Knowable Word - Bible study help

Your Children can Benefit from Minor Prophets

March 17, 2023 By Peter Krol

To this day, one of my favorite children’s Bibles is Mark’s Marvellous Book by Alan Mann. Mann does something truly remarkable in that he teaches children a book of the Bible instead of a self-curated selection of abstract narratives (as though they were Aesop’s fables or even snapshots from history). Mann’s book follows the contours of Mark’s gospel, such that his readers come away not only with a broad theological vision of Jesus, but with Mark’s particular message about Jesus.

Isn’t that something? We’ve got access to so many wonderful children’s Bibles that teach biblical history and theology. But what if there were also children’s Bibles that primarily taught the Bible (the books or literature of the Bible, along with each book’s primary message)? What if children’s Bibles could be a training ground or launchpad for children to grow in the knowledge of God—as he has revealed himself in Scripture—thereby motivating them to grow into reading those very Scriptures with eyes of faith and understanding?

Please let me know if you have seen other children’s Bibles that do this. Because I had never seen it done before or since Mr. Mann’s marvellous book. That is, until Christian Focus sent me review copies of John Brown and Brian Wright’s God’s Daring Dozen, Box 1 and Box 2.

Magnetic Beauty

I’ll return in just a moment to how well these books teach God’s word. But because first impressions are, well, first, let me say that these books are remarkably beautiful and attractive to read.

Box 1 contains:

Haggai’s Feast
Obadiah and the Edomites
Habakkuk’s Song
Zephaniah’s Hero

Box 2 has:

Joel & the Locusts
Jonah’s Journeys
Nahum & the Ninevites
Malachi’s Final Message

A planned third box will complete this Jewish “Book of the Twelve” with volumes on Hosea, Amos, Micah, and Zechariah.

The two boxes are bright, colorful, and quite sturdy. The dimensions of the books—akin to a full-sized Dr. Seuss book—were quite a bit larger than I was expecting. Pulling the boxed sets from the shipping package provoked squeals of delight and hasty claims of ownership from the mouths of numerous Krol children, to the point where I began wondering if I would get the books back in time to prepare for this review.

The artwork within the books follows suit: Clean design, bright colors, attractive fonts. I simply cannot praise the look and feel of these volumes highly enough. It is most important to have strong content. But if that content is unattractive, it’s not nearly as motivating to read.

Inspiring Precision

Brown and Wright succeed in their primary goal of teaching not only the story but especially the message of each prophet. Have you ever read parts of the Bible and joked with someone that “you’ll never see that in a children’s Bible”? Well, now you can’t. Because it’s all in here. And it works. For kids.

For example, in Nahum & the Ninevites, the flood of destruction sweeps the city away, followed by the flames of destruction. “Maidens moan and beat their breasts. Hearts are melting, knees are knocking, bodies are shaking, and faces are pale… Dead bodies everywhere… Nineveh enticed and enslaved many nations like a seductive sorceress. Therefore I will humiliate her publicly.”

At the book’s climax comes an image of a prophet passing out the scroll he has written, while the ruins of a city lie smoldering in the background. “Those who hurt other people and worship other gods and refuse to repent will most certainly face God’s terrible judgment, for He does not leave the guilty unpunished.”

Now before you freak out, you ought to know two things:

This is precisely what the book of Nahum says (Nah 1:3, 8; 2:7, 10; 3:3-5). If you’re not comfortable with children reading it, then why have you given them Bibles?
Every volume in this series moves the prophet’s message forward to the good news about Jesus Christ. So even Nahum & the Ninevites ends with assurance that God will defeat all our enemies, Jesus will rescue all who call on his name, and those who bring such good news have beautiful feet (Nah 1:15; Rom 10:15).

Each volume in God’s Daring Dozen begins and ends the way the book of the prophet begins and ends. Along the way, Brown and Wright follow the prophet’s own structure in order to highlight the message. The prophet’s own words are quoted (and not only paraphrased or summarized), and New Testament quotations of the prophet are brought in at appropriate times.

