Fairfax Church

Book of Hosea Chapter 7 Chapter Seven does not really have a beginning; it commences in the middle of the flow that started in Chapter Six. You may have noticed at the end of the previous chapter that Judah was…

Book of Hosea Chapter 6 You may have noticed that the person Hosea has essentially disappeared from the narrative. He wrote about himself only in Chapters one and three when he followed through on the instructions God gave him. In…

Book of Hosea Chapter 5 Today’s reading continues the same motifs we’ve been examining in earlier chapters, both in words and in message: expressive language; strong, graphic images; unfaithfulness, prostitution and no acknowledgement of God. This repetition emphasizes the importance…

Book of Hosea Chapter 4 After the loving words of Chapter 3, we revisit some very strong language in today’s reading. The message that follows is the “charge” that God had against the Israelites; He explained in detail what they…

Book of Hosea Chapter 3 Nice and short, Chapter 3, nevertheless, covers noteworthy items. If we take the end of the chapter first (v. 4, 5), we notice the kind of prophetic elements one would expect in a book like…

Book of Hosea Chapter 2 Today’s reading is a continuation of the images we encountered in Chapter 1. Gomer the prostitute gave birth to three children, each of whose names showed how distant the people had strayed in their relationship…

Book of Hosea Chapter 1 The Book of Hosea begins the section of the Old Testament known as the Minor Prophets. “Minor” indicates “short”; it does not mean they are unimportant. Hosea and Zechariah are the longest books of the…

Book of Haggai Chapter 2 Three weeks earlier, Zerubbabel and the heads of the families continued building the temple. Work progressed until some older people came down to watch the work. They were children when they were carried captive into…

Book of Haggai Chapter 1 Haggai delivers the first message to Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, and the heads of the Jewish families. In the opening verse, Haggai repeats the excuse that the people gave when they abandoned work on…

Book of Haggai Introduction In 537 BC, the conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus king of Persia issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild Solomon’s Temple (Ezra 1:1-4, 5:1-2). Zerubbabel (Sheshbazzar), Governor of Judah led the Jewish…