Talk of Jacob and Esau ring some Sunday School alarm bells for some of us (check out Genesis 25:19, 27:1-46). The apparently unjust story of the slippery smooth-skinned Jacob who sneakily snatches the birthright away from his hairy, hungry, hunky and marginally older twin brother Esau. Well the story continues and there was enmity between Jacob and Esau's descendants: the Jews and the Edomites for many generations.
Route 66 Through the Year takes you on a tour through each of the 66 books of the Bible over the course of a year.
Each day's reading features a short passage and comment, written by a variety of your favourite Spring Harvest speakers and each Saturday we focus on Psalms. This is a great way to give you an overview of the rich symphony of the Bible and you don't need to worry if you haven't been following the scheme from the beginning: just join in, and get chatting about what you’re learning!
Tuesday, 21 February, 2012
56 years take place between the end of chapter 6 and the beginning of chapter 7. But now Ezra enters the scene on a clean up mission. He is a priest and apparently the special secretary for Jewish affairs in the Persian government. His task is to help the Israelites honour the covenant commitments their ancestors made to God. But this is no walk in the park - he has to deal with the incredibly tricky subject of Jewish intermarriage with people of other faiths.
Monday, 20 February, 2012
The book of Ezra was originally one book with Nehemiah. They retell the story of a century of great change in the life of Israel: from 538 BC when King Cyrus sent the exiles back to Israel from Babylon until 430 BC when Nehemiah had finished rebuilding the city walls of Jerusalem and was in the middle of his second term of office as effective governor of the region. Derek Kidner puts it helpfully in his commentary on Ezra:
Saturday, 18 February, 2012
“How glorious the splendor of a human heart that trusts that it is loved!” Brennan Manning
Friday, 17 February, 2012
I found a note tucked under my windscreen wiper the other day, it read ‘thanks so much for parking so close to me, next time could you please leave a tin opener so that I can get my car out.’ Which is funny really because I was pretty convinced that it would have been annoying to have had someone park so close but this guy seemed to be thanking me. I’m off to buy a tin opener for him, or am I missing something here?! Sometimes the words we read on the page don’t tell the full story.
Thursday, 16 February, 2012
One of the single most attractive qualities that anyone can display is integrity. It’s an intentional and hard-earned value that is as rare as hen’s teeth but the apostle Paul has it in bucket loads. We see this so clearly in his short letter to Philemon.
Wednesday, 15 February, 2012
Imagine it’s the buzzer round, you’re against the clock and you’re asked the question ‘Why did Jonah run away from God’s call?’, what would you say? If you’re anything like most people I suspect you’d blurt out ‘because he was afraid!’. And I’m sorry to tell you but you’d lose the quiz, and the money (oh, I forgot to say it was for £1m, bad luck.)
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