Romans 6. The three most important truths are: “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.“ and “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is a fantastic chapter, read it and meditate.
Esther 2. The search for a new queen was on and Esther became the new queen. Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, uncovered a conspiracy against the king.
Esther3. Enter Haman, an Agagite. (There was great animosity between the Agagites and the Jews since the time of king Saul.) He was great in the kingdom, and everybody bowed down to him – except Mordecai. This enraged Haman, so he offered 750 tons of silver to the king’s treasury for being allowed to kill all Jews. Fair enough, deal signed and sealed, (and the king’s seal cannot be undone.)
Esther 4. Mordecai persuaded Esther to risk her life to save the Jews, and Esther agreed, responding “If I perish, I perish”.
Romans 5:12-21. Death came through one man, Adam, but “if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Let that sink in.
Esther 1. A fantastic book that made it to the Holy Bible, even though the name of God is not mentioned, not even once! Yet, the hand of God is everywhere in it. Read all of it! It starts with a big, decadent feast, and queen Vashti refused to make a spectacle of herself so she was deposed. Now what do you do without a queen?
Psalm 59, of David. A prayer for deliverance from Saul and his men seeking to kill David. It ends up with David singing God’s praises.
Psalm 60, of David. A Psalm intended for teaching. Even though they were defeated, David gave God the glory for future victories and deliverance.
Romans 5:1-11. This is a great chapter and tells how faith triumphs in trouble, one quote: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Proverbs 10 contains some of the wise sayings of Solomon, with New Testament thoughts sprinkled in.
Psalm 56 , of David. The Psalm is from the time when the Philistines captured him in Gath It deals with the period between the visit to the tabernacle at Nob and David’s arrival at Adullam. David was alone, desperate, afraid – and had no one left to to trust but the LORD.
Psalm 57 , of David. Charles Spurgeon noted, “There are four of these ‘Destroy not’ psalms, namely, the 57th, 58th, 59th, and 75th. In all of them there is a distinct declaration of the destruction of the wicked and the preservation of the righteous.” It ends with “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.“
Psalm 58, of David. A short, but intense prayer that God would punish the wicked and judge righteously.
Romans 4. Abraham was justified by faith, not works and definitely not by circumcision. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And “for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Nehemiah 12 lists the priests and Levites, the time had come for Nehemiah to dedicate the wall, and the temple responsibilities were specified.
Nehemiah 13. The final reforms of Nehemiah are recorded, the temple service is given its due, and a final admonition from Nehemiah: Observe the Sabbath and don’t marry strange women.
Romans 3 is full of memorable quotations: “let God be true, but every man a liar.” It speaks of God’s faithfulness and God’s Judgment, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one” , “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,“and “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” just to name a few. Read them all, and marvel.
Nehemiah 11 lists the people of Jerusalem and the people outside Jerusalem.
Psalm 55, of David. When treacherous friends and a multitude of enemies attacked, David still trusted God.
Romans 2. The Apostle Paul pointed out that you have no excuse, God’s judgement is righteous, Jews and Gentiles are equally guilty, and circumcision is of no avail.
Nehemiah 9. The people did confess their sins and recited Israel’s miraculous history.
Nehemiah 10 lists the people who sealed the covenant and its content.
Romans 1:18-32 The Apostle Paul explained how the wrath of God was to come on mankind because they “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.”
Nehemiah 6. There arose a conspiracy against Nehemiah, but he was on to them and managed to get the wall completed.
Nehemiah 7. Finally the wall was finished, and the chapter gives a list of the captives who returned to Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 8. Ezra read the Law and the returnees celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.
Romans 1:1-17 starts with an eloquent greeting to all in Rome, and it is just as valid for us today as it was then. The Apostle Paul longed to visit Rome and impart scriptural spiritual wisdom, such as “the Just shall live by Faith.”
Nehemiah 4. Through strong opposition the building of the wall was defended.
Nehemiah 5. Nehemiah encountered oppression but showed great generosity.
Psalm 54 , of David. A short prayer with conviction that God is David’s helper.
The house just passed the antisemitism bill HR 6090 320 to 61. It codifies the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. This means that certain historical facts, such as Jesus was condemned by the Jewish leadership for being a blasphemer, proclaiming that He and God the Father are one, and as such he could forgive sins. This was of course blasphemy, punishable by death, but since only the Romans could execute the death penalty Jesus was handed over to the Romans to be crucified.
To blame this generation of Jews for a historical fact that happened 2000 years ago is of course wrong and antisemitic, but history is history cannot be changed. It happened. The Jewish leaders even helped to prove the resurrection by setting a guard to prevent it from happening. To call historical facts antisemitism is as ridiculous as blaming a Swedish immigrant (of which I am one) for being guilty of lynching a black youth in Mississippi in the early 1900’s just for being white too.
From one to another I hear the college uprisings “From the river to the sea. Palestine shall be free” . A reporter asked demonstrators what river they referred to. A few, but not all knew it reo the Jordan river. Then an old song came back to me from the time 50 ears ago when I was just saved, and it has been ringing in my head every time I see video clips from the ivy league colleges. It goes like this:
We have heard the gospel sound; Jesus saves! Jesus saves;
Spread the Good News all around! Jesus saves, Jesus saves.
From the River to the sea; Jews and Gentiles,Muslims be,
Born again and so set free: Jesus saves, Jesus saves
The land between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea is called the holy land by Jews, Christians and Muslims. These are the three religions that claim the land is Holy. The Jews claim the land was given them by God himself, being descendants of of Abraham from ISAAC, the Son of Promise, The Christians claim it is holy by adoption, and the Muslims by Ishmael, the firstborn son of Abraham. It all points to Jerusalem, being the Holy City
First, the Jews: They are looking for their Messiah. The Messiah is fully described in Isaiah 9:6
Child: Shows the humanity of Christ
Son, shows the deity of Christ, being given bu God, of the same kind.
