Daily Bible Reading Podcast

NEHEMIAH 3-4:
After Nehemiah's wonderful prayer for Jerusalem, more than three months went by before the king noticed him looking sad. He says he had never before looked sad, so he must have waited. God must have been in the timing, because the king wonderfully agreed to help Nehemiah in every way. And the leaders in Jerusalem also were enthusiastic in their acceptance of his proposal to rebuild the walls.

ISAIAH 35:
Yesterday we hea...

NEHEMIAH 1:
Yesterday we heard how the returned exiles responded to Ezra's shock and demonstration of his sorrow, and his prayer of repentance. The book ended with the names of those who were found guilty of forbidden marriages. Note that these are not just names of the guilty, but names of those who repented and sacrificed to God. They are the names of the forgiven. In some ways— and not all, this s...

EZRA 9-10:
Yesterday we heard how Ezra introduced himself. Note that he spoke of himself in the 3rd person, but finally resorted to 'I'. King Artaxerxes was certainly impressed by Ezra! Ezra was given  everything he could have wanted, guaranteeing full government support of the temple worship in every way. Note how methodical Ezra was, making sure that he took Levites and temple servants along. His total party must have been at lea...

EZRA 7-8:
Yesterday we read of how King Darius completely sided with the Israelites seeking to reestablish the temple worship. Note that the letter to Darius from the government officials was rather complementary and not threatening loss to the king's interests as the letter from the earlier officials. Remember also that this King Darius is the one who was duped into putting Daniel into the lions' den, and who then issued a decree ...

EZRA 5-6:
When the Israelites returned from exile, they were determined to get worship started again, and they made great progress, not waiting for the temple to be repaired in order to start sacrifices on an altar built upon the old location. They made a fast start to building too. But then opposition developed, and several Persian kings later the progress was halted.

ISAIAH 31:
One of the great verses from yesterday's reading was ...

EZRA 3-4:
Ezra, a scribe and priest, doesn't start speaking about himself until chapter 7. Ancient copies of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written on the same scroll, and Jewish tradition holds that Ezra wrote both of them. The dates of writing are somewhere between 458 and 420 BC. I kind of doubt that Ezra was the author for both books, because the writer of Nehemiah starts out right away usin...

EZRA 1:
Before going to Ezra, I want to say that one can do a whole lot of digging deeper in the last two chapters of Daniel. History tells about those kings, and we know from what Jesus said and what is written in Revelation, that God plans for history to repeat itself. The main 'take-away' points are clear, just as they are in Revelation: Blessed are those wh...

DANIEL 10:20—12:
In yesterday's reading, we heard Daniel's sincere prayer. Note that he had been seeking the Lord with limited fasting for 3 weeks. Then the angel Gabriel is again sent with a message for Daniel. Note that the phrase 'anoint the Most Holy Place' is probably referring to what we read about in Hebrews recently— that which our High Priest Jesus did ...

DANIEL 9-10:
Yesterday in Daniel, we heard of the vision of four beasts representing four kingdoms. After the fourth would be the start of the rule of One whose kingdom would last forever. This vision was explained, then Daniel had a second and more detailed vision. It is a major amazing sign of God's sovereignty over human governments that Alexander the Great ...

DANIEL 7-8:
In Daniel yesterday, we heard the famous 'writing on the wall' chapter. That is where that idiom in English comes from! While that was happening with King Belshazzar, the Medes and Persians were outside the wall and the prophecies of Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah all happened. Daniel was to be proclaimed the third ruler because Belshazzar was in fact ...

DANIEL 5-6:
Yesterday we heard two stories: That of Nebuchadnezzar's statue of gold and the exciting way God delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And the second story was Nebuchadnezzar himself sharing about his dream and how he was later humbled.

ISAIAH 25:
Yesterday's reading...

DANIEL 3-4:
Matthew Henry describes the parts of the statue in Daniel 2:

1. The head of gold signified the Chaldean empire, then in being.

2. The breast and arms of silver signified the empire of the Medes and Persians.

DANIEL 2:
In the first chapter of Daniel, we heard how Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were faithful to God in not wanting to be defiled by the king's food, and later they were found better than their companions and chosen for service to King Nebuchadnezzar.

ISAIAH 23:
Yesterda...

DANIEL 1:
Yesterday in Ezekiel, the land was divided in horizontal bands across the entire width of Israel. We will see the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem again in Revelation.

We start the little but immensely important book of Daniel today. Daniel wrote this sometime between 540 and 530 BC. As Daniel will relate, he was an...

EZEKIEL 48:
In the chapters from Ezekiel yesterday, we heard more rules for the prince's worship and about temple kitchens and a beginning part about the division of the land. Very fascinating in that is the part about the river that comes out from the east side of the temple, including trees that are for healing, bearing fruit every month. We will soon hear abo...

EZEKIEL 46-47:
Yesterday we heard regulations for the priests and Levites, about foreigners, and about the prince of Israel. Also there was the fascinating detail about the eastern gate, which must remain shut.

ISAIAH 20:
Yesterday we heard the prophecy against Egypt, but again it en...

EZEKIEL 44-45:
In the vision of the ideal temple yesterday, we heard of the buildings of rooms for the priests and offerings, the altar, the glory of God coming to this temple, and the reason for this vision.

ISAIAH 19:
Yesterday in Isaiah we heard the prophecy about the defeat of the...

EZEKIEL 42-43:
In yesterday's tour of the ideal temple we viewed the sanctuary and Most Holy Place.

ISAIAH 18:
Yesterday we heard of Damascus and Syria and Israel.

HEBREWS 12:
After recounting the more vict...

EZEKIEL 41:
Yesterday we started Ezekiel's account of his long vision about the future and ideal temple of God, and this is another vision that is referred to in the book of Revelation. The reason for this vision is given in chapter 43:

Ez. 43:10 NLT "Son of man, describe to the people of Isr...