Von Jacob D. Gerber

Bible Readings for November 24th 1 Chronicles 19–20 | 1 Peter 1 | Jonah 3 | Luke 8 As we have seen in our reading from 1 Chronicles, sometimes the significant factor of a story is not so much in the included details as in the excluded ones. In 1 Chronicles 17, we saw how the Chronicler left out the statement about disciplining the son of David with…

Bible Readings for November 23rd 1 Chronicles 18 | James 5 | Jonah 2 | Luke 7 In many ways, Yahweh’s covenant with David that we read about yesterday in 1 Chronicles 17 is the heart of the theology of the books of Chronicles, but not only because Yahweh swears in this covenant to establish David’s kingdom forever. Additionally, it is David’s desire…

Bible Readings for November 22nd 1 Chronicles 17 | James 4 | Jonah 1 | Luke 6 As we have seen already in our study of the Chronicles, this retelling of Israel’s history centers on the person of David. The heavy emphasis on David does not suggest that David himself is the high point in the history of Israel, so that everything following David’s life…

Bible Readings for November 21st 1 Chronicles 16 | James 3 | Obadiah 1 | Luke 5 As the festivities in worship grow during the settling of the ark of the covenant in the city of Jerusalem, we learn more about Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, three men whose names we find prominently featured in another book of the Bible: the Psalms. So, who are these men, w…

Bible Readings for November 20th 1 Chronicles 15 | James 2 | Amos 9 | Luke 4 As we start getting deeper into 1 Chronicles, we begin to see the ways that the Chronicler writes about the events from the books of Samuel and Kings from a different perspective and with a different goal. In 1 Chronicles 15, we see our first major retelling of a story—the…

Bible Readings for November 19th 1 Chronicles 13–14 | James 1 | Amos 8 | Luke 3 Thus far, the author of 1 Chronicles has not only reviewed the entire history of the people of Israel, but he has also reshaped it around the person of David—not to exalt David himself, but to point forward to the coming of a new David. We looked yesterday at the way th…

Bible Readings for November 18th 1 Chronicles 11–12 | Hebrews 13 | Amos 7 | Luke 2 In today’s reading from 1 Chronicles 11 and 12, we arrive at the story of David himself. Everything up to this point has revisited the story leading up to David or has looked beyond him, but here we come at last to the main attraction: the great King David. In many w…

Bible Readings for November 17th 1 Chronicles 9–10 | Hebrews 12 | Amos 6 | Luke 1:39–80 While the bulk of 1 Chronicles will follow the story of David, the first ten chapters look back to the days far before David as well as look forward to the days long after his death. In 1 Chronicles 9 and 10, then, we read the genealogy of the exiles of Judah wh…

Bible Readings for November 16th 1 Chronicles 7–8 | Hebrews 11 | Amos 5 | Luke 1:1–38 As 1 Chronicles lays out the genealogies of each tribe of Israel one by one, we see Judah and Simeon (the southernmost tribes) in 1 Chronicles 4; Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (the easternmost tribes) in 1 Chronicles 5; Levi in 1 Chronicles 6; and then Issachar, Benja…

Bible Readings for November 15th 1 Chronicles 5–6 | Hebrews 10 | Amos 4 | Psalms 148, 149 & 150 A central focal point of the books of Chronicles is the reestablishment of true worship in Israel. So, where most of the tribes of Israel get only a handful of verses to recount their genealogies, the tribe of Levi receives an entire chapter to recount i…

Bible Readings for November 14th 1 Chronicles 3–4 | Hebrews 9 | Amos 3 | Psalms 146–147 Because 1 Chronicles represents a re-telling of the story of the people of God up to this point, David plays a critical, central role right from the very beginning. After one chapter to sum up the genealogy from Adam to Abraham, and then from Abraham to Jacob, t…

Bible Readings for November 13th 1 Chronicles 1–2 | Hebrews 8 | Amos 2 | Psalm 145 The books of Chronicles are very similar to the books of Samuel and Kings, so that we will read many of the same stories we just finished reading over again during the next few weeks. And yet, the books of Chronicles are doing something very different than what we sa…

Bible Readings for November 12th 2 Kings 25 | Hebrews 7 | Amos 1 | Psalm 144 In 2 Kings 24, we read about the beginning of the captivity of Judah to the Babylonians. Ominously, that chapter ended with this sentence: “And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon” (2 Kgs. 24:20)—that is, he refused to pay tribute to Babylon any longer. In today’…

