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Principles of Bible study:
1. Bible is a unified literary narrative: Bible as a unified literary narrative, one story in 66 books written over 1500 years by more than 40 human authors, has a beginning a middle and an end. The narrative opens with Creation (Genesis) and ends with this diseased earth destroyed and a new heaven and a new earth created (Revelation). In between we have the story of redemption which is the theme of the Bible. The main character is God; the conflict is sin.
2. One other principle which follows the first: the Bible is the best commentary on the Bible. We can use the NT to interpret the OT and vice versa. It's said the OT foreshadows the NT and the NT fulfills the OT. It all works together.
3. Bible rooted in geography: Jesus walked dusty roads and sat by the Sea of Galilee; Moses spent time as a shepherd in Midian; Paul was struck down on the road to Damascus; Jerusalem, the holy city, was conquered by David and made the capital city of Israel. The land's shape, strategic location, weather and topography all influenced the people who lived there and whose stories are recorded in Scripture. Think, for example of the images of water in a land where water is scarce.
4. Bible emerges from history: real people, doing real things, in real places, in real time. The exodus was in 1446 B.C.; David became king in 1010 B.C.; the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C.; the Southern Kingdom, Judah, fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The first exiles returned with Cyrus, king of Persia's permission, in 516 B.C., and Jesus rode into Jerusalem the week of Passover in 32 A.D. just as had been foretold in Daniel's prophecy.
5. Bible is the Word of God, inspired Word of God (II Tim 3:16 and II Peter 1:20-21).
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Jesus told his disciples and critics, "Moses wrote of me" (John 5:45). Where? In Luke 24:25-26 Jesus said that the law and the prophets all spoke of him; he explained these scriptures after his resurrection to the men on the road to Emmaus. If then the plan of salvation, Jesus its fulfillment, is on every page of the Bible including the OT, we must be alert for it.
Quickly, then, let's review what we've read
Genesis: book of beginnings: creation, sin's entrance (the story's conflict), the flood, and the calling of Abraham.
Exodus: book of deliverance, redemption of Abraham's descendants from Egypt where they were slaves. God puts them on the road for the Promised Land.
Leviticus: book of offerings and laws of worship and maintaining fellowship with God. This book emphasizes the holiness of God and his desire that we become like him, holy.
Numbers: the people are organized, and then wander for 39 years in wilderness.
Deuteronomy: Moses' farewell as he reviews the history of the nation for the new generation who will enter the Promised Land.
Joshua: the book of conquest; the Promised Land is entered, conquered, and allocated.
Judges: Here the people settle into the land God promised Abraham, and they are at first faithful to God and then begin cycles of disobedience and unfaithfulness. 13 judges respond to national crises and temporarily lead the nation against its enemies and a return to obedience to God.
Ruth: A recapitulation of Judges from one family's POV. Ruth, a Moabitess, marries a man from Bethlehem. This convert to Judaism marries her husband's kinsman redeemer, and from their son Obed comes Jesse, the father of David.
I Samuel: Samuel, the last judge, is petitioned by the people that it's time for a king. God is their king, but they reject him for Saul. Saul is a failure; he rejects God's ways, and he is replaced by David. David, a man after God's own heart, is on the run from Saul for 10 years.
II Samuel: David becomes king after Saul's death, first over Judah and then over all Israel. He reigns 40 years. And as we saw, he's a mighty warrior, terrific at conquest and winning the loyalty of men. But he fails with his own family and two of his sons rebel, one rapes his half sister - it's the sordid list of consequences of David's sin with Bathsheba whose cover-up led David to the murder of Uriah and his men. The sword never left David's house, but God forgave David, and David's son Solomon became king after him. It is Solomon's reign, magnificent and rich, which we'll cover in the first half of I Kings.
What we've read so far (Genesis through II Samuel) is the history of one nation, but more than that, it's the history of God's plan of salvation. And to trace that, we have to go clear back to the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 1-3 illustrate characteristics of God and of human beings; among them are the following:
3 God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us
3 God created us in his image, and of all the creatures God made, human beings are the only ones God breathed his own life into
3 God is holy (separate, set apart) and his holiness is in stark contrast to our sinfulness
3 God created man with free will, giving us a choice about loving and accepting him or not
3 Sin is a condition into which we are born, and our behavior manifests our heritage of sin
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In the Garden, the serpent, the shining one, was subtle in his attack on God's word; he still is. And in his temptation and Adam and Eve's fall, we notice that sin has four characteristics (and shown by human behavior ever since). They are:
• Sin is subtle
• Sin distorts our judgment
• Sin grows bigger, expands
• Sin cascades down through the generations
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In Genesis 3, we also see our first hint of a savior (Gen. 3:15) and this "hint" becomes a stronger foreshadowing in Gen. 12 when God makes a covenant with Abraham that "all the world will be blessed through you." Later in Gen. 22, God tests Abraham. This is a pivotal chapter and worth examining in detail. Note its connections to the NT in Galatians 3:6-7; Heb. 11:17. When did God announce the Gospel in advance to Abraham? In Gen. 22.