On account of these many great strengths, I found myself inspired, after reading each volume, to go back and read the biblical book itself. God’s Daring Dozen will grant children confidence that they can read these books in the Bible, too.

Present Weakness

Nothing on earth is perfect, so let me be honest about the flaws.

They could probably be even longer than they are. Each volume can be read aloud in about 10 minutes.

And… Box 3 hasn’t been published yet, but I wish it was.

That’s all I can think of.

Conclusion

With God’s Daring Dozen, we have eight (soon to be twelve) books of the Bible presented to children in a way they can understand. In a way that clearly communicates the original author’s main point. In a way that shows the relevance of God’s word to people today. In a way that highlights the grace and lordship of Jesus Christ in all Scripture. In a way that will inspire readers to eventually set these books aside and dig directly into God’s word.

I highly commend these books to you. You can find them at Christian Focus (Box 1, Box 2), Westminster Books (Box 1, Box 2), or Amazon (Box 1, Box 2).

Dear publishers: Please create more children’s Bibles like this!

Disclaimer: Though God sees everything, we humans cannot. Therefore I must disclose the fact that Amazon links will provide a small commission to this blog at no cost to yourself. Thank you for assisting our service to the only King and Lord of heaven’s armies.

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Trust and Obey

March 15, 2023 By Peter Krol

I love this reflection from Seth Lewis on “The Key to Understanding the Bible.” He writes about how the Bible cannot be read and understood like other books. This book demands trust and obedience before it yields its storehouses of wisdom and knowledge.

You won’t know the “peace of God that surpasses understanding” until you “present your requests to God” in prayer (Philippians 4:7).

You won’t experience the truth of Jesus’ promise that he will “give you rest” unless you accept his invitation to “come to me, all who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28).

You can read that “godliness with contentment is great gain” but you’ll never understand that gain until you are growing in godliness and contentment (1 Timothy 6:6).

Check it out!

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Fear is a Battleground

March 13, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

The Bible says a lot about fear. The book of Proverbs begins by asserting that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:9). We also read that “the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe” (Prov 29:25). The Bible teaches plenty about fear in the New Testament as well (see Hebrews 13:6, Matthew 10:28).

These pillars of the fear of man and the fear of God are crucial to understand and identify. Yet the Bible often points to them from a distance, asking us to supply the details in our personal application. It’s more rare to study a passage where the granular temptations to fear are explicit.

We have such a passage in Nehemiah 6.

A Lure and a Lie

Nehemiah was leading the efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem with other Jewish people who had returned from exile. Because God’s people were surrounded by hostile nations, the wall demanded attention and effort after the temple was completed (Ezra 6:15).

Nehemiah had to deal with enemies and disrupters—both when he arrived in the city (Neh 2:10,19-20) and when fending off later attacks (Neh 4:1-23). But Nehemiah 6 offers specifics about complex plots to harm or stop the governor and his work.

Two of Nehemiah’s opponents, Sanballat and Geshem, tried to lure Nehemiah far outside the city. They wanted the work on the wall to stop, and they likely intended to capture or kill Nehemiah (Neh 6:2). Nehemiah received four private letters before an open letter arrived. There we read of the threat to tell King Artaxerxes about a Jewish plan to rebel and Nehemiah’s intention to become king, allegedly backed by prophets declaring as much (Neh 6:6-7). All of this was a lie, crafted to provoke Nehemiah into traveling out of the city to protest.

Nehemiah knew what Sanballat and Geshem really wanted—they aimed “to frighten” Nehemiah and the other workers. They hoped this threat would halt construction on the wall (Neh 6:9).

Hide in the Temple

The second plot unfolded when Nehemiah went to the house of Shemaiah. Shemaiah warned Nehemiah about a plot to kill him and suggested they hide in the temple (Neh 6:10).

Nehemiah saw the implications. He understood that he would seem weak if he hid. He also knew this was not the purpose of the temple! Nehemiah realized that God had not sent Shemaiah; rather, Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him to prophesy (Neh 6:12). They were working, along with some other prophets, to make Nehemiah afraid (Neh 6:13,14).

