A DAILY BIBLE STUDY PLAN DECEMBER

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1 A DAILY BIBLE STUDY PLAN DECEMBER

2 God s Story Our Story A DAILY BIBLE STUDY PLAN WEEK NINETEEN: Minor Prophets December 7-13 Previewing the Story A distinction is sometimes made between Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel) and Minor Prophets (Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). This terminology is potentially misleading if it is taken to mean that the so-called Major Prophets are more important. In reality, these labels indicate nothing more than the relative length of the anthologies. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are much longer than the books attributed to other prophets. Because scrolls in antiquity were fairly standard in length, each of the Major Prophets required a separate scroll whereas the other twelve appeared together on a fourth. For this reason, the Minor Prophets are often referred to collectively in Jewish circles as the Book of the Twelve. To appreciate the Minor Prophets fully, we must first read them within their own historical contexts. Clearly, the prophets did not speak in a vacuum but were closely attuned to the international developments of their day. The headings and other historical clues within these books place most of them into three distinct chronological periods during the latter halves of the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B.C.E. Each of these periods corresponds to the dominance of a difference political superpower that effected sweeping changes across the ancient Near East: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. On the course of Israel s national journey, these turbulent centuries represented particularly rugged terrain. Like a moral compass, the biblical prophets helped interpret the ever-changing map of the ancient Near East in terms of Israel s own covenant traditions. Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch Studying the Old Testament

3 Daily Readings SUNDAY... Amos 1-9 MONDAY... Micah 1-7 TUESDAY...Habakkuk 1-3 WEDNESDAY Zephaniah 1-3 THURSDAY.Zechariah 1-8 FRIDAY.. Zechariah 9-14 SATURDAY.Malachi 1-4 N Be Thinking... How do we live in a particular time like ours, yet not become captive to it? How can we be part of the world, yet maintain enough spiritual distance to hear or speak, even! a corrective word, to it?

4 God s Story Our Story A DAILY BIBLE STUDY PLAN WEEK TWENTY: Isaiah December Previewing the Story The style of Isaiah changes dramatically at Isaiah 40. Where the earlier chapters were leading up to the Babylonian exile, the messages beginning in Isaiah 40 seem clearly to be aimed at a people in exile, comforting them in their present state and encouraging them to expect a better day. And though Isaiah is mentioned often in the earlier chapters, he ceases to be named in these later chapters. History or personal experiences are woven into the first thirty-nine chapters, but these elements are completely absent in the latter portion of the book. By now the Jews have been in exile for the better part of two generations. Probably few, if any, remember the homeland, or freedom. They cannot help but be a dispirited people. No doubt there is a pervasive feeling that they are suffering for their sins, or for the sins of their ancestors, and that perhaps that suffering will continue for no one knows how long. It is to such a people that God instructs the prophet, Comfort, O comfort my people. Chapter after chapter, the prophet pours forth such encouragement. One wonders what audience was privileged to hear him. Did they feel the genius of his spiritual insight, and did they get new visions of their own? Did they put his words to music so they could sing them at work or in evening gatherings? If they did, how wondrous it would be to have their music! To do so would be to enter into the soul of a people a people emerging from despair and moving into an era of hope. But the prophet moves into quite another key in Isaiah 52-54, often referred to as the suffering servant passages. Many modern scholars see these passages, and several related ones, as describing Israel in its national suffering. But New Testament writers saw the passages fulfilled in Jesus (Matthew 8:17; Acts 8:26-35; 1 Peter 2:24-25). His coming had given new meaning to all of their ancient Scriptures, and never more so than in these passages that spoke so eloquently of someone who had suffered for the sins of others and who had taken their pain. Their interpretation was one part the inspiration of God s Spirit and another part a reflection of their own experience. The early church knew full well Jesus had not been crucified for any evil he had done, and

5 they had discovered that in his death they had come into a whole new kind of life. What the prophet had said was clear to them; they engaged it as their own. Daily Readings SUNDAY...Isaiah 2-11 MONDAY.. Isaiah TUESDAY....Isaiah WEDNESDAY. Isaiah THURSDAY.Isaiah FRIDAY...Isaiah SATURDAY.Isaiah N Be Thinking... Isaiah, among others, describes a coming time of peace and perfection even as they stand at the edge of, or even in the midst of, ruins. Our biblical tradition rings with hope. How do we maintain this tradition of hope today?

