Last Sunday worship service went well. There was 70 people there. We are slowly growing each week. Don Thomason preached and will be back again this coming Sunday.
If you were at church last Sunday you saw in the bulletin that Katie and Nathan Bailey (mostly Katie lol) has been working on updating the church’s website! It looks amazing. She has all the info. you or any new visitor could want or need. She will post upcoming events and cancellations. This weekly Wednesday update will be posted also. We will also have a pray list. We will use our texting prayer chain list and bulletin for that. The only difference will be names only on the website. The website has the capability of reaching so many people we will use names only. No personal info. You can still have your prayer request on the prayer chain and in the bulletin and not put the name on the website. Just let me know that you don’t want it there.
Katie will have the ability to follow the stats of how many people look at our website and whether they looked at the site on their phone or if they used the link on her Facebook post. When the word got out about the update we quickly had 97 people look at the site. I know sometimes social media isn’t for the best but it is all in how you use it. The numbers that she is tracking shows it can make a big difference. Hopefully we will continue to grow on the wed site and in the pews . Thanks Katie and Nathan for all your hard work.
Don’t forget our Graduates!
Josie Potter
Haylee Anne Desmarais ( soon to be Mrs. Cody Bruce)
Prayer list
Bill Marksberry
Angel Adams’ husband Brian Emerson
Jeanie Siekman
Brenda Sheldon
Praise
Butch Adams
Thanks for the prayers!
Bible study: Mike Stahl
Lesson 2 – Old Testament Overview
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (New American Standard version)
A note about the next several lessons:
In the next several lessons, we will have overviews of the Old Testament and New Testament (slightly more in depth than Lesson 1) and how we got the Bible we have today. The intention of doing so is to help paint the big picture of the Word that God has handed down to us today, to set the background for more in depth studies of the Life of Christ and other Scriptures which combine together to tell us the story of Jesus.
If you have never read through the Bible before or if you have read it many times, hopefully this background will help bring more understanding of how God gave us the Word and how we can know that it is accurate and gives us His plan of salvation for us today, even though it has been almost 2,000 years since the final book of the New Testament was written. Today, it is easy to be confused about the many translations and versions that are available. We’ll touch base on some of the history behind these translations and some things to look for when choosing a translation to help us in studying God’s Word.
Introduction:
As mentioned in Lesson 1, the Old Testament tells us of God’s covenant (or agreement) with
His “chosen” people. Going back to Abram (Abraham), God promised that the all the peoples of the earth would be blessed through Abram’s descendants – the nation of Israel. Israel was “chosen” to bring the Messiah (Jesus) to the world as a Savior for mankind.
The Old Testament points forward to the New Testament – God’s covenant with His chosen people of today – Christians.
Why is it important to study the Old Testament, when we are living under the New Testament?
· The Old Testament tells us of how God loved us so much that He had a plan to save us from the beginning of creation.
· It lays the foundation for the New Testament – many of the things that we learn about in the New Testament were foretold in the Old Testament through prophecies.
· Many of the people and accounts in the Old Testament provide insight into Jesus and the New Testament.
· The Old Testament helps us to more fully understand God and His expectations for us and how we should live. He held his people Israel to a high standard, so that the people of the earth would know that they were His people (the people of the one true God) and so that He could preserve them to work His promise to bring Jesus to earth for their and our salvation. This is good for us to see and understand, because likewise today He holds Christians to a high standard so that the people of the earth will know that we are His people and so that those that are not saved might be reached.
Old Testament Structure:
· The Old Testament is comprised of 39 books. As mentioned in Lesson 1, today it is generally divided into 5 categories:
· Law
· History
· Poetry
· Major Prophets
· Minor Prophets
The Books of Law:
· The first 5 books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) are the books known as the books of Law
· They were written by (1) __________, under the inspiration or the Holy Spirit.
· They span from the beginning of time (the beginning of the universe) until
approximately the death of Joseph (approximately 1804 BC).
A side note: The beginning of time is a subject of great debate. James Ussher (1581- 1656), an Archbishop of Ireland, made an extensive study of the subject and concluded that Day 1 of creation was October 23, 4004 BC. While this sounds quite bold to go so far as to name an exact year, let alone a month and a day, this date was arrived at through much thought and study. An interesting article about Ussher and his study
(written by Larry Pierce, 2006) can be found at the Answers in Genesis website (https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/the-world-born-in-4004-bc/). As detailed in the article, Ussher was educated and reputable:
o Archbishop James Ussher was highly educated, earning his doctorate at the age of 26.
o He was a respected historian who defended Christianity throughout his life, a scholar and theologian who was ordained at the age of 20 in the Anglican church.
o He meticulously researched not only the Bible but also secular account of history, finding that those accounts correlate to the Biblical accounts. Through dedication of several years of his life, Ussher compiled the history of the world, beginning with the creation through AD 70. Ultimately he published a great historical work The Annals of the World.
o Ussher meticulously researched the secular accounts of history and found that the Bible correlated with them. Ussher dedicated several years of his life to compiling a history of the world from creation to AD 70.
o Upon his death, he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Ussher
universe until people began believing in millions and billions of years based on fallible dating methods. While we won’t know with certainty the actual date of Day 1 of the creation week until God reveals it to us in heaven, we don’t have to back down or be shy about a conservative interpretation of the Word that leads us to conclude that the universe is only several thousand years old. In addition to Ussher’s study, there is much in nature, geology, and the “science” of the world around us to support it.
· The books of Law are also sometimes known as the Pentateuch (Greek) and the Torah (Hebrew).