The OT is filled with types, shadows and symbols of Jesus' work on the cross. We saw one of these in Genesis 22. There are others: John uses the word "Tabernacle" when describing Jesus coming to live on the earth as a human: "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us ... " (John 1:14). The Tabernacle is the tent sanctuary Moses was told to erect in the wilderness according to a pattern God showed him on Mt. Sinai. Hebrews tells us the tabernacle in the wilderness was a shadow of the genuine tabernacle in Heaven (Heb. 8). The Tabernacle was the symbol of God's presence with his people, and was the focus of their worship and sacrifices. Jesus fulfills those roles for us.
I want to point to just a couple of others. Why does John the Baptist, when he sees Jesus coming, say "Look! (behold!) There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Why did John call him the "Lamb of God"? For Jews listening to John the Baptist the connection was clear, and it took them back to Exodus 12. The Passover required that a perfect, year-old lamb be slain, and that its blood be placed on the doorposts as a sign of faith that God would spare the first-born son of that household. Jesus, then, is the Lamb of God, and that is why we say "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast" (I Cor. 5:7-8) in Eucharist. We are remembering, with God's children whom he delivered from slavery in Egypt, that Jesus' death delivered us from the slavery of sin - if and when we appropriate, accept his gift.
For example, in Romans 8:3, Paul tells us: "For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering." What is a "sin offering"? Well, if you remember the first seven chapters of Leviticus, the sin offering is the 4th of the five great offerings God gives his people as a means of restoring fellowship with him. Those five offerings are the burnt offering (totally consumed animal, symbolizing consecration, complete dedication to God's will and service); grain offering (symbolizing gratitude for what God gives us); fellowship or peace offering (symbolizing gratitude for fellowship with God, forgiveness by God); the sin offering (substitutionary atonement for sin) and the guilt offering (recognition that sin has consequences and costs; restitution). Look at Lev. 4 for a moment to see the precise detail God in which God prescribes this offering to him. Did Jesus fulfill these requirements? Let's look at them. The first three of the five great offerings speak of the person of Christ, and these last two, of the work of Christ.
The entire Word of God presents salvation either by symbol (sacrifices), by demonstration (Abraham sacrificing his son); prophecy (Isaiah 53, among others), and of course by the Gospel itself: Jesus death, burial and resurrection (I Cor. 15).
Now is the OT God the same as the NT God? Yes. Emphatically yes. Granted, our concept of God in a few chapters of Genesis (the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah) picture God as a God of punishment. When Nadab and Abihu offered a sacrifice with unauthorized fire, and God burnt them to ashes, we might say "wow; why didn't he give them a chance?" Or when the Kohathite rebels defy Moses and God opens the earth and swallows them up, we might think "how can God do that?" There are a number of explanations, but Exodus 34:6-7 tells us who God is, and it is God who is speaking: "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished ... " God meets Moses on the mountain once again to re-write the tablets of stone. Recall that in Ex. 32, at the sight of the orgy around the golden calf, Moses had thrown down the original tables and they'd broken. Now Moses asks to see God; Moses needs reassurance that God still is the God he'd been with on Mt. Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, and that God will go with Moses and his people to the Promised Land. God describes his character as he passes Moses (Moses hidden in the cleft of a rock). Listen to the 8 characteristics of God:
Compassionate
Gracious
Slow to anger
Abounding in love
Abounding in faithfulness
Maintaining love to thousands
Forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin
Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
The first seven describe God in the flesh, Jesus who is the visible image of the invisible God, as Paul tells us in Colossians. God is a holy God; he cannot tolerate sin. He gives us time, plenty of time, to repent and turn to him, to accept his gift of salvation. Think about John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's love! And Peter writes: "The Lord does not delay about what he promises, according to some people's conception of slowness, but he is long-suffering toward you, not willing that any should perish but that all should turn to repentance." (II Peter 3:9)
God will punish the sinful, and those who remain in their sin, rejecting his offer of salvation. It's his nature and character to do this. But God is also loving and long-suffering: he gave us Jesus and waits for us to accept this gift by our free will, and by his mercy and grace.
Contrast these three verses, one from the OT and one from the NT, and they tell you all you need to know about God: "Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord." (Ps. 32:10); and "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever trusts in him will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). "He [God, the Holy Spirit] who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:6)
Now what's ahead in I and II Kings: I Kings begins with David's death and the transfer of leadership to Solomon. Solomon builds the temple that David wanted to build; he is successful as an administrator, expanding Israel's borders to the greatest extent ever. But when Solomon dies, the kingdom splits and civil war carries on for 100 years. We'll read from I Kings 12 to the end of II Kings about the 39 kings who led Israel (northern kingdom) and Judah (southern kingdom). And the monarchy which reached its zenith under David and Solomon, ends in destruction.
Let's close in prayer.
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