 
### BIBLE SURVEY

Useful Information About

Every Book in the Bible

by Edwin Walhout

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Edwin Walhout

Cover design by Amy Cole

See Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author.

Biblical quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION THE BOOK THE OLD TESTAMENT

Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

Joshua Judges Ruth First Samuel Second Samuel First Kings Second Kings First and Second Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther

THE WRITINGS

Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Songs

THE PROPHETS

First Isaiah Second Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi

THE NEW TESTAMENT THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

Matthew Mark Luke John Acts

THE LETTERS OF PAUL

Romans

THE CORINTHIAN CORRESPONDENCE

First Corinthians Second Corinthians (the Distress Letter) Second Corinthians (the Comfort Letter) Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians

THE THESSALONIAN CORRESPONDENCE

First Thessalonians Second Thessalonians First Timothy Second Timothy Titus Philemon

THE GENERAL EPISTLES

Hebrews James First Peter Second Peter First John Second John Third John Jude Revelation

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INTRODUCTION

Most Christians know that the Bible has two main divisions: the Old Testament and the New Testament, but perhaps not every Christian knows how we got the Bible in the first place.

Most Christians know the the Bible has 66 separate books in it, but perhaps not every Christian knows who decided what books to include.

Most Christians have read at least part of the Bible, but perhaps not every Christian knows why the authors wrote what is in it.

Most Christians can name one or more of the books in the Bible, but perhaps not every Christian can tell you what each book contains.

Most Christians can read part of the Bible in their own language, but perhaps not every Christian can say what language it was originally written in.

Most Christians know the name of one or more authors of the Bible, but perhaps not every Christian can say anything about what kind of persons they were.

And so on. We all know something about the Bible simply by reading it, but there is a great deal of information about the Bible that most of us do not know. That is what this book, Bible Survey, is about: providing supplemental insight into the Bible and all of its books.

THE BOOK

The name of the book

The name "Bible" is an English term derived from a Greek word (ς, biblos) meaning "book."

The content of the book

The book we call the Bible is a library of ancient sacred Jewish literature (Old Testament) plus ancient sacred Christian literature (New Testament), sixty-six separate documents in all. That would be a very extensive church library in the early days, considering that they would all be on separate scrolls. It would not be until the invention of the modern book with individual pages that all of those scrolls could be conveniently combined into one massive volume.

The two main divisions of the Bible are, as we all know, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These terms come from the Latin and in their original meaning indicated the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

This division reminds us that the way God trained the ancient descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is different from the way he is training the disciples of Jesus Christ. Not that these two ways are contradictory, but that a major improvement is made from the old to the new. What was written on the tablets of stone and in the ancient Hebrew manuscripts, that is, the law of God, is now written on hearts of flesh, that is on our conscience, the way it should have worked out in the story of Adam and Eve.

Accordingly, Christianity should not be considered as contradictory of Judaism, New Testament versus Old Testament. Jesus was a good God-fearing Jew, as were all his disciples. The relationship is that Jesus moved the kingdom of God beyond the particular nation of Israel into the full range of human nations. He could not have done this without the long history of the old covenant.

The history of the book

Originally the Bible was not one book but sixty-six separate scrolls, thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament.

However, there were dozens of other documents circulating among Jewish and Christian people besides those we have now in the Bible. A dozen or more of the ancient Hebrew scrolls are sometimes included in our Bibles and listed as Apocryphal books, for example, the books of the Maccabees.

Apparently the ancient Jews credited Ezra with being the scribe who formed the Hebrew list of books (the Old Testament canon) as they are today. Sometimes Ruth was considered part of Judges, Lamentations considered part of Jeremiah, and all the minor prophets were bundled together, so that the exact number of books might differ somewhat. But only these books now in the Old Testament seem to have been accepted as part of the original Jewish canon, though the Greek translations tended to include the Apocryphal books as well.

After the coming of Jesus early Christian churches each built up their own libraries with whatever religious documents came their way, and they made copies of scrolls from other libraries. In time, accordingly, various churches owned and used different sets of sacred literature, some of which did not get included into the Bible as we know it today. For example, besides the Apocryphal books in the Old Testament, there were such documents as the Gospel of Thomas and the Epistle of Barnabas.

So, just how did it happen that only these sixty-six books were included in the Bible, and not others? Actually this came about, not by official church decisions, but by what we might call common consent as time and usage showed which were reliable and which were not. The books included in the Hebrew canon were accepted without much controversy. However, for a long time there were other New Testament books used in the churches and there was dispute concerning some that were finally accepted, like 2 Peter, Jude, Hebrews, and Revelation.

As it turned out, the first church council to officially list the books we now have in the New Testament was the Council at Carthage in 397, affirming basically what was already decided by common church usage. The main factor in this development seems to be the criterion of apostolicity, whether a given document was written by one of the original disciples or a close associate (e.g. Paul, Mark, Luke).

The language of the book

The Old Testament books were originally written in Hebrew or in a similar language called Aramaic. The New Testament books were all written in Greek.

This is a very interesting development. Almost all the authors of the New Testament literature were of Jewish nationality (all except Luke, who was Greek and who wrote the Gospel bearing his name and its companion volume Acts of the Apostles). How did it happen that these early Jewish Christians, whose native language was Hebrew or Aramaic, wrote their scrolls in a foreign language? Not only that, but in Greek, while living in a Roman empire whose official language was Latin?

Recall that Alexander the Great had conquered all the eastern lands, from Greece all the way around the eastern Mediterranean Sea to Egypt, and then all the way to India, all the territory of ancient Persia, including all of modern Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan. That was way back about 325 BC. During the next three centuries Greek customs, religion, politics, and language gradually permeated all of the three empires that Alexander's successors constructed: Greece, Syria, and Egypt. The Greek language became the one major language that enabled commerce and politics to continue throughout these three divisions of Alexander's conquest, what later became the eastern half of the Roman empire.

So that explains why, when the original disciples and Paul wanted to communicate with the Gentile people in other countries, they used the "lingua franca" of the day, which was Greek. Even though all that territory was under Roman control at the time, the entire eastern part of the empire was basically still under the prevailing influence of Greek culture because of Alexander's original conquest. The western part of the Roman empire, Italy, France, Spain, and much of northern Africa, came under Italian influence and used Latin as its common language. Actually, starting with emperor Constantine in 315, the Roman empire was split into two administrative sections, one centered in Rome (or Milan) and the other in Constantinople. That division eventually resulted in the split in Christianity as well, between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The translations of the book

SEPTUAGINT Tradition tells us that Ptolemy, ruler of the Egyptian third of Alexander's empire, summoned seventy scribes to translate the Hebrew Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) into Greek. This would be in the third century BC, maybe fifty or a hundred years after Alexander. The number seventy explains why this translation is called Septuagint (based on the Greek word for seventy). Then, at various times and in various places, other Hebrew documents were translated into Greek and added to the Septuagint, so that by the time of Jesus this Greek version of the Old Testament was well known even among Jewish people. For example, when the Gospel writers quoted from the Old Testament they frequently used the Septuagint, as did the Apostle Paul.

VULGATE In the year AD 382 a Pope commissioned Jerome to translate the four Gospels from the Greek language into Latin. Jerome completed this task and then with other translators embarked on the task of translating all the New Testament books. Eventually all of these translations were compiled together into one book known as the Vulgate (meaning: _commonly used_ ) and adopted officially as the Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church.

VERNACULAR TRANSLATIONS Early in Reformation times Martin Luther translated the New Testament from Greek (not from the Latin Vulgate) into vernacular German. This was in 1522 and it was published in modern book form using the recently invented printing process made famous by Gutenberg.

There had been numerous partial translations of the Bible into Old English, but not the entire Bible. John Wycliffe began the translation into Middle English so that it was completed by about 1395 (it was apparently fairly difficult to read even then).

The first serious translation of the entire Bible into what we might call modern English was begun by William Tyndale. Tyndale was inspired by Luther's German Bible, and by 1526 he had completed the New Testament into English. This was the first English Bible printed on the printing press for mass production and distribution. Other translators continued his work and eventually the entire Bible was available in English by 1537.

Several other translations into English were made in later years, notably the Roman Catholic Douay Version, appearing in 1610 and the Authorized King James Version in 1611. Since that time there have been so many translations that one would need a small book to list and describe them, including the New International Version, the Revised Standard Version, and the Jerusalem Bible.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS (QUMRAN) In 1948 an Arab shepherd boy threw a stone into a cave high up on a cliffside near the north end of the Dead Sea. He heard a noise that sounded like something breaking. He clambered up and discovered, to his surprise, a cave filled with numerous clay jars. One of these had been broken by his stone. Inside these jars were ancient manuscripts.

In subsequent months merchants began selling these manuscripts, and archaeologists started measures to gather and safeguard them. It turned out that there were several other caves with precious manuscripts. Around 800 manuscripts, many in broken fragments, were found. Of these about 220 are from books of the Old Testament, all of them except Esther.

It turned out that these manuscripts had been hidden in these caves during the time when the Roman army was in the process of squashing a Jewish rebellion and were besieging a Jewish enclave called Qumran. This would be about the year AD 70. Apparently the people living there hid their manuscripts in these caves so that they would not be destroyed by the Roman soldiers.

So that tells us something about the age of these manuscripts. They were all copied over prior to AD 70. Scholars tell us that they range in time from about 150 BC. So these documents are as much as one full millennium older than the Old Testaments that were in existence at that time, a thousand years older. One of them was a complete copy of Isaiah that, when unrolled, was 24 feet long.

Perspective on the Bible

One could argue that the Bible has been, and continues to be, the most influential book ever written. Christians of all varieties accept it as coming from God and therefore of divine authority. Although the history of the Jewish people all by itself is not all that important, when seen in the process of God's continuing guidance of human development it is of enormous importance. Similarly the apostolic beginnings of the Christian church.

We need therefore to recognize that the God who created the universe and planet earth and the human race has a divine plan for the development of his creation. This divine plan takes us through Israelite history to the appearance of Jesus, then to the expansion of the saving work of Jesus to the entire world as the gospel draws the nations into the kingdom of God.

What we are today is a product of what people were yesterday, all the way back to the nation of Israel and Jesus and the early Christians. Not merely the Christian church, the entire human race. So the Bible teaches us to expand our vision universally to include God's purpose for the nations of humanity.

Accordingly it is important that we do not divorce our study of the Bible from God's work in nature and in the ordinary processes of human history in general. The Bible exists to provide perspective on what God is doing with the creation he made and with the human race he loves. He is making us into his image precisely within the cultural context which exists at any given time. That is what the gospel is doing, shaping the human race into the character God desires. If we miss this orientation of the Bible, we miss its main intent. God sent his Son into the world to save it, not to destroy it.

All of this can be summarized in one word: theism. Theism is the understanding that God is sovereign, that he created the world for his own purpose, and that he is constantly guiding what happens in its history toward the achievement of that purpose. We need to be God-centered not Christ-centered, not Bible-centered, not church-centered, not man-centered in any variety. This is what the Bible teaches us, to be theists through faith in Jesus Christ and the reception of his Holy Spirit.

THE OLD TESTAMENT

The Pentateuch

The first five books of the Old Testament are often called The Pentateuch, which means a five-fold book: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. These are sometimes called the Books of Moses, or simply Moses.

Genesis

The author of the book

Moses was brought up from infancy in the royal court of Egypt and received as good an education as was available in those days. Moses probably wrote parts of these books, but not all of them. He would hardly have been able to write about his own death, for example. Nobody really knows, but it could very well be that some of the Genesis stories were written long before Moses. Perhaps by somebody like Joseph, who may have had the services of some Egyptian scribe who would take his dictation, or by some unidentified scribes in the twelve tribes.

The name of the book

Genesis was written in the Hebrew language, but the name _Genesis_ was not the name of this book when it was first assembled. That's because this term is a Greek word, not Hebrew. In those ancient times a scroll was identified by the first word in it. In this case the first word was _bereshith_ , Hebrew for _In the beginning_. When the manuscript was translated into Greek many years later the first word was _genesios_ , which explains why this Hebrew book has a Greek name.

The outline of the book

Most readers of Genesis fail to notice, or at least pay much attention to, the way it is divided. There are eleven well defined segments in the book, the first sometimes called the Creation Hymn and the other ten each called a Book of Generations. Here's the outline of Genesis.

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3 The Hymn of Creation

Genesis 2:4 – 4:26 The generations of the heavens and the earth

Genesis 5:1 – 6:8 The descendants of Adam

Genesis 6:9 – 9:29 The descendants of Noah

Genesis 10:1 – 11:9 The descendants of Noah's sons

Genesis 11:10-26 The descendants of Shem

Genesis 11:27 – 25:11 The descendants of Terah

Genesis 25:12-18 The descendants of Ishmael

Genesis 25:19 – 35:29 The descendants of Isaac

Genesis 36:1 – 37:1 The descendants of Esau

Genesis 37:2 – 50:26 The family of Jacob

Understand that the book of Genesis was not written by one person telling a consecutive story of the origin of Israel. On the contrary, numerous unknown individuals wrote the stories that they had experienced or that were passed down to them from their parents and grandparents. For example, someone in the tribe of Reuben might have written the story of how Joseph was sold into slavery, emphasizing the part Reuben played in it. Someone else, say from the tribe of Judah, might have written his account of the same event, telling it from the point of view of how brother Judah was involved. Similar stories might have been written about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. These might be duplicate versions of the same event, written by persons living later and telling the story from slightly different points of view.

So, as time went on, more and more of these stories began to accumulate, all of them on separate papyri. Eventually some person gathered all these separate scrolls together, sorted them into good order, and combined them into one large volume. This would explain how Genesis is put together into these ten Books of Generations.

To use a modern analogy, we could look on these divisions as separate manila folders in a filing cabinet, with one or more separate documents filed in each folder. When techniques of putting all of them together into one very long scroll were invented, they became one book, our present book of Genesis.

The contents of the book

The easiest way of describing the contents of Genesis is to list the major characters in the book, those who have the most stories about them. So it would go like this: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.

ADAM

The name Adam means humankind, or humanity, or even Everyman. The point being that the stories about Adam are intended to describe something about every human being. Adam is a type of all human beings, so that we should be looking for ways in which the stories about Adam help us to understand our own lives. We are all created in the image of God, we all have the same command from God to subdue the earth, we are all tempted, we all yield to temptation and thus violate God's intention for us. The rest of the Bible is about how God works with the human race to guide them to become what he created them to be.

It is important when we read about Adam to try our best to combine what we read in the Bible with what we are learning from the work of our scientists. God created the world in the beginning, and he did so by speaking it into existence. "And God said, Let there be ..., and there was ..." (Genesis 1:3, 6)

That is why everything in the world is God speaking. "The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard, yet their voice goes out through all the earth." (Psalm 19:1-4) We live in a world in which God is constantly and unavoidably speaking to us all the time and everywhere. Scientists are the people who make a concerted and disciplined study of this world that God made, so that what they discover is what God put there to begin with. They are listening, whether they realize it or not, to God speaking. Accordingly, we need to connect the Biblical stories with what archaeologists and paleontologists and other scientists are discovering about the origin of the world, of planet earth, of life, and of humanity.

The definitive item about Adam, however, is the matter of the command that God gives to Adam in Genesis 1:27-28, to the effect that humans are expected to be images of God in the way they go about subduing the earth and gaining dominion over it. This is the controlling concept that is the basis for everything else that God does in human history. It is the goal toward which God is guiding the human race and which is therefore the destiny of history. Everything else in the Bible, including the work of Jesus, is dedicated to achieve that original purpose of the Creator to have a human race dominating planet earth, and doing so in such a way as to reflect, image, himself. God created the universe and he created it good. Similarly, humans are called to be honest, just, loving, patient, hardworking, faithful people in the way they create a good culture and civilization. We are called to construct a good society.

NOAH

In the Genesis narrative Noah comes at the climax of a long historical process in which it is shown that all humans, like Adam, have been living in such a way that does not image their creator. Everybody thinks and does only evil continually; all except Noah. So God destroys the human civilization of the time by means of a natural disaster, a catastrophic flood. Noah and his family survive the holocaust in a boat built for the occasion.

God then establishes a covenant with Noah, sort of like starting human history all over again, but on the same basis as the original creation with Adam. God reassures Noah that a universal disaster like the flood will never happen again, and expects that Noah will get history started on the right track this time, doing what Adam failed to do. "God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth,'" (Genesis 9:1) a clear repetition of God's command to Adam.

Now, when we try to connect these stories about Noah with what our historians tell us, we need to recognize that conditions prior to the great flood, the general wickedness of life, is a picture of the ancient civilizations of human existence. Some of those primitive societies still survive here and there in remote areas of the world. We have old writings of one sort or another giving glimpses of what life in the very ancient world was like. And we have abundant descriptions of the cruelty of the later empires like Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, as well as those of the ancient East and the Americas. The cruelty and immorality and violence and warfare of non-Christian civilizations is still unchecked in some parts of the world. This violence is the same as that pictured in the ante-diluvian chapters of Genesis.

ABRAHAM

Between the stories about Noah and those of Abraham comes the story of the Tower of Babel. One would have hoped that life on earth would have improved after the great flood. One would have hoped that the covenant God established with Noah would change the character of human civilization. But it didn't. The story of the Tower of Babel illustrates that people were just as self-centered, godless really, as they were before the flood. So now in the stories about Abraham we have a truly new way in which God works in the human race to get people to shape their civilizations in a godly way.

The first step in this new scheme of God was to bring one person out of the rest of the world, with the promise that God will work in him and in his descendants in a special way to get them to become a nation that does image God and does shape a godly national culture. Abraham was that person, and we can well imagine him going through a very long process of thinking about life and the gods and conducting business and getting along with people. He was raised in the Babylonian tradition of polytheism, that is, in the belief that there are numerous gods, each of which is responsible for controlling some aspect of nature.

Babylonian stories about the gods show the gods intriguing among themselves to gain control over all the others. They scheme and fight and create alliances. They murder grandparent gods and enslave their opponents. In Babylonian culture the upshot of all this struggle amongst the gods is that Marduk becomes supreme and is the national god of the Babylonians. Other nations may have their national god, but Marduk is supreme, and his supremacy shows in the fact that the Babylonian armies conquer all their opponents.

So we can visualize Abraham thinking about all this and coming to the conclusion that something is radically wrong with it. People imitate the gods. They fight and compete and scheme for personal advantage, and when they succeed they suppress their enemies and keep them enslaved by force and cruelty. People are dishonest, untrustworthy, selfish, cruel, hateful, all because that's the way they see the gods functioning.

So Abraham wants out. He recognizes finally that there has to be only one God, one good God who not only created the whole world but who is the God of all people. There cannot be rivalry and scheming and cruelty if there is only one such God. There can only be unity, honesty, reliability, all-round goodness. So Abraham recognizes that it is indeed this one God who has been calling him out of the polytheism of Babylon into the monotheism of truth.

We can visualize Abraham struggling with himself and his extended family and debating what he could do about it. It's one thing to become a monotheist but it is another to know what to do about it.

Abraham finally recognized that God was asking him to move out of his family environment and start an entirely new community based on faith in one God. This new community would, hopefully, be one in which people trusted one another, cooperated, and in which everyone would go about his work in such a way as to reflect the good character of God. Abraham could envision, way off into the future, an entire nation creating a culture that was not violent, not hateful, not cruel, but in which each person could develop in the way God intended for every human to live.

So the stories of Abraham in Genesis show him trying to avoid conflict with neighboring tribes, doing his best to guide his family and entire business household in this path of faith. He is trying his best to create a small civilization that is truly godly, right in the middle of a lot of surrounding tribes who aren't. It wasn't easy.

It is interesting that when, in later generations, the Jewish people considered their ancestry, they went back to Abraham, not to Noah or to Noah's son Shem. They recognized that the origin of their unique faith and their separate posture within the human family began with the monotheism of Abraham, and that their later national character was shaped by that original faith of Abraham as he moved out of the polytheism of the Babylonian culture.

With Abraham, then, we are getting into real human history, ascertainable by all the regular methods of historical research, something that is not possible for preceding stories in Genesis. Some scholars place Abraham about 1800 BC, earlier or later, based on what they know about the history of that part of the world.

ISAAC

Isaac had an older half-brother, Ishmael, who became viciously jealous of him when he was born. Jealous because Isaac would be the heir of Abraham's wealth. So what happened was that Ishmael rejected the monotheistic faith of his father in favor of the polytheism of his Egyptian mother. And that fact emphasizes for us the importance of Isaac in the experiment in monotheistic living that Abraham had begun: Isaac retained and perpetuated that faith in one God. If it were not for him Abraham's new community of faith would not have survived and Israel would never have become God's holy nation, and Christianity would never have begun.

Judging by what Genesis does say about Isaac, he seems to be a rather unremarkable person, doing whatever he did in relative obscurity, but nonetheless doing it faithfully. He was deceived, however, at one significant point in his life by his then-selfish son Jacob. Still, it is appropriate that we speak of the three great patriarchs of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Perhaps the most significant event recorded of Isaac's life was one in which he was mostly a passive participant. When he was in his teen years his father Abraham was led by God to offer his beloved son as a sacrifice. Seemingly Isaac was old enough and strong enough to have resisted if he chose to do so. But he did not, and God stayed Abraham's knife hand at the last moment. But this willingness to allow the will of God to be done, even at the expense of his own life, makes Isaac a type of Jesus, who did the same at his crucifixion.

Perhaps it is useful to notice also that Isaac had six more half-brothers during Abraham's later life, listed in Genesis 25, among whom was one named Midian whose descendants made trouble later on and were put down by Gideon. Several of the tribes mentioned later when the Israelites were in the land of Canaan were their own relatives, including the Edomites, descendants of Esau, the Ammonites and the Moabites, descendants of Lot, as well as the Midianites and Ishmaelites.

JACOB

Jacob was the younger of a set of twins, and that fact may have had something to do with his character. It seems that Jacob was jealous of his brother Esau who, being the eldest son, would also be the heir of Isaac's wealth. Jacob was not above a gross act of cheating, deceiving his blind father to give him the birthright instead of to Esau. It was becoming apparent that the new monotheistic community of Abraham did have to deal with behavior that was far from ideal. The same sinful pressures that corrupted other cultures were there also in Abraham's family, and they had to be recognized and overcome.

The formation of Jacob's faith and of his character seems to have come to a climax as he flees from his father-in-law Laban, returns to Canaan, and faces the ordeal of having to meet his alienated brother Esau. The incident is described as a wrestling match, all night long, just prior to meeting his brother after many years of absence. It seems as if the Bible wants us to see this wrestling match as symbolic of Jacob wrestling with his conscience before the Lord. Jacob seems to have gotten his life straightened out at that time, and he is listed as one of the three Israelite Patriarchs whom the people honor.

It is also interesting that Jacob changed his name at that wrestling encounter. No longer did he want to be known as Jacob but from that point on as Israel. So the nation that eventually became known as the people of Israel are in reality the people of Jacob. They are not named after Abraham or Isaac but after Jacob.

When we read the stories about Jacob in the book of Genesis, and try to construct a biography from them, we realize that there seem to be some inconsistencies. For example, it seems that father Isaac is not only blind, but rather near death, when he bestows the birthright on Jacob. Yet, after a good many years of residence with Laban, when Jacob returns to his family, Isaac seems to be still living. Further investigation seems to suggest that there are two different manuscripts involved, and that the editor tried to piece them together as best he could, but without being able to make one coherent story out of them. Perhaps two or more of Jacob's sons wrote the story long afterward, and wrote it just the way it was handed down by word of mouth in their tribal memories, and sometime later an editor tried to make one coherent story of them.

JOSEPH

It is interesting that when the list of the twelve tribes of Israel are named, there is not a tribe of Joseph. Instead there are listed two names of men who are not sons of Jacob, Ephraim and Manasseh. Which would make thirteen tribes of Israel instead of twelve. Those two are sons of Joseph, and that fact shows that Joseph was the one who received the birthright from father Jacob, a double portion of the inheritance.

Joseph was the firstborn son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rebekah, and that fact may have been part of the reason why his older half-brothers were so jealous of him. He was their father's favorite and their father's heir.

The story of Joseph is well known. The brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt. He became a trusted and influential slave in Potiphar's household. He was falsely accused of making advances on Potiphar's wife, and put in prison. In prison he interpreted dreams, first for two other prisoners, and then for Pharaoh himself. As a reward Joseph was released and soon gained a position comparable to Secretary of Agriculture for Egypt, in which he was responsible for guiding the nation through years of famine. In all these vicissitudes Joseph maintained his own personal integrity before God, and God brought him career success.

During the famine Joseph arranged for his father Jacob and his family to resettle in an area of Egypt known as Goshen, and the story of Joseph soon comes to an end at that point, as does the book of Genesis itself.

But there is one incident that we must not miss from this concluding event. Father Jacob dies and the older brothers worry that now Joseph, from his position of power in the government of Egypt, will take revenge on them for their earlier abuse of him. Joseph does not take revenge. Instead he says, "Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people." (Genesis 50:20) The good that Joseph had in mind was that from his position of authority he could now rescue his father and his family and provide them with a good place to live in Egypt.

It is possible for us to take this quotation and extrapolate it into a general principle that covers all of life. We see all kinds of evil in the world. We often have to suffer things that seem unjust to us, things we cannot avoid and that make living difficult. As Christians, however, we need to recognize what Joseph recognized, that God always has something in mind even in all kinds of suffering, something that will eventually result in some progress in God's mind. We may not ever see that happen, as Joseph and his brothers did, but God knows what he is doing and will always bring a good result, even if after we are dead.

Perspective on the book

As we stand off a bit and take a more objective look at Joseph and his significance in God's plan, we see a rather strange situation. God has promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob that they would have descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and that they would occupy the whole land of Canaan.

But here we are at the end of Genesis with indeed a growing number of persons in Jacob's family, but transported to a foreign land Egypt. Things are rather upbeat at this point, but what will the future bring when Joseph is gone and another Egyptian dynasty replaces the current one? We need to jump to the next book, Exodus, for information about that, which will pass over a long period of time about which we have little information.

Also, let's not forget that only one of Abraham's eight named sons carried on his vision of one God and a unified holy nation. Abraham's partner, Lot, abandoned the vision entirely. Only one of Isaac's two sons kept the faith and the vision. And now we see all of Jacob's sons, by four different mothers, still all united in one family compound in Goshen. We have little information about how much they knew or cared about Abraham's vision or God's covenant, but we can see that God was nonetheless working to keep them together as one step in the accomplishment of his plan for the future. God means even that displacement to Egypt for good, even though it would entail considerable evil in the centuries to come.

Memorable Moments in Genesis

One at the beginning of Genesis and one at the end.

Genesis 1:27-28, " _So God created humankind In his image. ... God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it_.'" This insight is basic to everything else in the Bible.

Genesis 50:20, " _Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good_." Here we see an extremely important principle at work, how God always makes good come out of evil.

Exodus

The name of the book

This is a Greek name for a Hebrew book (actually a Latin word derived from Greek), not this time from the first word in the book, but from the main event of the book. _Exodus_ means _going out,_ and it refers to the escape of the Israelites from their forced servitude as monument builders in Egypt.

The content of the book

There are five main kinds of stories in this book of Exodus. The first group contains stories about Moses in a sort of biographical style. The second group contains stories about how

Moses and his brother Aaron persuaded Pharaoh and the people of Egypt to let the Israelites go.

The third group contains stories about how the Israelites escaped from Egypt and traveled to Mount Sinai. The fourth group contains stories about the laws given by God through Moses, the Torah. The fifth group contains stories about the construction of the desert tabernacle.

Again we should understand that these stories were not necessarily written by one person in a connected historical narrative. They may have been, like Genesis, written by different persons at different times, and sometimes described the same event from a different point of view. For example, there seems to be two different stories about Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai (chapters 19 and 32).

The historical setting

Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations on earth. Scholars have been able to chart its history fairly accurately way back to about 3000 BC. There are stories in Genesis about Abraham and Isaac finding temporary refuge in Egypt during famine times. That would be approximately 1800 BC.

Then there came a time when foreigners conquered Egypt and set up a kingdom known as the Hyksos Dynasty. This would be about 1700 until about 1600 BC, and it would explain why Joseph as a foreigner was able to rise so rapidly in the government of Egypt.

This dynasty, however, was displaced about 1600 BC when native Egyptians regained control over the country. The pharaohs who then reigned during this time engaged in massive building projects to commemorate themselves, among them the great Rameses II. There are Egyptian records that seem to sustain the Biblical data about the Israelites and other non-Egyptian people reduced to compelled servitude in building these monuments. So this would explain the verse in Exodus 1:8 that a new king arose who did not know about Joseph and who subjugated the descendants of Jacob.

There is continuing debate about the date of the exodus. The early date would be about 1446 BC and is defended, for example, in the New International Version Study Bible, based on data provided at various places in the Bible. Many other scholars, however, point to a later date, during the reign of Rameses II, about 1290 BC, based on data from historical and scientific records. The late date would seem to fit the history of the Egyptian dynasties better than the early date.

The biography of Moses (Exodus 1-4)

At the opening of the book of Exodus the descendants of Jacob have been forced into an unwelcome status of monument builders, not much better than outright slavery. Also, it seems that they were doing a lot of complaining about it, so much that Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, took steps to limit the population growth of the Israelites. All male babies were to be thrown into the river to be drowned.

One mother in Israel, however, by the name of Jochebed, husband of Amram, put her third baby into a small watertight bed and placed it in the river where ladies from Pharaoh's court came to bathe. One of them, a daughter of Pharaoh, saw the abandoned baby and made arrangements to adopt him as her son. She named him Moses and gave him as good an upbringing and education as was possible in Egypt at that time.

So Moses grew up as royalty and was entrusted with certain supervisory tasks when he grew to adulthood. This is an important point to remember when we consider that later he was called by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and shape them into a coherent nation. He was being trained in his youth to know how to do that.

However, Moses grew up to be a conflicted person. He had been raised for a few years in his parental home among the Israelites, and he never forgot his origin there. At one point Moses' internal distress came to a head and he killed an Egyptian foreman who was cruelly whipping an Israelite worker. Fearing he was due for execution himself for this deed, Moses had to flee and find some other place to live.

Moses wandered to a wilderness area where scattered descendants of Midianites lived, the peninsula of Sinai. He made contact with one such family, eventually married one of the daughters of Jethro, and learned how to survive in that entirely new kind of existence. This period of his life also is of great significance, for it made him acquainted with an area of the world in which his people of Israel would later have to learn how to survive.

Incidentally, the Bible describes Moses' life in three segments of forty years each. Forty years in the court of Pharaoh, forty years in the wilderness of Sinai, and forty years leading Israel from Egypt to Canaan. It would seem that this use of the number forty should be taken in a rather indefinite sense, indicating merely an indefinitely long period of time, much as we might say it would take me a thousand years to do something.

But Moses was still a deeply conflicted person all this time in the land of Midian. He was always thinking about his people enslaved in Egypt and wanting desperately to get out. Moses may have somehow learned the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. If so, he would then know about God's promises to give them the land of Canaan. He would know that this promise was also deeply rooted in the minds of his people in Egypt, and that they were always looking for ways to get back where their ancestors came from.

So Moses was obsessed with thinking about how it might be possible for him to help make that happen. We can imagine him thinking about this all the time when he was out in the wilderness looking for pasture for the sheep he was tending. Then one day when he was in a mountainous area with his flock, he saw what appeared to be a bush on fire. He kept looking and finally decided to investigate.

Coming closer he heard the voice of God. Moses, take off your sandals, for the ground you are standing on is holy ground. Then, enthralled by what was happening, he heard God summoning him to deliver God's people out of Egypt.

As we can well imagine, Moses was full of excuses why he could not do that. Why would the people listen to me? Why would Pharaoh pay any attention to me? I don't speak fluently. I just can't do it. Get someone else better qualified.

But God had been preparing Moses precisely for this task, and there was no one else qualified to do what God wanted. So Moses went. He made contact with his older brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, and with the elders of the people. And then to Pharaoh with the request to leave.

Confrontation with Pharaoh (Exodus 5-12)

Pharaoh, of course, was in no mood simply to let his workforce go. Who else could he get to work on the magnificent monuments he was building for himself? So what could Moses and Aaron do to get Pharaoh to change his mind? It wasn't easy. Pharaoh answered by making their work even harder than it had been before.

Then we have the stories of the famous ten plagues. One after another, usually separated by indefinite periods of time, perhaps days or even weeks, God sent disasters of one kind or another on Egypt: water turned to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock illness, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally death of the firstborn.

These disasters, one after the other, had a cumulative effect on the people of Egypt, especially when they came to recognize that it was the God of Israel who was sending them. Pharaoh himself weathered the disasters with surprising calm, often promising what Moses was asking but changing his mind when the plague ended. But eventually, when the Egyptian people all found their eldest child dead, they pressured Pharaoh to let the people go.

The exodus and the trip to Sinai (Exodus 13-18)

But even after Pharaoh gave permission to let them go, he changed his mind yet again. He sent a squad of soldiers to bring them back. And that's the occasion for the dramatic story of how the Israelites crossed over the marshy land, the Sea of Reeds, and how the Egyptian chariots got stuck and the soldiers drowned. Some scientists speculate that there had been a volcanic eruption on an island in the Mediterranean Sea, followed by a huge tsunami wave, and that this accounted for the sudden fall and rise of the water in the Sea of Reeds.

Scholars are rather uncertain about the actual route that the Israelites took on their trip to the peninsula of Sinai. Apparently Moses thought the short route to Canaan along the shore of the Mediterranean would be too dangerous, so he led them to the country he was familiar with. He knew that they would have to stay in one spot for a long time in order to get the people organized into a coherent nation with a comprehensive set of laws to govern them.

This section of the book of Exodus continues by telling the story of how the people were disappointed when they came to a lake and found the water undrinkable. That's bad news when traveling slowly through a desert.

Then there is the story about how they were running short of food and how God provided manna from heaven and quail from the sky. On one occasion, when the people complained about lack of water, Moses angrily went into the hills, struck a rock with his rod, broke a thin crust open and water flowed out.

At another major problem area, the residents of the country refused to let the people go through, and the Israelites had to fight their way through. That's the story of the Amalekites, and how Aaron and Hur aided Moses in maintaining a posture of prayer while Joshua was leading the people into battle.

One more story before the people arrive at Mount Sinai. Moses meets his father-in-law, who gives him some much-needed advice on how to govern the people without wasting all his time in minor spats among the people.

The Torah (Exodus 19-24)

It's interesting that the stories about how God called Moses up into the mountain, and how God wrote the ten commandments on stone tablets, and how Moses found the people cavorting around a golden calf – all these stories are not found until the later in the book, chapters 31:18 – 34:35.

But there are stories about Moses coming down from the mountain and giving the people God's law, the ten commandments, much earlier in the book, in chapters 19-24. So it seems clear enough that the book of Exodus is also a book cobbled together from several different manuscript scrolls. Some editor at a later time gathered all the stories he could find and then did his best to make a coherent story from them all, but without wanting to tamper too much with them. So Old Testament scholars still today are trying to figure out just how all the pieces fit together.

The next book in the Pentateuch, Leviticus, contains almost exclusively the detailed laws that God inspired Moses to generate, so we will not discuss them here. Except to note that at this midpoint in the book of Exodus, in chapter 20 we have the Decalogue, the ten commandments. These are not found as such in the book of Leviticus.

The ten commandments provide broad general principles of human behavior. The details of how they would be kept and enforced are found in the specific provisions of the law as found in Leviticus. To generalize, we could say that the ten commandments are guidelines for human behavior that apply to everyone, whereas the detailed rules apply only to the people of Israel. Every nation will have to find its own unique ways to enforce their own cultural standards, but the basic principles of human life ought to remain the same.

These basic principles begin with monotheism, "You shall have no other gods before me." They continue next with a reminder that we humans ought not employ tangible items to represent the invisible God, "You shall not make for yourself an idol." We must not talk about God in any disrespectful way, "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God."

Then comes a commandment that serves pretty much as a built-in sacrament of life, "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy." One day in seven we humans need to rest from regular work as a reminder that all of our life belongs to God. This is followed by a principle that addresses the way in which an entire nation should construct a viable and enduring national life, "Honor your father and mother so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." We should understand that principle as applying to all legitimate ways in which authority is exercised in any given country: respect it.

Next we have several principles dealing with ordinary human relationships, prohibitions against murder, adultery, stealing, and false witness. These are four basic relationships that the Decalogue insists must become controlled by voluntary godliness on our part.

And lastly we have a general ethical principle that covers just about everything that we humans do. The word used is "covet," but the intention is to describe the deepest desire and motivation that can exist in our lives. What is it we are living for, working for? What is it, in that broad sense, we covet, that we want to attain? "You shall not covet ... anything that belongs to your neighbor."

So, to repeat, these ten commandments are general moral principles, and their applications are contained in the specifics of the Torah as written in Leviticus. The entire Torah, both these moral principles of the Decalogue as well as the specifics in other places, are designed to achieve what God wants from all people, namely to construct their civilizations in a godly manner. Israel is a test case, an experiment, in the expectation that in time every nation on earth will come into the kingdom of God.

The tabernacle (Exodus 25-31:11)

When you think about it, it's rather surprising to have so much of this book of the Bible devoted to building this desert tabernacle, six chapters. Not that the tabernacle isn't important, but that all the details of how it should be constructed are written in the Bible. One might imagine that whoever wrote this book could have simply summarized in one chapter what the tabernacle looked like and how it was intended to be used.

But instead we have detailed descriptions of the construction materials, the lid on the ark, the table, the lampstand, the curtains and frames, the altar of burnt offering, the courtyard, the priests, their garments, the altar of incense, the bronze basin, as well as mention of the craftsmen who would do the construction work and where they got their building materials. That's all interesting in a way, and it does serve to emphasize the importance of the tabernacle, but isn't it a bit superfluous?

Perspective on the book

When we put all these things together and think about them from the point of view of what God is accomplishing, we can use the term _covenant_ to make sense of it all. What is happening here in the book of Exodus is the third major phase of the covenant of God. The first phase was the covenant with Noah, the second phase was the covenant with Abraham, and now we have in Exodus the covenant with Moses and Israel.

And all of these phases presuppose the conditions that are described in Genesis One with respect to human life as created by God. We learned from the first chapter of the Bible that God created us in his image and that he requires of us that we replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over it. This means that what God has created us to do is to populate the earth and construct a civilization out of the raw materials of the earth, and to do it as images of God. We humans must image God in the way we do our business. That is the controlling concept for all the rest of the Bible, and especially for the way the covenant develops and grows.

A careful reading of the story of Noah shows that God's covenant with him simply reaffirms the conditions of original creation. The fact that humans sin does not alter anything in the world of nature or in what God requires of the human race. The cultural mandate is reaffirmed in all its original meaning.

With Abraham, however, there is a dramatic change in God's covenant. Not that anything is cancelled, but that God is choosing one man and his family to work with in a special way so as to get them to keep his covenant. We call this a time of _particularism_. God chooses one particular man, separated covenantally from the rest of the human race, for guidance in such a way as to produce a holy nation.

And now here in Exodus we see this nation coming to fruition. We see them as a crowd of unorganized slaves coming to Mount Sinai and being shaped into a coherent nation. God is establishing his covenant with them in such a way as to enable them for long centuries to come to develop their own unique Jewish culture in a truly godly way. "Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples." (Exodus 19:5)

The people are more than willing to accept this covenant, and pledge themselves to be obedient, because they are so delighted and grateful for God getting them out of Egypt. "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do." (Exodus 19:8)

So when we think about the book of Exodus in the Bible we should be thinking about God's covenant and how God is making a coherent nation out of the unorganized tribes of Israel.

Memorable Moments in Exodus

Exodus 19:8, " _The people all answered as one, 'Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.'_ " The people of Israel, in deep gratitude for their deliverance from Egypt, make a solemn pledge to keep God's covenant.

Exodus 20:2, _"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egpt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me."_ The basic principle of monotheism is repeated and set at the very foundation of human life.

Leviticus

The name of the book

The name is Latin and it is derived from the name Levi. It means simply _things related to Levites._ Levi is the name of the third son of Jacob by his first wife Leah.

Levites

When the Israelites were encamped at Mount Sinai on their way to the land of Canaan, they constructed what we call the desert tabernacle and God led Moses to appoint his elder brother Aaron as High Priest. This office was designed to be hereditary, so that his descendants would serve as priests as well. Moses and Aaron were themselves members of this tribe of Levi.

What is interesting is that the tribe of Levi, from this very beginning at Mount Sinai, would never get a plot of land in Canaan for their own possession. All the other tribes, including the two for Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh), would eventually be allotted a portion of the land for them to settle in. But not the tribe of Levi.

The reason for this is that Moses designated the entire tribe of Levi to serve the nation in a priestly capacity. In order to do that this tribe was scattered throughout the other twelve tribes, leading the religious services of all the people. All the other tribes must make provision for the care and living of the Levites.

In time the Levites came to be the specialists in the Law of God, the Torah, and became literate and fairly well educated. They still occupied this office during the time of Jesus 1200 years later.

So most of what we have here in the book of Leviticus are the laws and regulations that the Levites were required to supervise and lead: everything relating to the tabernacle as well as all the festivals and sacrifices that the Torah required. It doesn't always make for the most interesting reading for us in the twenty-first century, but it was extremely important for the religious training of the covenant people of God, designed to make them a holy nation.

Contents of the book

OFFERINGS The book of Leviticus begins with five chapters, each describing a major kind of offering: the Burnt Offering, the Grain Offering, the Well-being (or Fellowship) Offering, the Sin Offering, and the Guilt Offering. This is followed by two more chapters describing these same offerings in more detail. Interestingly, the last chapter of the book also contains some regulations about these and other types of offerings. We might think of this last chapter as a kind of add-on, another separate scroll discovered after the others were assembled.

PRIESTHOOD Three chapters, 8-10, then tell the story of how Aaron and his sons officiated for the first time over the sacrifices brought to the tabernacle. Later in the book there is another section dealing with regulations as to how the priests should supervise the various offerings and feasts of the people (21-24).

CLEANLINESS Several chapters of Leviticus deal with a variety of laws about what we might call cleanliness. A chapter on kosher (clean and unclean) foods. A short chapter on a mother's purification procedure after childbirth. A long chapter on various skin diseases (including baldness!) and how the priests should deal with them. Then another very long chapter (14:1-57) dealing specifically with the skin disease of leprosy. Chapter 15 is a curious set of regulations relating to male and female sexual discharges.

THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (YOM KIPPUR) Two chapters of Leviticus are devoted to the observance of an annual Day of Atonement (16-17). This holy day was to become one of the high points of Jewish religious life for centuries to come.

MORAL LAWS Several chapters deal with moral matters, chapters 18, 19, 20, 24. These include such matters as how to deal with incest, dishonesty, stealing, idolatry, blasphemy, murder, and adultery. While these are not uniquely priestly responsibilities, they do involve priests when it comes to such matters as sin or guilt offerings. They are mostly the specifics relating to violation of the ten commandments.

COVENANTAL REMINDER In the middle of a chapter (26) which spells out the promises of God for Israel's success in the future, God assures the people, "I will maintain my covenant with you." The chapter spells out the blessings of obedience, "I will grant peace in the land," but it also spells out the punishment that will accompany disobedience, "I will bring terror on you." (26:9, 6, 16) These are constitutive features of God's covenant in all its phases. God as suzerain defines the obedience he requires from Israel as his vassal, listing the benefits of obedience as well as the penalties of disobedience.

Perspective on the Book of Leviticus

Since Jesus instituted a new covenant it would be a mistake for us to take everything in the book of Leviticus as binding law for us as Christians. However, we should also remember that these regulations were absolutely essential for the people of Israel at the time. God was in the process of trying to shape one particular nation into a holy nation. No other nation in the world at the time was under such loving and beneficial guidance.

What God was doing with this fledgling nation at Mount Sinai was based on what he wanted from all human beings from the very beginning of human life on earth: people living in this world as images of God and learning how to utilize the powers of nature in productive and godly ways. It wasn't happening simply on the basis of natural gifts and capacities. No other nation in the world was functioning that way. So now God is working in a special way with this one nation to shape them into the images of God that they were created to be.

Let us also recognize that this is not merely a matter of individual piety and faith and obedience. It involves an entire nation, people living cooperatively in mutual respect and harmony. For example, when in chapter 26 God assures the people that if they obey he will "grant peace in the land," the Hebrew term for peace is _shalom_. God will grant shalom to the people if they continue in faithful obedience. Shalom means when everything and everybody is functioning in harmony and cooperation.

It is at that point that we may, even now under the terms of the new covenant, see the relevance of Leviticus to our lives. We are not expected to abide by these specific applications, but we do understand that what God desires is precisely the same now as it was then, namely that we live as images of God in our collective national efforts, finding God's shalom in that very obedience and virtue that Christianity inculcates.

Memorable Moments in Leviticus

Leviticus 11:44, " _For I am the LORD your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy_." The purpose of all these detailed laws in God's Torah is to shape Israel into the image of God, to make them a holy nation.

Numbers

The name of the book

This fourth book of the Pentateuch has, oddly, an English word for its name: Numbers. It is based on the two censuses that Moses took, related in chapters 1 and 26. The Hebrew title for the book is _bemidbar_ , which is the first word in the Hebrew scroll and means _in the desert_.

The author of the book

Long tradition ascribes this book also to Moses. But we do not need to think he wrote it all exactly as we have it today. One would suspect, for example, that Moses did not write the words in chapter 12:3, "Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth." Very likely this book also was put together in pieces, separate scrolls written by various authors, and assembled much later into one large scroll.

The content of the book

The book of Numbers resumes the history of the people of Israel. Genesis told the origins of the people, Exodus described their escape from Egypt and the trip to Sinai. Leviticus has very little of actual history, being largely a priestly handbook. Now Numbers takes up the story of how the people of Israel traveled from the peninsula of Sinai to the land of Canaan, which was their destination all along.

Interestingly, however, map study shows that they did not take the shorter route directly north into the land of Canaan, but took the long way around, going all the way around the Dead Sea and then around the settled lands of Edom and Moab, moving north to the east side of the Jordan River. The book of Numbers provides the details of this circuitous trip and makes for interesting reading.

CENSUS Twice in this book Moses takes a census of the people, once at the beginning as they were preparing to leave Sinai, and once at the end after forty years when they were preparing to cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan. Moses wants to know how many men of fighting age were available for their anticipated forced entry into Canaan. The Israelites would have to do a lot of fighting against the various tribes who already lived there.

