Welcome Back To CBSi Swiss Cottage for 2014!!
Today's lesson was The Old Testament Part 2.
Main Point.. The Old Testament is more than Rules and Regulations.
Central idea… God wants a personal relationship with man.
Today we will be looking at the 5 Poetry/prose/wisdom books and the books of 17 Prophecy.
All different kinds of writing/literature! Psalms and poems....
Examples from the lives of people at that time...warnings and things to learn from their experiences.
POETRY: 5 books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.
Some people call them the Wisdom books.
LOOKING DEEPER
Poetry includes the following:
If ever you are suffering and looking for encouragement, Job is a wonderful book to see clearly that troubles will affect all of us, and that we should not attribute troubles to sin.
The author of Job is unknown—Job, Elihu, Moses, Hezekiah, and others have been suggested. Whoever wrote this book was a loyal Jew, living somewhere between 600 and 400 B.C. Including both poetry and prose, it is a universal poem because it deals with a universal need—the agony of a heart wracked by "the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to." It speaks of a blank in the human heart that only Jesus can fill.
Job 1:21 “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
Psalms: authors named include David, 73 times; the sons of Korah, 11 times; and Asaph, 12 times. The 150 psalms are arranged into 5 praise books (hymns, communal laments, royal psalms, individual laments, individual songs of thanksgiving), perhaps to match the 5 books of the Law. God as Creator and King is at the centre of Psalms, making it the Old Testament in miniature.
Psalm 136 - from our homework - “His Love Endures Forever” 26 times??? so do you think that might be important???
Psalm 23: 1-3 - “The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul”
I want to come back to the psalms at the close...they are just too precious.
Proverbs (short, fundamental truths or parables): King Solomon, David's son, is considered the author. He did not originate each thought but compiled this collection of wise sayings, some perhaps from as early as the Bronze Age. In the Ancient East wise men were equal with priests and prophets as God's spokesmen. It may not have been finally completed until around 180 B.C. Proverbs' emphasis is not on the achievement of material success but on wisdom as a way of life.
Practical tips for life. wisdom for everyday living!
Proverbs 20:12b “Those who promote peace have joy”
Proverbs ends with a whole series on the Wife of Noble Character - proverbs 31:10-31...not that we must strive to meet these standards but interesting that at this time they included all of this - unusual for the time and culture of the day.
Ecclesiastes: Greek word meaning "the Preacher." Here Solomon addresses the general public who do not see beyond this world and convicts them of the vanity of reducing religion to mere secularism. This book speaks of the curse of the Fall (Genesis 3), the necessity of fearing God. Apart from God, we have no meaning - life is empty - only God brings us satisfaction.
I love Ecc 3:1 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
A time to be born and a time to die….a time to plant and a time to uproot"….etc...
Song of Solomon: called "The Song of Songs." There are two schools of thought: (1) It tells of the love between God and His people, an allegory of Christ's love for His church (see Isaiah and Hosea in OT; Matthew 25:1; Romans 7:4; II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:32 in NT). (2) It is a poem dealing solely with human love, indicating the value of love between man and woman, censuring lust and endorsing the place of physical love within a legitimate relationship.
Married love is a beautiful thing and worth celebrating!
The Major Prophets:
The Major Prophet books are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel,and Daniel.
Isaiah: called the "evangelistic prophet" because he so clearly and consistently announced the good news of the Messiah.
Isaiah 40:28-31 probably the first verses that truly captured my heart as a teenager who had never seen or read a Bible before!!
“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the Everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.”
Jeremiah: called the "weeping prophet" because of his broken-hearted cry over the Jewish people as they rejected God's messages again and again. He also wrote the book of Lamentations, a sad lament over the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the Babylonians.
To help us remember: the twelve historical books of the Old Testament tell the story of …….the twelve tribes of Israel.
12 minor prophets are not minor because they are less important; they are minor because they are shorter - great reads for a time when you want to pick up your bible but don’t know where to go - they can be read quickly. They include:
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The word poets has five letters; these five books of poetry are at the centre (or heart) of the Old Testament.
My sister in law, Angie, shared this story with me, and it is a real testament to the power of God's word!! About 2 years ago, her next door neighbor named Emma was coming to the final stages of ALS, MND or Lou Gehrigs disease. As she watched this young woman, about her same age, with children similar in age to hers, slowly lose all her capacities and then become bedridden, then nearly in a coma state in her final week and days. My sister in law Angie struggled to find how to help. Up to that point, she had been helping with the children, delivering hot home cooked meals to them, and just being available. But now. What could she do. This was the end. I don’t know how many of you have ever been bedside to someone dying, in their final weeks or days. I have not. I cannot imagine how it might feel. She is part of a Bible study, and she talked to her discussion leader about this, asking for suggestions of what to do. Knowing Emma was a Christian, her discussion leader suggested that she simply read from the Bible to Emma - that even in a coma, she could hear, and that the Psalms are a wonderful book to read aloud. Angie did this. She placed herself next to her dear friend Emma, opened to the psalms, and began reading. Emma had nearly all of her physical strength gone, she slept mostly and barely moved. What Angie told me, I will never forget. She told me that each time she was able to be with her in the final week or so, when she would read the Psalms to her, she witnessed a physical response to God’s word!! A small upturn in her lip, as though she was smiling in her sleep. This is the power of God’s word. She brought joy and comfort to this dear friend. I will never forget this story, and if I ever find myself in a situation like this, I too will reach for the Bible, open it to the Psalms and read aloud. God’s word is a powerful tool, a blessing and comfort, guidance and wisdom, poetry and prophecy.
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