Ezekiel.
Would you say that Ezekiel is a book that is difficult to understand or one of the easier books? What makes it hard to understand and interpret? (Visions and allegories.) What angelic creature is named about two dozen times in this book from chapter 10 on? Last week I incorrectly said that the Bible doesn’t refer to either Cherubim (singular) or to Cherubs. I was mistaken in the last part – there are Cherubs mentioned, but no Cherubim. In order to make the curtains in the Tabernacle, did Moses have the Cherubims descriptions of Ezekiel? Did Solomon have the descriptions of Ezekiel when he supervised the construction of the Temple? Where do we first read of the Cherubims? Does Ezekiel’s reference to Cherubims prove the accuracy of Genesis 3? (No, but it does support it.) From where did Moses’ craftsmen receive their knowledge of the Cherubims?
Ezekiel makes reference to a rainbow above the throne of God. Besides the natural affect of the rain and sun, what is the special meaning of a rainbow? Are we surprised that a rainbow might have something to do with the presence of the Lord? What was the context of the very first rainbow? Does Ezekiel’s reference to the rainbow prove the accuracy of Genesis 9? (No, but it does support it.)
How many people named “Noah” are to be found in the Bible? (Two, one was a woman.) Was the man named “Noah” an actual, living person? In what great event was Noah a vital part? What would you think about the veracity – trustworthiness – of someone who tried to make a fictitious person appear to be historical? Read Ezekiel 14:14, 20.
How does Ezekiel 28:12-17 authenticate the Genesis account of Creation? Was the “Eden” of this chapter the same as that of Genesis 1? What special word is used in verse 13 and what does it mean? What was one of the first things that this cherub did after his expulsion from God?
What will the world be like during the days of the Millennial Kingdom (Ezekiel 36:35). If there was no such thing as Eden, what would this reference mean?
Does the Book of Ezekiel diminish your confidence in a literal interpretation of Creation or the Flood?
Daniel.
In Daniel 2:19-22 the prophet was speaking to the greatest monarch in the world. How do his words testify to Jehovah’s creative power? In speaking to Belshazzar, how does Daniel 5:22-23 testify to the creative hand of God?
How does the sovereignty of God testify to the creative hand of the Lord? Do you suppose that after his seven year tribulation of insanity, Nebuchadnezzar became a Creationist (Daniel 2:47; 4:1-3, 17, 25, 32-37)? After Daniel’s ordeal with the lions, is it possible that Darius became a Creationist (Daniel 6:26-27)?
Esther.
How many times is the Lord named in the Book of Esther? (Not once.) Despite the lack of mention, what is the great lesson that we learn about God? We see the Lord’s providential hand in complete control of four people and two nations. What relationship does the sovereignty of God have to His Creatorship?
Ezra and Nehemiah.
The Jewish people began to return from exile under the reign of Cyrus, king of Persia. Can you think of logical, secular reasons to release the Jews from their Babylonian captivity? Why do you think that Cyrus made that decision? Was it because he was asked by Nehemiah or Ezra (Ezra 1:1-3)? Apparently the Lord put this idea into the man’s heart. Could he have been encouraged, by learning that Isaiah, two hundred years earlier, had prophesied it (Isaiah 44 & 45)?
Zerubbabel led the first continent of Jews back to the land and Ezra, a scribe, followed some time later. When they met opposition to their reconstruction of the Temple and the city, they replied with Ezra 5:11. How does this statement express a relationship to the Creatorship of God?
Nehemiah followed Ezra by about ten years. He was authorized by Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem to oversee the re-construction of the city wall. Does the king’s commission, recorded in Nehemiah 1:5, reflect on the Creatorship of God?
When the reconstruction projects were finished, the returned Jews met for a thanksgiving service. They began by reading the Word of God (Nehemiah 8:1). Where did their scriptures begin? What does Nehemiah 8:8 imply? Do you suppose that Ezra taught the people that they ought to be Creationists? Toward the end of the great week of Thanksgiving (Tabernacles), the people began to pray (Neh. 9:5-6). Were the leaders of post-exilic Israel Creationists?
Malachi.
When the Flood began, the Bible says that God opened something very special; what were they? Genesis 7:11 – “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” Genesis 8:2 – “The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained” To what does Malachi refer in 3:10? Does this reference prove the historicity of the Genesis Flood?
The ministry of Malachi was one of rebuke, because the nation was becoming more and more secular. As people become more concerned with themselves, they don’t honor the Lord as they should. What does Malachi 2:10 say of the Lord?
Despite the condition of many of the returning Jews, the godly in the nation were still Creationists.