6 God s Story Our Story A DAILY BIBLE STUDY PLAN WEEK TWENTY-ONE: Ezekiel December Previewing the Story For the average modern reader, Ezekiel if he is recognized at all is seen primarily as a prophet who experienced exotic visions, several of which are best known through the medium of African-American spirituals. But the drama of the ages continues to unfold through Ezekiel. Like Jeremiah, he was both priest and prophet. But he was the only prophet whose ministry took place almost entirely outside the homeland. He lived in Babylonia, on the banks of the river Chebar. When you hear the psalmist lament, By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and there we wept when we remember Zion (Psalm 137:1), you can pretty well visualize Ezekiel s scene. It is Ezekiel s task to help his people in exile know that the purposes of God still remain, and that in good time, they will be fulfilled. Perhaps the most characteristic phrase in the book is the declaration then you [they] shall know that I am the Lord, which appears over sixty times. People in exile aren t easily convinced that the Lord is with them or that if he is, he carries any power. After all, if their God had power, why would they be in these unpleasant straits? The only explanation would be that they had sinned and were being punished for their evil ways. But that isn t the kind of conclusion we rush to gladly. So it was easier to conclude God simply wasn t up to the challenge. Ezekiel intends to set that matter straight; they will know, he says, who is Lord! The unfolding of God s purposes will make it clear. Israel is the key player through all of the Hebrew Scriptures. She is the guardian of the knowledge of the one true God, and it is through Israel that the Lord Christ the Messiah will eventually come. But this will happen only if Ezekiel s people remain intact. By this time the ten northern tribes were rapidly ceasing to exist. In their exile they had lost their identity, partly through intermarriage, but more particularly through their neglect of their faith. And if that happened to the ten northern tribes, why wouldn t it also happen to Judah? How would they retain their identity and their faith in a foreign land? Nothing is tougher than convictions deeply held, but nothing is more susceptible to the steady influences of a foreign, antagonistic culture especially when that culture is strong and appealing.

7 So if the faith is to be maintained, and if the message of the ages is to endure, it will have to happen, for at least two generations, in a hostile and debilitating atmosphere. And that s where Ezekiel comes in. It is a daunting assignment, indeed. Daily Readings SUNDAY...Ezekiel 1-7 MONDAY.. Ezekiel 8-16 TUESDAY....Ezekiel WEDNESDAY. Ezekiel THURSDAY.Ezekiel FRIDAY....Ezekiel SATURDAY.Ezekiel N Be Thinking... Some truths are better communicated, not through the usual patterns of linear logic, but through our emotions and imagination. If that is so, what truths come to us in reading a prophet like Ezekiel?

8 God s Story Our Story A DAILY BIBLE STUDY PLAN WEEK TWENTY-TWO: Daniel, Jonah December 28-January 3 Previewing the Story In the several centuries just prior to the birth of Jesus, the Jews were much of the time under the control of foreign and unsympathetic powers. Their cause was quite without hope. But then there was Daniel! By his stories and his prophecies, the people got new heart. The stories were visceral and appealed especially to the young and to those with a fuse ready for the lighting. The prophecies were mystical and engaged the scholars and the deeply devout. And in either event, the ultimate message was the same: God is with the faithful and will see them through to victory, whether by way of fiery furnace or lions den. God will be the ultimate victor, no matter what king is presently on the throne or what would-be king is waiting in the shadows. The stories in Daniel are familiar to almost everyone. They are marvelous accounts of people who dare to be faithful to God even when their faithfulness is likely to mean death. I know of few statements in history or literature to compare with the answer the three children of Israel gave to King Nebuchadnezzar when he was about to throw them into the furnace of fire: God is able, they are sure, to deliver them. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up (Daniel 3:18). Their commitment to God was not based on a promise of victory or of preservation ; it was based on principle and conviction. This was an important word for the Jews And then there were the prophecies. They are interpreted variously in our time. The final issue here and always it seems, is our response to the challenge of God. When history gets its final interpretation in the kingdom of God, God will be the victor and we will discover that the various kings and rulers have all, somehow, fit neatly into God s purposes. Not because they wanted to, not because our machinations forced them to, but because God continues to work behind the scenes, keeping watch over his own, and gracefully using both allies and enemies to bring his purposes to pass. This was Daniel s basic and ultimate conviction, and it ought to be ours.

9 Daily Readings SUNDAY...Daniel 1-2 MONDAY...Daniel 3-4 TUESDAY.. Daniel 5-6 WEDNESDAY... Daniel 7-8 THURSDAY.Daniel 9-10 FRIDAY.. Daniel SATURDAY...Jonah N Be Thinking... When has your faith put you in the lion s den? Or when has your sense of God s call sent you running off in the opposite direction?