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Unlocking the Old Testament Part 1 - Overview of the Old Testament — Transcript

by David Pawson - Official · 6,118 words · 884 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:02it's the story of how God was seeking a
0:06bride for his son each book is different
0:09from every other book I'm trying to give
0:11you the keys for you to unlock it for
0:17[Music]
0:27yourself now for the first two talks on
0:31this video we're going to tackle things
0:34in a rather different way instead of
0:35taking a book of the Bible I want first
0:38of all to give you an overview of the
0:40whole Old
0:42Testament here we have a collection of
0:44books covering about a thousand years
0:47written by many different authors and
0:49many different types of books there are
0:51history books law books song books how
0:54do they all relate together all 39 of
0:57them I think it's so important to have
1:00an overall picture of how these books
1:02fit together God has not given us a
1:05topical Bible wouldn't it been nice if
1:08he had you know if the Book of Genesis
1:10was all about God and the Book of Exodus
1:11all about Jesus and the Book of
1:13Leviticus all about the Holy Spirit and
1:16if he'd put all the text together under
1:18one topic it would save us buying
1:20concordances and looking things up from
1:22all over he deliberately didn't give us
1:24a Bible like that he didn't want us to
1:27have a Bible like that and so the
1:30teaching on any one topic is scattered
1:32over the whole Bible and he didn't want
1:35to give us a box full of texts though
1:38since chapter and verse numbers have
1:39been added to the Bible that's how we
1:41treat it and we pick a text out from
1:43here and a text out from there and just
1:45ignore the context so often well now God
1:49has given us actually a library of
1:52books the word bible is a plural word it
1:55comes from the Latin bibla and it means
1:58books not book so the Bible is not a
2:02book it's a library of books and each
2:05book is a separate entity and God wants
2:09you to learn his word book by book
2:11because that's how he chose to give it
2:13to us if he just wanted to give us a lot
2:16of texts he'd have done that if he
2:18wanted to give us a lot of topics he'd
2:20have done that but what he did do was
2:23give us these books and every text as we
2:27call each verse is in a context of that
2:30book and that book is in a context of
2:33History God gave us his word in time and
2:36space and it's very important to get
2:39both dimensions so that we understand at
2:42what time he said this and in what place
2:45he said this and the time and place give
2:48it its meaning because his word was
2:50given in life
2:52situations he was always saying
2:54something to a particular situation in
2:57time and space and those those are the
3:00two contexts we need so I thought in
3:02this talk I'd give you something of that
3:05context let's begin with
3:08space and to do that of course we need
3:11Maps there is a geography of the Bible
3:14as well as a history of the Bible that
3:16we need to hold in Our Minds when we're
3:18reading it and there are really only two
3:21maps that we need a map of the whole
3:23Middle East and a map of the promised
3:26land in the Middle East and we need to
3:29hold these if we can as a picture in our
3:31minds now the familiar name that is
3:34given to the overall map of the Middle
3:36East is the Fertile
3:39Crescent and that's a phrase you'll read
3:41in many books on Bible background if you
3:45can see I've drawn the Crescent a sort
3:47of new moon shape I've drawn it on this
3:50map and what it does is it links two
3:54very large rivers at each end the River
3:58Nile and the Two Rivers Tigris and
4:01Euphrates and those two major river
4:05basins produce fertility so these are
4:08very fertile valleys the Nile Delta and
4:11the Nile Valley and then the tigis and
4:13the Euphrates what used to be called
4:17Mesopotamia which means uh the middle of
4:20the rivers meso middle and potamia
4:23rivers so between the two rivers a very
4:26fertile uh plane very flat now then
4:30these two fertile areas were the centers
4:33of power in the ancient world these were
4:37the East and West world powers so the
4:40whole Old Testament is a struggle
4:43between these two world powers between
4:47Egypt and the different Empires that
4:49arose here notably Assyria and
4:52Babylon that's where Saddam Hussein is
4:55now that's where Iraq and Iran are now
4:58uh Iran is here Iraq is over here but