Students of the Old Testament are puzzled by the figures given in Numbers about the total number of fighting men in the twelve tribes age twenty and over, about 600,000. It would seem that the total population of Israel would have to be more than two million for there to have been that many men able to fight. This is hardly possible for a migrating people with all their flocks as well. So the best we can do is to think of it merely as a relatively large number of people, not necessarily the exact figures given in Numbers.

SINAI TO KADESH The first ten chapters of Numbers tell of the preparations for departing from the Sinai area. Moses wanted them to go north, the short route into Canaan. They chose not to do so because spies told of powerful peoples in their way. But when Moses then planned to go the long way around the Dead Sea, the people mutinied and tried to force their way north anyway. The Israelites were defeated and had to retreat to the area called Kadesh, an oasis about two-thirds of the way from Mount Sinai to the land of Canaan.

It was at this point that God punished them for their mutiny: this generation would never get into the land of Canaan at all. It seems that the initial vigor and gratitude they had for being delivered from slavery in Egypt had dissipated and that they were no longer willing to do exactly as God commanded. This faithlessness, sadly, took the form of constant challenges to the authority of Moses. Moses, recall, had never been a slave as had these discontented others. Even Moses' sister Miriam and brother Aaron challenged his position of authority.

So what actually happened was that the original generation of Israelites that had experienced the giddy excitement of the exodus all died off here in the land of Kadesh, while a new generation, hardened to desert life, were taking their place and thus preparing for the rigors of eventually fighting and subduing the various kingdoms in Canaan.

KADESH TO THE JORDAN RIVER When finally it is time for the people to make their move out of the oasis into the "land of milk and honey," Moses leads them not straight north but to the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River, where Edomites and Moabites lived.

The Edomites were descendants of Esau and thus relatives of the sons of Jacob. So were the Moabites, descendants of Lot. Moses courteously asks permission to travel through their country, but is refused. So the Israelites sometimes fight their way through, sometimes go around, and thus come to the land of Moab.

They set up camp again on the north border of Moab, near the Jordan River opposite the city of Jericho, where they pause to prepare themselves for the dangerous assault coming when they must move across the river and encounter fortified cities such as Jericho.

Here several chapters of Numbers are devoted to a strange encounter, chapters 22-24. Balak, king of Moab, hires a famous wizard to curse the Israelites as they are poised threateningly on his border. But Balaam, ordered to curse Israel, refuses on the grounds that nobody can change the mind of Israel's God. Instead Balaam advises Balak to let his people mingle, even intermarry, and thus to thwart his enemy.

This actually happens during the lengthy time Israel is encamped there, and only the strictest measures of Moses could head off this threat of intermingling. Moses orders that all such Israelites who do this should be killed, and he rewards a priest by the name of Phineas who stabs an Israelite man and the Midianite woman whom he had brought into his tent. (25:10)

PREPARATION FOR THE INVASION Moses by now is an old man. Both Miriam and Aaron have died, and it is time for Moses to appoint someone to succeed him. He appoints Joshua who has served as Israel's leading general in battle and who is well qualified to direct the invasion and conquest of the land west across the Jordan River. The death of Moses is not described here but at the end of Deuteronomy.

But in the vicinity are several Midianite cities and they pose a threat to Israel, so God instructs Moses to attack and subjugate them. (ch. 31) Some of the Israelite tribes decide they do not want to cross the Jordan River to settle down. They like it where they are on the east side. So, after securing pledges that they will, however, help in subduing the cities of Canaan, Moses designates areas for the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh to settle on the east side.

Perspective on the book of Numbers

Numbers is essentially a history book, describing the journey from Mount Sinai to the east side of the Jordan River. While there is still one more book in the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy, there is little new history there, so that the continuing story of the history of Israel is found in the book of Joshua. We may look at the five books of the Pentateuch, Genesis through Deuteronomy, as taking the story of Israel through the lifetime of Moses.

We may remind ourselves at this point also of the importance that history is playing in the development of God's plan and covenant. We in the twenty-first century tend sometimes to think that history could come to an end at any moment. Every so often someone comes up with a scenario that predicts a date for the end of the world. But it never happens.

We need to recognize that for God a thousand years are like a day for us. God has all the time in the world to accomplish what he sets out to do. We like to have things done promptly, today if not yesterday. But not so with God. If it took him fourteen billion years to get the planet Earth ready for human life, then we need not worry about a few centuries of our history not showing as much advance as we would like to see.

God lets the Israelites languish forty years in Kadesh, waiting impatiently for the time that never comes for them. God's purpose is being served just the same as he prepares his people for the invasion and conquest of Canaan. Even Moses, faithful servant of the Lord that he was, never was rewarded by entering the promised land.

We today live two thousand years after Jesus, more than three thousand after Moses. Our faith in God should include a very realistic and honest recognition that, although so much time has already passed, there is still a very long way to go before the entire human race has entered the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit. But that is the goal, not only of Christianity, but also of the Creator. God created us in his image to be obedient to his will and to do our business of utilizing the world of nature that God gives us, doing it in such a way that we do in fact image the character of God in our various social and political institutions.

The Bible book of Numbers is one brief but important segment in that vast ongoing plan of God for our human development into his image and kingdom.

Memorable Moments in Numbers

Numbers 6:24, " _The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace._ " The well-known Aaronic blessing, received when the people are faithful to God's covenant.

Deuteronomy

The name of the book

The name Deuteronomy has its origin in the Greek language: _deutero_ means _second_ , and _nomy_ means _law_. Deuteronomy is the book of the second law. The reference is mainly to the fact that the ten commandments of Exodus 20 are repeated in Deuteronomy 5. Also there is a great deal of repetition of the laws that have already been explained in previous books of the Pentateuch.

The author of the book

It is possible that the book of Deuteronomy was put together in much the same way as the other books of the Pentateuch: written by various people at various times and assembled at a still later date. It would seem, for example, that what we read in chapters 29 and 30 is a summary of the same things that have been explained in detail in earlier chapters. And the poetic sections in chapters 32 and 33 would also seem to have been one original scroll manuscript to begin with, and that the story of Moses' death could well have been a separate scroll originally.

The format of the book of Deuteronomy is almost entirely a recital of speeches made by Moses to the people of Israel. Whether Moses himself wrote out these speeches, or whether a scribe who was there did it, we simply do not know.

The last chapter is an account of Moses' death. Moses himself could not have written it. What seems likely is that Moses related some of the information to a scribe, perhaps Joshua, and this scribe filled out the story after Moses died.

The occasion of the book

Why was this book written? Ostensibly because an entirely new generation of Israelites had grown up, people born after the great exodus from Egypt who had not experienced either that mighty work of God or even the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. These people had to be reminded of their covenantal heritage and of the importance of not becoming amalgamated into Canaanite society.

So this book is essentially a renewal of the covenant. Moses rehearses their history back to the exodus, and goes into great detail repeating the laws originally written in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. He warns them time and time again against the peril of idolatry and of getting mixed up with idolatrous people from other nations. They must understand that God is shaping them into a holy nation, and they must accept this status and be faithful in all details. God is their suzerain, they are his vassal. The blessings of obedience will be long and prosperous life in the promised land. The curses of disobedience will be various forms of the wrath of God upon them in terms of problems and difficulties in their national life. Moses spells all of this out in fine detail in this book of the second law.

The content of the book

It is not difficult to describe the contents of the book of Deuteronomy in general: it contains speeches by Moses to the people of Israel, speeches that contain everything that the Torah had already included about how the people should conduct themselves when they entered the land of Canaan. Other than the account of Moses' death at the end of the book there is not much that is new in Deuteronomy.

HISTORICAL PROLOGUE (Deuteronomy 1:6 – 4:49).....Moses is much concerned that this younger generation of Israelites do not forget their origin. The people will soon be forcing their way into territory where they are not wanted, and their immediate concerns will be decisive in how they act when they do get settled down. They will be tempted to think all those rituals and regulations of Sinai are passé. They will take note of how the Canaanite people have made a success of their lives, and will be tempted to imitate them. This, Moses knows, would be a relapse into idolatry and polytheism, and would be a direct repudiation of the covenant of their God. So Moses spends much time rehearsing their origin in the slavery of Egypt and their father's pledge to obey everything that their covenant God Yahweh has commanded.

Christians today need to take this history seriously also. It may not be our ethnic history, but it is our religious and humanitarian history. The murky origins of the people of Israel and the stipulations of the Sinaitic covenant are as much a part of our humanitarian origin as is the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus, of course, made a transition out of that Torah covenant into the new covenant of the Spirit, but this new covenant must be understood as a development which could not have taken place de novo. It is built on the shoulders of the Torah. God's law is now inscribed on tables that are hearts of flesh, no longer on tables of granite or of vellum.

The point is that Christianity is a developing religion, and that the law of God is the guiding factor in the way it develops. God's purpose, his covenantal purpose, is to bring the human race, step by step, phase by phase, closer and closer to the goal of true shalom. This is, let us recall, the same goal Moses articulated in Genesis One when he described humanity as created in God's image with the mandate to replenish the earth and subdue it. Each step in the development of God's covenant is designed to move the human race that much closer to the goal of reflecting the character of God in the ongoing human business of science and technology and civilization in general.

So Moses' call to this new generation of Israelites to remember their past and to value it highly is also a summons to us to know our history, to know how God is guiding the human race to the destiny he in his creative wisdom has set.

REVIEW OF COVENANTAL REQUIREMENTS (Deuteronomy 5:1 – 28:18).....It's hard to say when these speeches of Moses were actually written down. Did Moses himself write them and then read them off to the people? Or did someone like Aaron or Joshua listen to Moses speak and then write them out the next day? Or, possibly, did a relatively long period of time elapse before someone wrote what he remembered of Moses' speeches, or what tradition had passed on to him over the years? Who knows?

We can imagine that circumstances, unknown to us, were such that it was deemed necessary to have this second document explaining the divine requirements in addition to what already existed in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. One might guess, for example, that when the kingdom split between Judah and the ten tribes, that one of those kingdoms inherited the basic documents and the other needed to have this book of Deuteronomy. But nobody really knows.

At any rate, we today have both in our modern Bibles, and we can appreciate that the ancient Israelites had such detailed instructions to keep them constantly reminded that they were called to be a holy nation, God's own people, living as his image as they developed their national life and institutions.

As Christians in the twenty-first century we need to see as clearly as we can that it is important for us also to have ways of reminding ourselves that we have covenantal responsibilities. These will not be the same as those of the old covenant of Sinai, the Torah, but there ought to be comparable exercises of one kind or another to keep our focus sharp. Church services are probably one of the most important of these reminders, but individual and family devotions would be equally important. Prayer, Bible study, volunteer services, mission work, and such activities would also be included in the ways we keep our responsibilities to God in sight.

But the major goal of all these practices needs to be the same as what we read in Genesis One to the effect that we are called to live as images of God in our daily activities, at work, in school, on the road, on vacation, whatever. What is important is what effect our religion and our faith have upon the way we live and conduct ourselves in daily life. We do many so-called religious things, but all of these must be resolved into steady holy living day after day.

CURSES AND BLESSINGS (Deuteronomy 27:1 – 30:20).....It may be well at this point to remind ourselves of the basic covenantal structure as the Bible implements it. The Biblical doctrine of covenant follows the main outlines of the ordinary covenants between a conquering king and the conquered people, that is, between a suzerain king and a vassal people. Such covenants usually included a list of things the vassal nation had to perform under the dictates of its new sovereign. Then there would be some kind of statement of the benefits of such obedience, such as being protected from other enemies by the new suzerain lord. In addition there would be warnings about what would happen if the people were dilatory in keeping the prescribed covenantal services, and also promises of the advantages that would occur if they remain faithful.

So this is basically the structure of the covenant that God establishes with Israel. The suzerain of the covenant is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The vassal in this covenant is people, in time to include the entire human race, but leading up to that time only with the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the nation of Israel. The covenantal requirements that God imposes upon his people at this time are these very specific and detailed provisions in the book of Deuteronomy.

So, in these concluding chapters of Deuteronomy there are also warnings about disobedience, what will happen if the people become unfaithful. And there are descriptions of the blessings that will ensue if the people do remain obedient and keep the covenantal requirements.

THE DEATH OF MOSES (Deuteronomy 34).....Moses is enabled to climb a mountain so as to see across the Jordan River the land of Canaan toward which he has been leading the Israelites ever since their escape from slavery in Egypt. But he himself is too old by now to be the active leader of the people in the battles that must happen if they are to find space in Canaan for them to settle. Joshua is Moses' general for warfare, and he is appointed to replace Moses as the leader of Israel in their upcoming foray across the Jordan River into the promised land. Moses sees the land of Canaan off in the distance and then dies – how we are not told, only that it is in the land of Moab where the nation is poised for a forced entry into Canaan.

Perspective on Deuteronomy

It would be useful to know what the occasion was for the writing of this book – when, why, where, who? – but since we don't know that we speculate and try to fit it into a niche of Israelite history that we do know about. So here is one such speculative scenario – not to be taken in any way as factual.

A couple of hundred years after Moses the nation of Israel split apart into two kingdoms, ten tribes under King Jeroboam retaining the name Israel, and one tribe under King Rehoboam with the name Judah (Benjamin had been absorbed into this tribe by that time). What happened to all the Hebrew scrolls that had been written by then? Nobody knows. But if they were all taken out of Solomon's temple and brought to the new capital of Israel in Samaria, then the kingdom of Judah would have been left without. Perhaps someone then, a scribe or Levite, could have written out these speeches of Moses that summarize and detail the same set of laws and rituals that are in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.

Continuing the speculation several hundred years later. Judah has had a series of lengthy reigns by kings who cared little for God's covenant – Manasseh and Jeroboam II for example – and the book of Deuteronomy lay unused and gathering dust in a dusky closet in the temple. Even the priests had forgotten its existence. But then a young godfearing king, Josiah, is enthroned in Jerusalem, and one of the first things he does is to order a refurbishing of the decaying temple of Solomon. A priest finds the forgotten scroll as he cleans out a closet, discovers it is a scroll of the Torah (probably the Hebrew scroll of Deuteronomy), and brings it to the attention of the high priest who in turn brings it to young king Josiah. Josiah has the scribes read it to him and is flabbergasted that many of its provisions have been forgotten or ignored. Josiah begins a comprehensive religious reform and revival, only to have it end when he is mortally wounded in a battle against an Egyptian army.

Still more speculation: The priest who found the abandoned scroll was Hilkiah, the father of prophet Jeremiah. When the kingdom of Judah was carried off into Babylonian captivity twenty-five or so years later, what happened to the scroll when the temple was destroyed? Was it taken to Babylon and then brought back again by Ezra and Nehemiah later? Or perhaps did Jeremiah succeed in rescuing it so as to keep it in his possession the rest of his life? Nobody knows. Perhaps there are legends in Jewish history about such matters.

But, all of this speculation aside, what we read in Deuteronomy, the farewell speeches of Moses to the people of Israel, should be seen in historical context. A whole generation of Israelites has passed so that very few of the actual persons who experienced the exodus from Egypt and the sojourn at Mount Sinai were still alive. The new generation had to be reminded forcefully of the events that brought them here, namely the sovereign grace of Yahweh who has become their covenant suzerain. The people as a whole had to reaffirm their acceptance of covenant and to pledge their continued adherence to it.

This much is not speculation. And it is a needed reminder to us as well that the history beginning way back then is still continuing today, and that as Christians we inherit the new covenant by which God is bringing us in the Spirit of Jesus closer and closer to his goal of imaging him in perfection.

Memorable Moments in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, _"Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."_ It is not sufficient that the people merely go through the motions of keeping the rules and regulations of the covenant. They must, even more important, learn to love God. They must learn this so that their keeping of the laws does in fact represent what they think and believe deep in their heart.

Deuteronomy 29:29, _"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to observe all the words of this law."_ Very profound words. We can only go by the things we are given to know. There is a great deal we do not know; and it is entirely in the plan of God when new things are revealed to our descendants. But as they are revealed these new insights, such as the gospel in the time of Jesus, they become our possession and serve as the new guide for our covenantal obedience.

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

The first five books of the Bible are known as the Pentateuch. Next there is a set of nine books that record the chronological history of the people of Israel. This set of books includes Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the two books of Samuel, the two of Kings, and the two of Chronicles.

In later centuries when the Jewish people gathered all these scrolls together, or had them translated into Greek, they would list Samuel and Kings together so as to have four books of Kings, put Ruth as part of Judges, include Lamentations as part of Jeremiah, and gather all the minor prophets into one book. While this would make the number total different from our English versions, the contents would be much the same.

Joshua

The name of the book

This manuscript is known by the name of its most prominent character, Joshua the son of Nun of the tribe of Ephraim (Ephraim was one of Joseph's two sons). Joshua is first introduced in Exodus 17 as the military leader under Moses, directing the battle against the Amalekites during their journey from Egypt to Sinai. In Exodus 24 Joshua accompanies Moses as he ascends Mount Sinai to meet with Yahweh. We may understand that Moses was training Joshua to become his successor.

When Moses realized he was not able to lead the people across the Jordan River and into the land of Canaan, he appointed Joshua as his replacement. Joshua would have two main tasks: first to lead Israel as it fought its way into the land, and second to find suitable places for the twelve tribes to settle down.

The author of the book

As with the previous books, the book of Joshua appears to be a compilation of various documents, with evidence of editing by various scribes. It will serve little purpose in this Bible survey to examine the various scholarly theories as to how this book came to be what it is. We can simply recognize that in God's good providence all the data that became available about this period of Israelite history was gathered together and put into this one manuscript which we now know as the book of Joshua.

The time of the book

While we do not know exactly when this book was written or compiled, most scholars think the events described in the book of Joshua took place about 1240 BC and the years following, covering perhaps twenty years.

The contents of the book

CROSSING INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN (Joshua 1:1 \-- 5:12) This segment tells about a reconnaissance mission to Jericho, the actual crossing of the river Jordan, and a solemn consecration of the people once they had crossed over.

BATTLES AGAINST CANAANITE FORCES (Joshua 5:13 – 12:24) Here are the stories about the siege of Jericho, the debacle at Ai, the campaign to conquer the south, the deception of Gibeon, and the decisive campaign against the allied Canaanite forces in the north of the land of Canaan.

ALLOCATION OF TRIBAL LIVING AREAS (Joshua 13 – 21) The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh (Manasseh was one of the two sons of Joseph, along with Ephraim) were given the land east of the Jordan, where the Ammonites, Moabites, and Midianites were living. The tribe of Dan was given the territory which we know as the land of the Philistines; but as they could not force their way in they were later assigned a territory to the north of the Sea of Galilee instead. The tribe of Levi was not given any territory, since they functioned as Israel's priests, and so they were given scattered places in all the other tribes, 48 towns in which they could settle. All the tribes understood full well that the previous inhabitants of their allotted areas would be hostile; so they knew it would be necessary to fight and defend themselves when they moved in.

REAFFIRMATION OF THE COVENANT (Joshua 22 - 24) After Joshua completed his life's work of conquest and allocation of Canaan, he led the people in a solemn reconsecration of the covenant at a village called Shechem, where the desert tabernacle was now located. It was of decisive importance that the victorious Israelites not forget the LORD who had led them out of Egypt, through the miserable wilderness of Sinai, and finally now into the promised land "flowing with milk and honey."

Perspective on the book of Joshua

While this book details a very short period of Israel's history, it is nonetheless an extremely important period, the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that his descendants would eventually be a large nation and would inherit this entire land of Canaan where he was then living. That promise, unfulfilled for centuries while the Israelites languished as slaves in Egypt, was nonetheless always in their minds, thus becoming the definition of their hope for the future.

But the promise is kept, and what now becomes the motivating hope of the people for the future? What vision of the future will be challenging and controlling their national drive and destiny now that they are in the promised land?

We may sense that what now motivates and leads them is what is conveyed by the Hebrew term _shalom_. This term, often translated _peace_ , designates everything that is included in the idea of a good and prosperous national life. They are in the promised land, they have their allotted territories to subdue and settle in, and they look forward to a time of success and peace and prosperity.

All of that did not come automatically and without struggle, as the next book of the Bible will demonstrate, but it was nonetheless a vision of how good life could be and of what they would be striving to attain. The shalom of God.

Memorable Moments in Joshua

Joshua 24:15, _"Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."_ It was true then, and it is still true today, that being children of God involves deliberate choice on our part. We need to know what the options are, and we need to choose for our Lord and Savior. (The term "Amorites" very likely refers to all the various peoples living in the land of Canaan at the time.)

Judges

The name of the book

Here we have an English word as the name of a Bible book (like Numbers also). During the period of Israelite history covered by the book of Judges there was no central political authority binding the thirteen tribes of Israel together. All they had was the Torah which defined the terms of their national unity. These regulations were enforced, not by a national political leader, but by the local authorities such as elders and priests and Levites. These local authorities served as legal and social judges whose task was to keep the people living in the boundaries of the Torah.

So the name of this book reflects this socio-political structure and describes the adventures of various local judges who served in different localities and tribes.

The chronology of the book

The book of Judges covers the period after Joshua led the tribes in conquest of the land of Canaan and as the various tribes separated to settle down in their own allotted territories. In terms of calendar time this period would be approximately from 1220 BC to 1050 or 1040 BC when Saul, son of Kish, was inaugurated as Israel's first king, somewhat under two centuries. It should be understood that the stories of the judges might involve some time overlap: what was going on in one section of the country could be simultaneous with the story of another judge in a different part of the country.

The outline of the book

The easiest way to outline this book is by way of Prologue, Main Events, and Epilogue. First there is a description of the times in general, then the bulk of the book tells the stories of some judges, and lastly there are stories about two of the tribes, Dan and Benjamin that do not quite fit in the main pattern of the book. One can imagine that the person who compiled all these accounts had those last two papyri left over, and added them at the end because there wasn't a better place to include them.

The contents of the book

PROLOGUE We learn near the beginning of this book of Judges that because there was no king in Israel all the tribes were responsible for obeying the Torah on their own initiative. This resulted in a condition described as everyone doing what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).

Then we learn that as time moved on and new generations of Israelites were born the people gradually absorbed the idolatry of the surrounding Canaanite tribes, like Baal worship. As a result the various Israelite tribes became unable to defend themselves against the surrounding peoples and found themselves suppressed and unhappy. Then, when things went bad, they managed to repent and turn back to Yahweh for help. When this happened God raised up a judge to deliver them.

The book of Judges employs this four-step pattern – apostasy, oppression, repentance, deliverance – repeatedly as a description of this period of nearly two centuries in Israelite history.

MAIN EVENTS Twelve persons are mentioned by name as judges in the book, of whom six are described in greater detail: Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson. The others mentioned but not described are Shamgar, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. We may understand that the work of each of these judges normally involved just one of the Israelite tribes, though in a some cases more than one tribe is involved.

Othniel delivered the Israelites from the king of Aram.

Ehud stabbed the king of Moab to death.

Shamgar defeated the Philistines.

Deborah, with the assistance of Barak, delivered the northern tribes from the king of Hazor.

Gideon with three hundred picked men scared an invading Midianite army and then led the Israelite army in routing the Midianites back to their own country.

Tola was a judge in the tribe of Ephraim.

Jair was a judge in the territory east of the Jordan River.

Jephthah led an army of Israelites east of the Jordan River in successful revolt against the Ammonites who had been oppressing the tribes in that area.

Ibzan was a judge in the town of Bethlehem.

Elon was a judge in the territory of Zebulun.

Abdon apparently was a judge in Ephraim.

Samson, by almost superhuman feats of strength, enabled the Danites in the southwest to fend off the depredations of the Philistines.

EPILOGUE After the specific stories of the twelve judges, there are two incidents that occurred during this same time period but are not connected with any individual judge.

An Ephraimite man named Micah made an idol of silver, set up a shrine for it, and employed a Levite to serve as priest; thus violating the Torah's prohibition of such worship. The tribe of Dan, unable to settle down successfully in their allotted territory in Philistia, migrated to the far north of the Sea of Galilee. On the way north they confiscated the idol and shrine of Micah. Arriving at their destination, the Danites attacked and defeated the town of Laish and renamed it Dan. There the Danites set up Micah's shrine in competition with the tabernacle which was in Shiloh.

A Levite was passing through the territory of Benjamin and arrived at the town of Gibeah with his wife, but the men of the town took his wife and raped her repeatedly. When the other tribes learned of this atrocity they demanded that the criminals be brought to justice. Gibeah refused and war ensued. During the battle the tribe of Benjamin was so thoroughly decimated that it ceased to exist separately and was assimilated into the tribe of Judah.

Perspective on the book of Judges

We may see in this book of Judges an important pattern by which God trains his people. It is the same pattern by which God persuaded the Israelites to accept all the conditions of his covenant at Mount Sinai. He allows conditions to become so bad that the people have no recourse but to turn to God for relief.

In Egypt the people were reduced to slavery, from which there was no possibility of escape except to rely on divine providence. When God sent Moses and when Moses was successful in getting Pharaoh to release them, the Israelites were psychologically more than ready to agree to anything and everything God required of them in the Torah.

Now we see in the book of Judges something similar, though on a somewhat smaller scale. Local tribes, due to their own negligence regarding their covenantal obligations, found themselves oppressed by neighboring kings. Having no organized political or military means to defend themselves, they finally had to recognize their own impotence and call on the Lord to rescue them.

It will be useful for us, even as Christians in the twenty-first century, to recognize this pattern of divine providence. We often experience something of the same in our individual lives when things go wrong. Sometimes we see the fortunes of the church going down instead of up. Christianity sometimes appears to be losing out to atheism or some other philosophy. We hear people complain all the time, "If God can allow this to happen, I don't want to believe in God."

But God's ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts. God always knows what he is doing, and he always has ways of bringing his purposes to success, even when they require passing through devastating defeat. The crucifixion of Jesus is, of course, the ultimate exemplar of this pattern. Resurrection always follows eventually.

So the book of Judges serves in the history of Israel as both a warning and as an encouragement to all who read it. A warning to do our best to remain faithful to God's requirements, and an encouragement that even when things go wrong God is still in sovereign control.

The sad events of this book reoccur until it becomes clear to the Israelite tribes that they need political unity as well as Torah unity. The net result of these events was to persuade them that they needed to have one king to exercise political and military authority over all the tribes, especially to protect them from the recurring depredations of their neighbors.

There were, of course, negative considerations involved in having a king. Ideally it would have been better if the people, without any political compulsion, could have remained faithful to their covenant God. This would have been a true theocracy, a nation ruled directly by God without any human authority interposed.

But the times were not ready for that yet. The Israelites did, after all, live as foreign invaders, unwelcome in a hostile land. They had to learn how to cope with that situation, and this period of Judges was the beginning stage. So the desire for a king was not necessarily bad, even though, as we shall see in the two books of Samuel, there were dangers. The Israelite tribes had to respond to the conditions into which God led them, and had to figure out a way to deal with them without abandoning their sense of national unity.

It is a bit surprising, is it not, that these thirteen tribes, scattered as they were among hostile neighbors, did manage to retain their sense of covenantal unity and not devolve into independent and competing clans. The establishment of a kingdom served that purpose also, preserving their national unity. We may well today consider in what ways our sovereign God will manage to preserve our sense of unity, one holy catholic church, among the myriad varieties of churches we have allowed ourselves to create.

Memorable Moments in Judges

" _In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes."_ (Judges 21:25) This is the last verse in the book of Judges, and it has been repeated many times at various places throughout the book. That situation would have been OK if what was right in their own eyes corresponded with what the Torah taught, but it did not. So we are left with a comment that prepares us for the selection of a king later in the book of 1 Samuel.

Ruth

The name of the book

This short book is named for the woman who is the main character in it. Ruth is the Moabite daughter-in-law of an Israelite woman named Naomi of the tribe of Judah, and who becomes the great-grandmother of King David.

The setting of the book

The story told in this book occurs during the same period as the book of Judges. Presumably it could have been included in that book as another addendum along with the two stories already at the end of that book. It seems to have occurred about midway or later during the period of the Judges. The story provides one incident showing the intermingling of the people of Israel, in this case the tribe of Judah, with the people of Moab east of the Jordan River.

The author of the book

Jewish tradition suggests that prophet Samuel wrote this story, but it is also possible that someone during the reign of King David, someone like Nathan the prophet, may have written it as a way of explaining the ancestry of David.

The content of the book

The book of Ruth is what we might call today a short story. During a famine a family of four in the tribe of Judah migrates from their home in Bethlehem across the Jordan River to the land of Moab. There the father dies and the two sons marry Moabite girls. Then the two sons also die, leaving the mother a widow with two foreign daughters-in-law. The widow decides to return to her native town of Bethlehem; one of the Moabite daughters-in-law decides to stay in Moab. The other, named Ruth, decides to stay with her mother-in-law and convert to Jewish life and religion. Back in Bethlehem, the widow settles down, and eventually the daughter-in-law, Ruth, is noticed by a wealthy relative, Boaz, and is married to him. She gives birth to a son called Obed, who in turn becomes father to a son called Jesse, who in turn becomes father to David.

Perspective on the book

This short story is an incident illustrating the conditions of the times after the people of Israel forced their way into the land of Canaan, settling down in the presence of all the former occupants of the land. This resulted in interaction between the newcomers and the previous peoples. Here this interaction involves intermarriage.

As often as not, this interaction between Israelites and Canaanites resulted in the Israelites adopting Canaanite practices, including their religion of Baal worship, thus breaking God's covenant. In this case, however, it is the Moabite foreigner who comes into Israelite life and adopts that way of life, including Israelite religion. Ruth is what is later called a proselyte, a non-Jewish person converted to Judaism.

Very likely the reason why this incident has been given a place in Jewish sacred literature is that it is great king David's genealogy. David has a Moabite great-grandmother. And, of course, then it becomes the genealogy of Jesus as well, since he is a descendant of David a thousand years later.

It is well for us to understand that God had not written off all the nations of the world by choosing Israel. He had, indeed, separated Israel out from the other nations, but only for the purpose of special attention, with the long-range purpose of bringing the same special attention to the whole world. The danger always is that God's people will forget their covenantal obligations so as to ruin their road to righteousness. But it could go the other way as well, that others will be drawn out of unrighteousness into the covenant of God. Ruth is an example of that.

Memorable Moments in Ruth

Ruth 1:16-17, " _Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people; and your God my God. Where you die, I will die – there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!_ " Ruth is addressing her mother-in-law Naomi and pledging her loyalty to her in very powerful language.

First Samuel

The name of the book

The two books of Samuel are named after the most important character in them. Samuel seems to have been a combination of prophet, priest, and judge in the tribe of Ephraim (Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph, showing that Joseph received Jacob's birthright, a double portion of the inheritance.) It is Samuel who implemented and supervised the major change in Israelite governance from judges to kings.

The composition of the book

Originally First and Second Samuel were one volume, the Hebrew original. When they were translated into Greek the original Hebrew manuscript was divided into two, and this division has persisted through the Latin translation as well as most modern versions.

As with most of the preceding books of the Old Testament these books of Samuel appear to be compilations of a variety of independent manuscripts cobbled together by an unknown editor who lived some time after the last events recorded in them.

First Samuel tells the story of Israel's history until the end of King Saul's reign, so it seems logical to suppose that some unknown scribe living afterward would have assembled these stories. Some scholars have suggested that a son of prophet Nathan named Zabud could have been this editor (see 1 Kings 4:5), but it could well have been someone much later. No one knows for sure.

Still, to anticipate the next several books beyond 1and 2 Samuel, namely 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, it is very likely that as time passed there came into existence dozens and dozens of separate scrolls detailing events in the history of Israel's kings. All of these originally would have formed one massive library of scrolls. If so, then the editor would have been someone who lived after all that history was past, someone like Baruch or Ezra. This editor would have divided all this historical information into more manageable sets of scrolls with different names. So these six books of Old Testament history should be treated as one single historical record covering the entire period of the kingdom in Israelite history.

The content of the book

The easiest way of remembering the content of this book of First Samuel is to recall that it tells the stories of two persons: Samuel and Saul.

SAMUEL We have stories about Samuel's birth, his childhood in High Priest Eli's establishment, and then his service as prophet and priest and judge in later life. The story of the capture of the ark by the Philistines serves to show how Samuel succeeded Eli in respect and influence among the Israelites.

SAUL In the later chapters of First Samuel attention is shifted to King Saul. We are told how he became king and how he successfully served to protect Israel when attacked by enemies. But we are also told that he became careless about his duties under God and how he then deteriorated in his covenantal responsibilities. Many chapters in the last half of the book tell the stories of Saul's jealous persecution of David, and the book ends with the story of King Saul's final act of suicide.

The chronology of the book

Time-wise the book of First Samuel covers the period from the end of the period of Judges until the end of the reign of the first king of Israel, Saul son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. In terms of our calendar time, this would be approximately from 1050 BC, the accession of Saul to the kingship, until his death in about 1010, a period of about forty years.

Perspective on the book

First Samuel tells the story of a major transition from the politically unstable period of Judges to the establishment of a centralized government headed by a king. There was a great deal of dissatisfaction, however, when an obscure young man from a nearly extinct tribe, is designated to become king instead of better-known leaders in the other tribes. Yet, in terms of what they wanted a king to do, lead an army to protect them from the depredations of neighboring enemies, King Saul was for the most part very effective.

Where Saul fell short, however, was in his covenantal commitments to the Lord Yahweh, that is, in his religious responsibilities. Perhaps, as time passed and he sensed his own growing political power, he grew in personal pride. But what triggered and fueled his downward slide morally and religiously was his growing jealousy of his young and popular general of the army, David. Sensing that David's popularity among the people was eclipsing his own, Saul began clandestine efforts to destroy David, and later resorted to more open and deliberate attempts to kill him.

We see, accordingly, in this book of First Samuel, a case study of the dangers of political power gradually overshadowing the responsibilities of religious responsibility. King Saul should have been a great example of devotion to the Lord, leading the nation by personal piety into constant faithfulness to the Torah and its requirements for total commitment. This he was unable to do, and his failure became a concrete and powerful warning for the nation. Even political leaders must be humble enough to recognize their divine duties to lead the people not only in political and military safety but as well in moral and religious devotion to truth and righteousness.

We may ask what was the Lord's purpose is bringing such a person as Saul into the first exercise of kingship. It was to set up the tremendous contrast in what could and should happen in the royal realm. The first king, though successful in earthly matters, was nevertheless unsuccessful in the more important matters of faithfulness to his sovereign and suzerain Lord. That failure set up the contrast with the second king, David, who in later years was described both as a man of blood and as a man after God's own heart. David became the classic exemplar of a king who was able to combine both his political and military responsibilities and his theocratic and religious responsibilities.

Memorable Moments in First Samuel

1 Samuel 3:10, " _And Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening._ '" Already in childhood Samuel is learning how to distinguish the voice of God from all other voices, something we all must do.

1 Samuel 15:22, _"And Samuel said, 'Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams._ '" King Saul never did get his priorities straight. Formal acts of worship mean little if not buttressed by inner faith, honesty, and holiness.

Second Samuel

The name of the book

As explained in the previous section, the two books of Samuel should really be regarded as one book, named Kings after the main subject matter. It seems Samuel is dead by the time Second Samuel begins.

Content of the book

This book covers the reign of King David. David's early life is described in First Samuel, but that is part of the story of King Saul. So, whoever divided these stories did so at the transition from the death of Saul to the accession of David as king.

KING OVER JUDAH Actually the throne of Israel was inherited by one of Saul's sons, Ishbosheth. The tribe of Judah, however, did not want to accept this man as king and came to David asking if he would consider becoming king over them, just their tribe. David was one of them, of course, and had been for years an unofficial protector of the southern part of the country where Judah was located. So for seven years Judah's favorite son David ruled there.

KING OVER ALL ISRAEL Civil war ensued between the army of Israel and the army of David in Judah. When King Ishbosheth was assassinated, the elders of Israel requested David to serve as king over them as well, and David accepted.

JERUSALEM Wanting to assure all the tribes of his impartiality, David refused to live in any existing Israelite city. Looking for a place to live he chose to conquer a little village that was still independent, Jerusalem, and made that his capital. He brought the ancient desert tabernacle to this city, and laid plans to build a great temple for it (though it was Solomon who actually built it). From this city David governed the tribes of Israel, protected them from the depredations of surrounding peoples, and built up the city to become the center of Israelite life. Then we read that God promised David that the throne of Israel would remain in his family forever.

FAILURES Though David is described in the New Testament as a man after God's own heart, he was not a man without fault. Three chapters in this book describe his sad affair with a beautiful neighbor lady and her husband, involving adultery and murder. This lady Bath-sheba, however, became the mother of Solomon who inherited the throne upon David's death.

Then we read several sad incidents involving David's older sons who hoped to gain the throne and plotted against their father to do so.

Chronology of the book

In general we could remember David as being king at the year 1,000 BC. Scholars pinpoint the chronology as follows: 1010 David becomes king over Judah, 1003 king over all Israel, 970 end of his reign.

Perspective on the book

Both King Saul and King David were guilty of serious sins against God. What makes one to be rejected by God and the other praised by God? Not the acts themselves, but the attitude of the heart. Saul did not repent when confronted by Samuel; David did repent when confronted by Nathan. David's heart was basically in tune with the will of God, Saul's was not.

It was this difference that explains why God promised David that his dynasty would last forever: as long as the kingdom lasted one of his descendants would occupy the throne. As we know, not all of his royal descendants maintained the same quality of faith that David had, but this promise is to be understood as God's pledge not only to prosper the people politically and militarily but also to keep them faithful from the heart. Even though the future would hold severe apostasy, God would manage to bring them to repentance and renewed faith.

We must also recognize that this promise of God to David is part and parcel of the old covenant era. Jesus came to institute a new covenant era, so that the promises of the land to Abraham and of royal dynasty to David do not carry over into the new age of the gospel. The "forever" part of the promise is carried on in terms of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. All authority in the new age of the gospel is given to Jesus who exercises it from heaven by means of the gospel and the inner work of the Holy Spirit.

Memorable Moments in Second Samuel

2 Samuel 7:16, _"Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever."_ Although the kingdom itself ended with the Babylonian Captivity in 586, we may understand that Jesus, as a descendant of David, exercises all the authority of God both in heaven and on earth, and in this way perpetuates God's promise to David.

2 Samuel 12:7, " _Nathan said to David, 'You are the man.'"_ What courage it took for prophet Nathan to expose the immorality of the most powerful man in the country! And what humility it took for David to accept God's rebuke from Nathan! This incident demonstrates why David is regarded as a man after God's own heart. Not that he is morally flawless but that he repents.

First Kings

The name of the book

The three sets of books, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, are all historical records of the era of the kingdom of Israel. That is, from the time of the creation of the kingdom with King Saul to the end of the kingdom with the captivity of Israel and Judah. So this particular set of two books called Kings is a continuation of the story begun in the Samuel set, and takes the history of the kingdom to its end. Actually the four books we know as those of Samuel and Kings were all regarded as Kings when they were first compiled in Hebrew: four books of Kings.

Composition of the book

It seems appropriate to consider how these books came into existence. We can imagine that there were official scribes whose task of writing was a highly specialized function. Very few people could read or write in those days. So, for example, there would be a big battle or an assassination. Afterward some scribe would be tasked to write the story, and the scroll would be added to the growing library of such documents.

In time there would be so many of these separate records that someone would be delegated to put them in proper historical sequence and/or to put them into much larger scrolls. When this was done, and who did it, no one seems to know for sure. But the result was that some order was maintained in the stories.

Then when these Hebrew manuscripts were translated into Greek or Latin the new editors would divide the materials into segments that seemed appropriate to them. And that is how we got these historical books as we have them today in three sets: Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

Content of the book

First Kings begins with the story of how Solomon was appointed to the throne of David. It continues with the story of how the kingdom divided into two separate kingdoms under Jeroboam in ten tribes of Israel, and under Rehoboam in Judah. Then it continues with alternating accounts of kings in Judah and in Israel, stopping about half-way through to the end of the kingdoms. This somewhat arbitrary place to stop is just after the reign of Ahab in Israel and Asa in Judah.

SOLOMON For some reason King David had decided that his youngest son, but of his favorite wife, would inherit the throne, not the oldest son. Did he sense that young Solomon was more godfearing than the likes of Adonijah and Absalom and Amnon? So Solomon is anointed king just in time to avert a coup headed by Adonijah. Then we read of the building of a great temple and an even greater palace in Jerusalem. Then of the incredible success of Solomon in consolidating, organizing, and expanding the kingdom of Israel. His rule together with that of his father David became the standard of reference for all later people of Israel, their golden age.

DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM Just at the highest point of Israel's power it all falls apart when Solomon's son Rehoboam foolishly alienates the majority of the tribes, resulting in a military coup led by General Jeroboam. Ten tribes reverted to the earlier condition when Ishbosheth was their king and David was king only of Judah. Civil war and a certain degree of animosity characterized the relationship of the two kingdoms from that time onward. The cultural and political success of Solomon was soon lost and these two kingdoms subsided into just two more small nations struggling to survive between powerful empires in Egypt and Assyria.

OMRI/AHAB Generally speaking it seems that the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel were little motivated to keep covenant with their God Yahweh. The dynasty of Omri and his son Ahab seems to have reached a kind of crisis of apostasy, especially when Ahab married a foreign princess and allowed her to import idolatry into the royal household. First Kings includes the fascinating stories of the prophet Elijah during the reign of Ahab as he tried his futile best to recall the people of Israel to their covenantal responsibilities.

JUDAH The southern kingdom of Judah was blessed during these early decades of independence by having some good godfearing kings, particularly Asa and his son Jehoshaphat. Except for a brief period under Queen Athaliah all the kings in Judah were in the dynasty of David. So it seems that this southern kingdom retained a more vital sense of responsibility to God than did their brethren in the northern kingdom, and this is reflected in the fact that it outlasted the northern kingdom by a century and a half. But that is the story of Second Kings.

The chronology of the book

Scholars are considerably more precise in dating events during this period of Israelite history than, say, in connection with Abraham and Moses. This is because there are a number of correlations with events in other nations such as Assyria of which more exact chronology is known. So we get these dates:

970 BC Accession of Solomon

930 BC Division of the kingdom

853 BC Death of Ahab

Perspective on the book

The division of Solomon's kingdom into two rival kingdoms meant the end also of the dominance of Israel over the entire land of Canaan. We would have liked to read that this theocratic kingdom of God would have been blessed by God so as to become the dominant power in that part of the world instead of the likes of Egypt, Assyria, and later Babylon and Persia, and still later Rome. But it did not happen, and we wonder why not.

If God really wants a godly nation to become supreme in the earth, drawing all other peoples into God's kingdom, why did this not happen when such a promising beginning under David and Solomon had taken place?

The answer is that God's kingdom is not achieved by military and political power. It is achieved only by the inner persuasion that this is the only route we humans have to the kind of life that God wants for us. Recognition that we live under a sovereign God whose will defines what genuine human life ought to be – that is where we must begin. And that is where the Israelites were abandoning their forefathers' covenantal commitment.

It would not be until the coming of Jesus and the giving of the Holy Spirit that this lesson would be finally learned. And we can see the unbelievable effect of this faith as it worked itself out in the bosom of the hostile Roman Empire. In spite of the recurrent efforts of emperor after emperor to eradicate Christianity, by the year 390 Christianity was declared to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. It was the gospel, effectuated by the Holy Spirit, that conquered the military and political prowess of the Roman Empire.

So when we think about the division of the Israelite kingdom and its discouraging aftermath over the centuries, we need to remember that God knows what he is doing, and that even this insufferable period of Israelite history was a necessary step in the way God was training his people to learn what goes into genuine faith and covenant. We often learn best the hard way, by making wrong choices and learning better by their negative consequences. We can see this as God permits his people to make poor choices, suffer adverse consequences, and then figure out a way to move onward to a better choice. Israel's and Judah's kings often made wrong choices, particularly regarding idolatry and its connotations, and these decisions were described in their sacred documents – our Bible – so that later generations could learn and do better.

Memorable Moments in First Kings

1 Kings 8:27, _"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!"_ Solomon knows that he cannot control God, imagining that God is limited to the gorgeous temple just completed. So, at least at this early stage in his life, Solomon is well aware of his covenantal responsibilities to the Lord, and he intends to lead the people in that faith also.

1 Kings 12:28, _"So the king [Jeroboam] took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people , 'You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."_ With this blatant violation of God's covenant, how could anything go right in the sight of God? Jeroboam, first king of the divided kingdom of Israel, got its history started on the wrong track, and the nation never did get back into faithful obedience.

Second Kings

The name of the book

This book obviously is an extension of First Kings, so that the name simply means some more records concerning the kings of Israel and Judah.

The composition of the book

As in all of the historical books of the Old Testament, this book too is a compilation of various scrolls written at different times by different authors. It is useful to note that in various places there are the names of pre-existing scrolls: 2 Samuel 1:18 mentions the Book of Jashar; 1 Chronicles 27:24 refers to the Annals of King David; and 1 Chronicles 29:29 mentions three source documents: the records of the seer Samuel, the records of the prophet Nathan, and the records of the seer Gad. So we need to understand that these books of the Bible have been put together by some scribe or editor who had access to all the data and scrolls that had accumulated up to that time.

The chronology of the book

If we take the date of King Ahab's death as the dividing point between First and Second Kings, then this book covers the history of Israel from 853 BC to the time of its captivity by Assyria in 722; and also the history of Judah from that date to the time of its captivity by Babylon in 586 BC.

If we figure that the division of the kingdom occurred in 930, then the kingdom of Israel existed approximately 210 years, and the kingdom of Judah about 345 years.

The content of the book

This book of Second Kings interweaves the stories of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah in a roughly historical sequence. Sometimes these kings are at odds with each other; at other times they try to cooperate. But the idolatry of the northern kingdom of Israel resulted in that kingdom failing God's covenant much sooner than the southern kingdom of Judah.

Most of the kings of Israel were not strong God-fearing leaders, particularly Ahab in First Kings and Jeroboam II in Second Kings. In the southern kingdom there were from time to time good solid kings who tried to keep covenant: men like Asa and Jehoshaphat in First Kings and Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah in Second Kings. However, it should be recognized that good king Hezekiah was followed by the long reign of wicked king Manasseh in Judah, such that the progress made in godliness under Hezekiah was largely undone by Manasseh. Similarly the reforms started by King Josiah were left to languish by his successors on the throne of Judah.

ELISHA Almost all of prophet Elijah's ministry is described in First Kings, particularly his dealings with King Ahab of Israel, though the end of his life is in Second Kings. So, for general purposes we can think of Elijah in First Kings, and his successor Elisha in Second Kings. The first eight chapters of Second Kings is devoted to these stories of prophet Elisha.

