We all know the story of Jonah. God tells him to go to Nineveh so that he may show them mercy if (when) they repent but Jonah doesn’t like Nineveh so he heads in the opposite direction. A storm comes up and the crew tosses Jonah into the water where a large fish swallows him…

The apostle John wrote three letters in addition to his Gospel and the book of Revelation. In his third letter he writes to his friend Gaius about a few issues. One of these issue is Gaius’ support for those who preach the gospel of Jesus: Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all…

When God sent Haggai the prophet to the people of Judah to encourage them to rebuild the temple, the people responded in faith and repentance and began work on the new temple. The people responded properly to the word of the Lord given to Haggai. This doesn’t mean God was finished speaking to the people,…

We saw yesterday that after the exile God sent the prophet Haggai to the people of Judah to warn them against pursuing their own luxury and prosperity while neglecting the worship of the Lord. The temple had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar decades earlier and while the people had begun the hard work of building a…

For centuries God had sent prophets to Israel and to Judah to warn them about their sin. The warning was clear: refusal to return to the Lord—and only the Lord—would result in their being removed from the land. Israel was taken into exile by Assyria and then several decades later Judah was taken into exile…