5:02they are divided by this River so we
5:05have two world powers in the ancient
5:08Middle East and in between the promised
5:11land now you notice that the Arabian
5:14Desert covers all of this and the Sahara
5:17there so when these two big Powers
5:21attacked each other or tried to overcome
5:23each other they had to travel through
5:26this narrow bit of land here don't know
5:29if you can see rather Purple Patch here
5:32that is actually Black bassal Rock which
5:35is very sharp and very hard even camels
5:38can't cross it which means that all the
5:41traffic was directed down this narrow
5:43Coastal strip if you didn't want to
5:45cross the desert which most didn't but
5:47if you wanted to keep feeding your
5:49troops you had to go through the Fertile
5:51Crescent you had to go around that
5:53Crescent to the other end to attack your
5:56enemy which means that this was the
5:58crossroads of the world actually
6:00and somebody has said about Israel if
6:02you will live in the middle of a
6:03Crossroads you're bound to get run over
6:06which is exactly what happened they were
6:08constantly being run over in jesus' day
6:11they were run over by the Romans but
6:13before that they'd been run over by the
6:15Greeks and the syrians and the Egyptians
6:18and so it goes on and so here we have
6:22two world powers at either end of this
6:24Crescent with a narrow Corridor down the
6:27coast in between and that is the narrow
6:30Corridor and God gave them a land at the
6:34crossroads of the world actually the
6:36road from
6:38Europe comes to Arabia comes down
6:41through that Corridor and the road from
6:44Africa to Asia goes through that
6:46Corridor on this map the road from
6:48Europe comes down the coast it crosses
6:51the plain of Ison goes down into the
6:53Jordan Valley and up onto the other side
6:55and down to Arabia the road from Africa
6:58comes up the coast plane and it crosses
7:00over the same veil of Ison or the valley
7:04of jezrael and goes up through capernium
7:06and up through Damascus and onto India
7:08and China so that the actual Crossroads
7:12of the world is precisely there at a
7:15little Hill called
7:17megiddo and the hill of megiddo in
7:19Hebrew is hamageddon
7:21that's why most of the big battles in
7:25history took place there at the
7:27crossroads of the world overlooking that
7:29crossroads is a little village called
7:32Nazareth and a boy of Nazareth could
7:34watch the world go by literally he could
7:38lie on the hill as a boy could Jesus and
7:41it would like being in an airport lounge
7:44where you see all the nationalities
7:46coming and going that's why they call
7:48this northern part Galilee of the
7:52Nations because it was an international
7:55Crossroads whereas further south up in
7:57the hills it was very isolated and very
8:00Jewish and Jerusalem is right up in them
8:03their Hills just about
8:04here so you had two parts of the
8:07promised land the international part
8:09where all the nations came and went and
8:12this very Jewish isolated part up in the
8:14hills with
8:16Jerusalem so you can see the importance
8:19of this land God was going to plant his
8:21people at the crossroads of the world
8:25where everybody could see them where
8:27they could be a model of the Kingdom of
8:29Heaven on Earth so the whole world could
8:31see what blessing comes to people living
8:34under God's rule but they would also see
8:37what curse comes of disobeying God's
8:40rule so you can see why God chose this
8:44land now it's a very fertile strip
8:46here's that black bassal if youve ever
8:49been to capernium you've seen the Black
8:51bassal Rock they used it to build the
8:53houses of companion terribly hard sharp
8:55stuff and so it was impassible so there
8:58was this barrier of sand and bassal rock
9:01on the East and the barrier of the Sea
9:03on the west all the traffic went down
9:06the coast here and through this little
9:08break in the Hills which we call the
9:11veil of Israel on no hamageddon then we
9:14have this huge crack right down the
9:17Earth's surface right through to Africa
9:20and uh here is its deepest point the
9:23white bit is below sea level and the
9:26Dead Sea is way below you have the
9:28Jordan coming into to this Valley and
9:30going nowhere just evaporating from the
9:33intense heat so in this little area the
9:36size of Wales you have the entire world
9:38in
9:39miniature you've got every kind of
9:42climate and every kind of scenery you
9:45will find somewhere in Israel a place
9:47like
