In our last episode, mankind was ejected from the garden of Eden for sinning against the Lord God. Today, we see sin and wickedness grow until finally the Lord decides wipe mankind from the face of the earth. Only Noah, his family, and an ark full of animals are saved from destruction. In many of our modern conceptions of Noah, we fashion a cartoonish old man surrounded by cute animals all smiling happily from their little boat; but the reality of the flood was far more grueling than the nursery...
Jan 07, 2025•21 min•Season 5Ep. 2
So much could be said about these first four chapters as Genesis 1-3 lays a foundation for the rest of Scripture. We learn about a God who creates all things out of His own volition in a way that is well-ordered and executed simply by proclamation. Special attention is given to the creation of mankind in God’s own image and God’s generous provision for man both before and after sin. Here, too, we see man’s relationship with God fall from one of peace, unity, and harmony into one of disorder and ...
Jan 06, 2025•19 min•Season 5Ep. 1
::: Christian Standard Bible translation. All music written and produced by John Burgess Ross. Co-produced by the Christian Standard Bible. facebook.com/commuterbible instagram.com/commuter_bible twitter.com/CommuterPod patreon.com/commuterbible admin@commuterbible.org
Dec 27, 2024•2 min
Friends, this is our final episode in our chronological reading of the Old Testament, the book of the prophet Malachi. Not much is known about Malachi, (whose name means “my messenger”), but contextual clues suggest that this was written after the exile had ended. Enthusiasm for right worship of God had waned, and Malachi exhorts the priests to honor the Lord. Uniquely, Malachi presents his prophesy using a conversational pattern between the priests and the Lord God, wherein God makes a claim, t...
Dec 23, 2024•17 min•Season 4Ep. 242
The temple is finished. The wall is finished. The people have rededicated themselves to the Lord’s house, and on today’s episode, the remnant of Israel rejoices. With the work completed, Nehemiah returns to Persia to serve under King Artaxerxes as he had before, just as he had promised. All is right with the world, and God’s people serve Him faithfully from then on, right? Wrong! In fact, not long after Nehemiah leaves, the work of the temple is all but abandoned and Eliashib, who is in charge o...
Dec 20, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 241
Now that the work of rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the walls surrounding Jerusalem is complete, the exiles from Israel gather together to hear Ezra read from the book of the Law. The Levites explain the law to the people as it is being read, and when the congregation understands the extent to which they have broken the Law, they mourn over their actions. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites encourage them to rejoice, for the people have not only returned to their land, but they have returned t...
Dec 19, 2024•23 min•Season 4Ep. 240
As we began to see our last episode, the governors who oversee region west of the Euphrates, which includes Judah and Jerusalem, are unhappy that Nehemiah has been sent to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Feeling threatened, Sanballat and other officials create false rumors and even bribe others to attempt to deceive Nehemiah. They make every attempt to stop or delay the work, but in just 52 days’ time, Nehemiah and the diligent remnant Israel rebuild the wall and restore the gates. Once the...
Dec 18, 2024•20 min•Season 4Ep. 239
As mentioned previously, Nehemiah is a continuation of the Ezra, recorded the history of Israel and their return from exile. Nehemiah, an exile who lived in Persia’s capital and served King Artaxerxes as his royal cupbearer, hears news that Jerusalem has been laid waste. The wall surrounding the city had been greatly compromised and the gates that would have maintained a secure entrance had been burned down. In great dismay, Nehemiah asks the king if he can return to help restore the city. With ...
Dec 17, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 238
In our last episode, we were introduced to Ezra, a scribe in exile who had been trained in the law of Moses and who had “determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach it’s statutes and ordinances in Israel.” King Artaxerxes has expressly commanded Ezra to do just that. After we review some of the family heads who accompanied Ezra for the journey back to Jerusalem, we discover that even the leaders of those who had returned from exile had disobeyed the commands of the L...
Dec 16, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 237
Haman’s wrath against Mordecai and the Jewish people has returned on his own head. On today’s episode, Esther continues to represent her people before the king, turning a day of mourning into a day of rejoicing. As we finish Esther we’ll be turning back to the historical narrative recorded in the book of Ezra in which we learn of a new Persian king named Artaxerxes. While historians differ, it is believed that Artaxerxes’ father is the Ahaseurus from Esther, known more broadly as Xerxes. We are ...
