Reading the Bible

Notes witnesses in Jerusalem Read Acts 1:1 to 8:5. The authority of Peter witnesses in all Judea and  Samaria Read Acts 8:6 to 13:1 witnesses to the end of the earth From Acts 13:2 to 28 Summary witnesses in Jerusalem witnesses in all Judea and  Samaria witnesses to the end of the earth Questions Who wrote the Acts of the Apostles? What outward signs or symbols accompanied the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? What was Saul's plan on his way to Damascus? What was Christ's answer to Saul's question, "who are you, Lord?"?the circumstanc Describe the circumstances surrounding the first non-Jewish baptism. From what city was the new missionary activity initiated? Upon Barnabas and Saul's retrn they found a debate taking place on circumcision, what answer did Peter provide? Why was there anger at the speech of Demetris? What did Paul do, then? How are the Acts of the Apostles and many of these letters related: - Acts 9:24-25 and...

Notes Persecution & Revolt The relatively benevolent Persian Empire was struck down in 331 B.C. by the Greeks under Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. The Holy Land came under the control of a series of increasingly hostile foreign kings. The history of this period, which closes out the Old Testament period and takes us to about 100 years before Christ, is told in the two books of Maccabees. Maccabees, like the other books in the Bible, aim to give a religious interpretation of the history of the period. The message is a familiar one - how God uses foreign kings to mete out punishment upon Israel for violating the Law, and how Israel is saved by returning to the covenant faith of its fathers (see  2 Maccabees 6:12 ;  7:32-38 ;  1 Maccabees 2:20 , 27 , 50 ;  4:10 ). Summary Persecution & Revolt Questions What was the desolating sacrilege? What happened to the Israelites who remained true to the Lord? Who was...

Notes Restoration & Rebuilding Jeremiah prophesied that the exile in Babylon would last 70 years (see  Jeremiah 25:12 ; 29:10 ). It actually lasted a little more than half that long. In 538 B.C. Babylon was defeated by the Persians, led by King Cyrus. Cyrus issued an edict to let God’s people return to Jerusalem and even helped fund the rebuilding of the Temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzer (see  Ezra 1:2-4 ;  6:3-5 ;  Isaiah 44:24 , 28 ;  45:1-3 , 13 ). The remnant that returned to Jerusalem was not necessarily the most pious and God-fearing people. The prophet Malachi gives us a unique window on the spiritual state of the returning exiles - decrying the corruption of the priesthood and the moral laxity of the ordinary people. The full story of the return of Judah and the restoration of Jerusalem is told in the books ofEzra and Nehemiah. If you want to reconstruct the history of this period, read the books in this order: Ezra 1-6; Nehemiah 1-7, 11...

Notes Good Kings,Bad Kings Kings of Israel and Judah The Last Five Kings of Judah Judah (and Benjamin) Israel (Ten Northern Tribes)  King Reign  Character  Prophets  King  Reign  Character  Prophets   1. Rehoboam  931-913  17 years  Bad  Shemaiah   1. Jeroboam I  931-910  22 years  Bad  Ahijah   2. Abijah  913-911  3 years  Bad     2. Nadab  910-909  2 years  Bad    3. Asa  911-870  41 years  Good     3. Baasha  909-886  24 years  Bad       4. Elah  886-885  2 years  Bad     5. Zimri  885  7 days  Bad     6. Omri  885-874*  12 years  Bad  Elijah  Micaiah   4. Jehoshaphat  870-848*  25 years  Good     7. Ahab  874-853  22 years  Bad   5. Jehora...

Notes Solomon The covenant with David didn’t justify Solomon’s outrageous and cruel behavior. God’s covenant was never meant to put the Davidic king above the Law of Moses. David explained this to Solomon himself (see  1 Kings 2:2-4: 8 :25; 9:4-5;  Psalm 132:12 ). God’s promise was not a blank check. If Solomon or any Davidic king violated God’s Law he would be punished - although his kingdom would not be wiped out (see  2 Samuel 7:15-16 ). Jeroboam Jeroboam’s idolatry, unfortunately, sets the pattern for the remainder of Kings and Chronicles. Don’t worry if you can’t follow the succession of kings and reformers in the remaining books of the Bible. Try to focus on the patterns of sin, punishment, and reform. Notice that David is the measure for every king (see  2 Kings 16:2 ;  22:2 ). And pay attention, especially, to how God still tries to "father" His family despite their weakness, their faithlessness and their disarray. Th...