9:48home in fact the place most like England
9:51is just south of Tel Aviv down here it's
9:53just like England but they call Carmel
9:55Little
9:56Switzerland and you can always go skiing
9:59at any time of year on the snowcap Mount
10:01Hermon up here and yet 10 minutes later
10:03you can be down among palm trees here
10:06all the fora and Flora of Europe is to
10:09be found here all the fora and Flora of
10:12Africa is to be found here all the fora
10:14and Flora of Asia is to be found here so
10:18you can have Scottish pine trees growing
10:20next to palm trees from the
10:22Sahara and in the Bible days all the
10:24wild animals were here Lions Bears
10:26crocodiles camels you've got the whole
10:29world World squeezed into this little
10:32point where they all join fascinating or
10:35I could go on for hours but I must stop
10:37but once you got a feel of the geography
10:40and especially a feel for the shape of
10:42the land
10:45now this is a a a relief map of the
10:49promised land can you see that deep
10:52valley running north south and a little
10:55bit of green on that side and a little
10:56bit of green on that side and then the
10:58desert if you master that map and hold
11:01it in your mind you will be able to read
11:04every Bible story that takes place in
11:06the promised land very easily and you'll
11:09know why things happened as they did and
11:12why Samaria was in the middle and why
11:14Jesus main Ministry was up in Galilee
11:17why he was put to death by the
11:20Jews that doesn't mean by all Israelis
11:23it means the people of
11:25Judah and when you read in the Gospel of
11:28John that the Jews killed Jesus that
11:30doesn't mean all Israel it means the
11:33southerners up in the hills the
11:36galileans were all for Jesus it was the
11:39Jews the judeans who were against him in
11:42the South so that's the geographical
11:45background to the Bible in the Old
11:48Testament we're moving around that
11:50Fertile Crescent from one end to the
11:53other sometimes the people of God are
11:55slaves in Egypt other times they taken
11:58away way into Assyria or Babylon at this
12:01end but there they were right in the
12:04middle of it all at the crossroads of
12:06the world now the other need Dimension
12:09that you need to master is the dimension
12:11of
12:12time and I've tried to reduce this
12:16dimension of time to a very simple
12:19pattern that's easily held in your mind
12:22and at first sight that chart must look
12:24horrific to you but as we go through it
12:27I think you'll find it's actually very
12:30simple basically the Old Testament
12:32covers 2,000 years of
12:35History BC before Christ but there is in
12:39Genesis 1-11 what we might call the
12:42prehistoric part that means prehistoric
12:46to Israel and so in Genesis 1:11 we have
12:50the creation of the universe the fall of
12:52Man In the Garden of Eden the flood and
12:55the Tower of Babel it's all about men
12:58generally it's not about God's chosen
13:00people yet it's about men the human race
13:04and that's the prehistoric history of
13:07Israel before their history really began
13:10but their history begins around the year
13:132000 BC so just as far as we are after
13:18Christ the history of Israel starts
13:20before Christ 2,000 years out side all
13:24right that's our opening date for the
13:26history of
13:28Israel
13:29and I divide it into four equal parts of
13:33500 years each and we take those four
13:37quarters as distinct
13:40periods we Mark each of the four dates
13:44201500 th500 BC with events and
13:50people and I like to give names of
13:53people and events to these dates so I
13:55fix them in my mind and so the first
13:58four words I've written down are events
14:02election Exodus Empire
14:06Exile and you've got the four events
14:09that Mark the four quarters of their
14:12history that's when God chose Abraham
14:15and elected Abraham and his descendants
14:17to be his
14:19people that's when Moses LED them out of
14:22Egypt that's when they had all the land
14:25God promised to them and had a time of
14:27unparallel prosperity and
14:30peace and I've called it the Empire
14:33because they not only had their own land
14:35but many other nations were now under
14:37their control and then the lowest point
14:40of their history Exile and roughly
14:43speaking those four events fit those
14:45four dates then I attach a prominent
14:49person to each of those dates Abraham is
14:52the man to attach to 2,000 Moses to 1500
14:57or thereabouts David to a thousand he
15:00was reigning in the year th000 BC and
