OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY

Transcription

1 OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY By Rev. LeRoy Davis BSc. and Glenn Davis copyright 2003 by Rev. LeRoy Davis and Glenn Davis Welcome to a terrific study. The benefits you will gain from putting the effort into studying will be richly rewarded by an overview of God s work in the Old Testament. Sometimes we forget that Jesus, the apostles, and other New Testament Christians had an intimate knowledge of the Old Testament. The New Testament is the completion of the Old Testament but unless we have a good knowledge of the Old Testament we will miss or misunderstand much of the depth of what was happening in the New Testament. [Covenants is also a vital course in this regard, taking a detailed look at the plan of God for the ages.] Why is a survey or overview of the Bible in general or a specific book important? Context. If we are going to understand the word of God we must understand context. A person can prove anything they want from the Bible by taking Scripture out of context - i.e. the Devil in the temptation of Christ. The only way to avoid reading into Scripture what we want to find or manipulating it for our own benefit is to understand the context. As much as possible we must know why and when a certain book was written as well as the purpose of the book. Many confusing Scriptures can be cleared up when we understand the overall context in which they were written [for example see the Guide to Revelation course]. In this course we will take a look at each book of the Old Testament, who wrote it and when. We will also look at the theme and key verse[s]. After that we will give a couple of possible outlines for the Book and then we will review each book section by section. This is an overview of the book so that you understand the basic context not a detailed study of any one book. At the end there will be an assignment for you do to. This is for your own benefit [you don t have to turn them in!] but it is highly recommended that you complete each assignment before going on to the next lesson. Lesson 1 PENTATEUCH Events in this period of the Old Testament take place mainly in the fertile crescent which begins at the head of the Persian Gulf and extends Northwest into Syria and then Southwest into Egypt. Canaan, the home of the Patriarchs, was constantly being influenced by the highly cultured civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The religion that was established by Moses was unique and outstanding to those pagan influences around, which makes it a very interesting and active history. It involves many things including war and the rising and falling of kingdoms. GENESIS The word Genesis means Beginning or origin. The rabbis called it Bereshith which means in beginning. They used the first word in the Bible to give Genesis its name. The English word genesis is a translation for the Hebrew, so it is the first words in the English Bible as well. Bible books in the Hebrew language were often named after the first few words of the book. In looking at Genesis we must avoid two errors. The first error is believing that this is

2 mythology, allegory, a contradictory combination of documents, or man s idea of events at the beginning. A careful study of both Scripture and science shows that this is an historical record. It is not a flight to fancy but a literal account of the beginning of all things [except God Who has no beginning]. The second error we must avoid is attempting to make the story fit with modern discoveries. This is the Word of God relating historical events in relation to His purposes. The Scripture is never in error. Science, properly understood, supports the Genesis account. For further reading see the links under Creationism on your members home page. Genesis is the seed plot of the whole Bible. Every major teaching of Scripture can be found in its baby form in Genesis. For this reason, Genesis is one of the most important books of the Bible. If we want to understand any topic we need to start at its first mention and then follow it though Scripture. Genesis is the foundation on which the rest of the Bible is built. That is one reason it is the most attacked book in the Bible. Our enemies realize, even if we don t, that if they can destroy Genesis then the rest of Christianity comes crashing down. Genesis 1. Consists of 50 chapters, 2. Was written by Moses the lawgiver and leader of Israel (Ex.17:14;24;4;34:27; Nu.33:1-2; Deut.31:9; Josh.1:7-8; 8:31-32; 1 Kgs.2:3; 2 Kgs.14:6; Ezra 6:18; Neh.13:1; Dan.9:11-13; Mal. 4:4; Mt.19:7,8; Jn.5:46,47; 7:19; Acts 3:22; Rom.10:5) 3. Was written between 1532 BC and 1494 BC, 4. Contains (a) 2369 years of history, beginning with creation and ending with Joseph's death, (b) 2000 years of history in the first eleven chapters, 5. Genesis is the seed bed of the Bible. The Bible is based on this book and nearly all doctrine has its roots here, 6. Begins with God and ends in a coffin. THEME The theme is the Creation, Fall, and Redemption of man. Some have felt that because the word generations is a frequent word in Genesis that the theme is generations. There are the Generations of Heaven and earth (2:4-4:26), Adam (5:1-6:8), Noah (6:9-9:29), sons of Noah (10:1-11:9), Shem (11:10-26), Terah (11:27-25:11), Ishmael (25:12-18), Isaac (25:19-35:29), Esau (36:1-37:1), and Jacob (37:2-50:26). Ten [the number of Divine appointment] in all. However, these all relate either to creation or to the sinfulness of man; therefore, the fall or the purpose of redemption are the themes of the book. Of the seven major Covenants that God made with man, four are found in the book of Genesis - Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic. These covenants are covered in detail in the Covenants course. CHRIST In one way or another Christ is the center of every book of the Bible. In Genesis, Christ is seen as the Creator (Col.1:16), the Beginning (Rev.1:8), the Seed of the woman, and the Ark of salvation. He is portrayed in Isaac [the only begotten Son], and in the beloved Joseph as well as in many of the types in the book. LORD capitalized in KJV [King James Version] is Jehovah or Yahweh. The name is a Tetragramation [tetra = 4, gramation = letters]. All we know is the consonants of God s

