Reading Through The Bible - MALACHI

Some Books of the bible are very short and some are very long but this one is one of the shortest.

MALACHI  -  OLD TESTAMENT  -  PROPHECY

39th book of the OT 

39th book of the Bible

What is it?

The Book of Malachi is one of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament which means it is Prophecy.

How Long is it?

It has 4 chapters with the last one being very short (only 6 verses).

When was it Written?

It is generally thought to have been written between 433 & 424 BC 

Who Wrote it?

Malachi

Neither the book of Malachi nor the Bible tell us who Malachi was.

All we know is Malachi is a Hebrew term that means “my messenger”

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

The prophet Malachi isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but he deals with some of the same issues that Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah the governor deal with when the Jews disregard God’s law in their times:

• Corrupt priests 
• Intermarriage with pagans 
• Lapses in tithes and offerings 

But we do know that Jesus quotes Malachi within the passage Matthew 11:7-15

Who was it Written to?

It was written to the people of Israel as we see in the very first verse.

 "The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi."

Why was it Written? 

It was written because God wanted the people to know that they were falling into sin again and they could hurt themselves and others. 

They were not treating God or His sacraments properly and the Priests were also held to account by God as we can see in chapter 2

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

"God has been faithful to Israel, but they continue to live disconnected from him—so God sends Malachi to call them out."

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"By the time of Malachi, the people had been back after the Babylonian exile for over 100 years.  They were looking for blessings.  The temple had been rebuilt.  However there was corruption in the priesthood and the people were becoming spiritually disinterested."

What distinctive thing did God tell them about himself?

 

That He never changes - chapter 3 verse 6

How does it end?

Chapter 4 starts by giving great encouragement in v. 2

but this verse also has a condition to it - the people must fear God.

Then

it draws the people back to God's Law in v 4

 "Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,

Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
With the statutes and judgments."

OUTLINE of MALACHI

The Overview Bible  gives us the following

1. God loves His children (Mal 1:1–5)
2. God disciplines His children (Mal 1:6–2:17)
   • For the priests’ dishonesty (Mal 1:6–2:9)
   • For intermarriage with foreigners (Mal 2:10–12)
   • For husbands’ infidelity (Mal 2:13–17)
3. God will purify His children (Mal 3:1–15)
4. Some people again revere The Lord (Mal 3:16–18)
5. God will bless those who fear Him (Mal 4)

OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE ARE ADDED REGULARLY AND AN UPDATED LIST CAN BE FOUND AT OUR READING THE BIBLE PAGE 

10 Bible Verses of Encouragement about EASTER - plus Free Printable

We all need encouragement and the best place to go is to the Bible.

In this blog Post I have tried to gather some Bible passages or Bible verses which will encourage us all around the topic of Easter.

I do believe that we should not just grab a verse and read it on its own but we should always lift our bibles and read a passage of scripture to make sure that we know the real meaning and context of each of the verses we are putting our trust in. 

I pray that you will do the same and only use this list to guide you as to where you may find help.

So here are 10 Bible verses or short passages for us to turn to in times when we need to be encouraged about Easter 

1.   Matthew 28 v 6

He wasn't there,  He had risen from the dead just as He had said He would.

It is still the same today

He has risen as He said He would but although He is not physically here on earth He is still with us.

When we think of Easter many first think of the empty tomb but we also need to remember the cross had to come before the empty tomb could be celebrated.

2.   Galatians 6 v 14

Let's go back to before the empty tomb to the cross which paved the way to make such a difference in our lives.

3.   Philippians 2 v 8

The humility and obedience of our Saviour is life to us.

4.   1 Peter 2 v 24 

Jesus although He was the sinless one the Son of God took on our sins 

 

The righteousness we have as children of God is not our own it is the righteousness of Jesus.

5.   John 19 v 28-30

The death on the cross

28  After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”  

29  Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.  

30  So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

He did all that was needed for us.

6.   Romans 6 v 8-11

Death and life are so different for us when we are in Christ because through the cross He has the power over death and not the other way round.

7.   Romans 5 v 8

Easter - the cross and resurrection are the signs for us that God loves us

and did so before we had come to Him through Salvation.

8.   John 11 v 25-26

Yes before the crucifixion Jesus even told Martha in Bethany that He was the resurrection and the life - it was in the plan for us all along

and a great promise to us to know we will have life because of Christ.