15:02Isaiah is the most prominent man
15:04associated with the Exile so you've got
15:07four events and four people but also the
15:11leadership of Israel
15:14changed and the leadership in each of
15:16these four periods was different in the
15:19first period they were led by
15:22Patriarchs that's a word for forefathers
15:25really Patriarchs from Abraham to Joseph
15:29in the second period they were led by
15:32prophets from Moses to
15:35Samuel in the third 500 years they were
15:39led by princes from Saul to
15:42zedekiah and in the fourth period they
15:45were led by priests from
15:48Joshua who came with zabel back from the
15:50Exile right through to Caiaphas in our
15:53Lord's day so you can see that the
15:55leadership changed from Patriarchs to
16:00prophets to princes and then to priests
16:04now it doesn't mean there weren't
16:05prophets at other times or priests at
16:07other times but the leadership of the
16:10nation passed from one group to the
16:12other until Jesus came who was prophet
16:15priest and King all rode into one so
16:18they tried three different kinds of
16:20leadership in their history but they
16:22were really looking for someone who
16:24could combine all these things in
16:27one and uh all the leadership failed in
16:30the Old Testament so have you got those
16:33four basic periods in your mind now once
16:36you've got that the next thing is to put
16:39in two
16:41gaps each of them 400
16:45years the first Gap is
16:47here the second Gap is here and during
16:52those 400 years on both occasions God
16:55said nothing and he did nothing so there
16:59is nothing in your Bible from those two
17:02periods now of course there are books
17:05written in those two periods but they're
17:07not in our Bible because they do not
17:10cover the time when God was saying and
17:13doing things you see when we read this
17:16phrase in the Bible the Living God do
17:18you realize what that
17:21means well did you realize a few years
17:23ago what it meant when some theologians
17:25started saying God is dead you heard
17:28that phrase well do you realize what
17:31they meant they did not mean that God
17:33has ceased to exist that was a popular
17:36misunderstanding what they meant was God
17:39is no longer active in this
17:43world he still exists but he's somewhere
17:46else
17:47now as you know my wife and I lost our
17:50daughter last July she was
17:5236 she's dead that doesn't mean she
17:55ceased to exist she's alive she's
17:57conscious she's communica ating though
17:59she can't communicate with us now but
18:02she's not living now by that we mean
18:05she's not speaking and acting in this
18:08world as she was but she's fully
18:10conscious and communicating elsewhere
18:12and she's with the Lord you see so she's
18:16alive but she's not living in this world
18:19as far as this world goes she's dead now
18:20that's what the Living God means and
18:23during these two periods God was dead if
18:25you like see he was not acting in this
18:29world he was out of
18:30touch and so this the books written in
18:34these periods well the books written in
18:36this Gap were the
18:38Apocrypha and you won't find them in our
18:40Bibles the Catholics put them in their
18:42Bibles because they find um prayers to
18:46the Saints and uh Purgatory in the
18:49Apocrypha that's why they put it in but
18:52in fact doesn't belong to the Bible
18:54because those books were written in a
18:56day when God was not living
18:59but in these periods he was the Living
19:01God he was speaking and acting in our
19:04world now once you've got those two gaps
19:07that Gap occurred in the first quarter
19:10and this Gap occurred in the last
19:12quarter and that's why Malachi is the
19:15last book in your Bible though there's a
19:17400e gap before Matthew comes
19:19along because God wasn't saying anything
19:22and he wasn't doing anything so we're
19:24not interested in the history it's just
19:27like any other history then and
19:29similarly here we've got nothing between
19:31Genesis and exodus though there's a
19:33400-year gap there and we often miss
19:36that when we read straight on but Exodus
19:39makes it clear there's a 400-year
19:41gap it's interesting what happened
19:44during the Gap in the gaps when God was
19:46silent and inactive the Egyptian the
19:49Indian and the Chinese culture developed
19:51in that Gap and in this Gap you had
19:55people like Socrates Plato and Aristotle
19:57and the Greek philosopher that's
19:59influenced the Western World so much you
