Bible Survey – Introduction

Transcript

GRM 919
10/17/2004
Bible Survey - Introduction
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I mentioned this morning that I want to do an overview with you in our study together this evening. What I want to do is basically some Bible introduction material, some basic facts related to the Bible, and then I want to walk through the history books of the Bible with you. If you’ve been at Indian Hills very long, you’ll note that my prime focus is to go through the scripture in a rather detailed way. But it is important that we get an overall grasp of the scripture and keep the broad picture before us and don’t get lost in the details. I think the Old Testament is particularly difficult for most believers. We’re not in the Old Testament as much, we try to balance that. I haven’t taught in the Old Testament as much, but in our Bible Fellowship Hour on Sunday mornings we have more teaching going on in the Old Testament. What we’re going to do is give you some background material on the Bible generally, then walk through the books that move the history along. Just get an idea of the flow of the Old Testament.

Start with just some facts about the Bible that aren’t particularly matters that we’ll go to verses for, but some material I think is just of interest. There are 1189 chapter in the Bible. Point of interest, but if you also want to make your way through the Bible in a year you can divide that out. If you read four chapters a day six days a week, basically you’d move through the Bible in a year. I say I’ll read two chapters in the morning and two chapters in the evening. If you do that six days a week, you’ll have read through the Bible in a year. There are 929 chapters in the Old Testament and 260 chapters in the New Testament. Chapters and verses. We have Bibles with chapters and verses. The Bible was divided into chapters in 1250 A.D. Imagine what a help that was, to have the Bible broken down into chapters. That happened in 1250 A.D., so quite a way after we had our Bibles given. Verse divisions were made in the New Testament in 1550 A.D. We’re moving along. We had chapters then about 300 years later they broke the New Testament down into verses. The first entire English Bible to have verse divisions was the Geneva Bible in 1560 A.D. Just so you get some idea of how down through church history. Chapter divisions, verse divisions, obviously were not part of the Bible originally. For example, we have recently been studying I Timothy. That was written as a letter to Timothy, no chapter divisions, no verses. Just like we write letters, basically. But to help get a handle on the Bible it was broken down into chapters. Then to further help, broke down into verses. That sometimes can be a problem for us because we think sometimes of the Bible in verses. If we’re not careful that can become a problem for us in our thinking regarding context because just as we do in English, we write something and we have sentences and paragraphs which are a body of thought. Some of the more modern versions have broken the Bible down into paragraphs to help us think more in units of thought rather than just in individual verses. But the individual verses do help us find a particular portion of the Word of God as we work through it.

You are aware there are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament. The 66 books of the Bible were written by 40 authors over a period of about 1600 years. That naturally points to the supernatural character of the Bible. You take that many authors over that period of time and yet you have a cohesive, non-contradictory message, because each of these men was directed by the Spirit and that’s what I want to talk about next.

Three areas of importance regarding our Bible—revelation, inspiration and illumination. Revelation has to do with the fact that God has chosen to make Himself known. That’s foundational to everything. If there were a God who chose to remain hidden, we could never know anything about Him. Certainly, we wouldn’t know anything with certainty. Revelation refers to the fact God has chosen to make Himself known. Two areas of revelation—general revelation. General revelation is the revelation of creation. Turn to Psalm 19 and then leave your Bible open there because I’ll say something about this psalm in a moment, something further. The first part of Psalm 19 deals with general revelation, the first six verses. It starts out, the heavens are telling the glory of God, their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. I mean you look at the heavens, you see something of the glory of God, His power, His majesty, He’s an awesome God, He called it all into existence. Day to day pours forth speech, night to night reveals knowledge. This revelation goes on 24 hours a day unendingly. There is no speech nor are there words, their voice is not heard. This isn’t verbal communication, but their line has gone out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of the world. So, the revelation of creation, it’s a non-verbal revelation, and it is general in that it is available to every person, no matter where they are, they behold the work of God in creation, Romans chapter 1. We recently looked into that chapter again. The revelation of creation. Let me note something. There is enough revelation in creation to condemn a person, not enough revelation to save a person. As Romans chapter 1 makes clear, people respond negatively to the revelation God has given in creation. You cannot be saved without hearing something more specific, we’ll move to that in a moment, than the revelation of creation. But the fact that all people respond negatively to what God has revealed about Himself in creation demonstrates that they are justly condemned. Now often questions come, what about if a person somewhere in a dark corner of the world did respond positively to the revelation of creation. You know, it’s not a possibility, Romans 1 settles it. No one ever does. But people say, well what if they did. I just don’t have any answers to alternatives to what God reveals. The only time there is any kind of positive response to any kind of revelation is because of direct intervention from God. Because of sin we always respond negatively to God’s revelation, period. So, no one responds positively, Romans 1. They suppress the truth that God has revealed, they suppress it in unrighteousness. So that’s a general revelation.

