The Blog

Far from being a random assembly of disparate sayings, Solomon skillfully ordered the sequence of his work into a number of intentional collections, or groups. Like links in a chain, each proverb contains its own strength, but also contributes to the strength of a greater discourse.

The three major sections to this book poetically picture the meeting, marrying, and maturing of Solomon and his bride (“the Shulammite,” cf. Song 6:13), corresponding well to the “leave, cleave, and weave” paradigm of marriage that God established (cf. Gen. 2:24).

In order to rebuke the sins of the skeptical, encourage the hearts of the hopeless, and correct the errors in their eschatology, God sent yet another prophet—Malachi (meaning “my messenger”)—who would serve as God’s final spokesman to the nation before what would become four hundred years of silence.

Emotion soon became ambition, as Nehemiah determined that he would lead an effort to rebuild the walls. Yet, far from conjuring up these plans from his own intellectual genius, it was actually God who exercised His sovereignty over Nehemiah by putting the very plans into Nehemiah’s mind (cf. Neh. 2:12).

As one of the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament, the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ ought to instill both great confidence and great joy in those of us looking forward to Christ’s second coming.

In His kindness, God raised up Haggai for a short four-month, four-message ministry to turn the hearts of His people back to Himself.

And so it is that with an incomplete return, inferior temple, and immoral nation, the truth becomes even more evident that only the Son of God—the Lord Jesus Christ—can restore Israel (cf. Acts 1:6).

Thus, this narrative is not of good people doing good things for a good outcome, but of a good God bringing about a good outcome through sinful people.