Introduction to the Bible – Week 1



Editors note:


Useful materials for this course

Essential


Recommended

IVP Reference Library

Pradis

Quickverse

Zondervan Reference Software



Introduction


Course goal: that you would study, apply, and love the Word of God as you participate in God’s Plan


It is necessary to study the word so it can be properly understood. But you must not stop there. God wants you to take action (apply) what you are learning. Furthermore, like all things in life that you consistently do, you must cultivate a love for the word of God. You won’t be able to maintain a habit in the God’s word simply because it is “the right thing to do.” Over time, if you study and apply the word, you will learn to love it too, since you will receive so much benefit.


Participating in God’s plan by coming to know him and discovering your role in his service gives rise to great excitement. You will get the most out of this class if you put it into practice by sharing your learning with others. Christians who get unmotivated about Bible study are typically those who are not being intentional about communicating what God has done in their life through his word.




Psalms 1:1-3 David “delighted in” the word of God and “meditated on it day and night.”


How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
         Nor stand in the path of sinners,
         Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
    2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
         And in His law he meditates day and night.
    3He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
         Which yields its fruit in its season
         And its leaf does not wither;
         And in whatever he does, he prospers.


Why study the word? It leads to “prosperity” or spiritual success!


Psalms 119:14, 103, 72

Psalms 119:14 have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.


Psalms 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!


Psalms 119:72 The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.



Can you relate to the psalmist’s experience?


Is the word sweet to you? Is it better than gold to you?


Often, we have to admit that it is not sweet, that it is not gold. But it can become that way.


If the word is not sweet….

If the word is not sweet there may be a couple of reasons for that:


  1. You have not met the author


The written word is given life by the living word (Jesus). Spiritual things don’t make much sense without God’s Spirit in your life (1 Cor. 2:14-16). TEACHERS: Here is a chance to give the gospel.


  1. A legalistic mindset


Perhaps you were raised in an environment where the Bible seemed to accuse you and it was a duty to read it. Perhaps you were raised with an emphasis on imperatives (commands), but not indicatives (God’s Promises and accomplishments for us).




  1. Postmodern/therapeutic lenses


Postmodern/therapeutic lenses are expectations that Bible study has to feel good coupled with doubt about the clear authority of the Bible. Postmodern readers approach the Bible with suspicion and seek an emotional experience from Bible reading that is divorced from gaining a reliable interpretation.


  1. Inaction (James 1:22-25)


When you don’t follow the advice that God gives in his word, it becomes lifeless and stale. People who sit under teaching in church for years without applying what they generally become complacent and bored with Bible study. On the other hand, “doers” are motivated to keep learning and applying the Bible.



Understanding

What has God said in His word?


In Bible study, we don’t begin with, “what does it mean to me?” We first try to discover that the text meant to its first readers. After that, we can go on to personal application (below).


Application

What is He saying to me through His word?


What am I going to DO with what I’ve learned?



Think about what you can do to act on the truths you studied, who it will involve, and when you will do it. Does the passage reveal:



Why believe the Bible?

The Bible’s view of itself (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21)

Some today think what because we can’t know truth exhaustively, then we can’t know it at all. This is an overstatement. The Christian claim that the Bible is inerrant and infallible is not a claim that all of our opinions and interpretations are infallible. It is claim for the text. Furthermore, the main message of the Bible is made sufficiently clear that we can proclaim it with confidence even with our human limitations.


Popular views of truth


1)what a person feels/believes

2) what works for person


The Biblical view of truth and why it matters

(John 8:31, 32; 17:17).


Truth is what corresponds to reality


Example: “God is love.” This is a statement about God, not about how my idea of God makes me feel.


This matters because truth liberates and lies enslave!


Families of evidence for the Bible

See handout, “Why believe the Bible?” for detail on the following four families:


NOTE TO TEACHERS: be brief here, because the students will be reading the paper for homework.




THE BIG PICTURE


NOTE TO TEACHERS: THIS OVERVIEW IS DESIGNED TO BE COVERED IN 70 MINUTES IN CLASS. PICK AND CHOOSE THE DETAILS YOU THINK BEST DRIVE THE OVERALL STORY. YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO COVER EVERYTHING.


What the Bible is

A record of the faithfulness of God to advance His plan and provide for His people


While the Bible does describe the lives of many different people and it does contain many moral teaching, it is essentially the story of God and plan to bring humanity back to himself.