Then there is specific revelation or special revelation, and that is the written revelation we have from God. That’s the Word of God. This is the only special revelation we have, our Bibles from Genesis to Revelation are special revelation. I’ve noted, 2600 times in the Bible the writers of scripture claim to be speaking for God. Thus, saith the Lord, the Lord spoke and said—2600 times. It’s just permeating through the scriptures that this is a message from God. You’re still in Psalm 19 you’ll note verses 7 and following pick up with special revelation or specific revelation. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul, the law referring to what the psalmist had as written revelation from God. We’ll talk about that in a moment, the first five books of the Bible. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening, and so on. You see now we’re down to specific revelation, special revelation. God’s verbal communication which makes clearer His general revelation, because now He is known more clearly and more understandably. That is true with all revelation. People respond negatively to it, unless the Spirit of God works upon their heart to draw them. From the human side we can say people are developing an interest, they seem to want to know more. If that is going to result in salvation it is because the Spirit of God is working. There is a general curiosity. Some people go to Bible studies for years but never respond in faith to the truth. They are satisfying curiosity, but being exposed to truth, being exposed to revelation does not cause salvation. It is only when a person personally responds in faith to the specific revelation God has given concerning His plan of salvation, centering in His Son, Jesus Christ, that salvation does occur. So that’s the matter of revelation, two areas—general revelation and special or specific revelation.

The second area of importance in this area is inspiration, and that relates to special or specific revelation. Inspiration, God has supernaturally directed in the recording of the special revelation He has given regarding Himself. That guarantees its accuracy. In other words, we have a written revelation of God, He has made Himself known. But this happened through 40 authors over about 1600 years. How do we know they got it right? Many people think there are errors in the Bible, but the errors are only in matters of history and science, if they are Bible believers, but not in the area of salvation. Oh really? How do you know there are no errors in what is said about salvation if there are errors in what it says about history. You understand the crucifixion of Jesus Christ took place in time in history. That is history. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gets us into conflicts with science, in matters of history and science, but not in matters pertinent to salvation. That’s a line you cannot hold because we just decided to create it. Inspiration guarantees the accuracy of our Bible. We say well why do we have different versions? Only the original manuscripts, the autographs? Well see then there could have been an error creep in. But inspiration does refer to the fact that the message was given accurately originally. If you don’t start with something that’s accurate originally, there’s no hope of ever having accuracy down the road. If Jeremiah didn’t get it right when he wrote it, we can never get it right now. We can only get it wronger. Inspiration guarantees the accuracy of the original manuscripts, also the scripture makes clear that God superintended and has preserved it accurately. The Old Testament is clear. Every time Jesus Christ refers to the Old Testament there is no question about its accuracy. Any time the New Testament writers refer to the Old Testament there is never any question about its accuracy, whether they’re referring to a historical event or another event. There is no doubt. Let’s fact it, if God did choose to reveal Himself and man has so garbled it that we can’t be sure what He said and what He didn’t say, we don’t have anything that is reliable. Our faith does depend upon the accuracy of the revelation we’ve received. It does make a difference. It’s not our faith, but it’s our faith in what God has revealed. If we are believing something that is not true, that is not really what He revealed, but is the error of man, then our faith ends up in confusion and there’s no way to sort it out. It’s really not an issue. I’ve shared before, one of the leading unbelieving Biblical scholars, probably the most outstanding or the most well-known, the most authoritative Greek scholar of his day was not a saved man. But his observation, the only people that question the accuracy of our present-day Bible are people who know nothing about the original languages of our Bible and the manuscript evidence. So as far as he was concerned, that was a discussion that came out of ignorance. Even though he did not believe, for example, the deity of Christ, he had no question about what the manuscript evidence and what the Bible said about that. He just chose not to believe it for other reasons. It’s really not an issue once you understand and accept the inspiration of the scripture.