Bible Readings for November 11th 2 Kings 24 | Hebrews 6 | Joel 3 | Psalm 143 Once Josiah dies, Yahweh lifts his temporary restraint and sends his people off into exile because of their sins (2 Kgs. 24:3–4). During the reign of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon makes Judah his servant—that is, he forces them to pay him tribute i…

Bible Readings for November 10th 2 Kings 23 | Hebrews 5 | Joel 2 | Psalm 142 In 2 Kings 23, we read a detailed account of the main reforms Josiah implemented in Judah. This chapter documents the sheer greatness of Josiah as king that we began to talk about in yesterday’s meditation, but it also shows the limitations of one of Judah’s greatest kings…

Bible Readings for November 9th 2 Kings 22 | Hebrews 4 | Joel 1 | Psalms 140–141 Josiah is the final great king of Judah. Despite being the grandson of Manasseh, who was Judah’s most wicked king, Josiah’s heart is inclined to Yahweh all the days of his life. Josiah even goes so far as to remove the high places in Judah (2 Kgs. 23:5, 8, 13, 15, 19, …

Bible Readings for November 8th 2 Kings 21 | Hebrews 3 | Hosea 14 | Psalm 139 The reign of Manasseh is the anvil that breaks the camel’s back. While Judah has enjoyed several good kings along the way—including Manasseh’s own father, Hezekiah, who sought Yahweh’s deliverance from the threat of the Assyrians—the southern kingdom has also experienced …

Bible Readings for November 7th 2 Kings 20 | Hebrews 2 | Hosea 13 | Psalms 137–138 In 2 Kings 20, we see Hezekiah displaying two contradictory attitudes toward prayer—on the one hand, he prays fervently for God to save him, but on the other hand, he doesn’t even try to pray for the salvation of his descendants after him. First, God again here relen…

Bible Readings for November 6th 2 Kings 19 | Hebrews 1 | Hosea 12 | Psalms 135–136 In 2 Kings 19, Hezekiah responds to the threats of the Assyrians at the doorstep of Jerusalem in two ways. First, he immediately seeks out guidance from the prophet Isaiah about whether Yahweh will come to Judah’s aid. Second, he spreads out the letter recorded from …

Bible Readings for November 5th 2 Kings 18 | Philemon 1 | Hosea 11 | Psalms 132, 133 & 134 The words of the Rabshakeh of Assyria (the great commander of Assyria’s army) in 2 Kings 18 offer a masterclass in Satan’s strategies to lead us to doubt Yahweh’s goodness toward us. To start, he twists Hezekiah’s obedience in removing the high places by sugg…

Bible Readings for November 4th 2 Kings 17 | Titus 3 | Hosea 10 | Psalms 129, 130 & 131 The dark day finally arrives. In 2 Kings 17, we read of the doom of the northern ten tribes of Israel, whom Yahweh sends off into exile at the hands of the Assyrians. The relatively mild wickedness (2 Kgs. 17:2) of Israel’s final king, Hoshea, becomes the straw …

Bible Readings for November 3rd 2 Kings 16 | Titus 2 | Hosea 9 | Psalms 126, 127 & 128 Although Judah has experienced wicked kings before this point, King Ahaz leads the southern nation of Judah into unprecedented evil. Ahaz’s father, Jotham, was a godly king who did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh (apart from leaving the high places in Judah;…

Bible Readings for November 2nd 2 Kings 15 | Titus 1 | Hosea 8 | Psalms 123, 124 & 125 One of the fascinating aspects of the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah is the way that Yahweh continues to bless his people despite their sinfulness—even as their sinfulness brings about an increasing number of curses. The stories repeatedly emphasize Yah…

Bible Readings for November 1st 2 Kings 14 | 2 Timothy 4 | Hosea 7 | Psalms 120, 121 & 122 In 2 Kings 14, we read a strange role reversal between the two kingdoms, Judah and Israel. In this chapter, we find Judah with a relatively godly king, Amaziah, who does right in the eyes of Yahweh, even though he permits the high places—that is, hills where …

Bible Readings for October 31st 2 Kings 13 | 2 Timothy 3 | Hosea 5–6 | Psalm 119:145–176 The death of Elisha is a tragedy in Israel. After this point, we do not read of another prophet whom Yahweh sends to the northern ten tribes, and very shortly, the entire nation of Israel will fall to the Assyrians in 2 Kings 17. The end of Elisha’s life, then,…