It also shows the unity of God, Father, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, three aspects of God, three in one, the triune God, the Trinity.
There is one more instance of El Gibbor in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 32:18 it says: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, (El Gibbor) YHWH of hosts, is his name,”
This time there is no question that El Gibbor is Jehovah himself.
The other big prophesy is found in Chapter 53, the Suffering servant. It begins in chapter 12, verse 13. The passage on the suffering Servant is never read in Jewish Synagogues, not in the triennial reading, nor at Holy days. Up to now the LORD, through the prophet Isaiah has referred to his servant Israel, and in one case, in Isaiah 45:1 Cyrus: Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, and 45:4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Here God refers to the other anointed, the Messiah. No other chapter in the Bible is quoted more in the New Testament. because of this it was more or less mathematically proven that Isaiah was edited and Isaiah 53 was added about 400 A.D. as well as a number of other prophecies. Then in 1947 they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and more than a hundred years of source critical Bible analysis had to be abandoned. The Dead Sea Scrolls had been copied from even older copies more than 140 years B.C. Let God’s word speak for itself.
Chapter 53, the Suffering servant really begins in chapter 12, verse 13. The passage on suffering Servant is never read in Jewish Synagogues, not in the triennial reading, nor at Holy days. Up to now the LORD, through the prophet Isaiah has referred to his servant Israel, and in one case, in Isaiah 45:1 Cyrus: Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, and 45:4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Here God refers to the other anointed, the Messiah. No other chapter in the Bible is quoted more in the New Testament. because of this it was more or less mathematically proven that Isaiah was edited and Isaiah 53 was added about 400 A.D. as well as a number of other prophecies. Then in 1947 they found the Dead Sea Scrolls and more than a hundred years of source critical Bible analysis had to be abandoned. The Dead Sea Scrolls had been copied from even older copies more than 140 years B.C. Let God’s word speak for itself.
Yet, when Jesus came, he was rejected, not by the people for they loved him, but condemned by the leadership of the Jews, he performed miracles, even on the Sabbath, but worse than that, he forgave sins, which only God can do, so he committed blasphemy and was sent over to the Romans to crucify him, since the Jews did not have authority to execute people. It was all in accordance with scripture, and the Jews of today cannot be condemned for that. They still have the opportunity to embrace Jesus as their Messiah, and thus be redeemed.
For Gentiles shat embrace Jesus it is simple; They become children of Abraham by adoption. This can be best explained in Paul’s epistle to the Romans; Chapter 4.
The important takeaway from this passage is that Jesus was delivered over to death for our sins, the death on a cross. He was buried and the tomb was sealed by the Jewish leaders to prevent him from being taken away from the tomb. But Jesus was risen from the dead. Thar is why the empty cross is the symbol for us, who worship the risen savior! The empty cross symbolizes redemption, we live in the time of grace, our sins are forgiven.
With the Muslim,also claiming Al-Qudz (Jerusalem) as their Holy City. Now it is getting more complicated. The Oslo accords tried to establish a two state solution, Both Istael and Palestine should be recognized as states. Now Yasser Arafat entered and tried to establish a diplomatic solution. In an interview he grudingly accepted Israel as a state, but when the interviewer tried to make him repeat his acceptance in Arabic he hemmed and hoed and could never get himself to do so. Why was that? It is because their Holy Quran states that Israel will never again rise to be a nation. If Israel becomes a nation again that would make Muhammad a non Prophet. There are other diffences between the Bible and Quran The Bible lists ten plagues of Egypt, The Quran has only nine, the death of the firstborn is missing. This plague lead to the passover, one of the most important commemorations in the Jewish Calendar. It is also the day when Jesus was crucified, very important for Christians. The Quran teaches that Jesus was never crucified, it only seemed so to the Jews; instead Jesus was directly translated to heaven. A holy God would never punish his son that way!
The final thing that separates Muslims from Christians is the claim that the Bible is falsified, and when Jesus speaks of another comforter, he really meant Muhammad. This can be found in John 14:
Another Comforter: αλλον παρακλητον ( allon parakleton) meaning one of the same kind as Jesus.
Some Muslims say the Bible has been altered and should have read perikleton rather than parakleton, claming the Bible has been falsified to fit Jewish and Christian beliefs and only the Quran is true.
This requires many steps of faith on account of the Muslims. 1. Jesus, Mary and Moses were really Muslims and spoke of Muhammad. 2. The New Testament is falsified. 3. Ignore the Dead Sea Scrolls, and 4. When Jesus speaks of the Spirit of Truth he really means Muhammad, not the Holy Spirit as He says in verse 26.
As a Christian I am free to take God’s Word for what it says.
What separates Christianity from both Judaism and Islam is the redemption, the forgiveness of sins by the cross, and by accepting this we can participate in his resurrection and have everlasting life. The life will change as we transition from earthly life into the presence of Jesus, and that is why our symbol is the empty cross: We serve a risen savior!
Romans 16. Sister Phoebe is commended, the Apostle Paul gave thanks, especially to Priscilla and Aquila, followed by a long list of greetings by name. Paul then warned the Romans to avoid divisive persons, followed by greetings from Paul’s friends, even Tertius the scribe wrote a note. The letter ends with a benediction.
Psalm 65, of David. A Psalm full of thanksgiving for atonement for iniquities, setting things straight in nature and among people, and providing for an abundant harvest, and the response is to burst out in song.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 