THE
OLD TESTAMENT on CD
Genesis
; Exodus
; Leviticus
; Numbers
; Deuteronomy
; Joshua
; Judges
; Ruth
; 1st & 2nd Samuel
; 1st & 2nd Kings
; 1st & 2nd Chronicles
; Ezra
; Nehemiah
; Esther
; Job
; Psalms
; Proverbs
; Ecclesiastes
; Song of Solomon
; Isaiah
; Jeremiah
; Lamentations
; Ezekiel
; Daniel
; Hosea
; Joel
; Amos
; Obadiah
; Jonah
; Micah
; Nahum
; Habakkuk
; Zephaniah
; Haggai
; Zechariah
; Malachi
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN is available now on CD.
Contact me.
The best selling book of all time is the
Bible. Almost every home in America has at least one.
Each year thousands of people make New Years Resolutions to read it
from cover to cover - and a few weeks later they abandon the plan when they
run into “the begats”. You know, “Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat
Jacob.”
But the Bible isn’t an ancestry list. It’s the explanation of the one true God’s
relationship with the people He created.
The Bible tells about the lives of different
people from different nations who lived anywhere from 4,000 years ago to 2,000
years ago. And yet it offers proof
that God’s relationship is the same with us today as it was with them.
For the most part, the nations are those
of what we now call the Middle East - Israel, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia,
Jordan and Syria. Towards the end
of the Bible, Turkey, Italy, Greece and the Baltic states are also included.
It might be helpful to glance at a world
map to get your bearings. By the way,
you might also like to grab a Bible as we take a tour.
There are frequently maps in the back of Bibles. One more note is that there are several English
translations of the Bible. Therefore,
the wording in yours may differ a little from mine.
The Bible was written over a period of 2,000
years. It is divided into “books.” The books are divided into chapters and the
chapters are divided into verses. The
reference of John 3:16 means the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16. Many of the book titles are the author’s name,
like John. Other titles refer to the
subject of the book, like Proverbs. Many
of the books are narrative. They relate
what happened, when and to whom. Other books are poetry. Some
are letters from one person to another, or to a group, containing teaching
and instruction. And some are prophetical
- containing comfort or warnings. Your
Bible has a table of contents at the beginning that will help you find your
way around.
The Bible claims to be God’s word sent from
God; and that its use is beneficial to us.
It is each person’s choice to accept or reject that truth, but to see
where it says it look in 2 Timothy 3:16.
2 Timothy is towards the end of the Bible.
It was a letter written to a young pastor named Timothy by the Apostle
Paul. We’re getting ahead of ourselves, but it’s
important for you to see this. Paul
tells Timothy, “All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
and training in righteousness.”
In
the Bible God reveals His character.
Then He reveals the character of mankind.
And then He reveals His sacrificial plan for bringing the two together,
now and forever.
So what’s in it?
Book one, chapter one, verse one is Genesis
1:1 and it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis means “beginning” and beginnings is
the subject of the first book. Genesis
is 50 chapters long. It tells of God’s
creation of light, the earth, the sun, moon and stars, water, air, plants,
animals and people – the one part of creation made in God’s image.
It tells of the beginning of God’s relationship
to man and woman and it tells how that relationship was first broken. It also tells of the consequences of the broken
relationship for all people. The consequences
are dire.
The original relationship was one of life,
freedom and peace with God and with others.
Since Adam was created in God’s image, his life included a spiritual
life - one that communicated with God who is Spirit.
But the relationship was broken when God’s goodness and his sovereignty
- his right to rule - were questioned and defied. The result was death, bondage and strife - strife between God and
his people, between one person and another, strife within each person and
strife between people and all creation. Death
included spiritual death. Since then
all mankind has been born in Adam’s image, spiritually dead to God.
All of this is found in Genesis chapters 1, 2 and 3.
Genesis sets the stage for the rest of what
follows in the Bible. Death, bondage
and strife are defeated; and life, freedom and peace with God and all creation
are triumphantly restored by God Himself and offered anew to mankind through
His Son. But we’re getting ahead of
ourselves again.
The story of the growth in population of
the earth and the continual wickedness and rebellion of the people begins
in Genesis chapter 4 with Cain murdering his brother Abel.
After several generations God was grieved by the wickedness and said
He would wipe mankind from the face of the earth and all the creatures of
the air and those who moved along the ground.
Genesis 6:8 says, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
God caused a great flood through which he
safely carried Noah and his family and enough creatures to start over again
when the earth dried up. Of Noah’s
three sons, Shem became the ancestor of a man named Abram.
Abram lived in Ur of the Chaldeans that is
on the present day border of Iran and Iraq near the Persian Gulf. Abram’s father took Abram and his wife Sarai and Abram’s nephew,
Lot, and moved to Haran that is in present day Syria.
It was in Haran that the Lord
first called to Abram (recorded in Genesis 12:1) and said, “Leave your country,
your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make
your name great, and you will be a blessing, I will bless those who bless
you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.” So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot and Sarai went
with him. When they arrived in Canaan,
which is present day Israel, the Lord
appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”
Abram settled to the west and Lot to the
east in Sodom. After this the word of the Lord came to Abram; and Abram asked God
who would be his heir since he and Sarai were very old and childless. God answered that Abram would have a son who
would be his heir; and then took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens
and count the stars - if indeed you can count them... so shall your offspring
be.”
Abram believed God; and God counted that
as righteousness. This is key. In God's eyes, believing what He says is counted
as righteousness.
Since Sarai was old and barren, she and Abram
arranged for him to sleep with her maidservant Hagar to give him a son. She bore Ishmael when Abram was eighty-six
years old.
Thirteen years later, when Abram was ninety-nine,
the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God
Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s to Sarah and made
a covenant, or promise, with Abraham that Abraham would be the father of many
nations, that the whole land of Canaan would belong to his descendants and
that the Lord would be their
God. The sign of the covenant was circumcision of
all the males. Abraham accepted the
covenant and was circumcised.
God also said that Sarah would bear a son,
Isaac, and God would keep his covenant with Isaac and his descendants. Ishmael would be blessed by God and made the
father of twelve rulers (which are the Arabic nations) but God’s covenant
would be established with Isaac. This
is an example of God’s grace towards His children in that even though Ishmael
was born out of Abraham and Sarah’s unbelief in God’s ability to give them
a son, He blessed Ishmael. Abraham
and his descendants through his son, Isaac, were called Hebrews.
The books of the Bible from Genesis through
Nehemiah are the history of God’s choosing a people to be His own and His
relationship with His chosen people. The
next books Job through Song of Solomon are poetical or wisdom books that were
written throughout that history. And
the books Isaiah through Malachi are prophetical books that record the warnings
and comforts given by God through his prophets to His people throughout their
history.
Now, for more history:
Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah when they were very old. The name Isaac means, he laughs, since Sarah
said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will
laugh with me!”
Sometime later, God tested Abraham. He said, in Genesis 22:2, “Take your son, your
only son Isaac, whom you love... and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah as a burnt
offering.”
And even though God had promised Abraham
that Isaac’s descendants would be too numerous to count, Abraham rose early
the next morning, cut enough wood for the burnt offering, took two servants
and Isaac and set out for Mount Moriah. On
the third day, he looked up and saw the place in the distance and told his
servants, “Stay here while I and the boy go over there.
We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
So Abraham took the wood and placed it on Isaac and he himself carried
the fire and the knife. As they walked,
Isaac spoke up and said, “Father, the fire and wood are here, but where is
the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham
answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb, my son.” When they reached the place, Abraham built
an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then
he bound Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife
to slay his son. But the angel of
the Lord called out to him,
“Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your
son, your only son.” Abraham looked
up and saw a ram caught in the thicket. He
took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
This is an example of God’s word telling
us about true events which took place 4,000 years ago but which also foretell
events that happened in the future. When
Abraham said to Isaac, “God Himself will provide the lamb” he not only was
trusting God for that moment to provide a sacrifice other than Isaac, but
he was also foretelling the fact that God would provide Jesus who was called
the Lamb of God, as a sacrifice for all.
But once again, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Isaac grew and married Rebekah when he was
forty. Rebekah became pregnant with twin boys, Jacob
and Esau. The Bible follows Jacob’s
descendants.
