Gary Gleans

Chess is a very interesting game.  When I play against my computer I always win on the easy setting.  I usually win on the medium setting.  I almost never win on the hard setting and I have never won on the expert setting.  Chess requires planning multiple moves in advance as well as anticipating the opponent’s moves.  There are times when I feel like I am doing well one the expert level and then all of the sudden I find myself in check mate and am left scratching my head to try to figure out what went wrong.  The book of Esther looks like the unfolding of a chess match using real people.  Neither God nor Stan is mentioned in the book but they are clearly the “players” moving the “pieces” on the stage of life.  The events narrated in this story most likely occur after Ezra’s group of exiles return to Jerusalem and before Nehemiah sets off on his mission to build the wall.  Perhaps the promotion of Mordecai that we find in this narrative help...

Nehemiah is typically used as an example of biblical leadership.  Certainly there are many leadership principles that are illustrated by Nehemiah.  However, the book was not written as a manual for leadership.  It was written as a historical account of the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem from a physical, spiritual and political perspective.  Originally the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were united in one book and when they were first separated they were called First and Second Ezra.  This would lead us to believe that Ezra is most likely the author of the book but he often quotes the historical journal of Nehemiah which accounts for the numerous references to Nehemiah in the first person.  Chronologically, the events described in the book of Esther would fall between the events of Ezra and Nehemiah.  Perhaps the influence of Esther and her uncle Mordecai helps to explain the receptivity of the king to Nehemiah’s proposal.  The captivity is comin...

The book of Ezra picks up in much the same place that 2 Chronicles leaves off with the decree for the children of Israel to return to Jerusalem.  This is yet another evidence of Ezra’s authorship of both works and, more importantly, of God’s sovereign control over the events of His people.  Jeremiah had written that the captivity would last for seventy years since the people had failed to let the land rest every seven years as the Law required.  Naturally, this was not the only Law they had failed to obey but illustrates just how long the people had ignored so much of God’s Word.  However, just as God had promised from the beginning, when the people remembered the Lord and turned back to Him; God would mercifully restore them to Himself and the land.  It is amazing to see God using a pagan king to accomplish His will by authorizing and even funding the restoration of the children of Israel to the land from which they had been removed.  No matter how diffic...

Although First and Second Chronicles were originally only one book, we can see one major difference between the two books: The first book gives us an almost exclusively positive view of David’s reign while the second book gives us both a negative and positive view of Solomon ‘s and the other 20 kings of Judah’s reigns.  Much of the information included in this book has already been seen in Kings; however, there are unique perspectives included in this rendering that certainly enrich our understanding of what happened in the history of the nation.  The book of Kings gives us a back and forth history of the kings of Israel and Judah in a somewhat chronological order.  2 Chronicles gives us an exclusive focus on the kings of Judah and their reigns.  The only mentions we see of the kings in Israel occur when they have some sort of significant interaction with the king of Judah.  It is clear that Ezra had a purpose for this focus on Judah as he prepares the people t...

We are used to the Bible presenting its characters with all of their defects clearly reveled.  The book of First Chronicles is clearly and exception to this tendency.  Here we have much of the story of David as recounted in Samuel and Kings, but this time it is presented without making mention of David’s major failures and challenges.  The reason for this may simply be found in the fact that this account was recorded about the time that the children of Israel were returning from Exile under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra.  The fact of disobedience and the results of idolatry had been clearly experienced by these original readers.  They needed a history that inspired hope for the future not an explanation of the exile of the past.  David’s failures and heartaches had been clearly recorded already; there was little need to repeat them all here.  Ezra is more than likely the author of this book and He wants to make sure his readers understand the ri...

Transition can be a good thing or a bad thing but it is always a little bit scary.  The book of 2 Kings recounts the story of several transitions that take place in the history of the nation of Israel.  We see God transition from one prophet to another and then we see the nations of Israel and Judah transitioning from liberty to captivity due to their rebellion against God.  There is a strong contrast between the first part of the book where God demonstrates His power through the ministry of Elisha and the second part of the book where God demonstrates His wrath against the rebellion of the idolatrous kings of Israel.  People often talk about a life of sin as being liberating; nothing could be further from the truth.  It is very clear that sinfulness leads to captivity and that true liberty can only be found in obedience to the Lord.  God is the only truly free Being in the universe and He longs to share that freedom with us. Satan is a slave to sin and wa...

When we fail to pay attention to the warnings of God we are setting ourselves up for disaster.  God had used Moses to warn the nation of Israel about the consequences of co-habiting with the nations of Cannon and the inevitable idolatry that would follow.  God had used Samuel to warn the people of the consequences of looking to human leadership in the form of a king instead of submitting to God as their King.  Israel’s failure to heed these warnings and the ensuing consequences is on full display in the book of Kings.  The book starts out on a high note with the transition from David to Solomon and the construction and dedication of the temple.  However, by the end of Solomon’s reign idolatry begins to take over and with very few exceptions idolatry is the mark of the rulers in Israel.  The book ends with Elijah’s confrontation of Ahab and the multiple prophets of Baal.  God is faithful throughout the history of the nation to discipline His children a...