Reading for April 8th

 Read Malachi 1.6-2.9. In 1.6-2.9: The priests' sins. Making up a third of the entire book, this accusation singles out two priestly sins: making improper offerings (1.6-23) and giving improper instructions (2.4-9).  In 1.8: Priestly (Lev 1.3; 22.17-25) and Deuteronomic (Deut 15.19-21) laws prohibit the sacrifice of blemished animals. Deuteronomy specifically forbidding the lame and blind. In 2.4: Levi is the ancestor of Israel's priestly families (1 Chr 6.1-48). In verse 8: Priests were responsible for teaching and instruction. Micah also blames priests for abusing their teaching office (3.11). Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 7th

 Read Malachi 1.1-5. In 1.1: Title: Malachi meaning "my messenger" is either the name of the individual or a title selected for the author of this prophetic collection on the basis of 3.1. In verses 2-5: Edom's ruins. For those who think their modest efforts at the reconstruction of Judah do not reflect God's presence or love, the uninhabited ruins of the neighbor Edom are a stark reminder of God's real absence and anger. In verse 2; Esau, Edom's ancestor ancestor, was the brother of Jacob, Israel's  ancestor (Gen 25.21-34). In verses 3-4: God's destruction of Edom is viewed elsewhere as punishment for Edom's participation in the sacking of Jerusalem when it was conquered by the Babylonians (Obadiah; Ps 137.7-8). Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 6th

 Read Colossians 4.7-18. In 4.7-18:Epistolary closing. A reemphasis on the importance of maturity and commendation of persons firmly entrenched in the ethos of the new dominion. In verses 7-10: Tychichus, Aristarchus, see Acts 20.14. In verse 14: See Philem 23. In verse 15: Nymphia: Some manuscripts treat Nympha as a female name, others as a male name perhaps because a scribe who did not consider the possibility of a woman's owning a house, though the patronage of a women in early Christianity is generally accepted. In verse 16: The letter from Laodicea is lost, though Maricon, an early Christian writer who died around 160 CE, thought it was our letter to the Ephesians. In verse 17: Archippus, see Philem 2. In verse18: A scribe would have written the letter, with the author approving the dictation in his own hand. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 5th

 Read Colossian 3.18-4.6. Household codes governed life within the extended family. See Eph 5.22-6.9;1 Tim 2.8-15; 6.1-2; Titus 2.1-10; I Pet 2.13-3.7. In verse 5: Making the most of time, see Eph 5.16. In verse 6: Seasoned with salt, carefully or wisely selected. See Mk 9.49-50; Mt 5.13. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 4th

 Read Colossians 3.1-17. In 3.1: Right hand of God, see Ps 101.1. In verses 5-11: On the use of vice lists in Paul, see Rom 1.29-31; Gal 5.19-21. Hellenistic teachers often used vice and virtue lists to challenge their students. In verse 11: Barbarian, non-Greek, Scythian, a wild person: no longer will there be a different ethnic groups and subgroups. The author commends ethnic and class equality but not the equality of the sexes as found in Gal 3.28. In verse 16: See Eph 5.19. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 3rd

 PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE HOPE

In 2.20-4.6: Life with Christ governs regulations about food and drink and relations with other Christians, family members, and outsiders. An initial transition (2.20-23) reveals the practical implications of death with Christ. Another transition (3.1-4) commends the life raised with Christ, followed by a vice list (3.5-11), a virtue list (3.12-17), and household duties (3.18-4.6). 

Read Colossians 2.20-23.

Reading for April 2nd

 Read Colossians 1.24-2.19. In 2.24-2.19: A personal witness and a warning.  An autobiographical sketch describes the church's maturation (1.24-2.5) and leads to a warning against deviating from the truth (2.6-19). In 1.24; A certain amount of suffering is assumed to be necessary (see 1 Thess 3.3) before the end can arrive. Completing ... Christ's affliction, any suffering brings the end sooner. In verses 26-27: The mystery  is Christ in you, the image of Christ growing in you. In verse 29: Toil, struggle, the effort to bring about the community's maturity. See I Thess 2.9. In 2.6; Live your lives, "conduct" your lives, see 1.10. In verses 8-19: The warning: Although the heresy appears as wisdom because its ascetic and ritualistic practices, Christ's death and resurrection are sufficient to bring the believers lives into the new dominion. In verse 8: Takes you captive, false teachers are like robbers or kidnappers. In verses 11-12: Putting off, buried with him in baptism, baptismal images joined with spiritual circumcision to describe entry into a new life (see Gal 3.27). In verse 14: record, a note of debt.. In verse 15: Disarmed. stripped of power. Roman emperors led captives in a public triumphal procession. In verse 17; Shadow and substance, a familiar contrast in Greek thought (see Plato's republic 514a-518b). In verse 18: Angel's worship, worship offered to angels or worship offered by angels, probably the latter. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 1st