Contrasting Fears

The threats to Nehemiah were not just from outside. Because of his connections by descent and by marriage, Tobiah had regular communication with the “nobles of Judah” (Neh 6:17,18). He exchanged letters with them and they reported Nehemiah’s words back to Tobiah. All of this was an effort to make Nehemiah afraid (Neh 6:19).

But another fear emerged. Despite numerous efforts to stop it, the wall around Jerusalem was completed (Neh 6:15). Here is the reaction.

And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. (Nehemiah 6:16)

These enemies attempted to frighten Nehemiah, but they were the ones who ended up afraid. The surrounding nations thought less of themselves and more of Yahweh because they knew he helped his people.

Specific Targets of Fear

This chapter records contrasting fears: the repeated attempts to make Nehemiah afraid, and the fear and awe that God inspires when he strengthens his own. We also read about the specific aims of fear, aims that are not often spelled out in Scripture.

Here’s an important interpretation question to lead us into application. How were Nehemiah’s enemies using fear against him? What specifically did they want him to be afraid of?

First, they wanted him to fear the loss of the king’s approval. If the king heard the dishonest account about Nehemiah, he might take action to stop the work on the wall or summon everyone back to Susa. Nehemiah was dependent on the favor of the king, and Sanballat and Geshem wanted him to be so afraid of losing this favor that he would meet them at the plain of Ono and, presumably, suffer capture or death.

Nehemiah’s enemies also wanted him to fear the threat of death. If Shemaiah convinced Nehemiah to hide in the temple, Nehemiah would look like a coward who was using a holy place for self-protection. Nehemiah knew what his enemies were up to: “For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me” (Neh 6:13). They wanted Nehemiah to sin, to gain a poor reputation among his people, and then to be open to ridicule. In the end, Nehemiah’s enemies were hoping to eliminate the work force behind him by painting him as an ungodly leader.

Gospel Answers

We can be tempted to unrighteous fears from many directions. Perhaps, like Nehemiah, you’ve been tempted to fear death—a very natural fear! Or maybe you’ve been afraid of disapproval from a boss, supervisor, or parent. You may be resistant or hesitant about something God has called you to because of one of these fears. For those who trust in Christ, the gospel addresses these fears.

While a courageous, God-honoring action on your part may bring criticism from those in authority over you, God is the ultimate authority and he has kings in his hands (Prov 21:1). Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down as a sign of this supreme control.

Further, while death is an enemy, Jesus defeated death in his resurrection. Our destination is the same as his.

God gave Nehemiah strength and wisdom to resist temptations to fear and to see through falsehoods. We can also take to heart Nehemiah’s example of prayer in the midst of temptation, hardship, and anger (Neh 6:9,14).

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5 Misconceptions about Wealth

March 10, 2023 By Peter Krol

The book of Proverbs covers many topics and gets intensely practical. One of the topics on which Proverbs has quite a lot to say is wealth.

The struggle for many Christians is that our thinking about wealth is often shaped by influences outside the Bible. Sometimes we’re shaped by materialism. Sometimes we react against materialism in a way that seems spiritual but demonstrates the sort of asceticism labeled by New Testament authors as “irreverent, silly myths” (1 Tim 4:7) and the “teachings of demons” (1 Tim 4:1). And at other times, we simply allow rank fear and unbelief to lead us away from our hope in God and reception of his wisdom.

Here are five misconceptions about wealth that must go if we are to believe and receive the wisdom of God.

1. It will make all my problems go away

This is frankly the lie I am most tempted to believe. Am I earning enough? Am I saving enough? How will I cover the costs of a growing family with all this inflation? How will we pay for college or medical needs? What we really need is a generous benefactor or a sudden windfall. Because if we had more wealth, all our problems would disappear, right?