Jacob fell in love with Rachel. But her father deceived Jacob into working seven years for him to
win Rachel’s hand only to force him to marry her older sister, Leah. So Jacob married Leah. Then he was given Rachel in return for seven
more years of labor. Jacob had twelve
sons. One night in deep distress over
a much-feared encounter with his brother, Esau, Jacob wrestled with the angel
of God all night and prevailed, demanding a blessing from God. That night God changed Jacob’s name to Israel
- which means “struggles with God.” Jacob’s
twelve sons, therefore, became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel.
One of those sons was Joseph whom Israel
loved very much because he had been born to him in his old age. Israel made a special coat of many colors and ornaments for him.
His brothers were jealous and hated him.
When Joseph had two dreams that showed that someday his whole family
would all be bowing down to him, his brothers planned to kill him.
But when a caravan came by on its way to Egypt, they sold Joseph to
them and told Israel that a wild animal had killed Joseph.
In Egypt, Joseph found favor with God and
with man and was put in charge of the household of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s
officials. God blessed Potiphar’s household because of
Joseph. But, one day, Potiphar’s wife
tried to seduce Joseph, and when he wouldn’t give in to her, she made up a
story accusing him of seducing her and Potiphar had him thrown into prison.
Two years later while Joseph was still in
prison, Pharaoh had a two dreams that troubled him greatly.
Joseph had interpreted dreams before and was called to interpret Pharaoh’s
dreams. The dreams were from God who
was revealing to Pharaoh that there were seven years of great abundance coming
followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh’s
response was that since God had revealed these things to Joseph, there was
no one as wise and discerning as Joseph; and Pharaoh put Joseph in charge
of all of Egypt.
During the seven years of abundance, Joseph
wisely collected and stored the extra supplies.
When the seven years of famine began, surrounding lands suffered but
in Egypt there was food.
When Joseph’s father, Israel, heard that
there was food in Egypt, he told his sons to go down and buy some food. Benjamin, the youngest did not go. They came before Joseph to ask for food and did not recognize him
as their brother; but Joseph recognized them.
Not trusting their answers that their father and brother were alive,
he sent them back to Canaan with some food and orders to return to him with
their brother. In much distress and
fear Israel allowed them to return to Egypt with Benjamin. When they came before Joseph again, he revealed his identity to
them. Pharaoh then invited them to
return to their home and gather their families and belongings and come settle
in Egypt. The children of Israel settled
in the land of Goshen in Egypt. There
were 70 in all. This is the end of
Genesis.
Exodus chapter 1 verse 6 says, “Now Joseph
and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were
fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous so that the
land was filled with them.”
A new king, who did not know Joseph or his
family, worried that the Israelites would become mighty and side with an enemy
if a war broke out. So he put slave
masters over them and oppressed them with forced labor.
But the Israelites continued to multiply. Then Pharaoh commanded the midwives to throw every Israelite baby
boy that was born into the river.
A man of the tribe of Levi and his wife had
a son. She hid him for three months but when she could
hide him no longer, she placed him in a basket made of reeds and placed it
in the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter
found him and named him Moses. He
became her son.
When Moses was grown he killed an Egyptian
for mistreating a Hebrew slave. When
Pharaoh heard, he tried to kill Moses, so Moses fled to the desert. He came to Midian where he married and lived for forty years tending
sheep.
During that time, the king in Egypt died
and the Israelites were groaning in their slavery and cried out to God. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
One day Moses as he was tending his sheep
came to Horeb, the mountain of God and saw a bush there, on fire.
Yet the bush didn’t burn up. God
called to Moses, “Moses, Moses.” And Moses responded, “Here I am.” God said, “Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for where you are standing
is holy ground. I am the God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
The Lord said, “I have
seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I
have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned
about their suffering. So I have come
down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out
of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey
- the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and
Jebusites. So now I am sending you
to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
But Moses said, “Who am I, that I should
go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
And God said, “I will be with you.”
And Moses said, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘the
God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me ‘What is His name?’ then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites:
‘I AM’ has sent me to you. This is
my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to
generation.”
The sound of the Hebrew letters that spell
I AM, have been pronounced YAHWEH, which has also been called Jehovah. I thinks it’s wonderful that His name is I
AM, that He is ever-present and that His Son’s name is Immanuel, which means
“God with us.” This is not a God who
is aloof, unaware or distant.
Moses had one more argument for God and said
that he wasn’t an eloquent speaker. God’s
response was, “Who gave man his mouth? Who
makes him deaf and mute? Who gives
him sight or makes him blind? Is it
not I, the Lord?
Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” So Moses went, complaining, and on his way
met his brother Aaron whom God had called to go meet Moses in the desert. Aaron was to speak for Moses.
Moses and Aaron brought together the elders
of the tribes of Israel; and when they heard that the Lord
was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. The Lord
is always concerned about His people.
Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh
and said, “This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival
for me in the desert.’” But Pharaoh
said,” I do not know the Lord
and I will not let Israel go.” He
also told the slave drivers to make the Israelites maintain their daily quota
of bricks even though they now would have to gather their own straw for making
them. The Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron
and Moses complained to God.
God repeated His promise to them, “I will
free you from being slaves...I will redeem you with an outstretched arm...
I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God... I am the Lord.” He told Moses
that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart and that even though God would perform
miraculous signs, Pharaoh would not let the people go. And just as God said even after the nine plagues
recorded in Exodus chapters 7 through 10 Pharaoh did not let God’s people
go.
But then the tenth and last plague came. Moses told Pharaoh what God had said, “About
midnight I will go throughout Egypt and every firstborn son in Egypt will
die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the slave
girl, and the firstborn of the cattle as well.
There will be a loud wailing throughout Egypt -- but among the Israelites
not a dog will bark at any man or animal. Then you will know that the Lord
makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
Then the Lord
told Moses and Aaron, “from now on, every year at this time, for every generation
to come, take a lamb for each family and slaughter it at twilight.
Take some of the blood and put it on the sides and top of the doorframes
of their houses. That same night, eat the meat roasted over
the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. Eat it with your coat and sandals on and your
staff in your hand. Eat in haste. It is the Lord’s
Passover. On that same night I will
pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn and will bring judgment
on the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
The blood will be a sign for you on the houses and when I see the blood,
I will pass over you.” The Israelites
did just as the Lord commanded.
At midnight the Lord
struck down the firstborn of Egypt. There
was not a house without someone dead. Pharaoh’s son died and Pharaoh came to Moses and Aaron and commanded
them to take their flocks and herds and go. So the Israelites left, 600,000 men plus women and children. The Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years.
At the end of 430 years, to the very day, they left Egypt.
God led the people around the long way to
avoid war with the Philistines. Then
Pharaoh changed his mind about letting them go.
He took out his army and pursued them.
He came upon them with their backs to the Red Sea.
The people cried out to Moses who told them to “stand firm and see
the deliverance the Lord would
bring today.” God told him to raise
his staff over the sea. Moses did
and the sea parted, leaving dry ground for the Israelites to cross on all
night with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
At daybreak the Egyptians followed them into the sea and the water
flowed back on them and none survived.
The Israelites traveled three days without
water and cried out to Moses. Twice
God provided water for them. Then
they wanted food. God provided manna, which was like sweet bread,
from heaven, that came with the dew each morning and could be collected for
each day.
After three months they came to Mount Sinai
and they made their camp. Moses went
up on the mountain. The Lord descended on Mount Sinai in a cloud with thunder and lightening
and gave Moses the Ten Commandments. They are recorded in Exodus 20 verses 1 through 17.
The first four commandments refer to God’s
relationship with people:
I.
I am the Lord your God, who
brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, you shall have no other
gods before me.
II.
You shall not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I the Lord your God am a
jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third
and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to thousands
who love me and keep my commandments.
III.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for God will not hold anyone
guiltless who misuses His name.
IV.
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all work, but
the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord
your God. On it you shall not do any
work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant,
nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, but He rested on the seventh day.
Therefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The last six commandments refer to people’s relationships with each other:
V.
Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the
Lord your God is giving you.
VI.
You shall not murder.
VII.