EXILE Second Kings tells the story of the exile, 722 BC, of the northern kingdom to Assyria in chapter 17, together with the resettlement of the land by foreigners who eventually came to be known as Samaritans (after the name of the capital city of Israel, Samaria).

Second Kings also tells the story of the captivity of Judah. This small kingdom was able to maintain its independence under King Hezekiah when the northern kingdom was transported to Assyria in 722. But it lost this independence to Egypt when in 609 King Josiah foolishly tried to prevent an Egyptian army from traveling north through his territory. Soon, in 605, the Babylonians defeated Assyria and Egypt, thus gaining control over all the small countries in Palestine, including Judah. Some Jews were transported to Babylon at this time, including Daniel and his three friends.

But after several years under Babylon, Judah revolted. The Babylonian army came back and captured Jerusalem, carrying off young King Jehoiachin with thousands of important Jewish persons as hostages. This was in 597. Another ten years passed and Judah revolted again, 586. This time Jerusalem was demolished and the entire population transported. Both kingdoms, Israel and Judah, were now terminated and only a few scattered Jews (including Jeremiah) were left in the land that God had awarded to his covenant people.

Perspective on the book

This is not at all what we might have expected when we saw what God had done by enabling the Israelites to escape slavery in Egypt, and when the people pledged solemnly to obey everything that the Lord commanded. We would have thought this was a beginning that would continue to improve steadily, as we saw in the conquest of the land of Canaan and the establishment of a strong kingdom under David. We might have expected that this kingdom would have kept growing in power and influence such that the entire world would have been drawn into its spiritual and temporal power. But after Solomon the fortunes of the people went steadily downward until at last the people were siphoned out of their promised land.

How do we understand this? Did God fail in what he promised? What is God doing? What about his pledge to David?

Here we must take our perspective, not from these sad events of captivity, but from the later developments brought about by Jesus. Actually, what Jesus' disciples wanted was that the kingdom of David would not only be restored with Jesus on its throne, but that this kingdom would then go on to displace the Roman Empire as the world's dominant power.

But that is not what Jesus wanted or intended. Jesus wanted a kingdom based not on military and political compulsion but on the persuasion of faith created within the human heart by the Holy Spirit. Jesus wanted people to come to the point of doing what was right in the sight of God, not because there was any external power exercising coercion, but because there was an internal power bringing persuasion, faith, and obedience.
So we should understand clearly that the kingdom of God comes with no other power than that of the Holy Spirit working within us to bring us to voluntary faith and obedience. This is the message of the gospel.

So then, when we consider what happened way back in 586 BC, the infamous Babylonian Captivity, we should see that this is not the catastrophe that it appears to be. It is a purging process by which God is teaching us that disobedience and unfaithfulness results in disaster. But it is also a reminder that even such disasters do have a positive force in God's plan and purpose, a value similar to what Joseph said to his brothers that they meant it for evil but God meant it for good. God did eventually arrange history such that only those Jews who wanted honestly to get back to their land and their God were permitted to do so.

So the exile was a cleansing process. It cleansed the land of idolatry so that when a few Jews did return fifty years later it was with the conviction that never again would idolatry be permitted in their culture.

Memorable Moments in Second Kings

2 Kings 2:9, _"Elisha said, 'Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.'"_ This is

Elisha's answer to Elijah's offer just prior to his death. Elisha wants to continue the work of prophecy in the spirit of his master Elijah.

2 Kings 23:26-27, _"Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. The Lord said, 'I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.'"_ Even the massive reforms begun by good king Josiah failed to change the inner heart of the people of Judah who had been misled into idolatry by king Manasseh, resulting in this sad conclusion.

First and Second Chronicles

The name of the book

This name is derived from the Greek word _chronos_ , meaning time. The usage suggests events that happen in time, the record of what has been happening in the past.

As was the case with Kings, these two documents, First and Second Chronicles, were originally one document divided because of their unwieldy length in scroll form.

The content of the book

FIRST CHRONICLES This is a weird book. It begins with nine long chapters of genealogy starting with Adam going up to the time of the death of King Saul, literally hundreds and hundreds of names, including, strangely, genealogies of Edomites and lists of their kings. How many sons did David have? Nineteen, plus many daughters. Their names, together with their mothers, are listed in chapter 3:1-9.

Then the rest of the book of First Chronicles describes various incidents in the reign of King David, chapters 10-29. Interspersed in these chapters are again hundreds and hundreds of names of people involved in these events.

So, while there is a great deal of information about the life and times of David, it seems as if the person (or persons) who kept these records was primarily interested in giving credit (or discredit) to the people associated with David. Genealogical records appear to be a strong characteristic of this book of First Chronicles.

SECOND CHRONICLES This book begins with the reign of Solomon and describes in great detail all the subsequent kings of Judah. There is noticeably much less emphasis on genealogy and lists of names, though there is some of this. This factor suggests that the original scrolls which were assembled to form this book were written by scribes at the time, and not from tradition passed on from ancient times.

Much attention is paid to the details of the temple which Solomon built, as well as of his palace. Each of the kings of Judah are not only mentioned but evaluated in terms of whether or not they served the Lord faithfully. Among the negative kings in this regard are Rehoboam, Jehoram, Ahaz, Manasseh ; and the outstanding positive kings are Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah.

This book tells the story of the kingdom of Judah from Solomon to the Babylonian Captivity, but, interestingly, it concludes with the edict of Persian king Cyrus permitting any Jews who wished to return to Jerusalem to do so for the purpose of rebuilding the temple. This suggests that it was after the return from captivity that this book was assembled.

The authorship of this book

While it is not known who kept all these records we do know that there were at least four previous documents that were consulted in putting them together. 1 Chronicles 27:24 refers to the Annals of King David; and 1 Chronicles 29:29 mentions three source documents: the records of the seer Samuel, the records of the prophet Nathan, and the records of the seer Gad.

The amazing and perplexing amount of detailed information suggests that the original recording all of that data was an ongoing task for scribes living at the time. Israel was then a settled nation and gaining competence in such matters as literacy and meticulous record-keeping, something that would not have been done in earlier unsettled times.

Scholars are of the opinion that these books of First and Second Chronicles were assembled after the Jews returned from captivity in 536 BC, and that they were part of a set of documents which included the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. If so, this would help explain why the history of the northern kingdom of Israel is ignored altogether, and why so much attention would be paid to the names of men involved in Judah's history. Scholars surmise that it may well have been Ezra himself who assembled these documents in the form we have them today.

There appears to be a bit of duplication here and there, which might be attributed to the fact that different source documents were describing the same event. For example, chapters 22 and 23 of First Chronicles mention that David made Solomon king over Israel, but without much elaboration of how it was done. Then, in chapters 28 and 29 the same transfer of royalty is described but in much greater detail.

Perspective on the book

Perhaps the most important thing to take away from these books of Chronicles is their theistic orientation. Every one of the kings of Judah is evaluated in terms of his faithfulness to the covenant God had established with Israel at Sinai. Even in the northern kingdom this theistic orientation has been observed in the previous books of the Kings, when every last king in that land followed the idolatrous practice of Jeroboam in setting up two shrines in the kingdom to replace Jerusalem as the place to worship the Lord.

In Judah the kings who tried seriously to be faithful were followed often by kings who did not. One such king, Manasseh, in the later years reigned after good king Hezekiah, so that during the 55 years of his reign idolatry and other abominations had become so firmly fixed in the land that no lasting reform could happen. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, and resulted in the Babylonian captivity some years later.

The theistic evaluations are important because it is not sufficient to be an adequate political leader or an efficient administrator. Politics and culture need to be conducted with a sense of responsibility to God. When we talk about accountability we need to think of it as accountability to God, not merely to oneself or one's family or one's country or one's church. God wishes his people to be a truly theocratic people, obedient to his covenantal requirements.

Memorable Moments in Chronicles

1 Chronicles 17:10, _"Moreover I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house."_

David had been forbidden to build a temple for the Lord, but now the Lord reverses the matter, assuring David that God will build him a house, meaning a perpetual royal dynasty.

2 Chronicles 36:23, _"Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up."_ The Babylonians had deported the Jews. The Persians later conquered Babylon, and now King Cyrus cares little about whether or not there are Jews wanting to go back to the land their fathers had come from. One wonders who it was that persuaded Cyrus to permit this return.

Ezra

The name of the book

The book is named after a Jewish scribe who was commissioned by Persian king Artaxerxes to bring back to Jerusalem the temple treasures that had been confiscated during the Babylonian Captivity.

By the time Ezra arrived, about 458 BC, the people had been back in Jerusalem for about eighty years, and the temple had been rebuilt. However, conditions in the city were poor, the people were demoralized, and Ezra wanted to reinvigorate the people and restore their confidence and joy in the Lord.

The author of the book

Very probably the author of this book of Ezra was the same as the author of Chronicles. This book begins with the exact same edict that ended the book of Second Chronicles, King Cyrus permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Also there is the same kind of attention to lists of names of people involved in the events that are described.

In the early Hebrew manuscripts the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were combined in one scroll, as also in the Greek translation we call the Septuagint. There are segments of both Ezra and Nehemiah that are written in the first person, so whoever did the final editing or combining of these books must have had access to the personal memoirs of both of these men.

The content of the book

Like the Americans who are proud to trace their lineage back to the Mayflower pilgrims, these ancient Jewish people wanted to trace their ancestry back to the first contingent who returned to Jerusalem. So there was great emphasis on genealogy, as we have seen in previous books of the Bible, and this is also a characteristic of Ezra. Lots of names and pedigrees in this book of Ezra.

The book of Ezra tells the story of the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, halted for a number of years by vigorous opposition from neighboring people, but finally completed in 516 BC, about thirty years after the Jewish exiles returned.

What happened between this time and the time when Ezra arrived in 458 was that the Jewish people were gradually being assimilated into the culture of the surrounding peoples, especially by way of intermarriage and the adoption of their "abominations," (Ezra 9:14).

Ezra is incensed by this assimilation. He forces the Jewish leaders to insist on getting rid of all the foreign wives that had been brought into the country. The book ends with a long list of the Jewish men who were forced to put away their foreign wives and their children.

Perspective on the book of Ezra

Ezra begins where Second Chronicles ends. So obviously it is intended to be a continuation of the historical records of the Jewish people, concentrating on the period of time after the return from captivity.

The matter of intermarriage is worth further attention. What was happening in post-exilic Judah was that such intermarriage was extensive and that it resulted in the corruption of Jewish religion and morality. That is what made it unacceptable to Ezra.

There had been a few notable occasions in earlier Israelite history in which intermarriage occurred and which did not occasion condemnation. For example, Rahab, the Jericho prostitute who hid the Israelite spies, and who is listed in Hebrews' heroes of faith. Also Ruth, the Moabitess who became the great-grandmother of King David. The difference between Ruth's marriage to Boaz and the intermarrying of the Jews of Ezra's time can be seen in the decision that Ruth took when staying with Naomi, "Your God will be my God." Even Ezra would have had no problem with that! But in his time the influence went the other way, away from Israel's God, and he had to do something very difficult and radical to remedy the situation.

So what we see happening here is typical of what happens after the initial enthusiasm of some great achievement begins to wear away. Slowly apathy settles in and the success of past generations is simply taken for granted, and their vigorous commitment atrophies. It is something that Christianity has had to deal with all the time.

Memorable Moments in Ezra

Ezra 1:3, _"Any of those among you who are of his people – may their God be with them! – are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem."_ Cyrus, king of Persia, has been persuaded to allow any of the Jews who wished to do so, to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple there.

Ezra 10:44, " _All these had married foreign women, and they sent them away with their children."_ Under Ezra's insistence, drastic measures were taken to preserve the integrity of God's covenant with the repatriated Jewish people.

Nehemiah

The name of the book

Nehemiah was the political leader at the time when Ezra was the religious leader; so both of these books, Ezra and Nehemiah, describe much the same time in the history of the returned Jewish exiles.

The chronology of the book

Scholars are not entirely sure of the exact chronology of these events, because the ancient peoples did not have the kind of calendars we have today, divided into BC and AD. But it seems as if there were three distinct times involved: the original group of Jews who returned in 538 BC, the group who came with Ezra eighty years later in 458, and the arrival of Nehemiah in 445. What we have here in the book of Nehemiah is the account of events after 445, a time when Nehemiah was Governor and Ezra was the chief priest.

The content of the book

Nehemiah, whose position in the Persian government was that of cupbearer to the king, secured an appointment as Governor of Judah, and served in this capacity at two different times. On his first arrival he comes anonymously in order to make a personal assessment of conditions in Jerusalem, especially the condition of the walls (they are in ruins). He finds the people rather disheartened because of the constant pressure of neighboring peoples.

Nehemiah then decides that what is necessary is to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem to keep these enemies out. He makes himself known, produces the documents from the king of Persia, and compels the men to work on building the wall. The task is finished in two months. Ezra then leads the people in a grand rededication ceremony focusing on the reading and explanation of the Torah (Deuteronomy?). In addition Ezra rehearses all the history of the people back to the time of the great exodus. Having brought safety and order to the beleaguered Jews, Nehemiah returns to Persia.

Some years later Nehemiah hears distressing reports about conditions in Jerusalem and King Artaxerxes agrees to let him return for a second term as Governor of Judah (Nehemiah 13:6). He finds the condition of intermarriage, the same event as reported in Ezra, as well as violations of the sabbath ordinance. He cooperates with Ezra in rooting out the mixed marriages, and devises ways of compelling merchants to obey the sabbath prohibitions.

Perspective on the book

God had brought the Israelites out of Egypt in order to shape them into a holy nation. Hundreds of years later, when the holiness of the nation had been irredeemably compromised, he sent them into captivity to weed out the idolatry and depravity that had infested the people. Then, he arranged that only those courageous and faithful persons who wanted to re-establish the kingdom of Judah in keeping God's covenant should be permitted to return.

But within two or three generations that original commitment of the returnees had dissipated, and the sense of covenantal separation from othe nations was in real danger of being ignored and lost.

If we are surprised by the ruthless measures taken by Ezra and Nehemiah to remedy the situation, we need to remember that God's goal for all of us is that we be holy in our daily occupations. This requires strict self-control and the willingness to eradicate all the thoughts and ambitions and practices that conflict with God's will and Spirit. This is what these men, wise and holy persons themselves, were doing in the purging of foreign spouses who were bringing covenant-breaking practices and attitudes into the Jewish mentality and culture. And it is also the explanation of the strict measures taken to ensure the sanctity of the covenantal sabbath.

Memorable Moments in Nehemiah

Nehemiah 8:8, _"So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading."_ Ezra and his scribes read aloud the law of God to the people assembled in Jerusalem, and in such a way that it was well understood. What did the people think, people who had never heard those things?

Nehemiah 13:31, _"Remember me, O my God, for good."_ Nehemiah has not worked for his own advancement, but for the people whom God had chosen to become a holy nation.

Esther

The name of the book

Esther's Hebrew name was Hadassah. She became queen of Persia as the reward for winning a beauty contest, and in that capacity became responsible for enabling the Jewish people in Persia to avoid a serious massacre.

The author of the book

The author is unknown, but judging by the contents it would have to be a person well acquainted with Jewish mentality as well as with political events in ancient Persia. Scholars suggest that the incident recorded in this book took place about 460 BC, hence a few years before Ezra and Nehemiah, and long before the Persian empire fell to the Greeks in 331. It's interesting to note that those two men were already in the Persian government before gaining permission to help the Jews in Jerusalem.

The content of the book

For some unstated reason of his own, Mordecai, a prominent Jew in the Persian capital of Susa, refuses to pay abject homage to a very high official in the government. This official, Haman, notices Mordecai's truculence and plots a way to punish not only him but his entire race of Jews.

In the meantime, Queen Vashti offends her husband, King Ahasuerus (Xerxes), who then deposes her and sponsors a nationwide search for the most attractive and congenial woman he can find to replace her as Queen. The search ends with Mordecai's adopted daughter Esther who becomes the new Queen of Persia.

Mordecai learns of Haman's plot to exterminate the Jews and begs Queen Esther to bring it to the king's attention, since she too would be caught in the pogrom if it went forward. Xerxes figures out a way to deal with the problem, with the result that not only are the Jews saved but Haman, the instigator of it, is hanged and Mordecai replaces him in the king's government.

Perspective on the book of Esther

It appears that this incident is included in the Bible in order to explain the background and significance of the annual festival that Jews have celebrated ever since in memory of that salvation incident: the Feast of Purim.

The Jewish people have been persecuted and ostracized over and over again throughout the history of western civilization. One wonders why this has been so. Here already in ancient Persia was a dastardly plot to decimate the nation.

In some cases it was their own fault, as when the Israelite and Jewish kings rebelled against the super-powers who had conquered them, and when the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70 to put down a Jewish rebellion. But in later centuries it was sheer Christian prejudice in castigating Jewish people as Christ-killers throughout the middle ages. Who can say what evil attitudes motivated the Nazi concentration camps that annihilated millions and millions of people, mostly Jews, during World War II? And why is it that the modern nation of Israel is constantly targeted for extinction by its Islamic neighbors?

The book of Esther stands near the beginning of this tragic history and highlights this unholy anti-semitism.

There is a sense in which such prejudice is a built-in necessity to confront. God separated Abraham and his descendants for special treatment within the ongoing civilizations of the human race. But it seems that whenever and wherever such special treatment occurs, those who do not receive it react against those who do. Every culture seems to demand a great deal of conformity, so that those who refuse to conform make themselves targets for discrimination, suspicion, hatred, and even violence. Jewish people have undergone such treatment ever since Abraham.

To be sure they themselves have given it out at times also, particularly by their treatment of Jesus and the early followers of the Way. Still, we all need to understand that in the eyes of the Creator all people are equal and loved, evidenced by the fact that God sent Jesus not to condemn the world but to save it. That perspective on racism and nationalism ought to be the controlling principle of all people and nations, especially of Christians.

The book of Esther highlights this form of racial discrimination such that those who are on the receiving end of it must be careful not to retaliate with the same kind of hatred and overt hostility. Jesus counsels us to learn how to love our enemies and do good to those who treat us badly – a very hard thing to practice.

Memorable Moments in Esther

Esther 4:14, _"Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this."_ Mordecai urges Esther to risk her life by appearing to the king without being summoned, for the purpose of countermanding the edict to destroy the Jews. Though the word "God" is not found anywhere in this short book, this admonition from Mordecai presupposes a solid conviction in the sovereignty of God.

Esther 7:10, _"So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai."_ This is one of the ways in which the Lord punishes the wicked, turning their own evil plans against them.

THE WRITINGS

The Historical Books form one section of the Old Testament, from Joshua to Esther. Now we come to another section of the Bible, known officially as The Writings. They include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. They do not describe historical events like the preceding section, nor the Law of God like the Pentateuch, but are more philosophical and ethical in character. They include questions like why good people suffer bad things, a long series of poetic meditations on a wide variety of human experiences, what kind of behavior provides a good life, and in general how the Creator God requires his human creatures to live. All of the books in this section are strongly theistic in character, constantly relating our human problems to the will of our Creator and seeking to find guidance from him.

Job

The name of the book

The book is named after the main character in it. Job is described as living in the land of Uz, the area east of the Jordan River, so it is possible that he is not an Israelite. The setting seems to suggest that Job lived during the time of Moses, perhaps before the Israelites entered Canaan.

The author of the book

However, even if Job was not an Israelite, the book itself was written by an Israelite. This is evident from the fact that the covenantal name of God, Yahweh (LORD), is used several times. Interestingly, this name for God is never used by any of the speakers in the dialogues, not even by Job himself, but is used often in the narrative parts of the book, the beginning and ending. So it is possible that an Israelite author used a pre-existing foreign document for the story itself, and added his own introduction and conclusion. But this is mostly speculation.

The content of the book

Although nobody knows where it came from or how it came to be included in the sacred Hebrew literature,this book tells the story of a wealthy but righteous man who encounters setbacks one after another such as to reduce him to abject poverty and physical suffering. The question faced by this book of Job is how to understand that. Why do good people suffer hardship?

The author takes pains to put the matter in a clearly defined theistic setting. We need to understand such problems, not merely by examining our own feelings and interests, but by asking what has God to do with it? The devil is asserting to God that Job is good only because God has made him wealthy. He implies that if Job's wealth is destroyed Job would immediately abandon his trust in God. God says, in effect, You're wrong, but go ahead; try it. So it happens. Job's wealth is destroyed, his children die, and he gets miserably sick. Job's wife advises him to curse God, but Job does nothing of the sort. He retains his faith even in the middle of all that trauma.

In the story four of Job's friends come to console him and to help him understand why these tragedies have occurred.

ELIPHAZ Eliphaz says, "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?" (Job 4:7) He reminds Job that God does not punish people without a good reason. The implication is that Job must have done things worthy of God's punishment.

BILDAD Bildad pursues the same line as Eliphaz. He says, "If you are pure and upright, surely then he (God) will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place." (8:6) Again the implication is that Job must not have been pure and upright.

ZOPHAR Zophar castigates Job for maintaining his righteousness. He says, "For you say, 'My conduct is pure, and I am clean in God's sight'." But Zophar says God knows better, "O that God would speak, and open his lips to you." (10:4-5)

JOB Job replies at length to all these accusations, so that the bulk of the book is this ongoing dialogue between Job and his three friends. Job knows full well, in spite of what his friends keep telling him, that he has done nothing to deserve all the calamities that have befallen him.

ELIHU This younger man has been waiting patiently for the older friends to have their say. When they are finished he not only castigates them for their accusations against Job, but also flails Job for maintaining his own moral innocence. Elihu thinks that Job, by maintaining his own innocence, is implying that God is unjust in bringing all these tragedies into his life. Elihu says, "The Almighty – we cannot find him; he is great in power and justice, and abundant righteousness he will not violate." (37:23) Job must not argue in such a way as to imply God is unjust.

YAHWEH Finally, in chapter 38, the author brings in a speech from Yahweh (the LORD) to Job. It continues the argument that Elihu has just been making. The LORD accuses Job of darkening counsel by words without knowledge – Job doesn't know what he is talking about. God asks Job, "Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?" (40:8)

God puts dozens and dozens of questions to Job, all about the way nature functions, to show that Job doesn't know things that God does. The point is that God knows what he is doing, even if Job does not.

JOB In the end Job acknowledges his ignorance and repents of saying anything that casts doubt on the integrity of God. "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me. ... Therefore, I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (42:8)

Perspective on the book of Job

We ordinarily expect that if we do the right thing we will have good results. Most of the time this is true, but sometimes it isn't. That's what this ancient scroll of Job discusses. Why is it that sometimes very bad things happen to very good people?

The three friends of Job did not have it right. Their opinion was that when bad things happen to us it is because we have done bad things ourselves; we are being punished justly for what we have done. But Job knows this is not true in his case. He has not done wicked things commensurate with his intense sufferings.

Elihu does a better analysis: whatever happens we must retain the assurance that God is always right and never makes a mistake. He always judges justly. And, added to that speech, the long list of questions that God puts to Job convinces him that even though he does not understand why he is suffering God does know what he is doing. Job rests content with that.

However, Job does not get an answer to his problem, does he? He still does not know why he must undergo such awful distress. Only remember that God knows why even if Job does not.

Now, to back off a bit from the dialogue, we observe that the author of this book brackets these conversations with a story. In the prologue Satan has challenged God about Job's integrity: Take away his prosperity and he will curse you. So, from the author's point of view, what happens to Job has nothing whatever to do with Job's integrity, but is a product of God's putting Job's faith to the test. Does his faith depend on God's blessing, or does it come from genuine and indestructible conviction?

In the epilogue, all of Job's prosperity is restored, and even increased. God has become assured of Job's constancy and the test is over, successfully completed.

So what are we to make of all this, especially with respect to the basic question of why good people sometimes suffer more than wicked people?

We need to make sure we are not "rice Christians." In China, when missionaries first arrived there in modern times, they sometimes gained converts by supplying them with things that they could not otherwise obtain. They became Christians because the missionary gave them food or other benefits. The were "rice Christians." This was Satan's accusation against Job: he's good because you give him things; take away the things and he will denounce you. But it did not happen.

What we Christians are supposed to take away from this book of Job is that insight. Sometimes God requires us to go through troubled experiences from no fault of our own. We may have no notion of why, may have no specific sin for which to repent, but must nonetheless recognize that God knows what he is doing even when we don't. There is no possiblity that God himself is unjust; only that we cannot fathom the mind of God and must continue in faith regardless of what happens to us.

Many Christians recognize, once disaster has been endured and is in the past, that the experience has been good for them. It has strengthened their faith and confidence in God, and they are led into greater opportunities of service in the cause of the gospel. God has brought them through the trial and they are more mature Christians than before. So the main point seems to be that when things go wrong in our lives we do not despair, do not accuse God of injustice, but weather the storm day by day until the Lord leads us out of it into whatever future he has in store for us.

Memorable Moments in Job

Job 1:21, _"The LORD gave, the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."_ The sudden loss of all his wealth and family did not result, as Satan predicted, in Job renouncing his faith. On the contrary, it elicits this magnificent statement of faith.

Job 19:25-26, _"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God."_ Job's skin has already been destroyed by "loathesome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head." (2:7) But even in this misery Job has confidence that the LORD will bring him through, so that while he is still alive, "in my flesh," he will see the hand of God at work in his life.

Psalms

The name of the book

A psalm is a bit of Hebrew poetry. Originally the term was connected with stringed instruments such as harps or lutes or lyres. Perhaps the psalms were sung or recited accompanied by music. Hebrew scholars are not sure what such terms as "maskil" or "miktam" mean in some of the introductory notes, but they may have something to do with the musical accompaniment.

The composition of the book

The book of Psalms as we have it today is a collection of five separate scrolls totalling 150 poems, as follows:

Scroll 1: 1-41

Scroll 2: 42-72

Scroll 3: 73-89

Scroll 4: 90-106

Scroll 5: 107-150

These scrolls were originally separate collections which were brought together at some time prior to the second century BC. Almost half of the psalms are associated with King David, either that he wrote them or that they were dedicated to him. Perhaps David himself began one of these collections.

The content of the book

The various psalms deal with a wide range of human emotions that we experience in the course of daily life. We are troubled when life conditions deteriorate. We are thankful when they improve. We are conscious of our responsibility to God and to others, and are penitent when we fail. We celebrate various important occasions in the life of the nation or in the family. We pray for guidance when confronted with daunting choices or problems. We grieve when a loved one is taken in death. We wonder at the grandeur of the universe and at our place in it and at the glory of the Creator. And so on. All the wide variety of human emotions are represented in these ancient psalms, reflecting of course a bygone Hebrew way of life.

All the psalms are expressions of faith. That is, whether they are laments about distressing situations or delightful expressions of praise, they are always set in the context of our covenantal relation to our Creator Lord. They always look to God as the source of guidance, protection, forgiveness, and praise.

The style of Hebrew poetry

PARALLELISM The most characteristic feature of Hebrew poetry is _parallelism_ , two sentences sometimes emphasizing a similarity, sometimes pointing out a contrast.

For example, in Psalm 23 we read, _"He makes me lie down in green pastures."_ And then the same idea is put in different words in the next sentence, _"He leads me beside quiet waters."_

Or in Psalm 73:2-3, _"But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped._

Or in Psalm 84:3, _"Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself."_

Or note longer complex sentences, as in Psalm 119:1-2, _"Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who keep his statutes, and seek him with all their heart."_ Recognizing this aspect of the Psalms will help us understand them a bit better.

ACROSTICS Another characteristic of some of the psalms is _acrostics_. This means constructing a poem using the Hebrew alphabet as an organizing tool. This feature is not always apparent in our English translations, but Psalms 25, 34, and 145 are built this way. Each verse in those psalms begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters and 22 verses. Psalm 37 has two verses each for the letters of the alphabet. Psalm 119 even includes the Hebrew letters themselves in the headings, with a stanza of eight lines each beginning with that letter.

There are other characteristics of the Hebrew poetry in the book of Psalms that concern scholars but are not especially obvious to us in English translations.

Perspective on the book of Psalms

As suggested above, the book of Psalms is thoroughly theistic. The psalmists who wrote them are all aware of living in the close presence of God their Creator. For them God is not a far off noumenal entity unrelated to daily life. On the contrary he is the very environment of their lives. He is the one present in the vast dimensions of space. He is the one they turn to in the threatening dangers of war or disease or political upheaval. He is the one before whom they bow in penitence when their sin is uncovered. He is the one to whom gratitude and praise is given when life's situation is pleasant.

All of that theistic orientation is foreign to the purely secular thinking of some people in our twenty-first century. Religion has become for many a purely optional matter that has no rootage in scientific or psychological reality. The existence of a being named God is unprovable. So the kind of theistic literature we read in the book of psalms is for them a purely idiosyncratic exercise. Maybe it gives comfort to superstitious people, but in no way should it become a requisite for human living in community.

This is not the place to trace out the philosophical origins of that opinion, but the book of Psalms finds such agnosticism entirely anathema. On the contrary the theism of the Psalms reminds us that awareness of the daily care and guidance of a sovereign Creator and Lord is of the essence of human existence. Our very existence is dependent on the Creator, and the development of human life and history is entirely dependent on the will and eternal purpose of the One who brought it all into existence to begin with.

The psalms remind us that nothing is too small or too large for God, and that in all of our daily activities, important or not, we are living in the embrace of a loving and caring Master, to whom we are accountable for the way we think and live.

Memorable Moments in the Psalms

There are dozens and dozens of passages that could be cited here, so here are a few samplings only.

Psalm 8:5, _"What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"_

Psalm 19:1, _"The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork."_

Psalm 23:1, _"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."_

Psalm 42:1, " _As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God."_

Psalm 73:2-3, _"But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked."_

Psalm 90:12, _"So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart."_

Psalm 139:16, _"In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed."_

Psalm 150:6, _"Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!"_

Proverbs

The name of the book

A proverb is a short clever saying that provides some valuable insight into our behavior as human beings. This book of the Bible is filled with such sayings.

The author of the book

1 Kings 4:32 tells us that Solomon wrote three thousand proverbs. The first verse of this book of Proverbs tells us that these are the proverbs of Solomon. So we should understand that what we have in this book is largely the work of King Solomon, noted everywhere for his sagacious wisdom. We also read in Proverbs 25:1 that scribes in the time of King Hezekiah also added some proverbs to the document that existed at that time. Mention is made of the sayings of Agur (ch. 30) and of Lemuel (ch. 31). So we can imagine that at various times in Israel and Judah's history there were editors who worked on the scroll, copying it and adding new sections.

The composition of the book

The first nine chapters of the book are introduced with these words, "The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel."

Then in chapter ten we read, "The proverbs of Solomon."

And in chapter twenty-five we read, "These are other proverbs of Solomon that the officials of King Hezekiah of Judah copied."

In chapter thirty we read, "The words of Agur son of Jakeh. An oracle."

And in chapter thirty-one we read, "The words of Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him."

It would seem that these five sections were originally separate scrolls, and that they were assembled into one scroll during the time of King Hezekiah.

There is an interesting feature that scholars point out in connection with Proverbs 22:17 through 23:14. They have noted that this section parallels very closely an Egyptian document called the _Teaching of Amenemope_. It is possible that one of Solomon's wives who came from Egypt brought that scroll along with her, and that Solomon revised it to suit Israelite faith.

The content of the book

If David would write a psalm to express his feelings at any given time, Solomon would write a proverb to capture his insight into godly behavior. David's product was the book of Psalms, Solomon's product was the book of Proverbs. That's the way Solomon's mind worked. As he contemplated what should be done in any given problem area, when he understood it he devised a simple proverb to capture his insight. Very likely he had a scribe or two always available to keep a record of these sayings.

In Solomon's own words, the purpose of these proverbs is "to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young." (1:4) In that day becoming literate, able to read and write, was a highly specialized skill, not available to many persons. So learning how to live well needed the kind of guidance that short memorable proverbs might provide. Solomon has in mind primarily children and young people who are growing up into the rough and tough experiences of adult life. He is constantly urging them to pay attention to these proverbs so that when they are older and wiser they will see that they really did shape their life and behavior for the better.

Perspective on the book of Proverbs

Christianity is certainly more than just an ethical system designed to produce a workable society. It is that, but it is more. It is a comprehensive religion that defines the totality of human existence under God. It involves the way we think, the way we relate to others, the way we go about our daily tasks, the feelings we experience in different settings, the kind of family relations we develop, the kind of society we create, the businesses we run, the way we spend our time – the entire gamut of human life.

But what makes Christianity unique is its pervasive theism. Humans, having been brought into existence by God, are accountable to their Creator for everything they think, desire, and do. The word and will of God are the decisive factors in human morality, and this is the great contribution of the book of Proverbs. This book keeps insisting over and over again that our ordinary daily feelings and attitudes and activities need to proceed from what we know of God's will for us. Even when a given proverb does not mention God, that orientation is taken for granted. Consciousnes of the presence of God must become so ingrained in us that everything we do is determined by that faith, even when we are not consciously making that connection. That is the ethical orientation of Solomon in this proverbial book.

Memorable Moments in Proverbs

As in the book of Psalms, there are so many insightful passages that we can only provide a select few as samples of Solomon's wisdom.

Proverbs 1:7, _"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."_

Proverbs 3:5, _"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight."_

Proverbs 6:6, _"Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise."_

Proverbs 11:1, _"A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but an accurate weight is his delight."_

Proverbs 15:1, _"A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."_

Proverbs 22:1, _"A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold."_

Proverbs 23:31, " _Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly."_

Proverbs 27:1, _"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring."_

Ecclesiastes

The name of the book

This is an odd name for a Bible book. It is the Greek translation of the original Hebrew title which is Qoheleth, translated Teacher or Preacher or even Speaker. This term comes from the first words of the book, which in English are, "The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem." The name simply indicates insightful sayings of this wise man who is trying to teach his people something important.

The author of the book

The first verse says that the author is Solomon and there does not seem to be any convincing reason to doubt its accuracy.

The comparison to Proverbs

If Solomon is the author of both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, what is the difference between these two books? Why aren't they combined into one?

It seems that the main difference is that the insights of Solomon as recorded in Ecclesiastes are explained in more detail than the short sayings of Proverbs. There are a lot of sayings in Ecclesiastes that are really short proverbs, but often they are part of a longer story.

Then again, it is possible that Solomon used scribes as secretaries, and perhaps one would do the short proverbs and another one do the longer ecclesiastes. But we don't really know.

The content of the book

In 1:14 Solomon affirms that "all is vanity and a chasing after wind." One could easily reject this insight as that of an atheist who thinks there is no meaning in anything we do as human beings. We die, so everything we do disappears into nothingness; there is no absolute value for anything we do.

But if we remember that Solomon is thinking and writing within a very strong theistic orientation, then we can see that he really means that even if we do not perceive the meaning of our lives and of what we work so hard at, God knows what he is doing. God is indeed using our feeble efforts to shape and direct the course of human history and civilization. While what we do as individual persons may seem to us to be of little lasting value, we may have the confidence that God will use even our tiny efforts at godliness to promote his own sovereign purpose for the world he created. Solomon is reminding us not to put absolute trust in our own deeds and our own philosophies, but to understand that God is the one who is directing the course of all things.

Consider what Solomon says in chapter 9:3-5, "This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. ... The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost." The phrase "under the sun" is important in Solomon's wisdom sayings. He is contemplating what life looks like from a human, finite, perspective. He is saying, accordingly, that we must not look to our lives under the sun as providing the ultimate meaning of existence. Not what we say or think or do, but what God is planning and developing in the process of human history. Ultimate meaning is in the hands of God, not in the minds of the wisest of men.

So now Solomon is making a lot of penetrating insights into what we humans do know and how we ought to respond to them. But these insights are always within the perspective that God's knowledge is so much greater than ours. We do need to act according to what we do know, according to what God has revealed to us, but never with the idea that what we know is absolute and final truth. Only God knows absolute truth.

Solomon sums it all up in these words, "Then I saw all the work of God, that no one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out." (8:17) So the important point for us when reading this sometimes baffling book is to recall that all the negative comments Solomon makes about human life and experience are in the broader context of a vigorous and pervasive belief that God is in charge, not us.

Knowing this, what conclusion should we make about the way we live? "There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God." (1:24) "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has approved what you do." (9:7) "Fear God, and keep his commandments, for that is the whole duty of everyone." (12:13)

If you take your faith in God seriously, and live a conscientious life within that faith, then you may live joyously and in full appreciation of the blessings of life under the sun. You don't have to worry about your legacy or about how you can influence people and events. Leave that all to God as you go about your life in genuine trust and faithfulness to your Lord and Savior.

Perspective on the book of Ecclesiastes

The way to understand this book of Ecclesiastes is to recall the insight of Moses long ago in Deuteronomy 29:29, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children, that we may do the things of this law." There are a lot of things we do not know that God does know. We have to go by what we do know, and understand that as time moves on God will be leading us into greater insights. Control of the future and of human destiny does not rest with any given individual or any given church or any given nation or any given civilization. It rests with God and we need to be content with playing our tiny part in an ongoing scenario of which we do not know the future.

It is possible to read the book of Ecclesiastes from a purely secular point of view. "How can the wise die just like fools? So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind." (2:16-17) Solomon tells about seeking and getting great wisdom, only to recognize that it is a chasing after wind. Likewise as he sought to find meaning in constructing great buildings and monuments, and becoming richer than anyone else in the area – all of that is striving after wind because sooner or later he will die just as poor people die, and he doesn't know what his children will do with all his achievements. So, if anything and everything we do is chasing after wind, what's the point of trying? Why not just give up on life and abandon oneself to wickedness and irresponsibility? It is possible to read Ecclesiastes that way, but it is far from Solomon's intent.

If we do read with a secular mindset, and thus miss the controlling theism of Solomon, we will be reduced to cynicism and doubt and sarcastic rejection of Ecclesiastes as in any way supportive of Christian faith. On the contrary, we should read Solomon as reminding us how weak and small and insignificant we are compared to the greatness and glory of the Creator of heaven and earth. Even when we do not understand the meaning of our own lives and careers, we may be assured that God does, and that he will use our faithfulness in ways beyond our vision, in the generations of people yet to come, so long as human history will last.

Memorable Moments in Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3, _"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the sun: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal_ , etc." We need to learn to deal with events even when there is constant change, and do so in such a way as to serve the Lord not ourselves.

Ecclesiastes 10:8, _"Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a snake."_ Sin is its own punishment, evil intent rebounding on ones' own life.

Ecclesiastes 12:1, _"Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them.'"_ Elderly people sometimes lose all desire to live and thus have no pleasure in life. So take care when you are young enough to get your priorities straight and learn how to love life under the sun.

Song of Songs

The name of the book

Usually called Song of Solomon, the repititious title Song of Songs means the term is superlative, much like King of kings and Lord of lords.

The author of the book

Although Solomon himself is often thought to be the author, the style of the writing suggests that perhaps it may have been a woman who was in love with Solomon. Perhaps the author is one of Solomon's wives who is a daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Regardless of who was the author of this book, it seems that it was included in the Hebrew canon simply because it was about Solomon.

The literary style of the book

This book, Song of Songs, appears to be something like a dialogue or even a play, with different speakers taking part in the conversation: the woman who is _Beloved_ , there are _Friends_ who observe, and a man (Solomon) who is the _Lover_. Here is a sample of how the NIV Study Bible assigns the conversation (from chapter 1).

Beloved

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth –

for your love is more delightful than wine. ...

Friends

We rejoice and delight in you;

we will praise your love more than wine.

Beloved

Dark am I, yet lovely,

O daughters of Jerusalem,

dark like the tents of Kedar,

dark like the tents of Solomon.

Do not stare at me because I am dark, ...

Lover

I liken you, my darling, to a mare

harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.

Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings,

your neck with strings of jewels. ...

Those divisions are not, however, part of the original manuscript and must be deduced simply from the content of the sentences. Without them, in most English translations, the dialogue of the book is very difficult to follow.

The content of the book

One wonders why a book like this was ever included in Hebrew sacred literature. It expresses the sexual longings of two persons in love. Some interpreters regard this book as an allegory of the love of Christ for his church, but this would be a real stretch. It seems best to simply accept it for what it ostensibly is, an account of sexual attraction between a woman and a man.

Perspective on the book of Song of Songs

The sexual drive is one of the strongest drives in human experience. It can produce the most compelling virtues of life, or it can produce the most vile abuses. It needs, therefore, to be harnessed and channeled by the Creator himself in order to find its proper function within the divine plan and purpose for human civilization.

There is little, if any, explicit evidence in this book of this theistic orientation, concentrating as it does on the purely physical elements of sexual attraction. So we will have to read the book within the general Israelite perspective that is highly evident in the other sacred books of the Hebrew canon. It is this prevailing Hebrew theism that provides godly sanctity to the sexual relations of men and women, and we should be careful not to allow some form of secular atheism to color negatively our reading of this book.

There is a comment in 2 Chronicles 8:11 to the effect that Solomon built a special house for his wife, the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt. This bit of information is in the middle of a long explanation of how wealthy and how wise Solomon was. He had tribute money coming in from all the surrounding kings; he had extensive shipping interests on the Great Sea; he had mining interests in the copper region of the south. We know he was a great builder, having completed the temple plans made by his father David, and constructed an even more magnificent palace for himself. So the new house for his favorite wife is no surprise. One wonders, speculates, whether this unnamed wife was the authoress of the famous Song of Solomon. This would also explain why there is no reference to Yahweh in the book – she would not be a worshiper of the God of Israel.

Memorable Moments in the Song of Songs

Song of Songs 2:1, _"I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley."_

Song of Songs 6:3, _"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."_

THE PROPHETS

We come now to the section of the Old Testament that contains all the writings of the later prophets of Israel and Judah; that is, those prophets who lived toward the end of those two kingdoms, after such prophets as Elijah and Elisha.

In order to understand these writings in their original context we will examine them, not in the order they appear in the Old Testament but, insofar as possible, in their historical order. For that reason we will ignore the traditional division of Major and Minor Prophets, and instead employ the following categories:

Prophets concerned mainly with Israel:

Jonah, Amos, Hosea

Prophets concerned mainly with Judah:

First Isaiah, Micah, Joel, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah (Lamentations)

Prophets concerned mainly with the exiles:

Daniel, Ezekiel, Obadiah

Prophets concerned mainly with the returned exiles:

Haggai, Zechariah, Second Isaiah, Malachi

It will be understood that the earlier prophets were concerned to some extent with both Israel and Judah, and some, like Jonah, Nahum and Obadiah, concerned mainly with surrounding nations.

Prophets concerned mainly with Israel

Jonah, Amos, Hosea

Jonah

The author and setting of the book

2 Kings 14:25 mentions Jonah as a prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel during the long reign of Jeroboam II, the king who "restored the border of Israel." In the political ups and downs of those earlier centuries since Solomon, Israel had lost territory to neighboring countries, and now this king, strong and capable in many ways but not in godliness, was successful in regaining the lands lost by preceding kings.

However, much farther north the kingdom of Assyria was gathering force and becoming a threat to extend its empire in all directions. So it was in that setting that Jonah exercised his prophetic ministry. Scholars suggest roughly the years approximately 750 BC, in the aftermath of the prophets Elijah and Elisha.

The content of the book

God summons Jonah to bring a message of doom to Nineveh, capital of the powerful empire of Assyria. Jonah refuses and runs away, shipping off to an overseas destination. However, a storm comes up and Jonah, conscience-stricken, tells the sailors to throw him into the sea. A huge fish swallows Jonah, gets a tummy-ache, and vomits him back out.

Repentant, Jonah then returns to his duty and does bring God's message to Nineveh. Jonah, however, is not ready to accept God's decision when the city repents, and he pines away in disappointment, thinking God had sent him on a fool's errand. And God rebukes him.

Perspective on the book of Jonah

Many readers of this short book get side-tracked into the question of whether or not there is any fish large enough to swallow a man. That is certainly not the point of the book, but for the sake of argument, suppose Jonah to have been a small person, say under five feet tall, and thin. Could not a great white whale attempt to swallow such a delectable meal? The three days and three nights in the belly of the fish need not be taken literally, meaning simply a rather short length of time. We might say in our idiom, _after a while_ the distressed fish vomited Jonah out on the shore. At any rate, that's not the point of the story.

The point is that God's concern, even in Old Testament particularistic times, was not limited to the people of Israel. God's concern, from the very beginning was with the entire human race. The special work with Abraham and his descendants was intended all along to bring salvation to the entire world. So we need to recognize always that all nations are in the purview of God and that he is indeed deeply concerned with what is happening there as well as what is happening in Israel.

We would like to think that a prophet of God in Israel was thoroughly theistic in his thinking and personality. But here in this little book we see such a prophet who was not able to recognize and appreciate what God was doing in the larger world. He was not able to rise above his own personal expectations to accept that God was willing to forgive even wicked Assyria.

Perhaps we can speculate a bit more on just why God was sending a prophet from Israel to call Nineveh to repent. Like sending a minister from Nigeria to summon Washington DC to repent and get its act together. Just what was Jonah asking Nineveh to repent from? While the Assyrians were debating where to go next in expanding their empire, perhaps Jonah was tasked with warning them not to go south to the land of Canaan and Israel.

Perhaps Jonah's message included a warning that if their armies moved south there would be enemy armies coming from the east to a defenseless Nineveh to destroy it. In that scenario, completely speculative of course, Jonah would have liked to see the city of Nineveh in ruins. But it didn't happen, and Jonah was disappointed. We simply do not know these details.

Memorable Moments in Jonah

Jonah 2:2, _"I called to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice."_ Often we have to learn the hard way, as Jonah did. It's one way the Lord compels us to acknowledge truth and reality.

Jonah 4:11, _"Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and thirty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"_ God rebukes Jonah for not understanding his own duty as a prophet. God's will and purpose must always come before our hopes and expectations. It's what we pray when we say, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Amos

The author of the book

Amos is described as "among the shepherds of Tekoa." (Amos 1:1) Tekoa was a little village six miles south of Bethlehem in Judah. Although this is where Amos lived and worked for a living, his message as a prophet was mainly concerned with the northern kingdom of Israel. Forty years earlier Elisha had been similarly concerned.

We may understand that God can make use of anyone, regardless of his or her occupation, who takes faith and godliness seriously. God called this farmer/shepherd to bring a divine message of warning to a neighboring country which was slipping away from its covenantal moorings. Amos did not have the qualification of being a priest or some other prominent person in Israelite society, but he had the necessary faith and insight to do what God summoned him to do: go to another country with a warning of disaster looming ahead.

