Chad Bird

02/05/2025

Don’t you love this unforgettable picture of how God deals with our sins? "For you have cast all my sins behind your back" (Isa. 38:17).

I picture God, standing there, reaching down to pick up our sins from the dirt. He looks at them for a moment, in all their ugliness, then with a swift toss of his hand, throws them over his shoulder like we might lob a wadded-up piece of garbage into the trash.

Then, with a spring in his step, he walks away from them, never to look back.

From his memory, they're gone.
From his sight, they're hidden.
In his heart, they never even existed.

Be of good cheer: God has cast all your sins behind his back because Jesus has paid the price for them all. Every. Single. One.

DISCUSSION for today's Bible in One Year readings (Isaiah 37-38 and Mark 9):
-What is the visual significance of King Hezekiah spreading the enemy letter before the Lord (Isa. 37:14)?
-What are some lessons we can learn from Jesus' healing of the boy with an unclean spirit (Mark 9:14-29)?
-What do you make of the father's prayer, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (9:24)?

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02/04/2025

02/04/2025

When John the Baptist was in prison, he sent disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matt. 11:2-3). Jesus replied, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them” (11:4-5).

Instead of directly saying, “Yes, I’m the one,” Jesus pointed John to Isaiah 35, inviting him to compare Jesus’ works to the prophecies about the Messiah.

Isaiah 34 and 35 depict two contrasting realities: the devastation of sin and the renewal of the Messiah. Isaiah 34 describes a world unraveling under sin’s curse—heavens rotting, land turning to sulfur, and chaos undoing creation’s order (34:4, 9, 11).

It mirrors Genesis 1:2, where the earth was tohu vavohu “formless [tohu] and void [vohu],” a chaotic state reversed by God’s creative word. Isaiah portrays sin’s effects as cosmic, impacting all creation, not just humanity.

But Isaiah 35 brings hope: deserts blossom, streams flow, and the weak are strengthened as God comes to save (35:1-4). Signs of this salvation include the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame leaping, and the mute singing (35:5-6).

This is the evidence Jesus gives to John: his miracles reveal the Messiah’s restorative work, undoing the physical effects of sin.

Isaiah 35 reflects the Gospel through the Old Testament’s poetic language. It takes effort to understand, but its message becomes clear: God’s salvation renews creation. Jesus’ healing ministry previews the ultimate restoration—resurrected bodies and a new creation.

His works proclaim, “The Savior has come; don’t look for another.”

DISCUSSION:
-How does the contrast between Isaiah 34-35 deepen our understanding of the effects of sin and salvation?
-What challenges do we face when trying to understand the Old Testament’s imagery? How can we better learn to “sit in Isaiah’s house” and appreciate its message?

Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

02/03/2025

Birmingham, Alabama! I will be there February 21-23 at Cathedral Church of the Advent. Join me and my colleagues at 1517 for a weekend in the Word of God. Here is the registration link:  https://adventbirmingham.org/1517weekend/

02/03/2025

There was a time in my life when I pictured Pentecost as the breakthrough moment for the Holy Spirit in the life of God’s people. Pre-Pentecost, the Spirit was in heaven. Post-Pentecost, the Spirit finally began his work on earth.

I was wrong. The Holy Spirit has been active in the world since the beginning.

As in, literally, The Beginning. Genesis 1:2, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” In Hebrew, the word ru’ach (רוּחַ) can mean wind, breath, spirit, or Spirit. Sometimes, as at the Red Sea, I suspect a double meaning is intended, for God sent a strong east ru’ach (wind? Spirit?) and made the sea dry land (Exod. 14:21). And “at the ru’ach [breath? wind? Spirit?] of your nostrils the waters piled up” (15:8).

The Spirit is all over the Old Testament, equipping the builders of the tabernacle (Exod. 31:3), coming upon prophets (Num. 24:2), giving strength to judges (Judg. 6:34), clothing a priest with courage (2 Chron. 24:20), giving visions to Ezekiel (11:24), rushing upon David (1 Sam. 16:13). David prays that God will not take his Holy Spirit from him (Ps. 51:11).

If you are reading Bible in One Year with me, in one of today’s chapters, Isaiah speaks of the Spirit being poured out from on high (Isa. 32:15).

