CHAPTER 3 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN 15 MINUTES

CHAPTER 3 THE OLD TESTAMENT IN 15 MINUTES

The Old Testament, otherwise known as the Jewish Bible or the Hebrew Bible, is divided into three sec9ons. The Torah (Law) The Wri9ngs The Prophets

We begin with Genesis and see a lot of similari9es with stories, like crea9on and the flood, with other Near Eastern religion. What s your opinion of the first few chapters in Genesis? How do you explain things in Genesis like where did Cain s wife or the people who wanted to kill Cain come from or why are there two creanon stories that don t match up?

From Genesis 12 on. The Old Testament becomes a story of the Israelites and their unique rela9onship with God. It is a story of God s call for them to be His people and the story of His Covenant with them.

What is a Covenant? Covenant - a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement Some say that the Greek word diatheke can mean both testament and covenant. How many covenants are there in the Old Testament?

There are 7 covenants in the Old Testament. 1. The Eden Covenant (Gen. 2:16) condi9ons the life of man innocence. 2. The Adam Covenant (Gen. 3:15) condi9ons the life of fallen man gives the promise of a Redeemer 3. The Noah Covenant (Gen 9:16) establishes the principle of human government 4. The Abraham Covenant (Gen. 12:12) founds the na9on of Israel

5. The Moses Covenant (Ex. 19:5) condemns all men for all have sinned. 6. The Pales9nian Covenant (Deut. 30:3) secures the final restora9on and conversion of Israel 7. The David Covenant (2 Sam. 7:16) - establishes the perpetuity of the Davidic family.

What is the Covenant in the New Testament and what verses do you use to confirm your choice? Read Hebrews 8:7-13 Is that what you expected from the new covenant?

From Exodus through Joshua we see escape from Egypt, the arrival in the Promised Land, and taking the land from the Canaanites. Once in the Promised Land, when things are going well, they forget about God and focus on their own pleasure and gaining wealth. Is that an easy trap for us to fall into when things are going well in our lives?

God delivers them through Judges and Kings. Then they forget God once again and the focus on wealth and pleasure, prac9ce idolatry and injus9ce, so God withdraws again. During this 9me, the kings who are meant to shepherd the people on behalf of God instead lead them away from God. What about leaders today, religious, polincal, etc. who lead people to or from God?

In the books from Joshua through 2 Chronicles, we see first Israel taken into cap9vity by the Assyrians and assimilated into the Assyrian Empire, and then Judah taken into cap9vity by the Babylonians but kept their na9onal iden9ty and were not assimilated. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed. Fiey years later they were freed by Cyrus and the Persians, return the Judah, and rebuilt the Temple and the city walls. This is covered in the books, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

From Genesis 12 through Esther we have covered the 9me period from 2000BC to 430BC. The author says that if you asked a Democrat or a Republican to each tell you the history of America for the last 100 years, you re likely to hear the same names but very different stories. Do you think that is true? Would you hear different stories from Democrats and Republicans regarding the last 8 years while Obama was president?

It s the same in the Bible. The history of Israel you read in the Bible is told from the historical and theological perspec9ve of the writers and the editors. The author says that the human authors and editors brought their own experiences and presupposi9ons to the task of wri9ng. How does this factor into the idea of God inspiring all scripture?

How do you handle the differences between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament?

The next segment contains the poetry and wisdom literature of the Old testament. Hebrew poetry doesn t rhyme it repeats. Hebrew poetry starts with a statement and in the next line either repeats the first in different words or states the opposite. These books capture the heart and soul of the Jewish people. Have you ever read books like the Psalms in this way?

Job is an epic poem addressing the ques9on of suffering. Job was a righteous man, yet s9ll suffered countering the idea that suffering is always a punishment for sin. Job s friends are faced with a choice of blaming God or blaming their friend so they turn on their friend. Read Job 22: 5-9 What s your opinion of Job s friends? Do you have friends like this?

Anyone who has spent 9me with a suffering friend knows how hard it is to remain present without trying to give answers. It is excrucia9ng to suffer silently with a friend who must rebuild life piece by piece, without any certainty about the outcome. Our ins9nct is to inves9gate what went wrong and iden9fy a solu9on. Then we imagine we can help our friend eliminate the cause and get back to normal as soon as possible. Have you ever encountered this situanon?

How much harm have well-inten9oned Chris9ans caused by giving pious-sounding answers to suffering, even though we have no idea what we re talking about? It s all for the best. It s part of God s plan. God never sends people more adversity than they can handle. How arrogant to imagine we know God s plan. Have you ever encountered this and how did you handle it?

Next we have the Psalms Israel s hymn and prayer book. It has joyful songs of praise, laments, and cries for help in 9mes of trouble, What is your favorite Psalm? What is your second favorite Psalm?

Next is Proverbs which contains short sayings that communicate the kind of knowledge that is gained by life experience. There are 915 verses in Proverbs, name one of the Proverbs that you have applied in your life.

The final sec9on contains the Prophets. It is divided into two groups major and minor prophets (designa9on relates to length of the book). They are somewhat arranged chronologically from about 700BC to 400BC. What is a prophet?

In Biblical 9mes, prophets were not soothsayers (seers of the future) or fortune tellers. They were social cri9cs sounding the alarm if Jews con9nued walking away from God. God would withhold His protec9on or some natural disaster would occur. These were typically in ifthe form.

Read Isaiah 1:10-20 Judea was desolate, and their ci9es burned. This awakened them to bring sacrifices and offerings, as if they would bribe God to remove the punishment, and give them leave to go on in their sin. Many who will readily part with their sacrifices, will not be persuaded to part with their sins. They relied on the mere form as a service deserving a reward. The most costly devo9ons of wicked people, without thorough reforma9on of heart and life, cannot be acceptable to God. He not only did not accept them, but he abhorred them. If we allow ourselves in secret sin, or forbidden indulgences, our very prayers will become abomina9on. Not only feel sorrow for the sin commiied, but break off the prac9ce. We must be doing, not stand idle. We must be doing the good the Lord our God requires. It is plain that the sacrifices of the law could not atone, even for outward na9onal crimes.

The author says that the Old Testament does not read like a book dictated by God. He says it reads like a diverse set of wri9ngs short stories, law codes, court histories, poetry, and prophe9c warnings and promises wriien by people who were reflec9ng upon their story in the light of their faith. Do you agree or disagree? Why? In the middle of reading Israel s story, how do you find your own story?