Bible Fiber

Today we are launching our study of Ezra-Nehemiah. I am referring to the two books together because historically, in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, Ezra and Nehemiah were considered one scroll. Early Church fathers, like Origen and Jerome, later distinguished Ezra and Nehemiah as separate books in the Christian canon. Ezra and Nehemiah do not present a straightforward literary scheme or a chronology easy to outline. Still, it is possible to divide the books into three distinct...

For both the Jewish and Christian faith, the whole of the Hebrew scripture is divinely inspired. However, rabbinic Judaism has long favored studying Torah over the prophets, while Christianity from the earliest days “attached itself more to the prophets than the law.”[1] Jews sought teaching and instruction on the Torah and Christians sought teachings that illuminated the gospel. My Jewish friends most often refer to the “law” as a designation for the entire Bible and my Christian friends...

We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before I switch modes entirely, I am doing a mini lecture series, a Prophets 101 class. Previously, I discussed the institution of the prophetic office in the Bible, and last week I explored the Jewish understanding for why prophecy ceased after Malachi. Today, I want to investigate the Christian understanding of prophecy today. The best place to start...

We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before we switch modes entirely, we are doing a mini lecture series, a Prophets 101 class. Last week we discussed the Institution of the Prophetic Office. Today I want to explore the Jewish understanding for why prophecy ceased after Malachi. In Jewish understanding, the cessation of prophecy is a spiritual tragedy, a major loss for the community that...

We have finished the Minor Prophets and we are gearing up for the reformers Ezra and Nehemiah before we tackle the Major Prophet Ezekiel. But before we switch modes entirely, I want to take advantage of the pause to talk about the institution of the prophet. We have been doing deep dives into the biblical books, but I want to zoom out and share more generally what constitutes a prophet and what is the prophetic tradition in the Bible. In the Hebrew scriptures, a prophet was a special human...

Last week, after finishing the 52nd episode in fourteen months, I got a lot of emails and messages asking what was next for Bible Fiber. Before I answer that question, and I will, I want to thank all of you for joining me in this Bible reading challenge. I was talking to a friend from church who is also a listener and she said it was like being in a Bible study with me, but one where I got to do all the talking. I am keenly aware that I was hogging the mic in this virtual Bible study and I...

This week we are reading Malachi 4:4-6, Malachi’s epilogue, a short summation of his whole message. Four hundred years of silence separate the close of Malachi from the coming of Jesus. The famine of God’s words, as predicted by the prophet Amos, was close at hand. Amos foretold, “people will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it” (Amos 8:11-12). Both Jewish and Christian traditions refer to Malachi as the “seal...

This week we are reading the sixth, and final, disputation which covers Malachi 3:13-4:3. In Malachi, God consistently speaks in first person to the people, a fact made more significant knowing Malachi is the last of the writing prophets. God is the dominant speaker in the first, second, fifth, and sixth disputations. The sixth disputation demonstrates that the spirit of cynicism has taken deep root in the community. The people dare to criticize God. However, for the first time in the book,...

This week we are reading Malachi’s fifth disputation. God speaks directly to the people without mincing words: “Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” (3:8). In other words, they are not tithing adequately. That may seem like a narrow materialistic charge, lacking the heavier moral and ethical challenges of previous prophets. However, embedded in the message of judgement is a message of hope. If they stop their devious practices and return to God, he will return to them, and pour out...

This week we are reading Malachi’s fourth disputation. Previous disputations charged the priesthood with negligent worship and condemned Israelite men for their pagan marriages. Those prophetic messages were harsh and pointed. Still, the restored community remains obnoxiously unaware of their shortcomings. Malachi uses his prophetic pulpit to explain why God is indeed withholding blessing. However, in a balanced message of hardship before hope, Malachi foresees the coming of a messenger who...