 Read Colossians 1.15-23. In 1.15-23: A hymn to the universal Christ and comment on his redeeming work.  Christ, the cosmic agent of creation, has reconciled creation's warring elements (vv. 15-20), and the reconciled must remain faithful to their early teachings to ensure maturity (vv. 21-23). In verses 15-20: The hymn's origin is unknown, but if not Christian it may be an adaptive from a Greek mystery religion, a Jewish text about the Son of Man and the end times, or a Hellenistic Jewish wisdom text like Prov 8.22-31 or Sir 24.1-22. It easily divides into two: Christ as the agent of creation (15-18a) and Christ as an agent of redemption (vv. 18b-20). In verse 16: Christ's role in creation is like the role of Wisdom (See Prov 8.22-23; Sir 24.9). In verse 18: Head of the boy, see 2.19; Eph 1.22-23. In verse 20: Reconcile, restore to friendship from enmity. See 1.22; Rom 5.10; 1 Cor 7.11; 2 Cor 5.18-21; Eph 2.16. In verses 21-22: A direct exhortation to the recipients: God has reconciled them and they will be blameless before God if they are steadfast. In verse 21: Estranged alienated or unfamiliar with something. See Eph 2.12; 4.18. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 31st

 Read Colossians 1.3-14. In 1.3-14: Prayers and God's redemption. Two prayers (vv. 3-8; 9-12) reveal the basis of the community's growth in faith: God rescued the believers from the power of darkness and moved them into the kingdom of his beloved (1.28; 2.6; 3.10; 4.12) emphasize the fruitfulness of the gospel (v. 5) in increasing the knowledge of God's will (vv. 9-10) and in building the body of Christ (2.19). Epaphras (v. 7) taught hope linked to Christ, unlike the "heresy" which down plays Christ (see 2.18-19). In verse 5: Hope, no longer the firm expectation of God's promise but an object already available, laid up or stored up, though it awaits revelation. In verse 6: Bearing fruit and growing describes the gospel of God's grace. In verse 7: Epaphras, 4.12; Philem 23. In verses 9-12: A shift past reception of the gospel to a fuller comprehension of God's will. In verse 9: Knowledge ... spiritual wisdom and understanding. All three have practical implications. Wisdom (a favorite term; see 2.3, 23; 4.5) and understanding or insight are linked in the Hebrew Scripture or their Greek translation (see Deut 1.13, 15; 1 Kings 16.18; Isa 3.3) In verse 10; Lead or conduct, see 2.6; 3.7-17; 4.5. In verse 12: In heritance, share or allotment. In verses 13-14: This basic statement of belief recites what God has done. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 30th

 Read Colossians 1.1-2. In 1.1-2: The epistolary opening. See 2 Cor 1.1; Gal 1.1. In verse 1: Saints, holy ones, believers (2 Cor 1.1; Rom 1.7; Phil 1.1; Eph 1.1). Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 29th

 Read Zechariah 14.20-21. The holiness of the temple's most sacred precincts will spread to all Jerusalem. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 28th

 Read Zechariah 14.9-19. In 14.16: The surrounding nations will make an annual pilgrimage to worship Israel's God in Jerusalem (8.22-23) in the fall for the festival of booths, a festival commemorating the autumn harvest (Deut 16.13-15). Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 27th

 Read Zechariah 14. 6-8. In 14.8: The upwelling of Jerusalem's Gihon spring with abundant water is a common theme in visions of the future (Ezek 47.1-12; Joel 3.18) Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 26th

 Read Zechariah 14.1-5. In 14.1-21: God defeats the nations and restores Jerusalem. Speeches such as this one describing the defense and restoration of Jerusalem in the context of God's intervention against the neighboring nations that have oppressed it are common in the period after the exile, as chs. 9, 10 and 12 illustrate (Isa 59.15-20; Joel 3). In verse 1; The plunder once taken from Jerusalem will be returned. In verse 2: This is the only verse in the chapter that describes judgment, rather than restoration, for Jerusalem. The prophet either anticipates a coming judgment on Jerusalem's corrupt leadership in 587 BCE. In verses 4-5: The citizens of Jerusalem will escape God's attack on the nations by fleeing east through a great rift in the Mount of Olives, which in reality towers over the city of Jerusalem. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 25th

