written in God's book of remembrance. This book will lead to discerning between the righteous and the wicked.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 102 Thursday

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Malachi chapter 2

Does God issue any commands?

• God commanded the priests to hear His words, lay the offering of sacrifice to heart, and give glory to His name.
• God commanded them to stop putting away the wives they had taken in their youth. (The Morris study Bible notes say that the priests who married foreign wives - as in the book of Ezra - may have divorced their Jewish wives, the ones they married as young men, and taken the Canaanite women as their wives. Their sin would then be two-fold.)

Does God make any promises?

• God said that if the priests would not listen He would curse them. They would be corrupted through the excrement of the animals for sacrifice. (Most likely the phrases "spread dung upon your faces" and "one shall take you away with it" mean that their dead bodies would lie in the filth of the slain animals.) Those that witnessed this curse would know that God had made a covenant with Levi of life and peace that his descendants had broken.
• God promised to cut off the man that profaned the holiness of the LORD and married the daughter of a strange god. (verses 11-12)

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• The priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. (verse 7) The Levitical priests had not done this but Jesus is our High Priest and He fulfilled these requirements.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• The last verse implies that judgment is coming to those who do evil but say it is good in the sight of the LORD or who do whatever is right in their own eyes because they do not think there really is a God of judgment. This was true in the days of Malachi and it is true today. One day the LORD will appear and will judge us all.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 102 Wednesday

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Malachi chapter 1

"Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD." (verse 13)

Things do not change very much over time. Many consider it "weariness" to take the time to worship God properly. It's just like us to look for shortcuts so that we can follow our own pursuits.

I like the following verse, though.

"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts." (verse 11)

What a contrast there is between  these 2 verses!


Does God issue any commands?

• Malachi received a "burden" from the LORD to Israel. It is implied in this that God told Malachi to deliver the message to Israel.
• Malachi delivered a message from the LORD to the wicked priests who offered defiled food and animals for the sacrifices.

Does God make any promises?

• After Edom was wasted they promised to return and rebuild. God promised that He would throw down anything they put together. He called them "the people against whom the LORD hath indignation forever." Israel would be witness to this.
• God promised that He would not accept an offering at the hand of the wicked priests who offered sickly and defiled animals as sacrifices.
• God promised that His name would be great among the Gentiles.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• The offerings and sacrifices were to be pure and holy because they represented the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. This is also why the elements we use for the Lord's Supper are to be unleavened since leaven is a symbol of sin. We must keep the Lord's table above contempt.
• Jesus is "the great King" of verse 14.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• God promised to do a great work among the Gentiles "from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same." The sun has not yet set on this work.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 102 Tuesday

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Ezra chapter 10

The people had sinned greatly by taking wives from the Canaanites that lived around them. Ezra was so distraught that he wept openly with his face upon the ground. Can you blame him? This very same sin is what caused them to go into captivity in the first place and when they returned to the land they returned to their sin!

The priests, Levites, and all Israel made a covenant with God to put away all of their idolatrous wives and children. What a horrific chain of events! Sin and its consequences are always messy.


Does God issue any commands?

• God did not speak.

Does God make any promises?

• God did not speak.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• This passage shows just how quickly men return to their sins even after a time of great punishment and repentance. On the other hand, Jesus, who had no sin, never returned again to sin once the punishment was past. He bore our sins on the cross, actually became sin for us, but now He is without sin! (II Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 9:26)

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• The call goes out today for all to "Come!" Those who will not heed the message will forfeit everything.

High School Homeschool Curriculum For Sale

After 27 years of homeschooling our children from Kindergarten through their senior year we have several books and resources on hand. I am currently selling some of our high school curriculum.

Contact me at Karabeth6 @ gmail (dot) com if you are interested in purchasing any of these science, math, economics, or foreign language sets. The prices quoted do not include shipping. Real cost for media mail will be added. Once we have agreed upon the total price I will direct the buyer to my Paypal account.

Thank you! And happy homeschooling!

This older BJU Press French 1 set includes cassettes (I told you we homeschooled for 27 years!), hardbound text, a slightly used softbound workbook, and spiral-bound teacher's editions: $5 for the set "as is!"

Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry 2nd Edition, hardbound text and softbound Solutions and Tests manual: $10 for the set.

Apologia Exploring Creation with Physics 2nd Edition, 3 piece set containing hardbound text, softbound Solutions and Tests, and multimedia CD: $30 for the set.

Apologia Advanced Physics hardbound textbook and softbound Solutions/Tests manual: $30 for the set. 
Update 9/14/15 - I recently discovered my copy of "Daily Lesson Plans for Advanced Physics in Creation" by Lynn Ericson, ©2006 Schola Press (not shown). This will be included at no extra charge. 

Saxon Math Algebra 2 Second Edition: $10 for the set.

BJU Press Economics for Christian Schools (1st edition), spiral-bound teachers edition and hardbound student text: $10 for the set.

Journal Through the Bible: Week 102 Monday

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Ezra chapter 9

With the help of the LORD the people had successfully made their way to Jerusalem but in spite of God's protection over them the people acted ungratefully. They returned to their old abominations. Unbelievable! And yet, I suspect that we are just as forgetful today.

Notice that it was the princes and rulers who led everyone into trespassing against the very God that had sustained them. The report that he heard astonished Ezra! He was embarrassed to approach the throne of God in prayer.

Does God issue any commands?

• God had told the people in the law of Moses not to intermarry with the Canaanites of the land. Disobedience had caused the people to be taken into captivity. Now here the returning refugees were flagrantly disobeying the same command of the LORD again!

Does God make any promises?

• God does not speak.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• We were in bondage yet our God did not forsake us. He extended mercy. (verse 9) "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
• God punished us "less than our iniquities deserve (verse 13) because He placed them upon Jesus.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• God always has a remnant, or "nail" in his holy place. He had one in Ezra's day, imperfect as it was, and He will have one in the future. It will likewise be made up of sinful (but redeemed) people. They will likewise inherit God's land. 

Journal Through the Bible: Week 101 Saturday

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Ezra chapter 8

Artaxerxes had said that Ezra should take the priests, Levites, singers, porters, and Nethinims to minister at Jerusalem. The names of the chief men and the number of those who went are given in verses 1 through 14 of this chapter. After Ezra examined those in that number he sent for others to join them. To that list were added the names found in verses 17 through 20.

Ezra instituted a fast before proceeding on the journey. This was a plea to God for safe passage to Jerusalem because Ezra felt it would be a bad testimony to ask the king for soldiers to accompany them. Their journey was particularly perilous given the amount of wealth that they carried with them as stated in verses 25-27.

Does God issue any commands?

• Once the people were safely in Jerusalem they offered sacrifices as required in the law.

Does God make any promises?

• God does not speak, but God kept them safe on their journey from those who would rob them along the way. God answered their prayer and Ezra praised Him for doing so.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• "The hand of our God" in verse 31 is Jesus, the same Person who was Captain of the Host during the Exodus.

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• It is a perilous journey with those who would attack the pilgrims along the way but God's people always make it safely Home because He protects them. No matter how bad the travel is, the child of God always arrives safely! (Nothing can separate us from the love of God.)