3 Name - YHWH. YHWH was held in such reverence that it could not be pronounced. Today we don t know what the exact pronunciation of God s name is. It was lost. When the name was read aloud it was read as Adonai. Jehovah or Yahweh is from the Hebrew word to be, therefore He is the great I AM [combined vowels of Adonai]. KEY WORDS The key words are beginning which appears in its various forms 12 times and generations which appears 21 times. Two other words which appear frequently are: begat - 67 times - and seed - 58 times. They are both related to beginnings and generations so we can say that the key words are beginning and generations. KEY VERSE Gen. 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Bible. Some would also include Gen.1:1 but Gen.3:15 is the seed verse of the whole PURPOSE The purpose of Genesis is 1. To present to us the origin of all things, 2. To portray for us that God is the Originator of both creation and redemption, 3. To show the origin of the nations and especially the choice of the Hebrew nation as the covenant people, through whom the Redeemer would come, 4. In short, to show us our origin, how we got in the mess of sin, and His plan of getting us out of it [redemption]. SEVEN BEGINNINGS IN GENESIS 1. Universe Gen.1: Human Race Gen. 1: Sin Gen.3:1-7 - which includes sickness and disease. 4. Redemption Gen.3: Family Life Gen. 4: Nations and Languages Gen.4: Jew or the Covenant People Gen LESSONS 1. God is all in all Gen.1:1 2. Man needs the fellowship of God Gen. 3:23 3. Man apart from God is a failure 4. Sin is real and powerful, more powerful than man himself 5. God will judge sin and rebellion Gen. 3:23 6. God loves the sinner Gen. 3:15 7. God's promises stand Heb.11:11 8. If God be for us who can stand against us. OUTLINE