The historical setting

What was going on in the northern kingdom of Israel was of deep concern to the faithful followers of the Lord, not only in Israel itself but also in the southern kingdom of Judah. At the time both kingdoms were ruled by kings who had very long reigns, Uzziah in Judah (792-740 BC) and Jeroboam II in Israel (793-753 BC). The difference was not so much in their political effectiveness but in their sense of covenantal faithfulness. Uzziah was a good godfearing king, Jeroboam was not.

Consequently all kinds of idolatrous practices gradually made their way into Israelite life, not only outright idolatry but injustices of various kinds, and even child sacrifices. There was precious little to identify Israel as the holy nation that Abraham and Moses had envisioned. The Torah with its rigorous requirements was largely ignored.

So the work of prophets in those circumstances was to be a voice for holiness, for faithfulness to the Torah, for life under the sovereign guidance of the Creator. This would involve stringent warnings, calls for repentance, instructions for reform, calls for obedience to the Torah.

The content of the book

The book of Amos begins with a series of judgments against each of the small nations in the land of Canaan: Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, as well as against Judah and Israel. In each case Amos specifies certain sins for which God will bring punishment upon them, for example, "This is what the Lord says: For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile entire communities; to hand them over to Edom." (1:6) Or in the case of Judah, "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes." (2:4) And in the case of Israel, "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals." (2:6)

Then follow several chapters in which Amos excoriates the kingdom of Israel especially, as for example, "Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine." (5:11) Amos is predicting total disaster for Israel, a time when Assyria will wipe out the kingdom altogether, something that did happen a generation or two later, in 721 BC.

But at the very end, after this prediction of exile for the people, Amos concludes his book with an assurance of restoration. "In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old." (9:11) His very last prophecy is this: "I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God." (9:15)

Perspective on the book of Amos

We need to remember that God separated Israel from the other nations in order that Israel would become a holy nation. That is, God wishes humans to live in such a way that their civilization reflects the image of God. Human society should be honest, loving, respectful, just, trustworthy and in every way possible reflect the character of God himself.

The ancient civilizations that history shows us do not have that characteristic. They show slavery, injustice, pride, dishonesty, hatred and untold forms of other evils.

So it is in that setting that we need to understand the history of the nation of Israel. God forms a special covenant with them, gives them the comprehensive Torah to guide their national life, provides kings for their protection, sends them prophets to warn them when going astray.

But in spite of all this the people of Israel, and later of Judah as well, gradually slip away from the kind of national life to which they are being summoned. It starts with forgetting or at least ignoring their one God, Yahweh, and embracing other gods and idols. And it continues with growing practices of injustice and immorality. Amos mentions, for example, fathers and sons using the same girl. (2:7)

The result is that in spite of all the blessings and advantages God has provided for the people they are not responding in such a way as to become a holy nation. Kings and priests all become careless about such abuses until finally God needs to step in to do something to correct the situation. This he does with the exile and with the return of the chastened and repentant remnant who will work diligently at keeping Torah. Amos does his part in calling Israel to repentance and obedience to God's Torah.

Memorable Moments in Amos

Amos 5:24, " _But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."_ Christian faith too needs to be carried over into Christian living, as the letter of James insists. It needs to produce a Christian civilization that is godly and just.

Amos 7:8, _"And the Lord said to me, 'Amos, what do you see?' And I said, 'A plumb line.' Then the Lord said, ''See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by."_ The Lord sets rigorous standards of truth and righteousness and justice for all humans. Violation of such standards brings failure, disappointment, and ruin. That is also the lesson of the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

Hosea

The author of the book

Hosea was the only one of the so-called Minor Prophets who came from the northern kingdom of Israel. Judging by the list of kings in 1:1 Hosea lived and prophesied shortly after Amos, probably all the way to the destruction of Samaria and the end of Israel as an independent kingdom. Since he mentions Hezekiah, the king of Judah, it is possible that Hosea lived in Judah after the exile of Israel, and may have put this book together at that time, assembling various short pieces that had been written earlier.

The historical setting of the book

Six kings followed Jeroboam II on the throne of Israel in Samaria, spanning the last twenty-five years of its existence. Of these, four were assassinated in office (Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, Pekah). The last king, Hoshea, was captured in battle when the Assyrians came down to destroy the kingdom, 721 BC, and carried off the people into exile. A truly sad ending to what began so auspiciously with David and Solomon. It was during those final turbulent years that Hosea was called to bring the warning of the Lord to an unresponsive nation.

The content of the book

The first three chapters of the book describe how Hosea's troubled family life is a picture of God's love for his people. Hosea's wife, Gomer, doesn't like the names he gives to his three children, because those names are intended symbolically as a rebuke to the nation: Jezreel (God scatters), Lo-Ruhamah (no love), Lo-Ammi (not my people). So Gomer becomes unfaithful to her husband Hosea and runs off to live with another man. That doesn't go well with her either, and Hosea manages to get her back to live with him, even though her faithfulness is still questionable.

All of that was intended to be symbolic of God and Israel. Israel, as the bride of God, proves unfaithful by going after other gods. This apostasy produces sad results, however, so God manages to arrange historical events in such a way as to scatter the people in foreign lands, to demonstrate that God has no love for the way they have been living, and to regard them (temporarily) as not his people. But then God brings Israel back to himself (after the Babylonian Captivity of Judah).

The rest of the book of Hosea (chapters 4-14) contains miscellaneous messages from Hosea to the people of Israel, probably written separately over a period of time. These are mostly warnings about various kinds of sins that are becoming acceptable in the country. Here is a sample: "Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their gold and silver they made idols for their own destruction. Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger burns against them." (8:3-5)

Perspective on the book

Perhaps the people of Israel did not have any more respect for Hosea than we would if he lived today. With a messed-up marriage and children with odd names we might have difficulty giving his message any credibility.

But precisely this kind of personal symbolism God required of him. And not only of him but of other prophets as well. Later Isaiah went about for a long time nearly naked to demonstrate to Judah that its wealth was about to be stripped clean by foreign armies (Isaiah 20:2). Still later Jeremiah deliberately renounced the usual pleasures and social activities in order to symbolize the dangers that were then confronting Judah (Jeremiah 16). Such prophets were tasked by God to demonstrate in their own troubled lives the message God was sending to his people.

While we may not respond favorably now in the twenty-first century to such symbolic actions there is still a kind of carry-over into our lives as committed Christians. We are called to demonstrate in our own personal lives what it means to be a child of God. We cannot claim to be the people of God if we do not incorporate the virtues of God into our daily thinking, ambitions, and efforts.

So, even if Hosea seems a bit weird to us, we need to understand that he was dealing with his distressing marriage situation, not from a selfish personal concern, but from a concern for the word of God and with a view to his prophetic calling. He was extrapolating from his own personal experience a message for the entire country.

Memorable Moments in Hosea

Hosea 2:21-23, _"In that day I will answer, says the Lord, ... and they will answer Jezreel; I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"_ Note the reference to the symbolic names of Hosea's three children. Jezreel: the people who are scattered will be replanted. Lo-ruhamah: the people who forfeited God's love will some day receive it again. Lo-ammi: the people who formerly lived as if they were not God's people will in the future be re-adopted to become God's people, and they themselves will acknowledge it by saying, You are indeed our God.

Hosea 8:7, _"For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind."_ Conditions get worse instead of better when we live contrary to God and to nature. That's the significance of the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, and it is made into a proverb here by Hosea: Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

Prophets concerned mainly with Judah

First Isaiah, Micah, Joel, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah (Lamentations)

First Isaiah

The name and author of the book

Obviously this book is named, as are all the prophetic books, after its author.

However, there is continuing debate over the identity of the author of this book of Isaiah, particularly of chapters 40 through 66. The problem comes from the fact that these chapters at the end have a setting after the Babylonian Captivity, whereas the earlier chapters have a setting more than a hundred years earlier during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah. They could hardly be written by the same person.

Interpreters who maintain a single author opine that Isaiah was given prophetic insights into the future that enabled him to write as if it had already happened. Those who disagree suggest that there were two different prophets with the same name, and that their memoirs were combined at some later time because of their identical names.

The issue is whether or not we can reasonably expect that a man living at one period of history can predict accurately and in detail what will happen over a century later. We would have to believe that God gave Isaiah this capability if we wish to maintain a single author. Many scholars, however, think this is unlikely, and they find recourse in what they call Second Isaiah.

This latter opinion is the standpoint of this present survey, which means that we consider that there were two authors involved originally, not one, First Isaiah and Second Isaiah.

The setting of the book

It is thought that First Isaiah began his ministry in the year 740 BC. His ministry took place mainly during the reign of good King Hezekiah in the southern kingdom of Judah.

It was during the reign of Hezekiah in Judah that the Assyrian army came south, conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, (721), deported the ten tribes to foreign lands, and imported foreigners to repopulate the area around Samaria, so that these newcomers came to be known as Samaritans.

The Assyrian army also laid siege to Jerusalem but was unable to conquer it. The Jewish leaders were convinced that this was because the temple of Yahweh was in Jerusalem and that God would never let his people and his city be taken.

Sometime later Hezekiah recovered from a serious illness, and when a delegation of foreigners came to commiserate with him, Hezekiah showed them all the wealth and magnificence of his palace and temple. Isaiah then informed Hezekiah that this would result in these foreigners coming to attack Jerusalem again in order to confiscate all that gold and silver.

Jewish legend claims that Isaiah was himself sawed in half during the reign of the next king of Judah, Manasseh.

The content of the book

First Isaiah tells how he became a prophet. He saw Yahweh in a vision in the temple, "sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple." (6:1) A seraph took a burning coal and touched Isaiah's lips with it, signifying that his sins were cleansed, and then Isaiah heard a voice asking, "Whom shall I send?" He replied, "Here am I, send me!"

So Isaiah understands that he has been appointed to be a spokesman for God to the people of Judah. His task is to relay to the people the things he hears himself from God. And that defines basically what a prophet is – a spokesperson for God.

So the book of First Isaiah goes on to report the things that Isaiah said to the kings of Judah, beginning with Ahaz and continuing with good king Hezekiah and wicked king Manasseh.

First Isaiah is constantly warning the people of Judah that the fate of the ten tribes of Israel will also overcome them if they do not continue in the path of covenantal faithfulness. He compares the onslaught of enemy armies to a flood which will overflow into the land of Judah, "It will sweep on into Judah as a flood." (8:8) But even so, the Lord will honor his pledge to David, "for there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom," (9:7) for even though the people will be taken captive eventually, a remnant will survive and return to re-establish the kingdom. "On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God." (10:20)

Perspective on the book of Isaiah

On the issue of whether or not there are two Isaiahs involved in this book of the Bible, it is not a question of infallibility or inspiration or integrity or respect for the Bible. We have seen often enough that different persons have been involved in constructing various books of the Bible. There should be no problem recognizing that there may be various persons involved in putting this book together. It's long enough to justify thinking two significant writing prophets were involved, 39 chapters for the first and 17 for the second.

It appears to be entirely reasonable to think that two persons with the same name did function as prophets in Judah's history, and that both were writing prophets, and that some other person later on combined the two documents into one. It is not possible to prove or demonstrate that this is the case, but it should not raise any concern about reliability or truthfulness. Both are inspired by God and are legitimate members of the Old Testament canon of sacred literature.

The main reason for maintaining this position is simply that it helps to make better sense of what we read in the book we call Isaiah, to think that there was indeed another prophet living after the exile who brought magnificent messages of a glorious future to the often discouraged returnees.

Memorable Moments in First Isaiah

Isaiah 5:20, _"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil."_ (NIV) The supreme example of this is the rejection of Jesus by the people who could not see him as the Son of God, the priests and Pharisees who valued the Torah over the gospel.

Isaiah 6:3, _"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."_ The song of the seraphs in Isaiah's vision needs to be reflected in our daily experience.

Isaiah 11:1, " _A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots."_ Even though the people will be brought into captivity, there will be a remnant who will return and restore the kingdom of David. This prediction will be of comfort to those few Jews who are remaining faithful during a time of general apostasy.

Isaiah 35:5, _"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy."_ Isaiah rhapsodizes about the perfections of the life to come under God's blessing.

Micah

The author of the book

Micah was a prophet from a town called Moresheth in southwest Judah, near Philistine country. His message is directed both to Samaria, the capital of Israel, and to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. As with most of the contemporary prophets, Micah's message combines dire warnings with firm assurances of God's ultimate love and trustworthiness. He lived and worked during the turbulent last years of the kingdom of Israel, prior to 721 BC.

The setting of the book

Political conditions both in Israel and in Judah were pretty much the same as previously described in First Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea. Religious and ethical conditions in the country depended largely upon the example of the ruler at the time. The northern kingdom of Israel never did have exemplary kings, so conditions were uniformly deplorable, getting worse as the years rolled on.

The southern kingdom of Judah often did have godly kings, bent on leading the people in faithful observance of their covenantal duties. Yet powerful influences from the idolatrous countries around Judah also penetrated and aroused the prophets' ire. Like First Isaiah, Micah's ministry extended into the reign of good king Hezekiah, so interspersed in the warnings are also assurances of eventual blessing from God, but only after disaster, the punishment caused by sin.

The content of the book

We may suppose that most of the prophetic books of the Old Testament were assembled from various separate manuscripts written earlier, rather than having been written all at one time. That is why the subject matter of the chapters varies so much, and why there does not seem to be much continuity from one chapter to the next. There may well be months or years between what we read in one chapter and what we read in the next.

Micah begins by pronouncing doom both upon Samaria and upon Jerusalem. God will bring certain punishment upon them if they continue in the path of unfaithfulness to his covenant. One would think he wrote this about Jerusalem prior to the religious reforms of King Hezekiah. Perhaps what Micah wrote and what First Isaiah was writing also at the time were instrumental in guiding good King Hezekiah's reforms.

But clearly there were some depressing things going on in Jerusalem at the time Micah brought his prophecies. For example, he writes about Jerusalem, "Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money; yet they lean upon the Lord and say, 'Surely the Lord is with us! No harm shall come upon us.' Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height." (3:11-12) The people of Jerusalem were convinced that God would never abandon his holy city and the holy temple in it, but Micah knew otherwise.

But Micah is not only a doom-sayer. He does not merely castigate sin and evil, he contrasts that with what should be done. People were going through the motions of obeying the sacrifices, for example, but without an inner desire for holiness. Here is how Micah puts it. "'With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?' He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (6:6-8)

Also, like the other prophets, Micah speaks of "days to come," meaning the days after God's punishment and after a remnant of repentant Jews returns from captivity. He writes, for example, "The mountain of the Lord's house shaill be established as the highest of the mountains. ... Many nations shall come and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.'" As a result the nations "shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more." (4:1-3)

So, all in all, the message of Micah, though containing much of a warning nature, is not at all a negative message. He concludes his book with what amounts to a psalm of praise to God for his constant faithfulness in spite of Judah's sin. "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possessions? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency. He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." (7:18-19)

Perspective on the book

What should not be missed in this book of Micah is his strong understanding of the function of the people of Israel and Judah among the other nations. True, they must be separate in the sense that they are monotheists, with no tolerance for idolatry of any kind. Yet Micah sees that this particularism must be understood as God's way of bringing the entire human race into his kingdom. That is the thrust of the fourth chapter about the nations coming to Jerusalem for instruction in the way of obedience to God, beating swords into plowshares and not learning war any more.

Micah may not know just how this will be accomplished, but he knows God will arrange it in "the days to come." But we do know how God is accomplishing it: through the ministry of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of the gospel to all nations.

What this insight requires of us is that we do not become discouraged by the failures of the church or of the inconsistencies of theology or the seeming lack of progress in creating a truly godly civilization. Israel and Judah had to go through a traumatic purging process, captivity and removal from their homeland. And it may well be that Christianity will have to go through some painful purging processes in the course of human history. Even so we must retain the vital vision of the Old Testament prophets that all such untoward events will eventually result, under God's sovereign control, in the sanctification of the nations. Christianity is upbeat even in the face of downbeat circumstances.

Memorable Moments in Micah

Micah 4:3, _"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more."_ Extrapolate from this idea of the abolition of war to the broader view that we must move out of all vice into all virtue, and then we get a glimpse of the task of Christianity in human history.

Micah 6:8, _"He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"_ The universal duty of every human being.

Joel

The author of the book

The name Joel was a fairly common name in those days, but nothing particular is known about this particular Joel who wrote the vigorous prophecies in this book of three chapters. There are a few references to Judah and Jerusalem, so we may surmise that his home was likely in that area.

The setting of the book

We jump forward now a hundred years or so to the last years of the southern kingdom of Judah. Israel has long ago been transported to Assyria (721). Foreigners have been replanted in Israel's territory. The mixture of Jewish religious practices with those of the newcomers produced a sad hybrid we know as the Samaritans (from Samaria, the capital city).

During this worsening period in the history of Judah, culminating in the Babylonian Captivity, we have Joel, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk, prophets during the end years of Judah, prior to 586 BC, and then also Jeremiah whose ministry extended also into the exilic period.

The specific occasion for this book appears to be a massive invasion of locusts, comparable to that of the ten plagues in Egypt centuries earlier. Crops and vegetation all over Judah seem to have been totally destroyed.

Joel used this catastrophe as a metaphor of what could soon be happening to the country of Judah. If the people continued in their present course a huge army from the north would infest the country like the swarm of locusts, and destroy their civilization entirely.

It would appear from this occasion and the way Joel developed its implications, that Joel lived during the declining years of Judah, perhaps during the years that King Manasseh allowed the national observance of the Torah to wither. The setting seems to be similar to that of Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah, a dangerously deteriorating apostasy from the covenant.

It should be observed, however, that there is a reference to Greece in this book (3:6), and this has persuaded some scholars to think Joel's ministry came very late in Jewish history, perhaps during the years of Alexander the Great c. 330 BC. One might suspect, however, that some later editor may have inserted a paragraph of his own into Joel's work.

The content of the book

In general one might say the first half of Joel's prophecy, that based on the plague of locusts, is a call to repentance and a warning of disaster to come if covenantal transgressions continue to occur. "Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. ... Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God." (1:13)

The last half of the prophecy is concerned with the day of the Lord. Joel means when the Lord makes known just how his own purposes will be fulfilled, when the time comes for him to step in and make the solutions required. Not merely the punishments administered, but the renewal accomplished thereby. "I will remove the northern army far from you, and drive it into a parched and desolate land. ... O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he has given you the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and later rain, as before." (2:20-23)

An interesting admonition is found in 3:10, "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, 'I am a warrior.'" This is the opposite of Micah and First Isaiah who say the people will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Micah 4:3 and Isaiah 2:4). But there is such a thing as a spiritual or moral warfare that Christians must wage, and this may have been Joel's intent also.

Perspective on the book

It has often happened in the Old Testament literature that natural events become a metaphor of spiritual events. This is surely appropriate even though there is no such inherent meaning in the natural event itself. A swarm of locusts does not all by itself mean that God will send an army of foreigners to destroy our country. But when there is a message to bring, and there is an event happening at the same time, then why not use it as a means of concretizing the message?

There are hardly any of these prophetic books that fail to end with a powerful assurance that God will in the end achieve his purpose in causing his people to return to obedience. And so it is also with Joel, "I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty, for the Lord dwells in Zion." (Joel 3:21) We do not know the future, but we do have the confidence that God will always turn what seems to be disaster into blessing, and that his will will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven.

Memorable Moments in Joel

Joel 2:12-13, _"Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing."_ Apparently it was a Jewish custom to tear their garments as a sign of remorse. Joel says God is not impressed by that action but requires a radical change of heart that will produce a change of behavior instead.

Joel 2:28-29, _"Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit."_ A remarkable phraseology to predict the universal spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ and of the work of the Holy Spirit in changing our lives; quoted in Acts 2.

Nahum

The author of the book

Interestingly, Nahum is a Jewish prophet whose main concern is not Judah itself but a foreign city, Nineveh. Something like Jonah. Other than that, nothing is known about Nahum. He is not sent to Nineveh, as was Jonah, but pronounces doom on it from a distance. How his message of doom was brought to the city we don't know. Perhaps word of his judgments may have been communicated by travelers.

The setting of the book

The empire of Assyria vanquished all its opposition and remained the superpower in the near east for over a hundred years. Its capital city was Nineveh, and its emperors had the reputation of being sadistic paragons of evil. A crueler culture could hardly be imagined, at least regarding any opposition to the ruling powers.

There were lots of Israelite people scattered through the empire, descendants of those who were relocated in 721 when the northern kingdom was conquered. Nahum must have heard distressing reports of how things were governed from Nineveh, and it aroused him to speak a word from the Lord to that depraved city.

Since the city of Nineveh was actually destroyed in 612 BC, during the time of King Josiah of Judah, we understand that Nahum's prophecy is dated prior to that event, when Jeremiah, for example, was a boy learning the ways of the world.

The content of the book

Nineveh and the Assyrians may have gained control over the land, but there is a still greater power in heaven. He is, as Nahum says, "A jealous and avenging God." (1:2) He controls all the forces of nature and is much more powerful than any of the rulers on earth.

But before Nahum pronounces God's judgment on Nineveh, he prefaces it with the promise of redemption for his people of Israel and Judah. "I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you." (1:13) So we understand Nahum's message is not merely, or even not primarily, what he says against Nineveh, but that what God is about to do to Nineveh is for the sake of his people Israel and Judah. Nahum functions within a very definite and vigorous commitment to the sovereign control of the God who created all things and who guides their destiny – a strong and powerful theism.

In the rest of the book Nahum describes in picturesque words what the invasion and destruction of Nineveh will be like. For example, "The crack of whip and rumble of wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, piles of dead, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end – they stumble over the bodies!" (3:2-3)

Nahum ends his book with a message for the king of Assyria, "Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. There is no assuaging your hurt, your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?" (3:18-19) We wonder if the king ever read it, and if he did, what he thought about it.

Perspective on the book of Nahum

Nahum took pains to explain to his readers that what was about to happen to Nineveh was for the sake of promoting God's purpose for his people, not simply to punish the Ninevites. We today need to extrapolate that this is true universally. For example, we may have little notion of how the two world wars of the twentieth century, as well as the later conflicts in the mideast, fit into the overall purpose of God. We certainly have little understanding of how developments in South America and Africa and Asia are being woven by God into the tapestry of his sovereign control.

But the conviction needs to control all our historical and cultural judgments about what is happening in the world today. We don't always see the purpose of God very clearly, but we must remain perfectly confident that nothing is out of control, and that all things work together under the providence of the Creator for the good of the human race. God knows what he is doing even if we don't. There is a divine purpose being slowly accomplished century by century, moving slowly but inexorably step by step toward the telos God has set. That is a major part of what it means to live by faith. It is the perspective that Nahum wants Israel and Judah to see, and in its more universal dimension it is what the gospel wants us to see also.

Memorable Moments in Nahum

Nahum 1:15, _"Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off."_ No matter how disastrous developments may be, they will never be powerful enough to destroy God's purpose. But God does require of us all that we celebrate the Lord Jesus and keep our faith honestly and steadfastly.

Zephaniah

The author of the book

Good king Hezekiah of Judah was the great-grandfather of this prophet, Zephaniah. So Zephaniah lived and prophesied during the reign of good king Josiah. But in between these two good kings were two bad ones, Manasseh and Amon. Being a person in the upper levels of Jewish society Zephaniah became well aware of the apostasy and covenant-breaking mentality of the government in Jerusalem.

The setting of the book

King Josiah, son of Amon, inherited a throne in Jerusalem that for a half-century had ignored and violated the faith of the fathers and had allowed all kinds of idolatry to penetrate into the country. Josiah did what he could to initiate a reform, but it seemed as if the people's habits were not altogether receptive. Not only Zephaniah but also Nahum and Habakkuk were among the prophets who supported Josiah's efforts, and still later the voice of Jeremiah was also raised in judgment against the sins of Judah and Jerusalem.

The content of the book

The main theme of this short prophecy of three chapters is the Day of the Lord. Interestingly, in chapter 1 the Day of the Lord is a day of judgment, whereas in chapter 3 the tone is changed and the Day of the Lord is a day of hope. Contrast the following passages.

Zephaniah 1:15-16, "That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish , a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blasts and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements."

Zephaniah 3:16-17, "On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion, do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival."

It is quite possible that a number of years have passed between these two prophecies concerning the Day of the Lord. Perhaps the reforms of King Josiah were beginning to take hold in the country so that the prophet's message could reflect that changing attitude. At any rate it is well worth noting that for Zephaniah as well as most of the other prophets there is a call to repentance coupled with a prediction of better times to come afterward.

In between these two descriptions of the Day of the Lord regarding Judah, we read several judmental prophecies concerning the nations surrounding Judah, particularly the Philistines, who will be wiped out. "The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left." (2:5) Also included in Zephaniah's condemnations are the Moabites and Ammonites (both groups descendants of Lot), Ethiopians, and Assyria.

Perspective on the book of Zephaniah

What does the term, Day of the Lord, mean as it is used in the Bible? Here in Zephaniah it is both a day of judgment and wrath as well as a day of encouragement and hope. How can both of these be true?

In order for good to prevail, evil must be destroyed. This is what God's purpose always is with the human race. This is what the gospel does: it destroys wickedness and it creates faithfulness. The Day of the Lord should therefore be understood as the time when God's purposes are actually carried out. There was a time for this concerning the Old Testament people of Israel and Judah, first a day of judgment in defeat and captivity, followed later by a day of joy in return and rehabilitation.

We today should understand that this principle is an ongoing method by which God, in his own way and in his own time, gradually works out his own purpose in the history and development of the human race. Hence the term, Day of the Lord, is not necessarily one moment in future time, but those moments in which God makes clear certain punishments of evil and comparable times of rewarding of good. It is one way of describing the perpetual sovereign control of God over the affairs of human life and history. God is constantly in the process of leading the human race to overcome and destroy that which is evil as well as to create and institutionalize that which is good.

Memorable Moments in Zephaniah

Zephaniah 3:14-15, _"Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies."_ But always this is through the trauma of punishment; precisely as we see it in the crucifixion of Jesus, followed by his resurrection. We may employ this pattern of death and resurrection to understand how God works in general with us, particularly how he overcomes sin in our lives and creates a spirit of truth, life, and obedience.

Habakkuk

The author of the book

Very little is known of the man Habakkuk, other than what we can learn from this book itself. There is a legend, not to be credited, that he ministered to Daniel in the den of lions; Habakkuk lived in Judah not Babylon where Daniel lived, probably late in the reign of King Josiah and into the reign of King Jehoiakim.

The setting of the book

The reforms of King Josiah were beginning to have some effect, but when he died the desire for greater godliness declined and disappeared. Habakkuk is complaining to God about why God is letting this happen.

The content of the book

The prophecy of Habakkuk starts out with a complaint. Habakkuk sees things going wrong in Jerusalem and Judah and he wonders why God isn't doing something to stop it. He complains, "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save?" (1:2) This is a complaint similar to that of young Jeremiah who for a time thought God did not see what was going on.

God's answer to Habakkuk did not help him much, for it triggered a different complaint. "I am arousing the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous nation." (1:6) God wants Habakkuk to understand that the Chaldeans (Babylonians) will soon be coming down to wreak vengeance on the kingdom of Judah, punishing them for their sins.

But Habakkuk is not much encouraged by this. How in the world can God think an idolatrous nation even worse in sin than Judah can come to do God's will? "Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing; why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?" (1:13) Those foreigners are even more wicked than the Jews; how can God use them to punish Judah?

God replies that the time will come for the Chaldeans also to receive divine punishment. "The cup in the Lord's right hand will come round to you, and shame will come upon your glory!" (2:16)

Habakkuk concludes his little book with a confession of faith that should characterize every child of God. "Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; and makes me tread upon the heights." (3:17-19) Even though the land of Judah may become desolate and its people carried off, God knows what he is doing, and Habakkuk will rest content in that knowledge.

Perspective on the book of Habakkuk

Strangely Habakkuk does not blast the government and the people of Judah for their blatant apostasy, he questions the tactics of God. Perhaps in his own mind he is expressing the concerns of other godfearing people besides himself. Perhaps he is giving voice to the questions he is hearing from loyal priests and prophets and elders. His question, after all, does resonate to some extent still today, does it not?

Do we not wonder why Islam is so strong and widespread and so militant? Or why Christianity is so terribly fractured among its millions of adherents? Or why the countries that have been traditionally the areas where Christianity has prospered are now slipping away down the slope to secularism? And in the back of our mind may just be the unspoken question of Why? Why, God, is Christianity declining in precisely the places where it once flourished? Why isn't the world moving ahead toward greater justice, truth, goodness, love, peace? These are much the same type of questions that Habakkuk is asking in his little prophecy.

Habakkuk had to recognize that in order to purge the idolatry out of Judah there had to be disaster for the people. Not total destruction, but major disaster such as to compel the people to examine honestly why it was happening. That took about two generations, out there in Babylon. And then it took continued confidence on the part of repentant people that God would figure out a way to salvage his own purposes – even when they could see no possible way to do it.

As Christians today we need to have that same confidence. There is no way we can really predict what Christianity will look like, or how the conflict with Islam will turn out, or what political conditions will be a thousand years from now. So all we can do is work as faithfully and diligently as we can within the parameters of life that God gives us, and trust that God does indeed know what he is doing, and that he will accomplish it in his own way and in his own time.

God, after all, has all the time in the world. If he took fourteen billion years to make the universe what it is today, and hundreds of thousands of years to get the human race to its present condition, then he just might take more time than our lifetime to get his purpose done!

Memorable Moments in Habakkuk

Habakkuk 2:4, _"Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith."_ Pride and unrighteousness go together, as do faith and righteousness. That is why James, in the New Testament, can insist that faith without works is dead.

Habakkuk 2:14, _"But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."_ It may have been difficult for people living six hundred years before Christ to understand how this could ever happen. It may be difficult sometimes even for us, even after we see the gospel spreading all over the globe. Habakkuk means not only such geographic spread but also the acceptance of this knowledge among the peoples – and that is surely taking a long time!

Habakkuk 2:20, " _But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!"_ Habakkuk has just listed the enormous iniquities that are common in surrounding countries, like Lebanon. He explains that the idols in those countries can do nothing to make life better. In contrast God, active from his holy temple, is in the process of destroying sin and creating righteousness among the peoples. Let us all keep our criticisms silent therefore!

Habakkuk 3:17-18, _"Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vine, ... yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation."_ Even in dark negative times, we can and do rejoice that the Lord is in control of events.

Jeremiah

The name and author of the book

Jeremiah is the central character and author in this book, though parts of it likely have been written by his lifelong friend Baruch.

We should assume that this book was assembled from dozens of separate short scrolls written at various times during the lifetime of Jeremiah. Every time something interesting happened, either he or Baruch would write it down and file the scroll away.

Perhaps Jeremiah himself kept the scrolls in a closet, or perhaps Baruch did, but when we read the book in modern times we find it all mixed up chronologically. It is not a consecutive account from one year to the next, even though the book is basically a biographical record of the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah.

One would have to consider that whoever assembled all these separate stories of Jeremiah's career did so in a hurry, without putting them into any clear order.

The setting of the book

Jeremiah's father was Hilkiah, a priest functioning during and after the reign of good King Josiah, who died in 610 BC. Hilkiah and his family lived three miles away from Jerusalem in a small village called Anathoth.

During one of his tours of priestly duty in Jerusalem Hilkiah found the forgotten book of the Law (scholars suggest it was Deuteronomy) in a dusty closet of the temple during a renovation ordered by King Josiah. This triggered a profound reform in the national observance of the Passover and of the other requirements of the covenant. Jeremiah was a growing boy during this exciting time and the revival of the covenant had a huge impact on him.

But then, in the middle of this time of reformation, King Josiah foolishly contested the passage of an Egyptian army through his country, and lost his life in the battle. His sons inherited the throne but did not share his faith and the reformation faded away, just as Jeremiah was growing into manhood. Jeremiah had admired King Josiah and when he observed the faithlessness of the kings who succeeded him, the young Jeremiah grew increasingly restive until at last he felt driven by God to do something about it.

What we read then in the book of Jeremiah is a record of the things Jeremiah did and said and felt, and what happened to him as a result both before, during, and after the siege of Jerusalem. With careful consideration of times and events it is possible to construct a reasonably accurate biography of Jeremiah's life from the early teenage years to his final sojourn in Egypt after the Babylonian Captivity.

The content of the book

Jeremiah is arguably one of the most fascinating persons in the Old Testament. We can trace his life from childhood to old age, not only the events but also the constant emotional strain on him when his messages from God fell on hostile ears.

Jeremiah begins the book by relating two incidents in his childhood that awakened in him a strong confidence in God and in a growing pressure to respond to this call from God, experiences that helped shape him into a prophet of Yahweh. Then we read of his first sermon standing at the doorway of the temple, and of the near-death verdict from the authorities who wanted to punish him for it. Later, we read of how he and Baruch schemed to get the message across by having Baruch read it; and then later how they together wrote short tracts to distribute to the people of Jerusalem.

We read how his family and childhood friends turned against him as a social pariah when they realized what he was doing, how he had to renounce all the normal pleasures of life that he would otherwise have enjoyed, and how he and Baruch evaded the authorities who were trying to silence them.

Jeremiah was constantly warning the people that God would send an army from the north to destroy the city if they kept violating God's great covenant under which they were living. Year after year passed, however, without it happening, with the result that people thought Jeremiah was simply a fanatic obsessed with fantasy. God's temple is here in Jerusalem, they thought, so God will never abandon his own holy city. They kept violating the sabbath, desecrating the temple by bringing idol altars into it, looking to Baal and to the Queen of Heaven for economic and social stability, even sacrificing their own children to false gods.

But eventually it did happen. The Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem. Jeremiah was thrown into a dungeon and then into a muddy cistern when he was accused of being a traitor, having urged the government to surrender. So when the city finally did fall, the Babylonians treated Jeremiah as an ally and permitted him to stay behind when all the rest were carried into exile.

Jeremiah still had a message for the exiles. He wrote letters to them, encouraging them to make the best of life there in Babylonia, for in due time God would open up a way for them to return to their holy land of Judah, even though it would take a few generations to happen.

The caretaker government of the Babylonians was then overthrown by a few Jews who came out of hiding. And when the aftermath of this was considered, the rebels decided not to face Babylonian retaliation in Judea but to flee to Egypt. Reluctantly Jeremiah went along, trying his futile best to get the Jewish people there to come to their senses regarding God's covenant. We do not know just how Jeremiah died, but it probably happened there in Egypt.

Perspective on the book of Jeremiah

Just about nothing that Jeremiah did or urged the people to do was successful. Even the few people who trusted him were not able to persuade the majority. He could not stave off the Babylonian attack, nor could he keep the later rebels home to face the wrath of Babylon. It is not difficult to appreciate the constant drain on Jeremiah's confidence in God when the people kept resisting and despising the message he brought. He was often in despair and discouragement, sometimes for years at a time. But somehow the Lord pulled him through and Jeremiah kept bringing God's message to a persistently obdurate people. We can only admire him for being faithful in such a distressing and futile ministry.

One of the lessons we might learn from Jeremiah is that even when things look bleak and hopeless and the forces of truth and holiness are obviously on the decline, God knows what he is doing and knows how he will accomplish it. Jeremiah had the thankless and frustrating task his whole life long of bringing a message consistently falling on unresponsive ears. His message of doom for the people's covenant-breaking made no dent whatever on their behavior, but he had to bring it anyway.

So if today we think that Christianity is in decline, that the forces of wickedness are prevailing, then we do well to remember how the Lord achieved his purpose by means of the Babylonian Captivity and the eventual return of a faithful few. God will always know how to achieve his purpose.

Memorable Moments in Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:5, _"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."_ It was this sense of having been consecrated by God that kept Jeremiah going during the long years of futile warnings against the sins of the people.

Jeremiah 9:23, _"Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord."_ Thoroughgoing theism is what we are counseled to prize and work for.

Jeremiah 29:11, _"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope."_ Even the captivity of the people into Babylon was an event within the plan and purpose of God, a purpose that involves eventual welfare for God's people.

Jeremiah 31:31-33, _"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors ... I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."_ The Sinaitic covenant based on the Torah, necessary and useful as it was, did not in the end produce a people who served the Lord from the heart. Something better was needed, and that came with Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant.

Lamentations

The name and author of the book

Laments are expressions of sorrow. The current title of the book, Lamentations, comes from the time when it was translated into Greek and Latin. The original Hebrew title was _'ekah_ (how) which is the first word in the book, "How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!"

Although this book has sometimes been included as part of the book of Jeremiah, it is uncertain that Jeremiah is its author. In the original Hebrew text the author is not mentioned. However, if the author was not Jeremiah it was clearly written during his lifetime, lamenting as it does the destruction of the city of Jerusalem.

The content and literary style of the book

The entire structure of the book is acrostic. There are five separate laments, each of which is based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Four of the laments contain 22 verses each, the number of letters in the alphabet, but the third lament has 66 verses (three times 22).

It is interesting that non-biblical literature has several examples of similar laments, usually over the destruction of some city such as Ur, Nippur, and Sumer. The Biblical book of Lamentations is a lament over the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC.

Perspective on the book of Lamentations

This book, as all of the Old Testament, is highly historical. It is written from the depths of discouragement concerning the destruction of the temple and the city. It would be wrong for us to bypass that historical setting and to try to jump immediately into the twenty-first century for contemporary applications of the language of Lamentations.

That is not to say there are no implications for us today, but that in order to discover them we need to make sure we get into the original spirit and context of the book. Once we feel with the author the intense sorrow for what has just happened, then we can move onward in history to the time of Jesus and get a sense for what he has done to establish the kingdom of God.

The point here is that we need to take history very seriously. God has his plan for time and history and human civilization, so that we understand that everything that happens, even the destruction of Jerusalem and the death of Jesus and the suffering of the ancient martyrs and the setbacks that may happen to the gospel from time to time do have a purpose in the mind of God. There may well be circumstances in our world that cause us to lament, but these conditions too should bring us back to our sovereign Lord God who does all things well.

Memorable Moments in Lamentations

Lamentations 1:12, _"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger."_ Jerusalem personified laments her own destruction.

Lamentations 3:25, _"The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him."_ Even though the city of Jerusalem is now in ruins, its exiled people must learn to wait for God to work out his plan. They may have confidence and peace in that waiting period.

Prophets concerned mainly with the exiles

Daniel, Ezekiel, Obadiah

Daniel

The name and author of the book

Daniel and his three friends were among the earliest captives taken hostage to Babylon. This would be in 605 BC, a few years earlier than Ezekiel in 597, and nearly twenty years before the final deportation to Babylon in 586. Daniel and his friends were educated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar to become part of the astrological team whose responsibility it was to interpret the meaning of the stars for the political decisions that needed to be made. They became what we know as Wise Men, or Magi, or astrologers. Daniel himself, because God gave him extraordinary insights, eventually became the head of this department, consulted by the king whenever major decisions needed to be made. So technically Daniel was not a prophet but a statesman, rising high in the service of the Babylonian and Persian governments.

The political setting of the book

Daniel was taken captive during the reign of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned c. 605 – 562 BC. His son Nabonidus was technically the king of Babylon from 562 to 539 when conquered by Persia. But Nabonidus put his son Belshazzar in charge while he vacated the throne and went to live in Arabia. Daniel served all this time, and his career covers the length of time of the Babylonian Captivity, into the reign of the Persian king Cyrus who chartered the return of Jews to their homeland and Jerusalem.

The literary form of the book

There are two very different kinds of literature in this book of Daniel. The first half, chapters 1-6, is mainly historical, describing deeds and events in the life of Daniel and his three friends. The second half, chapters 7-12, is largely predictive symbolism, describing what the author understands about the future.

The language of the book alternates between old Hebrew and Aramaic, and strangely does contain a few words of Greek origin. This, plus the predictions in the last half of the book, has persuaded many scholars that the book was not written until after Alexander the Great's conquests, after 330. The implication is that Daniel was not a real historical figure as presented in the book, but a non-historical fictional character. Other scholars, however, think this book was completed by the year 530.

While there may be some ambiguities involved in the book of Daniel, it would seem that a few Greek words could have been inserted by later copyists, so that the historical integrity of the entire first half of the book can well be maintained.

The content of the book

In the first half of Daniel we read how the Jewish boys were trained in Nebuchadnezzar's court and how they maintained their Jewish faith. We read also how Daniel explained the king's forgotten dream and as a result was given higher responsibility in the government of Babylon. This apparently was one of Daniel's strengths: interpreting the strange dreams of the king. After the Persians gained control of the country Daniel's enemies plotted to destroy him by getting him thrown into a den of lions. But God brought him through it all and apparently Daniel served into old age, into the time of Persian King Cyrus who conquered Babylonia in 539 BC.

In the last half of the book of Daniel we read some very difficult things to understand; Daniel has three visions about coming events. In graphic symbolism and enigmatic allusions he describes how one empire falls and another takes its place, perhaps predicting the sequence of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome as world powers. Skeptics conclude from these predictions that they were not predictions at all but reports written after the fact.

Perspective on the book of Daniel

It is interesting that a captive Jew rose to such political influence in a foreign government, and stayed there for his entire life. We might wonder how a god-fearing person could serve honestly in an idolatrous government. There were others as well, such as Joseph and Mordecai and Nehemiah. But serve they did, and we do read in the book of Daniel how he managed to preserve his own godly conscience even while serving powerful pagan kings.

The book of Daniel has elicited a great deal of controversy, largely concerning the last half of the book which deals with visions of the future. It is basically the same problem that Bible students have in connection with all Biblical prophecies of the future. How is it possible for anyone, even a godfearing prophet like Daniel, to know precisely what will happen centuries in the future? It might make some sense to think that someone other than Daniel could have added such content to the book after the fact, but we simply do not know whether or not this happened.

We do well to remember that important proverb from the mouth of Moses, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children, that we may do all the things of the law." (Deuteronomy 29:29) We can go by what we do know and let what we do not know to God. It is, after all, highly unlikely that any human being can foretell in detail what will happen hundreds of years later.

Memorable Moments in the book of Daniel

Daniel 3:17-18, _"If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up."_ Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, simply refused to compromise their own trust in Yahweh, willing to die if necessary. And God did deliver them.

Daniel 5:25-28, _"And this is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN. This is the interpretation of the matter: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."_ Fearlessly Daniel interprets for King Belshazzar a most unwelcome message from God.

Daniel 6:21-22, _"Daniel then said to the king, 'O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths so that they would not hurt me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong."_ God does not, of course, always deliver his people from undeserved harm. Either way, as the three friends in the quote above from chapter 3, we need to retain our confidence in the Lord.

Daniel 12:7, _"The man clothed in linen, who was upstream, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven. And I heard him swear by the one who lives forever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be accomplished."_ This is a sample of the enigmatic predictions that we find in the last half of the book of Daniel, sayings that occasion a great deal of speculation among Christians still today.

Ezekiel

The name and author of the book

The book is named after its author. Ezekiel was a young man when he was taken with a small group of hostages from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was in 597 BC, about ten years before the final siege and destruction of the city. He became a prophet during those exile years in a foreign country.

The setting of the book

Since Ezekiel did his prophetic work in the foreign land of Babylon, it is useful to know something of the historical situation in which he and the expatriated Jews lived.

In 612 BC the Assyrian empire, headquartered in Nineveh, was defeated by the Babylonians. Three years later the Egyptians came north to assist Assyria but also to regain control over the small nations in between, including Judah. That was when King Josiah of Judah lost his life. The Egyptian Pharaoh then deposed the new king of Judah, Jehoahaz, in favor of younger brother Jehoiakim, a change which made Judah a vassal of Egypt.

But soon, 605, a cataclysmic battle between Egypt and Babylon occurred in Carchemish. The Babylonians were the victors, and little Judah had to transfer vassalage to Babylon. Still another few years passed and a renewed Egyptian-Babylonian battle ended in a stalemate, so that King Jehoiakim, uncomfortable with Babylon, rebelled and shifted loyalty back to Egypt.

King Nebuchadnezzar sent an army to besiege Jerusalem, subdued it in 597, killed King Jehoiakim, and took a number of important Jewish people hostage to Babylon. This group included young King Jehoiachin and Ezekiel. In Babylon they joined another small group of Jews who had been exiled earlier – a group that included Daniel and his three friends.

So Ezekiel was already in the land of Babylon, living and working among the other exiles, at the time when King Zedekiah rebelled and the city of Jerusalem was totally destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar's army in 586. Many of Ezekiel's prophecies related to that catastrophe back in his homeland.

In general we could say that Ezekiel's main concern was to keep the notion of being God's special covenant people alive and well amongst the Jewish exiles, and also to keep alive their hopes of returning some day to their own country.

The content of the book

The book of Ezekiel can be divided into three distinct phases: 1) What he told the hostages in Babylon prior to the fall of Jerusalem; 2) Messages of judgment connected with the fall of Jerusalem; and 3) What he told the exiles after the main Babylonian Captivity.

PRIOR TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM The first 23 chapters of Ezekiel are, for the most part, explanations to the Jewish hostages in Babylon why they were in exile, and why it would even get worse in Jerusalem. Ezekiel, over and over again, berates the Jewish people for breaking the covenant God has made for them. It is this God, not merely the Babylonians, who is bringing catastrophe upon them because of their rampant idolatry. Through Ezekiel God says, "Those of you who escape shall remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their wanton heart that turned away from me, and their wanton eyes that turned after their idols. Then they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils they have committed, for all their abominations." (6:9)

The Jewish hostages hoped they could return to their own country, but Ezekiel informed them that this would not happen. Not only would they never get back, but in fact conditions were so volatile there that Jerusalem would eventually be destroyed and there would not be any city to go back to. Not only will the city itself be destroyed but all the people will be deported out of their land.

Nonetheless, Ezekiel does not wallow entirely in this despair but predicts for the people that God will bring them back after their hearts have been cleansed. "When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. I will give them one heart, and

put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them." (11:18-20)

MESSAGES OF JUDGMENT About the time when Babylonian armies actually did besiege Jerusalem again, Ezekiel issued a series of divine judgments on Judah and the other nations in the land of Palestine: against Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, as well as Egypt. They would all feel the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar, not only Jerusalem. Here, for example, is part of the judgment pronounced on the Edomites (descendants of Esau). "I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and cut off from it humans and animals, and I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword." (25:13)

AFTER THE CAPTIVITY Thousands of Jewish people were carried away when Jerusalem was razed in 586 BC. What message did Ezekiel have for them when they arrived in Babylon? There is still a glorious future for God's people. You may not see it, but your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will – but only after they have learned to repent and return to the Lord. God will see to it that his kingdom will not fail.

