Lynne's Old Testament Study Notes

11/30/2022 – Zaphaniah 1-3 Zaphaniah, I’ve just learned, lived during the seventh century B.C. He was a prophet in Judah. The interesting thing I’m finding with this reading of the Old Testament, is that the words of many of the ancient prophets can apply to the time in which they are living AND to future times. That makes sense as the Lord’s commandments for us on this earth haven’t really changed since the beginning of this earth’s time. At this particular time of Zephaniah, a foreign army is threatening destruction of the Israelites (who just can’t seem to be able to get their act together), and the things they needed to realize in those times are very close to the things we need to realize in in our times. The Lord has let his prophets tell us throughout all times that there will be great destruction, especially of the wicked, that will proceed the Second Coming of Christ. My study manual says “the blessings of Lord promised to the righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem can foreshadow ...

 11/29/2022 – Habakkuk 1-3 We don’t know much about Habakkuk, except that he was a prophet who lived in the kingdom of Judah…they think around 600 BC. What we do know is that this book is an exchange between Habakkuk and the Lord. Habakkuk asks God sincere questions that show his concern for his people, and for the Lord’s plans for them.  Chapter 1 ’s synopsis basically tells us that the Lord is not happy with how the Israelites have been living: “When Habakkuk learned that the Lord raised up the Chaldeans to overrun the land of Israel, he was troubled that the wicked could be thus employed.” V 2 shows us the worries that Habakkuk has been living with: “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!” There are times for all of us when we petition the Lord, but we don’t feel an answer. When this happens, I have to remind myself that the Lord knows when I will be able to handle His answers.  The Lord’s respo...

 11/28/2022 – Nahum 1-3 Once again the Lord has a prophet telling the people that their cities would be destroyed because of the wickedness of the people. One of the cities Nahum is warning is Nineveh—those living in Nineveh were not the same as those who had repented of their sins after Jonah had preached to them more than a century before. Why do people in every time period tend to slowly fall away from the Lord’s commandments, even though they have lived through sweet and loving periods when the Lord has been their guide and their comforter? V 3 tells us that while “the Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked...” V’s 4-5 tell us that He uses droughts and earthquakes and volcanoes, and fires, and floods, and great winds to get His people to focus on Him once again. He knows who has fallen from Him, and He “knows them that trust in him” (v7).  Then in v 15 He encourages all of us to stay close to Him. I take that to mean that whatever ...

11/26/2022 – Micah 6-7 Chapter 6 The Lord is working through Micah to help the people understand that they have forgotten the help and the goodness that the Lord brought into their lives, and they have also forgotten that the Lord can help them so much more when they are already living justly--according to the commandments He has given them, now and in the past, which has them (and us) showing love, and mercy to one another in daily living, and “walking in humility before him”.  He tells us all plainly in v 8 the three things that are most important for us to do: “…and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” That’s our sacrifice to Him, and that sacrifice serves to help us grow closer to Him every day we live up to His requests. After telling them [and us] of how He wants us all to live, He then takes time to speak of the hard things that will enter our lives if we fall into wickedness, if we try to deceive others, ...

11/25/2022 – Micah 4-5 Chapters 4 & 5 are full of prophecies that will come to the Israelites at a later time. Chapter 4’ s synopsis: In the last days, the temple shall be built, Israel shall gather to it, the Millennial era will commence, and the Lord will reign in Zion.” In v 1 he tells us that in the last days…the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains…and people shall flow unto it…”  I only have to look out my window and see many temples in the mountains here.  People do flow to it as v 1 said—for now we can’t just drop-in to do temple work, we need to make a reservation! And now President Nelson is telling us that new chapels will not be built until the standing chapels are used by 4 different wards. They want to take the money that would have build more chapels, so they can build more temples. It will be very interesting when they announce a temple in Jerusalem!  One other hint that we have not yet reached the ‘latter days’ is found i...