20:01had Buddha confucious then you had
20:03people like Alexander the Great and
20:05Julius Caesar see when God isn't busy
20:08man
20:09is and that's when so much has happened
20:13in man's history that's really not of
20:16relevance to God because it's what God's
20:20history uh contains that is of
20:22importance to us now then let's look at
20:25some details Genesis 12-50 picks up the
20:28first period of Israel's history when
20:30they were led by
20:32Patriarchs and it's possible that the
20:34Book of Job comes in there as well
20:36everything in job is very much the sort
20:39of life that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
20:41lived the life of the traveling people
20:44of those days then we come to the next
20:48quarter and again we only have a few
20:50books from that quarter Exodus Leviticus
20:53Numbers Deuteronomy all from Moses
20:56Lifetime and then Joshua Judges and Ruth
20:59continuing the history of that
21:02period then we have the Empire days and
21:06we have more books we have the history
21:09of the third quarter of their history in
21:11Samuel Kings and Chronicles but we also
21:14have some poetic books David and the
21:18Book of Psalms Solomon and Song of
21:20Solomon Proverbs and
21:22Ecclesiastes but after Solomon there was
21:24Civil War and the 12 tribes divided into
21:28two 10 in the north called themselves
21:30Israel two in the South called
21:32themselves Judah and from then on they
21:36didn't have a United Nation there were
21:39prophets during that time Elijah and
21:41Elisha but they didn't write down for
21:44subsequent Generations what they
21:47prophesied so we don't have books called
21:49by them then suddenly we have a flood of
21:54books all
21:56prophets and all associated with the
21:59Exile and that's when the main books of
22:02Prophecy are written and some of them uh
22:05prophesied before the
22:07Exile some of them during the Exile and
22:10some after the Exile which tells us how
22:13important this event was in their
22:15history the loss of the land God had
22:18promised them these prophets warned them
22:21they were going to lose the land these
22:23prophets comforted them when they did
22:25lose the land and these prophets were
22:28concern concerned with rebuilding the
22:29land when they came back after 70 years
22:32away we have one or two history books
22:34from this period Daniel and Esther were
22:37both about the Jews away from the land
22:40when they were in
22:41Babylon Ezra and Nehemiah which were
22:44going to discuss later they were the two
22:48men who helped to rebuild Jerusalem and
22:50get the people established back in their
22:52own land again well now does that give
22:55you a feel of the old test unfortunately
22:59you see the books of the Old Testament
23:01are not always in chronological
23:04order especially the prophets the
23:06history books seem to be but when you
23:09get to the prophets they simply put the
23:11big ones first and the little ones
23:13second which is terribly
23:15confusing and uh what I'm saying is that
23:18of each of the Prophet books you need to
23:20ask was this written before the Exile
23:23during the Exile or after the Exile and
23:26that will give you a clue to the
23:28understanding now I hope all is crystal
23:32clear but if you can memorize the basic
23:36features of that with its 2,000 years of
23:39History divided into 500 years each then
23:42you'll get a really good grasp and then
23:44you fit the books in and of course there
23:47are different types of books there's the
23:49law the first five books and you see
23:52where they fit in Genesis before the Gap
23:55and the other four after the Gap then
23:58the history books you see where they fit
24:01in then there are writings mainly poetry
24:05books and you see that they come out of
24:08the period when they were most
24:09prosperous that's when culture and art
24:12Prosper see when when the nation is Rich
24:15and at peace that's when things like
24:18poetry get
24:19written it's a luxury is art and culture
24:23and you see it flourishing at the peak
24:26now there's one more thing on this uh
24:28chart which I'm sure you've noticed and
24:30that is this green dotted
24:33line you see the peak of their fortunes
24:36was the empire under
24:39David everything leads up to that and
24:42then everything goes downhill from then
24:44on until they lose the
24:47land it's a tragic story really and but
24:50that is why every Jew looks back to that
24:53period and Longs for it to come back