When we read in the NT that “the Spirit had not [yet] been given” (John 7:39), this is talking about the spectacular miracle of Pentecost, not that the Spirit was somehow sequestered in heaven until then.

By his Spirit, God the Father has always been active in this world: creating, guiding, comforting, inspiring, and leading. Fill our hearts with your Spirit, dear Father, that he may lead us into the life of Jesus, that there we may find peace and joy that know no end.

DISCUSSION:
-How can recognizing the Spirit’s presence and work in both the Old and New Testaments deepen our understanding of God’s continuous activity in the world?
-Compare Mark 8:18 and 8:22. Does this connection explain why this miracle occurs here? How so?

Interested in Bible in One Year? Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

02/03/2025

Join me this coming Saturday, February 8, for a Biblical Workshop at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, in Columbus, Indiana. We will spend the day (9AM to 3 PM) looking at the topic of Unlocking the Mystery of Jesus in the Old Testament.

Register here: https://spl.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2549389

02/02/2025

In Paradise Lost, Milton describes him as a “horrid King besmeared with blood, Of human sacrifice and parents tears” (I, 392). He is speaking of the god Molech, who, in the list of deities in the Hebrew Bible, wins the award for Worst.

Here is what we know about Molech. His name is comprised of three Hebrew consonants m-l-k (מלך), which means “rule, be king.” The vowels placed under these consonants, “o” and “e,” were probably chosen to throw shade on him, for they are the vowels of bōšet (“shame”).

“He is no King,” this derogatory name would suggest, “but Shame.”

And Shame is right, for he is connected with the valley of Ben-Hinnom (=Gehenna), outside Jerusalem, where there was a place for child sacrifice called Topheth. If you are doing Bible in One Year with me, we read about Topheth today (Isa. 30:33).

While some scholars suggest that children were merely dedicated to Molech and not sacrificed, passages like this from Jeremiah say otherwise, “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD....They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind” (7:30-31).

In Hebrew, to “burn” (שׂרף), is commonly associated with sacrifice.

Horrid things happened to children in biblical times. Horrid things happen to children in modern times. What a contrast we see in the words of Jesus, who holds up little children as models of faith in the kingdom of God.

“Children are a gift from the LORD” (Ps. 127:3). Indeed, they are. Let us treasure them, raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and pray that we all may have a childlike faith in the true King, who gave his life for us.

DISCUSSION for Isaiah 30-31 and Mark 7
-Twisted and evil though it was, why would people have been willing to sacrifice their children?
-Why does Jesus initially respond to the Syrophoenician woman as he does in Mark 7:24-30?

Interested in Bible in One Year? Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

02/01/2025

Wow, last night was incredibly uplifting! Stacy and I visited the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Houston. The room was packed with men who are in this residential program for six months, all voluntarily, all seeking and receiving help, primarily by a program focused on their relationship with Christ.

On any given day in this country there are about 7,000 men in the Salvation Army rehabilitation centers. As I listened last night to these men’s stories, it became immediately apparent that God is mightily at work in this place.

It was an honor to meet members of the leadership of the Salvation Army, particularly Major David Atkins, whose zeal for ongoing service is inspiring to me and many others.

I am grateful to have been a speaker at the Sobriety Awards Dinner. But even more, I am grateful to have experienced firsthand the joy of the Lord which is palpable in this place.

02/01/2025

Famous cities are often known by multiple names or nicknames. New York City is The Big Apple. Las Vegas is Sin City and Hollywood is Tinseltown. My hometown of Shamrock, TX, is often called The Rock by locals.

And there’s Jerusalem, the city of many names. In the Old Testament, it is also known as Salem, Zion, the City of David, the Holy City, Moriah, and Jebus.

In one of the chapters we read today in Bible in One Year, Isaiah 29, Jerusalem is called Ariel. What does that mean?

There are two main possibilities for Ariel, the Hebrew of which is אֲרִיאֵל: either “Lion of God” or “Altar Hearth.”

In Ezekiel 43:15, we read, “The altar hearth [אֲרִיאֵל] shall be square, twelve cubits long by twelve broad.” This refers to where the fire consumes the burnt offerings. This meaning also fits with Isaiah 29.

