Nehemiah Key Concepts
The purpose of the book of Nehemiah is to show the many ways that Godis at work to restore the people of Israel to their land. Restoration is the key
theme as this book traces the restoration of the temple, community, Jerusalem, and the covenant.
• Prayer is an important expression of trust.
• The law takes its proper place as the foundation of society.
• Even pagan kings are under God’s control.

Esther Key Concepts
The purpose of the book of Esther is to show that God can accomplish his purposes just as easily through “coincidences” as he can through grand miracles of deliverance. Just as Esther hid her Jewishness, then worked behind the scenes for deliverance, so the book hid God’s name, yet he worked behind the scenes for deliverance.
-Chance and circumstance are fully within God’s providence.
-Reversal and irony are evidence of God’s hand in a book where he is never mentioned by name.

Job Key Concepts
Job and his friends believe that he is on trial, but God’s policies are
actually what are on trial. Satan claims that God’s policy of bringing blessing
on righteous people is flawed because they will then be motivated by prosperity rather than simply the desire to be righteous. Job demonstrated that
his righteousness was not a pursuit of blessing and prosperity. Consequently, Satan’s accusation was shown to be false.
• The fallen world does not operate by justice.
• There is such a thing as disinterested righeousness, and it is the ideal to be pursued.
• Believing that God is wise, we can trust him to be just.
• In situations of suffering, it is better to focus on the future [what purposeGod has] rather than the past [what the cause of suffering is].

Psalms Key Concepts
The Psalms were written over a thousand-year period across the whole range of Old Testament history. To understand the purpose of the book, we have to move beyond the reasons that motivated the composers to those that motivated the compilers. Simply put, the message is, “God reigns.”
-Many psalms are an expression of emotion, and God responds to us in our emotional highs and lows.
-Psalms is a book with purpose.
-Psalms 1-2 embody the message of the book