 11/23/2022 – Micah 1- 3 Micah’s time on earth was around the time of Amos, Hosea, Jonah, and Isaiah. But specifically, in Micah’s time, the Israelites were doing great economically, but suffering spiritually--and during this time the wealthy felt no problem with their significant oppression of the poor. This is what the student manual says about what we learn from chapters 1-3: “Micah prophesies of judgment and ruin upon the Israelites, including those living in Samaria and Jerusalem. Micah identifies the sins of idolatry and the oppression of the poor by the upper classes as the reasons for the Israelites’ imminent destruction. He also condemns corrupt religious teachers who teach for money.” In chapter 1, Micah focuses on the coming downfall of both Samaria and Jerusalem—there were Israelites populating both areas. He begins by telling everyone to hear him, and to hearken to his words. I remember from my seminary days that ‘hearken’ means to hear AND to obey. They have taken th...

  11/21/2022 – Jonah 1-4 It’s quite worrisome to me to have so many of the books of the Old Testament that are concentrated toward groups of people who are NOT following the Lord’s commandments. In this particular case, Jonah is called of God to call the people of Nineveh to repentance.  Jonah doesn’t respond as so many of those whom the Lord called to preach to the people did. Jonah’s particular call is to “arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” (1:1) Jonah did arise, but he worked hard to go the opposite direction from Nineveh. He paid for space on a ship going to Tarshish. In the middle of that trip “…the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.” (1:4) The sailors asked all to pray--each to their god. Jonah did not do that, because he had gone down to the bottom of the ship and was sleeping. I wonder if this was an attempt at avo...

11/19/2022 – Obadiah 1 Obadiah, like Amos, was to prophecy to the Israelites, who were so slow to hear the things the Lord was saying to them. He “prophesies the downfall of Edom, and the fact that Saviors shall stand upon mount Zion” The people of this time are fewer in number, and “greatly despised” by other countries. The Israelites are still not listening to the Lord. One of their problems is the “pride of thine heart” (v 3) which “hath deceived thee” (v 3) And they “exalt thyself as the eagle”, and the Lord tells them He will bring them down.  The Lord plainly tells them that they should not glory in another’s misfortune not should, nor should they enjoy the hard times of others (v’s 12-13) Instead, they are to be saviors on mount Zion. President Hinckley spoke of what that phrase, Saviors on mount Zion, meant: “One possible interpretation of the phrase “saviors on mount Zion,” connecting the phrase to temple and family history work: In the temple we literally become saviors o...

 11/18/2022 – Amos 7-9 In Chapter 7 , “Amos relates how he was called of God to be a prophet, and then he tells them some of the things the Lord had revealed to Amos about the near future of the House of Israel: “the high places [where they had worshiped false gods] …. shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste…” (v 9).  And in 11 He lets them know that they will now, once again, live in captivity.   In v 12 leaders of the country asked Amos to leave and go to Judah and prophesy to the people there; he was not to prophesy any more in their county, but to go somewhere else far away. Amos’s response to that was to tell the king, once again, that it was Amos’ duty to prophesy right then and there.  And then Amos goes even further and prophesies about the Last Days.  In Chapter 8 , Amos continues to warn Israel of their approaching downfall, and famine – not just of famine of food, but a famine of hearing the Lord’s words. Israel was ...

  11/16/2022 – Amos 5-6 The Israelites have completely fallen away from the Lord, and in His place they have turned to idols and wickedness, the Lord is doing His best to warn them to turn around and change their lives. In Chapter 5 the Lord is telling His people to seek Him and to do good. His very words are “Seek ye me, and ye shall live.” (v 4 AND v 6) Doing that will allow them to avoid the harsh ways the Lord must sometimes use of getting our attention, the ways He uses when we refuse to obey the commandments and seek His directions. He is doing all He can to help us use our time on this earth wisely, and thus grow closer and stronger in our relations with Him.  In v 8 He explains that seeking Him, and finding Him, “turneth the shadow of death into the morning”. He repeats again and again “Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live…Hate the evil, and love the good; establish judgement…” (v15) He then goes on to name for the Israelites all the things they are doing that a...

 11/15/2022 – Amos 3-4 The chapter synopsis is sadly plain as it describes the Israelites current status: “The Lord revealeth his secrets unto his servants, the prophets—Because of Israel’s rejection of prophets, and espousal of evil, the nation is overwhelmed by an adversary.” The first verse of this chapter is a plea for His children to listen to, and to hear, His word. And in v 2 He warns them once again that “I will punish you for all your iniquities”.  It’s not that the Israelites don’t know the way back to God, it’s that they won’t listen, or respond, to God’s prophets. The Lord gives them many examples of ‘hearing’: “Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? ….  “The lion hath roared, who will not fear?” (v’s 6 & 8) And then He tells them exactly what to listen to, and what to respond to: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (v 7) The Lord explains where they have placed them...