Dec 13, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 236
Haman, the royal official who hates Mordecai for being disrespectful and insubordinate, has tricked King Ahaseurus into giving him even more power and authority. With the king’s signet ring in hand, he devised a scheme to wipe out the Jewish people, whom he hates because of his hatred for Mordecai. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall,” and that proverb will be on full display here in today’s episode as we observe the life, and death, of Hama...
Dec 12, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 235
The account of Esther, the Jewish orphan who becomes the queen of Persia, is neither a Cinderella story, nor a how-to guide for righteousness. It does, however, give us a picture of the God who graciously uses broken people to achieve His glorious ends and fulfill His covenant promises. The names that the two Jewish characters operate under, Esther and Mordecai, are not Israelite names, but are instead names that give honor to Persian gods. The book reflects how they operate under this saturatio...
Dec 11, 2024•20 min•Season 4Ep. 234
Today, Zechariah symbolically takes on the role of a shepherd of those sheep who were raised for purpose of being slaughtered, for the shepherds had not cared for them; they only used them for personal gain. The prophet then proclaims that Jerusalem will be secure from warring nations and that they will be blessed further through spiritual reconciliation with God. The Lord will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the house of David and on Jerusalem, and they will mourn for the one they pier...
Dec 10, 2024•20 min•Season 4Ep. 233
We’re picking up where we left off in the collection of visions that Zechariah saw, today looking at visions six, seven and eight. The vision of the flying scroll is an indication that God’s just law is about to be executed in the land. Wickedness is personified as a woman who is taken captive and sent away to Babylon to be worshiped. The eighth vision, like the first, includes four horses who patrol the earth, signifying God’s sovereignty over all creation. After this Zechariah addresses questi...
Dec 09, 2024•23 min•Season 4Ep. 232
The prophet Zechariah was a contemporary of the prophet Haggai and you probably remember hearing his name mentioned along with Haggai in our last reading. Both prophets spoke to the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem, but while Haggai focuses mainly on rebuilding the temple, Zechariah sees visions of a future king. As such is the case, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John incorporate more passages from Zechariah than from any other prophet. In today’s reading, Zechariah prophesies thro...
Dec 06, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 231
Within the historical account written down in the book of Ezra, we learn of a prophet named Haggai who turned the hearts of the people toward the Lord. We’ll begin this episode by reading from the book of Haggai wherein the prophet addresses the people of Judah. Having just returned from exile they had prioritized making their homes comfortable while neglecting to rebuild the Lord’s temple. This leads us back into Ezra, where the people prioritize building the temple. The rulers that oversee the...
Dec 05, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 230
Our chronological reading of the Old Testament is approaching completion, which means we are now beginning to cover Israel’s return to the land of promise. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were originally part of one book but they got separated along the way as the book was translated. We’ll use these books as our historical backbone in the final weeks reading Haggai, Zechariah, Esther, and Malachi along the way. Once we make it through some of the population tallies at the beginning of today’s re...
Dec 04, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 229
Contrary to Victorian era illustrations and Michelangelo’s chubby cherubs in the Sistine Chapel, angels are always described as glorious and fear-inducing. Whenever someone sees a vision of an angel in Scripture, the person who sees them is dumbfounded and crippled by fear. In most instances, the angel has to tell the person not to fear and followed by supernatural help to recuperate. Such is the case with Daniel, who receives an interpretation of his vision from an angel. There’s far too much t...
Dec 03, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 228
We are now in the second half of Daniel which focuses on the dreams and visions that Daniel himself received. These visions include imagery of beasts, animals, and horns, representing kingdoms and the kings who come from them. Some of what Daniel sees is explained within the text itself while some remains the topic of debate and speculation to this day. Some, however, has clearly been fulfilled, like the goat which tramples the ram. The goat is the Greek Empire and it’s conspicuous horn is Alexa...
Dec 02, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 227
There are a few different ways to look at the structure of the book of Daniel, and one of them is to note that the first six chapters are comprised of narratives that contain prophecy , while the last six chapters are prophecies that contain history . The first four chapters occurred under Nebuchadnezzar, while today’s chapters occur in further successive time periods under Belshazzar, Darius the Mede, and Cyrus the Persian. Later chapters, however, do not maintain a chronological order. Each ac...