In Isaiah 29:1-2, there is a pun. God says, “Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.”

That last line would mean that this city where the altar consumes the sacrifices would entirely become an “Altar Hearth,” that is, a burning, smoldering ruin.

People can get the impression that Jerusalem is almost a magical city with a natural holiness. No. Jerusalem was “holy” because the Holy God was in the temple. Period. And if the Holy God was rejected by the people of Jerusalem, and he vacated the city (as he did in Ezekiel), it became just one more city.

The place where the temple’s altar hearth (Ariel) was could itself become an altar hearth (Ariel).

That is why, as Christians, we set our sights not on the earthly Jerusalem but on the Heavenly Jerusalem, which will one day come down to us from above (Revelation 21:2).

DISCUSSION for Isaiah 28-29:
-Where and how does Isaiah 28:16 come up in the New Testament?
-Where and how does Jesus use Isaiah 29:13 in his teaching?

Interested in Bible in One Year? Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

01/31/2025

You can read all about dragons in fairy tales and legends, but the Bible has something to say about them as well.

The Hebrew word תַּנִּין (tannin [pronounced taw-neen]) is translated as “dragon” in the ESV four times (Isa. 27:1; 51:9; Ezek. 29:3; 32:2). In other contexts, it is rendered “great sea creature” (Gen. 1:21); “serpent” (Exod. 7:9-10), “monster” (Jer. 51:34); and “sea monster” (Job 7:12).

So, which is it? Dragon, serpent, sea creature, or monster?

The answer to that depends largely upon context: are we talking about a real animal or a mythical creature? Tannin can refer to both. Certainly in Genesis 1 and Exodus 7, a real animal is in view.

In other contexts, prophets drew upon popular mythical accounts in the ancient Near East, where chaos and rebellion were associated with creatures such as tannin, Leviathan, and Rahab. See, for instance, Isaiah 27, one of the chapters we covered today in Bible in one Year (https://www.1517.org/oneyear ).

This Hebrew background is vitally important when we get to the New Testament. A few times in the Septuagint (the Greek OT), tannin and Leviathan are translated with the Greek word δράκων (drakon). A δράκων is a serpent or sea monster. It’s also the word for dragon. This is the word that St. John uses often in Revelation when he calls Satan “the dragon” (12:3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17; 13:2, 4; 16:13; 20:2).

By the time we get to Revelation, we have an entire Bible full of references to serpents, crocodiles, sea monsters, dragons, and mythical creatures, all of which help to form the image of the archfoe of humanity. And yet, as dangerous and menacing at the Satan Dragon sounds, “one little word can fell him,” as we sing in “A Mighty Fortress.”

Christ, the Word of God, is triumphant over the dragon. And we are triumphant in him: covered in the righteousness of Jesus, wet with baptism’s un-evaporating water, and shielded by the blood of the Lamb.

DISCUSSION:
-How does this portrayal of Christ’s triumph shape our understanding of spiritual warfare and the believer's confidence in God's ultimate authority?

01/30/2025

How can the Hebrew in Psalm 23 lead us into an even deeper appreciation of this psalm? We will explore four ways in which the original Hebrew describes our Good Shepherd chasing us, repenting us, "exodus-ing" us, and being our Immanuel. Thanks for watching

How can the Hebrew in Psalm 23 lead us into an even deeper appreciation of this psalm? We will explore four ways in which the original Hebrew describes our G...

01/30/2025

The “ships of Tarshish” are mentioned about nine times in the Bible, including today's Bible in One Year reading from Isaiah 23. These were the most impressive seagoing vessels known to the ancient authors (Isaiah 2:16).

The ships symbolize human grandeur but also arrogance. They highlight the impressiveness of those who commissioned them, such as Solomon (1 Kings 10:22) and Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:48), as well as the might of God, who is portrayed as superior to Tyre and capable of its destruction (Isaiah 23:1, 14; Psalm 48:7).

The ships of Tarshish were large trading vessels designed to carry significant tonnage, bearing luxury goods like gold, silver, ivory, apes, and precious stones. These items were often intended for the upper classes of Israel and Judah.