Then the third area is illumination. That is the work of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts and minds, to give us understanding. God has revealed Himself in creation and through His written revelation. Now the inspiration is guaranteeing the accuracy of the written revelation, but it takes the Spirit of God to give understanding of what has been written. That’s why this authoritative Greek scholar who has written commentaries through the whole New Testament did not really understand. He was a universalist, believing all men would ultimately be saved. Having written commentaries on almost all the books of the New Testament, I’ve read every single one of his commentaries from cover to cover, but he didn’t understand the basic message of salvation. Because you have to have illumination of the Spirit of God. That’s I Corinthians chapter 2. The natural man, the soulish man, does not understand the things of God. They are spiritually discerned or appraised. It’s the spirit of God who gives understanding of the things of God. A person can have the Bible, but if the Spirit of God is not working through the truth of the scripture to open the heart and mind of that person, he cannot understand because of sin. Sin has blinded him. Remember what Paul says in II Corinthians chapter 3, that Israel reads the Old Testament with a veil over their eyes, but that veil is lifted in Christ. When they believe in Christ, they see it. When Paul placed his faith in Jesus Christ, he saw the true message of the Old Testament that he had never seen through all his training as a Pharisee. He was blind to it. Illumination is crucial, that’s why you understand the Bible. That’s why some people can sit under the teaching and preaching of the Word for years and really don’t understand the truth of scripture, because the Spirit of God has not illumined their hearts and minds. All right, those are basic matters.

The divisions of our Bible as we have them in our English Bible is what we’re going to deal with. First is the law, there are five books of the law—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Then there are the historical books and there are 12 books of history—from Joshua to Esther. Then there are the poetical books and I have six poetical books here and I’ll mention there may be some difference. The way our English Bible is laid out is a little different. Have Job to Song of Solomon and I’ve included Lamentations here as some do. Some put Lamentations with the prophetic books because it is associated with Jeremiah, but in style and so on it fits more with the poetical books. But it’s with the prophetic books as our English Bibles are laid out. But the poetical books are Job to Song of Solomon, and I have six of them listed. To get the six you have to include Lamentations there. Just so you are aware that’s a little out of sync with the way our Bibles are laid out. Then you have the prophetical books, there are 16 of those that go from Isaiah to Malachi. You have to understand this, or we wonder why, I start reading my Bible at the beginning. I read the first five books in the Bible, then I read the history books, then I’m reading other books. How do these things fit together? We’re going to talk about how these books fit together in a moment. But you know we’re not reading our Bible in a chronological development. I’m reading the prophets and I’m reading about things that happened earlier because they’ve been grouped this way. The prophets have been grouped together; the books have not been placed where they fit in the unfolding history. All the history books were put together. You have the major prophets, the larger prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Now if you put Lamentations there then you’d have five major prophets and only five poetic books. That’s the way they’re arranged in our Bible because Lamentations follows Jeremiah; it’s the Lamentations of Jeremiah. But the four major prophets as we think of them are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. Then the 12 minor prophets. Again, it’s not saying that they are minor in significance, but they are minor in size, compared to Isaiah’s writing, Jeremiah’s writing, Ezekiel’s writing, even Daniel that we classify there. Generally, the minor prophets are smaller in size, and they are the books from Hosea to Malachi. They are grouped at the end of our English Bible.

There is order in our Bible. We have the law, then we have the historical books, then we have the poetical books, then we have the prophetic books. You understand that. You say all right now when I read my Bible, we tell people when they read their Bible to start at Genesis and read through. But it’s confusing because they are not in order historically. I get to the prophetic books and I’m reading things that happened earlier in Israel’s history, I have to have some understanding of that. Let’s put the Bible together in its historical development, how does it fit? There are 11 books that move the history along and we have them listed here. If you read these 11 books, you will have read the Old Testament’s history as it moves along. That will take you from Genesis to the end of the Old Testament. One good way to read your Bible is just to read through its history. These are the books that move the history along. We’ll go back in a moment and put the other books in where they fit. In these 11 books you will have read the Old Testament history from Genesis 1 to the last verse of Malachi, the 39 books of the Old Testament fit in here but only these 11 move the history along. All right, the other 28 books elaborate on things that happened within the time period covered by these books.