Nov 27, 2024•18 min•Season 4Ep. 226
Through their wisdom and through their service to the king, Daniel and his friends bear witness to the power and glory of God through their faithful witness. Many of us know the account found in today’s reading, wherein Daniel’s friends (here called by their Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) are forced to decide between paying homage to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol or burning alive in a giant furnace. They choose the difficult path of faithfulness, confessing that God can save them if h...
Nov 26, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 225
God’s people are now in exile in the land of Babylon, which brings us to the book of Daniel, an extraordinary account of a young Judean exile who receives interpretation and prophecy from the Lord while serving foreign kings. Of particular significance in today’s passage is the statue that Nebuchadnezzar sees in a dream. The statue’s head of gold represented Babylon; its silver chest and arms: the Medo-Persian empire; the bronze stomach and thighs: the Greek empire; the legs of iron: the kingdom...
Nov 25, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 224
Joel is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament and is divided in two parts. The first half describes a plague of locusts that invade the land and destroy the land’s produce, threatening the survival of animals, people, and even grain offerings before the Lord. That section ends with a plea for God’s people to confess their sins, transitioning to the second half of the book, which contains promises of the Lord to restore and rebuild his people and the land. Interpreters debate about the r...
Nov 22, 2024•20 min•Season 4Ep. 223
For modern audiences like us, these concluding chapters may feel more drudgery than delight, but for the original audience, these final depictions would have been the most exciting. Ezekiel once brought a message of condemnation and despair, but now that those prophecies have come true and Israel has spent 25 years in exile, Ezekiel brings a message of hope and restoration. Some of today’s revelation is other-worldly, as Ezekiel sees a river coming from under the temple, recalling the garden of ...
Nov 21, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 222
To put today’s passage in context, it’s important to spend a moment considering when this vision occurred and what had happened up to this point. Remember that God had declared through Ezekiel that his glory had left the temple. Over time, the Lord’s temple had become defiled and desecrated by idols, so the Lord sent the Chaldeans to demolish it. Jerusalem was made a desolation, and the people were exiled from the land. Twenty-five years later, Ezekiel sees a vision that would have brought renew...
Nov 20, 2024•23 min•Season 4Ep. 221
There are different takes on the exact meaning of the temple Ezekiel sees in today’s passage, some say it is symbolic, others heavenly, while others take note of it’s cross-shaped floor plan. Here’s what we know. First, it was never built. Second, this passage is the longest recording of a revelation in Scripture and it gives very specific dimensions for a temple design with measurements that differ from the original temple. Third, in the original Hebrew, the measurements are in cubits and multi...
Nov 19, 2024•22 min•Season 4Ep. 220
You may have noticed this turn already, but ever since the mention of Jerusalem’s fall in chapter 33, God’s message to His people has become one of promise and hope for a restoration that will take place in the future. In our last episode, God promised to send a shepherd to his people, one that would be a prince among them from the line of David. Today, the Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy to a valley of dry bones. Through the word of the Lord, these bones gather into fully restored bodies and ...
Nov 18, 2024•21 min•Season 4Ep. 219
Up next in the list of nations being rebuked by the Lord is the nation of Edom. Edom was on the short list of nations receiving prophetic rebuke along with Ammon, Moab, and Philistia when this section began back in chapter 25. Recall that the nation of Edom stems from Jacob’s (aka Israel’s) brother Esau, and they have been at odds more or less ever since the womb. Most recently, Edom participated in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem during the Babylonian invasion. History reveals that i...
Nov 15, 2024•14 min•Season 4Ep. 218
In today’s passage, Ezekiel recalls the day when, 12 years into exile, he first hears word that Jerusalem has been overtaken. Those who remain behind want to claim the land as their own property, but the Lord sees their wickedness and vows to make them a desolate waste. The Lord also sees the shepherds of Israel, those leaders and rulers who have been entrusted with taking care of God’s flock. Rather than nurturing and protecting those under their watch, they have abused their power for the sake...
Nov 14, 2024•20 min•Season 4Ep. 217
We are in the section of Ezekiel’s prophecies where the proclamations against particular nations have collected together. In our last episode we concluded the prophecy against Tyre and began the prophecies against Egypt. We begin with a symbolic proclamation against the cedar of Assyria. Cedars were seen as symbols of royalty and majesty in the Near East; and just as noble Assyria was brought low, so too, Egypt will be cut down. Pharaoh, in all of his splendor, will be humiliated and destroyed b...
Nov 13, 2024•19 min•Season 4Ep. 216
