Delve Into The WritingsSample

DAY 2 – INTRODUCTION PART II

Just as the Psalms were created within the worship experience of the community, so the two historical books among the Writings arose from that experience. Chronicles–Ezra–Nehemiah is a sprawling history that runs all the way from the beginning of the human race to the Judeans’ return from exile. Its central concern, however, is with how God chose Jerusalem as the place where he would be worshiped. It describes how a temple was built there, destroyed, and then rebuilt as a place where people of all nations could come to seek the true God. The book of Esther is much shorter and more narrowly focused. It explains why a new worship festival, Purim, was added to the ones Moses commanded the people to observe. In the process, it offers profound insights into the workings of God’s invisible hand in history and into the calling that each individual person has to be part of those workings.

The remaining book in the Writings, Daniel, is a combination of two different kinds of literature: history and apocalypse. (Apocalypse means “unveiling.” The term describes works in which the secrets of the unseen world and of the future are disclosed.) The first half of this book tells six stories of how God preserved and protected Daniel and his friends in exile because they remained exclusively devoted to him. The second half of the book describes how, on four occasions, Daniel spoke with angels after praying or seeing a vision. These angels explained God’s purposes for his people in the years to come. 

The Writings complete the First Testament by drawing a diverse collection of books into the Scriptures. They review the history of the covenant people, and they display the theological and literary riches the Israelites possessed as the nation to which, as one of the psalmists wrote, God chose to reveal “his word,” “his laws,” and “his decrees.”

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for your word, laws, and decrees. They are a blessing to me.