9.   Romans 10 v 9 -13

What a Bible passage this is to encourage us about salvation

 9  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

10  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  

11  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 

12  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  

13  For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

and to remind us that the cross and the resurrection are at the centre of our faith.

To finish after that great reminder we now have a great question:

10.   1 Corinthians 1 v 18     

Two views of the cross  -  which do you take?

The cross truly shows the power of God.

You can download this FREE copy of the Bible Verse Graphics I made for this blog post 

from my

 

RESOURCE LIBRARY HERE AT Sandra's Ark

Reading Through The Bible - JONAH

Some Books of the bible are very short and some are very long but this one is one of the shortest.

JONAH  -  OLD TESTAMENT  -  PROPHECY

32nd book of the OT 

32nd book of the Bible

It starts with hearing the Word of God -  and immediate disobedience to that Word.

Jonah chapter 1 v 1-2   The Word

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 

  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." 

Jonah chapter 1 v 3   The Disobedience

"But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."

What is it?

The Book of Jonah is one of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament which means it is Prophecy.

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

"Jonah is the most widely known of the Minor Prophets, the last 12 books of the Old Testament. When God had a message for the people, He spoke through the prophets. His word came in visions, oracles, dreams, parables, and the like. Most of these book were written to the people of Israel and Judah, but Jonah, Obadiah, and Nahum are more concerned with surrounding nations.

These Minor Prophet books record those messages. They outline the people’s sins, the consequences of those sins, and the proper response to God. 

Well, except the book of Jonah. It’s a story, not a sermon. It focuses on the prophet, not the people. And Jonah contains hardly any prophecy at all . . . only one line: “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). Among the books of the Bible, Jonah is a bit of an oddball."

How Long is it?

It only has 4 chapters yet the story of Jonah is one of the most famous from the Bible.

The Story of Jonah & the whale is regularly taught to children.

When was it Written?

It is generally said to have been written in 780 BC and the Ninevites repented 

by 775 BC.

Who Wrote it?

Jonah

The first verse of the book tells us who Jonah was

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai"

 

The Book of 2nd Kings also mentions Jonah in 

ch.14 v 25

"He [King Jeroboam the son of Joash] restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher"

telling us that Jonah was a prophet and came from Gath Hepher.

Who was it Written to?

It was written to the people of Nineveh as we see from what God said to Jonah in the second verse of chapter 1:

 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."

Why was it Written? 

It was written because God saw the evil of a nation but wanted to give them the chance to repent and also wanted Jonah to learn more about God's compassion and love.

It is also because it carries a very important message about Jesus' death and resurrection.

 

The Overview Bible  tells us the following

"Jonah’s life events told some of Christ’s story, and his message foreshadowed Christ’s message: repent!

But Jonah isn’t all about repentance. It’s also a story of God’s compassion for all peoples, not just Israel."

Teach Sunday School  tells us the following

"The Book contains not only one of the most famous Bible miracles but it is also a great study on what can happen when we behave like snobs ."

Who refers to Jonah in the New Testament?

Jesus refers to Jonah in Matthew 12 v 39-41 when he is replying to the scribes and pharisees who have asked him for a sign.

"But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 

 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 

 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. "

What other books of the bible would have been written around the same time as Jonah or connected to it?

Hosea & Amos were also preaching during Jeroboam's reign.

Nahum was also written about the wrath of God on Nineveh although this was many years later.

How does it end?

In chapter 4 we see Jonah's anger and how God deals with this using a plant and the heat of the sun.

The message Jonah and the reader gets is that

 God is a compassionate God.

But Jonah should have remembered this because he had experienced this compassion earlier in chapter 2 v 2

Simple Brief Outline

The Overview Bible  gives us the following:

Jonah has only four chapters, which makes it easy to outline the book chapter-by-chapter:

1. God directs Jonah,  Jonah disobeys (Jonah 1)
2. God has compassion on Jonah (Jonah 2)
3. Jonah preaches to Nineveh,  Nineveh repents (Jonah 3)
4. God has compassion on Nineveh,  but Jonah does not (Jonah 4)

OTHER BOOKS OF THE BIBLE ARE ADDED REGULARLY AND AN UPDATED LIST CAN BE FOUND AT OUR READING THE BIBLE PAGE