While many books in the Bible cover many chapters, address several topics, and span longer periods of time, several books are much shorter, and address only one or two basic topics. If you were having a meal, the longer books would be a five course meal with all the trimmings, while the shorter ones might be more like having cheese and crackers. These books are not less important in the overall plan of God, but, because of their brevity, they are often overlooked.
For the next five weeks in my devotion blog, we will be studying a series of books in the Bible that contain only one chapter. They are short and to the point. Most of these books are letters written to address a specific issue or situation. Often, they are very personal, written to close friends of the author and therefore, contain language packed with great affection. The books in the Bible that contain only one chapter are:
• Obadiah
• Philemon
• 2 John
• 3 John
• Jude
Only one of these , Obadiah, is in the Old Testament, the rest are in the New Testament. Obadiah is a prophetic book, much like a sermon, the rest are short letters. In each devotion, I will seek to give you a bit of background information that you should read before reading the text. This will help you understand the context and situation in which the book was written. I will then close with a few thoughts of application.
First one of these a little later this week.