The term “ships of Tarshish” likely denotes a class of vessel rather than ships exclusively traveling to Tarshish. In some passages, these vessels symbolize the eschatological vision of nations bringing offerings to honor God in Jerusalem (Isaiah 60:9).

Constructing such vessels required advanced shipbuilding techniques to ensure they were profitable and seaworthy, capable of traversing the Mediterranean.

Assyrian reliefs, such as the bronze gate covers of Shalmaneser III, depict similar ships used for military purposes.

These vessels demonstrate the sophistication and versatility of ancient maritime practices, underscoring their significance in biblical and historical contexts.

-compiled from material in The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament and Lexham Bible Dictionary. The image is a warship from the reign of Sennacherib, 700-692 BCE, found in the palace of Nineveh and displayed in the The British Museum.

DISCUSSION:
-The ancient world had its constructions of human ingenuity that could easily become symbols of human pride. What are modern equivalents to the ships of Tarshish?
-What else caught your attention as you read through the chapters for today, Isaiah 23-25?

Interested in Bible in One Year? Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

01/29/2025

It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that Isaiah is the OT prophetic canvas upon which the colors of the NT are painted.

By one estimate, all but three of the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah are quoted, alluded to, or echoed in the NT.

Isaiah’s writings loom so large in NT books because of how this prophet foretells, in poetically striking ways, the dawn of the kingdom of God that comes when the Savior is born.

Writing in the 700s BC, Isaiah speaks of the virgin birth of the Messiah, that he is the Servant of the Lord, the promised Son of David, the bringer of new creation, and the innocent victim who is put to death for the sins of humanity (see especially Isaiah 53).

If we lost all other biblical books, but retained Isaiah, we would still have enough material to teach and preach for a lifetime about the Son of God and his work for us.

Isaiah prophesied to his own generation, but he wrote in such a way that, whenever his readers might live, they sense that he is directly addressing them.

-from my book, Hitchhiking with Prophets, available at https://a.co/d/5EC5Hjh

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As of today in Bible in One Year, we are one third of the way through Isaiah. What are some of the lessons or truths that have especially impacted you? What do you find challenging when you read books like Isaiah and other prophetic literature?

Interested in Bible in One Year? Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

01/28/2025

01/28/2025

In the world of ancient Israel, borders or lines were everywhere. Some things (like pigs) were always over the border into unclean.

Other things (like the holy objects in the sanctuary) were always inside the border of clean.

And still other things (people in particular) were crisscrossing the lines: sometimes clean, sometimes unclean. For instance, when a woman was on her period, she was temporarily unclean, as was a man after he had a discharge of semen.

But when these people underwent a washing or changed their clothes (or both), they crossed the border back into clean again.

The average Israelite, therefore, moved between these borders of ritual cleanness and uncleanness their whole lives.

This ritual world is in the background of Mark 5, where Jesus encounters three kinds of uncleanness: unclean spirits (5:2); a woman suffering from bleeding (5:25); and the dead body of the daughter of Jairus (5:40).

What makes each of these astonishing and instructive is that Jesus, far from becoming unclean himself, destroys the uncleanness and brings forth life, healing, and restoration.

He is the holy, holy, holy God in the flesh who has come to redeem his creation.

We who are "sinful and unclean," as one confession of sins expresses it, are forgiven "for the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

-for more on this topic, see my book, Hitchhiking with Prophets: A Ride through the Salvation Story of the Old Testament, available at https://a.co/d/5EC5Hjh

DISCUSSION:
-Do we still think sometimes in terms of "clean" and "unclean," even in matters completely unrelated to dirt or hygiene?
-What did you find especially insightful or encouraging from Mark 5?

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We read Mark 5 today in Bible in One Year? Join our online community of Bible readers and students! For more information and to sign up, visit https://www.1517.org/oneyear

01/27/2025

Chances are you've forgotten one of the greatest things you ever did.

•The kind word you spoke to one on the brink of despair.

•Your embrace of someone who was convinced you had rejected them.

•The hungry you fed.

• When you visited a friend in the hospital

It didn't seem worth remembering. So it slipped your mind.

But they remember. Every day they remember. And so does Christ.

For he, hidden in the needy, received your gift.

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
-Jesus (Matt. 25:40)