One of the most graphic instances of this type of prediction is Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, recorded in chapter 37. "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live." (37:4-5) The exiled Jews were the dead dry bones, but God will resurrect them and re-establish the kingdom of God in Jerusalem.

Perspective on the book of Ezekiel

It wasn't any easier for Ezekiel to minister to the exiled Jews in Babylon than it was for Jeremiah to do so before the exile. Jeremiah had to contend with the actuality and constant presence of idolatry and other forms of godlessness in Judah, whereas Ezekiel had to deal with the sad results of that disregard for God's covenant in remote Babylon. Distressing and discouraging conditions in both cases.

It was only from the firm conviction that God would not permanently abandon his covenant people, even though they had proven faithless, that kept both prophets going. Both of them, as well as others, did their best to convey to the people that when they recognized their own fault in bringing on God's punishment, and when they sincerely repented of it, and when they resolved to return to God's requirements, only then would God relent and make provision for renewing the kingdom in Jerusalem. They must return to the faith that only Yahweh was their God, and that they were his people.

Memorable Moments in Ezekiel

Ezekiel 11:19-20, _"I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them."_ This is the essence of the new covenant that Jesus came to initiate, the work of the Holy Spirit within believers.

Ezekiel 37:4-5, _"Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live."_ The kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem was now dead, symbolized here by the dead bones. But God will in his own good time revitalize the kingdom, raising it from the dead by bringing people back to covenantal faith. This he did with the return of a remnant of the exiles in 536; and even more importantly, by the coming of Jesus as King of the Jews.

Obadiah

The author of the book

Nothing is known about this Obadiah other than what can be deduced from this short prophecy of only one chapter of twenty-one verses.

The setting of the book

We can visualize the situation in Canaan a year or so after the Babylonian Captivity, which occurred in 586 BC. While almost all of the Jews were exiled, many of them ran away and escaped, and then returned to take up the pieces of what was left of their country. Jeremiah, for example, was permitted to stay behind. He became the prophet to the Jews who were not taken captive. Obadiah too was a prophet in Judah during this turbulent time.

Nebuchadnezzar left a caretaker governor in charge of affairs in that area, but in short order some fanatic Jewish leaders assassinated him in a futile attempt to re-establish their own independence.

Jeremiah tells about this rebellion (Jeremiah 41-42). Instead of facing the punitive wrath of Nebuchadnezzar, the rebels fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them.

Obadiah says nothing about these political events but has a scathing judgment to pronounce on a neighboring people, the Edomites, who apparently aided the Babylonians. Instead of coming in after the Babylonians left, and then doing what they could to assist the poor people who wandered back to Judah, they came in and scavenged everything that the Babylonians left behind, even helping to round up the Jews who were trying to escape, thus making a hard life even harder for the Jews.

The content of the book

Obadiah has a message from the Lord God to the nation of Edom, descendants of Esau, whom Obadiah describes as "you that live in the clefts of the rock." (1:4) He means the Petra area south of the Dead Sea which is still a tourist attraction today.

Obadiah describes the recent devastation of "your brother Jacob" by the Babylonians, and comments, "On the day that you stood aside, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you too were like one of them." (1:11) He adds, "You should not have joined in the gloating over Judah's disaster." (1:13)

So then, speaking for the Lord God, Obadiah announces to the Edomites, "For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head." (1:15) Not only will Edom be destroyed, but it will be the Jews who do it, "And the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them. The house of Jacob shall be a fire ... and the house of Esau stubble." (1:17) Obadiah concludes: Mount Zion shall rule Mount Esau.

Perspective on the book

Skeptics could dismiss this book and others like it with a derisive comment about wishful thinking. We've got it bad for now, but you just wait; it'll come to you soon enough. You're gonna get it.

What such skeptics do not realize, however, is that Obadiah and the other Jewish prophets have transcended their own human reactions and were expressing not mere groundless hopes but the express will and purpose of God himself. Not merely: We're going to get you sooner or later. But: God will take care of his people and part of that will be your punishment. In other words, the prophets were consistent and faithful theists. They knew what they said and wrote was more than their own opinions and insights, but the very purpose of God.

In our modern times, however, when we hear some preacher propounding with all the assurance of an Old Testament prophet what God will be doing in the future we suspect right away that he is simply popularizing his own opinions, not announcing the actual purpose of God. How would we today recognize a genuine prophet from God?

There is an interesting drama in the book of Jeremiah a few years earlier that gives us some insight into what distinguishes a false prophet from a true prophet. A group of Jews have been carried off into exile as hostages – that would be boy king Jehoiachin and a group of influential persons in his court including Ezekiel. A prophet by the name of Hananiah predicts they will be released and come back in two years. Jeremiah disagrees, thinking much more time would be required before God would arrange this. The conflict escalates into a major public confrontation. Jeremiah says the prophet whose prediction comes true is the true prophet, whereas the prophet whose prediction does not come true is the false prophet. If the king and his court do come back in two years, then Jeremiah would turn out to be the false prophet. However, if they did not come back in two years, then Hananiah would be the false prophet. As it turned out Hananiah was wrong and his shame soon brought on his death.

But the point of the incident is that time will tell. Both Jeremiah and Hananiah spoke what they truly believed was a message from God. But both could not be right. Only as events and time passed would the truth be known. Even sincere prophets can be wrong. Only by what God actually does as time moves along can we accurately say what his will is.

The Edomites did eventually go down to defeat, but how much the Jews had to do with that is uncertain. The Nabateans were in control of that area at the time when the Apostle Paul went there after his conversion and needed personal time to assimilate what had happened.

Memorable Moments in Obadiah

Obadiah 1:21, _"Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's."_ Obadiah would have meant a political rule, but in the new covenant we understand that the Lord rules, not by political force and compulsion, but by the inner persuasion of his Holy Spirit.

Prophets concerned mainly with the returned exiles

Haggai, Zechariah, Second Isaiah, Malachi

Haggai

The author of the book

Like some of the other prophets, little is known of this person other than what can be learned from the written material. Whatever his personal life may have been like, we know he became part of a group of Jews who made their way back to the ruins of Jerusalem some years after Persian King Cyrus granted permission to return.

The setting of the book

King Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to their homeland if they wished. Some of them did in 536 BC, fifty years after the infamous Babylonian Captivity. After trying to reconstruct homes for themselves out of the ruins of Jerusalem, the people gave their attention to reconstructing a temple in which to worship. But their efforts, for one reason or another, lagged and the work made little progress. The governor at the time was Zerubbabel who had all he could do to ward off the unwanted advances of hostile neighbor peoples.

In this setting Haggai appears among the people and devotes his efforts to getting the temple completed. This was fifteen or more years after the return, c. 520 BC.

The content of the book

Haggai complains, for the Lord, that the people have spent more time and energy on building their own homes than on constructing the house of the Lord. A foundation for the building had been completed just a couple of years after they returned, but when jealous neighbors noticed it they complained to Persia and the efforts lagged.

Four separate messages can be defined in this little book of two chapters. First a call to Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua to resume the work of rebuilding the temple. Then, when these leaders did get the task going again, Haggai assures the people that the Lord will bless the work. Third, when some of the people are disappointed that their new temple does not begin to compare with the lavish temple of Solomon, Haggai promises that even so the time will come when "the latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former." (2:9) And fourth, there is a final message of encouragement for Zerubbabel who apparently is having some distressing times dealing with problems on the political level.

Perspective on the book

Haggai comes in a time of small beginnings and daunting difficulties. What could that pitiful pile of stones look like compared to the magnificent temple it eventually came to be under the support of King Herod in Jesus' time? But that seems to be the way the Lord works: out of tiny beginnings great things come.

The miserable set of emancipated slaves just out of Egypt came to be the powerful kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon. The tiny band of scared disciples of Jesus grew to be the worldwide church we see in the modern world.

So when we are discouraged about how things are going in our own lives or in the history of the church or in some aspect of worldly affairs, we need to trust that God knows how to achieve his own purpose even in the face of the setbacks and trials of history.

Memorable Moments in Haggai

Haggai 2:6-7, _"For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of the nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Lord of hosts."_ God will shake loose the treasures of the nations so that the glory of the temple will again be like what it was when Solomon built it. Christians may extrapolate from that promise not that the church will become rich but that God will shake the nations by the gospel so that millions of people will repent and be saved.

Zechariah

The author of the book

Zechariah's grandfather, Iddo, is listed as one of the priests who returned to Jerusalem as part of the original remnant in 536. (Nehemiah 12:4) We may assume that Zechariah himself was a boy in that contingent of returning exiles and that as he grew older also became a priest as well as a prophet.

Though Zechariah was younger than Haggai, his ministry would be partially contemporary with him. Zechariah's ministry, however, lasted much longer than that of Haggai.

So the writings of Zechariah span a much longer period of time as the returned Jews gradually made their city livable. To get some idea of the calendar time involved, Haggai did his work of urging the temple work to continue in 520 BC. Zechariah celebrates the completion of this work four years later in 516 BC. (Zechariah 8, Ezra 6) And the later chapters of this book suggest that he could have been writing still as late as 480 BC.

The content of the book

The first half of the book of Zechariah contains what are known as Night Visions. There are eight of them. These are basically dreams that Zechariah records and which he uses to draw some important application for the struggling Jews of the return. They would be designed, therefore, to warn about mistakes being made, to show the way to correct them, to encourage the people to continue in spite of the slowness of progress, and also to raise their sights from the present to the distant future.

This latter purpose, pointing to the future, seems to be the main theme in the last half of the book. There are numerous figures of speech that in later centuries are taken to refer to something in the life of Jesus. Some scholars make much of the messianic implications of these passages, sometimes in distressingly literal ways. For example, one novel about the return of Christ has Jesus simply looking at his enemies in such a severe fashion that their flesh literally begins to melt and drip off their bones. This is based on Zechariah 14:12 (see below).

Another common literalism among some Christian believers is the prediction that when Jesus returns he will appear on the Mount of Olives, at which time that hill will split into two. Again, this is based on Zechariah 14:4 (see below). There are several other such figures of speech in Zechariah that are employed by certain groups to construct their notions of eschatology or their visions of their own participation in the work of Christ.

Perspective on the book

It will be extremely important for us to remember that all of these Jewish prophets are ministering to the people and conditions of their own time. This is especially important for this book of Zechariah, because there are numerous expressions in it that have been quoted as references to the life and passion of Jesus. For example, "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (9:9) Also there is a reference to "thirty shekels of silver," (11:12) which is connected to Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Jesus.

But, as is the case for all of the prophets, the contemporary conditions of God's people are always the context for understanding the text. In this case, the case of Zechariah, it must be remembered that the pressing local requirement was the completion of the temple. Everything Zechariah writes requires us to relate to that current need. To wrench the sayings out of this original context can only result in misunderstanding and missing the true intent of the scriptures involved.

Regardless of how one understands Biblical eschatology it seems highly important for us to keep reminding ourselves that the prophets were first of all addressing the pressing needs of their own times. This means that when we read their writings we keep looking to understand that message in the circumstances of their times. Why would it be important for the impoverished Jews of the return to think about the future? They will need to understand that God's concerns for his people will continue far beyond the present struggles. They will need to get a vision of a glorious future toward which they are working and which succeeding generations will also keep in mind as they follow the Lord's leading.

Accordingly the eschatological passages in Zechariah need also to be interpreted in that pattern of the ongoing plan of God being worked out year by year, through whatever present challenge and difficulties may exist. The Jews of Zechariah's day needed to have a realistic and attainable vision in mind of what they were working for in obedience to God's covenant, and that is what many of the prophets kept putting forward in their writings.

Memorable Moments in Zechariah

Zechariah 9:9-10, _"Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth."_ What the beleagured Jews thought of this we can hardly know. But Zechariah wants them to understand that in spite of the unpromising conditions they are looking at, God will eventually rule the world.

Zechariah 12:10, _"And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn."_ The people of Judah have pierced the soul of their covenant God, but now they have repented and weep bitterly over that past mistake.

Zechariah 14:4, _"On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward."_ Just what the symbolism of an earthquake may have meant to the returned Jews is very problematic, but it should at least tell us that what God does has enormous effect on the way life goes on.

Zechariah 14:9, _"And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one."_ Again a reminder that God has in mind the entire earth and all its populations.

Zechariah 14:12, _"This shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets; and their tongues shall rot in their mouths."_ Don't take this literally, take it symbolically. Our sinful selves must die in order that new spiritual selves created by the Holy Spirit may replace them.

Second Isaiah

The name and author of the book

There is no Bible book named Second Isaiah; there is only one named Isaiah. While there is no final proof for the question, it does seem likely that the book of Isaiah is a combining of two separate manuscripts. The first segment, chapters 1-39, appears to be in the setting of a hundred and fifty or so years prior to the second segment, chapters 40-66. First Isaiah did his work of prophecy mainly during the reign of King Hezekiah, whereas Second Isaiah did his work of prophecy a number of decades after the return from captivity.

Again, there is no indisputable proof for this point of view. Only that it seems very unlikely that someone living in the days of Hezekiah could predict in detailed fashion what would happen a couple of hundred years later.

The setting of the book

It was the Assyrian empire that destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC, the era in which First Isaiah lived. Much later it was the Babylonians who eventually destroyed Jerusalem and its magnificent buildings, including the aging temple of Solomon. This was in the year 586 BC, a hundred and thirty-five years after the captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel. Another fifty years later, in 536, some dedicated Jewish patriots returned to the ruins of Jerusalem with the intention of rebuilding the city. It is in the decades after this return that the concluding chapters of Isaiah (40-66, Second Isaiah) are located.

Isaiah 45:1 mentions Cyrus, king of Persia. After the reign of Hezekiah the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians, and now in Second Isaiah the Persians have conquered the Babylonians. Close to two hundred years have passed. Interestingly, Second Isaiah uses the term _messiah_ to describe King Cyrus. "Thus says the Lord to his anointed (messiah), to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him ..." God used King Cyrus of Persia to enable his people to return to the land of Judea; in that sense Cyrus was a messiah, a person anointed by God to fulfill a specific purpose in God's plan for history.

The content of the book

Second Isaiah begins by affirming that Jerusalem "has served her term, that her penalty is paid." (40:2) He means the Babylonian captivity which was punishment for her sin of idolatry and infidelity. Some faithful Jews have returned from exile and are now rebuilding the city's temple and walls, so the penalty for her sins is now paid and relegated to the past. God has forgiven his people and is starting them off again with renewed faithfulness.

The warning message of First Isaiah has been fulfilled: the enemy flood has swept the people of Judah into Babylon, but now the remnant of which he also spoke has returned, and they are doing their best to return to the faithfulness required by their God.

The main thrust of Second Isaiah's message deals with keeping the returned people from becoming discouraged, and part of the way he does this is by trying to get them to see events in a theistic way. He wants them to understand that God is at work in all these strange and difficult happenings. "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." (40:8) "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable." (40:28) Therefore, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you." (43:2) "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy upon them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (55:6-7)

Second Isaiah contains some of the most exalted and inspiring Hebrew literature in the entire Bible. He goes into one rhapsodic hymn after another. We are carried away into the ecstasies of divine purpose and sovereign control. "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose." (55:11) And Second Isaiah is constantly bringing God's message down to earth so that the people of Judah can understand and respond in obedience and trust. "For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace." (55:12)

Second Isaiah is also constantly advising the people to keep looking to the future, to a time when great things will happen; perhaps not in their own lifetime, but nonetheless in their national future. "Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed." (56:1) We know as Christians how this promise was kept, in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ some five hundred years later.

Memorable Moments in Second Isaiah

Isaiah 40:9, _"Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, 'Here is your God.'"_ The discouraged faithful who have returned to a ruined city must turn their eyes to the Lord, understanding that their future is in his hands. He will guide and bless them if they remain faithful.

Isaiah 53:5, _"He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed."_ Isaiah personifies the nation, and this personification becomes the pattern by which we understand the significance also of the crucifixion of Jesus a half-millennium later.

Isaiah 55:1, _"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."_ The only thing the Lord requires of his people is to love him and obey him; no one can possibly bribe God.

Isaiah 60:1, _"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. ... Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn."_ What an encouragement for the Jews struggling to revive their ruined civilization. And no wonder that these sayings of Second Isaiah resound so familiarly for Christians who know the light of the world has come in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Malachi

The author of the book

The book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. It was written by the prophet Malachi (the name means messenger) during the years before and after 450 BC. Some scholars think the prophecy of Joel comes even later, but this is highly uncertain. We may understand that the work of prophet Malachi came some years after that of Haggai and Zechariah.

The setting of the book

Besides getting their homes made livable, the first major task of the returned exiles was to build the temple. This was completed during the year 516, some twenty years after they returned. Then, it seems, some lethargy and disappointment and discouragement set in, perhaps because their standard of living did not seem to be improving much. Zechariah and Second Isaiah were much concerned with this period of their history.

Then in 458 another large group of Jews returned under the leadership of Ezra, whose work seems mainly to make sure the laws of the Torah were scrupulously obeyed – some laxity had already set in. In 445 King Artaxerxes of Persia sent Nehemiah to the province as their new Governor (Zerubbabel had been the first Governor). Nehemiah made it his main task to get the wall around Jerusalem built and completed, as well as to support Ezra in enforcing Torah laws concerning sabbath observance, mixed marriage, and tithing.

Nehemiah returned to Persia to resume his work of being the king's cupbearer in 433, and it is likely that the prophetic work of Malachi came about that time, in the middle of the fifth century BC. The problems he was concerned with seem to be much the same as those that Nehemiah had been addressing. From what we can gather, it seems that conditions in Jerusalem and Judah kept deteriorating until Nehemiah persuaded the king to let him go back again for a second term of Governor and get things straightened out.

The content of the book

It's interesting how Malachi begins his book. He reminds the people that they have been chosen by God way back in the time of Jacob. "I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau." (1:2-3) Our English translation is too strong for the reality; it means God chose Jacob and not Esau for his plan of creating a holy nation.

But then Malachi goes on to castigate the people for not honoring God for this special love and care over the centuries. And he specifies certain actions people are taking that illustrate their carelessness in this regard. They offer spoiled food for their sacrifices, blind and lame and sick and otherwise worthless animals, and withhold their tithes. And then Malachi chastises the Levites (priests) who permit such things to happen, and he puts it all in the context of violating the covenant of God, "You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts." (2:8)

What comes then in chapters 3 and 4 is astonishing. We wonder what the people of Malachi's time made of it. He says the messenger of the covenant is coming to prepare the way of the Lord. (3:1) Perhaps some of the people thought Malachi was referring to himself – his name means messenger. We of course know how the prediction was fulfilled – when John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, but what the locals would make of it is difficult to ascertain.

But then he follows this up with an even more astonishing application. "But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?" (3:2) If we jump now to the coming of Jesus we may see how this prophecy actually worked out. All of Jesus' disciples fled when Jesus was arrested; one of them had betrayed him; another denied even knowing him. None of them stood when he appeared. But how the people of Malachi's time reacted we don't know.

Malachi then defines the pattern by which God works. "For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap." (3:2) This is the pattern God used in sending the Jews into Babylonian exile; they did not return until those who repented and truly desired to serve the Lord became willing to go back and try again to establish a godly nation. When the messenger of the covenant comes this is also what he will do, he will sort out those who are truly repentant from those who are not. Many Jews repented and believed and followed Jesus, but most did not.

Then, like most of the writing prophets, Malachi concludes on a promising note, "He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse." (4:6) That is surely a unique way of describing the way in which obedience to God is translated into human relationships. It is a specific instance of God's command that we love him first and then show it by loving one another.

Perspective on the book

One might easily conclude that the purging process of the Babylonian exile was now beginning to be ineffective, granted that the Jews were again treating their covenantal obligations so carelessly. Long ago Jeremiah had complained about people offering God a bucket of rotten figs; now with people doing much the same, as well as getting rid of useless animals at sacrifice time, it might appear that the exile had not done much good at all.

But perhaps, in mitigation, we should recognize that similar conditions often elicit similar responses. What did not happen, however, in the post-exilic years of Judah is the toleration of idolatry and the specific kinds of sins so incurred. Obedience to the Torah did continue in most respects, but eventually it too became clear in Jesus' day that mere conformity to these rules wasn't doing much to change the human heart away from greed, selfishness, injustice, and pride.

What the ancient Old Covenant prophets were doing had to be done, for the life and ministry of Jesus could not have succeeded in any other culture, but a new covenant entirely was needed, and that is what Jesus implemented. The new covenant is built upon the shoulders of the old covenant, and could not succeed without that preparation. So we can truly value and appreciate the work of those ancient prophets of Israel and Judah who worked so hard, and so often fruitlessly, to call the people to repentance and faithfulness.

Memorable Moments in Malachi

Malachi 2:10, _"Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?"_ Malachi has in mind the nation of Israel, going back to the time of Moses and the Sinaitic covenant, but surely we may extrapolate from that insight similar implications regarding all of us humans, going back all the way to Genesis 1.

Malachi 3:6, _"For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished."_ This teaching has sometimes been used to buttress the idea of the metaphysical immutability of God within his own Godhead. That would not have been Malachi's intent at all. He wishes his people, the Jews, to understand that God's _purpose_ regarding them has never changed over the centuries, in spite of the repeated violations of the covenant on the part of Israel. It is not the internal unchangeability of God in view here, but the overall unchanging purpose of God in having created a world and a human race in the beginning.

Malachi 3:10, _"Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing."_ There are preachers who use this text to persuade people that you can become rich and prosperous if you become a Christian. But this is far from Malachi's intent. He wants faithfulness to God first, not earthly ambition. The idea is that God will take care of us in one way or another when we are faithful to him.

THE NEW TESTAMENT

The word _testament_ comes from the Latin. The Hebrew original is _berith_ , and both terms mean _covenant_ in English. So the term New Testament means all the documents which define the new covenant.

There are twenty-seven such documents ranging from long Gospels to short letters, each of which has something to say about the content and significance of the new covenant that Jesus' came to establish.

The modern world of scholarship is constantly looking at other ancient documents that some loudly proclaim to be "lost" books of the Bible. This is all nonsense, since none of those documents were unknown at the time the early church sorted out which documents were to be considered definitive and to be included in the official church library which we call the Bible.

What is interesting about the process by which that decision was made is that it was not done by official church councils but by a gradually growing consensus on the part of the churches of Christendom. There were in fact several other documents that were used by one church or another, and not by others. That's the way church libraries were built up. But after several centuries the churches as a whole settled on those we now have in the Bible. Even some of those were long disputed in various localities.

The standard of judgment about inclusion or non-inclusion seems to have been whether or not the author of any given document was an apostle or a close associate. For example, Matthew and John were original disciples of Jesus, Mark was a close associate of Peter and Paul, and Luke was the medical attendant who worked for years with Paul. There were indeed other documents that purport to have been written by one of the disciples, like Thomas or Peter, but which were clearly not.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS

Three of the Gospels are similar in their content and are often referred to as Synoptic Gospels, that is, they "see together" the life and ministry of Jesus. These three are Mark, Matthew, and Luke. The fourth Gospel, John, is considerably different from the others and is thus studied separately.

Many scholars today think Mark was the first Gospel to be written, then Matthew, and then Luke, and that these three were to some extent interdependent. For that reason we will be examining them in that order also.

Large segments of all three Gospels tell the same stories, perhaps with minor differences but clearly the same incidents. For example, 76% of the stories in Mark, 45% of Matthew, and 41% of Luke, are told in all three Gospels. These stories are called the Triple Tradition because they are found in all three Gospels.

Here is a diagram from Wikipedia that illustrates the connections between the three Synoptic Gospels.

Only 3% of Mark is unique, that is, not found in the other Gospels; 20% of Matthew, and 35% of Luke.

The Gospel of Mark

The author of the book

Most scholars agree that Mark was the first of the Synoptic Gospels to be written. Mark was not one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus, so how did he get his information about what Jesus said and did?

It is commonly supposed that Mark was a young man closely associated with the group of people following Jesus, so that he would have first-hand knowledge in this way. His mother was one of the Marys at whose home Jesus occasionally stayed. (Acts 12:12) It is thought that Mark himself was the "certain young man" who managed to get away from the soldiers when they were capturing Jesus and who "ran off naked." (Mark 14:51) No other Gospel includes this event, so it could have been a matter of personal experience for Mark.

There is also evidence that in later life Mark continued in close association with the Apostle Paul. He is the man whom Paul refused to take along on the second missionary journey because he had abandoned Paul and Barnabas on an earlier trip. Still, apparently the hard feelings occasioned by that incident were overcome, since he was with Paul when he was imprisoned in Rome. (Colossians 4:10) Mark seems to have become a member of Paul's evangelistic team, since Timothy is instructed by Paul to come to him in Rome and to "get Mark and bring him with you." (2 Timothy 4:11) Apparently Mark had been associated with the Apostle Peter as well, since Peter describes him as "my son Mark." (1 Peter 5:13)

So Mark is a first-hand witness of Jesus and the early disciples. Of course he could also have gathered information by talking with other people who knew Jesus and the disciples.

The setting of the book

It is uncertain just when Mark wrote this document. Scholars suggest sometime around the year AD 60. There is an ancient tradition that Mark was in Italy, probably Rome, when he wrote his Gospel and that he was at the time closely associated with Peter in Rome. We have no information about Paul at this time; though he may have been released from prison and off somewhere on another mission. It is also possible that earlier Mark was sent by Paul from Rome to some destination, as were such associates as Timothy and Titus and others.

Mark does not provide any wider setting for his Gospel than what is implied in the places to which Jesus went. No chronology other than what can be deduced from the stories he tells and the persons he mentions. In chapter 13 Mark refers to Jesus in the temple, and he quotes Jesus as predicting that not one stone of the great buildings in Jerusalem will be left on one another. One might conclude that the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened in AD 70, had not yet happened. On the other hand, one might conclude that Mark knew it had already happened at the time he wrote, and that the event triggered this memory of Jesus' prediction.

There is general agreement, accordingly, that Mark was writing this Gospel for the benefit of the Christians in Rome, many of whom were of non-Jewish ancestry and needed some introduction to Jesus that did not require a lot of knowledge of Jewish history.

The content of the book

Mark does not write anything about Jesus' origin, his birth, or his childhood. On the contrary, he begins when Jesus becomes aware of his calling to become a public figure. He tells the story of how Jesus' cousin John the Baptist baptized him in the Jordan River, then how Jesus struggled with various options about how he should respond to God's calling, and then simply an affirmation that Jesus began to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God has come. This is all in the space of a half-chapter.

Then Mark recounts numerous incidents and teachings of Jesus done in his home province of Galilee (chapters 2-6). After this Mark tells about how Jesus expanded his area of ministry: to the east of the Sea of Galilee, to Phoenicia, to the region of Decapolis, and to Caesarea Philippi (chapters 7-9). Then back to Galilee, on to Judea and Jerusalem, ending his story with six chapters describing Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection (chapters 11-16).

Interestingly, Mark says nothing about the time Jesus spent on earth after the resurrection and before his ascension into heaven. Nor anything about Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Because of this someone later made up some additional verses to add to the Gospel of Mark to take care of this omission. This addition is often called the Long Ending.

Perspective on the book of Mark

When the Apostle Paul had the opportunity to address a group of philosophers in Athens (Acts 17), he needed to find a way of making the gospel meaningful to them. He could not spend a lot of time rehearsing the history of the Jews in the Old Testament. So he went back to the time of creation in which all human beings are involved, not just Jews. He tried hard to show how this one Creator God is in control of the whole world and that all nations must now respond to what this one only God has done by sending Jesus into the world.

Mark has the same circumstances in mind when he writes this story of Jesus. Mark does not connect Jesus with prior Jewish ancestors or with their history. He jumps right in by showing how Jesus goes through the same kind of process as any human being might of figuring out just what God wants him to do with his life; the account of his temptations.

Then when Mark goes on to tell the story of what Jesus said and did, he takes pains to show that Jesus often went outside the boundaries of his Jewish people to be of benefit to Gentile people as well.

So when we read the Gospel of Mark it would be well to bear this orientation in mind. He is doing his best to explain the gospel in universally understandable terms, available equally to all peoples everywhere.

Memorable Moments in the Gospel of Mark

Mark 1:22, _"They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."_ So Jesus' teaching is not simply some more Jewish ideas, but comes with the authority of the one only God, with divine authority not merely human opinion.

Mark 4:41, _"And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"_ Some readers will dismiss Jesus' miracles as folk tales, not reality, but the people who were there and witnessed the events knew better. They could see the power of God functioning in him, and this made them willing to listen to what Jesus was teaching.

Mark 7:14, _"Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile."_ We might wonder what Jesus would say about the drug culture, but his point is that our inner thoughts and desires are what we should be concerned about, for these are what cause us to sin.

Mark 12:28-31, _"Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."_ One God only, to be loved above all else, and to be shown in love for all people.

Each of these quotes can be understood as equally meaningful for Gentiles as well as for Jews.

The Gospel of Matthew

The author of the book

Little is known about Matthew other than that he was a "publican," that is, a tax collector by occupation, and that Jesus named him one of his original twelve disciples. (9:9-13) As one of the original disciples Matthew would have reliable insights and understandings of the ministry of Jesus, and thus be well qualified to write this Gospel.

Tax collectors in general had a poor reputation in those days because they were in the employ of the Roman government, and because they had a reputation of lining their own pockets while gathering tax money for Rome. Mark and Luke refer to him by another name, Levi. It is well possible, however, that Matthew was the best educated of the twelve disciples, needing those skills necessary to work with the Roman authorities. His Gospel shows that he was well acquainted with the Hebrew scrolls, including the prophets.

The date and composition of the book

It is likely that the three Synoptic Gospels were written sometime between AD 60 and 75, probably Mark first, then Matthew, and still later Luke. John would come nearer the end of the century, perhaps as late as AD 90.

Scholars are of the opinion that Matthew depended on other writings, especially the Gospel of Mark, for much of his own writing. Only 20% of the content of Matthew is unique, that is, found only in his Gospel.

The Gospel writers often describe the same incident in Jesus' life but in somewhat different words and details, probably because they had different things to emphasize. For example, Mark writes that there was a young man dressed in a white robe who greeted the women at Jesus' resurrection, whereas Matthew writes that it was an angel who descended from heaven, Luke says it was two men in dazzling clothes, and John says it was two angels in white.

The setting of the book

Some of the books we know as the Apocrypha (hidden) fill in the story of the Jews after the time of Malachi. Jump ahead from Malachi about a hundred or more years and we come to the time of Alexander the Great, the famous young Macedonian general who conquered the entire near east all the way to India, including the land of Palestine as well as Egypt by 330 BC.

But Alexander died young and his empire was divided into three administrative districts, Greece, Syria, and Egypt. The ethnic peoples in and around the land of Palestine, including the Jews, were subject to the struggle between the Syrians and the Egyptians, sometimes under one country and sometimes under the other.

On one occasion the Syrian authorities committed a gross violation of the temple in Jerusalem. They built an image of Zeus in it and sacrificed a pig to him, thus profaning the entire temple and enraging the Jewish priests and populace. (This was later known as the abomination of desolation.)

When the Syrians then forced priests in other localities to sacrifice to Zeus, one enraged priest by the name of Mattathias charged into the scene, destroyed the pagan altar and then killed the Syrian official in charge of the ceremony. Mattathias then fled and summoned all the men of Judah who were outraged by the blasphemy of their God to join him in armed rebellion. This was about 175 or so BC. By about 167 they had gained a very fragile but real independence. The priest had several grown sons, and when the father died they each in turn, known as the Maccabees, kept up the rebellion. The Jews managed to retain this independence until 63 BC when the Roman armies came and imposed their own control.

So that was how the country came under the control of Rome. Roman policy allowed the various peoples to pursue their own religion so long as the public peace was preserved, and as long as they kept sending annual taxes to Rome. But, as we can well imagine still today, the people detested this subservience to a foreign country. They kept remembering their fragile independence under the Maccabees and they kept hoping and praying that the Lord would send someone soon to lead them in battle against the hated Roman army. This was after all, was it not, what the ancient prophets had promised to the Jews who returned from exile? The throne of David would be restored in all its glory and power.

This explains what the Jewish people expected the coming messiah to do: secure their independence and sit on David's throne in Jerusalem. So that is the setting in which Jesus came, as well as explaining why the disciples were so willing to follow Jesus. They saw Jesus as capable of leading them into military and political independence. And it also explains why, toward the end of Jesus' life, one of his disciples, disillusioned, betrayed him; Judas Iscariot finally became convinced that Jesus had no intention of doing what they all wanted him to do.

The content of the book

Matthew begins his scroll by providing a genealogy for Jesus. He lists three groups of fourteen names each, making forty-two generations from Abraham to Jesus. Interestingly, he traces the genealogy through "Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." (1:17) So in this genealogy Matthew is demonstrating that Jesus is in the line of David, and that he is indeed the Messiah (Christ), facts that Jewish people should find important.

Matthew tells about a few events in Jesus' early life: his birth, told from the point of view of Joseph not Mary, the visit of the Magi, the escape to and return from Egypt, but not the incident in Luke about his visit to the temple at age twelve.

The story then jumps to the time when Jesus was about thirty years old, and considers how Jesus made the transition from the building trades to the calling of God to become a prophet. He is baptized by his cousin John, he goes into the desert to contemplate God's calling and confronts various options that the devil presents.

Matthew does not explain the details but tells us then that Jesus began to preach and that his message, like that of John the Baptist, was "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (4:17) Some time later Jesus calls his first disciples, the brothers Peter and Andrew, the brothers James and John, and then made evangelistic trips throughout the province of Galilee, buttressing his messages with miracles of healing.

At this point in his Gospel Matthew includes what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, including the beatitudes, teachings about various ethical subjects, and the Lord's Prayer. (chapters 5-7) After this sermon Matthew tells a number of stories of specific persons and deeds of Jesus: a man cured of leprosy, a centurion's faith, several more healing instances, raising a dead girl.

Then Jesus begins another stage of training the disciples, not only listening to his teachings and observing his miracles, but now going out themselves as an extension of the ministry of Jesus, including the ability to heal diseases. Jesus, we understand, by this time was becoming a rather well-known figure among the Jewish people.

By the time we get to chapter 13 we find Matthew assembling a number of parables that Jesus taught, and after that two amazing miracles: feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, and walking on the water to reach a boat.

Jesus, by now a nationally known figure, then encounters opposition from the leading religious people who question his status. After this conversation Jesus puts that question to the disciples, Who do you sy I am? They acknowledge their conviction that Jesus is indeed the messiah that the people have been expecting for several centuries. (16:16) We should understand here that this confession meant they expected Jesus to do what was necessary to re-establish the throne of David in Jerusalem – that's what a messiah is supposed to do.

In chapter 21 Matthew begins the story of the last week of Jesus' life on earth, and of how the populace of Jerusalem welcomed him as their messiah on Sunday only to become disillusioned and call for his execution on Friday; from accepting him as the messiah to rejecting him in less than one week. So the Gospel of Matthew comes to a grand climax when God raises Jesus from the dead, thus proving that the man they rejected is indeed the messiah sent by God. (chapter 28) We do not, however, read of the ascension or of the coming of the Holy Spirit here in the concluding chapter of Matthew. We do read of how Jesus transferred his task to the disciples with the instruction to "disciple the nations."

Perspective on the book

Obviously the purpose of the Gospel of Matthew is to tell the story of Jesus. But this is also the purpose of the other Gospels as well, so is there anything different about the way Matthew tells the story? Having spent the better part of three years in close company with Jesus, Matthew would have a first-hand and very reliable feel for the things Jesus said and did.

What appears to be unique about the way Matthew describes Jesus is the way he connects Jesus with the long Jewish heritage all the way back to Abraham. For example, when Matthew provides Jesus' genealogy he traces it back to Abraham who is the person with whom God began the grand experiment in monotheism and whose descendants became the Jewish nation. Luke, by contrast, traces it back to Adam. Matthew includes numerous quotations from the old Hebrew writings for the purpose of showing that Jesus is truly the person God has intended to provide for their benefit.

The reader gets the impression that Matthew is mostly concerned about his fellow Jewish citizens. They have, as a nation, rejected Jesus as their promised messiah. Matthew knows this was a sad mistake; knows that Jesus' resurrection is the way God proves that Jesus is the messiah; and so emphasizes the connection of Jesus with their national heritage.

In contrast, it is thought that Mark, having been with Peter and Paul in their missionary work, is more concerned to show how important Jesus is to non-Jewish folk. We can imagine Matthew reading what Mark wrote and thinking, There are some things that Mark doesn't say that are important for Jewish people and I think I can tell the same story of Jesus in a way that will convince my fellow Jewish readers. So the Gospel writers would be emphasizing different things and telling the stories in ways slanted to their intended readers.

Memorable Moments in Matthew

Matthew 5:3, _"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."_ The first item in the beloved series of Beatitudes.

Matthew 6:9-10, _"Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."_ Not only our prayers should begin this way, but our entire attitude toward life.

Matthew 23:23, _"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith."_ Hypocrisy is not merely pretending to be a godly person, but neglecting the things that are really important while diligently observing matters of little importance.

Matthew 28:18-20, _"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."_ The marching orders of the church: disciple the nations, and do it in two stages, baptizing and teaching. Matthew makes the transition from the Jewish heritage of the old covenant to the new covenant introduced by Jesus and effectuated by the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of Luke

The author of the book

Who is Luke? He is the Greek physician who joined the Apostle Paul's evangelistic team on the second missionary journey in Troas, and who seems to have accompanied him on the rest of his missions. (Acts 16:9-11)

So we understand that Luke does not have first-hand eye-witness experience of the ministry of Jesus. He is totally reliant on what others tell him. That being said, he did spend years with the Apostle Paul, and in his various contacts in that capacity learned a great deal about what Jesus said and did. We can visualize him talking to everyone who could provide reliable information wherever Paul traveled.

Besides serving as Paul's physician in residence, Luke also became a historian, gathering information not only about Jesus but about what the apostles did after Jesus was gone. He wrote two important books of the New Testament, the Gospel According to Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. We may suppose that he had access to the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, drawing heavily on them for writing his own history of Jesus in the Gospel, and that he had significant additional information that they did not have.

We should be studying his two volumes sequentially, for the book of Acts is truly a continuation of the story of the gospel after the time of Jesus, but since this inconveniences our look at the Gospel of John, we will postpone Acts till after John.

The setting of the book

The date of composition is indefinite, possibly around 70 AD. In any case, likely it is the last of the three Synoptic Gospels to appear.

Luke, however, does something the other Gospel writers do not do: he locates the life of Jesus in chronological time. "In the days of King Herod of Judea ..." (1:5) "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus ..." (2:1) "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanius ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas ..." (3:1) "Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work." (3:23)

Using our modern calendar, Caesar Augustus ruled as emperor from 27 BC to AD 14, and Caesar Tiberius from AD 14 to 37. So, while these dates do not always provide exact years for the incidents of Jesus' life that our calendars would show, they do provide the time frame for them. Further, these references in the Gospel of Luke should serve sufficiently to prove that the stories he writes are not fables or fictional tales. Christianity is rooted solidly in historical fact. Jesus was a real historical person.

The content of the book

The opening sentences of Luke's Gospel are unique in the New Testament. Luke explains that he has thoroughly investigated the things he is about to write and he is doing it specifically for one individual person named Theophilus. (1:3) While it is impossible to know exactly who this person is, we may speculate that he is a new Christian of non-Jewish origin, that he is the sponsor of this project of Luke, and that he may also be the publisher of the two books that Luke wrote. (See also Acts 1:1)

Luke goes on to describe Jesus' birth, an incident at age twelve, his baptism by John, his genealogy, his struggle to discern God's will for him (i.e., his temptation), and then goes on to provide examples of how Jesus began his public ministry in Galilee. This takes us through chapter 13.

A long section, chapters 14 to 19 then describes a wide variety of incidents, teachings and miracles in Perea, which is the area to the east of the Jordan River.

Halfway through chapter 19 (we should understand that chapter and verse divisions in the Bible were added centuries later) Luke tells begins the story of the last week of Jesus' life: his ambiguous entry into Jerusalem, conversations with indignant Jewish leaders and with disappointed disciples, his arrest, trial, crucifixion, resurrection, and all the way into his ascension into the clouds.

Incidentally, Luke, surprisingly, is the only one who reports the ascension of Jesus, both here at the end of Luke and at the beginning of Acts. One wonders why the other Gospel writers did not find this event of ascension important enough to include in their depiction of Jesus' mission. Luke apparently thought it was important enough to round out the story of Jesus' life – what happened to him at the end.

Perspective on the book

Both Matthew and Luke provide a genealogy of Jesus. Matthew, writing to show Jesus' connection with Jewish tradition, gives the ancestry through Joseph, showing his descendancy from Abraham and King David. Luke, however, provides information about Mary's ancestry, showing Jesus' ancestry not so much as a Jew but as a human being going back all the way to Adam.

This is a clue as to the orientation of Luke's writing. He is not concerned to show Jesus as a Jewish messiah but as a human messiah, as the person whom the Creator of all the world has sent to enable all humans to enter the kingdom of God. So we find throughout Luke's Gospel various locutions that present Jesus as the savior for all humans, not just for Jews. The Christian gospel, accordingly, is a universal message, not a sectarian one.

That will also help to explain Luke's dedication of his two books to Theophilus. Mark's Gospel leaves out important information; Matthew's is oriented mainly to a Jewish audience; so now Luke, the only non-Jewish writer of the New Testament, and hence not deeply immersed in the Jewish heritage, can take a broader, more universal look at who Jesus is and what he has done, and thus at what God as Creator is doing for the benefit of the entire human race.

Memorable Moments in Luke

Luke 1:35, _"The angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; and he will be called Son of God.'"_ Two Gospels tell the story of Jesus' birth: Matthew and Luke. Both make a strong point that Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus' birth.

Luke 18:25, _"Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."_ But what we humans cannot do, God can. Even wealthy persons can learn to handle their wealth as a child of the King.

Luke 24:49, _"And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."_ Jesus is about to leave earth to ascend into the clouds that represent the presence and power of God, but before he does he promises his disciples that they will soon receive power from on high. In the book of Acts Luke explains just how this happened: the Holy Spirit of Jesus transformed them from weak and uncertain followers into strong and confident apostles.

The Gospel of John

The author of the book

John, brother of James, son of Zebedee, business partner of Peter and Andrew, was one of the earliest followers and disciples of Jesus. Scholars generally have regarded this Gospel to have been written late in the first century, say about AD 90. If so, then John would be an old man by this time, perhaps age 80 or thereabouts, and living in Ephesus. Jerusalem, of course, had been destroyed in the year 70 as the Romans put down a serious rebellion by the Jewish people. It is thought that at this time John, with Jesus' mother Mary, transferred to live in Ephesus which had become a major Christian center since the time Paul had been there.

The purpose of the book

What might have caused John to want to write another Gospel when there were already three in existence? The events of Jesus ministry had taken place fifty years ago, how would John be able to remember the details?

We can only speculate that he sensed a need to provide supplemental information and broader perspective than the existing Gospels offered, that he knew things or understood things in a somewhat different manner than the other authors, and that the circumstances in Ephesus suggested that he could address the problems there in a fresh and helpful way. What he does say at the end of his book is probably the safest and most accurate way to view the Gospel of John, "These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:31) He would have in mind both Jewish and Gentile inquirers in and around the area of what is now western Turkey where he was then living.

The content of the book

While John does not detail the specifics of Jesus' birth, he does explain in the prologue that, just as God spoke the world into existence he has now spoken Jesus into existence; Jesus is the Word of God incarnate. Jesus incarnates the purpose of God for the human race as a whole.

In general, John's purpose as defined in 20:31 suggests that John has selected various incidents in Jesus' ministry that result in some person or persons coming to believe that Jesus is the messiah anticipated by Jewish people and also the Son of God whose authority extends to all people, Gentile as well as Jew. Many of the pericopes of the Gospel state that result in explicit terms. For example, after Jesus fed five thousand people with one boy's bag lunch, John reports that "when the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.'" (6:14) And when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, John reports that sister Martha confesses, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." (11:27)

Then when we get to chapter 12 we are already at what is called Passion Week, beginning with Jesus' strange entry into Jerusalem on a donkey and some information about how people responded to him in Jerusalem. Then comes a section that is unique to this Gospel, the lengthy report of the actual words of Jesus spoken to the disciples at the Last Supper. (chapters 13-19) John is recalling the conversation fifty years afterward, and we may believe that John is reporting accurately, if not necessarily the precise words, the exact intent and import of Jesus' words.

It is worth noting that John, along with the other Gospel writers, brings his book to a climax with the account of Jesus' resurrection. We may well conclude that the entire gospel of Jesus rests on the literal physical resurrection of Jesus, whereby God proves the authenticity of the message and ministry of Jesus as his only-begotten Son.

Perspective on the book

When John looks back on the conversation at the Last Supper and tries to remember the words Jesus used fifty years ago, he now understands things he did not understand at the time. At the time none of the disciples knew Jesus would be dead less than 24 hours later. None of them knew he would rise from the dead the following first day of the week. None of them knew what would happen to Jesus after he rose from the dead, certainly not that God would take him bodily up into the clouds.

But what John can now see is something that, apparently, he felt the previous Gospel writers did not emphasize enough. That is, Jesus was preparing the disciples to cope with the coming disappointment and disillusionment of his death and disappearance. The disciples had been counting on Jesus to be their messiah, leading them courageously and victoriously into rebellion against Rome. In short time the disciples would have to confront the fact of the matter that Jesus would not be doing that. He would be gone.

So how would the disciples handle that disillusionment? Would they disband and join Judas in figuring they had made a major mistake, and go back to whatever option they had? Or would they somehow stick together and figure out a new way of understanding what Jesus had been doing?

So that is what Jesus was doing by his lengthy conversation at the Last Supper. He was preparing them to handle the personal crisis that was about to happen. Here is one of the main ways he did it. He informed them he would be going away, but that they would be better off with him gone. "It is to your advantage that I go away." How so? Because "if I do not go away, the Advocate (Paraclete) will not come to you." (16:7)

The point being that what the Paraclete will do is more than what Jesus could do for the disciples. Jesus could not, try as he might, get the disciples to understand the true nature of the kingdom of God, not a visible political kingdom achieved by military means, but a spiritual control imbedded within a person's heart. So Jesus simply had to leave them physically so that the disciples had to confront their mistaken hopes. Jesus is no longer here so he cannot do what we hoped he would do, lead us in rebellion against Rome. What Jesus could not do, however, the Holy Spirit could, and did, lead them into the kingdom of God.

