The genealogies of Scripture are like the gleanings after a harvest. Theologians, teachers, and Bible students eagerly and repeatedly reap the fruit of the books, doctrines, themes, topics, and other offerings from the field of God’s Word. But the genealogies get short shrift. We speed through them, or even skip them altogether when we come to them in our reading. We leave them for someone else to glean.

But there is meat on those shocks and stalks, and in this series, Gleanealogy, we are the gleaners, determined to bring that meat to table.

Ecclesiastes is a series of counsels, interviews, proverbs, and “memos” to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, soon to become King of Israel. Apparently, Solomon perceived that he was getting off on the wrong foot, and he collected these various teachings, aphorisms, and personal experiences to try to forestall Rehoboam’s drift into a life of folly and vanity.

Like all the prophets, Isaiah brings powerful words of judgment for the people of God, indicting them for their sin, calling them to repent, and warning them that the wrath of God is about to unfold against them. At the same time, Isaiah points forward to a day of restoration, of salvation, and of the coming of the Messiah and His Kingdom, when all things will be redeemed and made new. Isaiah is the first of major prophets, so called because of the quantity of their writing. In many ways, his book is the most beautiful of all the prophetic writings.

Paul’s ministry in Europe began in Macedonia, where in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, he preached with power and saw many come to faith in Jesus.

But resistance was strong, angry, and at times, violent. From Berea Paul moved on to Athens and Corinth in Achaia (southern Greece). While there, he received a report from Timothy about the church in Thessalonica, to which he responded with 1 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians followed later, after another and disturbing report reached him about the situation in Macedonia.

The general impression we get from these two letters is that the church in Thessalonica was faithful and outspoken about its faith in Jesus Christ.

The book of Joshua is in many ways like the book of Acts, introducing a new era in the history of God’s covenant and showing the enormous potential for blessing to those who follow God and keep His covenant.

In this series we will sample excerpts from God’s Law in an effort to show the scope, beauty, and relevance of the Law of God for Christian life.

The book of Hebrews emphasizes the greatness of Jesus, and calls every believer to hold fast to their confession, firm to the end.

The book of Daniel is the shortest of the “major” prophets, but its importance in the story of redemption is no less than that of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

The Christian life is lived amid various tensions – time/eternity; temporal/spiritual; darkness/light; seen/unseen. All these tensions are bridged and resolved by the Word of God, the Creator of all things and Light of every person. John will tell a story which, as we shall see, demands a whole-life response from all who read it. He wants us to understand, from the outset, that the Word, Who is the subject of his story, is worthy of our committing ourselves entirely to Him.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the Bible to the Christian life. Impossible to overestimate, but not to undervalue.

Lessons from the book of Hosea. A service of the Scriptorium of The Fellowship of Ailbe.