August 29, 2020 - The Old Testament

So this week we'll begin our series on the Old Testament.

The reason I think it would be good for us to walk thru the Story of the Old Testament...'

...is because I think it would be a fair statement to say...

...that most people, when choosing to read a passage of scripture, or study a book of the Scriptures...

they will more often than not, choose a New Testament book.

I think most people feel more comfortable in the New Testament.

I think it's what most people preach on, week after week...

...and people tend to like what they're comfortable with.

And so we kind of avoid the Old Testament...

...for various reasons.

With that said, here are some Common Myths we often hear when it comes to the Old Testament:

SLIDE:

Common Myths of the OT:

Insignificant

The Old Testament is insignificant:

We talked before about how popular a DVR is...

...and how some people will DVR a big game, find out who won the game, and THEN watch it on DVR..

...and we think - what's the point?

Why watch something when you already know the ending?...

I think we bring this same mindset to the Old Testament, and we say...

...well why go thru the Old, when we have the New, and already know how the New ends?...

...isn't the Old Testament just background info?

...isn't it really just insignificant?

GUYS - QUESTION...

How often, when you're putting together a book shelf, or whatever, do you actually follow the instructions step by step?

Or on the other hand, how many of us just look at the picture of the finished product...

...say - ok, i know how it's supposed to look....let's do this.

And then when you're done, you end up with 4 screws and some washers laying on the ground and you say - well i guess those are extra.

I guess they’re INSIGNIFICANT...

1 Common myth is that the OLD Testament is - Insignificant

SLIDE:

Common Myths of the OT:

Insignificant

Irrelevant

There are certain things we read in the Old Testament that make a lot of people think....irrelevant.

2 Kings 2:23–25 ESV

23 He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” 24 And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. 25 From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

WHAT??? - She-bears! TORE 42 boys....apart?

SOUNDS like 2020.... Covid - Murder Hornets - She-bears

We can't help but read this and think...why?

Why do we need to know this?

Our conclusion might be - This is ALL Irrelevant

SLIDE:

Common Myths of the OT:

Insignificant

Irrelevant

Inconsistent

This is really where people like to put a divide between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

They say - How can the loving, merciful God of the New Testament be the same vengeful, wrathful God of the Old Testament?

How can they even correlate?

They just seem so inconsistent.

SLIDE:

Common Myths of the OT:

Insignificant

Irrelevant

Inconsistent

Incomprehensible

I think this is out there because the thought is that it's very hard to understand...

...it's filled with a lot of history

...it's seen as boring...dry

...and confusing.

And so it’s viewed as - Incomprehensible...

These 4 myths, in some way, have probably affected us all in this room.

...and for some of us, they lead us to just ignore the Old Testament all together.

The point of this series is to shed light on the Old Testament...

...and to hopefully get us all to understand the story of Old Testament and how it all flows together and coincides with the New Testament.

Nothing in the Bible is a waste of time, and so hopefully we'll begin to see that the Old Testament IS:

Significant

Relevant

Consistent

Comprehensible

and THEREFORE - Invaluable

The point of today's sermon is to lay a foundation that will help us in moving forward.

This series is not going to be exhaustive...

We're not going to cover every single story, or even every single book...

...but we will, when we're done, have a grasp of the big picture.

When we begin getting into the Old Testament, we need to realize that there are 3 dimensions playing out in the text.

SLIDE:

Literary Dimension

Historical Dimension

Theological Dimension

The Literary Dimension keeps us focused on the fact that the Old Testament is a book...

...a piece of literature

And so with that said, there are many different types/forms of literature...

...and understanding what form of literature we're reading in a particular section will help us understand the text better.

That’s the Literary Dimension

The Historical Dimension keeps us focused on the fact that the Old Testament is real history, of real people and real places.

We do our best to piece this all together, but it can become confusing...

...and so the hope is that we all leave this series with an understanding of how it all fits together.

That’s the Historical Dimension...

The Theological Dimension keeps us focused on the fact that the Old Testament is more than just a history book...

...but that it's purpose is to explain God.

Theology means - the study of God

...How does God reveal Himself in the pages of the Old Testament? --

...this is what the Theological Dimension focuses on.

SLIDE: The Old Testament as Literature

The Old Testament

The OT is made up of 39 books. (There are 27 books in NT / 39 in OT)

Traditionally the OT - has been broken up into 4 different genres...

Law

History

Prophecy

Poetry

But we need to understand that there's more to it than JUST these genres.

We can't forget that God is speaking here.

It's filled with the Laws that God has given to His people.

It also has prophetic oracles that describe things to come in the future.

It has genealogies (ancestry lines)

It has songs.

It has wisdom sayings

It has laments and apocalyptic visions

...many different kinds of literary forms...

...and understanding what form is being used will help us better understand the text.

Example being: we would read the book of Proverbs (Wisdom Literature) differently than we would read 1 Samuel (Historical Narrative).

AND BECAUSE the OT consists of these different GENRES…It’s wise for us not to read the Scriptures like we're reading a menu...

...(oh i like this, I don't like that....oh that cost too much, i won't take any of that)

All of Scripture is important and beneficial...