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death
Proverbs 11:4

According to the Bible, there is a problem we all have that is far greater than we imagine: our impending death. And God’s wrath against sin is real. My kids’ college tuition and my retirement package just can’t pay for such things. Only one thing can deliver us from death, or profit us in the day of wrath. Righteousness. And the entire Bible shows us how to get it (e.g. 2 Cor 5:21, Phil 3:8-11).

So wealth will never make your problems go away (see also Prov 11:28). But the amazing thing is that it just might help make other people’s problems go away. Wealth and people are both realities in this fallen world. But which one will serve, and which will be served? Use people to serve your wealth, and you’re in grave danger (James 5:1-6, 1 Tim 6:17). But use wealth to serve people, and the Lord himself says he is now in your debt (Prov 19:17, Matt 25:40).

2. I can tell who has it and who doesn’t

We tend to think we can tell the rich from the poor by looking. And this is great, because then we know whom to ask for favors (Prov 19:6). But appearances are deceiving.

One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
Proverbs 13:7

Those who appear to be rich often appear that way for a reason: They’re good at holding onto their stuff for themselves. And it would knock your socks off to find out which of your acquaintances are the most generous with their wealth. Because they are so generous, they tend to keep very little for themselves to flaunt.

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Proverbs 11:24

I have been a support-raising missionary for nearly a quarter of a century, and I don’t know why I’m still surprised, but I am. Those whom I think could give generously to support the mission often do not. Sometimes, they look like they can because they have lots of stuff. Yet often, those whom I am afraid to ask—because they don’t look like they can afford it—are those who write checks in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

This is not an exact science. I am not saying that appearances are always the exact opposite of the truth. I’m simply saying that you can’t tell who has the most wealth just by looking at their lifestyle. Such judgment didn’t work on the Lord Jesus (2 Cor 8:9).

3. It is something I ought to feel guilty about

The Bible extends some serious warnings to the wealthy, since it is ridiculously easy to transfer my allegiance from God to my investment portfolio. Anyone who comes close to wealth ought to be sobered by it and wary of it. Wealth is something of a ticking time bomb or hot potato that will burn you if you hold onto it too long.

The problem, however, is that sometimes we take such truths and turn them into guilt trips. As though God wants people to be poor. As though it is unchristian to have access to wealth. As though one ought to be ashamed of themself if God has blessed them in material ways. But:

The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it.
Proverbs 10:22

God does not promise to make every one of his children wealthy here on earth, but he does bless some with wealth. And he blesses a few of those with a lot of wealth. He doesn’t do it to make their lives easy or problem-free (see misconception #1 above), but he does do it. Often, it’s not simply a random gift, given for no reason. It may simply be the fruit of living a life of wisdom.

In the house of the righteous there is much treasure, but trouble befalls the income of the wicked.
Proverbs 15:6.

Some people have no wealth because they’ve devoured it for selfish ends (Prov 21:20). But when a person wisely sees their wealth as not “mine” but the Lord’s, there is a strong motivation to collect more of it and put it to good use in service of others. The Bible does not lay a guilt trip on such people, and neither should we. When a believer is faithful with a little responsibility, the Lord’s reward is to give them even more such responsibility (Matt 25:21, 23).

4. It doesn’t matter how I get it

This should be obvious in light of the prior misconceptions, but it’s worth saying outright: Though wealth is not a bad thing in itself, that doesn’t mean we’re right to acquire it by any means possible.

Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.
Proverbs 10:2

There’s that inconvenient reminder of death again! If you acquire your wealth through wickedness, it won’t be of any help when it matters most.

So don’t gather wealth through wickedness. But also, don’t gather it through haste (Prov 13:11) or stinginess (Prov 28:22). That’s right: Your lottery earning will neither last nor keep its promises to you. And the image of a miserly Christian is a scandalous contradiction.

Hard, honest work over the course of a lifetime is the best way to go (Prov 13:11, 21:5).

5. It doesn’t matter whether someone has it or not

Have you ever been tempted to just throw your hands in the air and give up? Financial matters can be stressful and disheartening. Why not conclude that it just doesn’t matter? Wouldn’t it be a more faith-filled and Spirit-filled way of living to say, “I don’t care about money or wealth. I’m just not going to pursue it or think about it. God knows what I need, so I’ll just let go of the issue and let him provide whatever I need when I need it.”

