Let’s Try That Again
It’s been a while since we’ve talked here. That’s on me. Sorry.
But that doesn’t mean VerseNotes has been silent. Since, um, August, there’s been plenty going on. So let’s try that again: I’ll be here a little more often. My target is every two weeks. Stick with me, and let’s see how it goes. I think we could all use a bit more delight these days.
Recently on VerseNotes
[Since it’s been so long, there’s a lot here. Don’t expect updates this long every time…]
The Drawing Board
Isaiah is a complicated book, so I started drawing little notes every time I needed help understanding. They’re not comprehensive, and they don’t tell the whole story. They just make everything a bit easier. Then I started posting them to Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, and I finally realized they needed a more permanent home. So far, there are notes for the first 20 chapters. They go to social first, so follow VerseNotes there to see them as they spring into existence. I hope they’re useful to you.
Breakfast Serial
Most of my Bible reading happens in the morning, and I tend to focus on specific topics over time. Now, there’s a single page where you can see all the collections in one place! (That reminds me—so many more articles need nice pictures!)
Those Pesky Amalekites
You know about the Moabites (who were redeemed by Jesus through Ruth) and the Ammonites (who had a love-hate relationship with Israel—well, mostly hate); here come the Amalekites, who seem to be everywhere and nowhere. They show up in almost every story of Israel’s wars, but almost always as an ally of one of Israel’s other enemies. Rarely on their own… maybe there’s a reason for that.
Infographic: Noah’s Numbers
In which I ask some hard questions about the timeline of the Flood as told in Genesis 7–8—and entirely ignore some even harder questions about the timeline of the Flood as told in the geological and archaeological and anthropological history of the world.
Delight in the Details
Each newsletter, I’m going to highlight a little detail I’ve enjoyed. Recently, I’ve been enamored with what I’m calling “Very Minor Prophets”: the ones who show up in Scripture, but don’t get their own books.
Iddo the Seer is the best place to start, because he actually does have his own book, but it’s not in the Bible—or anywhere else. It’s called The Record of Iddo the Seer, or possibly The Visions of Iddo the Seer, and it chronicles the lives of Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijah (Rehoboam’s son) in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel. But that book—or they may have been separate books—has been lost to time. All we know is that it existed when 2 Chronicles was written, because the Chronicler refers the reader there three times for more stories of those four kings: 2 Chronicles 9:29, 2 Chronicles 12:15, and 2 Chronicles 13:22. Iddo may also be the grandfather of the minor prophet Zechariah (see Zechariah 1:1,7).