And that is what happened, as Luke points out in Acts, on the next Pentecost holy day. The disciples achieved a great breakthrough from their previous notions of a political kingdom into a realization that God reigns from the inside, in our hearts.

So, whatever else we may want to note about the Gospel of John, this ought never to be overlooked. John has Jesus teaching us that to be his follower and disciple means to be guided and led by the inner Spirit of God and Jesus. Not by any man or organization, but by the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete sent by Jesus from God.

Memorable Moments in John

John 1:14, _"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth."_ The same Word of God by which God brought all things into existence, including human beings, is now to be seen in what it does to human life. Jesus is the incarnation of God's purpose for human beings.

John 3:16, _"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life."_ Universal love from God for the entire world, effective on the condition of believing. This is the only way we humans may achieve the life for which God created us.

John 16:13, _"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."_ This is how we need to understand the developments of time and history as they occur: listen to the how Holy Spirit explains them.

John 20:29, _"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."_ The eye-witness testimony of those who were there should be enough to satisfy us that Jesus did indeed rise from the dead.

The Acts of the Apostles

The author of the book

Although he is not mentioned as the author, it seems that Luke has been recognized as the author since the very earliest times. The book is addressed to the same person, Theophilus, as is the Gospel of Luke.

The setting of the book

There is an interesting grammatical feature of the book in chapter 16:10. Luke has been describing the second of Paul's missionary trips, and up to this point has been using the third person, "he" and "they." But in 16:10 he switches to the first person, "we." "When he had seen the vision [the Macedonian man beckoning Paul to come over and help them] we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia." Why "we" all of a sudden? Perhaps because Luke himself was the Macedonian man who triggered this dream on the part of Paul, and that Luke joined the evangelistic team at that point.

As far as chronology is concerned, Luke picks up the story at the same point he leaves it in his Gospel, the Pentecost experience of the disciples. This would be AD 33. Then he tells the story of how the disciples worked since that time, and about half-way through he begins to tell the story of the Apostle Paul. This would bring the date up to about AD 60 by the time the book is finished. Luke does not tell us the end of Paul's life; why, we do not know.

It has been pointed out that in the Gospel Luke tells the story of Jesus beginning in the remote part of Palestine, Galilee, and brings it up to the capital city, Jerusalem. Comparably, in Acts he tells the story beginning in the remote part of the Roman Empire, Judea, and brings it up to the capital city, Rome.

The content of the book

In general there are two main divisions of the book of Acts: the first half about Peter and the other disciples, and the second half about Paul and his associates.

In the first half we read the only description in the Bible of the events of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. Then Luke tells about how the Jews tried to stifle the message of the disciples by arresting the disciples, killing James and stoning Stephen, and scattering believers away from Jerusalem. In between these stories he tells about how the early disciples practiced community of goods, how they chose seven men to be deacons, and then about the ministry of Philip.

In the second half of the book Luke tells the story of Paul's conversion, but skips over most of the ten years before Paul began his missionary excursions. Then Luke does go into very intriguing detail as he describes the events of Paul's three missionary journeys. He takes the story up to Paul's imprisonment in Jerusalem, his transfer to prison in Caesarea and then to Rome, and he ends his account without telling us what happened when Paul's case came up for trial. Most scholars speculate that Paul was released, carried on evangelistic work for a few years in that general area, was arrested a second time, and was executed about AD 67 by Nero -- but all of that is unknown.

Perspective on the book of Acts

It is worth pointing out that there is an interesting similarity between these two writings of Luke and the major writings of the Apostle John. Both wrote Gospels, and Luke now writes the story of what happened in the Christian community up to about the year AD 60. The Apostle John also wrote a major book besides the Gospel, the book of Revelation. If we understand the book of Revelation correctly, we should see that it deals with much the same concern as that of Luke in Acts, that is, what Jesus continues to do on earth but from heaven.

In the book of Acts the emphasis should not fall primarily on the acts of the apostles themselves, but upon what Jesus is doing by means of the Holy Spirit enabling the various disciples to bring the gospel to the whole world. This is also what John is pointing out in the Apocalypse (Revelation), but from a vastly different perspective. John is describing by means of visions how Jesus is functioning from heaven and how this affects affairs on earth. Luke tells the same story in terms of concrete historical detail, whereas John tells it from the point of view of heaven.

Memorable Moments in Acts

Acts 1:8, _"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."_ Not the kind of military and political power the disciples wanted earlier, but the power to be Jesus' witnesses throughout the world – that's what all Christians receive when the Holy Spirit comes upon them.

Acts 4:12, _"There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved."_ We need to understand clearly that the only way for the human race to find its true destiny is the way of Jesus Christ.

Acts 16:30-31, _"Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They answered, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."_ Our lives are changed for the better when we believe on Jesus, and this will affect our family as well.

THE LETTERS OF PAUL

The author of the letters

Born and raised in Tarsus, Saul's experience as a boy helped prepare him for becoming an apostle to the Gentiles in later life. He mastered the Greek language and was taught the Hebrew scriptures at home. He became a forceful, dynamic, zealous person already in his teens and he resolved to become a rabbi whose devotion to the Torah was inviolable. As a student rabbi in Jerusalem he acquired the reputation for outstanding zeal for the Torah, and after his graduation he offered himself to the Jewish leaders to try to root out the burgeoning group of people who followed Jesus and were known as followers of the Way.

But God redirected those strong personal character traits by a sunstroke as he was approaching Damascus to arrest Christians. No longer could he oppose Jesus or oppose his followers. But it was ten years before Saul, now known as Paul, did actually begin the mission trips for which he is well known today. The Jews in Jerusalem regarded him as a traitor, and the Christians there did not quite trust him yet. So Paul, entirely on his own to figure out what it all meant while living seven years back home in Tarsus, gradually began on his own initiative to speak what he knew and what he understood about the significance of Jesus.

His reputation eventually became known and he was invited to become an assistant pastor at a growing church in nearby Antioch of Syria. From there as his home base Paul in later years went out three times with an evangelistic team to speak of Jesus in synagogues wherever he could find them.

Tradition has it that Paul's life ended in Rome, martyred there under the aegis of Emperor Nero. But, thanks to his assistant Luke, we know more about him and his mission than about any other single individual in these early years, even more than of the Apostle Peter. Paul's influence, as we well know today, was not limited to starting churches in many places but continues through the centuries with the theological insights he has written in the thirteen letters still extant.

The occasion of the letters

Most of Paul's letters are addressed to churches, addressed to specific needs or problems in the church. For example, the letter to the Galatian churches, the ones established on his first missionary trip, was occasioned by the inroads of Judaizers, men who insisted that all church members, Gentiles as well as Jews, must continue to observe all the traditional Jewish customs of the Torah, a requirement that Paul and Barnabas had vigorously rejected while they were there.

Usually it was because Paul could not make a personal visit to the church that he wrote the letter. For example, he was in Corinth on the third mission trip, as close to Rome as he had yet come, but felt he could not go farther west because there was a need to return to Jerusalem; so he wrote a long letter to the church in Rome in which he said the things that he would otherwise have explained in person.

The writing of the letters

Paul's vision was irreparably harmed from the sunstroke that blinded him at Damascus. We may surmise that this defect is what he referred to as his thorn in the flesh. His poor eyesight meant that he had difficulty in seeing the tiny letters he needed in order to write. He would sometimes append a few words at the end of a letter in his own hand, as for example in Galatians 6:11-18, "See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand!" But as a general rule Paul dictated his message to one of the members of his team. Tertius, for example, wrote the letter to Romans (16:22), Sosthenese did First Corinthians (1:1).

The theology of the letters

Thousands of books have been dedicated to this topic over the centuries, so a short summary is perhaps a bit of temerity. But it is safe to say that Paul's message, whether in person to Jews and to Gentiles, or in writing to those who already believe in Jesus, Paul's message always centers upon the resurrection of Jesus. This was the event that was central in his own conversion and it became the standard criterion for belief in all his preaching and writing. For example, "If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:14)

The resurrection of Jesus has also been the central focus of how Paul explains the effect on those who believe in Jesus. In various ways he explains that we die with Christ and we rise with him; we die to a sinful way of life and rise to a godly way of life. Perhaps the most striking of these passages is the extended analogy in Ephesians 1:15 – 2:10. Here he explains how we are joined to Christ in the likeness of his death and in the likeness of his resurrection; and, interestingly, he extends the analogy to Jesus' ascension, explaining that we are joined to him in the sense that we sit with him in the heavenly places.

The setting of the letters

The arrangement of Paul's letters in the Bible has no particular significance. It seems in general that they are arranged according to length, the long ones first and the shorter ones last.

For that reason we will be examining these letters, not in their Biblical order but in their chronological order (in so far as this can be ascertained). Part of our look at each letter, accordingly, will be a look at the setting for it in Paul's life and the specific occasion for writing it.

Galatians

The occasion for the letter

Barnabas and Paul have recently completed their first missionary trip in Galatia, and are now back in the home church of Antioch. Some travelers pass through the city and inform Paul that some other Christian leaders have arrived in the cities of Galatia (Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe), and that these men are insisting that all Christians, Gentiles as well as Jews, must continue to practice the traditional religious customs of Judaism: such things as circumcision, sabbath observance, kosher foods, and the rituals of the Torah.

Paul is furious at learning this, not only because of that insistence but also because those men were saying Paul had given the people only half of the gospel and was not a legitimate apostle. Paul would be running into these two problems again and again in the years to come.

Paul does plan to go through that area again at some later time, as he hopes to proceed all the way to Troas on the west coast, but there is something else that requires his time and attention first: a delegation of elders from Jerusalem who have complaints about untraditional practices in the Antioch church. Barnabas and Paul are appointed as part of a delegation from Antioch to consult with the church leaders in Jerusalem about this issue.

So Paul, incensed by what is happening in the Galatian churches, writes a stinging letter to them in lieu of a personal visit.

The consultation in Jerusalem is known as the Jerusalem Conference, and it happened very likely about the year 49 or 50. The complaints against Antioch were that Gentile believers were not required to obey the Torah, the Law of God, but could get away with not circumcising their sons, disregarding sabbath, eating pork and in general ignoring ancient Jewish obedience to the Law of God.

The leaders of the church in Jerusalem considered all sides of the issue, and came to the conclusion that it is unwise to require Gentile believers to observe customs that Jews themselves found to be very difficult. (Acts 15) The Antioch elders were overjoyed by this decision, and soon after they returned to Antioch Paul and Barnabas began planning for a second mission trip.

The content of the letter

The occasion of the letter suggests the two main points that Paul makes in it: a defense of his apostolic authority and an affirmation that salvation is by faith not by works of the law.

Most of the first two chapters (we need to remember these chapter divisions were added centuries later) are devoted to Paul rehearsing his life and conversion and relationship with the leaders of the church, with the conclusion that his apostolic office is indeed genuine. "I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." (1:11-12) He means that when Jesus appeared to him during the sunstroke at Damascus he began the process of figuring out on that basis alone the heart of the gospel. He is not repeating what others say, but proclaiming what Jesus himself has shown him.

So the second main point of the letter to the Galatians is that salvation is not a matter of keeping Torah, but a matter of believing in Jesus in such a way that the authority and power of God is rooted deep in one's heart and soul. Paul's own history lies at the basis of his understanding of the gospel. He had been a zealous practitioner of the Torah all during his childhood, youth, and early adulthood – and it had made him hate Jesus and Christians.

Paul has seen that it was this same zeal for the Law that persuaded the Jewish leaders to clamor for Jesus to be crucified. He saw that the stronger one's devotion to the Law and to its rituals becomes, the more opposed to God and to Jesus a person becomes. And so, on the basis of this personal experience of seeing and hearing Jesus, and being convicted of the error of his way, and of slowly discovering the better way of living by faith instead of by Torah, Paul could insist vigorously that nothing is gained by forcing non-Jewish Christians to keep Torah. "We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law." (2:16)

After explaining these two items Paul is rather blunt in rebuking them. "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?" (3:1) He asks, "How can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?" (4:9) "You were running well, who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ... I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!" (5:7-12) That's pretty blunt language and it appears that Paul did mellow considerably in the later letters he wrote, Philippians for example.

But there is another theme that Paul comes to in this letter as he excoriates the Galatians for reverting back to the Torah rituals, the theme of freedom. He writes, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." (5:1) "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence." (5:13)

Then, in the conclusion (which he writes in "large letters") he summarizes his entire message, "For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!" (6:15) And he employs a very significant term at that point to describe what the church is, the church that includes both Jewish and non-Jewish believers equally; he calls that church "the Israel of God." (6:16)

Perspective on the book of Galatians

Consider for a moment this statement of Paul in Galatians 1:12, "I did not receive it [the gospel] from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." So, did Paul invent the gospel himself, since no one taught it to him? Skeptics today would be less than impressed with what Paul said about the message he brought. We can easily imagine some misguided self-appointed prophet insisting that Jesus has revealed something absurd, for example, that the world will come to an end in 1984, and that everyone should welcome the event by committing suicide a month in advance of the date of doom. Nobody taught Paul the gospel? He just invented it out of thin air?

Well, no. Paul does not mean that Jesus revealed certain doctrines that compose the gospel and that Paul is now passing them on. He means that Jesus Christ himself has been revealed to him, the same Jesus that Peter and John and Andrew and Matthew had been following for years. Paul means simply to say that this same Jesus showed himself for what he is to Paul when a sunstroke knocked him off his donkey at the gates of Damascus and left him blinded. In his stroke Paul saw Jesus and heard him speak. Paul saw that Jesus was still alive, not here on earth, but somehow in heaven, and that Jesus was very much involved in what was going on among his disciples and believers here on earth. Paul recognized immediately that this is how God is dealing with his people, by Jesus and what Jesus continues to do from heaven.

Paul sensed immediately when this happened that his entire understanding of God and God's purpose was all wrong. He had now to promote Jesus, not fight him. He sensed very soon that God was now calling him to reverse direction and spend the rest of his life in proclaiming the truth about Jesus and about God's purpose in sending him.

We need also to understand that he went off by himself after that, and that it was three years before he returned to Jerusalem. And even then nobody trusted him and he had to go back home to Tarsus, chagrined, untaught in the gospel, to try to figure out what it was all about. We are so accustomed to reading and studying Paul's letters that we forget how he came to the insights that he writes about. For seven more years, no less, he was in this rather independent position, learning by praying and by talking and by studying the Old Testament writings, but not by attending seminary or being mentored. He had been, after all, a precocious student rabbi in his teen years, knowing thoroughly the Torah and the prophets.

It was not as if he cloistered himself or became a hermit in Tarsus, for he did do what he could to explain what he understood about Jesus. His reputation did grow from these efforts until after seven years he was summoned to work within the broad stream of church life as it was developing in Antioch. So this was the background in which Paul wrote those words about not being taught by any human but by revelation of Jesus Christ.

And now back to the skeptics who would undermine Paul's message as being self-taught and not definitive for that reason. Prior to his death, Jesus explained to the disciples that when he left them he would provide a Paraclete for them to lead them into all the truth. (John 16:13) There would be much that the disciples would not understand when they saw him done to death by crucifixion. They would be spiritually traumatized and completely disillusioned about their hopes that Jesus would be the messiah to lead them in victorious rebellion against Rome. But, Jesus explained, when the Paraclete came they would begin to understand things in a different way. The function of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, would be to enable them to understand what had happened to Jesus, and would help them understand better some of the enigmatic things Jesus had taught them by way of parables earlier.

This, now, is the way we must understand what Paul writes to the Galatians about not being taught by humans but by direct revelation of Jesus. Jesus' spirit, now in Paul also, slowly guided him as he considered his past convictions and as he gradually came to put things together in a rational and godly way.

And then also to extrapolate a bit farther, we may well consider how we ourselves as Christians in the twenty-first century come to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is always a great deal of teaching going on, with great dependence on what humans teach us, and hence also on theological tradition. But our dependence must always be on the Paraclete of God in the matter of leading us into all the truth.

Memorable Moments in Galatians

Galatians 2:19-20, _"I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me."_ Paul means the "I" who formerly persecuted Christians; that "I" died. Paul sees a parallel between Jesus' death and resurrection and his own conversion experience, dying to one way of life and rising to a different way of life.

Galatians 5:1, _"For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."_ The concept of Christian freedom has enormous implications; there are so many ways in which Christians can allow themselves to be enslaved to human persons or institutions or traditions.

Galatians 5:22-25, _"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. ... If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit."_ This is what Christian freedom accomplishes; it enables us to live the way God created humans to live, namely in his Spirit.

THE THESSALONIAN LETTERS

The setting for these letters

Paul has separated from Barnabas on this second trip, having disagreed about taking John Mark with them. Barnabas, with Mark, then revisited the young churches in Cyprus, while Paul took Silas to revisit the churches in Galatia. One can imagine the devastating things Paul must have said about their thinking about keeping Torah.

In Lystra a young man by the name of Timothy joined Paul's team and they went on to Troas. While in Troas Paul had this vision of a man across the sea in Macedonia inviting him to come over and bring the gospel to them. This vision may well have been triggered by a physician from that area who treated Paul for some illness. This physician, Lucius by name, joined Paul's team at that point also and remained with him for many years.

So Paul brought the gospel to Philippi, to Thessalonica, to Berea, to Athens, and we now find him in Corinth where he stayed "for a considerable time," (Acts 18:18) working as a tentmaker during the week and arguing in the synagogue on sabbath day. Earlier Paul had sent two aides, Silas and Timothy, back to visit the churches founded just recently, Thessalonica in particular, and now they have returned and caught up with Paul in Corinth.

They bring news about some problem in Thessalonica that they could not deal with. So Paul, having thought about it, sits down and dictates a letter to those new Christians in Thessalonica, and sends Timothy to deliver it.

Some time later Timothy returns, Paul is still in Corinth, and reports that the people there still have a problem which Timothy could not handle. So Paul sits down again, dictates another letter, and sends it back with Timothy. Two letters to the church in Thessalonica.

First Thessalonians

The occasion for the letter

Judging by what Paul writes in this letter, we can deduce something of what Timothy had reported to Paul about conditions in Thessalonica. It seems Timothy reported that there were some people in Thessalonica who were more than a bit doubtful about the authenticity of Paul's message and perhaps also of his apostolic status. In addition, another specific problem arose. One of the elderly believers in the church had died, and it seems that she received no benefit from being a Christian since the kingdom of David had not been set up. She believed Jesus was the messiah but where was his kingdom? She hadn't seen it or benefitted by it.

The content of the letter

In much of the first half of this letter Paul reminds the people in Thessalonica about how he functioned while with them. He reminds them that he did not employ deceit or trickery to persuade them about Jesus, nor did he seek to enrich himself in the process, working diligently so as not to become indebted to them. He reminds them that he was pure, upright and blameless in all he did while with them, and then he gives thanks that they had received his message not on the authority of a human being but on the authority of God himself – the gospel being the word of God not of men. (2:13)

Then, beginning in 4:13, Paul addresses their problem concerning the person who died. He assures them that those who remain alive have no advantage over this person who died. The kingdom of God does not involve setting up a throne of David in Jerusalem and having a Jewish empire in which Christians can live as a privileged class. On the contrary this person who has died has already received the full benefit of her faith; she has lived her life in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit. We will all have to die eventually and be with Jesus forever, so none of us will have any advantage over those who have died earlier.

Perspective on the letter

If we compare the tone of this letter with that of Galatians we find Paul being considerably more delicate in his attempt to address the question of the Judaizers. Perhaps he discovered, when he passed through the Galatian churches again, that there had been some resentment about the tongue lashing in his letter, and perhaps this persuaded him to tone down his harsh criticism in this, his second extant letter. Perhaps he was learning that a soft answer turns away wrath but that a harsh word stirs up anger.

The way Paul handles the question of the believer who has died has been highly problematical. He does not want to encourage these Christians to have the traditional Jewish ideas of the kingdom of God that involve political and military control. So he does his best to explain, but very briefly, how we must understand the connection between those who die and those who remain alive. People who remain alive have no advantage over those who die. Why? Because all of us must sooner or later die and we all have the benefit of being Christians while we are alive.

The terminology Paul uses, however, has led people to develop an eschatology that takes the benefit of being Christian out of the realm of present existence into the realm of after-death fulfillment.

Memorable Moments in First Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2:13, _"We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God's word, which is also at work in you believers."_ We accept the gospel not because we are persuaded that someone else is reliable, but because we perceive that it is indeed the truth that comes from God via Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4:15, _"For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died."_ Christians who die do not lose out on anything they might otherwise have enjoyed. Christians who remain alive do not enjoy any advantage over those who have died.

Second Thessalonians

The occasion for this letter

Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to deliver his first letter. When Timothy returned, he reported that it had been received well enough but that some things Paul wrote in it prompted new questions in their mind, questions Timothy himself could not deal with.

Paul, thinking these new questions were sufficiently weighty, sat down and dictated another letter to explain those items as best he could. Judging by what he wrote in this second letter, the difficult things may have been occasioned by such passages as these from his first letter: "For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17), and "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." (5:2)

These locutions of Paul give us high uncertainty still today. What cry of command, what archangel's call, what sound of God's trumpet? Meet the Lord in the air? How will Jesus descend from heaven – bodily, spiritually? How do the dead rise, and when, physically or spiritually? Is Paul talking eschatology here or is he talking what happens now when a person believes?

Whether the questions we might have are the same as the questions the Thessalonians had may be debatable, but we may do our best to understand their difficulty from what Paul writes in this second letter, specifically the following: "As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him ..." (2 Thessalonians 2:1) How does Jesus come, and how are we gathered to him?

The content of the letter

Paul explains that they must not think "that the day of the Lord is already here." (2:2) Paul is talking about real events, but off in the future. He goes on to explain that the day of the Lord will not come until after certain other events occur. "That day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed." (2:3) Paul is surprised, it seems, that the people in Thessalonica would have a problem with this, for he writes, "Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you?" (2:5)

Paul has in mind certain developments in human history that must take place before the day of the Lord comes. He explains that "the mystery of lawlessness is already at work." (2:7) He means that somehow, mysteriously even, there is evil in the world, and yet that this all is taking place within the plan of God which will eventuate in the "day of the Lord."

That lawlessness must be removed, and this will be done by "the one who now restrains it." (2:7) He means that evil is not as bad as it could possibly be, since something, or someone, is restraining it. We may well understand that what restrains evil is the force of good, and that means the power of God. That power is even now, in Paul's time already, working in the lives of those who believe, restraining sin and evil not only in their individual lives but also to some extent ameliorating its broader social effects.

Paul explains that the time will come when it will become clear, when "the lawless one will be revealed," (2:8) that the ways of evil are exposed for the fraud and deception they are. How will this be done, that is, historically in real time and real events? The Lord Jesus will destroy this lawless one "with the breath of his mouth." (2:8) What is that "breath of his mouth"? What comes out of the mouth of Jesus? His gospel, the good news of how we may be saved.

So we need to understand that Paul wants the Thessalonian Christians to look to the far future before the day of the Lord appears. That day is the time when the gospel of Jesus Christ exposes the evil of the world for its abject failure to construct a godly civilization.

His point for them is not to think God's final purpose has already been achieved. Some members of the church, apparently, think that they no longer have to work for a living since Jesus has now established the kingdom of God. He says, "Anyone unwilling to work should not eat." (3:10) But don't treat such persons as enemies but as believers who need to be warned.

Then Paul takes up the pen in a final benediction, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you." (3:18)

Perspective on the letter of Second Thessalonians

What is meant by "the day of the Lord?" The term is used often by the prophets of the Old Testament, and it is employed in this letter by Paul. What did it mean for those ancient writers? It meant when the purpose of God for his people comes into effect. For the Old Testament prophets, this day of the Lord would be the time when God would bring back a remnant, the time when God's purpose in allowing the captivity would become clear. In the tumultuous events of Passion Week the day of the Lord would be seen, not in crucifixion but in the day of resurrection, or we might say a bit later in the ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

We could reasonably extrapolate from such insights, for example, that the day of the Lord during times of persecution in the early church would come when Emperor Theodosius declared that Christianity was now the official religion of the Roman Empire. Or that the dreadful policies of Roman Catholicism during the Inquisition would produce the day of the Lord's ascendancy with the success of the Protestant Reformation.

The point is that the term "day of the Lord" does not have to be understood as one climactic event at the close of human history, as much of contemporary theology posits. It is, on the contrary, any moment in history which demonstrates the success and ascendancy of truth, justice, godliness after a period of gloom and suffering for the church.

We begin with the inviolable conviction that God the Creator of the heavens and the earth is also sovereign over all that happens within the universe, and particularly within human history. But we humans do not consistently align ourselves with God's ultimate purpose, and it thus becomes necessary for God to teach us "the hard way." He allows us to make wrong choices, and then allows the consequences of those wrong choices to become evident in the way we conduct ourselves. Then, as glimpses of truth and justice take hold in the lives of people, stronger and stronger efforts are put forth to correct the mistakes of the past – and these victories within human history thus become days of the Lord, times when God's standards become victorious.

Hence, to revert to Paul's language, the powers of rebellion, sin and lawlessness are always at work, but they are likewise always being restrained by the sovereign power of God in truth, justice, and godliness. Sooner or later the disastrous results of sin and error will come to be recognized, as the account in Genesis 3 shows, and then efforts to improve will come to pass.

It is in this framework that we need to understand the life and work of Jesus. The history of Judaism up to the time of Christ shows what the power of the Torah, the Law, could do to shape the national life of the people. A great deal of progress was made over what existed in non-Jewish life, but more needed to be done. And this is what Jesus accomplished by sending his Spirit into the lives of a few disciples, and letting that powerful force slowly challenge the mentality and culture of the rest of the world. That truly was a "day of the Lord," but there is always more to be done, step by step, working through the process of distinguishing good from evil, godliness from sin, and reconstructing the shape of human civilization accordingly.

Memorable Moments in Second Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 2:3, _"Let no one deceive you in any way, for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction."_ We will have to see that what lawlessness does to human life is truly disastrous before anything can be done to bring in the day of the Lord, that is, to bring the gospel's message to fruition.

2 Thessalonians 2:8, _"And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth."_ The gospel is the power of God to overcome the powers of sin and evil. The gospel reveals the heinousness of sin and lawlessness, and thus opens up the way for us to establish a more righteous scenario.

THE CORINTHIAN CORRESPONDENCE

The setting of these letters

We are now in the third missionary trip of the Apostle Paul. He has established himself in Ephesus as the home base from which he visits all the Jewish synagogues in the area. His evangelistic teams are making side trips to all the cities listed in the opening chapters of John's Apocalypse, and getting churches started in all those towns.

One of the clues for understanding the setting of these letters is a passage in 2 Corinthians 13:1, "This is the third time I am coming to you." The book of Acts, however, lists only one prior visit of Paul to Corinth, that coming on the second missionary trip. So we need to posit that Paul had made a quick visit to Corinth, unrecorded, from his home base in Ephesus, and that now when he is writing this letter has plans to visit Corinth a third time when he departs Ephesus on his way back to Jerusalem.

Scholars have different ways of putting all the clues together, and what follows here is one way of doing so, by no means definitive. It appears that Paul spent about three years in Ephesus before being forced out of town. During that time there would be travelers going to and fro and bringing news about the churches they have recently visited. Among these visitors was a delegation of elders from the church in Corinth. They have a list of problems in their home church for which they want Paul to provide advice. While they wait, Paul writes out his advice, item by item, and the elders return to Corinth with the document we know as First Corinthians.

Some time later Paul hears news about what is going on in Corinth and he is disturbed by it. He takes the time to make a personal visit to try to sort out the problems in the Corinthian church. Later he hears that his visit did not do much good, so he sits down to write a rather pugnacious letter to them, sending it by Titus, who is also in charge of gathering funds for the poor in Jerusalem. This letter, it seems, we have as the last half of Second Corinthians, chapters 10 to 13.

Soon thereafter Paul's opponents in Ephesus started the riot which forced Paul to conclude his ministry in Ephesus and make his way to Corinth to gather the gift of money for the suffering saints in Jerusalem. So Paul is somewhere in Macedonia, on the way to Corinth, when Titus returns and reports that the people in Corinth responded favorably to what Paul wrote. So Paul sits down and dictates another short letter, this time with a decidedly more conciliatory tone, and sends Titus to carry it to Corinth. This letter, it seems, is what we have as the first half of Second Corinthians, chapters 1-9.

First Corinthians

The occasion for this letter

Paul is in the middle of a three-year stint in Ephesus during his third missionary trip. He hears various things about churches elsewhere from travelers passing through. Some of this concerns the church in Corinth. And now he has visitors from that church, elders who have come to him for advice on several problems concerning which they do not know what to do.

These elders may have had a written scroll listing the issues about which they are asking advice, and their oral explanations would help Paul get a clear sense of just what the problems were. Given the length of the letter of First Corinthians, it may have taken Paul several days, maybe weeks, to complete his dictation to Sosthenes his scribe. We will examine this letter in some depth.

The content of the letter

The first problem he takes up is the matter of divisions in the church (chapters 1-4). There is severe criticism of Paul, and some church members are insisting Peter, being an original disciple of Jesus, should be followed, not Paul. Still others are associating themselves with other preachers who have visited Corinth, such as Apollos. Still others claim to follow Jesus and not any human apostle.

As a consistent theist Paul explains that the only important thing is what God is doing through the various apostles that bring the gospel. "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth." (1 Corinthians 3:6-7) They must, accordingly, learn how to understand the church and the gospel from a clearly theistic point of view. What is God doing through the various apostles who bring the gospel, not which of them should I follow?

The next problem Paul addresses is that of sexual immorality (chapter 5). The elders from Corinth describe a man who is "living with his father's wife." Paul insists that such immoral behavior should not be tolerated in the church. He writes, "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons. ... not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral ..." (5:9-11)

Next there is a problem of a church member who has a grievance against another church member, and then goes to the pagan court for a judgment on the matter. Paul responds, interestingly, that they should be able to resolve such disputes among themselves rather than have an unbeliever make the decision. "Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer and another, but a believer goes to court against a believer – and before unbelievers at that?" (6:5-6)

In chapter 7 Paul addresses another problem involving sexuality, marriage. He doesn't give a clear example of just what the problem was in the Corinthian church, but does provide advice regarding various circumstances relating to marriage. For example, should men and women even marry at all? It is better to be unmarried, as he is, but "it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion." (7:8-9) But once people are married, neither husband or wife should deprive one another of conjugal rights. A wife should not leave her husband, nor should a husband divorce his wife. (7:10-11) Even in the case when a believer has an unbelieving spouse, they should not divorce but should live in such a way that the unbelieving spouse might be drawn into the faith. "Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife." (7:16) In the last half of this chapter Paul's dictation takes him into various other sidelines and implications as his vigorous mind wanders all over the problems involving marriage and the relation between husband and wife.

Next, in chapter 8, Paul takes up a local issue related to the traditional Jewish emphasis on kosher food. Some church members were purchasing their meat at butcher shops that were reprocessing offerings made at pagan temples. Surplus cuts of meat were being sold in public meat markets, and some believers were buying and eating meat previously offered to idols. Is this permissible? Paul writes that this is a matter of one's conscience. If you think you are involved with idols when eating this food, then your conscience is defiled; but if you are not bothered by it, you are not defiled. "We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do." (8:8) Still, Paul says there are other things to be considered, not merely your own conscience. If others who are not so strong in faith should see what you do and then relapse themselves into sinful behavior, then you have done wrong because you have set a bad example. So, Paul advises, "Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." (8:9)

In chapter 9 Paul deals with a certain financial criticism that some people in Corinth are making against Paul and his evangelistic team. He mentions working for a living. In some places Paul did find work as a tentmaker while doing his evangelistic work; in other places he might rely on support given him by appreciative persons. Paul insists that the work he does as an apostle deserves support by those who benefit from it. On the other hand, Paul reminds them that he had not made use of this right when he was with them in Corinth. He has made "the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel." (9:18)

It is a bit difficult to follow Paul's train of thought here because in chapter 10 he is back on the subject of eating food previously sacrificed to idols. Do not, he counsels, do anything that involves worship of idols. What keeps us together as Christians is what we eat, namely the blood and flesh of Christ. "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread." (10:17) But then, back on the subject of idol-food, he adds, "Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question of conscience, for 'the earth and its fullness is the Lord's.'" (10:25-26) And again he advises caution with respect to weaker persons who still consider it a problem. If someone like that points out that it has been sacrificed to idols, well then, don't eat it. Not because _you_ have the problem but because _they_ do. In any case, he then sums up, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God." (10:31) An excellent reminder that our actions are not merely to satisfy our own desires.

Next comes an odd matter, a half-chapter about whether women should wear hats in their worship meetings. Men, he writes, are images of God, so they should not cover their heads; but women are images of men, so they should cover their heads. Wearing head coverings, therefore according to Paul, is a symbol of male authority over female. Paul tries hard to put this in a theistic context, since this is God's way of ordering things. But Paul also argues from the teaching of nature, "Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?" (11:14-15) We may have real questions about what Paul writes here. Are his recommendations intended to be permanent rules for all Christians everywhere, or are the cultural customs only?

Moving on in chapter 11 Paul examines a problem that also relates to behavior at their worship meetings. There is some abuse of the common meal provided when the congregation gets together. Some individuals come early and drink too much wine so that they are drunk by the time other people arrive, plus there isn't much food and wine left for the latecomers. He says, "What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for those who have nothing?" (11:22) He then reminds the people of the words of Jesus when he counseled the disciples to eat and drink his body and blood at the Last Supper, and warns them not to abuse this sacred observance, "Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. " (11:28-29)

The next three chapters, 12 through 14, deal with the problem of spiritual gifts. Apparently the elders from Corinth consider this to be a serious problem, since Paul devotes so much of the letter to it. In short, it seems that some of the believers in Corinth are boasting about how the Holy Spirit is working in their lives, giving them some unique abilities that other believers do not have. Paul uses the analogy of the human body to illustrate the nature of the spiritual body which is the church. He says that the various parts of the human body are all necessary for the body to function properly: eyes, hands, head, feet. In the same way the church needs all these varieties of spiritual gifts for it to function properly. He writes, "God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues." (12:28)

In chapter 13 Paul rhapsodizes on the nature of Christian love, affirming that it is able to survive and surmount all the kinds of problems that are irritating the church in Corinth. "It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (13:7) Do your best to live in love for your brethren in Christ and all these other problems, while they may not disappear, will not seem so important.

Chapter 14 is addressed specifically to the problem of speaking in tongues. Apparently there were individual believers in the Corinthian church who could speak in several different languages, and somehow they were thinking this was a special gift of the Holy Spirit which elevated them above the believers who did not know other languages besides Greek. They would display their ability in their meetings by speaking at length in a language that others could not understand; perhaps in Hebrew, the language of the sacred books, when most everyone spoke Greek. Or perhaps they boasted that they could understand Egyptian when they had visitors from that country. Paul says if he comes to them and speaks in a language they do not understand, what good is it? So, he counsels, "One who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret." (14:13) If you have to speak in a different language, try also to translate what you are saying in the language your listeners understand.
Chapter 15 introduces another problem, that of resurrection. Apparently the believers in Corinth were running into people who scoffed at the idea of resurrection, much as the Athenian philosophers did when Paul presented the gospel to them. (Acts 17) Paul reminds them that resurrection is at the heart of the Christian gospel. "I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures." (15:3-4) This being so, he continues, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain." (15: 13-14) Paul spends much time and effort on explaining the significance and implications of Christ's resurrection, so that this chapter has become a rather controversial chapter about eschatology, whereas Paul's main point is that relating to the present problem of disbelieving in the very notion of resurrection. You cannot really be a Christian if you do not believe Jesus rose from the dead. That's the main point of Paul here.

The last chapter of this long letter contains a variety of information about Paul's plans, and he concludes with a short note written in his own hand.

Perspective on the book of First Corinthians

When reading this letter of Paul without knowing something of its setting and the occasion for writing it, we often jump directly from the words in the Bible to an application to our lives in the twenty-first century. This could easily result in missing the point of what Paul has written and thus making judgments that are not really there in the text.

We need to remember that Paul is writing in the first century not the twenty-first. He is writing within the social customs that existed then, not those existing now. The facts and meaning of Christianity remain the same always, but their applications must vary so as to apply to changing social customs.

A case in point is what Paul writes about women wearing hats in worship meetings. Customs change so that what is appropriate in some circumstances is not necessarily appropriate in other circumstances. In our day there is nothing inappropriate about women coming to church without wearing a hat. There is nothing disrespectful about it.

Of course we must be careful about too quickly deciding something Paul writes is socially determined, but at the same time we must not elevate such pronouncements to canon law. When Paul insists that our faith must issue in a sense of freedom under God we need to take seriously that the Spirit does indeed lead us into the truth, so that as the times change we are led also into changing applications of the one unchanging gospel. Just because our ancestors long ago did things in one way is no reason for our thinking we have to do it that way also.

Memorable Moments in First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 6:12, _"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are beneficial. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything."_ Christian liberty in ethical matters results in our using God's world in such a way that is respectful, holy, and responsible.

1 Corinthians 13:13, _"And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love."_ To love others as God loves us. This is the basis of all Christian living, and it is probably the hardest to achieve of anything we set out to do.

1 Corinthians 15:17, _"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins."_ This is the heart of the gospel: God has raised Jesus from the dead. There is no point in Christianity if this is denied.

The Distress Letter

The occasion for this letter

One of the clues for understanding this letter is found in 2 Corinthians 2:1-11. Paul refers to a previous letter which he wrote "out of much distress." We may understand this is not the letter we know as First Corinthians but the _last_ part of what we know as Second Corinthians, chapters 10-13. Those chapters fit well into the category of a letter written by Paul in deep distress about what is happening out there in Corinth.

Paul also writes about a person who has been punished by the church. Without knowing the details we may surmise that this was a man who had been advocating something that Paul knew was subversive of the gospel, probably an insistence on keeping Jewish Torah traditions together with an attack on Paul's apostolic credentials. This person may have been saying Paul doesn't know what he is talking about since he is not one of the original disciples of Jesus, so when he says we don't have to obey the Torah any more he is just plain wrong. That sort of thinking. He may have been one of several persons most influential in raising the problems discussed in First Corintians.

But note well that Paul is writing these things in the _first_ part of Second Corinthians, chapters 1-9. We conclude that there are really three letters to the Corinthian church, not just two.

So why did Paul write the letter he describes as "out of much distress?" Because of the Judaizing men who are still causing havoc in the church. Paul wants the church to silence them. He has made a personal unrecorded trip to Corinth to deal with the problem, but reports come to him that these Judaizers are still making trouble, so he now writes a blistering letter the goal of which is to get the church to deal decisively with that problem.

The content of the letter

Practically all of this last part of Second Corinthians is devoted to Paul's extensive defense of his own apostolic authority, all the way from chapter ten through chapter twelve. Why would he do this? Because the individuals in the Corinthian church have been asserting the opposite. Who will the church listen to, Paul or those Judaizers?

Paul refers to persons who come to them claiming to be the equal of Paul in authority, or even surpassing him. He calls them "super-apostles" and writes, "I think that I am not in the least inferior" to them. (2 Corinthians 11:5) He calls them "false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ." (11:13)

Paul is really angry when he writes this "distress" letter. "Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman – I am a better one." (11:23) He continues, "You should have been the ones commending me, for I am not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing." (12:11)

Then, after this lengthy defense of his apostolic authority, Paul informs them that he will shortly be visiting them for a third time. However this visit, he says, will not be like the second [unrecorded] visit in which he was "lenient." "This is the third time I am coming to you. ... I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient." (13:1-2)

Perspective on this "Distress Letter"

How did it happen that these "distress" chapters were added on to the end of the letter we know as Second Corinthians? Nobody really knows, but here is one possibility. Assume that they were originally two separate scrolls. Assume next that the outside of one of the scrolls, its first page, was worn and eventually torn off. The opening introduction which lists the author and the destination and greeting is gone. Later persons, finding these scrolls, one of them mutilated but clearly written by Paul, don't know what to do with the short scroll, so they simply tack it on to the other one when they copy them over. So they are now one scroll and later copyists do not know that they were originally two separate letters. That would explain why we have only two letters to Corinth instead of the original three.

Memorable Moments in the "Distress Letter"

2 Corinthians 11:14, _"Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness."_ Paul is referring to the Judaizers who are dragging believers back into the clutches of the Torah, from which the Spirit of Jesus has delivered them.

2 Corinthians 12:7, _"Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.'"_ Scholars speculate on what this thorn in the flesh might be. One opinion is that it is the poor eyesight that was the legacy of his conversion experience when blinded at Damascus.

The Comfort Letter

The occasion of this letter

Paul writes of "the affliction we experienced in Asia," and describes it in these words, "we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself." (2 Corinthians 1:8) He would be referring to the same events that Luke describes in Acts 19, the riot in Ephesus that forced Paul to leave the city. So we may assume that Paul is writing this letter shortly after that traumatic event, somewhere in Macedonia, perhaps in Philippi or in Thessalonica, on his way to a third visit to Corinth.

Why did he feel the need to write this letter? Titus had been sent to Corinth with the "Distress Letter," and he has now returned with a report as to how the letter was received. After the distress he felt in writing the earlier letter, Paul is now gratified enormously by Titus' report that the church in Corinth has responded favorably to Paul and is taking steps to silence the Judaizers. So now he understands the purpose of his visit to Corinth is changed; no longer will it be a visit to exert his authority to punish, but to encourage the church in its service to the Lord.

The content of this letter

So Paul wants the church in Corinth to know that his coming visit will not be confrontational but supportive, and to that end he sits down and writes this "Comfort Letter." He writes, "But God, who consoles the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus." (2 Corinthians 7:6)

Apparently Paul has heard some complaint about him not visiting Corinth earlier. He begins this "Comfort Letter" by explaining the difficulties associated with his being forced out of Ephesus and the reason why he wrote the earlier "Distress Letter" instead of making another personal visit. "It was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth. ... So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit." (1:23, 2:1) He explains the purpose of that previous letter, "For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you." (2:4)

Paul is dictating these words to Timothy, and he finds himself seeming to be defending himself again, just as he had done in the previous letter, and he brings himself up short. "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?" (3:1)

Although Paul spends a good share of his time talking about himself and the circumstances in which he finds himself, he never forgets to come back to the gospel itself. He goes on, "Our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." (3:6)

We can imagine the consternation of the Jewish Christians who cherish the Torah when they read what Paul said next. He calls it "the ministry of death." (3:7) He has in mind the fact that the leaders of the Jewish people in Jerusalem, those who sought to uphold the Torah (including of course himself in his youth), were the persons responsible for trying to short-circuit God's plan by killing Jesus. Paul does not in any way reject the Torah as a bad thing, but insists that something even better has now come. "Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory." (3:10)

At this point Paul says a very important thing in their understanding of what God is doing by means of the gospel. He explains that the Judaizers have a veil over their faces when they read the Torah, a veil that makes it difficult for them to perceive the true intent of the Law of God. But, Paul continues, Christ has removed that veil so that we can now see better what God's intent is, and that makes us free to pursue that goal without all the rituals of the Torah. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (3:17) Freedom is a very important concept in Paul's writings and messages. Freedom, that is, from the necessity of keeping all those burdensome Jewish rituals required by the Torah and by ancient tradition. One becomes a true child of God, not by rigorous keeping of the rules but by living faithfully and confidently in the Spirit of Jesus. "All this," Paul insists, "is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." (5:18)

Interestingly, Paul then writes again about the previous letter he wrote, the "Distress Letter." Here is what he says, "For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it (though I did regret it, for I see that I grieved you by that letter, though only briefly). Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us." (2 Corinthians 7:8-9) "In this we find comfort." (7:13)

But Paul's purpose in making this trip through Macedonia to Corinth is not merely to confirm the believers in their faith, it is also to gather funds for the poor saints in Jerusalem who have been experiencing great financial difficulties due to famine (and perhaps the kind of discrimination that gave them financial problems). So in chapters 8 and 9 Paul explains that Titus, the person delivering this letter, is also the person in charge of gathering these funds from the churches in Asia and Macedonia and Greece. "So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised." (9:5)

Paul and his evangelistic team will be returning to Jerusalem after this visit to Corinth, traveling through Macedonia to Troas, and then by boat via Miletus. In Jerusalem Paul hopes to avoid trouble by bringing this substantial monetary gift to the needy believers there, for he knows his reputation there is highly problematical.

Perspective on the "Comfort Letter"

Perhaps more than any other of his letters, the two letters combined in Second Corinthians are deeply infused with the everyday personal experiences of Paul. He is traveling all around and is constantly immersed in controversy about his message. Some people are opposing him and others are coming to him for advice. And we see much of this in these two letters.

And we see also that his theological insights are largely determined by his encounter with Jesus at the time of his conversion. Theology for Paul is a matter of understanding how God works through the Lord Jesus in his own life and in the life of the human race. In this sense we can say his theology is highly existential, meaning that it is inextricably interwoven with the actual existence of people in their everyday lives.

For Paul theology is not an abstract attempt either to define God or to analyze his personal experiences, it is an existential analysis of what God is actually doing in the ongoing process of human history, beginning with creation, continuing with the history of Israel, and now burgeoning out into the world of the Roman Empire. Paul does not know what God will be doing in the millennia to come. Nor do we know what the future holds for his work. But Paul knows, and so do we, that Christianity is a matter of how faith in Jesus shapes human life and human history.

This point is taken in direct contrast to the contemporary philosophy that we encounter today in the twenty-first century, and which seems to be growing apace. Immanuel Kant was the first major philosopher to make a sharp distinction between _knowledge_ and _belief_.

In his way of thinking we can _know_ whatever comes to us via our senses, and we can _believe_ anything else that does not come to us through that channel. For example, we cannot have any direct sensory contact with God, so it would be inappropriate to say that we can _know_ anything about him. Still, we can _believe_ things about God that cannot be proven by sensory information. This results, in Kant's philosophy, in a sharp distinction between science and religion. Science, based on sensory data, is what we know; religion, based on faith, is what we decide to believe. Science thus requires acceptance, but religion and faith is a matter of personal choice.

The next step, of course, is to regard religion and theology as being based on personal commitment, not on objective reality. In this way of thinking it does not much matter what a person believes, since this varies wildly all over the world, but only what scientific insight requires us to accept. This is why there is so much discrediting of Christianity and any other forms of religion in the modern world – it is considered irrelevant to the real world.

