Whom Do You Trust? Job 1:1–22 Have you not put a hedge around him? Job 1:10 God promises to shield the believer against Satan. A main point in Job’s situation is that God had placed a hedge around him. Satan could do nothing to him until God permitted the hedge to be lowered a little…

Sudden and Certain Justice Esther 7:3–10 So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Esther 7:10 Mordecai was a Jew who worked in the court of Xerxes, the king of Persia. Haman was a high official. Most people deferred to Haman, bowing to him almost as if he were the…

God’s Favor Esther 5:1–3 She won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Esther 5:2 Esther became King Xerxes’s queen after being taken from the home of her cousin and guardian, Mordecai, to live in Xerxes’s palace. A great enemy of the Jews named…

Under Covenant Nehemiah 9:3–10:29 Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing. Nehemiah 9:38 Things changed radically in Jerusalem under the governorship of Nehemiah and the pastoring of Ezra. The people had been spiritually dead. Now they revived, and the changes that came transformed their nation and culture permanently. What were the…

Getting Right Nehemiah 5:1–13 The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God? Nehemiah 5:9 We must ask of ourselves: What good is it to build great evangelical institutions, constructing walls against the “evil” of our opposing, secular world, if within the walls the…

Method of Prayer Nehemiah 1:1–11 I . . . mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:4 There is an acrostic for prayer that you have probably heard: ACTS. In this acrostic, A stands for adoration, C for confession, T for thanksgiving, and S for supplication. Each of these…

If My People 2 Chronicles 7:12–16 If my people . . . humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I . . . will forgive their sin. 2 Chronicles 7:14 Do you feel the need to confess your sin to God? What then do we need to do? The answer is no mystery….

Blessings of Sovereignty 1 Chronicles 29:10–13 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. 1 Chronicles 29:11 Knowledge of the sovereignty of God derives great blessings. What are they? First, it inevitably deepens our veneration of the living and true God. Without an understanding and appreciation of…

For the Glory of God 1 Chronicles 16:23–30 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. 1 Chronicles 16:25 A number of you have asked what you can do for me in my illness. You can do what you are doing, which is to pray. For what should you pray? Should you pray for a…

If God Be for Us 2 Kings 6:11–17 Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. 2 Kings 6:16 It is having a God like this that transforms opposition for God’s people. For it is not that we do not face spiritual enemies. We do! It…