In His Image Ministries

Thursday August 17 Bible Reading:      Ezra 2: 1 - 19 Topic:                   Faithful God This passage gives a long list of the families of the first set of exiles who returned from the captivity in Babylon, led by Zerubbabel the Governor and Jeshua the High Priest (v. 2; Neh. 7: 7; Haggai 1: 14) Those mentioned in verse 2 were probably the leaders of the returning exiles. Each returned to his own town (v. 1) The Babylonian exile had been a very humiliating experience for Israel as a Nation. A large number of the people died by the sword or from starvation (Jer. 52: 10 - 11). Others were forced into exile to different cities in the vast Babylonian Empire. Only the very poor were left in the land probably under worse conditions than those who had been exiled (Jer. 52: 15 - 16) Yet after 70 years of desolation, the Faithful God remembered...

Wednesday April 12 Holy Wednesday Bible Reading:      Matt. 23: 27 - 39 Topic:          Woe Unto You Hypocrites Jesus in the last week of His Earthly Ministry vehemently rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees for their ostentatious religiosity and self-righteous pride. These were Israel's most respected and oppressive religious leaders. They make a show of all their religious activities and interacted only among themselves as they consider others to be sinners. They were the greatest critics of Jesus Our passage today is the pronouncement of a series of woes which is our Lord's indictment of the Scribes and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. Vs 37 - 39 is our Lord's lamentation as a sincere expression of His love for Jerusalem (the Nation of Israel) and His grief over the many opportunities for salvation that were thrown away. The Nation has been guilty of repeated crimes...