· Genesis (Beginnings) covers from (2) ________ to (3) ____________. It covers creation, the flood, God’s promise to (4) ______________ (the Covenant) and his descendants, and the beginnings of the nation of (5) ____________.
was legitimate, and 4004 BC was widely accepted as the beginning of the
· Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy cover the nation of Israel from captivity in (6) __________ (Moses), their gaining of freedom, their wanderings as the result of their unfaithfulness, and their arrival at the (7) ________________ ________.
· They also give the (8) ________ that God wanted His chosen people (the nation of Israel) to follow as their part of the covenant. This includes not only the 10 commandments but also many, many more very detailed laws, including the structure for worship and the priesthood.
· At the end of Deuteronomy, ~ 1405 BC, the generation of people that were disobedient had died (except for Joshua and Caleb), and the next generation were poised to take the Promised Land – that God had promised to Abraham as the home of his descendants centuries earlier.
The Books of History
· The books of History begin where Deuteronomy left off. The first three of these books (Joshua, Judges, and Ruth) tell of the time after Moses but before Israel had a (9) ________. They tell of the conquest of the Promised Land, its division amongst the people of the nation of Israel, and the troubles that would arise from time to time as a result of the peoples’ disobedience when they did not totally drive out the people that were previously living in the Promised Land. These first 3 books are sometimes known as the Theocratic Books.
· The next 6 books (1,2 Samuel, 1,2 Kings, 1,2 Chronicles) are sometimes known as the Monarchical Books. They tell of the establishment of Israel as a kingdom. They tell of King (10) ________, King (11) __________, King (12) ______________ and their successors that were kings over the divided kingdom – when Israel divided into the northern kingdom of (13) ____________ and the southern kingdom of (14) __________. They tell of the good, Godly kings and the times when Israel and Judah flourished under God’s blessings. They also tell of the evil, un-Godly kings and the times when they were defeated and punished. Ultimately, there were more bad kings than good kings, and God allowed both Israel and Judah to be conquered and most of the people taken away in exile.
· The remaining 3 books of History (Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther) are sometimes known as the restoration books. In 536 BC, Cyrus, king of Persia (who had conquered Babylon, who had conquered Judah) allowed the Jews to return to Israel. However only around only 50,000 returned of the 2-3 million that were living in exile. In these books, the (15) ______________ of those that were exiled (now known as Jews) were allowed to return to their homeland. In Ezra, God’s (16) ____________ which was destroyed
earlier was rebuilt. In Nehemiah, the (17) __________ surrounding Jerusalem were rebuilt. Esther tells the account of a plot to destroy the (18) ____________ people that continued to live in exile and how God saved them through Esther (a Jewish girl that had become queen of (19) ____________ by winning a beauty contest).
· The books of History conclude around 425 BC. And there is a period of “silence” until the time just before Jesus’ birth.
· The books of History tell the amazing story of how God used a sometimes faithful but often rebellious people and sometimes even their enemies to fulfill His plans to send Jesus’ for our salvation – how through it all God kept his promises.
The Books of Poetry
· The books of Law and the books of History are generally arranged in chronological order, although 1,2 Kings and 1,2 Chronicles overlap in time. However, the remainder of the Old Testament is not at all in chronological order. The books of Poetry and the Major and Minor Prophets fit in various places throughout the books of Law and mostly the books of History.
· In modern translations of the Bible, we often see sections of text that have a different “offset” appearance as compared to the remainder of the Bible. These sections are written in poetry. In fact, approximately one-third of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) is written in poetry. And only 5 OT books appear to have no poetry.
· The books of Poetry include:
1. Job – Job was a man that was believed to live around the time of Abraham – long
before Israel was a nation.
2. Psalms – A Psalm is a song sung to the accompaniment of a plucked instrument. The Temple (20) ________________ during the time of the kings of Israel. They were written by several people. King (21) __________ is attributed with approximately half of the (22) ______ Psalms. Moses wrote 1. These are a good place to go when dealing with life’s troubles.
3. Proverbs – A book of practical wisdom written by (23) ______________, the wisest man.
4. Ecclesiastes – A book that Solomon wrote which describes the folly and futility of chasing after things like wisdom, wealth, works, pleasure and power – after he had tried them all.
5. Song of Solomon – a (24) ________ story that describes the relationship between Solomon and one of his (many) brides.
· The books of Poetry tell us of God’s greatness, the beauty of creation, and (sometimes very practical) advice on how we should live.
The Books of Major and Minor Prophets:
· Major Prophets – As mentioned in Lesson 1, these are called Major, because they are generally longer than the writings in the Minor Prophets.
· Major Prophets include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations (written by Jeremiah), Ezekiel, and Daniel. The Major Prophets books are generally longer – we have more of their writings than the Minor Prophets.
· Minor Prophets include Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
· Not all prophets left us their own written record – but many are described in the Books of History. The accounts of those that did leave us a written record (in these books) are scattered chronologically throughout the Books of History. They help fill in details and many of God’s messages and warnings to His people (Israel) throughout Israel’s history.
· The books include a number of well-known accounts (Bible stories): Daniel and the lions’ den; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; Jonah and the “whale” (great fish) are examples.
· Prophets were men and women that served multiple purposes:
1. Exposed the (25) ______ of the people.
2. Called the people to (26) ____________.
3. Warned of coming (27) ________________ if the people did not return to God.
4. Anticipated the coming (28) ______________ (29) (__________)
· The prophets serve as examples to us, as we are called to tell others of Jesus, God’s ways that we are to live so that they will repent, and the second coming of Jesus at the end of time.
Answers:
(1) Moses
(2) Adam
3) Joseph.
4) Abraham
5) Israel
6) Egypt
7) promised land.
8) Laws
9) king
10) Saul
11) David
12) Solomon
13) Israel
14) Judah
15) remnant
17) walls
18) Jewish
19) Persia
20) hymnbook
21) David.
22) 150
23) Solomon
24) love
25) sin
26) repent
27) judgment
28) Messiah
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