Category: Bible Study

“In my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees.” –Ezra 9:5 Ezra was wretched, ashamed, confounded, and heaped with guilt (Ezr 9:5-6). He was so distraught because of mixed marriages. Many Jewish people had married Gentiles (see Ezr 9:2). In our society, where men are even trying to “marry” men and women trying to “marry” women, we find it hard to relate to Ezra’s anguish. However, in the new covenant, we have even more reason to be concerned about mixed marriages. In the old covenant, when Jews married Gentiles, they married those who were not...

“Let the governor and the elders of the Jews continue to work on that house of God; they are to rebuild it on its former site.” –Ezra 6:7 The Israelites rebuilt the Temple with the support of government taxes and the prophetic messages of Haggai and Zechariah. That is an unusual combination. Governments and prophets don’t usually mix. However, the Lord can do anything and use anyone at any time for His glory. The Israelites never dreamed a Persian king would be used to rebuild the Temple. We never dreamed the Lord would transform Eastern Europe and Russia as He...

“As He moved on, Jesus saw a man named Matthew at his post where taxes were collected. He said to him, ‘Follow Me.’ ” –Matthew 9:9 We hear the Lord knocking on the door and calling us by name (Rv 3:20). We sense something inside drawing us to Jesus. He still is calling today’s “Matthews” to follow Him. Nevertheless, we are afraid to say “Yes.” We’re afraid of what people will think. It has never been popular to follow Jesus. To be His disciple means becoming a fool in the eyes of the world (1 Cor 4:10). We are afraid...

“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men who will put Him to death.” –Mark 9:31 The Lord’s favorite subject is the cross. However, we naturally don’t understand His message of the cross (Mk 9:32). Moreover, we are afraid of the cross (Mk 9:32). Therefore, we don’t want to understand Jesus regarding the cross. We will not even question Him about it (Mk 9:32) but merely talk about something else – like ourselves. However, Jesus will question us if we won’t question Him. He’ll ask us: “What were you discussing?” (Mk 9:33) We may...