4 Genesis - Beginnings I Material Universe and Man 1-2 II Sin and Salvation 3-5 III Devastation and Deliverance 6-9 IV Confusion and Covenant A The Line of Confusion B The Line of Covenant Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph and his brothers GENESIS (ALTERNATE) I Beginnings of the Human Race - Primeval History - Creation - Fall - Flood - Tower of Babel 1:1-11:9 II Beginnings of the Hebrew Race - Patriarchal History - Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - Joseph 11:10-50:26 (Note: the chapter indications for Genesis and also for the other books are often approximate. Consult the Bible to see exactly where one section ends and another begins) COMMENTS Note: You should read the verse[s] before the comments about them. Gen. 1:1 - The verb created is singular. The noun God [Elohim] is plural. This pictures one God in three Persons. The plural form of God does not imply polytheism as Hebrew plurals often are used to show fulness, completeness, or excellence. Even in the very first verse of the Bible we have a hint of the Trinity. 1:2 - Some people try to put a gap of millions of years between 1:1 and 1:2. They do this to try and make the Bible fit with evolution. There is no gap. 1:1 states a fact, 1:2 begins to explain how it happened. 1: God brought into existence the universe and all it contains, without having pre-existing materials. Notice that light was created before the sun and moon. God is the ultimate Source of all Light, not the material universe. There are some who say that the six days of creation are six long geological periods of time. Although the word for days is occasionally used for a period of time longer than 24 hours, the context of Gen. 1 shows that it is used here in its usually way of normal 24 hour days. The very pattern of evening and morning indicates 24 hour periods. Again, the only reason to try and and make these longer time periods is to force the Bible to fit with evolution. These compromise theories undermine the integrity of the entire Word of God. For, if they were right, then death must have come before sin [sin didn t come until Adam disobeyed] and if sin did not cause death then Christ did not need to die and the whole Bible is useless or deceitful. But the Bible is very clear that death is a result of sin. Little compromises can destroy everything. The creationist theory states that God created the world in six 24 hour days and since it was created mature it had an apparent age. For example, Adam was created as an

5 adult. He may have looked 30 years old although he had only existed for five minutes. So the rest of creation also looked older that it was. The light from distant stars is sometimes used as an argument against a young earth. The obvious answer is that some of it was created as reaching earth although the star had just been made. In fact, from the distant stars we are probably still seeing light that was created enroute. Six 24-hour creation days has been the general view of the Church throughout history. 1:14 - We don t know when God made the angels but it is possible He made them the same time as the physical stars since they are sometimes referred to as the stars of heaven. 1:26 - Let us again shows the Trinity, only One God and yet Three Persons. 1:27 - Man is different from the animals. Only man is created in the image of God. This is the reason given to Noah [as we shall see] for capital punishment for murder. 1: Some take the word replenish as meaning there was a race on the earth before Adam i.e. that God was instructing Adam to fill up the earth again. The word in Hebrew means to fill and does not imply any past condition. These verses are the heart of the Edenic Covenant or Dominion Covenant [See Covenants course]. It reveals God s command and purpose for mankind. It has never been recalled or changed. It has been complicated by sin but it is still God s purpose. When this covenant was made evangelism was not necessary. Now evangelism is the first step in getting man to return to his original calling. It is not an end to itself. We are not saved just to go to heaven, we are saved for a purpose. 2:1-3 - Is the universe finite or infinite? Only God is infinite. The universe is so vast we may never discover its limits but it is contained within God. What a great God we have! 2:3-4 - The Liberals believe that there were several different authors for the book of Genesis. They claim that Gen. 1-2:3 is one writer s account and Gen. 2:4 on down is another writer s attempt at the same story. Nonsense. The first account gives us a general overview of creation, then second backs up to give us a more specific account of one aspect of the creation. fresh. 2:5-6 - Before the Flood there was no rain only a mist or dew which kept everything 2:7 - With the rest of creation God spoke and it was so. With man He took special care and time to form him and breath His life into him. Man is different from the animals. Mankind alone is in the image of God. 2:8-9 - God made the Garden of Eden specially for Adam and Eve. It was to be their training ground before they went to populate the earth. God never sends us out without training - sometimes we jump ahead of God and go out unprepared on our own. The two trees were two real, physical trees and there was nothing sinful about them in and of themselves because God made them. 2: The garden of Eden was probably on a plateau with only one entrance/exit. We knows this from the fact that rivers flowed out of Eden [water flows down hill] and that apparently, when man sinned only the East of the Garden had to be guarded. We also see that God created gold and precious stones for the benefit of mankind. 2: This was the test. Would man obey God or not? Would he be loyal or