Let’s just do an overview of these 11 books. I’ll mention them—Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah. If you sort of fix those in your mind it will help you in putting the history together, and it will help you when you’re reading through the Bible to decide where am I. If I’m reading one of the prophets where am I. We’ll put them in their proper place after we overview.

Let’s move the history along with each of these books, starting with Genesis. What’s Genesis about? One word, beginnings. When we do an overview of Genesis, we’ll talk about all the beginnings; it’s a book of beginnings. Starts out with the creation of the world, and the first two chapters of Genesis are about the creation, how everything began. The third chapter of Genesis is about the fall. Now those three chapters are foundational to everything else that happens in the Bible. That’s why there is relentless attack on the first three chapters of Genesis, because if the devil is successful in undermining the first three chapters of the Bible, everything else collapses. Some people say it’s not that important. Genesis is creation-style literature, it’s a certain genre or writing, so we begin to undermine the issue of a literal creation and so on. If this is not so, how do we arrive at the heart of talking about the substitutionary work of Christ is tied to the creation of Adam and his fall into sin. Now Paul is building the redemptive work of Christ on a myth as an answer to a myth, you see where we’re in trouble.

We have the destruction of the world in the flood in chapters 6-9 of Genesis. We have the table of nations in Genesis chapter 10 and the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, so put those together—the division of the world, the tower of Babel. Get an idea of the division of the world into which various entities developed in chapter 10 and you have the tower of Babel in chapter 11. The nation Israel, the nation, is established in chapter 12. From Genesis chapter 12 through the rest of the Old Testament and through all 4 gospels until Acts chapter 2 the Bible is about the nation Israel. The other nations become significant only as they relate to the nation Israel. Chapter 12 of Genesis marks a key transition in the unfolding of God’s plan. At the end of the book of Genesis Israel goes down into bondage in Egypt, chapter 46 of Genesis.

The dates, we don’t want to get into debate over the date, so I didn’t put a date here. I believe in a young earth; I believe the Bible indicates a young earth. I believe the Bible indicates it’s 4000 years old or it’s 5000 years old or its’ 6000 years old, 7000 years, but we’re not a million years here. Why there is a discussion, and we might talk about this in a later study, has to do with the gaps in the chronology, what is called the Usher dating of the Bible. Just took the chronology as it’s unfolded in the Old Testament and added it up and you get 4400 years before Christ. Part of the difficulty is there are clear evidences that there are gaps in the genealogy. In other words, you may be talking about so-and-so begat so-and-so, but that might be the great-great-great grandson of so-and-so. Comparing different lines and so on makes clear there are some gaps, but they are not gaps you can put millions of years into genealogies. We’re not talking about a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. There will be discussion when we go into the book of Genesis. I don’t believe there is a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, so it doesn’t do any good to put a million years or 10 million years or 50 million years in there. That is man apart from God trying to come up with an explanation of things that are here.

Genesis ends, it’s around 1800 B.C. You have an idea. Abraham lived around 2000 B.C. The book of Genesis closes, we’re about 1800 B.C.; just so you have an idea where we are. We can begin to nail down dates more clearly from the time of Abraham. All right, so that’s the book of Genesis. It takes you from creation, when the book of Genesis closes, we are about 1800 years before Christ. We have the nation Israel has come into existence, and it is now in bondage in Egypt.

The book of Exodus picks up and we are at the end of 430 years of bondage, so the book of Exodus is about deliverance, because it’s about delivering Israel from the land of Egypt and events associated with that. You have the birth of Moses in the book of Exodus, you have Moses in the wilderness, you have Moses’ confrontation with Pharaoh and the plagues on Egypt in that confrontation. It climaxes with the Exodus. Many significant events occur there. You have the Passover established in that section, the context of the confrontation with Pharaoh. The law is given at Sinai, that starts in Exodus chapter 19. The book of Exodus covers from about 1500 B.C. to 1450 B.C. The book of Numbers moves the history along. The book of Exodus does move the history along, even though the last part of the book of Exodus we would say slows it down in moving history along because it gets involved in the details of the Mosaic law and the details of the tabernacle.

