Sorry I missed last week. Short week and I was out of town but here is the latest offering.

Let’s move out of the Old Testament into the new. Let’s look at the four Gospels as a whole. The four are Matthew, Mark< Luke and John. What are Gospels as opposed to the Epistles? The Gospels are accounts of the Ministry of Jesus. Even with that, they are almost as wide in their scope as any four books could be if you consider they are retelling the ministry and the death and resurrection of God Himself.

There are other books that claim to be Gospels like the Gospel of Thomas and others. However, the church felt that these were the be canonized. The cannon means that there are certain measurements that have to be met to be included in and a part of the Scriptures. The four Gospels met the data to qualify.

Later, as we go back through the books more in depth, we will get into the authorship, date and particular passages. For now, we will only take them up as a collection. 

Of the four Gospels, Mark is perhaps the oldest and most original. Without getting into the details, Matthew and Like borrow from Mark but Mark doesn’t seem to us others. So if Matthew and Luke uses Mark but Mark doesn’t use them, then they know and probably read Mark.

John’s Gospel stands alone.

Matthew and Luke include the Birth narrative but the Mark and John do not. Even with that, Luke was probably wrote his narrative later depending not on first hand knowledge or eye witnessing. He seems to have collected stories of Jesus and wrote his Gospel.

Mark is the shortest of the books. It is because for him the most important thing was the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

John on the other hand wrote independently and uses the language of the Greeks or Romans. His is a book with soaring language and includes some influence of other worldly theology. His of the best written source that enables us to soar.

The Gospels were written after the writers realized that Christ would come again but His return was still some time away. They wanted to create a story that could be read by people all over the world and learn and become indeed Christians. For the first 20 to 50 or so years the church depended on oral traditions. It became evident that in order for the stories to be told consistently and over a wide spread area, they needed to be written. 

I suggest that a good Gospel to read to get a foundation, Mark is your guy. His is focus on the ministry of Christ and gets you quickly to the days before the Cross but then he slows down the story to a crawl. Notice how often he uses the work “immediately” until the last few chapters. If helps us to realize that even the miracles, parables, etc were not as important as the events of the last week.

That is true but let’s remember that it is in the richness of the other parts in the other Gospels that makes the soul soar and the stories we love so. After all, who want to miss out on the Birth Narratives?

Peace and Peace. Reed.

This week we will begin to take up the prophets. I am not going to get into the division of the books yet because I want to give you an underpinning for the nature of and the work of the prophets.

To begin with, they were servants of God. To them, idolatry was the ultimate sin against God and the reason for the demise of the Hebrew civilization. They were messengers raised up by God to deliver sometimes harsh and not always terribly uplifting messages. Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha were prophets in the Old Testament but were mentioned in books not titled in their name. The books of the Prophets normally begins with Isaiah and concludes with Malachi.

 They are divided into two main groups: The major prophets and the minor prophets. The major prophets were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The rest with the exception of the book of Jonah were called Minor Prophets. I tend to exclude Jonah because it is the journey of faith of not only the people but of Jonah’s struggle and epiphany as well.

Now don’t get too excited about the designation of Major and Minor Prophets. It has nothing to do with their importance or work. It has to do with the amount of material only. The Major prophets simply talked and wrote more.

 A prophet had two very distinct roles. The first was to take the word of God and bring it to the people. Their pronouncements often began with something to the effect of “Thus siatheth the Lord…” and what followed was usually direct and to the point. They didn’t pull many punches with the exception of Ezekiel who really did some strange things to catch the attention of the folks. Later on that when we come around the second time through and get into his book with more depth.

Let me give you an modern example of what it was like to be around a prophet. Let’s say you invited one to dinner. At the table you spill the salt. The prophet would then exclaim, “Thus saith the Lord, you are a vile people and I intend to scatter you one the earth like the salt on the table because you have lost your usefulness you useless generation.” “Oh and by the way, pass the gravy.”

