検索キーワード： 説教・小言

The march to the Promised Land takes 40 years. But the Israelites do not wander aimlessly in the wilderness during that time. (Recall the old explanation that Moses, like most men, was too stubborn to stop and ask for directions!) Refused passage through Edom on the King’s Highway, Moses diverts northwest to Kadesh Barnea, a large oasis, where the Israelites spend nearly 37 of the 40 years, finally entering the Promised Land through Moab, by a remote and very dangerous desert route.

From a literary perspective, Isaiah may be divided into three parts: 1) Part 1 (chapters 1-35) is written in dramatic form, and its theme is judgment; 2) Part 2 (chapters 36-39) is written in narrative form, and it serves as an historical interlude; and Part 3 (chapters 40-66) is written in poetic form and its theme is grace. In Part 1, we encounter a courtroom scene in which God sits as judge—with Israel in the defendant’s seat—as witnesses come forth and accuse Israel of sin and unfaithfulness: The verdict, guilty; the punishment, exile.

As David’s star rises, Saul becomes ever more paranoid, sinking into a morass of delusion and despair, finally ordering David’s assassination. Informed of Saul’s plan, David runs, becoming a wanted felon and an outlaw. For ten years David works as a mercenary for Israel’s enemies, the Philistines, gathering around him a band of very tough characters that becomes his inner circle. The action culminates at Mt. Gilboa, where Saul and his sons are killed and the Philistines thunderously defeat Israel.

St. Paul dominates in the New Testament. Thirteen of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are attributed to him, and during three missionary journeys, he managed to evangelize all of Asia Minor and a major part of Europe. Today, St. Paul is viewed as the apostle who worked tirelessly to spread the gospel in the ancient world. Yet, Paul began as the great persecutor of the Church.

Luke is a Gentile writing for a particular person, another Gentile named Theophilus. In his Gospel, Luke provides a detailed and orderly account of the life and ministry of Jesus. Although Matthew, Mark, and Luke draw from many of the same sources for their material, each Gospel writer adapts his material for his particular audience and purpose. Luke presents his material in a brilliant prose style, as he creates a specific voice for his narrator and specific, identifiable voices for his characters.

The Babylonians lay siege to Jerusalem in 588 B.C., and the city falls on August 14, 586 B.C. The siege of a fortified city is a dreadful thing to behold. Food and supplies quickly run out: Starvation, sickness and death follow. Jeremiah is inside Jerusalem during the 2-year siege, and Lamentations is his eyewitness account.

After being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph soon becomes “prime minister” of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. The boy is handsome, smart and he always lands on his feet!

Seventy-three of the 150 psalms are traditionally ascribed to David. As we read the "Davidic Psalms," we see deeply into David's heart as he struggles with God, with others and with himself. These psalms are deeply moving and often, brutally honest.

Paul meets Timothy at the beginning of his second missionary journey. On the first missionary journey (A.D. 46 – 48), Paul visits Lystra, a city in central Asia Minor. It seems he had little success there, as in Lystra “they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead” (Acts 14: 19). On his return to Lystra in A.D. 50, however, Paul meets Timothy, a young man whose grandmother Lois and mother Eunice had become believers, apparently during Paul’s first visit to Lystra.

With the conflict of sin fully resolved and “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” a memory, our linear narrative doubles back on itself: Revelation 20-22 bring us back to a new beginning. In Revelation 21: 1-5 we read: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."

David forged a united monarchy from a loose confederation of twelve tribes; Solomon overlays that monarchy with a brilliant administrative structure. God grants Solomon his request for “discernment in administering,” and in doing so, Solomon builds a kingdom unlike any that had ever appeared before. Too, Solomon carries out David’s wish to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, a temple worthy of God’s name. Throughout his reign, Solomon lives in wealth and splendor, greater than any other king on earth.

With the death of Ahab and Jezebel, Jehu (841-814 B.C.) murders all of Ahab’s family, consolidating power in the north. Meanwhile in the south, Athaliah (the only female king) murders her grandchildren and crawls over their butchered bodies to seize the throne, initiating a 7-year reign of terror. With the ensuing chaos, both kingdoms weaken and begin to crumble. Black storm clouds gather in the north as Assyria (Northern Iraq of today) emerges on the stage as a world power.

Seventy-three of the 150 psalms are traditionally ascribed to David. As we read the "Davidic Psalms," we see deeply into David's heart as he struggles with God, with others and with himself. These psalms are deeply moving and often, brutally honest.

God then gives his people their second greatest gift: The Tabernacle, a portable structure by which a sinful people gains access to an infinitely holy God.

In Leviticus, God tells his people to “be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19: 2). Leviticus is a handbook of holiness. Here God prescribes the five great sacrifices that enable a sinful people to be brought into fellowship with a holy God: 1) the burnt offering; 2) the grain offering; 3) the peace offering; 4) the sin offering; and 5) the guilt offering. Four of these five are animal sacrifices.

Moving from Genesis to Exodus, 400 years flash by and the Israelites grow from a family of 73 to a nation of 2 million; and they move from freedom into slavery. We shouldn’t be surprised. Half a millennium earlier, in Genesis 15: 13, God had told Abraham: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.” Why would God allow this happen?

It is one thing to conquer a land; it is quite another to settle it and live in it. At this point in our story, Israel is not a nation; it is at best a loose confederation of tribes, each living in its own territory, isolated by rivers, mountains, valleys and other natural terrain. When an outside threat intrudes, the tribes coalesce, a leader (called a “judge”) emerges, and he (or she, in the case of Deborah) deals with the threat. There are 13 such leaders in Judges, and as our story progresses, they become more and more corrupt.

Jesus resurrection is the single most important event in human history. In last week’s lesson, we followed Jesus through his death, burial and resurrection; this week we shall delve deeply into the resurrection, understanding it’s full impact on both Jesus...and on us.

As we move through the Bible, we encounter both oral and writing prophets. Elijah and Elisha, for example, are oral prophets, neither one writes anything that we know of. We simply have their stories in 1 & 2 Kings, stories about what they said and did. Writing prophets, on the other hand, write books. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve Minor Prophets commit what they have to say to writing, sometimes in long books like Isaiah (66 chapters), and other times in short books like Obadiah (1 chapter).

Although not the first of Paul’s epistles, his Epistle to the Church in Rome (or simply, Romans) takes the place of first importance. Written from Ephesus in A.D. 57, Paul crafts a formal argument in Romans, employing the structure of a “scholastic diatribe,” stating and defending his theses that we are “saved by grace through faith.” Romans is a brilliant work, and it is foundational for understanding the all that Paul has written.