You shall not commit adultery.
VIII.
You shall not steal.
IX.
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
X.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or
his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs
to your neighbor.
When the people saw the thunder and lightening
and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain smoke, they trembled with fear
and told Moses to speak to them for God.
Moses said, “Do not be afraid. God
has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you
from sinning.”
Then God set forth the rules they were to
live by, property rights, social responsibilities, laws of justice and mercy
and Sabbath laws. He promised to send
His angel before them into the land of Canaan and drive out the inhabitants
before them - reminding them not to bow down and worship any of the foreign
gods.
God called Moses back up on the mountain
where he stayed forty days and nights. During
that time God laid out the plan for the tabernacle and the duties of the priests. Altars, lamp stands, priestly garments, the
courtyard - all with purpose and significance - all laid out as a way for
God’s people to meet with Him and offer Him sacrifices for their sins. As a part of the design was an ark, a wooden
chest covered in gold, overshadowed by two carved angels or cherubim. This ark would be placed in the innermost room
of the tabernacle, behind a thick veil. It
was here, above the mercy seat which is the top of the ark, and between the
cherubim that God could be found to meet with Moses.
The priests must be consecrated, clean, and
holy. God must be honored as the only true God, the
Creator, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God who brought them
out of slavery and who had promised to be their God and to lead them to a
land flowing with milk and honey. Moses
was meeting with this God on the mountain.
But down below...
When the people saw Moses was so long in
coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come,
make us gods who will go before us. As
for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has
happened to him.” And Aaron told them to bring him all their
gold jewelry and he melted it down and made it into an idol cast in the shape
of a calf. They held a festival, sacrificed
burnt offerings to it and partied.
The Lord
knew it and sent Moses down the mountain.
God was going to destroy the people.
But Moses interceded for them and reasoned with Him that God’s reputation
would be destroyed in Egypt if the Egyptians saw what He had done to the Israelites.
When Moses approached the camp his anger burned and he threw down and
broke the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments engraved by the hand of
God.
He confronted Aaron whose response was, “I
threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf!”
Then the Lord struck
the people with a plague because of what they had done with the calf.
After that He told them to leave that place
and go up to the land flowing with milk and honey, an angel of the Lord would go before them to drive out the inhabitants, but
that He would not go with them. Then
they began to mourn. And Moses said
to the Lord, “If your presence
does not go with us, do not send us up from here.”
And God replied, “I will do the very thing you ask because I am pleased
with you and I know you by name.” Then
Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And
God said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will
proclaim my name, the Lord,
in your presence. I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion. But you cannot see my
face, for no one may see me and live. There
is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and
cover you with my hand and you will see my back, but my face must not be seen.”
Moses chiseled out two new stone tablets and then God passed by Moses
proclaiming His name and His character: “The
Lord, the Lord,
the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
Moses bowed down and worshiped. When
Moses came down from the mountain his face was radiant because He had spoken
with the Lord.
And he had to put a veil over his face because the people were afraid
to come near him.
They laid out the tabernacle and consecrated
priests and put some manna and the two stone tablets in the ark. Then the cloud of God covered and filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites whenever
the cloud lifted they would set out and for as long as the cloud did not lift,
they encamped - so the cloud of the Lord
was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night. This is the end of Exodus.
The book of Leviticus contains rules and
regulations for the priests, from the tribe of Levi.
Levi was one of Jacob’s 12 sons. Leviticus
details how and when the priests were to sacrifice offerings to God, and how
and when the people were to bring offerings and sacrifices. Although Leviticus is packed full of such religious
details, it never overlooks the primary need of God’s people to have a living
relationship with Him. The tribe of
Levi was chosen to be the priests of God, and Aaron and his sons began as
the first priests. Priests stand between
God and His people as mediators and advocates. The people and the priests were called by God
to be holy - for God Himself is holy.
The book of Numbers extensively lists the
names and numbers of the people in the 12 tribes of Israel in the second year
of their journey. It also continues
with the history of the Israelites - their dealings with God, setting up the
tabernacle, complaining about not having any meat, God’s provision of meat,
and celebrating the first anniversary of Passover.
When they finally reached the outskirts of
Canaan they sent 12 men to explore the land.
They returned after forty days with reports of a land flowing with
milk and honey. A single cluster of
grapes was so large that it had to be carried on a pole between them. But 10 of the men feared the powerful inhabitants
of the land and their fortified cities. Caleb and Joshua told them, “The land we passed through and explored
is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, He will lead
us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to
us. Only do not rebel against the
Lord.
And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow
them up. Their protection is gone,
but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” But the people talked about stoning them.
The glory of the Lord appeared at the Tent of Meeting and
God asked Moses, “How long will the people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me,
in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?” Once again God told Moses He would wipe out
the people and build a nation from the descendants of Moses and Moses said,
“In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of your people.” The Lord
replied, “I have forgiven them as you have asked. Nevertheless, not one of them shall enter the promised land. No one whoever treated me with contempt will
see it. But since my servant Caleb
has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into
the land.” He also said Joshua could
enter.
The people begin to travel around the land,
never entering Canaan. It is an eleven-day
trip by foot from Egypt to Israel, but they traveled and encamped for 38 more
years. During that time the older
generation died in the wilderness.
The book of Deuteronomy is a reminder to
the new generation of Israelites of all that God had done for Israel in the
past and what He required of them in the future.
The key verse is in Deuteronomy 6:4-12, “Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord
is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk
about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you
lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind
them on your foreheads. Write them
on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. When the Lord your
God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, to give you - a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,
houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you
did not did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant - then
when you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out
of the land of slavery. Fear the Lord your God, serve Him only... do not
follow other gods, the gods of the people around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a
jealous God and His anger will burn against you, and He will destroy you from
the face of the land.”
Well, guess what they eventually did. Much of the rest of the history of Israel involves
their turning to other gods. God sent
prophets among them to warn them, but they turned from God many times.
The good news is that some, a remnant, were
faithful.
The history continues with the book of Joshua. The land of Israel was inhabited. So for the Israelites to settle there they
had to go to war and dispossess the people of the land. God commissioned Joshua to be the commander.
God said, “Be strong and courageous... and do not let this Book of
the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you
may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and have success... Do not be terrified;
do not be discouraged, for the Lord
your God will be with you wherever you go.”
And He was. They defeated king after king and took possession
of the land. Then the land was divided
up between the 12 tribes. Ten tribes
settled west of the Jordan River and two settled to the east.
After Joshua died there were still more battles
to be fought. God raised up faithful
judges as governors of the people. Except
for Samson whose long hair, strength and victory over the Philistines are
renown, the other judges may be less well-known.
Ehud was a left-handed man who was able to surprise his opponent with
a knife thrust from his right thigh… Deborah was a woman judge… Jephthah made an unwise vow which he soon regretted.
And Gideon fought a battle against the Midianites
with only 300 men. He also confirmed
God’s call to him by putting a fleece on the ground at night and asking God
to make it wet or dry as a sign that the call was really from God. The judges were an interesting lot.
While there was a judge ruling in the land,
the people obeyed the Lord as
He rescued them from disaster time and again.
But then, in a cyclical pattern, as soon as the judge was gone, the
people did what was right in their own eyes – resulting in religious and moral
corruption. It happened time after time and the book of
Judges ends with the phrase, “In those days, Israel had no king; everyone
did as he saw fit”
The events told in the small book of Ruth
took place during the period of time when judges ruled Israel.
There was a famine in Israel and an Israelite from Bethlehem, his wife,
Naomi, and their two sons moved east to live in the country of Moab. The sons married women of Moab, one of whom
was Ruth. Naomi’s husband died and
later her two sons died as well. Naomi
decided to go back to Israel since the famine was over. She encouraged her two daughters-in-law to
stay in Moab because she saw that she could provide no future for them. But Ruth would not stay behind. She said to Naomi, “Where you go I will go,
and where you stay I will stay. Your
people will be my people and your God my God.”
This is a story of loyalty and faithfulness. It is also a story of self-giving love and the blessings that it
brings.
God moves in Ruth’s life to lead her to the
fields of one of Naomi’s relatives named Boaz.