Not a real good way to make friends and influence people. In fact several of the prophets tried to talk God out of calling them to the job without much luck. In this case, you can see this easily in Jeremiah 1:6 “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” To which God replies, “do not say, I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and what ever I command your, you shall speak.” Notice there are not too many options here.

So they lived in total servant-hood and a somewhat lonely life as friends a family began to not invite them over to dinner as often unless they hid the salt shaker.

The second job of the prophet was to take the needs of the people to God. Occasionally they would say “God, I think You’re being just a little too harsh here. How about giving them a break?” Imagine telling God He might be a bit too arbitrary and God saying back, “O.K. you have a point there.”

Oh and  by the way, one job of the prophets was not to predict the future like a tarot card reader. Their work was in for the people in their day and time. They did not predict things for this day and age with this one exception: they spoke universal truths that were true for every nation and every age and generation. Some have stretched a bit too far on looking for them to stir the tea leaves and give us predictions for today. For that, we need to look for prophets the God raises up for this age and generation. They do exist.

I want to encourage you to read up a bit on the prophets. Take one you like and read some of his works. I like Ezekiel myself but then again he was a bit weird himself. Next week, we will go a bit more into the work of a couple of the prophets.

The next four books for you to begin to study are Job, the Psalms. Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes Of these, Psalms are a combination of wisdom and other elements that we will break out later but for now, let’s just go ahead and throw them in with the rest. This is a lot of reading and I don’t expect you to get through it all but at least start to become familiar with the writings.

Job is actually a play that could easily be acted out. It is the story of a man attacked by Satan with God’s blessing and loses every thing. His three friends keep insisting Job has done something to deserve his plight. Actually, he hasn’t. Finally towards the end, Job gets to see God face to face and asks God why all this happened.

God has two long monologues but the basic conclusion is that He does it, well, because He is God and simply can. While this is an uncomfortable thought for the reader, it is the message of the story and how by realizing this reality allows us to accept God  authority and eventual restoration by God.

The Psalms are actually poems that were sung in worship. The authors are many but the vast majority are attributed to David. However, scholarship has established that many of these were written by others and perhaps given to David as a gift. There are several “bunches” that you can easily recognize. Among these are Psalms of thanksgiving, laments, etc. Of these the one that is most easily recognized is the 23rd. Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd…” This one is most often associated with death and used at funerals but is you read it carefully, it is not a lament of death but a song of life. The book itself is divided into 5 books. While these books are joined together into the entire book of Psalms, there is not a clear reason as to why they are divided as they are. It may simply have to do with the Scrolls. The books of Psalms are: Book I: 1-41. Book II 42-72. Book III 73-89. Book IV 90-106 and Book V 107 -150.

Read at least two of them but make sure they are different just so you can get a flavor for the rest.

 Proverbs are an entirely different style of literature. These are daily sayings that are full of sound advice and authority. The teach us the value of life and the value of having a right relationship with God.  There are 31 of them. You can read one of the Proverbs everyday to begin your morning. Even after you read them through, you can start again because you will find something in each that you didn’t notice before. The great thing is that you can read the first one on the first day of the month and the second on the second, etc. Even if you forget, you can just look at the date and know which one to read that day.

 Finally for the week there is Ecclesiastes. It is solemn even somber text. It deals with the vanilty of our lives and the utter hopelessness of our existence apart from God. However through out the book there is this overriding understanding that while all is vain, with God everything becomes worthwhile.

Early on in the third chapter is one of most explanations of life and a wonderful poem. I encourage you to read it. You have heard it before. It begins with these marvelous words: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die.” It points out the contrast within our living. It helps us to remember that when we have bad days there are good days to counter balance them. It also reminds us to not get too cocky about the good ones as there will follow the balancing bad ones at some point.

Enjoy familiarizing yourself with these wonderful books. Just remember there is a lot of reading if you choose to try an pour through it all. If you only read a part, do look at what I have suggested as a way to get started.