Notes An everlasting covenant God makes His final covenant of the Old Testament with David. He promises to establish David’s kingdom as an eternal and everlasting dynasty, promises that David’s heirs will sit on his royal throne forever. He promises, too, that He will regard David’s heir as His own son. Be sure to spend some time reading over this covenant oath (see  2 Samuel 7:8-16 ;  1 Chronicles 17:7-14 ). These are among the most important verses in all the Bible. God’s promises here will give shape and direction, hope and drama of the remainder of the biblical narrative - all the way through the end of the New Testament. Let’s pull apart the several promises of this covenant, and review them in order: 1. The Lord will establish a house for you: "House" means royal dynasty, so this means that David’s kingdom will be a dynasty. 2. I will raise up your heir…and make his kingdom firm: David’s son will rule over his kingdom. 3. He shall build a house fo...

Notes Making a monarchy But in his old age, the people demand that he appoint them a king "as the other nations have" (see  1 Samuel 8:5 ). Israel’s request is sinful, blasphemous. It shows that they still have not embraced their special character as God’s chosen people, His first-born son. "It is not you they reject," God tells Samuel. "They are rejecting Me as their king" (see  1 Samuel 8:7 ;  12:12 , 17 , 19-20 ). Moses had predicted that the people would want a king. He even made provisions so that any Israelite king might truly serve God’s purposes - requiring especially that the king copy the entire Law of God and read it every day for the rest of His life (see  Deuteronomy 17:14-20 ). The Israelites, however, aren’t looking for a godly king. They tell Samuel they want one "to lead us in warfare and fight our battles" (see  1 Samuel 8:19-20 ). They don’t mention God or worship and they seem to have utterly forgotten Israel’s o...

Notes Israel's weakness he history we read in the Book of Judges bears this out. The "plot" of Judges pivots on the Israelites’ repeated fall into the snare of idolatry, their giving in to the worship of the gods of the Canaanites. The entire book, in fact, is built on this "testing" of Israel’s faithfulness to its covenant with God. The narrator of Judges tells us that God allowed the pagans to remain in the Promised Land precisely to test Israel’s faithfulness to its covenant - "so that through them [the pagans left in the land] He might….put Israel to the test, to determine whether they would obey the commandments the Lord had enjoined on their fathers through Moses" (seeJudges 3:1,4). Joshua had foreseen Israel’s weakness. At the end of his life, like Moses, he called on Israel to renew its covenant with God (see  Joshua 24:13-28 ). He told the people they must choose - "decide today whom you will serve - the gods your fathers ser...

Notes Entering the promised land We pick up the story with the career of Joshua, Moses’ hand-picked successor ( Deuteronomy 31:14-15 , 23 ;  34:9 ). The Book of Joshua is a bridge between the Pentateuch (the name given to the five books of Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) and the remainder of the Old Testament. Joshua leads the people across the Jordan and, in a series of campaigns against the Canaanite kings (see Joshua 1-12), lays claim to much of the land God promised first to Abraham and again to Moses and the Israelites (see  Genesis 17:8 ;  Exodus 3:8 ). His most famous battle was no battle at all - the siege of Jericho (Joshua 6). We all know the story: For six days the Israelites marched around the city with seven priests in the lead, carrying the Ark of the Covenant which God had ordered Moses to build at Sinai to be with the people in their wanderings (see  Exodus 25:10 ,  21-22 ;  Numbers 10:22 ;  14...

Notes After the Golden calf Israel’s sin was so grave that it required what amounted to a second legislation. The Ten Commandments had been a moral law, but this second law is judicial and ceremonial, involving the punishment of criminals and the rules for animal sacrifice. This second legislation deals with Israel’s fallen condition after the golden calf affair. It takes the rest of Exodus (chapters 33-40), all of the Book of Leviticus and the first ten chapters of Numbers, to explain. Travel to the promised land Numbers tells the story of the second generation of Israel’s travails on the way to the promised land. The children of those who came out of Egypt are now more unfaithful than their parents. Finally they are condemned to wander forty years, "suffering for [their] faithlessness" (see  Numbers 14:33-34 ). Even amid their backsliding, God was giving us signs of the Redeemer He will one day send: Moses hoists up the bronze serpent to heal the faithless ...