That may sound mature, but it may represent a failure to grasp the first 4 misconceptions! Wealth cannot make your problems go away, but it can effectively alleviate the problems of others. You can’t tell who has it and who doesn’t, because those who are wise make use of it to serve others. You don’t have to feel guilty about wealth if you will be as generous with it as God has been with you. And it does matter how you get it: Not by using people but in order to serve them.

We’re real people with with real bodies in a real world filled with real suffering. Wealth can dramatically affect the quality of someone’s life, and that is the very reason why the Bible cares so much about the poor! Not because it’s better to be poor, but because God gives his people wealth to relieve the poor.

God wants you to use wealth to make friends with the people around you so you can win them to Christ (Prov 14:20, Luke 16:8-9).

And the wise person does not demonstrate a lack of awareness or concern with wealth but a deep awareness of such things, as demonstrated by their prayer:

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:8-9

The prayer of the wise is neither a request to take wealth away nor a request to give all wealth to remove problems. No, the wise and righteous prayer is a prayer for plenty. A prayer for whatever God deems sufficient for his purpose.

And God’s purpose is clear: that we would love him with all our hearts, and love our neighbors as ourselves. So will you use people to serve your wealth, or will you use your wealth to serve people?

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7 Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible

March 8, 2023 By Peter Krol

Just a few years back, Michael F. Bird released a book called 7 Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible. I haven’t read the book, but this summary article is well worth your time. Bird’s seven things:

The Bible didn’t fall out of the sky
The Bible is divinely given and humanly composed
Scripture is normative, not negotiable
The Bible is for our time, but not about our time
We should take the Bible seriously, but not always literally
The purpose of Scripture is knowledge, faith, love, and hope
Christ is the center of the Christian Bible

With these 7 precepts undergirding our approach to the Bible, our study will be greatly improved.

Check it out!

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The Problem with Proverbs

March 3, 2023 By Peter Krol

What a unique treasure we have in the book of Proverbs! No other book of the Bible is as intensely practical as Proverbs. No other book presents such tremendous hope in the mundane parts of life. And no other book presents its material in quite the jumbled mess Proverbs appears to be.

If you have ever tried a chapter-a-day Bible reading plan, you understand how difficult it is to read Proverbs. Nearly every verse demands a pause for reflection. And much of the book yields only tenuous logical connections between one verse and the next. The book does not tell a story like Job. It rarely presents a train of thought across an extended poem like the Psalms. It (mostly) does not make a sustained argument like Ecclesiastes.

So how should we approach this book?

The Problem of Practicality

Proverbs is famous because it gets so wildly practical. There is a reason the pocket Bibles produced by the Gideons consist not only of the New Testament but also the Psalms and Proverbs. This book is so practical that people love to pilfer its riches in all kinds of ways.

Take for example, this 2006 work [unabashed affiliate link!] endorsed by such luminaries as David Jeremiah, Gary Chapman, Ruth Graham, and Chuck Norris. What a promising title! The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon’s Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness. Who wouldn’t want access to such secrets?

In The Richest Man Who Ever Lived, Scott reveals Solomon’s key for winning every race, explains how to resolve conflicts and turn enemies into allies, and discloses the five qualities essential to becoming a valued and admired person at work and in your personal life. Scott illustrates each of Solomon’s insights and strategies with anecdotes about his personal successes and failures, as well as those of such extraordinary people as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Steven Spielberg.

At once inspiring and instructive, The Richest Man Who Ever Lived weaves the timeless truths of one of our greatest works of literature into a detailed roadmap for successful living today.
From the marketing copy

This sounds amazing, and the book has more than 1,600 reviews (over 1,300 of them five-star) to back it up.