The conflict, tension and drama of the Biblical story

The Bible is never boring. It is full of the very tensions that we experience today.

Satan is the antagonist of the biblical story. He is not always mentioned, but his schemes are always assumed.

Example: God promises Abraham descendents and land, but his wife is barren and he land is in famine.

Examples:

The Jews are conquered by the Babylonians, but God is control and will bring his kingdom as promised (Daniel 1,2);

The death of Jesus seems like a defeat by God’s enemies, but is God greatest triumph (Acts 2:23; 4:28).


The Main Historical Periods


In order to understand individual passages of scripture, you need to have the big picture, the overall story of the Bible. But first let’s pause to consider how remarkable it is that there is an overall story.


What would you expect if you read a book that was written by dozens of people from a variety of cultures spread out over 1500 years and four different languages? The end result would no doubt be a mishmash of unconnected stories, ideas, and sayings. Instead, what we find when we read the Bible is a well crafted story, complete with main characters, a developing plot line, a climax and conclusion.


Despite the authors being separated by time, culture, geography and language, the books they wrote reveal a single author, God himself, behind the scenes crafting an amazing story.




Creation


Human Beings Were Created in the Setting of War & a Fractured Universe

“And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.”
-Ephesians 1:10

What God will bring together is now torn apart, fractured, and alienated by sin and Satan’s rebellion. This condition existed when human were created. That is why he commissioned them to “rule” (Gen. 1:26, 28)

Note to teacher (but don’t teach):

Angelic rebellion (Ezekiel 28:11-19, Revelation 12, and 1 Timothy 3:6)

At some unknown time in the distant past, before humans ever existed, God enjoyed relationships. He communicated with himself (this may sound strange but God is a trinity: a community of love relationships – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). God also interacted with a vast array of supernatural beings that he created called angels.


Real angels aren’t like the Precious Moments figurines that typically depict a winged infant with chubby cheeks strumming a harp on a cloud. Angels are ingenious, powerful, and immortal beings (Ezekiel 1).


At some point, the most powerful of those angels, Satan, became prideful and sinned against God. The Bible doesn’t provide many details, but we know he was joined in his rebellion by 1/3 of the angels (see more about this in Ezekiel 28:11-19, Revelation 12, and 1 Timothy 3:6).




Genesis 1:1, 2


God created the universe by speaking it into being. And it was good.




Genesis 1:26-28


We were created in the image of God. And like God, we are spiritual and personal: he created us to share his life and enjoy a relationship with him.


Satan was eager to drive a wedge between God and this new race of beings. By suggesting that God could not be trusted, Satan enticed Adam and Eve to disobey God. Satan’s rebellion now extended into the human race.


Genesis 2:16,17 Freedom with only one prohibition.

God gave His creatures free will. Their love for Him would not be programmed or coerced.



The Fall


Adam and Eve’s sin spread to their descendants and brought spiritual and physical death to all of humanity. Satan’s rebellion extended to the human race. “The Fall” is a term Christians use to describe this event. Let’s pause here to consider two problems that arose from Adam and Eve’s choice to disobey God:


Problem 1: Alienation from God – Humans were created to be with God. After they sinned, the sensed that something had changed and God was immediately aware of what they had done.


“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” – Genesis 3:8,9


As God warned, Adam and Eve died spiritually. Instead of enjoying regular, close contact with God, they were driven from His presence and from his life.


“After banishing them from the garden, the LORD God stationed mighty angelic beings to the east of Eden. And a flaming sword flashed back and forth, guarding the way to the tree of life.” – Genesis 3:24


Problem 2: Lost dominion – Humans were created to rule over the earth with God (Genesis 1:26). But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they rejected his offer to rule with Him. Instead of sharing rule with a loving God, they came under the rule of Satan. Adam and Eve’s descendants – the entire human race – according to John as a result, "lies in the power of the evil one." (1 John 5:19)



God’s plan foreshadowed

Just as a good story teller uses foreshadowing to give readers clues about what lies ahead, in Genesis 3:15 we see a hint of how God will confront Satan’s rebellion. After Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed Satan, saying,


“From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” – Genesis 3:15


Clearly God is not put off-balance by this new problem. Instead, God explains how a male descendant of Eve will one day crush Satan on the head. This sounds like a professional wrestling move – maybe a head-lock followed by a pile-driver! Obviously, this language is too vague to say much. What we can say is that somehow, a human, a male descendant of Eve, will deal a death blow to Satan. Through this man, God will decisively crush Satan’s rebellion.