All of the Old Testament is important.

The OT was written by a variety of authors....although only One divine author.

Whenever we're reading Scripture we must not forget that the Holy Spirit has written these things, by using human authors.

The OT It was written over a span of about 1000 years...

...with the earliest parts being written around 1500 B.C.

- Now this is give or take a couple hundred years, depending on when you believe the Exodus took place.

So you have the earliest parts of the OT written around 1500 B.C. and the latest parts written around 400 B.C.

Around 400 B.C. we come to the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther...

...with Esther closing out the history portion of the OT.

After that (400 B.C.), you have about 400 years of silence, before the NT picks up with Christ.

So How Did We Get the OT?

It was collected, by God's people...into a "Canon".

Canon means - Measuring Stick

And so in order for an OT book to be included in the canon, it had to meet certain criteria.

SLIDE:

Who wrote it

When it was written

How did it relate to other revelation that God had given thru other books.

These were the 3 main criteria that were considered when deciding if a book belonged in the OT canon.

The OT was transmitted thru scribes.

And it's important for us to consider all the people throughout the centuries who sacrificed their lives so that the Word of God be passed down from generation to generation.

No Word processing...

No Laptops...

No white-out

The Old Testament documents were copied with excruciating attention to detail.

When an entire scroll had been copied by hand, one letter at a time, if one mistake was made, the scroll was destroyed.

Apologist Josh McDowell said this:

The detailed requirements that were adhered to in the process are astounding (Taken from Don't Check Your Brains at the Door, Josh McDowell and Bob Hostetler, and The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell):

1) Each copy had to be made on a brand new writing surface and had to be prepared in a specific way;

2) Each copy had to be written in a certain number of columns of thirty-letters width, with a certain number of lines to each column;

3) Each copy had to be written in a certain color and quality of ink;

4) Not even the tiniest letter could be written from memory, as one would glance at the word "to" and write the letters "t" and "o" before glancing back at the original, but every letter was copied singly from the original;

5) No letter could connect with or overlap another letter. The distance between each letter was measured by a single hair or thread;

6) Every letter of every page and book was counted and compared against the original. The number of times each letter of the alphabet occurred in a book was counted and compared against the original. The middle letter of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) and the middle letter of the entire Hebrew Bible were computed and indicated in the text. If one of these calculations was incorrect, the copy was discarded.

7) The Masoretes, who were responsible for copying Biblical text from AD 500 to 950, calculated everything that could be calculated. They numbered the verses, words, and letters of every book. They calculated the middle word and middle letter of each.

All of this refers to TRANSMISSION… copying the text

"These trivialities, as we may rightly consider them, had yet the effect of securing minute attention to the precise transmission of the text.; and they are but an excessive manifestation of a respect for the sacred Scriptures which in itself deserves nothing but praise. The Masoretes were indeed anxious that not one jot nor tittle, not one smallest letter nor one tiny part of a letter, of the Law should pass away or be lost."

The OT was transmitted thru scribes, and it was translated through different servants.

So the OT was completed around 400 B.C...

...and around 200-300 B.C. - you have the OT, which had been primarily written in Hebrew, translated to Greek.

This Greek translation is called the Septuagint.

So when many of the New Testament authors would quote from the OT, they were actually quoting the Spetuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew OT).

See it's easy for us to forget that Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham, David, even Jesus...

...DID NOT speak English.

And so we SHOULD be grateful for those who translated God's Word into our language.

Now you MIGHT THINK - well doesn't everyone have a Bible in their own language?

Over 2,500 languages in the world still have no Bible translation.

Over half the languages in the world DO NOT have the Old Testament.

So I would say …we should be grateful!

THAT - is the Old Testament as LITERATURE

NOW...

SLIDE: The Old Testament: As History

The Old Testament

And so with today being a foundational day in this series, i'd like to provide you with a brief overview now of the story of the Old Testament.

In the beginning...God created!

We go from...nothing - outside of God...to something.

See...out of nothing...comes nothing...

...Unless there's a God.

God created.

What did He create?

The universe, life, creatures...

...and man - made in God's image.

So man and woman...God's prize creation, created in the image of God...

are placed in the Garden of Eden.

It's in the Garden of Eden that the fall of mankind takes place through disobedience.

And then mankind, now totally depraved and unable to seek after God or worship Him, finds itself spiritually and positionally apart from God.

After years and years of this evil state of mankind, God judges the world with a flood...

but He spares one righteous man, Noah, and his family.

The problem with this picture is that mankind was still on the planet...

and where there is man, there is rebellion against God.

Nothing had changed.

Noah, his family, and the generations that followed would walk in the same depravity that those had done before them.

SO The people decide to build a giant tower that would reach into Heaven in order to make a great name for themselves and to keep them from being scattered all over the face of the earth.

God didn't approve and so He confused their language in order to scatter them over the face of the earth.

Next we see a new beginning, and God begins to call out Abraham, the leader of His people.

From that point, Abraham's prosperity turns into Israel's slavery.

Abraham leads the people of God by the promise of God through his different generations: Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

The result at the end of Genesis is people in slavery.

Then comes the Exodus.

