Week 39
Malachi
Nothing is known about who Malachi was, or even when this book was written, however tradition has him as the last of the Old Testament prophets, and that he wrote this book following the days of Nehemiah and Zechariah. His name means “my messenger”.
The Lord tells the priests, through Malachi, that He is displeased with their treatment of Him, and how they profane His Name by offering sacrifices that are lame and blind. They treat the Lord as a pain, but God promises in chapter 1 that He will be treated with great honor among the Gentiles. In chapter 2 the Lord indicts them for their unfaithfulness to Him, and to their wives, who they have treacherously put away without mercy, saying that He hates divorce.
In chapter 3 the Lord tells of the future appearance of His messenger, and God will bring about a purification in Israel, with judgement upon those who hate Him, who lie, who take advantage of the helpless, and who rob God in failing to bring their tithes into His temple.
The finals words of Malachi foretell of the coming of Elijah, which was fulfilled in the appearing of John the Baptist, and will be fulfilled again in the days of the great Tribulation, just before the Day of The Lord, when Jesus will return and execute judgement upon all who hate Him.
With these final words of Malachi, the Lord goes silent for more than 400 years, and speaks no word through any prophets until John the Baptist comes, and announces the imminent appearance of The Christ.
1 Chronicles 1-2
The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles gives the genealogies of key families from Adam to Abraham, and then the descendants of Abraham through the return of Judah following the Babylonian captivity.
Chapter 1 lists the descendants of Adam through Abraham, the descendants Ishmael, and the descendants of Isaac’s oldest son Esau.
Chapters 2-4 primarily focuses on the descendants of Judah, who was the fourth son of Jacob, through whom came king David, and the promise of the Lord’s Messiah (Who would be a descendant of David, and eventually sit on David’s throne).
1 Chronicles 3-5
Reuben was the oldest son of Jacob, and by tradition the birthright belonged to him, which speaks of the position of leadership, or paterfamilias. However, because he slept with one of his father’s concubine, that honor was stripped from him. Likewise, Simeon and Levi (2nd and 3rd in birth order) lost that right of succession because of the murders they committed against Shechem. Judah was 4th, and took the leadership role of the family, even though Jacob gave the birthright to Joseph, and the double portion of his inheritance was included for Joseph’s sons (Ephraim and Manasseh).
Chapter 5 gives the genealogy of Reuben, and also describes the inheritance of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. These three tribes were allotted land on the east side of the Jordan River, whereas all of the rest of the tribes (plus the other half of Manasseh) received their inheritance in the land of Canaan, to the west of the Jordan.
1 Chronicles 6
Chapter 6 gives the genealogies of Levi (3rd son of Jacob), who had three sons - Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The Levites were the only tribe in Israel that was not given a territory of land, but they rather received cities within each of the territories inherited by the other tribes. This was not only the case because they were the priests of God, but Jacob had prophesied in Genesis 49:7 that Levi (and Simeon) would be divided in all of Israel. This was fulfilled in how the Levites were spread throughout the tribes, and also because the tribe of Simeon ended up receiving land within the territory of Judah.
1 Chronicles 7-8:27
Chapter 7 gives the genealogies of the tribes of Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, Manasseh, and Ephraim. Chapter 8 provides a more detailed treatment of the tribe of Benjamin, with focus on the line that went down to Kish, and then Saul, the first king of Israel.
1 Chronicles 8:28-9:44
After listing the genealogies of Israel, it is stated that Judah, Benjamin, some Levites, and some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh went into captivity in Babylon. Chapter 9 lists the names of the prominent men who returned to Judah and Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity.
This ends the Old Testament
John 1:1-18, Mark 1:1, Luke 1:1-4, 3:23-38, and Matthew 1:1-17
These passages mark the beginnings of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes three genealogies of Jesus. John 1:1 provides the first, and earliest genealogy of Jesus, stating that He was in the beginning with God, and He was God, so that all that was created was made through Him.
Matthew 1:1-17 gives us the genealogy of Jesus through His (step) father Joseph, which proves that he was descended from the line of king David, and eligible to be king in Israel. The genealogy of Luke 3:23-38 is through mother Mary, who was also a blood descendant of David, thereby proving that Jesus fulfilled OT prophecies stating that He would be a son of David.
Mark 1:1 and Luke 1:1-4 also declare the writer’s intentions of telling the history and story of Jesus Christ.
As background, the 1st four books of the New Testament are called The Gospels, which relate the story of Jesus Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection from the dead. The first 3 gospels are called “synoptic”, which means that they cover much of the same history and stories of Jesus, and focus the majority of their witness on the Lord’s ministry in Galilee. John’s gospel was written several decades after the synoptic gospels, and tells the story of Jesus to specifically prove that He is the Son of God, so that the reader might be saved. Much of John’s gospel includes stories and details not included in the synoptic gospels, and focuses much of the narrative in Jerusalem, and during the final week before He is crucified.