Bible Readings for October 30th 2 Kings 11–12 | 2 Timothy 2 | Hosea 3–4 | Psalm 119:121–144 In 2 Samuel 7, Yahweh made a covenant with David, promising that David would never lack a man from his own body to sit on the throne of Israel. But, as we continue through the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah, one major question arises again and agai…

Bible Readings for October 29th 2 Kings 10 | 2 Timothy 1 | Hosea 2 | Psalm 119:97–120 In yesterday’s meditation, we began discussing the way the biblical authors use repetition to lace their narratives with rich, complex meaning. In 2 Kings 10, the biblical author uses yet more repetition to evaluate the reign of Jehu. To begin, Jehu stages an even…

Bible Readings for October 28th 2 Kings 9 | 1 Timothy 6 | Hosea 1 | Psalm 119:73–96 One of the difficulties of reading certain stories in the Bible—especially the more violent stories—comes in the way that the narratives in the Bible convey meaning and value judgments in such different ways than we might expect from, for example, a modern novel. Be…

Bible Readings for October 27th 2 Kings 8 | 1 Timothy 5 | Daniel 12 | Psalm 119:49–72 The story of reclaiming the Shunammite woman’s land in 2 Kings 8 seems, at first, to be a rather strange addition to the storyline of the reigns of kings in Israel, Syria, and Judah through the rest of the chapter, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Intri…

Bible Readings for October 26th 2 Kings 7 | 1 Timothy 4 | Daniel 11 | Psalm 119:25–48 At the end of 2 Kings 6, we find Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, besieging Samaria and driving the city to starvation, so that women are eating their children to stay alive (2 Kgs. 6:28–29; cf. Deut. 28:52–57). Nevertheless, even in the midst of this incredibly dark…

Bible Readings for October 25th 2 Kings 6 | 1 Timothy 3 | Daniel 10 | Psalm 119:1–24 Despite the fact that Elisha healed Naaman, the commander of Syria’s army in 2 Kings 5, Syria nevertheless attempts to capture Elisha in 2 Kings 6. The reason for turning against Elisha is simple: he had prophesied military intelligence about the Syrians to Israel’…

Bible Readings for October 24th 2 Kings 5 | 1 Timothy 2 | Daniel 9 | Psalms 117–118 We first read of Israel’s battles with Syria during the reign of King David (cf. 2 Sam. 8, 10), but these conflicts escalate significantly during the reign of King Ahab (cf. 1 Kgs. 20, 22). In 2 Kings 5, we meet Naaman, the mighty commander of Syria’s army—the man w…

Bible Readings for October 23rd 2 Kings 4 | 1 Timothy 1 | Daniel 8 | Psalm 116 In 2 Kings 4, we learn that the ministry of Elisha doesn’t simply pick up where Elijah left off—rather, Elisha actually mirrors the ministry of Elijah, and in doing so, his ministry points forward to a greater prophet yet to come. So, Elisha saves a widow and her sons wh…

Bible Readings for October 22nd 2 Kings 3 | 2 Thessalonians 3 | Daniel 7 | Psalms 114–115 In 2 Kings 3, Elisha gets his first opportunity to prophesy to the kings of Israel and Judah, who are united in battle. The last time King Jehoshaphat of Judah joined forces with the king of Israel was against Syria back in 1 Kings 22, when King Ahab ignored t…

Bible Readings for October 21st 2 Kings 2 | 2 Thessalonians 2 | Daniel 6 | Psalms 112–113 Yahweh had sent Elisha to assist Elijah when the elder prophet suffered from severe spiritual depression (1 Kgs. 19:19–21). Through an apprenticeship process, Elisha has been preparing to replace his master once Elijah departs into glory. So, in 2 Kings 2, we …

Bible Readings for October 20th 2 Kings 1 | 2 Thessalonians 1 | Daniel 5 | Psalms 110–111 After Ahab dies, his son Ahaziah sadly picks up where Ahab had left off—he ignores the word of Yahweh in order to seek revelations from other gods. In 2 Kings 1, the prophet Elijah confronts Ahaziah similarly to the way that he had confronted Ahab, and in the …

Bible Readings for October 19th 1 Kings 22 | 1 Thessalonians 5 | Daniel 4 | Psalms 108–109 Although Ahab humbles himself before Yahweh in 1 Kings 21, we learn in 1 Kings 22 that this humbling is not true, full-fledged repentance and faith in Yahweh. Instead, when Ahab plans to go to battle against the Syrians with King Jehoshaphat of Judah as his a…