Now I confess I haven’t read the entire book. I couldn’t make it past the first few chapters, where it was clear that Mr. Scott all but ignores the worldview of Prov 1-9 in favor of the practicals of Prov 10-31. And this simply will not do when we come to the book of Proverbs.

We cannot be dazzled by the book’s practicality to the point of ignoring the context established in the opening chapters.

The Problem of Arrangement

Proverbs 10-31 present six collections of wise sayings. Most of those collected sayings are exactly one verse (two lines) long. For example, Prov 20:3 is a saying about keeping aloof from strife. Prov 20:4 is a saying about the sluggard’s time management. And Prov 20:5 is a saying about the invisible intentions and motivations in people’s hearts. We go from one. Thing. To. The. Next.

The primary exception to this scattershot approach to collecting wise sayings is the first nine chapters. Those chapters consist of many long poems making sustained arguments. That’s why those first nine chapters are the key to understanding the book. They construct a conceptual framework for wisdom, although to say it that way is far too abstract and boring. The way Solomon himself says it is that “wisdom has built her house” (Prov 9:1).

With that house built, personified Wisdom invites you to the feast of chapters 10-31. And the buffet of those collected sayings will make sense only in light of the worldview presented in chapters 1-9.

But that raises a crucial question: How do we read and understand that buffet? And more profoundly: Why did the editors collect these sayings in such an apparently random fashion?

As for the why: We may never know for sure until we can make the acquaintance of these editors in the world to come and ask them directly. The best answer I’ve heard was from my seminary professor, who postulated that the book simulates how real life works. You never have a day of your life where you think about, or have to deal with, nothing but money. And another day dealing with nothing but friendship. And another day dealing with nothing but speech. No, our lives are a jumble of topics from moment to moment. Perhaps the proverbs were collected in a jumbled way to simulate how real life is lived day after day.

As for the how: Proverbs 10-31 nearly demands that we search its treasures for topical threads. We must glut ourselves on wisdom’s feast to find all the verses about money, assembling them into a body of teaching on that topic. And we look for all the verses on friendship. And all the verses on speech.

So much, so good. We just need to make sure we don’t run with the practicals there without first interpreting them in light of the book’s worldview.

The Problem of Probability

One last potential problem is worthy of consideration. Because the particular sayings of Proverbs are so utterly specific and practical, that has led many Bible teachers to develop a conventional wisdom that “proverbs aren’t promises but only probabilities.” While this conventional wisdom has some value, it can be quite misleading.

To understand why it is misleading, we need to examine how we arrived at such a principle to begin with. The reason is typically because various proverbs seem to contradict one another (such as Prov 26:4 and Prov 26:5), or because some verses are easily abused to browbeat people (Prov 22:6). So we seek to solve such errors with a sweeping principle such as “proverbs aren’t promises but only probabilities.”

But here’s the thing: The statement that “proverbs aren’t promises but only probabilities” is itself a wise saying. A summary statement. Dare I say, a proverb? And is that statement only a probability and not a certainty? Is it certain that proverbs aren’t promises? Or is it only a probability itself?

And here’s the bigger issue: The proverbs do not present themselves as probabilities. They do not talk about what might happen or what is likely to happen. No, they make legitimate observations about the way the world works. And at times, they offer clear commands and not simply suggestions (e.g. Prov 14:7, 23:23).

We can get close to solving the problem of probability when we simply bring in the matters of practicality and arrangement. The arrangement means that no single proverb tells the whole truth on a topic; that’s why many verses all speak to various aspects of the same topics! The practicality tells us that any single proverb is speaking to a very narrow, very particular situation. And in those intensely practical, extremely particular settings that the proverb speaks into, the proverb speaks truth. Not probability, but truth.

We misuse the proverb if we try to make it speak to a related but different practical situation it was not meant to speak to. (Prov 26:4-5: Don’t answer a fool in those particular settings when it is best not to answer him!) And we deeply confuse people if we teach that the proverb is not true but only likely. (Prov 18:10: Is it only likely but not certain that Lord’s name will be a strong tower to the righteous who flee to him for final refuge?)