 Read Zechariah 13.1-9. In 13.1-9: God removes false prophets and leaders.  This text, like 11.4-17, focuses on corruption within Judah itself, especially among the leaders. In verses 2-3: The prophets whose writings have been preserved in the Bible often find themselves in conflict with other prophets preaching opposite messages (Jer 14.14; Ezek 13.1-7). Here the prophet accuses his opponents of preaching lies in the name of the Lord and announces God's judgment on them. The unclean spirit (or "breath") is the source of the prophets' false inspiration or revelation (I Kings 22.19-23), In verse 7: The judgment on Judah's shepherd resumes the criticism of Judah's leadership in 11.4-17. In verses 8-9: The division of Judah into thirds for punishment is reminiscent of Ezekiel's prophecy (5.1-12). But here the prophet concentrates on a third that, though punished, will survive and renew their relationship with God. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 24th

 Read Zechariah 12.10-14. In 12.10-14: Mourning in Jerusalem. In verse 10: The identification of the object or mourning, the one whom they have pierced is uncertain, but due to the wide extent of the mourning and the leading role of the house of David in it (vv. 10, 12), the person mourned may have been a member of the royal family. In verse 11:  Hadad-rimmon is the name of the Syrian storm god, a figure like Baal, the Canaanite storm god. If taken as the name of a place after his deity in the plain of Megiddo, however, this may be a reference to the mourning for the Judean king, Josiah, who was killed by the Egyptians in the plain of Megiddo and mourned by all of Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chr 35.20-25). In verse 13: Levi and Shimei and priestly families. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 23rd

 Read Zechariah 21.1-9. In 12.1-9: Judah defeats the nations. This text like ch. 9, describes Judah's defense against its neighboring nations. In verse 1: The title An oracle marks the beginning of the second collection of speeches in chs. 9-14. In verse 2: The cup of reeling, a traditional image of judgment, renders the enemy drunk and senseless (Isa 51.17-22). In verse 6: The flaming torch, another traditional image of judgment, consumes the enemy, pictured as sheaves or stubble (Ob 18). In verse 7: The house of David refers to a revival of the Davidic dynasty which ruled from Jerusalem before its fall in 587 BCE. Comments or Questions.. 

Reading for March 22nd

 Read Zechariah 11.4-17. In 11.4-17: The prophet satirizes Judah's corrupt leaders. In this first-person narrative, an anonymous prophet acts out the corrupt practices of Judah's leaders in order to expose and denounce them. In verse 5: Their own shepherds are Judah's leaders, who buy and kill them, that is their own people symbolized as sheep. In verse 7: The sheep merchants are Judah's leaders., buying and selling their people ((v. 5). The names of the two staffs, Favor (or "pleasantness") and Unity , reflect the goals of the good shepherd for the sheep. In verse 8: The identity of the three shepherds is unknown. In verse 9: Having disposed of the three shepherds (v. 8), the prophet apparently becomes impatient with the people themselves. In verse 10: Breaking the staffs of Favor and Unity (v. 14) consigns the flock, the people of Judah, to a time of trouble and conflict. In verses 12-13: the reason for the amount of the wages and their deposit in the temple is uncertain. Donation of about this amount were made to the Temple to "redeem" people devoted to the Temple service from their obligation (Lev 27.1-8). On the other hand, the prophet may, by placing tainted money in the Temple's treasuries, want to indict the Temple and its leaders as corrupt. In verse 14: The prophet abandons hope for the  reunion of the old norther. kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah which traced their origins back to single ancestor, Jacob (Gen 49). In verses 15-17: The prophet anticipates, by dressing up a second time as a shepherd (v. 4), the arrival of another corrupt leader. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 21st

 Read Zechariah 11.1-3. In 11.1-3: God brings down wicked rulers. As in 10.3, the details are too few to indicate whether these shepherds (v. 3) are leaders of foreign nations, such as those God defeats in the previous verses (10.11-12), or leaders of Judah, such as those criticized in the following verses (11.4-6). The cedars and cypress of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan, legendary forests, are symbolic of the great and powerful. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 20th