11/14/2022 – Amos 1-2 Long ago, God had chosen Abraham’s seed to be His covenant people so that they would “be a blessing” to all people (Genesis 12:2-3). Time has passed since the days of Joel, and the Lord’s covenant people have once again slid backward, for they are now oppressing the poor and ignoring the prophets and making their acts of worship empty and meaningless. They seemed to think that if the nations that surrounded them were doing these wicked things, then it was okay for them to do them also. Amos is a herdsman in Judah, and he is the man that the Lord sent to preach repentance to the Kingdom of Israel. Why is it that we can’t seem to remember that the things the Lord cares for most is for us to live a righteous life. That will bring peace, not just to ourselves, but also to those around us. Amos’ message is not a pleasant one. He is to warn the Israelites that “the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.”  The Lord has Amos tell...

11/11/2022 – Joel 1-3 Joel is a small book in the Old Testament…only three chapters long. But there is good reason why it is here. It teaches us about the power of the combination of prayers and fasting during very difficult times.  Joel also taught about the importance of repentance in our individual lives, for that is one of the things that the Lord promises will bring us closer to Him and His blessings. And Joel also prophesied about the coming “day of the Lord” (1:15), including the many signs that will come before His Second Coming. I love how he starts: “Hear this, ye old men…”, because Bob and I have reached the “old men” category. But as I look in the foot notes, “old men” is referring to elders. Even knowing that, I will continue to think the Lord is speaking to us old folks…for our benefit, and hopefully, our children’s benefit. The Israelites have been going through a terrible drought and a plague of locusts.  In the middle of drought and hunger for man and animals,...

  11/10/2022 – Hosea 13-14  Chapter 13: The Lord’s people are not responding to the prophet He has sent. They have been taught again and again that there is no savior beside the Lord, and that He redeems us from death. V 2 tells us that after all Hosea’s teaching they now “sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding…” They also exalt themselves, when Hosea is teaching them that humility brings true power, and a deep devotion and love of God. The Lord reminds them of the things He did as He brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and He also speaks of the things they learned in their years of wandering in the desert. Then in v 12 He pleads with them to “sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”  They are to get to work, for our growth will take work, and the result of our actions and effor...

  11/9/2022 – Hosea 10-12 Hosea continued to call the Israelites to return to the Lord and His commandments. He explained that the Lord uses prophets to guide His people, and that’s exactly what Hosea did: chapter 10 v 12: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea is trying to get them to turn around, and come back to the Lord and get to work! It takes work now! The results of our actions and our efforts make a tremendous difference in our lives. He explains to them again and again: “Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity…” (v 13) In Chapter 11 , Hosea reminds them of how the Lord helped them out of their bondage in Egypt. He reminds them that the Lord is always there, we simply need to reach out to Him, and He has told us exactly how to do that. He shows them their mistakes: “though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him....

  11/8/2022 – Hosea 4-6  Chapter 4 begins with the saddest news: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out [ie break all bounds]….Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.”   The Lord continues in v 6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…” In our difficult times, we need to turn to the Lord, and turn to His scriptures. We need to seek knowledge, wisdom, and understanding—for these can all be found within His scriptures, and these things will re-open our hearts and our minds and our actions. When people take t...

  11/7/2022 – Hosea 1-3 Chapter 1 ’s synopsis tells us that Hosea and his family are a sign unto Israel, and it also tells us about the gathering of the last days in which Israel will be very involved. But at this point of time in the Old Testament, the Israelites are not keeping His commandments. It is in Hosea that we certainly see that the Lord loves His people…always!...even when they ignore His commandments and His laws. Yes, those who have been unfaithful to the Lord still feel the consequences of their actions, and yet the Lord continually, and mercifully, offers them (and those of our time too) loving acceptance and celebration when His people return to Him, and to His laws—for those two things will keep us growing, and learning, and preparing for the time we will return to our heavenly home after our ‘graduation’ from our time on this earth. The Lord always stands with His arms, and His heart, ready to take us back onto the path He had marked out for us as the very best wa...