Conclusion

No other book of the Bible is like Proverbs. It presents some unique problems, such as the problem of practicality, the problem of arrangement, and the problem of probability. But studying this book along its natural contours yields a wealth of results, as it leads us to Jesus, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:2-3).

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4 Mistakes When Reading the Parables of Jesus

March 1, 2023 By Peter Krol

I recently wrote a piece on the parables of Jesus for the Logos Word by Word blog. It’s a pretty thorough look at what parables are, why Jesus used them, along with an exhaustive list of all of Jesus’ parables.

The final section offers strategies for overcoming four mistakes when reading the parables. The four mistakes are:

Read them as abstract, universal stories for humanity.
Read multiple versions of the same parable in the same way.
Read them as stories for people today.
Read them as though there was no Bible at the time.

Here is a taste:

In the act of persuasion, why not focus exclusively on logical argumentation, miracles, or Old Testament prophecy? Jesus uses all of those means, but what do parables contribute to the other forms of persuasion?

Jesus’s disciples ask this very question: “Why do you speak to them in parables?” (Matt 13:10). Jesus answers their question, but in a way that is sometimes wildly misunderstood. To grasp his two answers, we must grapple with the two Old Testament texts quoted by Matthew (13:10ff) and echoed by Mark (4:10ff).

Check it out!

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A List from Ezra Repeated in Nehemiah

February 27, 2023 By Ryan Higginbottom

A Bible reader making their way through the historical books of the Old Testament could be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu after finishing Nehemiah, chapter 7.

If this describes you, the good news is, you’re not wrong! With a couple of exceptions[1], Nehemiah 7:6–73 is an exact copy of Ezra 2:1–70. While these passages are not the sort of fast-paced narrative that might captivate a modern reader, they are an accountant’s dream. These passages give a thorough list of the people who moved back to Jerusalem from Babylon during the reign of Cyrus. (See Ezra 1:1–11.)

Many Christians struggle to read a passage like this once. So why would it be in our Bibles twice?

The answer cannot be merely that Nehemiah found the scroll and wrote down what he read (Neh 7:5). Just a chapter later some Torah scrolls were read in public but were not copied into Nehemiah’s narrative. Something else is going on.

The current article is a case study of what Peter wrote about recently. When the Bible quotes or alludes to other parts of the Bible, we should take extra care to understand.

Ezra 2

The historical context of both passages is important. In Ezra 2, we have a list of the people “whose spirit God had stirred to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord that is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:5). God had put it in the heart of Cyrus, king of Persia, to send some of the captured Jewish people back to Jerusalem. The temple had been destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar’s army had leveled the city, and the people of God were now being charged (by a pagan king!) to rebuild what had been knocked down.

In the long list of chapter 2, the author took great care to list the people who returned by clans and families (Ezra 2:2–35). However, we also read of people specifically gifted and trained to help with the temple rebuilding efforts: the caravan back to Jerusalem included priests (Ezra 2:36–39), Levites (Ezra 2:40), singers (Ezra 2:41), sons of gatekeepers (Ezra 2:42), temple servants (Ezra 2:43–54), and sons of Solomon’s servants (Ezra 2:55–57).

What is the point of the list in Ezra 2? This thorough accounting shows that Cyrus really did let people leave for Jerusalem and that they were prepared for the work of rebuilding the house of the Lord and resuming temple worship. Much of the rest of Ezra recounts the success of those rebuilding efforts.

Nehemiah 7

By the time we get to Nehemiah 7, somewhere between 70-80 years have passed since that multitude hiked back to Jerusalem. Nehemiah is handing over the governorship of Jerusalem (Neh 7:2) after having successfully managed the rebuilding of the city wall (Neh 7:1).

But the work of reconstruction was not complete. The temple had been reopened and the wall was repaired and functioning, but the city itself was still a wreck. “The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt” (Neh 7:4). There was a third phase to the rebuilding efforts yet to come.