At the end of Genesis, the people are in slavery,

and what that means is the Exodus is necessary.

During the Exodus, Moses leads Israel out of Egypt.

They are led out of slavery and once they are out, God gives Israel two things.

He gives them the Law and His Word, which are the Ten Commandments.

God gave Israel the Law, and then the people entered the Promised Land...

where they were ruled for a while by Judges.

They are in the Promised Land; judges are ruling them and they see the need for a king...

which is when Saul, David and then Solomon enter the picture.

Eventually a kingdom was established, epitomized by King David and his son, Solomon.

Solomon builds a temple, which becomes the home of the Ark of the Covenant and the center of the people’s worship.

After Solomon dies the kingdom divides into Israel (the Northern kingdom) and Judah (the Southern kingdom)

There are now two kingdoms that are divided, Israel in the North and Judah in the South.

Idolatry grows in both places.

The nation of Assyria destroys Israel in 722 B.C.

Then Babylon destroys Judah from 597-586 B.C.

Ultimately the temple is destroyed in 586 B.C.

...and the survivors are taken to exile in Babylon for the next 70 years.

Then a remnant returns to Jerusalem and rebuilds the temple, but Israel still longs for the glory it knew under David.

And so this is the historical story of the Old Testament...

Not exhaustive...but the big picture story...

from Genesis to Malachi.

But TAKE NOTICE how it ends - The Old Testament ends with the people of Israel longing for the glory it knew under David.

It's a story without an ending.

A "To Be Continued..." if you will.

And of course, the New Testament is the continuation.

So that's the big picture story of the Old Testament, and i think that will help us as we move forward in the weeks to come.

The Old Testament as HISTORY...

AND SO NOW - let’s close out today - with ....

SLIDE: The Old Testament: Divisions

The Old Testament

Now the last thing i want to cover this week is how the Old Testament is divided up.

It's divided up into 3 main sections:

SLIDE:

The story of God's people

The writings of God's people

The prophets from among God's people

NOW - let’s start with the Story of God’s People...

SLIDE: The Story of God’s People

The Story of God’s People

The Story of God's people is found in the first 17 books of the Old Testament.

From Genesis to Esther

It is fairly chronological for the most part, but we will see how it is mixed up later on.

From Genesis to Esther you have a chronological picture of the history of God's people from creation all the way to the remnant coming back to Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple.

This is the history; the story of God's people.

The next main section -

SLIDE: The Writings of God’s People

The Writings of God’s People

The Writings of God's people is found in the next five books—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Songs).

These writings by God's people fit into the previous history. (previous 17 books)

These writings don't continue the history as we are used to.

Our minds are trained to read books chronologically.

They go together, one after another.

As a result, we think that Job happened after Esther.

Not the case. Job was written previous to Esther.

See - The first 17 books are giving us God's story of how He is moving among his people...

and so THOSE books are very God-centered.

What you have in Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon is MAN’S RESPONSE- in the middle of that history.

How was man responding along the way?

The response could have been in praise, in wisdom, in struggling through different things, and in suffering.

These are the WRITING’S of God’s People...

AND THEN…the last division...

SLIDE: The Prophets From Among God’s People

The Prophets From Among God’s People

The last main section or division in the Old Testament deals with The Prophets from among God's people.

This section spans the last 17 books from Isaiah all the way to the last book of the OT (Malachi).

AND - From Isaiah to Malachi, they are split up into Major Prophets and Minor Prophets.

Isaiah through Daniel would be considered the Major Prophets,

and Hosea through Malachi would be considered the Minor Prophets.

- Now - Why are they called MINOR Prophets…?

they're called Minor Prophets mainly because the books are shorter… ranging from 1-14 chapters

Now, where do these writings fit historically in the OT?

Remember, the first 17 books consist of the history of the OT (the whole HISTORY)

and so where do these writings correlate into that history?

The prophets historically fit into the time that we see in 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

SEE - The prophets were not prophesying in the beginning, but they were wandering in the Promised Land.

And so - The prophets that are included in the Old Testament really come about during the monarchy, the division of the kingdom, Israel being destroyed by Assyria, and Babylon coming over and destroying Judah.

...So that's where the prophets fit into the Old Testament historically.

= AND this explains the DIVISIONS of the Old Testament...

WHAT HAVE WE SEEN TODAY?

Hopefully - now we feel like we have some kind of basis for moving forward next week. As we get into CREATION!

What have we seen?

SUMMARY

3 dimensions play out in the OT text.

Literary Dimension

Historical Dimension

Theological Dimension

Literary Dimension - (OT is a book with a variety of literary forms)

Historical Dimension - (the OT speaks of real history, and real people)

Theological Dimension - (the OT explains God to us)

And those 3 dimensions play themselves out...

THROUGH

The story of God's people

The writings of God's people

The prophets from among God's people

The story of God's people (first 17 books - Genesis to Esther)- How God moves among His people...

The writings of God's people (Next 5 books - Job - Song of Solomon)

The prophets from among God's people (Last 17 books - Isaiah to Malachi)

- As we close today - Let's Pray now that God would show Himself more fully to us in the next couple of months as we walk thru His Truth in the Old Testament.

Let’s pray