So we do need to get back to Paul's understanding that Christianity is not a matter of what any person or group of persons choose to believe, but an insight into what God is as an objective matter of fact doing in our personal and communal and generic lives, that is in history and in civilization. And that is why we must continue to hold that Christianity, understood as what God is doing in and through Jesus Christ, is the only way to a successful human civilization. God created us, he is guiding our development in time and history, and he is doing so as the sovereign Lord who is asking us to voluntarily follow his lead. There is no other name given among men by whom we may be saved.

Memorable Moments in the "Comfort Letter"

2 Corinthians 2:15, _"For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life."_ The aroma of Christ! God sees believers as coming to the kind of life he created us for, but he sees unbelievers, like the Judaizers, as wallowing in spiritual death.

2 Corinthians 3:17, _"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."_ If our experience of faith in Jesus does not result in a strong sense of freedom under God, there is something missing.

2 Corinthians 4:7, _"But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us."_ Paul is a confirmed theist, knowing clearly that he is not promoting his own ideas but that God himself is working through the message he brings.

2 Corinthians 5:10, _"For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil."_ What we do about Jesus determines what kind of life we lead, whether good or evil.

Romans

The occasion for this letter

We are still in Paul's third missionary trip. He has just been forced out of Ephesus after spending nearly three very productive years there, and has now arrived in the city to which he has recently written several letters, Corinth. The year would be about AD 57.

This is as near to Rome as he will get at this time, even though he really does want to make a visit there. But he is soliciting a financial collection from all the churches on the mission field and must go next back to Jerusalem to deliver the funds. So, instead of making a personal visit, Paul writes a lengthy letter detailing the kinds of things he would be explaining in person had he been able to make the visit to Rome.

So we should understand that this letter is vastly different from First Corinthians. In that letter he responded to concrete problems in a church he knew very well; in this letter to Rome he is writing to a church he has never visited and whose problems were not known first hand, just the general problems he encounters everywhere he goes. He will be explaining the basics of the gospel both to the Jewish believers in Rome but also to those non-Jewish persons who have been brought into the kingdom of Jesus. Paul knows the kinds of questions and problems that Christians in other churches have brought to him in the past, and he will draw on this knowledge as he addresses the Christians in Rome.

The content of this letter

When Paul addresses a Jewish synagogue he emphasizes their history going back to the time of Abraham. When he addresses a Gentile audience he goes back to creation and to the human race in general. So now here in this letter to Rome he wants to address both groups, so he does have to begin with the human race as a whole. The gospel he proclaims is valid for both groups, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel," he writes, "it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

Paul affirms that "what can be known about God is plain" to all people "ever since the creation of the world." (1:19-20) But people "suppress the truth" and thereby become guilty of "serving the creature rather than the Creator." (1:25) Paul means that people should know better how to live simply on the basis of the nature that God created. But since they don't, Paul says God "gave them up" to receive the natural results of their sins. The degradation that is seen in so many areas of society is the natural outcome of the fact that people do not live the way they have been created to live. The suffering that comes as a result thus also becomes an incentive to find a way to live better, both individually and collectively.

So the gospel comes now to enable all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, to break out of that cycle of sin and punishment. God "will repay according to each one's deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury." (2:6-8)

Paul then turns to the unique situation of Jewish Christians. They have been devoted to keeping the Torah with its multitude of rituals, mores, and customs. Ever since the return from Babylonian captivity they have understood that God's covenant requires them to be meticulously faithful to what God requires in the Torah, such matters as sabbath observance, circumcision, kosher food, Passover, and numerous others items. Anything that seemed to undercut the Torah was to them anathema, and those who promoted indifference to the unique Jewish laws were to be warned and cut off if they persisted.

And of course that attitude caught the Apostle Paul in its net. Paul, as well as the other Christian leaders, were of the opinion that a new covenant had come into play with the ministry of Jesus, so that the observances that were so central to Judaism were understood to do little or nothing for Gentiles coming into the church from outside Judaism. The gospel insisted that one comes to the kind of life God desires not via the Law but via faith in Jesus and the reception of his Spirit of holiness.

But the great problem this created for loyal Jewish believers was that this teaching seemed to say that the entire history of Jewish devotion to Torah was useless. Were our fathers all wrong when they insisted on genuine keeping of God's Law? Must we now regard all of that, and our own faithfulness to the Torah as a mistake? And if the Torah really is God's Law, we need to insist that Gentile newcomers must obey it also. How can you be a child of God if you don't obey God's Law?

So this kind of reasoning was rife among the early churches who were struggling with the problems associated with welding Jewish and Gentile believers into a harmonious Christian congregation. This is the next situation Paul addresses in Romans.

He asks, putting the objection into words, "Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?" (3:1) He has in mind several items to list as a way of answering that question, "Much, in every way. For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God." (3:2) So Paul goes on at length explaining how the Law has been of benefit to Jewish people. But as he develops this theme his fertile mind pursues this corollary and then that implication, so that he seems to forget that he is making a list. Much later, in 9:4-5, he returns to the idea of listing the benefits, "They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen."

Paul explains as clearly as he can, "But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed ... the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ." (3:21-22) Gentiles can come into this righteousness "apart from the law," simply by believing in Jesus. "It depends on faith." (4:16) "Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one." (3:29)

Then Paul sums it all up in one devastatingly powerful assertion, "What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law. Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone." (9:30-32)

You can imagine the consternation this notion created in the mind of the Judaizers. Paul is saying in no unmistakable terms that the Law did not achieve its purpose in the history of the Jewish people. "What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened." (11:7) By rejecting Jesus the Jewish nation rejected the very purpose of God in working with them throughout their history. Some Jews believed, but the nation as a whole did not. The Judaizers must deal with that. Diligent obedience to the Law did not produce the results in them that it should have.

Towards the end of his lengthy letter, Paul explores the applications that the gospel has for this church in Rome, and for that matter for all churches torn by the difficulty of melding Jews and Gentiles into one harmonious church of Jesus Christ. What is it that God requires of both Jews and Gentiles? Here are some specifics: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect." (12:1-2) "Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat, for God has welcomed them." (14:1-3) "Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be convinced in their own minds." (14:5) "We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor." (15:1-2)

Paul concludes this letter by explaining what his plans are now, with a promise that as soon as he can he will come back for a personal visit to Rome. And then he mentions by name a good many persons in Rome with whom he is acquainted, and writes a wonderful doxology at the very end.

Perspective on the book of Romans

This letter is generally regarded as the most profound of all Paul's letters. This may very well be so, but when one considers that Paul is dictating it to Tertius, and that Tertius is doing his best to get it all down as Paul rambles on and on with the verbosity that sometimes overwhelms us, we might be excused for a bit of confusion at getting at the nub of what he is trying to achieve by writing this letter.

Paul is not trying to write what we think of as a Systematic Theology. He is addressing the widespread question that Jewish believers are struggling with, that of the Judaizing tendencies of Torah devotees. He goes at it very systematically, of course, and with amazing breadth and depth of insight into the history of Israel. So his purpose is not merely to present the doctrine of justification by faith, but to explain why it is not useful to insist that Gentile believers obey the precepts of Torah. He is trying to meet every possible objection that he has encountered in his evangelistic forays. Pretty much everything he says, therefore, can be read as detailing the reasons for not forcing Gentiles to keep sabbath, circumcise sons, observe kosher rules, and the rest.

The above analysis of the content of Romans obviously omits a great deal of very useful and important teaching. For our purposes in this book, to provide some background information for each book of the Bible, however, it should be sufficient to point out the main purpose of Paul, with just a bit of illustration from various texts.

Memorable Moments in Romans

Romans 1:16, _"For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."_ The gospel is the way God exercises his power; it is much more than an intellectual commitment or a legal requirement.

Romans 6:5, 11, _"For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ... So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."_ The power of God that is demonstrated in Jesus' resurrection is mirrored in those who believe as they move out of a life of sin into a life of holiness.

Romans 8:28, _"For we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."_ This includes even the sad and distressing events that occur in our lives. God will bring good out of evil.

Romans 12:1, _"I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."_ Sometimes translated "logical service." This is what God wants from us, complete and total faithfulness in our daily living.

Romans 16:25-27, _"Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith – to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen."_ A doxology expressing a very profound and insightful philosophy of history. The gospel, having been kept secret since the time of Moses, has now been revealed, so that now even the Gentiles are included in God's plan.

Philippians

The occasion for this letter

Concluding a third mission trip, Paul delivered his monetary gift from the mission field to the suffering saints in Jerusalem. It was not enough, however, to protect him from the false accusations of those who despised him. He was put into protective custody and spent years in prison hoping for honorable release. When it didn't materialize Paul, being by birth a Roman citizen, appealed for trial by Caesar.

We find him now in Rome awaiting trial, confidently expecting that his case will be thrown out of court for lack of evidence. In the meantime, however, he received an official visitor from the church in Philippi, Epaphroditus, who brought a financial gift to help pay rental expenses for Paul. Paul was immensely grateful for this gift, and sat down to dictate a thank-you letter to Timothy.

Epaphroditus, however, fell sick while in Rome, and had to wait some time until his health improved enough for him to return to Philippi with Timothy to deliver Paul's letter. We are somewhere near the year AD 60 by this time.

The content of the letter

Paul does not first express his gratitude for the financial gift, but interestingly, for their acceptance of the gospel. "I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now." (1:3-4)

Then he explains that what has happened to him, namely his imprisonment, has provided him an opportunity to preach the gospel. Paul is a prisoner, but in his own rented apartment guarded by Roman soldiers assigned to that task. "I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear." (1:12-14)

After encouraging the Christians in Philippi to stand firm in the gospel, he writes a very profound exhortation, "Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (2:12-13) Paul wants them to understand that the very fact that they believe the gospel is a sure sign that God is working in their lives.

Paul acknowledges that there will be differences of opinion among them, but that these differences should not divide them. They should, rather than criticize each other, pray that God may reveal the truth to them. He counsels, "Only let us hold fast to what we have attained." (3:16) We may not understand everything we would like to, but what we do know, what God has revealed to us in Christ, we need to hold on to, and not abandon what truth we do know. It's like what Moses said, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and our children, that we may do all the works of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Then in the last chapter, chapter 4, Paul writes some of the most memorable of all his teachings, for example, "I have learned to be content with whatever I have." Others will be in the segment at the end of this chapter, Memorable Moments. Here at last he expresses his thanks for their gift, "I have been paid in full and have more than enough, I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God." (4:18)

Perspective on the book of Philippians

One could imagine Paul to be desolated by the turn his career has taken. Years in prison in Caesarea on a charge he knows full well he is innocent of. Then a disastrous voyage to Rome, shipwrecked and almost losing his life from snakebite afterward. Then facing the prospect of being tried by a Roman emperor who could care less about sending him to death if he so desired. Endless waiting – and not knowing what will come of it.

But one senses none of this type of discouragement in the letter to the Philippians. On the contrary Paul sees what is happening as an opening for unanticipated opportunities to speak of the Lord Jesus to his guards and visitors. He is perfectly content to let the Lord provide for him in whatever way he wishes, and Paul will accept and adapt, all the while more concerned for the faithfulness of others than for his own satisfaction. Paul has learned to be content in any situation, whether favorable to his mission or unfavorable, and then to find ways of promoting the gospel regardless of adverse circumstances.

Memorable Moments in Philippians

Philippians 2:9-11, " _Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."_ This is the goal of the gospel, that everyone everywhere shall acknowledge Jesus to be Lord.

Philippians 2:12-13, _"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you."_ Our salvation needs to be seen in the way we live, loving God above all and our neighbors as ourselves – worked out in this way.

Philippians 3:10, _"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection."_ It isn't enough merely to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, we must learn how to let that resurrection have its effect in our lives as we rise out of the death of sin.

Philippians 4:8, _"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."_ Don't be thinking all the time about how bad the world is, but about how God is making things better through the gospel.

Philippians 4:10-14, _"I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me, indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. In any case, it was kind of you to share my distress."_ What secret is that which Paul learned? Trusting the Lord to provide whatever we really need.

Philemon

The occasion for this letter

Paul is still imprisoned in Rome, waiting for Caesar to find time for his trial. Somehow, we don't know how, a young runaway slave makes his way to Paul, is converted, and has to make up his mind what to do, whether to go back home and face the consequences, or to stay away always fearful of being captured and enslaved again. The young man's name is Onesimus.

It turns out that Paul knows the slave owner who lives in a small city called Colossae back in the area, the province of Asia, where Paul had spent the greater part of his third mission trip. The slave owner's name is Philemon, and he is a Christian. Paul would like to have Onesimus become part of his evangelistic team, but insists that he must resolve his status first with his rightful owner, Philemon.

They decide that Onesimus will go back to Philemon, escorted by Tychichus, with the request that Philemon release Onesimus from slavery so that he may return to Paul and become part of his gospel team. So Paul, in his own hand, writes a short letter to Philemon making this request in writing.

The content of the letter

Paul refers to himself as "an old man." He is probably in his fifties at the time. And he refers to Onesimus as "my child." He means his child in the faith, not biologically. And then he employs a pun on the name of Onesimus, which apparently means "useful." "Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me." (verse 11) He tells Philemon that "I wanted to keep him with me," but does not wish to do so "without your consent." (13) The request is implied but not specifically articulated. "Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say." (20-21)

An interesting sidelight. Paul mentions the names of several persons who are part of his evangelistic team with him in Rome. Among them is Mark, the very person who occasioned the hard feelings between Paul and Barnabas when preparing for a second mission trip. Apparently Mark and Paul have become reconciled after that fiasco ten or more years ago.

Perspective on the letter

The institution of slavery was fully accepted in Roman society in those days. Slaves were not normally mistreated, but often had positions of responsibility in the homes of wealthy patrons, such as managers or teachers. There is no suggestion that Onesimus was mistreated, only that he ran away in order to be free to pursue his own career. But even when he was converted, Paul honored the institution of slavery by sending Onesimus back to his owner Philemon who was also a Christian. The penalty for runaway slaves in Roman law was death, but Paul is requesting Philemon to treat Onesimus now as a Christian brother, and set him free to become part of Paul's entourage.

Memorable Moments in Philemon

Philemon 10, _"I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me."_ Onesimus becomes a child of God through Paul his father in faith.

Colossians

The occasion for the letter

Paul has just written a short note to Philemon on behalf of the runaway slave Onesimus, perhaps in his own handwriting. He will be sending that letter by his associate Tychicus, who will also escort Onesimus back to his owner who lives in Colossae.

So, since Tychicus will be traveling to Colossae anyway, why not use the opportunity to send an encouraging pastoral letter to the church in that small town? It is likely that Paul has never personally been in Colossae, so what could he write about? One of Paul's associates, Epaphras, was the person responsible for bringing the gospel to them, so what Paul knows about this small church is only what he has learned from Epaphras (1:7). The church would have been started during Paul's stay in Ephesus some years earlier in his third mission trip. Paul dictates this longer letter to Timothy (1:1), and he will be sending it with Tychicus along with the letter to Philemon.

The content of the letter

Paul is aware of the general Greek philosophy that pervades the world at that time, and perhaps is especially strong in the area then known as Asia. So he issues a general warning against that philosophy, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe." (2:8)

So, even before he makes this warning he has it in mind and prepares for it by describing how God is at work through Jesus in this world. "He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (1:13-14) Paul knows "the power of darkness" in his own life. His fanatic devotion to the Torah made him an enemy of Christ and drove him to oppose the work of God. So Paul knows what he is talking about, and insists that it is through Christ that he and all believers are delivered from the darkness in which they previously lived.

Then Paul expands on the subject and says some very profound things about Jesus. "He is the image of the invisible God." (1:15) Genesis One informs us that all humans are created in the image of God, so when Paul says Jesus is the image of God he means that Jesus is the ideal human person, the human who mirrors the character of God in precisely the accurate way that God desires all humans to do.

"He is the firstborn of all creation." (1:15) The term "firstborn" indicates the custom of primogeniture, that the eldest son inherits the estate of his father. Paul is explaining that Jesus occupies that status in the plan of God. He is the one who inherits the control of the world, the same as what Jesus himself said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matthew 28:18) The point being that the controlling force in the development of human history is the gospel.

"In him all things in heaven and on earth have been created." (1:16) Paul means that the purpose of creation itself is fulfilled in Jesus who is the perfect embodiment of what God intended to accomplish when he created the universe.

"He himself is before all things." (1:17) "Before" in the sense of more important, not in the sense of prior existence.

"In him all things hold together." (1:17) The _meaning_ of all things.

"He is the head of the body, the church." (1:18) Don't look to any other human being as the head of the church – only Jesus. It is his Spirit who guides the church in its work.

"He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead." (1:18) Jesus' resurrection results in believers also passing out of the death of sin into the life of the Spirit. His resurrection opens up the way out of death into life.

"In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." (1:19) A marvelous summation. Paul uses the term pleroma, fullness, which was a common term in Greek philosophy, and later some Christian thinkers used it to suggest that Jesus is a kind of overflow of the fullness of God. But Paul means to teach the Colossians that the fullness, completeness, of God's work and intention is seen in Jesus. The pleroma of God is seen in the pleroma of man; that is, everything that God intended is seen in the complete perfection of this man Jesus. Jesus is what God wants every human to become, a perfect image of God.

Later in the letter Paul explains how faith in Jesus is carried over into the way believers live. He connects it with two things, Jesus' death and his resurrection. "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?" (2:20) Something of Jesus' death must carry over into something in the way Christians live: dying to sin.

"If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." (3:1) There is a connection here not only with Jesus' resurrection but also with his ascension. Paul wants the Colossian believers to see that their own lives must now be shaped by Jesus' resurrection and ascension. They should set their minds on things that are above.

But to set their minds on things above, "not on things that are on earth," does not mean abandoning one's responsibilities for their life on earth. Paul gives specific advice, "Get rid of all such things as anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive language." (3:8) On the contrary, "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience." (3:12)

Paul gets even more specific as he provides advice to wives, to husbands, to children, to fathers, to slaves and to masters (think about Philemon and Onesimus). (3:18 - 4:1)

Perspective on the letter to the Colossians

At the conclusion of Colossians Paul writes, "And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea." (4:16) Laodicea was a larger church in a larger town than nearby Colossae. Apparently Paul had already written a letter to Laodicea or planned on doing so next. This letter to Laodicea is very likely the one we know as Ephesians, and we will discuss its origin at that point. It is not clear whether Paul wrote Colossians before he wrote the letter we know as Ephesians. They could be called sister letters, containing much the same content.

Memorable Moments in Colossians

Colossians 1:19, _"For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell."_ God exercised his power through Jesus, which we see in his otherwise incredible miracles.

Colossians 3:1, _"So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."_ Believing in Jesus is more than believing what he did and what happened to him, it is sharing vicariously in his resurrection, living the holy life that is pictured in his resurrection.

Ephesians

The occasion for this letter

The occasion is much the same as for Philemon and Colossians. Tychicus is about to escort runaway slave Onesimus to his master Philemon who lives in the small town town of Colossae. Paul, still a prisoner in Rome, has written a short letter to Philemon, asking him to liberate Onesimus so that he may become part of Paul's evangelistic team. Apparently Paul has also completed a letter to the church in that town also (Colossians), and now he is writing a third letter for Tychicus to deliver, one that is called a circular letter, that is, one intended not specifically for one church but for all the other churches in the province of Asia.

Scholars who have investigated this matter have discovered that one of the very oldest copies of the letter we know as Ephesians has a blank space in verse 1 where the name _Ephesus_ is usually found. Accordingly they conclude, probably correctly, that this is the same letter that Paul mentioned as the letter to the Laodiceans (Colossians 4:16), a letter that does not exist anywhere under that name.

It seems that Tychicus was to deliver this unaddressed letter to the nearby church in Laodicea while he was doing his other business in Colossae. On his return journey he would deliver it also to the church in Ephesus, and they would forward it to the other churches (cf Ephesians 6:21). Very likely these would be the same churches as those mentioned in the early chapters of the book of Revelation.

When that unaddressed letter was delivered to Ephesus, it would appear, they inserted the name of their own church and made a copy of it before sending it on to the next church, the one in Smyrna. And it would be that Ephesian copy that has made its way down to us through history, so that we know it as Ephesians. But other copies exist that do not have that name, only a blank spot.

The content of this letter

It is worth noting that many of the same items that had occupied Paul's mind in writing Colossians are still in his mind when writing this letter; truly a sister letter. We may surmise that the things he writes about are conditions that exist in all of the churches in that area, not just in the one church in Ephesus. It is also of some significance that Paul does not mention any names at the end, as he does in many of his other letters – he does not intend this letter for just one church only.

This letter is basically a letter concentrating on living the Christian life as contrasted with a heathen life (for Gentile believers) and a legalistic life (for Jewish believers). Paul begins Ephesians with a lengthy analogy designed to explain how faith in Jesus is carried over into the way believers live.

To introduce the analogy Paul writes that he wants his readers to know "what is the immeasurable greatness of his [God's] power for us who believe." (1:19) How do we experience the power of God as a result of believing in Jesus? By seeing how God's power has been working in the life of Jesus, "according to the working of his great power" in Christ. (1:19) How do we see this? "God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." (1:20) That is the first half of the analogy that Paul is explaining; the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

The second half of the analogy begins in 2:1, "You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived." Paul wants his readers to see the connection between Jesus' death and their own condition prior to believing in Jesus. The death of Jesus is the pattern by which we are to understand our life apart from Jesus. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. The analogy continues in 2:5, God "made us alive together with Christ, ... and raised us up with him." Paul wants his readers to make a connection between Jesus' death and resurrection and what happens in their lives when they believe: they pass out of a life of sin into a life of godliness.

But there is even more in Paul's analogy. "And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places." (2:6) Astounding! You believers are not only raised out of a life of sin but you now sit with Jesus in the heavenly places at the right hand of God! That's the climax of Paul's extended analogy.

Then Paul goes on to explain in more detail how this analogy with Jesus works, and that explanation will control everything else he writes in this unique letter. "For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works." (2:10)

The first concrete application of this analogy is in connection with the relationship of Jews and Gentiles in the churches. All of those early churches began with Jewish people being convinced that Jesus was indeed the messiah sent by God; so the synagogue mentality would be very strong yet in the attitudes of these first believers. It became rather difficult for them, with this mentality, to readily accept Gentile believers on an equal basis. They knew they had to do this but it would take two or three generations for it to happen. Actually it didn't happen completely until the churches were themselves composed of a majority of Gentiles, in which case Jewish believers may well have felt outsiders.

Anyway, Paul writes concerning Gentile believers, "Now in Christ Jesus you have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups one, and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us." (2:13-14) And concerning Jewish believers he writes, "He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace." (2:15)

Chapter 3 of Ephesians is basically a reminder of Paul's own situation and ministry as he has personally responded to the analogy he has just described, that is, how the death and resurrection of Jesus has transformed his life and has made him into an apostle. He wants his readers to comprehend the love of Christ and be "filled with all the fullness of God." (3:19)

So, after this sidetrack, Paul urges his readers to make "every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (4:3) He helps them understand that God gives each person his or her own specific gifts, and that a good church will make use of all this variety in building up the entire body of believers. (4:11-16)

In chapters 5 and 6 he parallels pretty much what he wrote in Colossians, advice for specific categories: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves (recall Onesimus), masters (remember Philemon). His final admonition is also a well-known analogy, "the whole armor of God." (6:10-17)

Perspective on this letter

Picture yourself in Paul's situation. He is in prison, unable to travel, but he has a wonderful opportunity to send letters, not only to Philemon and the church in Colossae, but to all the churches he remembers so fondly in the vicinity of Ephesus where he worked for years on his previous mission trip. He can't very well write to each of them, but he can write one letter for all of them and have it circulate from one church to the next.

But what will he say that will be relevant to them all, but specific to none? He decides that he must begin in a theistic way, that is, by reminding the readers that God is in charge of what is happening and that Jesus has done the work that God assigned to him, and that the Holy Spirit of Jesus is now implementing the working out of God's will in the churches. So he begins with this magnificent analogy: what God has already done in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus is the pattern of what he is doing in your lives. The paradigm, the way we understand how God works in the world and in us. Our share in the resurrection of Jesus is that we rise from the death of sin to the life of holiness. So already now in this life we sit with Jesus at the right hand of God, living by the Spirit and thus controlling the devil's temptations. That's the basis of all Christian ethics and morality.

So then he explains the new situation in which all believers find themselves when they commit to faith in the Lord Jesus. There is a new covenant, a new set of circumstances to which all of us must shape our lives. There has been an ending to particularism, that is, an ending to the notion that the Jews are anything special in God's plan. Gentiles are now in this new covenant on exactly the same basis as Jews. Particularism has given way to universalism. Therefore, make sure that in the churches there is no minimizing of either Jew or Gentile, but work hard at keeping mutual respect and esteem.

But faith in Jesus has very extensive implications for daily living as well. There are habits or mores that need to be expunged from one's life. There are other habits and mores that need to replace them. There are implications for the way we treat each other, and in all of that we need constantly to remember that it is the Spirit of God and of Jesus that must control our thoughts and actions and relationships.

Paul does not explore the larger dimensions of Christian faith as they work themselves out in terms of the culture and civilization of the times, but in the light of passing centuries we can see that Christian living affects not only our individual lives but the total culture that results from it. Western civilization is vastly different today than it was in Paul's day, and the major cause of it is commitment to the Lord Jesus and the guidance of his Holy Spirit.

Memorable Moments in Ephesians

Ephesians 1:9-10, _"He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."_ God has a plan for time and history and the future, and God has set it forth in Jesus. Specifically in his death, resurrection, and ascension; and after this statement Paul spells out the beautiful analogy that shapes our lives.

Ephesians 2:5, _"Even when we were dead through our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places."_ That's how Christians must see themselves, dead to the power of sin, alive in the Spirit of Jesus, ruling with Christ from the throne of God.

Ephesians 4:3, _"... making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."_ We may not be able to do much about denominationalism at large, but at least we can try hard to keep unity with our own congregations.

Ephesians 6:10-11, _"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."_ This sums up very well Paul's message that begins with the analogy of seeing how the power of God works in Jesus and then in us when we believe. We need to work hard at making all of that real in our daily living.

First Timothy

The occasion for this letter

There is very little evidence to suggest the setting in which Paul wrote this letter. In fact, there are reputable scholars who believe Paul did not write the two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus. That is because a) we have no reliable information about what happened when Paul's case came up for trial before Caesar in Rome, and b) scholars point out certain grammatical and stylistic differences between these books and the previous letters. The book of Acts, in which Luke records the career of Paul, ends with Paul awaiting trial, and there are no other contemporary documents that tell what happened. There are later documents based on tradition but none from on-the-scene witnesses.

Still, the letters themselves identify the author as Paul, and there is no compelling reason to think this identification has been falsified.

Paul explains that the evangelistic team had gone to Macedonia (1 Timothy 1:3). From this we conclude that Paul had been tried and released and was now on what might be called his fourth mission trip. From Macedonia Paul has sent Timothy to Ephesus as his representative while presumably Paul went farther north and perhaps west even to Spain. Paul's missionary strategy was, as much as possible, to move into areas where he had not gone before.

So, wherever Paul may have been at the time, Timothy is in Ephesus, and this letter reminds Timothy of the instructions Paul gave him for his pastoral work in the Ephesian church. If this surmise is reasonably correct, the date is probably sometime in the AD 63-65 time period.

The content of the letter

The first thing on Paul's mind is the same ubiquitous issue that Christian faith had been precipitating wherever it went: the problem that some believers of Jewish background had concerning the Torah, the hallowed customs of Judaism. Do all Christians, Gentiles as well as Jews, need to obey these laws? Paul knows that this is a continuing problem in the churches across the sea in Asia. So he reminds Timothy "to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine, and not to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies." (1:3-4)

It is not clear what "myths" Paul has in mind; perhaps speculations from the non-Jewish believers who might be trying to understand Jesus within Greek mythology, a development which did indeed happen in subsequent centuries. The "genealogies" may be a reference to the prevailing concern of Jewish people to trace their own ancestry, perhaps in the attempt to legitimize some kind of family or personal superiority, like someone today tracing their ancestry back to the Mayflower. Paul adds that such people desire to be "teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions." (1:7) He means the Judaizers who do not know what they are talking about.

But who is to say that Paul knows what he is talking about? What makes him an authority on the subject? Paul is aware of this objection and explains it next to Timothy. Paul knows what he is talking about because he knows how the gospel has been working in his own life. He was once the foremost of sinners, but now by the grace of God he has been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. (1:15-16)

So Timothy, as Paul's representative in the ministry, must be confident enough that what he has learned from Paul is correct, and that he must, even though still on the young side, insist that Paul's teachings be accepted.

Paul then goes on to explain how the Christians in Ephesus (and presumably elsewhere as well) should conduct their weekly Sunday gatherings. He mentions first that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone" including kings and all who are in high positions. (2:1-2) He requires that men should pray "without anger or argument." And then he goes on to write things that bother people still today, things about women in the church. Good enough that "the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing." (2:9) But then, "Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent." (1:11-12) And then this most perplexing comment, "Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty." (2:15) He means women should be content with their role as wives and mothers, not seeking roles of authority.

In chapter 3 Paul addresses the qualifications a person should have for positions of responsibility in the church, bishops and deacons. The term "bishop" literally means an overseer in the Greek language, a person whose task it is to oversee or manage or supervise. This office is carried over from the synagogue to the church in those early years. Converted Jews simply carried over that custom from their previous experience. Paul provides a whole list of moral items that should characterize persons in the office of supervisor, including that he "must manage his own household well." (3:4) It might be useful at this point to note that in the parallel section of the letter to Titus Paul uses the terms "elder" and "bishop" interchangeably, two terms for the one office. (Titus 1:5-7)

Paul also provides a similar list for the office of deacon. ( 1 Timothy 3:8-13) The office of deacon was a new innovation in the churches, as we read in Acts 6. This list also includes a provision that they should "manage their children and household well." For both offices the general qualification is that they should manifest in their own lives that the Spirit of Christ is clearly evident in their behavior.

Paul wants to make sure that Timothy is not overly bothered by the people who keep insisting on obeying the prescriptions of the old covenant. He refers to some Old Testament predictions that in the "later times" –which means the times in which they were now living – there will be people who renounce the faith for various reasons. Paul wants Timothy to know that what is happening is not something unexpected, and that there would indeed be people who reject the Christian faith for insubstantial reasons. One of those reasons that he mentions is that they will "demand abstinence from foods." That is, eat only kosher foods: you can't be a good Christian if you do not follow the kosher rules. But Paul counters with a very powerful insight: God created food to be received with thanksgiving, "for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving." (4:4) So Timothy must be prepared to see people bring up such arguments and also be prepared to counter them.

In chapter 5 Paul addresses a situation that has not come up in any of his previous letters: widows in the church. Women whose husbands have died and who therefore have no means of livelihood can be put on a list for financial help from the church; but, he adds, younger widows who have the ability to earn a living should not be eligible.

In passing, Paul advises Timothy, "No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments!" (5:23) And then in chapter 6 Paul urges Timothy to resist in his own personal life the temptations that worldly life offers, and to maintain a strict adherence to the leading of the Lord Jesus: "Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called." (6:12)

Perspective on this letter

Paul's main concern in this letter is to provide specific guidance for young Timothy (who may have been still in his late twenties or early thirties at this time) in exercising his pastoral responsibilities in Ephesus. He will surely run into opposition and criticism when he attempts to enforce the policies and instructions of his mentor Paul. Of course, we do not know exactly why Paul sent Timothy instead of waiting for an opportunity himself to be there in Ephesus (cf 3:14).

So, besides the skills that Timothy had already acquired in his years with Paul, he is now given instructions for some additional situations that will arise in the church: how to choose men to be elders and deacons, how women should function, how to treat persons who don't accept Paul's teachings about Torah, the status and support of widows.

It's a little risky to try to describe what may have been happening, the situation about which Paul says women are to "learn in silence with full submission." Were women becoming too noisy in their gatherings? Were they influencing, or trying to influence, others about matters of the Torah? Were they just gossiping? Who knows? But whatever the situation, it would appear that Paul had run into situations in his previous travels that made him think this might become a real problem for Timothy: how to keep good order in the church assemblies on Sunday morning.

From our perspective we would simply say that such situations, women causing disorder in church, no longer exist, so Paul's advice is no longer relevant.

Then there is that other piece of advice, "I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent." But that is little more than a repetition of what he wrote earlier. It would be a sad mistake to elevate this saying to a divine command.

It would be a sad mistake because the gospel is not a set of laws or commands that must be followed meticulously. That is what the Torah was, and it was from such slavish obedience to Torah that Paul wants us all to be liberated. For us to derive a set of rules from various places in the Bible is the equivalent of making a new Torah. And it is also the equivalent of refusing to follow the Spirit of the Lord whose task it is to lead us into all the truth. Hence, with regard to these enigmatic statements from Paul, we need to get into the Spirit of the law, not into its letter. And the Spirit of Christ is now providing considerably different guidance than was necessary two thousand years ago, better advice!

And then there is that curious statement that women "will be saved through childbearing." As if a woman is saved when she has a child, and not otherwise. Of course Paul does not mean that. But what does he mean? It seems that Paul is arguing from the basic view that God's purpose in creating the gender difference is for procreation, as we read in Genesis 1. Paul's view, whether correct or not, is that God created males to be the authority figures and females to be submissive and to be content with their God-given function of bearing children. They can be saved, that is be good Christians, while simply being the women God created them to be, and not move into the arena of male responsibility. Most Christians today will think Paul is wrong in this attitude, but he was a child of his times, and one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to lead his church into better understandings of God's will.

Memorable Moments in First Timothy

1 Timothy 1:3-4, _"God our savior ... desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."_ This is the reason Paul provides to pray for all people, including politicians.

1 Timothy 4:4, _"For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving."_ A basic ethical principle, spoken specifically to the Judaizers who insisted on kosher rules.

1 Timothy 6:10, _"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith."_ Another basic moral principle, valid always.

Titus

The occasion for this letter

Paul has sent Titus to the island of Crete, just as he has sent Timothy to the province of Asia. This method of sending members of his evangelistic team to various places Paul has been using for years. It was, for example, how he became so influential in the province of Asia during his third mission trip, starting the churches we read about in the book of Revelation.

In this case it is not so much that Paul sent Titus to Crete as that he left him there when he himself moved on. "I left you behind in Crete for this reason ...," he writes. (Titus 1:5)

Just as in the case of the letter to Timothy, we do not really know what happened to Paul after his imprisonment in Rome. It is difficult to position a visit to Crete into the things we know from the book of Acts. Luke does not mention it, so it does seem that the scenario many scholars describe is correct, that Paul was tried, found innocent, released, and then made a visit to Crete and perhaps after that to Spain. But there is no first-hand evidence of it. For some unknown reason Luke was unable to continue his recording of the life and work of Paul.

From what we can learn from this letter to Titus, however, it seems that churches had been started in several different towns on the island. We need to remember that these churches are always breakaways from the Jewish synagogues. They are composed of good and loyal Jewish people who have been convinced that Jesus truly was the messiah sent by God to his people, plus occasionally a few Gentile proselytes who come to faith in Jesus. And these believers, needing to grow into the Christian faith, are trying to deal with the enormous questions that their heritage has inculcated into them: what are we to do about our traditional Jewish customs, those required by the Torah, the Law of God? Paul does his best to guide them, and now leaves Titus behind to continue that pastoral work, and he provides this short letter to give him some basic guidelines.

At the end of this short letter Paul mentions that he is on his way to Nicopolis, which is a city on the western coast of Greece, and that he intends to spend the winter there. (3:12) When Titus has finished his tour of the churches in Crete he should rejoin Paul in Nicopolis.

The content of this letter

One of the major concerns of Paul, if not _the_ major concern, was to see to it that the new churches he started did not relapse into the kind of compromise that the Judaizers were pressing for: insisting that Christian faith required both faith in Jesus and obedience to the Torah. So, as also in First Timothy, the very first thing he admonishes Titus to be concerned about is the kind of men who become the elders and teachers in the church. Not only must they be persons of impeccable character but "must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that [they] may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it." (1:9) Paul tells Titus he should "appoint elders in every town, as I directed you," (1:5) men who meet the criteria that Paul spells out.

But Paul also has in mind the people we know as Judaizers, whom Paul describes as "rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision; they must be silenced." (1:10-11) Paul urges Titus to be firm and direct in dealing with such persons. "Rebuke them sharply, so that they may become sound in faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths or to commandments of those who reject the truth." (1:13-14)

Paul is not merely negative, opposing wrong views. He is also positive, defining a better point of view. Here is one of the most profound principles of Christian ethics, "To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions." (1:15-16)

Then in chapter 2 Paul moves into advice for certain groups: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, and slaves, concluding with this exhortation, "Declare these things; exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one look down on you." (2:15)

In chapter 3 Paul reminds Titus that what is happening, what Paul and his associates are doing by preaching the gospel and starting new churches, is the work of God himself. "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." (3:4-5) Not by obeying the Torah, but by baptism into God's grace and the subsequent Spirit who sanctifies our lives. Paul wants all Christians to be controlled by the Spirit of God working through faith in Jesus Christ.

Perspective on this letter

We may be reminded that these letters are not just dropped down out of heaven, they are Paul's responses to the real existential demands of the gospel. And in that reminder is also the reminder that what Paul writes is a response to the pressing needs of the times, but which may no longer be relevant as the times change.

Christians seem always tempted to construct a new Torah, a new set of religious laws, out of the data of the New Testament. This tendency must be rejected decisively, for it is a corruption of the new covenant in Jesus' blood. The new covenant is a covenant of the Spirit, and where the Spirit rules, the law disappears. Or rather, is absorbed into the better covenant.

This principle does not mean anything goes. It means that anything in the Spirit of Jesus goes. How do we decide what is in the Holy Spirit? It must of course come from a consensus of dedicated and devoted Christian people. But there must always be room for differing insights within the Christian community. The Spirit leads people from where they are toward where they should be going, and this will vary as much as the conditions of life and society vary. If you want to go to Chicago from Milwaukee, you go south; but if you start in St. Louis you go north; or west if you are in Detroit; or east if you are in Sioux Falls. So we need to trust that the Lord knows what he is doing, and be extremely careful not to judge others by what we ourselves understand. We must surely avoid setting up legal definitions of correct behavior, thus reverting back to a legalistic, old covenant, religion. We all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Memorable Moments in the letter to Titus

Titus 1:15, _"To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure."_ If you are pure in heart, your actions will show it. But if you are not, then even what seems to be good is contaminated.

Titus 3:5, _"God ... saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."_ There are two stages in Christian life: the beginning which produces faith in Jesus and is symbolized by baptism; and the continuation which is lifelong teaching by the Spirit of Jesus in how to live a godly life consistently.

Second Timothy

The occasion for this letter

Paul is once again in prison in Rome, and this time he knows that he will not be released. Perhaps Emperor Nero has already pronounced the death penalty. Or at least Paul knows that Nero will never let him as a leader of Christians be free again. Scholars suggest the date to be about AD 66 or 67.

How this all happened no one knows. But Paul in this letter is asking Timothy, currently in Ephesus, to come to Rome and be with him in his final days. Paul would like the comfort of having his spiritual son present as he nears the time of execution. Apparently this would not necessarily put Timothy in jeopardy of being arrested also. And so that is the main reason Paul writes this letter, even though he does write other encouraging things to Timothy.

The content of this letter

Paul reminds Timothy that he is third generation Christian, his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice preceding him, and then urges him not to be ashamed to be associated with Paul, now a prisoner awaiting likely execution. "Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God." (2 Timothy 1:8)

Paul explains that almost everyone from the province of Asia, where Timothy now is, has been reluctant to identify with Paul in his imprisonment, all except one man named Onesiphorus, who "was not ashamed of my chain." (2:16)

Then in chapter 2 Paul gives Timothy encouraging advice about his work, concluding with this important summary. "And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth." (2:24-25)

In chapter 3 he repeats a theme he has expressed years ago in his first letter to Timothy, "You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come." (3:1) Paul is saying this to strengthen Timothy in his current work which includes dealing with recalcitrant persons in the churches. In no way is Paul talking about the end of the world. The "last times" means in relation to the former times, the new covenant as related to the old covenant; in other words, the time in which Timothy is now living and the distress he is now experiencing when confronting persons who are "holding the outward form of godliness but denying its power." (3:5) "Avoid them!" Paul insists. (3:6)

In his mind Paul is reflecting on the long-ago times when he first met Timothy's family back in Lystra on his first mission trip. He mentions the cities he visited then, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra (3:11) and reminds Timothy, then a teenager, of how Paul behaved while there, and of how Timothy had been instructed in the faith by his mother and grandmother. (Though he does not mention it here, we recall that when Paul came back through those towns on his second mission trip Timothy asked to join the evangelistic team; and he remained with Paul till the end.)

In that setting Paul encourages Timothy to continue his study of the Jewish sacred literature because those documents "are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ." (3:15) They are "useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" because they are "inspired by God." (3:16)

In chapter 4 Paul explains his own personal feeling about what is happening to him. "As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. ... From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day." (4:6-8)

The mention of two names in the last half of chapter 4 is interesting. "Only Luke is with me." (4:11) Faithful Luke, having joined the expedition on the second trip at Troas and faithfully recording Paul's ministry for years. (Why Acts ends with the first imprisonment we do not know.) "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry." (4:11) The same man whom Paul earlier had refused to take with him on the second trip; apparently they had made up their differences.

"At my first defense," Paul writes, "no one came to my support." (4:16) We can well imagine the high tension of the times with Emperor Nero blaming Christians for setting fire to Rome. No one was anxious to let it be known that he or she was a Christian, which admission was almost a sure ticket to death. Timothy would be entering a city rife with anti-Christian feelings.

Perspective on this letter

We have come to the end of Paul's life and to the last of his letters. We have tried as best we can to understand what he has written in all of his letters within the living context of his ministry. What a brash, opinionated, fanatic person he grew up to be in his late teens and early twenties, persecuting the church with a zeal unparalleled in anyone else! And yet God took powerful hold of these personal characteristics and channeled them into a ministry even more potent and effective than those of the men who were the original disciples of Jesus.

We have seen, interestingly, how the vigorous, confrontational character of his first letter, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" – how that harsh language has slowly disappeared and has, in this last letter, become quiet, patient, and gentle, kindly to everyone, trusting the Lord to work his own will. Not that he was less devoted, but that he had learned that the truth will carry its own weight and that the Lord will accomplish whatever he wishes by means of his testimonies and explanations. He has learned also that there will always be opponents, but that he must neither compromise the truth nor become despondent. The Lord always knows what he is doing, and Paul is content with that, regardless of the outcome.

Theologians of an Evangelical bent, when they think of Second Timothy, often bring first to mind what Paul writes about the sacred writings in chapter 3. Specifically that they are inspired by God. They are records of how God has dealt with his people in the past, and Paul has himself learned a great deal about how God functions with his people, and he has learned how to understand the importance of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus in that historical context. Now Paul is urging Timothy to continue that same study in order to grow in understanding of the plan and purpose of God.

Accordingly, in the context in which Paul is writing, urging Timothy to continue to study them, there is no special theological significance to the term "inspired." All of Paul's preaching has been inspired by God – certainly not by the devil. So there is no valid reason to suggest that Paul is teaching such doctrines as the infallibility of the Bible, or inerrancy. Those concepts, even if they were true, are simply not there in the term "inspired."

I want to suggest what the term "infallible" ought to connote in our Christian thinking. Consider what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 55:11, "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it." That is infallibility. When God says something, it infallibly happens. God says lots of things, things that control the way the world functions. The world accomplishes exactly what God intends it to accomplish, no more, no less. The Bible is part of that, true, and it is useful. But God says much more than what is in the Bible, so we need to think of infallibility in connection with God in the constant activity of speaking. We must not limit the word of God to just the Bible, as if God doesn't speak any more. God is constantly speaking, so we need to be constantly listening.

Memorable Moments in Second Timothy

2 Timothy 2:15, _"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth."_ That's Timothy's job: to explain the truth and to do it in such a way as to receive God's approbation.

2 Timothy 3:16, _"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."_ Timothy will be facing opponents, just as Paul has been, and knowing the scriptures will be helpful in reproving them.

2 Timothy 4:7, _"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day."_ Would that all of us had the same confidence!

GENERAL EPISTLES

We come now to a section of the New Testament known as the General Epistles. These are Hebrews, James, two letters by Peter, three by John, one by Jude, and we will include also the book of Revelation in this group. The churches have historically recognized these documents as being genuine, reliable, and authoritative.

In the early years of the Christian church most of its members were of Jewish ancestry. As time passed, say about the end of the first century AD, the majority gradually became persons of Gentile descent. It is interesting to note that of all the books we now include in the New Testament only two are written by a non-Jewish person, Luke and Acts. All the epistles in the last half of the New Testament are written by authors who are Jewish Christians. None of the letters or other documents written later by non-Jewish persons have made their way into what we now call the Bible.

Why would this be so? There is one likely reason. It seems that most of these early Gentile theologians were struggling to understand the meaning of Jesus Christ from within a Greco-Roman mentality, not from a historical Jewish mentality. It appears that most of them were trying hard to move out of the polytheism and philosophy of the Greco-Roman world, trying to assimilate the gospel, but having a difficult time understanding the monotheistic and creational mentality out of which the gospel has come. Many of the writings of the ante-Nicene church fathers betray weird ideas about Jesus and the gospel and thus have been rejected as authoritative by the churches.

So the churches in general, even in those centuries when the gospel was being spread into the Roman Empire, decided that only documents written either by one of the disciples of Jesus or by very close associates should be accepted as authoritative. As it was, a good many of those now accepted were rejected here and there in the process, and some of those which did not make it into the Bible were accepted in some churches.

Hebrews

The author of the book

The book of Hebrews is anonymous, not only that the author does not identify himself but also that no one today knows who it is. Speculation has suggested such persons as Barnabas or Apollos, and all during the Middle Ages it was thought the author was the Apostle Paul. The Belgic Confession, for example, lists Hebrews as one of Paul's letters.

Regardless of who the author is, it is apparent that he was well versed in the Old Testament scriptures, was in Italy when writing the book, and was well acquainted with Timothy. (Hebrews 13:23-24)

If we may speculate a bit from the reference to Timothy, we may suspect Timothy did respond to Paul's request to come visit him during his last days in prison in Rome, and that perhaps Timothy himself was arrested at the time but now "set free" again. If so, the person who wrote this about Timothy was very likely one of Paul's evangelistic team there in Rome at the time. Maybe someone like Titus or Tychicus, someone who had absorbed Paul's teaching that the new covenant in Christ Jesus is better than the old covenant in Moses. The theme of "something better" runs through this book from beginning to end.

