These chapters look prophetically to the day of the Lord. This will be a day when God will come in wrath and will judge the wicked. However, all is not lost. Those who fear the Lord will be remembered and will be spared. To them, the Sun of righteousness will rise will healing and will care for them as calves that are brought up in the stall. In closing, they are told to look backward to the law of Moses and forward to the coming of Elijah as the herald of the day of the Lord and the Messianic Kingdom to follow.
The temple was indeed completed by Zerubbabel. But that was almost sixty years ago and the people have again come to a place of spiritual deadness. They need a revival and God has prepared a special man. Ezra had dedicated his life to learning, doing, and teaching the law of the Lord (Ezra 7:10). God gives him favor with the king of Persia and he organizes a successful return to the land of promise.
The main points of this outline (though not in the same order) are taken from verse 28: “Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.” What an example these three young Hebrew men are to all of us!
Your music expresses your true heart condition Are you saved? Do you joy in the Lord? Does your music say it? Your music either hinders your relationship with God or draws you closer to Him – Which is it? Your music is either the choice of your own flesh or it is the music of a life surrendered to God
In this chapter, Saul illustrates the sin of willful rebellion and God’s reaction to this sin. Saul’s rebellion leads to God’s rejection of him as king of Israel.