The rebellion spreads

After Adam and Eve succumb to temptation, Genesis tells us that sin continues to spread among humans. In Genesis 4 we read that Cain, Adam and Eve's son, kills his brother Abel. By Genesis 6, it says,


“Now the LORD observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and he saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil.” – Genesis 6:5


Things were so bad that God wiped out the human race in a flood and started fresh with Noah and his family. But it didn’t take long for sin to re-establish itself. Noah's descendants become prideful and decided to directly challenge God by building a giant tower.


“Let's build a great city with a tower that reaches to the skies – a monument to our greatness!” – Genesis 11:4a


Mankind, speaking a single language, united to build the Tower of Babel – a monument to man, not to God. God ended their construction project by confusing their languages, but sin clearly was alive and well among humans. Like shower mold that keeps growing back, Satan’s rebellion continued to spread.


God’s promise to Abraham


In the midst of this dismal progression of events, God moves ahead with his plan to crush Satan through one of Eve’s descendants. In the Bible, key parts of this plan are progressively revealed through promises. Genesis 12 records one of these promises – a statement that God made to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.


Genesis 12:1-3


In this promise, God provides a more detailed outline of his plan to solve the problems of alienation from God and lost dominion.



1. Abraham's family will grow into a nation.

2. This nation will occupy the land of Canaan.

3. All the peoples of the world will be blessed through one of Abraham's descendants.


The Patriarchs

Abraham was a “patriarch,” the father-ruler of his extended family - the Jewish people. He passed his leadership role on to his son Isaac, and Isaac to his son Jacob who was later renamed “Israel.”


Patriarch = “father-ruler”
Abraham > Isaac > Jacob (a.k.a. “Israel”)

God reiterated his original promise to Abraham and to each successive generation. But alongside the hope of God’s promise, we also see the persistent presence of sin.



Joseph


Abraham > Isaac > Jacob (Israel) > 12 Sons


One of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, had a dream that his 11 brothers, his mother, and his father would one day bow down before him. This dream didn’t play well with the family! Enraged, his 11 brothers sold Joseph to a passing slave trader who carted him off to Egypt.


While in Egypt, God miraculously raised Joseph to a powerful position in the court of Pharaoh. Joseph became Pharaoh’s right-hand man. He was a skillful administrator and with God's help, was able to prepare the Egyptians for the coming of a 7-year famine.


During the famine, inhabitants of the ancient near east turned to the Egyptians to obtain grain. When Jacob and his 11 remaining sons ran low on food in Canaan, like everyone else, they were forced to go to Egypt.

When they arrived in Egypt they were met by Joseph. Just as God had revealed earlier in his dream, Joseph’s family bowed before him and sought his help. As we’ll see again and again in the Bible, God used what had initially been a disastrous turn of events to keep advancing his plan.


Genesis 50:19,20


Joseph forgave his brothers for their betrayal, and with his help, his entire family survived the famine and resettled in Egypt.


Slaves in Egypt & birth of a nation


Many years passed after the time of Joseph, but instead of returning to Canaan, the Jews remained in Egypt. While in Egypt, the descendants of Jacob’s 12 sons became 12 tribes.


Abraham > Isaac > Jacob (Israel) > 12 sons > 12 tribes > Nation of Israel


Meanwhile, the Jews fell out of favor with the Pharaohs and were forced into slavery.


“Then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.” – Exodus 1:6-8


Here’s something amazing… despite the wickedness of Joseph’s brothers, despite the fact that the Jews had left the land God promised them and were enslaved in Egypt, God used all of these events to honor his promise to Abraham.


During their stay in Egypt, Abraham’s descendants multiplied: the 12 tribes became a “great nation” – precisely what God promised Abraham.


Moses leads the Jews out of Egypt

In the book of Exodus, we read how God appointed Moses to lead the Jewish nation out of Egypt and back to the land of Canaan. With his brother Aaron at his side, Moses confronted Pharaoh, called down a series of 10 plagues on the Egyptians, and eventually led the Jews out of slavery.


Pharaoh pursued the Jews, but God miraculously parted the Red Sea so that his people could escape. When Pharaoh’s army pursued, God allowed the walls of water to collapse, engulfing Pharaoh and his army. Safe at last, Moses led the Jews south into the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula.