The book of Numbers is the book of wanderings, so if you want to give one word it’s the book of wanderings and that reminds you this is about Israel wandering in the wilderness. Starts out with Israel at Mt. Sinai, they journey to the promised land, they come to Kadesh Barnea, and they sin, they rebel against God. So, they are turned back from the promised land, and you have the record of the wilderness wanderings. Then at the end of the book of Numbers they get back to where they were. The book of Deuteronomy does not move the history along.

Then you come to the book of Joshua. Jericho and other cities were conquered under Joshua’s leadership. Joshua charges the people and dies. Judges is about defeat, so just the opposite of Joshua. Joshua is about victory; Judges is about defeat. Israel fails to drive out the Canaanites, the people that were in the land. Spiritual decay occurs, they become subjugated to their enemies, to the people of the land that they were to conquer and eliminate. The judges were the deliverers that God raised up, and you’re aware of the cycle. The deliverers provided, Israel breaks the bondage of their enemy, and after a little bit of time they sink back down into sin, so another enemy arises and defeats them, and they become slave to their enemies. Then they repent and God brings another deliverer along, another judge. The book of Judges is about spiritual and physical decay in the nation. It’s not a bright period in Israel’s history. Sad to say it covers from 1380 to 1445 B.C. We have over 300 years covered in the period of the judges. You need to have some concept of the time we’re dealing with. Joshua covers about 20 years, Judges is covering 300 years, and you have a sense somewhat of how time is moving along here in what is being recorded in the book. You can’t just go by the length of the book. For God’s purposes He chose to reveal more detail in a concentrated way in the book of Joshua than He does in the book of Judges. Obviously, we have a summary overview when you see what is covered in the book of the Judges.

Next book to move the history along is I Samuel, and I Samuel is about Saul, King Saul. You say where do I go to read about King Saul, first king of Israel. Go to the book of I Samuel. Basically, the whole book is about Saul. Starts out with Samuel as a judge, but the monarchy is established in chapter 9 of I Samuel. The entire life of Saul is recorded in the book of I Samuel. David’s relationship with Saul is there, because David is going to become important, obviously, in the history of Israel and in the plan of God and in the redemptive plan of God. Because the Messiah of Israel will be of the line of David, not of the line of Saul. It’s important that we know that we have an accurate history and the book of I Samuel covers dates from about 1105 to 1011. We can start to get pretty precise because there are more datable things that obviously relate--other kings, secular kings, and so on. II Samuel is about David. David is established as king and all II Samuel is about the reign of David. You really want to find out about David you have to go into the last part of I Samuel, but David’s reign as king is covered by II Samuel. The dates there are from 1011 to 972.

Then you go to I Kings, and I Kings is about division, the division of the kingdom. The death of David is recorded in the first part of I Kings, then you have the reign of Solomon, and you have the kingdom divided. That’s recorded in chapter 12—931 B.C. the kingdom splits, northern and southern. Ten tribes in the north, two tribes in the south—Judah and Benjamin, sometimes just called Judah because of Benjamin’s small size. But you have a divided kingdom and Israel is going to remain divided through the rest of the Old Testament, basically. They go into exile and that will come out a little bit later. You have the reign of Ahab. Ahab is famous not only for his own wickedness, but for who he married, Jezebel. You have the ministry of Elijah, an important book, I Kings. Dates 971-853.

II Kings, captivity. I Kings talked about division, the splitting of the kingdom into north and south, 10 tribes and two, northern kingdom, southern kingdom. II Kings is about captivity. Starts out with the conclusion of Elijah’s ministry and Elijah being taken to heaven in a whirlwind and he is succeeded by Elisha and the ministry of Elisha is recorded. Of key significance, you have the captivity of the northern kingdom, 722 B.C. Assyria carries the northern 10 tribes into captivity. For all extensive purposes, they disappear. Now don’t misunderstand that theologically. But they are never reconstituted with their identity. There will be none of those people ever a part of the return, but the northern kingdom goes into captivity and never experienced the restoration that the southern kingdom will. That doesn’t mean none of those people of the northern 10 tribes return, they did. They are carried into captivity 722. That’s in chapter 17 of II Kings. Then the captivity of the southern kingdom is recorded, that happens in 586. There are really three deportations. We’re not going into that now, under Nebuchadnezzar, but the final exile into the Babylonian captivity—586. The dates for II Kings 853-560. Now you see we begin to get a sense of how the history of the Old Testament is moving along, where we’re going. Now we have captivity, we have the exile of 70 years, Babylonian captivity.