He treats her with great kindness, protection and respect, letting
her gather grain from his fields, assuring that more than enough is left behind
for her. Both Boaz and Ruth go beyond what is required
in family obligations, truly blessing Naomi and each other. They eventually are married and have a son
who becomes the grandfather of King David.
The books of 1st and 2nd Samuel were originally
one long book. They tell the events
in the lives of one prophet and two kings of Israel and are divided at the
death of the 1st king.
The prophet is Samuel.
His mother was Hannah. Hannah
was barren, and wept and prayed much that the Lord
would give her a son - promising to the priest, Eli, that she would give him
back to the Lord. She conceived and bore Samuel. When he was three, she kept her word and presented
him to the Lord to live and
serve Him for his whole life. Hannah’s
beautiful prayer then is recorded in Chapter 2, and among its verses she declares,
“There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our
God.”
In much the same way as God used Moses to
mold His people into a nation, He chose and used Hannah’s son, Samuel, to
inaugurate the period of kingship for Israel.
At this time Eli’s two sons were unfaithful
in their ministry as priests and had no regard for the Lord. Also the neighboring Philistines captured the
Ark of the Covenant which was where Moses had met with God and which is where
God was enthroned. It was a time when
God’s people were ceasing to trust in Him as their King and Ruler.
Samuel warned the people that having a king
such as their neighbors had would only bring hardship, but they insisted and
God let them have a king. His name
was Saul. Samuel anointed him as king according to God’s
command. Saul was thirty when he became
king and he reigned for forty-two years. Although Saul led Israel in victory over the Philistines, he later
displeased God by holding back the choice livestock after a battle with the
Amalekites in which he had been commanded by God to completely destroy the
Amalekites and all their possessions. When
confronted by Samuel, Saul denied keeping the livestock. One of the best responses in the Bible is Samuel’s
response to Saul in 1 Samuel 15, “If you have completely obeyed, destroying
all their possessions including the livestock, then what is this bleating
of sheep in my ears? What is this
lowing of cattle I hear?” Saul insisted
that what he had done was right - he was going to use the livestock to sacrifice
to God. But partial obedience isn’t obedience at all, it is just convenience.
So Samuel replied, “Does the Lord
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice
of the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat
of rams. For rebellion is like the
sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” And that was it. God was
grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel for Saul had no heart for God.
And God sent Samuel to anoint another king.
This king was from Bethlehem. He was a shepherd, the youngest of eight sons of Jesse and his name
was David. His great-grandparents
were Ruth and Boaz. The Lord chose David over his brothers, saying
that He does not look at the outer appearance as man does, but that He looks
at the heart. Throughout his life,
whether in victory or defeat or success or failure, David proved himself to
be a man after God’s own heart. His
story is told beginning in 1 Samuel 16 and ends at 1 Kings 2. It also is told from 1 Chronicles 11 through
29 since the Chronicles books parallel the events recorded in 1 & 2 Samuel
and 1 & 2 Kings.
By the time you’ve read this far in the Bible,
you have probably come to realize that these people are just like you and
me. And King David is no different, except that
in every situation, his love for God drives him to praise, to victory or to
repentance. Since God’s primary command
is to love Him, a look at David can be instructive and encouraging for us
all.
Probably one of the most well-known stories
about King David is “David and Goliath.”
You can read the account of that battle in 1 Samuel 17.
The nation of Israel was at war with the Philistines, a warlike people
who lived to the west of Israel in present-day Palestine. The Philistines were once again at war with
Israel. Every day for 40 days, the
Philistines sent forth Goliath, a frightening warrior over 9 feet tall. Day after day he stepped out of camp and terrified
the Israelites by shouting to them that there was no one in Israel who could
defeat him. Young David came into
camp and claimed that with the power of the God of Israel he would defeat
Goliath. The Israelites strapped on
heavy armor to protect David, but he just could not adjust to the weight. So he took it off and with his faith in the
power of God as his only armor, he took a stone in his slingshot, ran full
speed toward Goliath and struck him right between the eyes, killing him. The Philistines were then defeated by Israel.
King Saul began to be jealous of David as
people sang songs about Saul killing thousands, but David killing ten thousand. Trying to kill David, Saul pursues him a length
throughout the hills of Israel. David
wrote poetry even during these times, crying out to God for His protection,
justice and mercy in his times of need. These are recorded in the book of Psalms found later in the Old
Testament.
As David was being pursued, with his own
life in danger from Saul, he came upon Saul in a cave, unaware that he was
being watched. It was the perfect opportunity for David to
kill Saul and end his own persecution, but he didn’t do it. Saul had been anointed by God as king over
Israel and David refused to strike God’s anointed, so he quietly cut off a
corner of Saul’s robe as proof that he was that close and yet had spared Saul’s
life.
King Saul died and David was crowned king. This is the event that separates the books
of 1st and 2nd Samuel from each other.
After David was crowned king, he began establishing
his authority over the whole kingdom, eventually making Jerusalem the center
of government. It is known as the City of David still today.
After David’s reign was established, he desired
to build a temple for God to replace the tent where the Ark of the Covenant
was. But God replied through Nathan the prophet
that He had not asked for a temple to be built by David and that, in fact,
He would establish a dynasty for David. That
promise or covenant with David is recorded in 2 Samuel 7:8-16. The bottom-line is that God promised David
that his son would succeed him on the throne and that his house would have
the right to rule Israel forever. Jesus
Christ is the fulfillment of these promises as he is a direct descendant of
King David.
There are many victories in David’s life
recorded in the Bible. But there are
also his failures. 2 Samuel 11 tells
the story of his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. For sometime he did not admit his sin. Finally, when confronted by Nathan, he cried
out to God in confession and repentance to Him. Psalm 51 records his cry to God and remains one of the most accurate
descriptions of the effects of unconfessed sin and the results of forgiveness
and restoration ever written. God
forgave David, but, because he had been a man of bloodshed, he was not permitted
to build a temple for God. That privilege
was given to his son, Solomon.
King Saul’s heart turned away from God when
he was defeated. David’s heart was
wholly for God even in his own failures.
But Solomon’s heart was halfway turned toward God.
A day came when the Lord
appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask what you wish Me to give you.”
Solomon did not request fame or prosperity, but he requested wisdom
about how to rule. God granted him that request and also gave
him more riches and honor than anyone in all the world.
The temple he built for God was spectacular. The kingdom was united, prosperous and well-known.
God Himself dwelt above the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies,
behind the curtain in the temple. And
God promised to be the God of Israel and that they would be His people.
But the people turned from following God
as the Solomon’s 700 wives and 300 concubines became a snare for him. He married women from outside Israel and began to worship their
foreign gods. His heart turned toward
the women and away from the One True God of Israel. And the people followed his example. So God tore the kingdom from him and at his death divided it, north
and south.
The northern part of the country was called
Israel. This Northern Kingdom consisted of 10 of the
12 tribes of Israel and began its rule under Rehoboam, Solomon’s son.
For the next 300 years these tribes were
ruled by a series of kings – none of whom worshiped God.
Each one seemed to be more idolatrous than the next. Eventually, in 722 B.C. God sent judgment on
Israel as Assyria attacked and conquered them.
Meanwhile, down south in Judah, the two tribes
of Judah and Benjamin began their reign under Jeroboam.
They continued down a similar path toward judgment because of idolatry.
It just took them another hundred years or so to get there.
Whereas there were no faithful kings in Israel, there were a few in
Judah. By 586 B.C. the people had
become so idolatrous and morally corrupt that judgment came upon them from
Babylon where they were exiled for 70 years.
The content of 1st & 2nd
Kings is the history of the kingdom of Israel, united and then divided. Each king is listed, often with the age at
which he ascended the throne and age which he died or was dethroned. Always his faithfulness to God is recorded.
The people built altars to foreign gods on
hills and mountains and sacrificed things unclean and forbidden and abominable
to God. They did not worship God or
obey His commands.
In all of this God brought clear and stern
warnings to His people, calling them to return to Him.
He did it by sending His word through prophets. Men who spoke, “Thus saith the Lord.”
The first one recorded in 1 Kings is the
prophet Elijah. Later follows his
protTgT, Elisha in 2 Kings.
1 Kings 16:30 says that a king in Israel,
Ahab, “did evil in the sight of the Lord
more than all who were before him.” It
says he provoked God. And God sent
Elijah – His spokesman - who began his ministry by announcing that there would
be no rain for three years in Israel. And
there was no rain in Israel for three years.
A series of miracles and God’s hand on Elijah
are recorded as God confirms Elijah as His own and sends judgment on the priests
of the foreign god Baal as well as warning to king Ahab. The death of Ahab marks the end of 1 Kings.
Elijah transfers his ministry to Elisha and
is taken up into heaven in a whirlwind as Elisha watches.
Elisha received a double portion of God’s grace and it seems as if
a double portion of miracles followed him as he ministered to the people of
Judah.
In all this, God’s right to rule and be worshiped
as well as His goodness and power are proclaimed by the prophets into a land
where God’s name had at one time been revered.
This is the job of all of God’s prophets of the Bible: to remind the
people of God’s goodness and greatness and His call to holiness, reverence
and relationship with Him.
During the years that the Northern kingdom
was in moral and spiritual decline God sent prophets to call the leaders and
the people to repent and return to a relationship of worship and reverence
of God. These prophets’ words are recorded in the books
named after them: Amos and Hosea. The
section of the Old Testament in which these books are found is referred to
as the Minor Prophets. What they had
to say was not minor, but the size of the writings is smaller than the four
Major Prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. We’ll examine each of these books.
A summary of the same time period of the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah in 1st and 2nd Kings is
found in 1st and 2nd Chronicles.
Here the relationship of the people with God is emphasized. 1st Chronicles emphasizes the reign of King David.
2nd Chronicles covers the reign of King Solomon through
the fall of both kingdoms. The dedication of the temple built by Solomon
is significant. In chapters 5 through
7, after Solomon prayed for God’s attention to His people, God responds beginning
in chapter 7 verse 12 that He had heard his prayer and had chosen that place
for Himself as a house of sacrifice. And He also gives this promise: “If My people who are called by
My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their
wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will
heal their land.” That promise is
still good today.
Between 932 and 586 B.C. the united kingdom
of Israel, God’s specially chosen nation became divided and was eventually
conquered by two neighboring nations. The
north was conquered by Assyria and the south, Judah, conquered by Babylon
and taken into exile. God’s prophets
had warned that it would happen. God
had made clear that blessing would follow obedience to His word and judgment
would follow disobedience. And they
disobeyed.
But God also promised, through the prophet
Jeremiah, that He would let the land of Judah rest for 70 years and that then
He would return a remnant from Babylon to Judah.
And He did.
The book of Ezra is the story of the return
of the first group of 49,000 people to Judah 70 years later. By now Persia had conquered Babylon and King Cyrus of Persia issued
a decree that those of God’s people who desired to return to Jerusalem to
rebuild the temple may return. The
first group returned and built the foundation of the temple and began worshiping
there again. But opposition came from
surrounding enemies and the work on the temple stopped for 15 years.
Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied
to the Jews in Judah, challenging them and encouraging them to put the condition
of God’s house above their own. At
the same time, officials in the area protested their building and checked
with Persia to see if their actions were legal.
The current King Darius had the archives searched. They verified that Cyrus had given his permission.
So the work resumed. Then temple was completed on March 12, 515
B.C. and Passover was celebrated shortly afterward.
58 years later Ezra also led a group to Jerusalem. Ezra was a priest whose ancestry went back
to Moses and his brother Aaron. He
was a man well-versed in God’s laws, living in Babylon. He wrote the book of Ezra, 1st and 2nd Chronicles.
Ezra 7:9-10 says that the good hand of the Lord
was on him for he had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances
in Israel. The people returned safely
and a spiritual revival of the people began.
Nehemiah lived in Babylon as cupbearer to
King Artaxerxes. It was Artaxerxes
who had given Ezra permission to return to Jerusalem.
Now, Nehemiah heard that although the temple had been rebuilt, that
the wall around the city was rubble and the people were in distress.
Identifying with the plight of the people
and the sins of his people Nehemiah asked the king for permission to return
to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. Nehemiah
demonstrated outstanding characteristics of a leader and the people jumped
onboard with him finishing the wall in just 52 days.
The behavior of the people of Israel was
more than just admirable. They were
committed to rebuild and persistent in rebuilding in the face of fierce opposition
from neighboring people. Each person
took responsibility for rebuilding the section of the wall in front of their
own house. They bore inconveniences
without complaining. They were unified
in spirit. And they were obedient
to God’s word. Their example is one
worth studying at length. It is an
interesting and triumphant story.
Thousands of Jews remained living in Babylon.
During the time when the work on the temple
in Jerusalem had come to a halt, the fascinating events in Esther took place.
It is one of the best-told stories in the Bible and I hesitate to tell
you how it all turns out.
It takes place in Susa, one of the capital
cities of the Persian Empire. Through
an amazing set of circumstances a young Jewish girl ascends the throne as
queen of Persia and finds herself in position to stop the annihilation of
the Jews throughout the kingdom. People
comment that God’s name is never mentioned in the book of Esther.
But His hand in the circumstances and the reliance of His people on
His help are evident throughout.
Up till now, from Genesis through Nehemiah,
the Bible has been the detailed history of the formation of the nation of
Israel and the formation of a people called to be dedicated to God – a holy
nation and royal priesthood.
The next five books consist of the poetry
and wisdom that is a part of that people.
They are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and The Song of Solomon. Job is the true story of a man who suffered
the loss of his family, wealth and health.
As friends came to sit with him and share his misery, they presented
possible reasons for why he was suffering these things. Perhaps it was his own sin. Perhaps God isn’t good after all. Perhaps there is no justice in the world.
Perhaps God was reshaping his character.
His own wife offered some of the worst advice in the Bible, telling
him to “curse God and die.”
But in all of it, Job’s faith in God’s goodness
and his submission to God’s sovereignty remained true.
One of the most inspiring verses is found in chapter 19:25… “And as
for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand
on the earth.” This is from a man
whose health, family and possessions were gone.
After all the discussion, complaints and
questions, God answers Job. When His
goodness and power are questioned once again, He makes His power and sovereignty
very clear in a very special Biblical passage.
In chapter 38 God says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations
of the earth! Tell me if you have
understanding. Who set its measurements,
since you know? Have you ever in your
life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place?”
This is the true picture of the power of God and the position of man.
He is worthy to be worshiped and praised for who He is. And he cares for His people as a Shepherd cares
for His flock.
At
the end of the book of Job, God restores the health, family and possessions
of Job as he prayed for his friends.
God’s
caring for His people as a shepherd leads us into the book of Psalms. And Psalm 23 is probably the most well-known
of them all. Many people have memorized
this Psalm and it goes like this, “The Lord
is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He
makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters, He
restores my soul. He leads me in paths
of righteousness for His namesake. Yea
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil
for Thou art with me. Thy rod and
Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Thou hast anointed my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely
goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever.”
King
David, the shepherd who became king, wrote that psalm, and most of the others
found in this book. Another notable
psalm is Psalm 51 which is David’s confession of his sin with Bathsheba and
his cry for mercy.
Psalm
139 speaks of God’s intimate knowledge of us from before our birth.
Psalm
103 speaks of God’s greatness and His forgiveness – not treating us as our
sins deserve but according to His mercy.
And
Psalm 1 speaks of the blessing in delighting in God’s law and walking according
to it.
Looking
ahead a bit, you know that we will be getting to the New Testament soon and
that there we will meet Jesus Christ, the anticipated Messiah and Savior who
was crucified. You know that’s coming.
Well, although we will see it more closely later,
when He cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me?” He is quoting a part of Psalm 22 and the psalm itself is an amazing description
of what He experienced that day.
There
are 150 psalms… psalms of praise, confession and repentance, thanksgiving,
cries for protection and mercy and psalms recounting the history of Israel. The longest is Psalm 119, probably written
by Ezra, which declares the beauty and importance of God’s word. The shortest is Psalm 117 declaring God’s lovingkindness
and truth.
All
of these were used in the worship services throughout the history of the Jews. It is to this book that many people turn today
to meet with God in a very personal way.
It
is possible to read an average of five psalms a day and make it through the
whole book in one month. However,
slowing down and spending time speaking to God and listening to Him speak
to you from these psalms will deepen your love for Him and increase your faith
and trust in Him in profound ways.
The
book of Proverbs is 31 chapters long and can be read according to the calendar
– one a day – every day – every month – year after year.
Most
of these were written by King Solomon, David’s son.
When God granted him wisdom, Solomon recorded that wisdom for God’s
people. The bottom line is that the
fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. These pithy 2 and 4-line
sayings would fit well in fortune cookies.
And yet, this is the living word of God – not a cookie manufacturer's
ideas – found here on wise and prudent living.
It
is here that you will find wisdom such as “spare the rod, spoil the child.” “Neither a borrower or a lender be.” Oh wait, that’s Shakespeare! I knew that, but it is that kind of practical
guidance you’ll find here. But it’s
not just poetical as found in great literature – the Bible says that God’s
word is living and active and able to judge the thoughts and intentions people.
Today
as I write this, it is the 3rd of the month.
As I look up Proverbs 3 I find, “Do not let kindness and truth
leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with
all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will
make your paths straight. Do not be
wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord
and turn from evil. It will be healing
to your body and refreshment to your bones.
Honor the Lord from your
wealth, and from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled
with plenty, and your vats overflowing with new wine. Do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe His reproof, for whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father
who delights in his child.”
That’s good stuff.
King
Solomon wrote most of the proverbs and he also wrote the book of Ecclesiastes
and the next book, the Song of Solomon.
“Ecclesiastes” means both preacher and assembly. It raises questions about life that we all
struggle with at one time or another. When
you look at the cycles of life, such as birth, aging, death, working, eating
or playing and when you see the contradictions in life such as goodness in
the shadow of oppression you can wonder if there is any purpose to it all.
This is always a book to return to again and again to regain the proper
perspective – God’s perspective - on things.
Wisdom is, after all, having an increasingly full and true perspective
on things. Virtue is acting in accordance with that wisdom.
King
Solomon wrote this poem, also called The Song of Songs about his love for a Shulammite woman.
The beauty of the words and images tell of the joy of love in courtship
and marriage. In it, he comes to her
family’s vineyard, wins her heart and makes her his bride. Each stanza is someone speaking to someone
else about this profound love. “I
am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine” are words that ring from it.
For
many, this love parallels the love that God has for us and that Christ has
for His Church – who is referred to later in Scripture as the Bride of Christ.
The
next five books make up what are referred to as the Major Prophets. These books comprise almost one-fifth of the entire Old Testament.
They are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel.
The
book of Isaiah contains some of the most well-known prophecies concerning
the coming of a Messiah, or anointed one, in all the Bible.
“Behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will
call His name Immanuel.” These words
and those of Handel’s Messiah sung every Christmas are Isaiah’s words:
“Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given and the government
shall be upon His shoulders. And He shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah
was a prophet who wrote between 740 and 680 B.C.
He lived among royalty and gave advice concerning foreign affairs –
speaking God’s words. The Northern
tribes of Israel had turned their backs on following God and were captured
by the Assyrians in the north during Isaiah’s days.
Isaiah’s primary message to Judah, the Southern kingdom, was that similar
judgment would fall upon them unless they changed their ways. The kings of Judah kept looking to other countries
for protection, or kept copying the idolatrous worship practices of neighboring
countries, and ceased worshiping God. The chosen people of God were turning their backs on Him.
The
first half of Isaiah, chapters 1-39 contain the denunciations and woes against
Judah and the other nations. Included
are prophecies of the End Times, the last days of earth.
Isaiah’s
own call as a prophet is recorded in chapter 6 in which his vision of God
on His throne being worshiped day and night by angels is astounding. Here is our first glimpse of what goes on in
heaven as the angels constantly say to one another about God, “Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of Hosts, the
whole earth is full of His glory.” In
Hebrew, repeating something twice was a common way to emphasize a word. But to repeat it three times, as in “holy,
holy, holy” meant that God isn’t just holy or even holy, holy. Our God, the God of the universe, is “holy,
holy, holy.” And as Isaiah looked
on and listened in on this scene of worship, he heard God ask, “Whom shall
I send? Who will go for Us?” and Isaiah answered, “Here I am. Send me!”
And God gave Isaiah the words to speak to His people right there on
the spot.
The
second half of the book of Isaiah, chapters 40-66, are a consolation. The first word in Isaiah 40:1 is “Comfort.”
The greatness of God, the comfort of God, and restoration by God fill
the pages. In chapters 49-57 the salvation of all people
by a Suffering Servant is proclaimed and promised.
The
promise of a conquering and reigning king, a priest and a prophet had been
long anticipated. The victorious,
chosen, anointed one, the Messiah, called forth thoughts of triumph and patriotism
for Israel. But there was another
side of the Messiah spoken of by Isaiah, and that was that He would also come
as a Suffering Servant in whom was the salvation of all mankind… who bore
the sin of mankind and the punishment.
Isaiah
53 says, “He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we
are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Here
is the key, here is the heart of God and the heart of His Bible. God’s love for us is so great, that He sent His chosen Son to suffer
and die that we may live with Him now and forever. His shed blood paid the price of your sin and
mine. We are forgiven because He was
wounded for our transgressions. And
by His stripes we are healed.
This
is God’s story for Israel. A chosen
people from whom would come the Savior of the world… a Suffering Servant giving
His life to restore the relationship between mankind and God that had been
broken in the Garden of Eden… a Good Shepherd who will tend His flock and
gather His lambs into His arms.
The
promise of a peaceful kingdom and thousand year reign of the Messiah fills
the final pages of the book of Isaiah. God
will restore His people and establish His kingdom with judgment and with justice. And it will be glorious.
Jeremiah, whose name means “God lifts up,”
is known as “the weeping prophet.” Called
when he was young, he was faithful to call the people of Judah to repentance
for 40 years. He was persecuted, sometimes angry and always
sensitive. And no one repented.
By this time the people didn’t fear God. They feared other gods. They had religious words but treacherous actions.
Jeremiah’s message was to the leaders.
The message was as the stereotypical street-corner prophet holding
a sign that says “The end is near.” God’s
message was “I love you, but you are guilty.”
The people’s response was that they turned
their backs and closed their ears.
God’s judgment came as 70 years of exile
in Babylon and Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed.
God said that since they had turned their backs on Him He had to turn
His back on them.
Throughout prophecy God uses different word
pictures to communicate important concepts.
One of the most well-known images in Jeremiah is the Pot and the Potter. A vessel of clay made by the Potter was spoiled
by His hand, so he remade it into another vessel as it pleased Him to make.
In that image God told the people of Judah that He had the right and
ability to remake them as a people since the original design had been damaged
by their sin.
God’s promises are found throughout prophecy. Jeremiah 29:11 contains a favorite for many
people. “I know the plans I have for
you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and
a future. If you seek me with all
your heart, you will find Me.”
Another promise in Jeremiah 23:5, 6 refers
to Jesus. “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch
and He will reign as king and act wisely and to justice and righteousness
in the land. In His days Judah will
be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He
will be called, ‘The Lord our
Righteousness.’”
In Jeremiah, God’s character is shown. He doesn’t seek ways to remove a faithless
people. He seeks ways to restore a
faithless people. This is our God.
God’s solution was 70 years of rest for the
land, maintain and retrain a remnant and then return to them Jerusalem. This is what we saw happen in Ezra and Nehemiah.
Jeremiah wrote this small book of Lamentations
which is made up of five melancholy poems lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem
and the Temple by the Babylonians. The
pain of Jeremiah is obvious. And years
later, it is echoed by Jesus as He laments over the unfaithfulness of Jerusalem
in His day.
Probably the most well-known verses are in
chapter 3, verses 22 and 23… “The Lord’s
lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.”
In all His pain and in the midst of all the destruction Jeremiah’s
lament is not one of blaming God… his hope is in the compassionate never-failing
God. His lament is for the unfaithful people.
Ezekiel was taken to Babylon during the exile
from Judah. Fierce devotion to God,
a willingness to be humiliated and a sacrificial heart define him.
From Babylon he described to the exiles their
specific sins. Through Ezekiel God
says, “The rulers have treated mother and father lightly… the alien they have
oppressed in your midst, the fatherless and widow have been wronged… you have
despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths… and you have forgotten me.”
The message to the exiled people isn’t “the
end is near” but “The end has come.” You
are a rebellious people. Repent and
live. This judgment is just. “I love you, but you are guilty.” Restoration will come.
The response was that they didn’t listen.
They were hard-hearted.
God’s judgment was that 1/3 died by the plague, 1/3 by the sword, 1/3
were exiled.
The images used in Ezekiel include the vision
he had of a wheel within a wheel. This
signified God’s Spirit is always moving and this time it was away from them.
His promises to Judah include the fact that
He would judge those other nations who attacked them and oppressed them with
glee; and that He would bring Judah home.
He also promised to give them a new heart
and put a new spirit in them. “And
I shall take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of
flesh that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people and I shall be
their God.” That is always God’s desire.
In the beginning of Ezekiel, he records a
vision of God’s Spirit arising and leaving the temple in Jerusalem due to
the sin. Later, there is the image of the glory returning.
“And behold, the glory of God was coming from the way of the east.
And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone
with His glory… And the glory of the Lord
came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And… behold the glory of the Lord filled the house.”
Nothing is ever better news than that God
is present with His people.
Daniel feared the Lord. He was taken to Babylon as a teenager. He was royalty or nobility, physically spotless
and handsome. He and his friends were
specifically taken and set aside and trained. Daniel was faithful, persecuted, exalted to
high position and prosperous.
Daniel lived in Babylon under 3 kings for
the 70 years of exile. He lived to
see the return of the first group of people to Jerusalem.
His message was to the kings in Babylon:
It doesn’t matter what you do to me or how you threaten, we will not bow down
to any king but God. Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego demonstrated this as they were thrown into a furnace for refusing
to bow down to a gold image of the king.
In it they were miraculously kept safe by God.
Daniel’s message also was, “It is the God of Israel who interprets
dreams and who sets up kings and deposes them.” God used Daniel to interpret several dreams that Nebuchadnezzar
had which foretold the removal of the kingdom from his hands into the hands
of the Meads and Persians.
Daniel’s faithfulness to God in the face
of persecution is demonstrated when he continues his daily public prayer and
is thrown into the lion’s den for it. Just
as God protected and rescued the young men in the furnace, he protected and
rescued Daniel from the lions.
The response of the kings over the 70 years
was varied. One king, Nebuchadnezzar repented. One king, Belshazzar, died under God’s judgment
– announced with the famous handwriting on the wall. And one king, Cyrus, issued the decree to return
to Jerusalem.
God’s presence was with His people, even
in exile. His promise was that the 70 years were almost
over. And, a promise yet to be completely
fulfilled is that one day He will come in victory as King of Kings and Lord
of Lords.
The final books of the Old Testament, Hosea
through Malachi, are called the Minor Prophets.
Neither the times they lived in nor the words they wrote were minor. It’s just that the books they wrote are short.
In all of them there is a theme… something
that God is specifically saying to them through the prophet during that time
in the history of their nation.
One of the major themes that is found in
many of the books is the relationship between God and His people. Whereas there are also prophecies about nations other than Israel
and about the judgment that will come on them for mistreating Israel, the
relationship between God and His chosen people is the dominant theme.
The relationship, God says, is supposed to
be very much like a marriage relationship between a man and a woman. Faithfulness to one another, and love and honor for one another
are supposed to characterize the marriage relationship. In the Old Testament God makes His love for
His chosen bride very clear. He also
makes it clear that He is angered and saddened by willful unfaithfulness to
Him and His ways. He says that it
is the same as the sin of adultery when His people turn away from Him and
His love.
In the New Testament the whole theme of a
marriage relationship and a coming wedding and wedding banquet is expanded. It includes not only Jesus Christ as the Bridegroom,
but also all who believe in Him are described as His bride.
This book of Hosea contains some of the most
specific descriptions of the love relationship God has for His people and
their unfaithfulness.
Hosea was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom
of Israel at a time when Jeroboam was king of Israel.
The reign of Jeroboam is described in 2Kings beginning chapter 14,
verse 23. To the people judgment seemed
far off. And yet by the end of Hosea’s
50-year career as a prophet, judgment had come to Israel, just as God had
said.
To make His point, God asked an unusual thing
of Hosea… to find and marry a prostitute.
God’s point was that this is exactly what the unfaithfulness and infidelity
of Israel toward Him was like in His eyes.
A favorite promise from God is found in chapter
3. After the Lord
speaks of His judgment, He says He will then speak kindly to Israel and draw
her to Himself. Then He says beginning
in verse 19, “I will betroth You to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to
Me in righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion, And
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will know the Lord.”
In chapter 6, God makes it clear that His
design for a relationship is loyalty and knowledge of Him, not the religious
activities of sacrifices and burnt
offerings. In chapter 7, He says that He desires His people
to seek Him. In chapter 10, He encourages
us, “Sow with a view toward righteousness; Reap in accordance with kindness;
Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness
on you.” And in chapter 11 He proclaims,
again, His love, “Yet it is I who taught them to walk, I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with… bonds of love, And I became
to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed
them.” This is the God of the Bible,
the God of the Old Testament. He is
a God who bends down for His people.
One of the most encouraging things to do
when reading the Bible is to find passages in different books of the Bible
which confirm the same things about God, but were written by different people
at times sometimes hundreds of years apart.
There is a passage in Psalm 18 in which King David, in his distress,
wrote about the God who is willing to bend down and rescue us.
In this instance he wrote, “I cried to my God for help… He bowed the
heavens… and came down.” Both Hosea
and David knew this God who comes down to His people to rescue and to restore.
Another theme of the prophets is the coming
Day of the Lord.
It is the time at the end of time and history when God will sit in
judgment and the Lord Jesus
Christ will come again. The Day of
the Lord is the major theme of the book of
Joel.
Joel spoke over 100 years before Hosea. He spoke at a time when there was a great drought
in Israel and an invasion of locusts. He
saw it as a punishment for the sins of Israel and used the locusts metaphorically
to speak of a coming invading army.
In the midst of promises of destruction because
of sin, is an invitation from the Lord
in Joel 2:12, “Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping
and mourning…. Return to the Lord
your God, for He is gracious and compassionate; slow to anger and abounding
in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil.”
And restoration is promised… “The threshing
floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with the new wine
and oil. Then I will make up to you for the years the
locust has eaten… and you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise
the name of the Lord your God,
who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame.”
Then, a wonderful promise is given in Joel
2:28. It is quoted by Peter in his first sermon after
Jesus’ death and resurrection. It
says, “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on
all mankind… I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” We have more to see before we get to Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:17,
but it is worth the wait.
The prophet Amos was a shepherd. His prophecies were spoken and written during the time of great
prosperity and power in Judah and Israel.
But under the surface was corruption.
The people were oppressing the poor, the alien, the widow and the orphan.
The people used their privilege as an excuse for turning against their
fellow man and against God.
The first chapters speak of God’s judgment
against neighboring countries. Then
Amos specifies the deeds of darkness in Israel and its coming judgment. Then follows a series of visions that Amos
had… a swarm of locusts eating up the portion of wheat designated for the
people, a consuming fire, a plumb line to measure the righteousness of the
people and a basket of ripe fruit signifying that the end of the growing season
was near… and judgment was also near.
The people were too sure of themselves and
their position of privilege as God’s chosen nation.
In Amos 9:10, they say, “The calamity will not overtake us.”
Then, once again, is a promise of future,
eternal blessings for Israel and the world… God says, “I will restore the
captivity of My people Israel… they will not again be rooted from their land
which I have given them.”
The book of Obadiah is just 21 verses long...
there is no chapter 2. It is God’s
word on the coming destruction of Edom. Edomites
were the descendents of Jacob’s brother Esau and throughout the history of
Israel Edom, living in rocks and caves, was constantly in opposition to Israel. Verses 3 and 4 summarize the issue, “The arrogance
of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in
the loftiness of your dwelling place, who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring
me down to earth?’ “Though you build
high like the eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, from there
I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.” God never approves of arrogance… He alone is
Lord.
Jonah is probably the most well-known of
the minor prophets. Many, many people
have heard that Jonah was swallowed by a whale (or a large fish). But not many know when and why.
Jonah lived in Israel and God told him to
go to Nineveh which was about 500 north and the capital of Israel’s enemy,
Assyria. God wanted Jonah to go tell the Assyrians that
judgment was about to come on them and if they would repent, God would spare
them. But, Jonah wanted God to judge
Assyria for their idolatry and cruelty, so instead he headed to Tarshish –
2,000 miles west of Israel, toward Spain.
And now the big fish comes on the scene. God caused a storm on the sea and Jonah’s ship
was about to sink. The sailors cast
lots to decide who was to blame. And
the lot fell on Jonah. He had already
told them he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, so, with his permission, they threw
Jonah overboard. The storm stopped
and a fish swallowed Jonah. He was
inside the fish for 3 days and 3 nights.
Jonah prayed and confessed his sin and the fish spit him out onto dry
land.
Then God said again, “Go to Nineveh.” And Jonah obeyed.
Jonah entered Nineveh and began to go through
the city saying, “In 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown.” And the people believed in God and repented. And God withheld the judgment.
But that made Jonah angry.
He told God, “I knew You would do this.
I knew You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and
abundant in lovingkindness and one who relents concerning calamity. That’s why I fled to Tarshish. Therefore take my life from me for death is
better to me than life.”
God spoke to Jonah and even caused a plant
to grow up overnight to shelter him from the sun.
The next day a worm and the sun destroyed the plant and that made Jonah
angrier. God explained that Jonah
had no reason to be angry with God. Jonah
had showed more compassion on the plant, that he had nothing to do with growing
or nurturing, than he had on Nineveh – a city of about 600,000 people whom
God had made.
Jonah’s priorities were not God’s priorities. When this is true of a person or of a nation,
God’s word can come to turn things around the right way.
During the time that Hosea was prophesying
in Israel and Isaiah in the courts of Jerusalem, Micah prophesied to the common
people of Judah. Social justice, just
as in the days of Amos, was the biggest need of the people. And again, they felt that since God was in their midst, calamity
would not come upon them.
Micah contains several verses which are quoted
in the New Testament regarding the birth and ministry of the Messiah. Micah 5:2 says He will be born in Bethlehem.
Chapter 4 contains the descriptions of the future glorious kingdom
of peace where people will hammer their swords into plowshares and spears
into pruning hooks and they will never again have to train for war.
And chapter 6:8 is a bottom-line explanation of what God’s standards
for His people are… “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the
Lord require of you but to do justice,
to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” It sounds simple, doesn’t it?
Nahum’s prophecy is against Nineveh. 100 years earlier the Ninevites had repented
because of Jonah’s preaching. But
they apparently didn’t pass on the truth of God to succeeding generations,
because the Ninevites of Nahum’s day were cruel and idolatrous all over again. God did judge and destroy Assyria in 612 B.C.
The book of Nahum first describes God’s character and anger.
Then he describes the coming destruction, for God said, “Your wound
is incurable… all who hear of you will clap their hands over you.”
The prophecy of Habakkuk is just three chapters
long. Before Judah was taken captive to Babylon Habakkuk
asked God questions about how and when judgment would come. Then he cried out about why judgment would
come from such an ungodly nation as Babylon, called the Chaldeans.
In all of it God’s answer was that judgment
was deserved and would come – to wait for it.
One of the most quoted verses is Habakkuk 2:20 “the Lord is in His
holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.”
The book ends with Habakkuk’s praise of God – for who He is and for
His good purposes.
The great-great grandson of
the good king of Judah, Hezekiah, was Zephaniah. There was a time in Judah when the people followed
the example of young King Josiah and repented of their selfish and evil ways.
It was the prophet Zephaniah who helped prepare the way for that revival
with his call in chapter 2 verse 3: “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth
who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility. Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the
Lord’s anger.”
Judgment on surrounding nations is proclaimed
followed by promises of future blessings for Israel.
“Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice
and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away His judgments against
you, He has cleared away your enemies. The
King of Israel is in your midst; you will fear disaster no more… Behold I
am going to deal at that time with all your oppressors, I will save the lame
and gather the outcast, and I will turn their shame into praise and renown
in all the earth.” When we get to
the New Testament we will see that Jesus, the King of Israel, was actually
in their midst healing the lame and rescuing the outcast.
After 70 years of exile in Babylon, Ezra
and later, Nehemiah, returned to Judah to rebuild the temple and then the
wall around the city. You will remember
that the group that returned first with Ezra began work on the temple and
began worshiping there again. But
opposition came from surrounding enemies and the work on the temple stopped
for 15 years. It was then that Haggai and Zechariah prophesied,
challenging the people and encouraging them to put the condition of God’s
house above their own. Haggai’s call
is to finish the temple, to take courage trusting in the Lord’s presence and
to be holy.
Zechariah’s prophecy also encouraged the
people to finish the temple, but the first call was to return to the Lord. “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts,
“that I may return to you.” This is followed by eight visions.
The first is a vision of four horses and
riders among the myrtle trees. They
were sent to patrol the earth and they reported back that there was peace. God promised He would return to Jerusalem with
compassion, His house would be rebuilt and a measuring line would be stretched
over Jerusalem as a sign of the rebuilding that would occur. “The Lord will again comfort Zion and again
choose Jerusalem.”
The second is four horns and four workmen. The four horns are four nations who scattered
the Jews, perhaps Assyria, Egypt, Babylonia and Persia. The workmen symbolize the people whom God used
to overthrow those enemies of Israel.
The third vision is of a surveyor – a man
with a measuring line in his hand. He
is measuring Jerusalem. And in the
future many nations will come to join themselves with the Lord who will dwell
in their midst.
In the fourth Joshua the high priest is cleansed
from sin and restored to his position. It
indicated Israel’s cleansing and restoration as the return of Christ who is
referred to as The Branch.
The fifth was a golden lampstand and an olive
tree on each side. The lampstand had
seven lamps and connected by seven spouts.
The olive trees represent the Holy Spirit and God said, “’Not by might
nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
This is significant regarding God’s plan and our service to Him. It is not by our own strength and knowledge
and skills that God’s plans come about. It
is by His power and His Spirit.
The sixth is a flying scroll about 30 feet
long with God’s word written on it. It
judged the specific sins of stealing and swearing falsely – which are two
of the 10 Commandments.
The seventh is of a woman in a barrel with
a lead cover. She is whisked away
by two angels and banished for her evil to Babylon.
The eighth and last vision of Zechariah is
of four chariots coming from between two mountains.
The chariots were led by horses and represented the four spirits of
heaven patrolling the earth after having been in heaven in the presence of
God. They symbolized judgment on surrounding nations
– especially Babylon which was destroyed three years later by the Persians.
Beginning in chapter 9 Zechariah prophesies
about the first coming of Jesus the Messiah in very specific ways. He prophesies that the Messiah will ride into Jerusalem on the colt
of a donkey, that his betrayer will receive payment of 30 pieces of silver,
that he will be looked upon as He is pierced.
Finally the second coming of the Messiah
is prophesied. 14:4 says, “In that day His feet will stand
on the Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the
Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large
valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other
half toward the south… and you will flee by thee valley of My mountains… Then
the Lord, my God, will come and all His holy ones with Him… and the Lord will
be king over all the earth.”
Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. He prophesied about 100 years after the return
of the Jews to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. There was revival in the land under Nehemiah,
but again the people had fallen away into religious observances without a
love for God. They could not understand
why God was upset with them. They
ask God questions about why He has not accepted their service and He answers
that they are unholy in their service to Him and He will not accept their
offerings. They had mixed marriages,
which God had forbidden in His Law and they were divorcing, dealing treacherously
with their wives.
So, the coming of a messenger before the Messiah is announced. “Behold, I am going to send My messenger and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple… Behold I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” When we begin the New Testament now and look at the Gospel of John we will see that the messenger is John the Baptist who came in the spirit of Elijah to make a way for the Lord… and we will see the Lord go to the temple, just as Malachi said.