 Read Zechariah 10.6-12. In verses 6-7: The house of Joseph and Ephraim are references to the northern kingdom of Israel. In verse 10: Egypt and Assyria are two of the countries to which Israelites were exiled (2 Kings 17.5-6; 25.26). Gilead and Lebanon are territories to the north of Israel. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 19th

 Read Zechariah 10.1-5. In 10.1-12: God gathers the exiles. This speech continues the theme of restoration in the previous oracle by focusing on God's work of returning the exiles of Israel and Judah. In verse 2: Teraphim are objects or images used in worship ((Judg 17.5) and were condemned by some writers (2 Kings 23.24). Here the main concern seems to be that all media of revelation have become silent. In verse 3: it is uncertain whether those shepherds, the people's leaders, are rulers of foreign countries oppressing Judah (Jer 12.10) or Judah's own rulers who have become corrupt (Isa 56.11), like those designated in 11.4-6. In either case, they will be punished so Good can restore the house of Judah.  Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 18th

 Read Zechariah 9.9-17. In verse 9: While God may be referred to as king in late prophetic literature (Zeph3.14-15), a human king reviving the Davidic dynasty may be intended here (Jer 23.5-6; Hag 2.20-23). The Davidic king from the tribe of Judah referred to in Gen 49.10-11 is pictured with a donkey, the traditional transportation for gods and kings in antiquity. In verse 10: Ephraim Isa name for the northern kingdom of Israel (Hos 5.5). International peace is a typical element in visions of the future (Mic 4.3-4). In verse 11: The exilic prophet Second Isaiah also combines God's remembrance of the covenant with God's liberation of he exiles (Isa 42.6-7). In verse 13 Greece (Heb., "Javan") is one of the lands to which Judeans were exiled (Isa 66.18-20; Joel 3.6). Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 17th

 Read Zechariah 9.1-8. In 9.1-17; The divine warrior defends Judah.  This chapter begins the second part of Zechariah, which, because of its differences in style and content, appears to have been composed later that chs. 1-8 and to have been added to the prophecies of Zechariah. The title An Oracle (9.1; 12.1) divides these supplementary speeches into two collections., chs. 9-11 and 12-14. In verses 1-8: God marches from north to south, defeating Judah's traditional enemies and taking up residence in Jerusalem. In verses 1-2a: Hadrach, Damascus, and Hamath are important Aramean cities north of Israel and Judah. In 2b-4: Tyre and Sidon are important Phoenician cities on the Mediterranean coast northwest of Judah. Tyre's legendary wisdom and wealth are described in Ezek 28. In verses 5-7: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod are important Philistine cities on the Meditterrean coast west of Judah. The Jebusites (v. 7) were defeated by David when he conquered Jerusalem (2 Sam 5.6-10). In verse 8: Following victory, the divine warrior is enthroned in his Temple (Ps 29.9-11). Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 16th

 Read Zechariah 8.1-23. In 8.1-23: A promise of restoration. In this second part of his final speech, Zechariah includes many of the typical themes of post-exilic prophecy: the renewal of Jerusalem (vv. 2-5), the return of the exiles (vv. 6-8), the rebuilding of the Temple (vv. 9-13), and the  respect of the nations (vv. 20-23). In verse 6: The remnant refers to the exiles who are returning to Judah (vv. 7-8; Hag 1.12). to these returnees the process of reconstruction seems impossible (4.10; Hag 2.3). In verse 9: Laying the Temple's foundation is described in Haggai 1.12-14 and Zec 5.1-2. In verse 10: The difficult times described have appear to reflect those mentioned by Haggai (1.2-11). In verse 17: False oaths are a major concern in Zechariah's sixth vision (5.1-4). In verse 19; Though not addressed directly to those who had asked Zechariah about mourning rituals (7.3), this speech instructs the people to substitute festivals of celebration for fasting, In verses 22-23: The conversion of the nations is a common theme in the post-exilic period (Isa 60.1-7; Mic 4.1-4). Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 15th

 Read Zechariah 7.8-11. By responding to a question about mourning rituals (v. 3) with a charge to create a just society, Zechariah appears to side with his predecessors, the former prophets (v. 7), who claimed that religious rituals were meaningless apart from the practice of justice in all areas of life ( Am 5.21-24). This same concern is also present in Zecariah's sixth and seventh visions (5.1-11). throughout this speech Zechariah uses his ancestors who disobeyed as a lesson for his own audience, Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 14th