The recipient of the book

The book of Hebrews mentions neither the author nor the recipient of this book, even though its format seems clearly to be a letter addressed to a specific group of people. The title of the book suggests that it was addressed in general to Christians of Jewish ancestry. For example, it might have been sent to the large group of Christians in Alexandria, Egypt. It is also possible, judging by the contents of the letter, that this group of people were trying to combine the ancient Torah with the Christian gospel, the people Paul had so strenuously resisted and whom we sometimes call Judaizers. Though the book does not identify the author or the recipients, we may understand that the person who delivered the letter was able to bring it to the people intended and that those people would know who had sent it. Even though we know neither.

The content of the book

When the Apostle Paul was addressing Jewish people he would always go back to the beginning of the Jewish people, that is, to Abraham, and then summarize the history of the Jewish people as presented in the Old Testament writings. When he was addressing non-Jewish people he would go back to the beginning of creation in order to establish a point of contact. Here in the book of Hebrews the author goes back to the writings of the prophets, indicating that his audience is Christian people of Jewish descent. "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." (Hebrews 1:1-2) Here the author is setting the basic contrast between the old covenant and the new covenant, a theme that he will explain and analyze in depth in the rest of the treatise.

Oddly, the first point of contrast he makes is with the angels (chapters 1-2). He describes Jesus as "having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs." (1:4) Whatever this may have meant to the initial readers, the author then quotes several passages from the Old Testament to buttress his affirmation.

How does the author include Jesus into this discussion of angels? By emphasizing the unity of Jesus with the human race. He writes about God putting the world under human beings, not angels, and that we now "see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor." (2:9) And then he goes on to define the importance of Jesus for the rest of the human race. He writes that God is "bringing many children to glory" through Jesus who is "the pioneer of their salvation." (2:10)

Next, in chapter 3, the author compares Jesus to Moses, "Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house." (3:1) The author wants to have these Jewish people think about the Torah, the covenant God established at Mount Sinai, and which Jewish people have been following now for over a thousand years. The author writes a very controversial thing, "Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses" because Jesus has been faithful as a son over God's house whereas Moses has been faithful as a servant. (3:5-6) Moses and Joshua have led them to the "rest" they have in the land of Canaan, whereas Jesus leads us into a "sabbath rest" which we have "today," which the author then describes as entering God's rest, ceasing from our labors as God did from his. (4:10) The point being made is that we have a better rest from Jesus than the rest which the Israelites gained from Moses and Joshua.

Beginning in 4:14 the author next compares Jesus to the high priest. Jewish religious life involved being led by a whole cadre of priests who in turn were led by a high priest. The author of Hebrews now takes on that aspect of Jewish tradition, affirming that Jesus is a better high priest than any of the high priests of Jewish life. How could this be? Jewish people would counter, since Jesus comes from the royal line of David not from the priestly line of Aaron. The author's argument is that the priesthood that Jesus represents is a natural priesthood that goes back to the order of creation and nature rather than a special priesthood that goes back only to the order of Aaron and the old covenant. The author specifies Melchizedek as an example.

The only things we know about this Melchizedek are the stories in Genesis which show Abraham as a friend of this neighboring king, sharing his trophies of war with him and receiving his hospitality. Abraham regards Melchizedek not only as a holy king but as a priest of God, and now the author of Hebrews mentions that connection as an illustration of the kind of priesthood Jesus represents: the priesthood of nature as contrasted with the priesthood of the old covenant. Jesus has been "designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." (5:10) The point of contrast for Christians is that Jewish high priests must "offer sacrifices day after day, first for their own sins, and then for those of the people" but Jesus "did this once for all when he offered himself." (7:27) Christians do not need to have sacrifices made repeatedly on their behalf because Jesus' sacrifice of himself does the job of forgiveness once and for all.

The author of Hebrews then makes a smooth transition by summing up the previous comparisons on the broader level of covenant. Jesus provides a better covenant than that of Moses and the Torah. "In speaking of a new covenant, [God] has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear." (8:13) The author describes the religious rituals prescribed by the Torah and explains that Jesus does all of this in a better way by his own death, resurrection, and ascension into the very presence of God. Since Jesus has done this, it is no longer useful to do the things required by the Torah; those things are no more than "shadows" (10:1) of the reality that Jesus has come to reveal.

The author does not neglect to show how all of this theology should be translated into the daily life patterns of believers. There are numerous such applications, but here is one example, "And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (10:24-25)

Chapter 11 is often recalled as the classic chapter on Heroes of Faith. The author is trying to help Jewish believers to understand God's guidance of their history in a way consistent with a truly theistic and Christian philosophy. He goes back to creation itself and then specifies a large number of Old Testament persons who demonstrated in their lives that they lived by faith in a sovereign Creator and Savior. "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God." (11:3) And then the author mentions Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the liberated Israelites, and Rahab, detailing how their lives demonstrated their faith. And then, a bit weary of a seemingly endless line of such saints, he summarizes and concludes with this comparison, "Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised," for God has provided us with "something better." (11:39)

Chapters 12 and 13 are applications, spelling out the way this "something better" needs to be carried over into the daily life of believers. For example, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith." (12:1-2)

Perspective on this book

We have seen over and over again in the letters of Paul that the one persistent difficulty for those first believers was what to do about the Torah. Obedience to the Torah was the single issue that had always differentiated Jewish people from Gentiles and which made them considerably more ethical than the people raised in a polytheistic culture. It is easily understandable that these Jewish people, raised as they were in that definitive environment, would be very reluctant to abandon the Torah and its multitude of behavior rules even though they did accept Jesus as their messiah.

Paul spent a large bulk of his time and energy trying to explain why it was no longer important for Christians to continue their traditional Jewish observances. He was opposed everywhere by the Judaizers, the legalists who insisted that if God gave these laws to be obeyed then even Christian faith must not abrogate them.

And now we have this anonymous book of Hebrews dedicated, presumably after the death of the Apostle Paul, to the same issue. Hebrews explains in several different contexts that Jesus Christ has come to provide something better. The Torah has been good for Israel, but now God is providing something even better. Why better? Because what the Torah had not been able to do, namely create a truly godly people, Jesus is now able to do. The people who were the most dedicated Torah supporters were the very ones who called for crucifying Jesus. They rejected the Son of God in the name of the Law of God. So now what Jesus has brought is so much better that it is even possible for non-Jewish people to benefit from his ministry.

We understand, from this insight, the name of this book: Hebrews. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Gentile believers may derive benefit from it, indeed, but they would not have the same intensity of interest as those deeply shaped by centuries of Torah control, and who are now being told that it was all obsolete.

Memorable Moments in the book of Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1-2, _"Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son."_ Enabling us, when we listen and obey, also to become sons and daughters of God.

Hebrews 4:12, _"Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."_ God sees and know everything we think and do; and he tells us what to do about it.

Hebrews 8:13, _"In speaking of a new covenant, [God] has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear."_ Judaizers and legalists, take note! And do not make the new covenant a legal document.

Hebrews 11:1, _"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen."_ Beginning with the faith that God created the world, continuing with the faith that the Creator is in charge of how that world is developing, with the faith that Jesus Christ represents perfectly the intent of the Creator, and resulting in our living as best we can guided by the Spirit of God and Jesus: that's Christian faith.

Hebrews 13:1-2, _"Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."_ You might be entertaining angels unawares.

James

The author of this book

We might think immediately of James the brother of John, the two sons of Zebedee, when we read this book of James. But that James had been "killed by the sword" at the order of King Herod. (Acts 12:2) The year would have been about AD 44, according to the scholars who study such things. So most students of the scriptures believe that the James who wrote this book is James, the brother of Jesus, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:7, Galatians 2:9, and Acts 15:13. Apparently he had become the recognized leader of the church in Jerusalem with authority to speak on its behalf. How he became a Christian is not known, since while Jesus was on earth, his brother James did not believe he was the messiah. (Matthew 13:55, John 7:2-5) It is thought that this James was martyred about AD 62, about the same time Paul was awaiting trial in Rome.

The recipients of this book

The letter is addressed "To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion." (James 1:1) The term "dispersion" originally meant those Israelites who had been taken into captivity and who were living outside the land of Israel, for example the ten tribes after their captivity by Assyria, and then also the kingdom of Judah, particularly the Jews who did not come back to Jerusalem in 536 BC.

So by the time of Jesus there were thousands of little ghettos of Jewish people scattered all over the Roman Empire. It was to these Jewish synagogues that the original twelve disciples went, as well as the Apostle Paul. Those Jewish people who believed Jesus was indeed the messiah sent by God were expelled by the unconverted Jews in the synagogue, and they organized themselves into small Christian churches. In time many non-Jewish people, many of them previous Jewish proselytes, joined the church as Gentile believers. We may conclude then that this letter from Jesus' half-brother James, written from Jerusalem, was addressed to such fledgling congregations, such that the term "dispersion" does not refer only to Jewish people but to all Christian churches scattered throughout the Roman Empire.

The content of the letter

James begins by specifying the issue with which he will be dealing, the trials that Christian people must face in a hostile world. "My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy." (James 1:2) That isn't the way most people think about persecutions. James explains that confronting such opposition in a godly way will result in their becoming "mature and complete, lacking in nothing." (1:4)

It seems that there were people complaining about all the difficulties they were having from other people and were subtly wondering why God would do such a thing to them. Why is God putting us through this trial and leading us into various temptations when dealing with it? James says don't blame God for tempting you; he is, on the contrary, enabling you to grow strong in faith by resisting the temptations to compromise the faith. "But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it." (1:14)

So James is insisting that the faith that Christians profess must work its way into their response to adversity and temptation. It isn't enough to say you believe Jesus to be the messiah, you must then demonstrate your integrity by living accordingly. "But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves." (1:22)

And then, interestingly, James stresses a principle that the Apostle Paul also stressed in his letters. The new covenant under which Christians now live does not require close adherence to the Torah and its customs, for there is another law, a better one: the law of liberty. "But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act – they will be blessed in their doing." (1:25)

In chapter 2 (recall that there were no chapter divisions in the original manuscript) James turns to their relationships to one another within the church. He excoriates the practice of honoring rich people and despising poor people, showing favoritism on that basis within the congregation. "If you show partiality, you commit sin." (2:9) And again James reminds his readers of the new law under which they now live as Christians, "So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty." (2:12)

But James is vitally concerned that people do not think the law of liberty means they can do anything they please. On the contrary, it must result in obedience to the law that we love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves. "What good is it," he writes, "if you say you have faith but do not have works. ... Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." (2:14-17)

Next, James turns to the tendency of some people to talk as if they know everything. They want to be the teachers who can explain anything and everything. In chapter 3 James urges them not to be too eager to be teachers, for "we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." (3:1) On the contrary we need to be really careful in the things we talk about. Irresponsible talk can do much harm and injure the entire church. One of the things he has in mind is disparaging other members of the church too quickly. He calls the tongue "a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God." (3:8-9)

How must we deal with such matters when we discover them in ourselves? "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." (4:7-8)

James has an eye on rich people, and he urges them to recognize humbly that their wealth is dependent on the good blessing of God. They must conduct their business accordingly, in a truly holy and Christian way, "If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that." (4:15)

In chapter 5 James urges people to be patient. They may be undergoing various kinds of trials and persecutions, but James writes, "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord." (5:7) James is making an analogy with a farmer who has to wait patiently until his crop comes in. Wait patiently until the time comes when the Lord will bring you through. "Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near." (5:8)

Perspective on this letter

The book of Hebrews is mainly concerned with how Christian people should think of the Torah and its comprehensive requirements for religious behavior. James is concerned about the same issue but from a highly ethical point of view. Not so much the theology as in Paul and in Hebrews, but the daily living implications.

Christian believers of Jewish background might be thinking, Well, if I am no longer obligated to do all the things the Torah Law commands, I'm free to live any way I like. Some of them might even adopt lifestyles that are more pagan than Christian. Paul's emphasis on the freedom of the Spirit, for example, might be misinterpreted to allow certain kinds of licentiousness and immorality. The things James writes counters such mistakes. James is at pains to describe the kind of life that faith in Jesus produces, not legal obedience but evidence of a holy moral spirit, the law of liberty.

But an even more likely reason for James writing as he does is the prevalence of persecution. There was always the nagging criticism coming from their unconverted Jewish brothers and sisters, but there was also occasional difficulty from governmental authorities, as for example in the mission of Paul. This type of persecution was due to become much more troublesome in later centuries, but it was beginning already then in the first century. James would be wanting to encourage the new believers to respond to such persecution in a truly godly way. They must make sure that their faith does carry over into the way they handle whatever difficulties life may bring to them, both from outside the church and from inside.

Memorable Moments in the letter from James

James 1:22, " _But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers."_ That's the heart of James' letter.

James 2:12, _"So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty."_ Not the law of licentiousness, nor the law of the Torah, but the law that produces love of God and of our fellow humans.

James 4:7-8, _"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."_ Recognize sin when you see it, and exercise your will power as Christians to resist it, just as Jesus did when he was tempted.

James 4:15, _"If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that."_ That's the theistic, Christian, spiritual way to plan our daily activities.

First Peter

The author of the letter

Although Peter was introduced to Jesus by his brother Andrew, we hear little about Andrew and more about Peter during and after the ministry of Jesus. Peter appears to have been a rather dominant and forceful character, by occupation a fisherman, persuaded to follow Jesus in the expectation that Jesus had the potential to become the much-desired messiah who would lead the Jewish people in successful rebellion against Rome. When, however, it appeared that this would not happen the boastful Peter denied with swearing he had ever met the man Jesus.

Peter's remorse being genuine, Jesus restored him to a legitimate position among the disciples. Though in some sense Peter became one of the leading spokesmen for the gospel, James seems to have been the leader of the church in Jerusalem. Luke records a few episodes in Peter's life during the transition period in and around Jerusalem, and tradition says he ended his life martyred in Rome by Emperor Nero.

The reference to "Babylon" in 1 Peter 5:13 may well be a veiled reference to Rome, symbolizing the current enemy of the gospel as compared to the former enemy of the Jews, Babylon. If so, then Peter was likely in Rome when he wrote this letter, dictated to one of Paul's longtime associates, Silvanus (Silas), also mentioning Mark.

The recipients of the letter

"To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." (1:1) These are all provinces in the country we now know as Turkey, at that time provinces in the Roman Empire. We know from Luke's writings about churches in Galatia and in Asia, but not about churches in those other provinces. May we surmise that Peter had been doing evangelistic work similar to that of Paul in those areas? There is no definitive knowledge of that, but he may well have spent considerable time there, explaining why he was now writing a pastoral letter to them.

The content of the letter

It is very important to note how Peter explains the heart of the gospel at the very outset of this letter. "By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." (1:3) Just as we may read some of the sayings of the Apostle Paul in the light of his conversion experience at Damascus, we may also read this insight of Peter in the light of his denial of the Lord and his subsequent restoration. Peter experienced that transition as a "new birth" into an entirely different way of understanding the mission of Jesus. Previously he had thought of his leader Jesus as the man to lead the Jewish nation out of bondage to Rome. But afterward he could see that Jesus' work was to lead them out of sin and bondage to the Torah into the freedom and glory of life in the Spirit. That is what the resurrection of Jesus meant to Peter, a resurrection reflected in his own life as he emerged out of the error of political and military expectations into the truth of a new and "living hope."

Peter wants his readers to understand what he writes in that larger context of Jesus bringing them out of bondage to the Torah into the freedom of the Spirit of God. Jesus' resurrection parallels in their own daily experience of new life in the faith.

So Peter counsels them to "prepare your minds for action." What action? The action of setting "your faith and hope on God," and then carrying this over to their fellow believers "so that you may have genuine mutual love, and love one another deeply from the heart." (1:21-22) We today need to understand how important this was in that day. It was extremely difficult for Jewish Christians to accept Gentile Christians into their fellowship on a genuinely equal basis. So this task, this action, is primary within their own Christian fellowship.

"You have been born anew," writes Peter, "through the living and enduring word of God," (1:23) and this change of life, this resurrection, needs to be worked out in terms of loving God above all and their neighbors as themselves, the definitive summary of God's law. "Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house." (2:5) Then, interestingly, Peter employs categories from Old Testament Israel to describe their new status as "a spiritual house." "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people." (2:9) This is the way Moses talked to the Israelites at Mount Sinai when he gave them the Torah: you are now called to be a holy nation. This is how you are to be that: obey the Torah. But now Peter is saying that method, obeying the Torah, is no longer valid and has been replaced by faith in Jesus Christ. You now become a "holy nation" by living in the Spirit of Jesus. Believers have been resurrected out of that former covenant into a new covenant, administered no longer by priests and sacrifices and Torah but by Jesus and his Spirit.

Then Peter turns his attention away from the internal relationships among themselves to their outward circumstances in a still-hostile environment. "Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that ... they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God." (2:12) Also, and probably hard to take, "For the Lord's sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors." (2:13-14) [Recall the Jewish hatred of the Romans which produced outright revolt in the year 66 and resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem by the year 70.]

Then, comparable to Paul in Colossians and Ephesians, Peter provides advice for certain social relationships: slaves, wives, husbands (2:18 – 3:7)

In chapter 4 Peter expresses what apparently has become a common expression among the Christian leaders, "The end of all things is near (or, at hand)" (4:7) What does he mean? The Greek word for "end" is "telos," which can also mean goal or destination or purpose, that toward which you are aiming. We need to be careful not to read our modern expectations into that terminology. What did it mean for Jewish Christians in the first century? It is the same as the meaning of "the last days" for them. In Old Testament prophecy "the last days" meant the time when God would send his messiah to re-establish the throne of David. Those days have already come and Jesus is securely settled on the throne next to God in heaven. So when Peter writes about the "end of all things" he means the same thing. Those days are "near" in the sense of already here, at hand, present now since the messiah has come. Everything Peter writes in this first letter is intended to show how believers should live now that the end times have come.

Very likely many of the people to whom Peter is writing are suffering in one way or another because of their faith in Jesus, perhaps from their unconverted brethren or from the political authorities, or just plain discrimination from neighbors. Peter writes, "Let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good." (4:19)

In chapter 5 Peter provides guidelines for the elders in the churches, "Do not lord it over those in your charge, but be examples to the flock." (5:3)

Perspective on this letter

As a fisherman by trade it is very unlikely that Simon Peter was well educated; perhaps his literacy itself was minimal. But he could speak and he could dictate, so that would explain something of this letter and the next one as well. Silvanus could do the scribing. In the absence of any definitive historical journals about his later life it is very difficult to get the setting and intent of Peter's letters. Was he in Rome when writing, hiding out in the catacombs from the Roman soldiers? Was he in prison? Had he been working in the provinces he mentions, and if so, how long, with whom, and with what results?

As with all the books in the Bible, especially the letters, it would be a great mistake for us to neglect the historical setting, as if the words of scripture are sent directly from God to us in the twenty-first century. We need to understand as best we can the circumstances in which the authors write as well as the circumstances of the people to whom the letters are sent. Only when we have done our best in that regard should we attempt to extrapolate applications to our own circumstances. A case in point is Peter's terminology about "the end." He is surely not talking about the end of the world, but the end of the old covenant era. So we must be extra cautious about seeing eschatology in such usages. The circumstances of the times meant that Christians were encountering opposition and prejudice from various sources, circumstances that would only get worse until Emperor Constantine terminated persecution in AD 313.

It is worth noting also that Peter's understanding of the importance of Jesus' resurrection is much the same as that of Paul. For Peter it brings us to a "rebirth," which is understood in the sense of moving out from the old covenant into the new covenant, an emancipation, a deliverance, a resurrection, an exodus. For Paul Jesus' resurrection has taken him out of the legalism of dedication to Torah into the freedom of the Spirit of Christ, but the meaning of that language is the same as that of Peter, a movement out from under Torah into the liberty of following Jesus.

Memorable Moments in First Peter

1 Peter 1:3, _"By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."_ Think not only of individual persons but of the entire Jewish race; Judaism has been given a new birth through its messiah Jesus.

1 Peter 2:9, _"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people."_ Old Testament language when first applied to the Israelites at Sinai, now applied to Christians wherever they are.

1 Peter 3:15-16, _"Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence."_ Don't miss the "gentleness and reverence" part!

1 Peter 5:8, _"Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour."_ A fitting counterpoint to the other description of the devil pretending to be an angel of light seeking to deceive the very elect of God.

Second Peter

The author of this letter

There is a lot of doubt among certain scholars that Simon Peter, the apostle of Jesus, wrote this letter. They point out certain differences of writing style from First Peter, as well as some dubious cosmology, ideas that are not found elsewhere.

But most people are willing to accept the authority of this document as coming from the mind of the Apostle Peter. He might, for example, have employed a different scribe for his dictation, someone who could well have used different terminology of his own to state Peter's point more effectively. So it is generally accepted that the same Peter who wrote the first letter also wrote this second one.

The recipients of this letter

"To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:1) That is not very specific. It could include all Christians everywhere, and perhaps that is indeed what Peter intended. Or it could refer to the same group of churches to which First Peter was sent, those provinces in what is now Turkey. One suspects, however, that Peter would have in mind all the people with whom he had personally worked in past years, the people who knew him personally.

The occasion of this letter

Peter knows his "death will come soon," (1:14) and he wants to deal as decisively as he can, not only by way of word of mouth but now also by a permanent letter, with a certain danger that he has observed threatening the purity of the gospel and the unity of the church. What danger? Pretty much the same danger that occupied so much of Paul's attention in his letters, the vociferous pseudo-apostles who were corrupting the pure word of God by teachings that do not spring from Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension. He writes, "There will be false prophets among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions." (2:1)

It is difficult for us, living today, to get a clear sense of just what these false prophets were saying, and why they were getting so ready a hearing. Very likely there was a certain amount of Pharisaic legalism involved, but by this time in history (c. AD 65-68) there may well have been some inroads of current Gentile superstition as well. The next several centuries would see a great deal of this kind of mixing of pure gospel with spurious religious and philosophical ideas. Paul, for example, had occasion to warn the Christians in Colossae to beware of being deceived by philosophy. Peter, now in Rome, may well have encountered such people in that cosmopolitan city, and he wants to do something "so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things." (1:15) One might suspect that Peter was also at this time encouraging his assistant, John Mark, in the writing of his Gospel as a way to help subsequent generations to "recall these things."

The content of this letter

Peter begins by expressing the prevailing strong theistic premise upon which all of Jewish and Christian faith rests, "His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." (1:3) This is the absolute sine-qua-non of the Christian religion: it is the power of God working in us that makes us willing and able to live a godly life. Peter urges his readers, therefore, to "be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble." (1:10)

Also reminiscent of the Apostle Paul's missionary method, Peter calls attention to the "prophetic message" and ancient Jewish history. (1:19) He explains that the ancient prophets did not invent their message but that "men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (1:21) He writes that "God knows how to rescue the godly from trial," (2:9) and he cites the examples of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, and Balaam as precedents.

Christians must not be surprised that false prophets appear, and Peter spends half a chapter deriding them in the most graphic and extreme language; for example, "For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error." (2:18)

Peter's point is that the followers of Jesus must trust God and work hard to eliminate such false teachers from their midst, not succumbing to their false teachings, "You therefore, beloved, ... beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability." (3:17)

But before he makes that final point, Peter writes things of a cosmological and eschatological nature that have perplexed and frightened people ever since. "The heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire." (3:12) Christians, awaiting that event, are content to "wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home." (3:13)

Perspective on this letter

As far as the dispute concerning the authorship of this letter is concerned, it seems clear enough that the main thrust of the letter is fully in line with the gospel and with the content of Paul's letters as well. What is surprising, however, is the cosmological prediction in chapter 3. What could Peter mean by affirming that we have to wait for an entirely new creation before there can be "righteousness at home?"

Scientific predictions are that the earth will survive until the sun burns itself out, and that will not occur for some millions of years. Is that what Peter is predicting? How would he know such a scientific matter? So we need to ask what is there in the gospel to justify this teaching of Peter? The heart of the gospel is Jesus' death, resurrection, ascension, and session at God's right hand. What is there in that sequence that leads Peter to make his cosmological prediction that the elements will melt with fire?

What complicates the issue is that there is little or no other testimony in the Bible to support what Peter is writing here. Genesis One simply reports that when God was finished creating the earth as a place suitable for human life he declared it all "very good." If indeed the physical universe is very good, why would it be necessary to destroy it and create new heavens and a new earth?

We ought not take Peter's terminology to refer to the physical universe but to the kingdom of God. The dominance of Satan and his evil empire will be destroyed utterly by the gospel, and the gospel will produce a new regime, that of the Lord Jesus from heaven, and in that new regime, that new kingdom, that new "heaven and earth" righteousness will reign supreme in human life and civilization.

In other words, we should understand Peter's words to describe the effect of the gospel on the demonic kingdom of Satan, and as describing also the ultimate victory of the Lord Jesus in establishing a kingdom of righteousness within the very same creation that God made in the beginning. Righteousness reigns where sin is overcome. That should be the understanding of those enigmatic phrases of Second Peter.

Memorable Moments in Second Peter

2 Peter 1:21, _"No prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."_ That is why when we say that Moses or Jeremiah or Paul or Peter wrote this or that, we understand that they are conveying to us what God has showed to them.

2 Peter 3:8-9, _"But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise."_ The Lord has all the time in the world to get his work done, so we ought not become impatient for him to do it all in our lifetime.

2 Peter 3:13, _"We wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home."_ We wait for it, and work for it, but trust that it will come only in God's good time.

First John

The author of the letter

This letter does not identify either the author or the recipients. Ancient tradition, however, is that it is written by the same John who wrote the Gospel of John and who was one of the first disciples of Jesus. It is thought that John was "a first cousin of Jesus (his mother was Salome, a sister of Mary)." (NIV Study Bible, p. 1905)

It seems that John moved away from Jerusalem when it was destroyed in AD 70, and took Jesus' mother Mary with him to resettle in Ephesus. If so, then it is also well possible that this letter was written for the churches in that area, the same churches to which he later addressed the book known as Revelation. Scholars also suggest that the date would be about AD 85 or later, since it seems from the hints in the letter that John was an old man at the time.

The occasion of the letter

It is reasonable to discover the main purpose of any given letter in the opening sentences which often form a summary introduction to the theme of the letter as a whole. So what can we make of this opening to John's First Letter? "We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life." (1 John 1:1) What does this say about the purpose John has in writing the letter?

There may well have been persons in the churches who were teaching things that did not comport with the true gospel as John himself had witnessed it in the days he was with Jesus. These other teachers had not heard or seen or touched Jesus as John has. They consequently did not know first-hand what the gospel was for. But John does because he was there when God revealed it through Jesus. So we may conclude that John's purpose in writing was to clarify the meaning of the gospel for his readers, in contradistinction from the false teachings of others.

The content of the letter

Note the phrase in the opening verse, "word of life." The gospel concerns life, for it is the message of how God in Jesus Christ has opened up the way for human beings to find a way of life that is true and good, the kind of life envisioned already in the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden, where there is no sin. The cultures of the day, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Rome – none of them have provided the kind of life for people that reflects the holiness and goodness of God. Those cultures simply do not image God. Their way of life is wrong, and now Jesus has come to show the way to the kind of life that God desires for all people. So that will be the context for everything else John writes in this pastoral letter.

The first thing that we must do, John explains, is to acknowledge the reality of sin, that is, that conditions in our lives and in the world are not what they ought to be. Neither persons taken individually nor cultures taken collectively truly image their Creator. So John insists that we must be honest enough with ourselves and with God to confess that we are sinners, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1:8)

Then John presents a test for believers: does your life demonstrate your faith? "Whoever says, 'I have come to know him,' but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist." (2:4) So, what commandments does John have in mind? No new commandment but "an old commandment that you have heard from the beginning." (2:7) He means the command to love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, and he applies it specifically to the the second half, "Whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in darkness, and does not know the way to go." (2:11)

All of a sudden John starts writing about antichrist. "Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come." (2:18) And then he adds something that doesn't make a lot of sense when we first read it, "From this we know that it is the last hour." Really? We know that it is the "last hour" because "many antichrists have come"? We know that the end of the world is here because many antichrists have come? How so?

Well, John is not talking about the end of the world. When he mentions "the last hour" he does not mean the end of the world, he means the end of the Old Testament era, the time that is preparatory for the coming of Christ. That time is ended, and a new era has begun. We are now in the "last hour" that is the time of Christ. How do we know we are in new era of time? Because there are so many people opposing Christ Jesus. Jesus, in his resurrection and ascension, has become the focus of attention now, and the fact that so many people are against him simply highlights the fact that he has come to bring in the kingdom of God. Not everybody wants to make that change; they want to stay in the old covenant; they are comfortable there; they do not want to take a step forward with the Lord Jesus, so they stay in the shadows rather than entering into the light. That resistance happens precisely because Jesus has brought us into a new time, a new day, a new hour.

John makes a strong point of explaining that those who believe in Jesus become "children of God." (3:1) Of course he does not mean that we become gods. He means that when the Spirit of Jesus takes control in our lives we have experienced a kind of birth. The Holy Spirit caused Mary to conceive and give birth to Jesus. Similarly when the Holy Spirit brings us into faith we may understand this as a new birth, such that we too become children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus. When this happens in our lives we begin to take on the same character as Jesus, because we are being shaped by the same Spirit. "We will be like him." (3:2) What must we do about it then? "All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." (3:3) "Those who have been born of God do not sin." (3:9)

In the middle of chapter 3 John moves into the theme that could be regarded as the main point of the letter: love. What is the main evidence that we have been born of the Spirit? That we love one another. "For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." (3:11) Most of the rest of his letter John devotes to explaining various aspects of what it means to love one another. Here are some samples: "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action." (3:18) "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." (4:7) "God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." (4:16) "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." (4:18) "The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." (4:21)

John explains what it means to have faith such as what he has been describing. He says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God." (5:1) That, of course, was the crux of the matter as far as the Jewish people were concerned then. For them, Jesus did not lead a revolution against Rome, he did not set up the throne of David in Jerusalem, so he is not the messiah we are all waiting for. But John knows better. He knows that the kingdom Jesus set up is worlds better than a political kingdom based on military power. Jesus' kingdom gets at the inner heart of a person, transforming him from the inside, not forcing compliance from the outside.

And then John uses a different term, "Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." (5:5) Here John expands his description of faith to include Gentiles as well. They would not be at all interested in whether or not Jesus was a Jewish messiah, but they would be interested in figuring out how Jesus could be a "Son of God." They had always known that Zeus was the father-god who had numerous sons and daughters. How could Jesus be included in that family of gods? When they had that figured out, embraced monotheism, and learned how Jesus was born, how Jesus became the Son of God, then they would have the faith that would produce the kind of love John is talking about. Who "conquers the world?" asks John. Not Roman soldiers, not Jewish revolutionaries, but people who begin with understanding and believing in Jesus.

In the middle of chapter 5 John gives expression to one of the most profound insights in all of Christian literature. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life." (5:12) By "life" John means the kind of existence that God intends for human beings to have, characterized by the term "image of God." It is the kind of life that all humans dream of, where there is no sin or evil, where everyone is kind and just and reliable, perfection itself – what Hebrew language calls shalom. The way to enter that life is to do it the only way there is, the way that God gives us in his Son Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Perspective on First John

John may well have been an old man when he wrote this letter, but he surely has not lost his mental capacity. He has already written his Gospel, he will soon write two more letters, and then the awesome masterpiece, The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ. One could well justify the opinion that John and Paul are the two greatest theologians of the first generation of Christians, perhaps even of all time.

What makes John such an important spokesman of the gospel is the simplicity and directness with which he makes his profound insights. He is not abstract but down to earth. Perhaps a bit repetitious, but seldom obscure. This is what faith is. This is how faith is exercised and how it affects one's life. This is what God is accomplishing through his Son Jesus, bringing his creation step by step toward the goal he has always had in mind.

The first century required simply that the basics of the faith had to be explained carefully and clearly. This is what the New Testament documents do, particularly now the letters that explain the difference between the old and the new covenants, and how the facts of Jesus' ministry carry over into the lives of those who believe. John's first letter does this in a magnificent way.

Memorable Moments in First John

1 John 1:9, _"If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."_ Our natural tendency is to not want to take the blame for our misdeeds; but we don't get rid of them that way. On the contrary we need to admit them and get rid of them through forgiveness and renewed obedience.

1 John 3:9, _"Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God."_ This does not contradict the saying about confessing our sins. We do need to confess our sinfulness in order to be born of God, but once this has happened we can no longer live in the way we did before, that is, in the way of sin.

1 John 4:16, _"God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them."_ The opposite of a sinful way of life, John explains, is a loving way of life, and that is the test we need to be making of ourselves every day.

1 John 5:12, _"Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."_ Jesus once said, "I am ... the Life ..." To have Jesus is to have life, that is, to live the way God intends us to live, in faith and truth, justice and honesty. Without that it is not possible to be pleasing to God, imaging him in our daily occupations.

Second John

The occasion for this letter

The Apostle John has been given lodging by an unnamed woman and the children who still live with her. This was a common practice at that time among Jewish people – to give lodging to travelers who were passing through town.

But John is aware that there are other men who are traveling and bringing a variety of the gospel that goes beyond the basics that are involved in the life and ministry of Jesus. Perhaps such persons whom we know later as Gnostics, who affirm that they bring truth that is more than the basics of Jesus' death, resurrection, ascension, and session. So the purpose of this short letter is to urge this hospitable lady to retain the love of the brethren and not to extend that love to traveling teachers who do not bring the basic gospel.

The content of the letter

John begins by saying he has met some of the lady's children, finding them to be Christians, and urges the lady to retain strong love for all the brothers and sisters who hold the truth. "And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments." (6)

Then he brings up the observation that "many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." (7) They are teaching that Jesus cannot possibly be a true flesh-and-blood human being. Why not? Because, in the way of common thinking at the time, matter is evil. Hence if Jesus were composed of any material substance he would be evil. So if Jesus cannot be evil he cannot be flesh and blood. That was an incipient Gnosticism, very common in Greek thinking at the time.

So John is advising this lady not to show hospitality to such teachers when they come to town, that is, if they do not bring the basic teachings of the gospel. "Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching, for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person." (10-11) He will explain things in more detail when he gets the opportunity to visit her at some later time. "I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face." (12)

Perspective on the letter

John refers to himself as "The elder," but does not mention his name. So we have to assume that this lady to whom he is writing knows him well enough that that title is sufficient to identify him as the Apostle John. Most likely John is a resident at Ephesus at the time and is well known in that entire area.

There are scholars who surmise that "the elect lady" to whom John addresses this letter is not one particular person but is a term meaning an entire church or group of churches. This is possible but not really necessary. The letter makes good sense simply on the level of a real individual person who has been showing hospitality to itinerant preachers of the gospel.

But it is very interesting that the inroads of Greek philosophy are beginning to show up already late in the first century, as seen here in Second John. The problem will not go away but become more prominent and dangerous as the centuries move on. All kinds of weird constructions about who Jesus really is will appear in the second and third centuries. One of them, for example, will teach that Jesus is a divine being who only appears to take on human flesh; he is really a god who seems to be a human being for a short time and then goes back to become only a god later on. Numerous other such speculations will creep into Christology and corrupt the gospel to that extent.

Memorable Moments in Second John

2 John 6, _"And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments."_ Christian love is not merely an emotion but involves walking the walk, living daily in all aspects of one's life in the obedience of faith.

2 John 9, _"Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."_ There are certain basics of the gospel that cannot be violated, such matters as Jesus' death and resurrection, as well as his ascension and session at God's right hand.

Third John

The occasion for this letter

Apparently in one of the churches within John's sphere of influence, Asia Minor, there was a leader, Diotrephes, who does not respect John's wisdom and teaching authority. He seems to want to run the church his way and to compel the church to accept his teaching rather than John's. Diotrephes even goes so far as to refuse to welcome the team of evangelists that John has been sending around to the churches.

So John is writing to another elder in that church, Gaius, to urge him to not succumb to the pressures from Diotrephes, to persevere in the true faith, and to welcome Demetrius (who may have been one of the team members sent by John).

The content of the letter

John writes to Gaius that his evangelistic team has returned with the gratifying news that Gaius has been maintaining his "faithfulness to the truth." (3) This gives John "no greater joy." (4) John urges Gaius to continue to support the teams who bring the gospel. "You do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God." (6)

But then John writes about another man, presumably an elder also, named Diotrephes. This leader "likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority, ... and refuses to welcome the friends." (9-10) Diotrephes expels the visitors who come on John's behalf and with his authority. (10) John writes that when he comes he will deal with that man, "So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us." (10)

John urges Gaius, "Do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good," (11) and to welcome the traveling teachers whom John sends, mentioning Demetrius by name as a good person.

Perspective on the letter

One might imagine that John and other early leaders of the church wrote more letters than have survived. Why did these two survive, Second and Third John? And how did they survive? Are they all that important as to find a place in the New Testament canon?

From this letter of Third John, however, we can discern another real problem that the churches faced – one which in one form or another is still with us today. How much authority should be vested in any given leader in the church? What if this person has a very dominant and compelling presence, intimidating lesser folk? And what if his ideas are not really accurate? How should a church deal with such a person?

From John's advice here in Third John we can infer that no one person should have that kind of authority as to be able to dictate what people ought to think or do. On the contrary, if there is such a person those who know better should resist and maintain as best they can their own devotion and dedication to the truth.

Memorable Moments in Third John

3 John 4, _"I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth."_ John is referring to the people who come to faith in Jesus through his ministry, as well as the churches under his apostolic care.

3 John 11, _"Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good."_ We all need to be careful about whom we accept as a role model, as well as the group of friends we associate with.

Jude

The author of this letter

Jude is a form of the Greek name Judas and the Hebrew Judah. There were two disciples of Jesus by that name, but clearly it was not Judas Iscariot for he had committed suicide decades ago. There is another Jude mentioned in the Gospels, one of the brothers of Jesus (Matthew 13:55, Mark 6:3). Since the author describes himself as a "brother of James," it is thought that those two, James and Jude, are two of the brothers of Jesus, James having become the head of the church in Jerusalem.

The recipients of this letter

"To those who are called, who are beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ." (Jude 1) We can't deduce much from this sentence about where these people are, where Jude is when writing, or if there is any specific church to which he is writing. Where is Jude and where did he sent this letter? We do not know.

The occasion for this letter

Since we do not know the specific circumstances of this letter, we can only make some observations based on what Jude writes. He is writing to warn his readers about certain people who are perverting the gospel. Where this was happening, or who these persons are, Jude does not say. We do know Paul had earlier warned against something like that when he cautioned the church in Colossae to avoid being deceived by Greek philosophy. Similar things are written also by Peter in his second letter. And even Third John is dedicated to the issue. But if Peter was in Rome and John in Ephesus, where was Jude, and where were the people in danger? Jerusalem had been destroyed, so perhaps Jude was in the area to which Peter had sent his second letter, perhaps he read it and then sent similar warnings to the local churches where this was happening. We just do not know.

The content of the letter

Jude writes his warning at the very outset. "I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who were long ago designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." (3-4) It appears that these "intruders" not only had philosophical differences from the true gospel but that this resulted in a perversion of the freedom that believers have in the Spirit of Jesus. Jude calls it licentiousness, which means that these people felt they could do anything they pleased with their bodies.

From this observation it seems clear that Jude has in mind the prevalent Greek philosophy that regarded matter as evil. If your body is evil to begin with then it doesn't much matter what you do with it. All that really counts is what is in your soul, and if you believe in Jesus then that's all you need. Do anything you please with your body. This Gnosticism separates what goes on in your soul from what goes on in your body, and this is clearly a gross violation of the way the Holy Spirit works.

There isn't really much more to the content of Jude. He goes on to excoriate these people in very dramatic and picturesque language, and also provides some data from the Old Testament to buttress his observations.

Jude concludes his short letter by reminding his readers that "in the last times there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts," (18) so don't be unduly alarmed that this is happening. Instead make sure you aren't deceived by them. "But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God." (20-21)

Perspective on this letter

In the New Testament we read little or nothing about one of the regions of the Roman Empire into which the gospel penetrated early on and which became one of the most influential centers of Christianity for hundreds of years: Alexandria, Egypt. The church in this city became one of five of the leading bishoprics in all of Christendom, along with Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome. Could it be that even in that out-of-the-way area Greek philosophy was corrupting the gospel? We do not know, but developments in Egypt and along the southern shore of the Mediterranean were becoming very important even already during the first century. A very large percentage of major theologians in the ancient period of church history were Africans. Maybe, just maybe, Peter and John and Jude had this area in mind also.

Memorable Moments in Jude

Jude 20, _"But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads us to eternal life."_ A good trinitarian exhortation involving God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. If we do these things honestly and diligently our faith will be genuine.

Revelation

The author and occasion for this book

The Apostle John has somehow run afoul of the Roman government and is exiled to Patmos, a small island off the coast of Asia Minor near Ephesus and Miletus. He is now a very old man and the year is probably about AD 95. He has already written the Gospel that bears his name as well as the three short letters we have in the Bible. What does he do with his time? He wants to still be of pastoral use to the churches on the mainland, but how when he is exiled?

God gives him a long series of visions about Jesus and what Jesus is doing on earth from heaven, and John does his best to record them. When he is finished he sends it to the seven churches in Asia with the expectation that it will help them understand the existential troubles both he and they are in, what God is doing by means of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The recipients of this book

Seven churches of Asia, where John has been living for decades as the de facto pastor, supervisor, overseer, bishop: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea (where are Miletus, Colossae, and Troas?). Recall also that the Apostle Paul had spent most of his third missionary journey in this area, getting these churches started. Ephesus became a very prominent Christian center as the years passed, now perhaps forty or so years from Paul to the time of John's exile.

The outline of the book

There are four major divisions of this book, each of them having seven segments: Seven Letters (Revelation 2-3), Seven Seals (chapters 4-7), Seven Trumpets (chapters 8-14), and Seven Bowls (chapters 15-22). There is also another potential segment, Seven Thunders (10:3-4), but since this is undeveloped, it can be ignored.

The content of this book

Segment 1: SEVEN CHURCHES. John sends a letter, in the name of Jesus, to each of the seven churches in that area of Asia Minor. These letters analyze both what is good and what is not good in the churches, urging them to continue in the faith and to eliminate what is wrong. Example: to Ephesus, "I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; ... But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first." (2:2-4)

Segment 2: SEVEN SEALS. John is invited to see into the court of God in heaven as the Lamb Jesus opens the seals of the large scroll that represents the plan of God for time and history. "Come up here; and I will show you what must take place after this." (4:1) The thrust of the visions is always on what happens as God does his work in the world through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The purpose of this segment is to have the churches begin their life of obedience by gaining some insight into what Jesus is doing, from heaven but on earth.

Segment 3: SEVEN TRUMPETS. The trumpets are God's way of calling his people to work. Christians cannot simply sit on the sidelines and watch; they must become involved. All the weird things that happen here in John's visions are designed to get us involved in the work to which God summons us. "Then they said to me, 'You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.'" (10:11)

Segment 4: SEVEN BOWLS. These all represent how God is progressively eliminating the powers of sin and evil from the ongoing process of human history by the activity of his churches under the authority of Jesus and the power of his Spirit. All of what happens in this segment is to show the goal toward which we as Christians work: the new Jerusalem where there is no sin or wickedness and where every knee bows to the Lord Jesus for the glory of God. "And the one who was seated on the throne said, 'See, I am making all things new.'" (21:5)

Perspective on this book

The most difficult problem in understanding this enigmatic book is figuring out how these four divisions are connected. Various scholars have various ways of doing this. One of them, common among fundamentalists, is to take the seven parts of segments 2, 3, and 4, twenty-one scenes in all, and understanding them literally in a chronological sequence.

This present Bible Survey book takes a different approach. It looks at all four segments and asks what connection there is between those four, and then perceives that there is a progressive connection from one set to the next.

John begins the book of Revelation with seven real churches; then John enables these seven churches to see into the plan of God by describing what happens when the Seven Seals are opened one by one; then, after they see and understand something of how God's plan is working, John summons them to action by describing the results of the Seven Trumpets; and lastly the people of the churches, having seen something of God's plan and having done what they are summoned to do, receive glimpses of the future when the Seven Bowls of wrath are emptied upon the earth, destroying the powers of evil.

The point of importance here is not so much what the far future will be like, an eschatological book, but a down-to-earth depiction of how the gospel works in our present world. It is John's way of showing Christians how the process of time and history works as God is slowly working out his divine plan by means of the gospel and the inner work of the Holy Spirit. It is basically a Christian philosophy of history. Christian people, churches, must learn to see something of God's overall plan for time, they must then participate in it under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit, and they must accept whatever results and consequences may come as God gradually pours out his wrath on sin and evil. That's the heart of this Revelation of Jesus Christ that God gives to John.

Memorable Moments in Revelation

Revelation 1:17-18, _"Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades."_ The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only key to lead the human race out of spiritual death and sin and into the life that God has in store for them, all of that symbolized and guaranteed by Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

Revelation 3:22, _"Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches."_ It is not enough to listen only to the Bible, as if God has stopped speaking. We must constantly open our ears to hear what God is saying to us, and then guide our faith and life accordingly.

Revelation 4:11, _"You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."_ This is basic to all successful living, to recognize that we live in a world that God has created and that he is controlling for his own divine purposes.

Revelation 10:11, _"You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."_ Even though the activity might produce bitterness in our lives we are under obligation to continue to bear witness to the gospel.

Revelation 12:9, _"The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him."_ It is through the work of Jesus and his Spirit within the churches and by means of the gospel that the world becomes undeceived.

Revelation 14:13, _"Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from the labors, for their deeds follow them."_ The cumulative effect of thousands and millions of Christian people will follow them long after they are dead, and in this way the powers of sin and evil will be eliminated.

Revelation 19:13-14, _"He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses."_ This is a picture of the church in all times and ages; we follow Jesus when we live by faith, and with him carry on the great battle against sin and evil.

Revelation 22:7, _"See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."_ Jesus is doing his work from heaven but on earth, and this is how he is coming, as the power of the gospel works its way into the fabric of human life. This book is thus a call for us to be faithful and obedient.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edwin Walhout is a Minister Emeritus of the Christian Reformed Church, currently living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has extensive experience in teaching, pastoral ministry, editing, and writing. You may find more than two dozen of his e-books available at Smashwords.com.