Bless.

Reed

This week we will deal with Ezra and Nehemiah. After Cyrus let the Jews return home the face the problem of identity. After all, how could God allow this to happen to His chosen people? How could a powerless people be the true nation of God? If their faith led to heaven, what about other faiths, particularly those who’s God made them more powerful on earth?

In the book of Ezra, you find that the people are led to a new understanding of themselves and their role in God’s plans. They were to return to what they were chosen to be, not a nation in the traditional sense but a nation of priests and followers of God in the world. Their nation was not to be based upon the law but rather the law of God. It was a call to return to their roots.

nehemiah takes up the cause in his book. He began as the cup-bearer of the Persia. After being appointed as Governor of Judah, Nehemiah over saw the rebuilding of Jerusalem. However, because of the apathy of the people and their understanding that the nation needn’s concern itself with a traditional capital, the people were reluctant to do so. However, Nehemiah convinces them to do so.

His purpose was the same as Ezra, to create a holy nation. As a result, you will often read some scholars and talking about Ezra-Nehemiah almost as if they were one and the same. The difference is that Nehemiah goes on to make the case that spiritual rebuilding and rebuilding the kingdom of God in Jerusalem were one and the same.

The  people needed to have an identity even if it was a new identity. By building a new wall it was actually seen as a commitment to wall of the nation so that the people would be re-committed to taking up the old law or more commonly the 10 commandments.

 Two things to consider when reading both these books as well as the books that lead up to them is that the nation of Israel was to be a special nation relying on God and following the law. When they became a nation like all others, they soon lost sight of the fact that they were not supposed to be like other nations but to be a Holy people. When they lost their nation they had a double crises.

You see, losing your nation is a monumental loss. Losing the feeling that your God was not the supreme God created a crises that was even more devastating.

Ezra and Nehemiah sought to first restore the feeling that they were God’s chosen and the their suffering was in fact because they were disobedient. The second task was to re-establish the nation not as other nations but a holy and therefore unique nation.

 Hope you gain insight of how whenever a nation or people lose sight of who they are, they will lose much more. After all there are worse things than losing one’s nation. Try losing one’s God. It’s enough to give anyone a true identity crises.

Wednesday nights are busy nights at FUMC and September 9 was no exception.  Choir practice and youth activities occurred after TNT.  September 9 was the first night of the new school year for Terrific Nights Together, our weekly fellowship meal, and a nice crowd enjoyed the spaghetti, salad, bread, and desserts (especially the ice cream).  The Women’s Bible Group also began a new study.  Following the meal, the Faith Builders’ team met to plan the next project for October 17.  Faith Builders will be working on their 2nd project of basic repairs on homes for people who may need some help.  Following are some pictures from the evening:

Sorry about the late posting. I was out of town on Mon. and the server was down yesterday. So here is this weeks offering.

We’re dealing with the quick glance through the Bible. This week let’s deal with the books called Chronicles both One and Two. There is a lot here so we will only look at these this week.

The books deal with the lives of two main men, Kings David and Solomon. In them you will find a lot of lists especially names. Most of them aren’t really all that important to us in the grand scheme of things. However, in their day and time, names were used for two purposes. One was to set up lineage. That’s why two Gospels of the New Testament take time to establish the lineage of Jesus. The second was to just keep track of people. After all, these were still dangerous times and if the nation fell, names of the ancestors was something you could hold on to.

The remainder of book one deals with David as king. He is firmly enthroned. It will go into great detail about the construction and the plans for the temple. It really reveals a great deal about the character of David.

 The second book deals with the reign of Solomon. While they describe the grandeur of Solomon’s kingdom, it the the temple that is the center of it all. After Solomon’s death his son, Rehoboam squanders away most of the kingdom to Jeroboam I. The rest of the book details the fall of the south as it leads towards the Babylonian exile. It ends with the restoration of the nation and leads towards the work of Ezra.