24:56that was the Golden Age Lord send us
24:58another David send us a messiah like
25:01David send us the son of David and still
25:04to this day the Jewish people are
25:06looking for that son of David to come
25:08back and restore the prosperity the last
25:11question the disciples asked Jesus
25:13before he ascended to heaven when are
25:15you going to restore the kingdom to
25:17Israel and still they're asking 2,000
25:19years later so that's the peak and their
25:24fortunes on the whole were up and up and
25:26up to that point but from then down and
25:30down Civil War division between the 10
25:32tribes the North and two in the South
25:35it's all in the book of Kings which is a
25:37very sad and sorted tale when you read
25:40it through and of all the kings they had
25:42most of them were bad many were
25:45assassinated they had one Dreadful Queen
25:48which we're going to talk about later
25:50just one because it was God's will they
25:52should only have Kings and they had one
25:54Dreadful
25:55Queen uh but we'll
25:58talk about that on another occasion well
26:01now there it is and then after this 400e
26:04Gap during which they had no words from
26:07God and didn't see a single
26:10Miracle then suddenly it all started
26:12again John the Baptist came preaching
26:15the first prophet for a long time and
26:18then the Miracles came with Jesus and
26:20the birth death Resurrection Ascension
26:22of Jesus starts our new testament which
26:25only covers a 100 years or less
26:30so your whole new testament was written
26:32in 100 years whereas the Old Testament
26:35was written over 2,000 and if you go
26:38back to Creation how long
26:42now that is the chart that I hold in my
26:45mind and uh by the way a friend of mine
26:49called uh Professor lagard Smith who is
26:53the professor of law in the pepperine
26:56university in Malibu and my wife was
26:58peperon before I changed her name um he
27:02has produced a Bible quite unique New
27:06International Version no chapter and
27:09verse
27:10numbers did I hear a
27:13Hallelujah no no chapter and verse
27:16numbers and and the Bible is in
27:19chronological
27:20order so that you get to the prophets at
27:23the right time and you read the story in
27:26the order in which God spoke
27:28and acted and it's quite a book The only
27:31divisions in it are there's a star in
27:34the margin every so often and altogether
27:37there are six 365 stars in the
27:40margin guess
27:43why means you can read the whole story
27:45of God in a year it's about five pages
27:50each day and you will get the word of
27:53God in its proper context of time and
27:56place uh with some very helpful little
27:59notes of introduction it really is a
28:01fascinating production and it's now
28:03available I'm not uh I don't have a
28:06commission on selling it but there it is
28:08he is a
28:10friend well now that's perhaps put us
28:13into the history side and we've looked
28:17at the geography side but let's now look
28:20at one other
28:22complication and that is there is a big
28:24difference between our English Bible and
28:27the the Hebrew Bible a very big
28:31difference and I'm afraid those who
28:33arranged our English Bible didn't do us
28:35a very great
28:37service because we have therefore tended
28:40to think of books rather differently to
28:44the way the Jew thinks of the scriptures
28:47in the Old
28:48Testament we tend in English to divide
28:51the books between three
28:54categories and I partly did that on the
28:57previous chart we tend to think of the
29:00history
29:01books and all the history books are put
29:04together in English from Genesis through
29:06to
29:07Esther and they are all at the beginning
29:10of our Old Testament and they are in
29:12chronological order and that's helpful
29:16to get the history line but it's not
29:18helpful from another point of view the
29:21next group of books in our bibles are
29:26poetry Book of Job which is all poetry
29:29Psalms Proverbs poetry Ecclesiastes and
29:32Song of Solomon so the poetry books have
29:34been pushed together as the second
29:36grouping now even though they're in
29:38groups it's very rare for an English
29:41Bible to have a heading history or
29:42poetry so the books just run on one
29:45after another and we tend not to realize
29:48we've moved into a different group of
29:50books and then all the prophetic books
29:53are listed and they are divided between
29:56the major and the minor
29:58I'm sure you've heard those words Major
30:00Prophets Manor prophets all it means is