6 would he commit High Treason against the King of the Universe? Notice there is no promise of restoration, no offer of forgiveness. It is a simple, You do it and you will die. 2: Adam named and classified the animals. It is likely that at this time there was only the head of each group not all the sub-classifications. I.E. Adam had to name the head of the cat family but did not have to deal with lions, leopards, cheetahs, tigers, house cats, etc. 2: Adam had to work under God before he was given a wife. We learn man must be responsible in work before undertaking the responsibility of a family. 2:24 - Here we have God establishing marriage and showing that it takes priority over every other relationship except between a person and God. 3:1-4 - Eve did not seem surprised that a serpent would talk. Perhaps God s world was so new and exciting that it did not strike her as unusual. Satan had one chance to defeat Adam. His best shot was a question. He didn t start by trying to argue or convince. As Christians we are sometimes so full of answers, perhaps it is more effective to begin with a question... At least it worked very well for Satan. The serpent began by questioning the intent of the Word and bringing it into doubt. He moved to outright denial - a tactic he still uses today. He causes us to question what God says then denies it. 3:5 - Satan did not say, Eat and I will make you a devil like me. Instead he promised what he did not have and could not give. To be as gods, this is the essence of every sin. We want to have our own way, make our own rules, and declare our own reality. We want independence from God. Every sin can trace it s root to this point. What was Satan really offering? The knowledge of evil - they already had the of good. Sin likes to dress things up and make them look good, otherwise we would never fall for them, but when we strip away the glitter all there is is fool s gold. 3:6 - The Bible teaches that Eve was deceived, she really didn t realize at the time that what she was doing was wrong. Adam, on the other hand, was not deceived. When Eve ate the fruit, he knew he would have to choose between Eve and God. In deliberate rebellion and defiance he choose Eve. 3:7 - It is important to see that it was not until Adam ate of the fruit that sin entered the world. When Adam ate, their eyes were opened. Eve sinned on her own behalf but Adam, as the representative of the human race before God, sinned an behalf of everyone. We were in Adam and he baptized us into sin and death, in Christ we are baptized into new life. 3:8 - When we sin we should run to God for forgiveness and restoration but often, like Adam and Eve, we run from God. 3: God doesn t ask questions to gain knowledge. He knew perfectly well what they had done. It was an opportunity for repentance, an opportunity that was refused. Instead they began by trying to place the blame on someone else [and implying that it was God s fault for making the one who tempted them]. By time it got to the serpent there was no one left to blame. 3:14 - This implies that the serpent had legs before the curse, perhaps like a lizard.

7 3:15 - This is the first promise of redemption. When God made the Edenic Covenant, there was no promise of restoration. Now for the first time a little ray of hope comes into the dark situation. Someone is going to come who will defeat the serpent. The struggle will be intense and involve pain on both parts - a crushed head and a crushed heel. Also the fact that He is called the seed of the woman and not the seed of the man indicates there would be something unique about His birth. From now on we will also see that all the promises of God, were ultimately made to the Seed, Christ. [Details in the Covenants course.] 3: Satan was cursed, for him it is story over, no redemption possible. Adam and Eve were punished but they were not cursed, for them [and their descendants] there was was hope - redemption was possible. If we reject God s redemption then we enter into Satan s curse and join him in Hell. Side Note: We sometimes think of Satan reigning in Hell. No, Hell is as much or more a place of torment for him as for anyone else. 3: We see that redemption must come at the price of blood. For the first time physical death occurred. God killed animals to provide a covering for Adam and Eve picturing the blood of Christ which would have to be shed to erase our sin. Then Adam and Eve were sent from the Garden. 4: God would have instructed Adam in the correct type of sacrifice to bring - a blood sacrifice. Quite likely it was brought before the Cherub at the entrance of Eden. Cain, rejecting God s plan and offering the best of his own works [our works are never good enough], is in return rejected by God. Instead of repenting, in anger and frustration, he commits the first murder. The first murder was over religion. God requires capital punishment for murder. Why was Cain allowed to live? One possible answer is that God requires that man be the one who carries out the punishment but He also forbids family members from partaking in the execution. In this case, there were only family members available so God banished him instead. 4:17 - Where did Cain get his wife? Obviously, he married one of his sisters. It was not until the time of Moses that intermarrying was forbidden. This early in the history of the world, there was no other choice. Also, they were close enough to creation that genetic damage was slight. The further we move from creation, the greater becomes the genetic damage and the probability of damaging the offspring of closely related people. 4: We have the first case of bigamy. 4: Interestingly we see important skills developing first in the line of Cain. 4: Seth is Abel s replacement in the line of the promised seed of the woman. 5: A list of the generations from Adam to Noah. 5:24 - Enoch, the first man not to see death. 5:27 - Methuselah had the longest life span of anyone, 969 years, and yet he was not a righteous man. Methuselah and Noah were alive at the same time and God said Noah was the only righteous man. Methuselah also died the year of the flood, presumably in the flood. [See Bible Chronology course.] 6:1-4 - The sons of God are the Godly line of Seth, the seed of the woman. Some