The traces he history of a people through their highest levels of a nation into the decline and fall of a civilization. It is the story of faith and redemption. In includes great achievements and great disappointments.  What you find here is the good within all people, the bad in all people and what God does with them.

Interesting reading.

This week we will bring up four more books, 1st. and 2nd. Samuel and 1st. and 2nd. Kings. Now, remember if you can, read all the material but if you can’t, we will be going back through dealing with each book more in depth.

 We are not sure who wrote the books of Samuel. The books deal with the birth of Samuel and his ascension to becoming a prophet. Let me describe the work and role of a prophet. A prophet was not a predictor of the future. They were not like those physic readers you see along the road. Most of the time they dealt with the conditions of things at the time. The prophet had two roles. The first was to take the word of God and explain or share it with the people. The second was to take the word of the people and share it with God.

The result was that they usually weren’t real popular. I mean imagine going to the people and saying “God is displeased and you are all going to lose everything unless you change your evil ways.” Naturally, this meant that some of the folks were ticked. However, when the people complained, the prophet went to God and said in essence, “God, the folks are pleased and I think they may have a point.” Can you imagine telling God He may have been just a unfair?

So, as we read up on the prophets, remember their very special roles.

Samuel was one of the prophets. We have several and they are usually broken down into two groups: The minor prophets and the major prophets. An example of a minor prophet would be Zephaniah and a major prophet would be Isaiah. Now, a word of caution: they are not minor or major due to what they had to say but how much material we have to go on. In other words, just how wordy were they.

Back to Samuel with another note: anytime you hear a word in the Bible that ends with el, this was a notation of God. One name given to God was Elohim. So Samuel basically means, “Sam of God.” Whether or not we place Samuel in the major prophets or minor prophets range simples depends on whether or not you want to take both books as one or two separate books. But his importance is stunning.

Up until now, the nation of Israel was to be unlike any other. They were to have no rulers except God. They devised a system of elected leaders called judges. After Samuel’s birth and as he entered his calling by God, the people basically went and said, “We want to be like every other nation. We want a king.”

Samuel goes to God and God grants the wish. So, we find that during the books, the first king of Israel is found and established. King Saul is chosen and becomes king. However, mush to everyone’s surprise, he turns out to be just a little less than perfect. So later on, Samuel anoints David. Saul, of course doesn’t take this all to well but since it was God’s decision, eventually, Saul loses and David becomes king. In other words, you may think you are in control but ultimately it is God.

Fast forward several centuries and you run across 1st. and 2nd. Kings. There is a lost of thought that the books were compiled by Jeremiah taken from a lot of sources. What the books out line is the rise and fall of several kings and their human failings along the way.

While, it is true that during the lives of the kings, several of them really did quite well. Solomon, David’s son, brought power, wealth and prestige to the nation. A great temple was constructed and no cost was spared. Jerusalem became the shining city on the hill.  However, there is trouble on the horizon.

Towards the end of the first book. Solomon has a tragic end and the subsequent kings were not a capable nor wise. City after city in the south was lost until the southern half of the kingdom was conquered. After a series of weak rulers, there was finally a peace with Ahab bringing back both a stronger ruler but more importantly a return to a religious nation that they were supposed to be.

A new era came upon Israel, they were unlike any nation but then they became like every nation. The result was the seeds were planted that would make them eventually not even a nation until God decided it was time. The foundations of the struggles in the middle east were now rooted

I sure missed last week and I hope you had time to do all the reading. I think that as you get into the reading of the Bible, you will find that while you may not get it all right away, the Scriptures will open up as you proceed. Trust me, every time I read a chapter, no matter how many times I have read it in the past, I find something new. So just read and enjoy. There may be too much material between sessions, read as you can. Don’t forget, we will come back through at least once or twice.

The second part in our Bible study will take up Joshua, Judges and Ruth.

