Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, January 12 Three Post-Kings

Law, HISTORY, Poetry/Wisdom/Prophets

So, we've got the five books of the Law under our belts, and have just three more of the dozen history books left: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

After the 70-year prophecy given to Jeremiah was fulfilled, God called Cyrus to end the captivity and allow the Jews to return to the Land. This is covered in Ezra-Nehemiah, one book originally but split into two for ease of reading. Esther is a story that reveals the near annihilation of the Jewish people and how this brave Jewish queen saved them. Many believe that it was placed in the Canon to explain how the Feast of Purim began.

If you're not careful you can get confused with Ezra-Nehemiah, because it covers a span of about a century, from Zerubbabel's first "wave", who keys in on the building of the Temple, to Nehemiah's building of the city wall.

In the book that bears Ezra's name, he was not even involved until decades later, not appearing in the book until chapter 7. There was a building project that was halted, then re-commenced in the meantime. Ezra came in another "wave" to teach the new generation of returning Jews the Law of God.

Esther occurred sometime during that period. As a matter of fact, Mordecai, the underlying hero who urged Esther to act "for such a time as this" (4:14b) was part of the returning group, who is mentioned in Ezra 2. We're not sure of his timeline, but it makes you wonder if this near annihilation desired by the evil Haman became an inspiration for other Jews to return to the Land.

But for memory purposes, we find this book with a female title listed as the last History book. As I said a few days ago, the Pre and Post groups of three have a female book title as the last of the groups. I've always remembered the last three by "ENE", and for some reason think "east by northeast". Don't know why, but that's my memory trigger.

So, in conclusion, we have a handful (5 fingers in a hand) of the Law books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (GELND), and a dozen History books arranged in a 3-single, 3-pair, 3-single, or 3-6-3 pattern, with the first set of three "Pre-King" era; the second set of three pairs the "King" era; and the last set of three the "Post-King" era.

PRE-KING: Joshua, Judges, Ruth (Josh Jr)

"KINGS": 1&2 Samuel (who, by the way, was the last Judge who anointed the first Kings. That can help you link Judges to the "Kings" books);

1&2 Kings, the kings after King David, and

1&2 Chronicles, said to have been "chronicled" by Ezra, concerned mostly with the Southern Kingdom called Judah. For a mnemonic, we see that they are in a "descending" alphabetical order: "S-K-C".

Finally, "POST-KING": Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (ENE), when the Temple was rebuilt.

Next, we will see the logic behind the "handful" (5) of Poetry/Wisdom books.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

REVIEW:

We've learned the five books of the LAW: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (GELND). We've learned the 3-6-3 pattern of the "HISTORY" books, 3 singles, 3 pairs, 3 singles.

We've learned the 3 "Pre-Kings" are Joshua, Judges, Ruth (Joshua Jr.), and the three "Pairs of Kings" are conveniently in a descending alphabetical order: Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles (SKC)

TODAY:

We've finished the History books with the three "Post-King" books, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. I remember it by the mnemonic "ENE". You can remember all of them by giving Joshua Jr the odd last name of "SKCENE". So we can imagine that the History books were set in order by "Joshua Jr. Skcene".

Silly, but silly makes something unique and more "memorizable".