8 say they were angels but angels are neither male nor female and do not have children. What we see here is the Godly line of Seth intermarrying and degrading themselves with the ungodly line of Cain. We are to be separate from sin. This may be a preview of being unequally yoked. 6:5-7 - This sin did not take God by surprise but He expresses it this way so we can see His heart. How great was the Fall! Here was have the human race on the edge of extinction. From the crown of God s creation to being totally eaten up with the cancer of sin. Looking at it from a human perspective, God had a problem. He had promised in Gen. 3:15 that He would send a Deliver and yet the human race had proved totally unworthy of such a promise. If He wiped out the human race as His justice demanded, the promise would fail, but if He failed to bring judgment, His justice would fail. What was He to do? 6: Noah found grace. God had prepared a man through whom He could preserve the human race while satisfying His justice and revealing the horrible consequences of sin. 6:13-7:10 - Every ancient civilization has a flood record. Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, Brazilians, Peruvians, and others have a tradition of a great flood which destroyed the human race. All these testimonies, corrupted as they may be, still point back to one event which inspired them. 6:18 - If Shem was Noah s first born then God made this promise to him before he had a family. Shem was born two years after Noah started the Ark. Like Abraham, Noah believed God and obeyed. 7: In Scripture the number forty speaks of probation or testing. Israel was 40 years in the desert, Moses fasted for 40 days, Jesus was tempted for 40 days, etc. 7: Noah entered the ark [2390 BC or 1656 years after creation]. Some have wondered how so many animals could be in the ark. We don t know but a] it could have been the family heads and not all the sub-classifications, b] they could have been young animals, not adults, and c] many may have gone into a God-induced hibernation for the trip. However it happened - it did happen. 7:20 - This was a worldwide flood. The entire earth was immersed in water. The mountains were probably not as high as the mountains we have day. Many of our mountain ranges were probably formed during the flood with tremendous volcanos, earthquakes, and other epic upheavals. 7: It is quite likely that the population of the world of Noah s day was the same or even greater than what we have today, yet they were all killed the flood. The anger of God against sin is something we don t like to think about. But it is real. His justice must be satisfied. Heaven or Hell - both are real and both are eternal. The worst that happens in this world is a small picture of Hell and the best is a small picture of Heaven. 8:1-2 - Remembered is a covenant word. God doesn t forget. Remember speaks of His being faithful to His Word, His Covenant [see Covenants I&II]. God renewed the covenant of Adam with Noah. 8: Here we have the story of Noah leaving the ark. He offered a sacrifice which was an act of faith. With so few animals he, nevertheless, risked their future and offered some of the clean ones. Life is important but there are things more important than