30:03they're big ones and they're little ones
30:05not people or in message but just how
30:10much they spoke or how much we have of
30:12their message we have a lot of Isaiah a
30:14lot of Jeremiah a lot of Ezekiel but
30:16very little of Joel or Obadiah so
30:19they're called major the big books and
30:22minor the 12 smaller books and that's
30:25how the English Old Testament is
30:26arranged and frankly it is not very
30:29helpful pity but there it is when you
30:32read the Hebrew scriptures they have
30:35three very clear
30:38divisions very different from one
30:40another the first five books are not
30:42regarded as history at all but as
30:46law and I've already explained that and
30:49therefore they're not called Genesis
30:50Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy
30:52they are given the titles of the first
30:55words on the scroll as you unroll it so
30:58that you recognize it straight away to
30:59read it and these books were read and
31:02still are every year in the synagogue
31:04right through on a lectionary then the
31:07big surprise comes that the next group
31:10are called the
31:12prophets and they put into the prophets
31:15what we call history Joshua Judges
31:18Samuel and Kings we call
31:20history but they call them the former
31:24prophets and then they call these that
31:28we have here the latter prophets now why
31:30should they call those book prophets
31:32well of course there are prophets in
31:34them Joshua was a prophet Samuel was a
31:38prophet that's not the reason why the
31:41reason is that this is prophetic
31:45history and prophetic history is quite
31:47different from other history and I need
31:49to explain
31:51why all history is based on two
31:55principles selection is the first and
31:59connection is the second and when
32:02anybody writes a history book the first
32:05thing they must do is Select what
32:08they're going to put in and what they're
32:10going to leave out nobody can write a
32:12complete history about anybody or
32:15anything in fact John's gospel says if
32:18everything Jesus did and said was
32:20written down the world couldn't hold the
32:22books so every bit of history is a
32:25selection of some events and every
32:28historian selects what he thinks is
32:32important and the second principle is
32:35the principle of connection having
32:36selected the important events the
32:39historian then tries to show the
32:40connection between those events that
32:43this led to that and that led to the
32:45other do you follow me and all history
32:48books are based on those two principles
32:50what to select and how to
32:53connect now prophetic history has its
32:57own answer to those two
32:59principles prophetic history only
33:01selects what is important to God that's
33:05why there's nothing about Buddha or
33:06confucious in the Bible it only selects
33:10what is important to God and then it
33:13connects up what happens to people with
33:17God and that's the
33:20connection and therefore these books are
33:23written from a prophetic point of view
33:25they only select what is important to
33:28God and they connect everything with
33:31God and that's why they're called by the
33:34Jews former prophets and you notice the
33:37Book of Ruth is not there and the books
33:40of Chronicles are not there because now
33:43the Ruth and Chronicles are prophetic
33:46history certainly the story of Ruth came
33:49where the English Bible puts it between
33:52judges and Samuel that's where it
33:54happened but if you read the story of
33:56Ruth God says nothing in it and he does
33:59nothing in it have you noticed it's a
34:01lovely story and it's the story of
34:04David's ancestor but there's not a
34:06single thus sayth the Lord in the Book
34:08of Ruth and Chronicles also though it
34:11sounds like kings when you study it
34:13carefully it's quite different from the
34:14book of kings and it's not a prophetic
34:17book it's written from an entirely
34:19different point of
34:20view so they have the former and the
34:23latter prophets and then they put
34:25everything else in the writings that's
34:28where they put
34:29Chronicles though they call it uh the
34:32words of the days that's where they put
34:34Ruth they also put the poetry books they
34:37put Ecclesiastes so they call it the
34:39preacher and Lamentations is just called
34:43how how that's the first word of the
34:47book actually and Esther is there even
34:49Daniel Daniel isn't among the prophets
34:51he's down here there's a reason for all
34:54that now it's interesting that on the