The book of Joshua deals with the central character of Joshua. While there is disagreement as to whom wrote the book, many scholars place the book at the time that the Israelites are crossing the Jordan River and taking the land that had been promised to them. SO they place the book at or around the thirteenth Century B.C.

The book itself is divided into two parts. The first part is chapter 1-12 and the second is 13-24. The first part deals with conquering the land in a military campaign first in the center of the country and then the north and south. It centers on the preparation for war, the Jordan crossing the fall of Jericho. Then one by one the Canaanite cites fall. It was a brilliant campaign. First divide the enemy in two and then conquer one after the other since they couldn’t send reinforcements to the other.

The second major section deals with dividing up the territories among the 12 tribes of Israel.

The main purpose of the book is to prove the power of God to a faithful people. It is the fulfillment of God’s promise to the Israelites to be a great people and to reside in the land of milk and honey.

Judges deals with the nation of Israel after the conquest so it came together in or about the 13^th century. There seems to have been about 410 Judges during about two centuries however the book concentrates on 6 but deals with 12 due to the 12 tribes.

The problem was that while they had conquered the Canaanites, they took up many of their practices and were becoming pagans as a result. It was an issue of getting along to get along. Many of the practices sounds far too much like today’s world, “Everyone else is doing it!’

The judges were elected and served as both military leaders, administrative leaders and often served some religious capacities. Interestingly, the judges were not always men. Yes, ladies, the Israelites elected women to lead them. We will talk about that when we come back later for a more in depth study. The purpose was to have the Judges bring the people back to God and the ways of the Lord.

Ruth will be a different book than any you have read so far. It is a short love story between Ruth, her mother in law, Naomi and Boaz. It only takes up about four pages so it is a short read. Go ahead and read the whole thing.

I will mention only two interesting facts about the book. Later we will discuss it in detail. Here are the two facts: First, it never mentions God. Second, Ruth becomes a grandmother of King David who by linage is a great great great etc. grandfather of…Jesus. In other words, Ruth is a part of the family of Jesus.

Hope that sparks your interest.

Reed is on vacation this week so there won’t be a new bible study posted.  That’s okay though, it just gives us all extra time to catch up with the bible study from last week! 

The first five books of the Bible-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy-are called the or in the Jewish traditions, they are also what makes up the Torah. They contain the laws (for instance the 10 Commandments) and the early creation stories and history of the Hebrew people.

The word Pentateuch is taken from the Greek Penta (five) teuchos (volume.)

The author of the books is generally credited to Moses but because of stylistic changes in the books and different themes and even references to God, there is feeling that other hands at least contributed. Most of the writing seems to have surfaced around 900 b.c. and some references to God may have come as late as 400 b.c.

It was common that in those days, scribes, and writers often took oral traditions, scattered writings, and other sources and wrote these up and attributed them to someone else. So some of these were written by Moses and some were added. This does not diminish that Moses may well have been the original source to most of the material.

When you read the books you will find that there are often shifts in God’s personality. Without getting into issues, notice that the God of Chapter One of Genesis is a powerful God who’s very word creates and yet God walks with Adam in the cool of the day.

Since many of the stories took place before Moses was born and much added later, what most scholarship seems to have concluded is that Moses compiled the stories and added his narrative while on the Exodus in Sinai.

The books detail the creation by God of the universe concluding with man, the fall from grace, the eventual captivity and release from Egypt. Then there are the struggles in the dessert, the beginnings of the Law with the Commandments and the rise of organized worship and priesthood. There are the stories of finally arriving in Israel and the crossing of the river Jordan.

It is the story of struggle between the fall of man, slavery, struggle with the nature and even the name of God. The Pentateuch is full of human drama and eventual relationship of mankind, a people who are to set aside and raised up.

One way to look at the Pentateuch is God’s greatest creation, man, lost his home, lost hie way and eventually found his way home again but only with the help of God.

I encourage you to read the Pentateuch during the week before us.