Week 1

Bible Passages

Hard Sayings and Difficult Passages

Agenda Item

Lunches for Our Group

Opening Prayer (5 Minutes)

Example (5 Minutes)

Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38

So you’re reading along Joseph’s story from Genesis 37-39, seeing all of his trials before he becomes second to Pharaoh in Egypt in his victory. You get to the end of Genesis 37 and you have been reading about Jacobson suffering because he thinks Joseph is dad and Joseph becomes a slave headed to Egypt.

When you start Genesis 38 you find a completely different story that doesn’t make any sense to Joseph’s story. This is about Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, and his daughter-in-law, Tamar. As you read along Tamar’s husband dies and Jewish custom calls for the next of his brothers to be married to her to produce an heir for him.

But Judah refuses to give his next son to her. Tamar (get this) becomes a prostitute Judah ends up sleeping with and getting pregnant. When she begins to show he accuses her of unrighteousness. She produces all of his identification he left with her to show he is the father.

What’s going on?

Leverite Marriage – To preserve the inheritance and land Leverite marriage allows for a woman to marry the next son in line and produce an heir for the dead husband to preserve the land.

Judah is unrighteous – Judah should have given his next son to Tamar as the custom stated. Tamar is righteous because she brings out his unrighteousness through her actions.

Why is this story in the middle of Joseph’s story?

Judah is unrighteous and how he deals with Tamar but Joseph is righteous even in the middle of his trials. He does the right thing but ends up penalized for it. Judah’s story is in the middle of Joseph’s story because we are seeking a good example of godliness and a bad example of ungodliness.

The Divine Council (Psalm 82; Job 1-2; Genesis 1:26)

Why does God refer to Himself as “Us”?

Who is God talking to in Psalm 82?

Why To Satan and the Angels present themselves to the Lord in heaven (Job 1-2)?

Some scholars talk about the divine council as a way to explain passages like these. We are familiar with angels and demons and the devil. But these are not the only created celestial beings God has made.

In Hebrew, the word we use for God is plural. When it refers to the God of Israel it is a plural of the Majesty. God is so great we cannot refer to Him in the singular. But this word is also used singularly of a false god, an idol. It seems the Bible refers to other beings with the plural word for God.

These are most likely not gods but celestial beings. The divine council, then, is filled with beings God has created for His purposes. When he convenes His council He does not seek consensus but more tells them about His glorious plans and works. It is more a group He declares what He is doing and they worship Him for His greatness.

Divine Mandate to Kill All Canaanites (Deuteronomy 7:1-4; 20: 16-18)

Deuteronomy 7:1–4 ESV

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

Deuteronomy 20:16–18 ESV

But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

Many unbelievers, especially atheists, point out that if God is a good and just God, and one who has mercy and grace, He does not show it when he commands the genocide of the engine is people of Canaan.

How could a good God not only allow the Israelites to kill all Canaanites but command them to do it? Throughout the book of Joshua we see items in the plunder of these battles as “under the ban.” These are things reserved for God. Achan’s sin of keeping Items under the ban (Joshua 7:10-26) is an example.

Solution

God knew that if the Canaanites were left in the land they would leave Israel into idolatry. Removing them from the land completely would keep Israel pure in its worship toward Him.

The Canaanites were an idolatrous and wicked people. As happened to Israel later when they are idolatry and wickedness would pile up enough God sent them into exile. In the same way, the Canaanites’ idolatry and wickedness “ added up” and the time of God’s judgment was at hand. Just as he used other nations to humble Israel into exile he was using Israel to bring His judgment on the Canaanites.

Your Eye Is the Light of the Body (Luke 11:34)

Luke 11:34–36 ESV

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

This seems like an enigma. What does Jesus mean by this? Is it a cultural reference? It doesn’t make sense to me at face value.

How do I interpret this in light of everything Jesus else is talking about in this passage?

There are some cultural and contextual clues to understanding this passage. Let’s take it one verse at a time.

Luke 11:33 ESV

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

Light’s purpose is to reveal what is around us.

Light is often a motive or image in the Bible of righteousness, and darkness represents wickedness.

Luke includes putting a lamp in a cellar, not found in Jewish homes. But it is found in Gentile homes, Luke’s audience.

Jesus may be referring to us as lights of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). This would concern our witness in the world. We must not hide ourselves away but proclaim the gospel as God’s lights in the world.

Luke 11:34 ESV

Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.

Jesus transitions from speaking of the light of a lamp to the eye as the lamp. This is where the Image of light as righteousness and darkness as wickedness comes in.

Luke 11:33 speaks of our witness as Jesus’ lights in the world. But Jesus changes to speak of the righteousness and wickedness in us in Luke 11:34.

What we take in (the eye of the body) is healthy when it takes in righteousness. We become righteous when we observe righteousness and include it in our character.

But if our eye are bad they take in darkness and wickedness that becomes part of our character.

The larger context concerns Jesus’ teaching. So “light” you may refer to the teaching that we listen to and apply to ourselves.

Luke 11:35 ESV

Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.

We must take in righteousness and godly teaching so that our character on the inside is righteousness. If the “light,” our character and deeds, is not righteous and we will be wicked, or darkness.

Luke 11:36 ESV

If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

Jesus’ teaching circles back to Luke 11:36. He connects our character and deeds with our witness.

Luke 11:33 talks about us being God’s light in the world. In Luke 11:34-35 Jesus talked about us as the lights ourselves, that we must take in and apply godly teaching (light) to be full of light as His weaknesses to the world.

He concludes by coming full circle, saying that if I character and deeds are full of light we will be bright lights witnessing for Him. We will be Bright lamps on lampstands giving God’s light and revelation to the world about Him.

Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5: 1-11

Acts 5:1–11 ESV

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.

If God is gracious and Ananias and Sapphira are Christians, why would He kill them for lying to the Spirit?

I thought we were living in the age of grace. Isn’t the New Testament full of God’s grace?

When I give to the Church, how do I know what to give without coming under God’s judgment?

Many people are taken aback when they read this account of God sending a reckoning to Ananias and Sapphira. What is different about the sin the of Ananias and Sapphira from sins Christians commit? God seems to react so harshly and definitely to sin in this instance.

But there is at least one other instance of God reacted harshly to sin through Paul. Paul is told about a young man in the Corinthian church who is having sexual relations with his mother-in-law (1 Corinthians 5). That situation is redeemed in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

Peter reacts in a similar way to Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8 when he tries to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sins against the Holy Spirit’s Person seem to be judged more harshly in the New Testament. From lying to the Holy Spirit here in Acts 5 to Simon the Sorcerer’s crude attempt to buy the ability of the Holy Spirit to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit God judges attacks on His Spirit with finality.

So it’s not just that Christians sinned against God. It is that they sinned against the Holy Spirit in inexcusable ways. This is why Paul warns us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) or quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). God takes very seriously attacks on the Holy Spirit.

Questions about Verses, Passages, and Concepts (10 Minutes)

Discuss Questions (50 Minutes)

Application (15 Minutes)

Closing (5 Minutes)