Read To Me Daily Semester 4Sample

OBADIAH:
At the end of Amos, the clouds of judgment broke and there were wonderful promises about the restoration of Israel. God would shake the nations like a sieve and not a single kernel (child of Israel) would drop through the cracks and be lost. And Israel’s crops would be so rich and fruitful. Then, did you notice?— Isaiah said the same thing in chapter 49.

Obadiah’s name means “servant of Yahweh” or “worshipper of Yahweh.”  There are 13 men who have this name in the Old Testament, and it is very possible that the writer of this book is not one of those mentioned. Only two Old Testament prophetic books lack any information about the author: Obadiah and Malachi.

Obadiah refers to a time when the Edomites had gloated over a successful  invasion of Jerusalem (vv. 10-14, 16), but this does not help much in  dating the book, since various invasions of the city happened at least  seven times in Old Testament history. The Edomites lived in inaccessible rock fortresses like Petra— which is famously seen in Indiana  Jones and the Last Crusade. From our vantage point, we may see the  Edomites as being symbolic of all the proud enemies of God’s people.

ISAIAH 49b:
In our first reading in Isaiah 49, I hope you noticed many poetic  prophecies that remind us of Jesus. It is fascinating that most of these  can be understood to refer to Cyrus as well! After all, Cyrus did  release the captives of Israel to return again to their land.  Alternatively, some of the prophecies may refer to the nation of Israel  or even Isaiah, as the Lord’s servant.

REVELATION 2b:
Yesterday we heard the letter to the church at Ephesus— the church that lost their ‘love’ (in a literal translation). So the question is, they lost their love of who? The GNT specifies the implicit object ‘Me’ (meaning Jesus). NLT chooses another good option: It makes good sense to say that the love lost was for Jesus and for one another, since the two go hand in hand! 

Secondly we heard about the poor and persecuted church in Smyrna. Their church is exceptional because there was no word of rebuke for them. Jesus just urged them to keep on being faithful.

Jesus ends each letter just like he ended his parables— which I paraphrase: “Ya’ got ears, don’t ya?! Well then pay attention …”

Remember what Isaiah said about people who have grown deaf!

Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we praise You for intimately knowing all the churches. You know the troubles happening in each place. You know how Satan is working to oppose each church. You know the places where the church is proud of their past achievements, but whose current situation does not warrant pride. You know the places that feel themselves poor, but they are really spiritually rich. We praise you as the First and the Last, the One who died and who became the first to rise from death. Lord, after all we do in order to defeat false teaching, we don’t want You to tell us that our love for You has grown cold, or that we have stopped loving the people around us. Help us not sin by forgetting to love. And strengthen us, so that when Satan tests us with persecution, we will keep on fully believing in You. Lord, help us hear your warnings to us in each of these seven letters to the churches in Asia. And we pray that we might be worthy the same rewards: May we not fail to receive eternal life. Give us the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life.