Then we have the book of Ezra, that’s the next book. I and II Chronicles don’t move the history along. Ezra talks about the return from the Babylonian exile, the southern kingdom basically in view here. Ezra returns so the book of Ezra is about the temple, because Ezra returns to restore the temple. You have the return under Zerubbabel, that will cover the first 6 chapters, the construction of the temple, and then the return under Ezra in chapters 7-10. So, you have two returns here. The dates that Ezra covers 538-457. That’s the period of time covered in the book of Ezra. We’re getting down to the end because there is only one more book, and that’s Nehemiah. Ezra is about the temple; Nehemiah is about the city. The book of Ezra is about the rebuilding of the temple, the book of Nehemiah is about rebuilding the city of Jerusalem, rebuilding the walls, the revival under Ezra, you have the cleansing of the nation, the deterioration that has occurred. Under Nehemiah there is a spiritual restoration as well as rebuilding of the city. The dates are 444-425. That’s the end of the Old Testament.

Now obviously if you’re reading your Bible, you have Esther, Job, and the whole rest of the Old Testament to read. That all fits back somewhere within the framework of these 11 books that we put together. There is a period of 400 silent years. They are called silent because there is no new revelation given by God, no prophets come on the scene with revelation from God, there is no scripture given or written. That’s why they’re called the 400 silent years and you can get books about the 400 silent years because they can tell you about the history. The Maccabees will fit in the 400 silent years. We’ve put together here, just putting how the books fit. The book of Genesis, Job fits in the time period of Genesis. So, Job doesn’t move any history along. From the book of Job, and we’re not going into the details of Job now, but Job would have functioned similarly to Abraham, and he’s in that time period. There’s no evidence of the Mosaic Law being in existence, for example, in the book of Job. Job is functioning like the patriarch, Abraham, did. Job is offering sacrifices for his family and so on. Job doesn’t move history along. Now keep in mind we’re not saying Job is not important, it’s just as inspired as the book of Genesis, so with all of these books, but it doesn’t move the history along. It’s just recording something that happened within the time frame that Genesis covers.

The book of Numbers, the book of Leviticus happens within the time frame of the book of Numbers. Leviticus doesn’t move the history along. It gives further development of what took place during this time period. Judges, the book of Ruth fits in the time of the Judges. Remember it was a terrible time. We talked about that when we studied Ruth. This was not good times in Israel. Psalms fits with II Samuel because the sweet psalmist of Israel is David. Now some of the psalms go back to Moses, but generally the book of Psalms would fit in this time period.

I Kings we have Proverbs, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes because they are associated with Solomon, Solomon’s life and reign and ministry. These books are attributed to Solomon. Then we come to II Kings and the events of I and II Chronicles are a repeat, basically. Now there is some additional information given but they don’t move the history along. They repeat a lot of history, give some additional information, but they don’t move the history along.

Then you have the Babylonian captivity, and we have 70 years. Then we have Ezra and the book of Esther. The book of Esther records an event that took place during the time period that’s covered in the book of Ezra. Esther doesn’t move the time period along; Esther records an event that took place during the time period covered by the book of Ezra. Then you have Nehemiah.

We usually break the prophets down into pre-exilic and post-exilic. Exilic, the exile. The prophets would categorize them according to their relationship to the Babylonian exile. The pre-exilic prophets were those who prophesied before the Babylonian exile. The post-exilic prophets were those prophets that prophesied after the Babylonian exile. The before here is before the Babylonian captivity. You can see the bulk of the prophets are before that. Some of them are much before that. Some of them go back to the time before the Assyrian captivity. So be careful. We’re not saying these all fit just before this. These fit sometime back before this. Some of them a couple hundred years before that, but we’re just dividing them into these broad categories now. Pre-exilic, and you read that, some of you read and study Old Testament writings and commentaries and say well he’s one of the pre-exilic prophets. Well, it means he’s a pre-Babylonian exile. Two books that prophesied during the Babylonian exile were Ezekiel and Daniel. Then after the Babylonian exile you have Haggai and Zechariah. They would be in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and there you have everything fit in.

