Passages to read this week:

• Sep 17 Daniel 10‐12
• Sep 18 Ezra 1‐3
• Sep 19 Ezra 4‐6, Psalm 137
• Sep 20 Haggai 1‐2
• Sep 21 Zechariah 1‐7
• Sep 22 Zechariah 8‐14
• Sep 23 Ester 1‐5

 Click here for bookmark: Chronological Bible – Week 38

Brief overview of the passages for this week:

Daniel 10-12

• End times prophecies

Ezra 1-6

• Cyrus, king of Persia allows the Jewish captives to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
• A census was taken of the Jewish people returning to Jerusalem.
• The people rebuilt the altar and offered sacrifices to God.
• The people celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles.
• The workers began work on the temple but enemies tried to stop them by going to King Darius.
• King Darius affirmed their right to continue building the temple.

Haggai

• The Jewish people returned to rebuild the temple, but 16 years later, the temple was still not finished. Haggai urged the people to finish rebuilding it.
• God rebuked the people for making excuses for not finishing the temple.
• The people returned to the task of rebuilding the temple.
• The people were sad that this temple would be smaller than the temple Solomon built.
• Haggai encouraged the people saying that one day God would cause a magnificent new temple to be built.

Zechariah 8-14

• Zechariah tells about the coming new king – the first as a man who would die on the cross for the sake of the people.
• Zechariah also tells about a second coming of the king when he would judge all nations and rule over the whole world.

Ester 1-5

• King Ahasuerus (AKA Xerxes) banished Queen Vashti for not coming to the men’s banquet at his command.
• The king chose Esther to became the new queen. Her Uncle Mordecai advised her not to tell anyone she was a Jew.
• One day Mordecai reported to the king concerning a plot some men had devised to have the king killed. The men were caught and the king’s life saved.
• Haman became a powerful and prideful officer who hated Mordecai and devised a plot to have all Jewish people killed and to have Mordecai hung.
• Mordecai got word to Esther about the plot to have the Jewish people killed. She asked all her maids to fast and pray before she approached the king with this matter.
• Esther prepares two banquets for the king, Mordecai, and Haman. The first fills Haman with pride.

 

For an illustrated account of Ezra, click here.