The new academic semester started at Stellenbosch this past week. While the Bible studies have already started, things at St Paul's are really going to kick-off this week.

This term we shall be covering the book of Malachi in Bible study. After the first reading, my thoughts of the book was that it was a sad one: sad because the people of Y'sreal neglected their worship of the Lord, even after all He had brought them through. While this is common throughout the Old Testament, other tales of the disobedience of Y'srael do not evoke quite the same sense of sadness from me. I suppose this is because Malachi is the last time the Lord spoke to Y'sreal before Yeshua came to earth. And what the Lord has to say is a list of complaints against a disobedient people. But also there is hope (and these were probably the most striking verses for me in the entire book after the first reading):

⁶"I, the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord almighty. — Malachi 3:6–7 (NIV)

Apart from doing Malachi in the Bible studies, the next few sermons at TBT will also deal with the same book; thus we shall be doing concurrent studies of the book.

Lunch Time Talks also start this week. Mondays, 13:00–13:40 in the Regter Van Zyl hall in the Neelsie. Hope to see you there!

Shalom

EDIT Sorry, there was some confusion: Lunch Time Talks only start again next week, August 3.