9 life. 9:1-4 - Although man had been created a vegetarian, God gives His blessing on eating meat. Only the blood must be respected. This indicates that before the flood man was eating meat with the blood. 9:5-6 - Here God gives the requirement of capital punishment for murder. The reason given is that man is in the image of God. Striking a man is an attempt at striking or hurting God. Anyone who commits a murder is, by man, to be killed. This is further detailed in the laws given to Moses. Also notice, that if we refuse to follow these instructions, God will require it from us. In other words, if we refuse to take the life of the murderer God will eventually take our lives. He may use war, famine, violent crime, natural disasters or whatever. God will see justice done. The question is: Do we stand with God or with the murderer? One of the reasons our Western countries are beginning to come under the judgment of God is found right here. [For more details take Biblical Law.] 9: God promised His faithfulness - seed time and harvest. He also promised never to send a worldwide flood again. This must have been a great comfort to Noah and his family. The first time they had seen rain had been at the Great Flood. Now rain would be commonplace. Every time they felt the first few drops they would remind themselves that it wasn t going to lead to a flood. The rainbow was a source of comfort. 9: Even great men of God have their weaknesses. Noah became drunk. It was in the privacy of his tent, still his failure became the temptation for others. We don t know exactly what happened but Ham saw him and mocked his father. Ham s son Canaan must also have been involved in some way as the majority of the curse came to Canaan not to Ham. The Canaanites, at the time of Joshua, had so fallen into sexual depravity that they had to be entirely wiped out...it started here. Shem and Japheth respected their father and took great care in covering him not to dishonour him. As a result they earned a blessing which impacted world history. From the line of Shem came the Jews who had the Word and Covenants of God and in New Testament times Japheth s descendants [Europe, North and South America, Australia, and parts of Asia ] have entered into that blessing and relationship. The descendants of Ham [Africa and parts of Asia] have been among the last to hear and accept the good news. Our actions can affect generations to come. 10: The generations of Noah. 10: Nimrod, it is believed, was a hunter of men. In other words, he is seen as a brutal military leader along the lines of a Hitler. He was probably the leader of the rebellion at Babel. His wife, Semiramis, is also said to have claimed the Nimrod s son was the true seed promised in Gen. 3:15. 10:25 - We don t know for sure that what this means but if the land mass of the earth was originally created as a single super-continent, it may have been at this time that the continental drift began and this would explain how people got into different remote parts of the earth. 11:1-4 - One would have thought that the flood would have left such a lasting impression on humanity that they would have served God out of fear if nothing else. But the tower of Babel reveals the total depravity of the human heart. Not long after the flood they are in deliberate defiance and rebellion against God again. 11:5-7 - Again we have a reference to the Trinity - One God, Three Persons.

10 11: Here we have the division of languages. 11: The descendants of Shem down to Abram. 12:1-3 - Here we have the beginning of the Abrahamic Covenant which is the foundation of much of the Scriptures. This covenant is traced right through the New Testament. 12:4-6 - At this point Abram s obedience was incomplete. God told him to leave his kindred but he took Terah his father and Lot his nephew. On the way he stopped in Haran until his father died. 12:7-9 - God did not appear to him again until he reached Canaan. 12: God had told him to leave Canaan but under the pressure of a famine he went Egypt. He knew that the border guards where always on the lookout for beautiful women for Pharaoh's harem. So, in fearing for his life, he asked Sari to say she was his sister. He did not defend her but God came to her defense and plagued Pharaoh. Pharaoh was angry at Abram for his deception and sent him away. 13: God had blessed Abram and made him rich and Lot was blessed because he was with Abram. Their riches were so great that they could no longer live together and so Abram gave Lot the choice of where to live. Lot should have refused and let Abram make his choice first. Instead, he choose what appeared to be best land for himself. His selfishness was to have terrible consequences. Lot pitched his tent facing Sodom, the next time we read of him he is in Sodom. When we allow our hearts to desire the things of this world, it isn t long before we are involved in them. 13: God promises Abram the land as far as he could see and also descendants too many to count. Abram did not live to see the physical or spiritual fulfillment of this promise but he took it by faith. This promise, of course, had a physical application but its greater intent was spiritual with Kingdom of God as the land and all those who believe in Christ as the descendants [see Covenants I]. Assignment: Memorize the Books of the Old Testament. Write them down on a paper or word processor from memory. When you are done, download the next lesson. God Bless Glenn Davis