I can read through the history and then I want to go back and find out more about events of that time, obviously Isaiah is very helpful in putting together events of history because he had a ministry to the kings. He talks about what’s going on during the reigns of these different kings, that’s true for these other prophets as well. A beautiful order is there. We need to have somewhat of a grasp of how this fits together, because then I read my Bible and I say this just isn’t a collection of heart-warming events that I read, just have God speak to my heart. The Word of God does speak to our hearts, but you understand this is history and these are events that took place in a historical context. Even the messages of the prophets have to be understood they’re in a context of significant events taking place in the life of the historical nation, Israel. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. What’s wrong with Jeremiah? He’s prophesying leading up and lapsing over the Babylonian captivity. We have the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Why is he the weeping prophet and why does he write a book called the Lamentations of Jeremiah? I understand the Babylonian captivity when he goes and speaks his prophecies and gets thrown into the pit. Why? Well, he’s prophesying coming doom from the nations. He’s counseling the king, your only hope to be saved is to surrender to the king of Babylon. Go out and surrender. That sounds like heresy. I understand what the significance is, I understand where Jeremiah is. So put these things in their context.

I understand the book of Ruth when I put it where it belongs in history, and Esther where it belongs in history. Gives me a greater appreciation of what is taking place, a greater awe of what God has done with His Word. Why has He recorded all this? Let me read a few verses. Go to Romans chapter 15 verse 4. I’m aware we’ve talked mostly about the Bible, not been in the Bible, but hopefully that makes it more helpful when we get into the Bible. Romans chapter 15, the importance of the Old Testament, it’s not just a history book, but its history is accurate. It’s not a science book, but its science is accurate. It is a book about God’s plan of redemption for His creation. Romans chapter 15 verse 4, for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. He’s talking about the Old Testament scriptures. So that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope, to sharpen our hope, to be strengthened and to develop perseverance. God uses His Word; He uses the Old Testament scriptures. I say oh God strengthen my focus on the hope that you’ve given to us as believers, I need more perseverance. He just doesn’t give that, dump in out of heaven on our head. Go to His Word now so that through perseverance and the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope. That’s where it comes from.

I Corinthians chapter 10, just after the book of Romans, I Corinthians chapter 10 verse 6. Talking about what happened in the days of Moses. Now all these things happened as examples for us, not just the history that we learn about Israel’s history, but we learn from Israel’s history as an example to us so that we might learn not to crave evil things as they craved, not to be idolaters. Down in verse 11, now these things happened to them as an example, they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. This is not just old history that if you don’t have anything else to study in the New Testament you can go and look at it. This is part of God’s plan for enriching my life and living at the end of the age, to learn and be more prepared.

II Timothy chapter 3 verses 15-17 Paul tells Timothy that from a child you have learned and known the holy scriptures, the sacred scriptures which are able to make you wise to salvation, that give you the wisdom that leads to salvation. You know salvation is unfolded in the Old Testament. The whole sacrificial system defined under Moses reminds us of the need of a Savior to die for us, that there must be the shedding of blood for salvation. Thousands of years God spoke in the Old Testament, gave us examples, and people still think they’re going to be saved by their works. The whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament is a declaration you can’t be saved by works; someone has to die. These animals can’t die for you, but they can constantly remind you the penalty for you sin is death, to prepare you to believe in the sacrificial Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who could pay the penalty for sin and be the Savior. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction, instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. Part of God’s plan to perfect me and prepare me and equip me.

Then the New Testament is added to that, and it is also called scripture. It is the Word of God that brings to completion. Then we have the Old Testament or the old covenant and the New Testament or the new covenant. We have the completed revelation of God. How blessed we are. Here we are, most of you brought it with you, tuck it under your arm and carry it, take it with you where you go, read it when you want. What a privilege, what an honor, what a treasure we have in our possession.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the richness of your Word. Thank you, Lord, for revealing yourself, not only in creation, but even more clearly, more specifically in the written revelation of your Word. Thank you, Lord, for the ministry of your Spirit that enables us to understand the truth that He has been the instrument in giving. Lord, may we count this our greatest treasure because it reveals you, it reveals your Son. Lord, may we treasure it, may we fill our hearts and minds with it, may we hide your Word in our hearts as the psalmist says, that we might not sin against you. May your Word be the light to our path. Lord, may it reinforce, give us strength by focusing our attention on your hope. May this truth be used in every way in our lives. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.