 Read Zechariah 7.1-7. In 7.1-14: A charge to live justly. Zechariah's concluding speech is divided into two parts: an appeal-with an eye on the past-to create a just society (ch 7), and a promise -with an eye on the future-of renewal and celebration (ch. 8). In verse 1; This speech is dated two years later (518 BCE) than Zechariah's opening speech (1.1). In verse 2: Bethel is 10 miles north of Jerusalem, In verse 3: Prophets were often asked for divine instruction (Ezek 8.1; 14.1). The period of mourning in the fifth month, about which envoys ask Zechariah, may have commemorated the destruction of the Temple in the fifth month (2 Kings 25.8-9). In verse 5: Seventy years appears to refer to the Exile, though the exile was shorter (see 1.12). In verse 7: Zechariah refers to the period before Jerusalem fall in 587BCE. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 13th

 Read Zechariah 6.9-15. In 6.9-15: A charge to the high priest Joshua. This speech, placed between Zechariah's last vision and his concluding speech (Chs. 7-8) may be an editorial addition. In verse 10b: Josiah is a priestly figure, whose father Zephaniah was killed alongside Joshua's grandfather Seriah when Jerusalem was conquered (2 Kings 25.18-21). In verses 11-13: While this speech is directed to Joshua, its content seems more suitable for Zerubbabel. In 3.8 the Branch is not Joshua but an individual presented to him. In 4.6-10 Zerubbabel, not Joshua, is commissioned as the temple builder. Moreover, the Hebrew text does not say that a crown but that (two?) crowns were made, perhaps for both the royal figure and the priest mentioned in v. 13. It appears almost as if a speech once directed  to Judah's political leader has been redirected to its religious leader. In any case, the concept of a leadership shared between religious and political figures found elsewhere in Zechariah (4.14) is present here too. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 12th

 Read Zechariah 6.1-8. In 6.1-6: The eight vision: The heavenly chariots and international peace. In this, Zechariah's final vision, as his first vision (1.7-17), the world is at peace, but now that peace includes the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem among the nations. In verses 1-3: These four chariots parallel the four horsemen in Zechariah's first vision (1.8-10) and represent God's heavenly patrol (v. 7) assigned to watch over the world's affairs. Mountains signify the abode of the gods in antiquity (Ps 48.1). In verse 8: the chariot patrol that sets God's spirit at rest in the north country thereby establishes the security of Judah on the international scene. It was from the north that Judah's enemies attacked (Jer 6.22), and it was from the north that Judah's exiles returned from captivity in Babylon (Jer 3.18). Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 11th

 Read Zechariah 5.5-11. In 5.5-11: The seventh vision: The basket and Judah's purification. In verse 6: Basket translates the Hebrew term "ephah," a unit of measure. In verse 8: Wickedness is a general tern referring to corruption and unrighteousness in general. In verse 11: The removal of the basket containing wickedness to Shinar, a name for the plain in which Babylon was located (Gen 11.1-9), symbolizes the elimination of wickedness from Judean society. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 10th

 Read Zechariah 5.1-5. In 5.1-4: The sixth vision: The flying scroll and social justice. The  scroll's flight indicates that the power of its message covers the whole land. In verses 3-4; The two crimes mentioned in the scroll's text are theft and deceit in official transactions (swearing falsely), two of the ten commandments (Ex 20.7, 15). Why these two are singled out is not stated, but they represent the elimination of corruption from Judean society, the theme of the next as well. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 9th

 Read Zechariah 4.1-14. In 4.1-14: The fifth vision: the golden lampstand and Judah's leadership. This vision may originally have been the central vision in a seven-vision sequence. In verse 2: The lampstand (Heb., "menorah') in the Temple is unusually elaborate and difficult to describe, though it related to the lampstand in the tabernacle (Ex 25.31-37). The bowl may have contained the oil for the lamps, and the lips held the lamps' wick. In verse 3: Images of trees adorned the walls of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 6.29). In verses 6-10a: This speech to Zerubbabel, encouraging him in the rebuilding of the Temple (Hag 2.1-4; Ezra 5.1-2), interrupts the vision narrative and may be a later addition. In verse 10b: The vision narrative resumes with the explanation that the seven lamps represent God's eyes, watching the entire earth. In verse 14: The anointed ones, symbolized in the vision by the two olive trees (vv. 3, 11) represent Judah's leadership, shared by a religious figure (the high priest Joshua; 3.1-10) and by a political figure (Zerubbabel 4.6-10a). Comments or  Questions..