November

This month we will be covering a good deal of ground in our year with the Bible. The New Testament readings include a number of small books called the "general epistles." Although they are written by different authors and are addressed to people in very divergent situations, they should be relatively familiar and easy to follow. That's good, because the Old Testament readings may make you feel that you are going around in circles (to borrow an image from the first chapter of Ezekiel).

In the Old Testament, we will be reading both Ezekiel and Daniel. Ezekiel is a curious figure whose tendency to speak in symbolic language makes his prophetic work seem especially strange and complicated. He lived through the most devastating event in Israel's history: the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire in 587 B.C.E. He himself had already been taken to Babylon with an earlier group of exiles, and, in the years just preceding the calamity, he was called to prophesy impending doom. Remember that many voices were claiming that God would never permit the holy city to undergo serious harm. Ezekiel, however, now joined with his older compatriot, Jeremiah, in announcing that diving judgment was both imminent and inevitable.

Chapter 1 gives us the record of Ezekiel's call in highly visionary language. If you are thirty or under, you'll be happy to know that the rabbis found this vision to be so intricate and complex that they felt it should be studied only by those over the age of thirty. (So you won't be disappointed, however, we will allow you to read it this year!) The basic imagery conveys the ideas of divine judgment (a storm out of the north), the omnipresence and omniscience of an almighty God (wheels, eyes, and likenesses of animals), and the majesty of a mysterious yet merciful God (the throne, the human form, and the rainbow).

As with earlier prophetic books, you will want to read Ezekiel fairly quickly. Keep in mind that the first twenty-four chapters offer prophecies related to the coming judgment on Jerusalem. Then Ezekiel prophesies doom to a number of other nations (chapters 25-32). Finally, the remainder of the book speaks about future restoration for God's people, climaxing in chapters 40-48 with a highly symbolic portrait of a renewed temple.

Look, too, for images and symbols in Ezekiel that are important in the New Testament: the vine, the good shepherd, the new heart, the indwelling Spirit, an everlasting covenant, the river of life, and a new Jerusalem. If you search for it, you will find an amazing wealth of spiritual insight in Ezekiel.

Like Ezekiel, Daniel is an interesting book. You may remember the stories of Daniel and his friends from your childhood. The rest of the book, though, with its enigmatic imagery and psychedelic visions, might keep you awake at night! Actually, it should do the opposite because the primary message of the visions is that God is sovereign. We can rest secure in the knowledge that the Lord controls the world. Kings and rulers are subject to God's irresistible will, and the course of history is in God's hand.

We cannot go into the controversies here about the dating of this book, but you should be aware that there are sharp disagreements among those who feel that the entire book was compiled at about the time of the Babylonian Captivity, late in the sixth century B.C.E., and those who believe that much of it was put together at about the middle of the second century B.C.E.

In any case, notice that the visionary material is very different from most of what we have read in the prophetic books, and it has come to be called "apocalyptic" (which means "revelation"). It is quite similar to what we will read in the New Testament book of Revelation next month. Bear in mind that the goal of this kind of writing is to assure readers that they can and should trust in God, in spite of how bleak of disheartening the difficulties and trials they face may appear to be.

The material in the New Testament is much easier to follow. James, 1 Peter, and 1 John are the most significant of the seven letters we will be reading. As you will observe, the letters differ markedly in style and tone, and they emphasize different themes. Generally speaking, all of the letters intend to bolster the faith of their readers and encourage them to live exemplary Christian lives. Some of them suggest a rather rigorous tone, which may lead us to ask whether we, in the present, really take our Christian discipleship seriously enough. What would any one of these writers say if they were speaking to our congregation today?

Look for passages that stress God's faithfulness, both in the present and in the future. It is hard for us today, in our situation of relative ease and comfort, to recognize how much pressure early Christians felt under the ever-present threat of persecution. That is why they needed to be reminded so strongly of God's abiding faithfulness. that is also why they needed to hear the kind of benediction that we read at the end of Jude, one that is good for us to hear as well: "Now to him who is able to keep you from falling ..., to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen" (v. 24).

From The Year of the Bible by James E. Davison