Isaiah to Daniel

Isaiah to Daniel

The prophets of Israel were men from many different backgrounds who were called to speak in the name of God. The prophets taught the people and most of them warned about comings judgments that were the result of Israel’s unfaithfulness to their covenant with God. In all of these warnings, during the darkest days of God’s people, there is a message of God’s grace and hope, that is, God’s grace in offering forgiveness and hope in the coming Messiah.

Profiles of Prophets

This lesson introduces the largest section of the Old Testament, the Prophetic Books. As Covenant Enforcers, Covenant Ambassadors, the prophets remind the people of Israel about their covenant relationship with God and warn them of the implications of breaking it. As such, they serve an important role in Israelite society, appearing when there is a great need to remove obstacles to the work of God in their midst.

The Coming and Going of Isaiah

This lesson introduces the first book of the Major Prophets, Isaiah. Isaiah has a radical call into prophetic ministry and preaches God’s Word to the Southern Kingdom of Judah for some 60 years, guiding those who would listen through the rising threat of the Assyrian Empire, the reigns of 5 Judean kings, and the beginning of the great exile of God’s people from the Promised Land. Through it all, Isaiah encourages Kings and people alike to trust their future into the hands of God rather than setting their hopes upon political scheming. Few listen.

The Manifesto of the Messiah

This lesson continues the study of Isaiah by focusing on his prophecies about the future Messiah of Israel, the promised Savior whom we know as Jesus. The book of Isaiah has the largest number of Messianic prophecies, which include predictions about His first coming, ministry, suffering, rejection, death and his second coming to rule and reign. Discovering Jesus through these prophecies impels us to be better ministers of the gospel.

Our Suffering Substitute

This lesson focuses on unpacking a set of prophecies known as The Four Servant Songs. Though Isaiah writes these songs more than 700 years before the incarnation of Jesus, the New Testament writers mark them out as of particular value for understanding Jesus’ Jesus’ suffering, His substitutionary death and the salvation He provides through His death.

A Series of Sobs

This lesson Introduces the prophetic Book of Jeremiah, “the weeping prophet.” Ministering to Judah at the threshold of their near total exile in Babylon, Jeremiah weeps over the horrors of the judgment coming upon them because of their idolatry and apostasy. Jeremiah preaches Divine love and discipline to Judah before, during and after Jerusalem’s overthrow. Despite persecution from kings, false prophets and common people, Jeremiah fulfills his call as God’s prophet.

The Captivity Cantor

This lesson continues the study of Jeremiah by developing his theme of Divine love manifest through discipline. God loves them, in spite of their wickedness and rebellion, and decides to send them into captivity in Babylon to cure them of their propensity toward Idolatry and secure them as people of obedient faith.

God’s Sad News

This lesson turns a focus on the sermons of Jeremiah, which, though filled with punishment and judgment, are surprisingly hopeful and encouraging, too. God tells Jeremiah to act out many of his sermons like skits in order to make his message more striking. He preaches on topics such as sin, judgment, depravity of human heart, captivity, the New Covenant, hope and restoration. He proves as relevant today as he was in his own time.

God Loves You Anyway

This lesson reviews the poetic Book of Lamentations, which means, the Book of Weeping. After weeping through much of the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet turns in this book to weep over the fulfillment of his many warnings. The Temple is destroyed, the land is overthrown, the people are slaughtered, exiled, or on the run in Egypt. Even, now, however, Jeremiah gets a revelation of God’s indestructible love and His plan to restore His people in the Promised Land.

All Things Weird and Wonderful

This lesson introduces the life and prophecies of Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel. Ezekiel is born a priest in Jerusalem as the threat of exile looms over Judah, but the Lord calls him as a prophet among the captives in Babylon. The lesson describes Ezekiel’s strange call to ministry, his even stranger sermons, and his unprecedented dependence on the Holy Spirit in his mission as a rejected watchman over God’s people. They are lost in sin, primed for judgment, and being disciplined for restoration.

Dry Bones

This lesson unpacks Ezekiel’s most famous prophetic message—The Valley of Dry Bones. While Ezekiel consistently proclaims the sins of Israelite leaders, he also preaches about hope and restoration. The people in exile are at an all-time low, and have lost all hope for their future. But God does not want them to live without spiritual hope, so He gives Ezekiel a vision of the restoration of Israel where a valley full of dry bones is restored and resurrected into a formidable army for God.

Believers Versus Babylonians

This lesson reviews the life of Daniel, who was taken captive to Babylon at a young age and trained to serve the Babylonian court. The first six chapters tell the story of Daniel and his friends as the Babylonians try their best to turn these faithful believers into Babylonians. Instead, God uses their devotion to change many Babylonians into believers.

Babylon Believes

This lesson continues the dramatic story of Daniel and his friends in Babylon. Their devotion to God is tested to the point of death but they all remain steadfast. Daniel is thrown into a lion’s den, and his friends into a fiery furnace, but divine deliverance moves the hearts of those who persecuted them. The Babylonians did everything they could to convert Daniel and his friends into “Babylonians” but it is they themselves who get converted into worshippers of Yahweh.

The Prayer Priorities of a Great Prophet

This lesson introduces the apocalyptic visions of Daniel in the second half of his book. Though these visions are difficult to interpret in point of detail, the big picture can keep us on target. Ultimately, God will triumph over evil and Satan. Nailing an exacting timeline of event for the future is not as important as being faithful and obedient disciples of the victorious Christ who is coming.