34:56road to Emmas
34:58and during his resurrection Jesus did
35:02Bible studies he never did that during
35:04his life but after he rose from the dead
35:07he gave Bible studies for the first time
35:09and it says he took them through the law
35:13the prophets and the writings and showed
35:16them everything concerning
35:18himself so for Jesus that was the Old
35:22Testament and I personally believe it
35:24should be that for us as well because it
35:27helps us to realize that it's not
35:29straight history it is prophetic history
35:32and it has therefore a message for us
35:35the books of the Apocrypha are history
35:38books and for example there's a
35:40fascinating little bit of Hebrew history
35:43or Israeli history in the days of the
35:46macbes when they rebelled against the
35:48Greeks who were occupying the land and
35:51it's been made into oror oratorios
35:54hasn't it macbes and it's very moving
35:58history but it's only history you can
36:01read it if you're interested but it will
36:03not speak to you from
36:04God because it's not prophetic and
36:08prophetic history speaks to us today and
36:10that's why God was able to speak to you
36:13yesterday
36:14through the books of the Old Testament
36:17God was speaking to you but if I was
36:19teaching of the book of the macbes that
36:22would not
36:23happen it would be interesting but
36:26that's all so can you see the importance
36:29of seeing this not as history at all but
36:32as seeing it as God's law and God's
36:36prophecy and seeing these as a kind of
36:38miscellaneous thing then what was the
36:41principle behind the selection of these
36:43why didn't they put the Apocrypha in
36:44here the answer is that all these books
36:48were written during the period when God
36:51was
36:53living meaning by that when God was
36:55active in this world and so all these
36:58books came out of that same prophetic
37:00period that same time when God was busy
37:03none of these books were written in the
37:06gaps and so we've got in our Bible the
37:09law of God the pro prophetic history and
37:13also all the other books that came out
37:16of the period when God was busy with his
37:19people now can you see the shape of the
37:22Old Testament I think it'd be helpful if
37:24our Old Testament reverted to this
37:27because then we'd get the message more
37:28clearly but it's not too bad like this
37:32but now we can see how it all fits in
37:35and just let me remind you of a a chart
37:38that we used when we looked at Genesis
37:40the first five books of the Bible are
37:43very special they are basic to the whole
37:46Bible they are the law of Moses the five
37:50books of Moses the
37:52Torah there's a very interesting pattern
37:55uh what you use to call all those things
37:58that you did with a string shaped like
38:01that sry not a
38:03yo-yo diao that's it well keep the diabo
38:07shape in your mind when you look at the
38:09first uh five books of the Bible um
38:13Genesis which means Beginnings Exodus
38:15means going out Leviticus as it says is
38:18about the Levites numbers is
38:20self-explanatory duto means second and
38:23namos means law Second Law The Ten
38:26Commandments were given here and here a
38:28second time but look at this amazing
38:32pattern take Who Genesis is concerned
38:36with the whole human race Exodus is the
38:38beginning of their National Life
38:40Leviticus is concerned with one tribe
38:42the Levites numbers is concerned with
38:45National Life and Deuteronomy looks
38:47again to the history of the whole world
38:50so you've got a kind
38:51of diabo shape then look at the places
38:56it starts in CA Canaan then Egypt then
39:00at Sinai then through the neav and Edom
39:03Moab and back into the Promised Land
39:07look at when Genesis covers
39:10centuries Exodus only covers years 300
39:14Leviticus covers only one
39:17month numbers covers years again and
39:20Deuteronomy covers centuries again it's
39:23an amazing pattern when you see it all
39:26put beautifully together together but
39:28those five books are in a sense the most
39:30important part of the Old Testament and
39:33the more you know about them the more
39:35you'll understand the rest of the Old
39:37Testament and indeed the new so the Jews
39:40are right to put a special emphasis on
39:42these five books they are the foundation
39:45of the Bible and particularly the Book
39:47of Genesis to which we're going to
39:49devote a whole
39:56video
39:57[Music]
40:04[Music]

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