11/6/2022 – Daniel 6 Darius is now the ruler of Babylon. He has chosen 120 princes to watch over the entire kingdom. And he also chose 3 men to monitor these 120 princes. He chose Daniel to be the first of those 3 presidents. This presidency would gather the accounts of all the princes to be sure that “the king should have no damage.” (2)  V 3 tells us that “Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” It was then that the presidents and the princes all worked to discover weaknesses and mistakes that Daniel might make, “but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.” (v 4). But they conjured up a plan to use Daniel’s faithfulness against him. They went to the king with the plan to build a royal statute, and then to bring the people even closer to the king, a royal decree was sent out saying: “whosoever...

11/4/2022 – Daniel 5 Belshazzar is the reigning king in Babylon now. He has created “a great feast to a thousand of his lords” (v 1) This feast included the king, his princes, his wives, and his concubines. As he drank the wine, he ordered his servants to bring in all the golden and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that they destroyed in Jerusalem. The people drank the wine from the temple vessels, “praising their gods of gold, and of silver, or brass, or iron, of wood and of stone.” (v 4)  Within an hour, fingers of a man’s hand wrote on the plaster of the wall. This scared the king. His “countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against the other.” (v 6) He called all the astrologers and soothsayers and promised that whoever could interpret the writing on the wall, would be made a king. The queen went to the king, trying to sooth him saying “There is a man in thy kingd...

11/3/2022 – Daniel 4 Having seen Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego go into the fiery furnace, and come out of it without being hurt at all, caused the king to feel the power and goodness of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego…the God who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him. The king certainly recognizes David’s power. He speaks of David in v 9 as “master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee...” The spirit of the Lord can come to all of us if we need it and if we seek it. Nebuchadnezzar asked David to interpret the dream he had that he could not understand. Daniel was troubled at this request because he knew that the message of the dream was not good--(v 19), but he knew he needed to be patient as it will be given in the Lord’s time, not when the king commands it. But after one hour David was able to give the king the interpretation: That “the dream be to them that hate thee, and t...

11/2/2022 – Daniel 3 This chapter tells us of the idol Nebuchadnezzar had had built: 90 feet of gold in the form of a man, and he commanded that at the sound of music, everyone must kneel and worship this monumental image of gold. The king gathered all the “princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces” (v 2) to come and worship this idol, and if they did not fall down in worship before the idol, then they would immediately be “cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” (v 6) During this dedication the some of the Chaldeans saw, and told the king, that “There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego…have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (12) This put the king into a rage. He called these young men to be brought to him, and asked them if this was true, and t...

11/1/2022 – Daniel 2 I’ll start with the synopsis of this chapter: “Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is revealed to Daniel—The king saw a great image; a stone cut from the mountain without hands destroyed the image; and the stone grew and filled the whole earth—The stone is the latter-day kingdom of God. The king [Nebuchadnezzar] vivid dream that left “his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.” He worry over this dream even though he couldn’t remember the dream, only the worry he felt from it. He called all the magicians, sorcerers & astrologers and told them if they could tell him what he had dreamed, and then the meaning of his dream, then he would shower them with gifts. But if they couldn’t do this they “would be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.” (v 4) As soon as David was aware of this, he went to Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard. David was able to go into the king, telling the king that if he would give David time, that David would “shew the ...

10/31/2022 – Daniel 1 The student manual gives a wonderful introduction to Daniel: “Like many of his brethren the prophets, Daniel was prepared and raised up as a minister to kings and emperors. At the time that Nebuchadnezzar first carried the Jews captive into Babylon (about 605 B.C.), Daniel was chosen as one of the choicest Jewish youths to be taken to Babylon and trained for service in the king’s court. Because of his righteousness and sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit, he was greatly favored of God. The Lord blessed him with the gift of interpreting dreams and visions. This endowment soon made him an object of greater attention from the emperor, and he was raised to positions that enabled him to spend his life in service to the kings of the land. He became the Lord’s minister to those rulers. He was made chief of the wise men, chancellor of the equivalent of a national university, ruler of all the Hebrew captives, and, as governor of the province of Babylon, one of the ...