Bible Readings for October 18th 1 Kings 21 | 1 Thessalonians 4 | Daniel 3 | Psalm 107 Despite the fact that Yahweh sends Ahab prophet after prophet, revealing his word to the king time after time, Ahab nevertheless stands firm in his unbelief and hardness of heart. In today’s reading from 1 Kings 21, the only thing that moves Ahab to humility is wh…

Bible Readings for October 17th 1 Kings 20 | 1 Thessalonians 3 | Daniel 2 | Psalm 106 Although Ahab is a wicked king, Yahweh nevertheless reveals himself to him multiple times. Still, Ahab follows in the footsteps of King Saul, receiving with joy any word of Yahweh that signifies good to him but systematically ignoring any warnings or instructions …

Bible Readings for October 16th 1 Kings 19 | 1 Thessalonians 2 | Daniel 1 | Psalm 105 At the end of 1 Kings 18, Elijah might have believed that he had succeeded in bringing the nation of Israel back to Yahweh. And yet, when Elijah returns after defeating the prophets of Baal, Ahab’s wife Jezebel sends him this message: “So may the gods do to me and…

Bible Readings for October 15th 1 Kings 18 | 1 Thessalonians 1 | Ezekiel 48 | Psalm 104 In the head-to-head showdown of the gods in 1 Kings 18, Yahweh leads the people of Israel to repentance for the sins they had committed. This is one of the more famous stories from the Bible, but in context, its significance runs far beyond a simple display of Y…

Bible Readings for October 14th 1 Kings 17 | Colossians 4 | Ezekiel 47 | Psalm 103 In 1 Kings 17, we meet the prophet Elijah, a prophet whose life and ministry is marked by a glaring contrast. On the one hand, Elijah is so important that he appears, along with Moses, on the mountain when Jesus is transfigured into his glory (Matt. 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–…

Bible Readings for October 13th 1 Kings 16 | Colossians 3 | Ezekiel 46 | Psalm 102 In 1 Kings 16, the northern nation of Israel descends quickly into chaos because of the sin of their many kings. Where Asa, the godly king of Judah, reigns for a total of forty-one years (1 Kgs. 15:10), the northern nation of Israel goes through a series of kings in …

Bible Readings for October 12th 1 Kings 15 | Colossians 2 | Ezekiel 45 | Psalms 99, 100 & 101 The two new kings whom we meet in 1 Kings 15 represent, respectively, the two main kinds of kings we will read about during the age of Judah’s kings. On the one hand, we have the wicked Abijam, who “walked in all the sins that his father did before him, an…

Bible Readings for October 11th 1 Kings 14 | Colossians 1 | Ezekiel 44 | Psalms 97–98 The overall sweep of the books of Samuel and Kings builds the case against both the nations of Israel and Judah in order to justify Yahweh’s sending both nations into exile. In many ways, the apostasy of Solomon serves as the foundation for the apostasy of both th…

Bible Readings for October 10th 1 Kings 13 | Philippians 4 | Ezekiel 43 | Psalms 95–96 In the first part of 1 Kings 13, Yahweh sends a prophet to condemn Jeroboam’s worship. Speaking to the illicit altar on which Jeroboam was offering unauthorized sacrifices, the man of God (a name given to prophets during those days) foretells the day when a son o…

Bible Readings for October 9th 1 Kings 12 | Philippians 3 | Ezekiel 42 | Psalm 94 What the Bible teaches about the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humankind is complicated, to say the least. On the one hand, we know God never tempts anyone to sin, nor is he the author of sin (Jas. 1:13). But on the other hand, …

Bible Readings for October 8th 1 Kings 11 | Philippians 2 | Ezekiel 41 | Psalms 92–93 As Israel’s king, Solomon reaches extraordinary heights during Israel’s golden age. Lavish wealth, rich cultural achievements, and wide-ranging justice characterize this era to a degree that Israel has never seen before or since. But, precisely because Solomon enj…

Bible Readings for October 7th 1 Kings 10 | Philippians 1 | Ezekiel 40 | Psalm 91 Solomon’s glory as king of Israel reaches its pinnacle in 1 Kings 10. We read an initial report of Solomon’s great wisdom, wealth, and fame in 1 Kings 4, but we find a fuller inventory here in this chapter. Chiefly, these descriptions of Israel’s golden age under Solo…