This week we are reading Malachi’s third disputation which covers Malachi 2:10-16. The disputation is short and to the point. Israelite men are divorcing their Israelite wives to marry pagan women and God is not pleased! While the second disputation targeted the priesthood, the third disputation addresses the whole community. Malachi’s disputations often begin with a question where the answer is a presumed “yes.” Malachi asks, “Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us?”...

This week we are reading Malachi’s second disputation which is unfortunately not marked off by chapter divisions. Normally, I prefer to keep it clean and do the reading challenge by order of chapters, but with Malachi it will be messier. It makes more sense to study the book one disputation at a time rather than chapter. The second disputation is the longest stretching from Malachi 1:6-2:9, so buckle up for this episode. Malachi’s first disputation from last week reminded the people of...

This week we are starting Malachi, the last of the Minor Prophets, the last of the writing prophets, the last book in the Christian canon. Malachi’s modern chapter divisions are arbitrary and therefore not the best guides for ordering our study of the book. Structurally, six tightly patterned prophetic disputations makeup the prophetic work. Most translations mark off the disputations with subtitles. Today, I want to cover the first disputation: Malachi 1:1-5. Because there is some...

This week we are reading Zechariah 14, the last chapter in a book that has taken over three months to complete. Because I have spread out this study, putting every chapter under the interpretative microscope, I want to pause and zoom out to remind everyone again of the importance and influence of Zechariah, especially on the New Testament. Zechariah is quoted from or alluded to seventy-one times in the New Testament. Only the book of Isaiah trumps Zechariah in its total number of messianic...

This week we are reading Zechariah 13. When the people saw the pierced figure of chapter 12, the nation erupted in mourning and repentance. Chapter 13 provides God’s reaction to those heartfelt cries. As a symbol of his forgiveness, God graciously provides a spring to cleanse the royal family and all of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. Just as the mourning was communal, so will be the cleansing. The verse reads, “On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of...

This week we are reading chapter 12. Zechariah makes a sudden about-face from the gloomy language and depressing outlook of chapter 11 where God declared the end of his covenant relationship with his people who he no longer pitied (11:6). Yahweh abandoned the flock doomed to slaughter, leaving them to their cannibalistic desires, saying “what is to die, let it die” (11:9). Zechariah resigned as shepherd leader. In chapter 12, Yahweh is back in the role of divine warrior, fighting on behalf...

This week we are reading Zechariah 11, arguably the most enigmatic gloomy section of the whole book. The chapter’s prelude (11:1-3) is a dark poem with the vivid portrayal of personified trees wailing over their own destruction. Shepherds and lions join in with the trees’ lament, mourning their own loss of pasture and thicket. Lebanon’s cedars and cypress burn while Bashan’s oaks tumble in a cascade of destruction. The poem cries, “the glorious trees are ruined!” (11:2) in reference to the...

This week we are studying Zechariah 10. Our previous chapter ended with the promise of such agricultural fertility that “grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women” (9:17). The guarantee of satiated bellies carries over into today’s reading with Zechariah reminding the petition the Lord and he will send the “spring rain” and “the vegetation in the field” (10:1). After encouraging the people to pray to Yahweh for their needs, the prophet warns them not to seek...

This week we are studying Zechariah 9. Three units make up the book of Zechariah: the vision sequence in chapters 1-6, the prophet’s answer to Bethel in chapters 7-8, and eschatological oracles in chapters 9-14. I will get it out in the open. The oracles in the last six chapters of Zechariah are quite different than the first eight chapters. The writing style pivots and the focus changes. In Zechariah 1-8, he was concerned with the key issues of the day which were mainly the rebuilding of...

This week we are studying Zechariah 8, a continuation of the prophet’s response to the Bethel delegation’s question about fast days. In chapter 7, the question provoked a somewhat testy sermon from Zechariah. He warned the people about the consequences of straying from God and the pitfalls of hypocrisy and empty religion. In chapter 8, the tone changes from rebuke to reassurance. The prophet encourages the people to obey and experience the fullness of their inheritance. But there is a...