Then Nehemiah discovered the Ezra 2 scroll:

Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written in it: (Neh 7:5)

If we wonder why the long passage was included twice, we can start here. Nehemiah calls this “the book of the genealogy.” The leaders would rebuild the city by tribe and clan, so the genealogical records of those who repopulated the city were vital.

This played out later in Nehemiah. As the leaders made efforts to repopulate the city of Jerusalem, they cast lots to relocate people from the surrounding area (Neh 11:1). But when the list of people who settled in Jerusalem is given in Nehemiah 11:3–24, it is organized in part by tribe.

One List, Two Purposes

Although Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 are almost identical passages, the contexts show that the lists and enumerations were used for two different purposes. In Ezra, the list confirmed that Cyrus made good on his promise and that the returnees were ready to rebuild the temple. In Nehemiah, the list was recalled for genealogical purposes in an effort to rebuild and repopulate the city of Jerusalem.

There are several places in the Bible—like the tabernacle instructions and construction in Exodus—that seem repetitive, and we may wonder why God would preserve such passages for our benefit. Instead of viewing these passages with frustration or impatience, we can humbly ask God to teach us.

Often, these repetitions are instances of God’s people using his word in a faithful way. In addition to learning about each of the passages involved, we have examples for our instruction.

[1] These two passages are not exactly identical, and the small discrepancies have caused large stumbling blocks for some people. All of God’s word is important, including these differences, but that is not the focus of the present article.

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What to Do When One Passage Refers to Another

February 24, 2023 By Peter Krol

Though the Bible was written by dozens of human authors across centuries, it also claims to have been written by a single divine author (2 Tim 3:16) who was and is and is come. For that reason, these 66 books are all parts of that one great book, the Good Book, that the Lord caused to be written and preserved for his people through the ages.

You may have heard about New Testament quotes of the Old Testament. But that is not the only sort of intertextuality present in the Bible. Because the Bible is one unfolding revelation of God’s rule through his chosen Messiah, later portions of the Bible make constant reference to earlier portions.

Examples

In Ephesians 4:8, Paul quotes Psalm 68:18. And Psalm 68 itself (in Ps 68:1) quotes Numbers 10:35.

Hebrews 3:7-11 quotes Psalm 95. And Psalm 95:8 refers to the events of Exodus 17 and Numbers 20.

Mark 4:12 quotes Isaiah 6, but Isaiah 6 is difficult to understand apart from its allusions to texts such as Psalms 115 and 135.

Many places in the Old Testament reference “steadfast love and faithfulness” (2 Sam 2:6, Ps 25:10, Ps 40:11, Prov 3:3, Is 16:5, etc.), a pair of treats heavy with allusion to the character of the God in covenant with Israel (Ex 34:6).

What to Do

So quotations and allusions are not only what happens from the New Testament to the Old Testament. They also occur from later OT texts back to earlier ones. Identfying an OT quote in a NT passage may be only the first step in a linear chain of references that go farther and farther back.

That means that, in order to understand the passage with the quote, we must go back and understand the passage being quoted. Ancient authors didn’t quote older texts the way we today turn things into soundbites.

I’ve written before about what to do with such quotes. I’ll restate the principles here, but I encourage you to check out that blog post for further explanation.

NT quotes of the OT are referencing passages, not verses.
Don’t read past the OT quotes.
Look up the OT quotes and study them in context.
Consider how the NT author employs the OT context and repurposes it for his audience.
What seems obvious may not be all that obvious.

These principles apply just as much to quotations or allusions from an OT text to a prior OT text, as to quotations or allusions from a NT text to an OT text. Such connections are like divine road maps showing us how the Good Book fits together. Let’s take advantage of these opportunities to deepen our understanding of the entire body of God’s revelation.

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How to Handle the Charge of Contradictions in the Bible

February 22, 2023 By Peter Krol

TGC Africa has a great piece called “Can You Trust the Bible When It’s Full of Contradictions?” In it, Ryan van der Avoort asks three questions and offers four suggestions. His approach would help anyone wrestling with the question, or speaking to someone wrestling with the question.

The necessary questions: