The One Year Bible- January 14th
In seminary I took a class called Biblical Theology and Exegesis. Don’t get too impressed. I am
convinced that theologians want to sound smart, so they use technical names for
most of the classes. For example, other seminary classes I have taken include Hermeneutics,
Homiletics, and Old Testament Isagogics. In regular English that means I took
Bible study, preaching, and Old Testament history (I hope I didn’t give away
any company secrets). Anyway, part of Biblical Theology and Exegesis is seeing
the whole story of the Bible. My textbook gave this definition, “Biblical
theology is principally concerned with the overall theological message of the
whole Bible. It seeks to understand the various parts in relation to the whole.”
This is exactly what I try to do each week with our studies. I guess I
didn’t even know that I have been teaching a class in Biblical Theology every
week on the internet for over six years. Well, I hope that through these
studies you will start to see the whole picture and the overall theme of God’s
Word. At the end of the first chapter of my textbook it says, “The Bible is
about humankind falling into sin, and God’s determination to put things right.
It is about salvation, God’s rescue plan for human beings under judgment. It is
about the worship of the one true God and the rejection of the gods that fail.”
Lets all try to keep this in mind as we journey in God’s Word together.
Seth’s Thoughts
Old Testament
The opening stories of the Old Testament revolve around what we
call the Patriarchs. This includes Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.
The first week of the year we sped through many generations as well as many
years but this week we have been focusing on one family. This family has some issues.
Jacob is encouraged by his mother to pretend to be his brother so that Isaac
will give him the family blessing. If this sounds dysfunctional you are right.
We will see plenty of dysfunctional behavior in the Old Testament. Remember the
Old Testament is setting the stage for the coming of the Messiah, the one that
was to save the people. Just wait until we get into the book of Judges and then
we will see some real dysfunctional behavior. That PLR (people, land,
relationship) promise that we talked about last week comes back (in whole or in
part) quite often. We saw it multiple times this week. Each time I read it I
put the letters PLR in the margin. I hope you begin to see that this is an
important promise. This becomes the foundation for all the other promises that
God will make in the Old Testament, including the coming of the Messiah. We
read about Jacob and his rather strange relationship with his father-in-law,
and then his odd relationship between him and his bickering wives. Once again
we see some facets of dysfunctional behavior, but we also see that God will be
faithful and keep his promise. The story of Joseph is one of the longest
stories in the Old Testament. I will have more to say about this story later.
For now be sure to catch all the details and see if they remind you of any
other stories in the Bible. Perhaps some of you are familiar with the Andrew
Lloyd Webber musical called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This
musical is a pretty faithful rendition of the story and if you get confused you
may want to rent the movie version. It stars Donny Osmond (don’t let that scare
you) and has an appearance by Joan Collins (well…that might scare you).
New Testament
In our readings from this week we find that Jesus still
continues to teach, and heal and now he is starting to generate some interest.
John’s disciples start to question him about things and we get a deeper glimpse
into the ministry of Jesus. Chapter 10 has some interesting things to say about
going out and speaking about Jesus, but remember that Jesus was speaking to 12
Jewish men in Israel almost 2000 years ago. It can be dangerous to make a one
for one comparison with these teachings and today. One very interesting section
in our reading is found in chapter 12:13. Jesus uses some Old Testament stories
to bring light to his earthly ministry. He gives us some clues about the end of
his earthly ministry as he compares himself to Jonah. This is a fascinating
passage for theologians as it sheds light not only on the work of Jesus but
also the reason that the book of Jonah is in the Old Testament. For those of
you at Bethany, we will be studying the book of Jonah this Lenten season. In
that study we will explore this relationship ever further. Jesus also says that
he is greater than Solomon. This was a big claim because no one was a wise as
Solomon especially in the eyes of a Jewish person. It is also another place
that shows the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.
Bits and Pieces
One thing I think I forgot to mention last week. Every time you
read the word LORD (in all capitals) in the Old Testament, the translators are
saying this is the proper name Yahweh. It is God’s personal name. Remember that
Moses is the one writing the first five books and he was the one to whom God
revealed that name. So it makes sense that he uses it in his writing.
Another thing I want to point out to you is the use of names.
Names are important in the Bible. Like I just said above LORD is translated
from Yahweh which means “I Am who I Am”. It sounds rather nebulous to us but
how could you try to contain God in a few letters no matter what language it is
in. On to my point, we have seen quite a few names, the names of people and
places. If you are reading through the NIV or the ESV you will notice that
every time we encounter a new name there is a footnote. If you follow those
footnotes you will find some more information about the name. For example, when
Isaac was born we read in the footnote that Isaac means, “he laughs”. Some of
these names have some theological significance. The name Jacob means, “he
grasps the heel” which is an idiom for someone who deceives which is just what
he does to his brother twice. Later in the story we will get to Joshua. His
name means “the LORD saves”. This is the same name that is translated as Jesus
in the New Testament. Makes sense doesn’t it. The phrase Jesus Saves is almost
redundant. I will try to point out some of these names when they come up but
feel free to follow the footnotes to get some more information.
That
is about all for now, but one word of encouragement. If you get behind in your
reading don’t try to catch up all at once. Just double up your readings each
day and soon you will be back on track. The other option is to just let some of
the readings go, like water under the bridge and just pick up on the current
day. Either way you are still in the Word, and that is a good thing. Have a
great week and look for a new post next week!!
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