The Law


At Mount Sinai, God dictated laws to Moses for the people to follow. These laws included more than just the Ten Commandments. There were over 600 laws explaining how the Jews were to live and interact with God.


The Law made it clear that the Jews were not able to directly approach God because of their sin, a reminder of the first problem arising from the Fall – alienation from God. But the Law also hinted at how God might one day remove the alienation between himself and his people.


Once a year, the Law specified that the Jewish high priest should place his hands on a goat and confess the sins of the people, symbolically transferring their sins to the goat. Then he would shoo the goat into the wilderness - away from the Israelite's camp - a vivid symbol of sin being removed from the people. Next, the high priest would take another goat, place his hands on it as well, and confess the sins of the people. This goat was killed. The high priest sprinkled its blood in God’s presence for him to see. God's anger towards the people because of their sin was poured out on the goat instead. An innocent, spotless animal had been punished in their place.


The lesson of the Law: The death of an innocent sacrifice pays the penalty for human sin.


The people learned that God would accept the death of an innocent sacrifice in their place as a payment for their sin. And through this grisly, symbolic act, God was foreshadowing his ultimate plan to address man’s alienation from God – not through the death of an animal, but through the death of his son.



The Conquest of Canaan

After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, God appointed Joshua to lead a new generation of Jews into Canaan.


Joshua 1:5b-7

Under Joshua’s leadership, the Jews entered the land, destroyed many of the inhabitants, and occupied it. You can read about the military campaigns involved in this conquest in the book of Joshua.


God’s promise to David

While David was king, God came to him and made another important promise. As with Abraham, this promise is at the center of God’s plan to undo Satan’s rebellion and rescue man from the effects of the Fall.


2 Samuel 7:11-16

In these verses, God is talking about Solomon, David's son and Israel’s third king. We know this because he says he “will build a temple for me." But God goes on to say that he will establish his throne forever through one of David's descendants, clearly moving beyond Solomon and into future. By promising to establish an eternal kingdom through a human being, God is holding out the hope of restoring the lost dominion that Adam and Eve were meant to share with God.



A descendant of David will rule from his throne forever.

This human king, to whom dominion is restored, is called the Messiah throughout the Old Testament.



The nation divided – Israel (north) & Judah (south)

The 12 tribes of Israel were united under Saul, David and Solomon. Together, they formed a powerful nation. Israel enjoyed great wealth. Solomon built a magnificent temple. The borders of the nation were secure.


After Solomon’s reign ended, civil war broke out and the kingdom divided into two separate countries: Israel (10 tribes in the north) and Judah (2 tribes in the south).


Judah

(2 tribes)

Israel

(10 tribes)

Israel

(12 tribes)


The Prophets

During the Divided Monarchy, men called "Prophets" were empowered by God to speak for him.


Isaiah 9:6-7 – a reminder of the promise to David

Notice how the Messiah is born into the world, yet Isaiah also calls him God. This God-king will sit on "the throne of David." Isaiah is clearly tying his prediction to God’s promise to David. He is describing a human descendant of David and Solomon who will restore God's dominion forever.

Isaiah 53:5, 6, 9, 11 – a reminder of the promise to Abraham.

A “guilt offering” is a term often used to describe an animal sacrifice. Only here, Isaiah speaks of a human sacrifice to pay for human sin.

Speaking of this sacrifice, Isaiah says,

“By His knowledge the Righteous One, my Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.” – Isaiah 53:11

Through this sacrifice, “many” will be blessed. God will overlook their sin. This statement reminds us of God’s promise to Abraham to bless the world through one of his descendants.


Israel destroyed

The kings of the northern kingdom of Israel ruled from the capital city of Samaria and without exception, failed to keep God's law. God punished Israel by allowing Assyria to attack and destroy them. The 10 northern tribes were wiped off the face of the earth.

Judah in exile

The kingdom of Judah lasted over a century longer than Israel, but also turned away from God. The southern tribes were conquered and taken into captivity by the Babylonians. The Babylonians…

2 Kings 25:8-10


What a dark time this was for the Jewish people! God promised to make them a nation, but now they had lost their sovereignty; God promised them land to live in, but now they were torn away from it; instead of being a blessing to the world, they were being kicked around like dogs. They must have wondered if God’s promises to Abraham and David would ever come true. God’s response to Satan’s rebellion again seemed doomed to failure. Yet once again, in the midst of an impossible situation, God’s plan proceeds.

2 Chronicles 36:22,23


Judah returns from exile

During the southern kingdom's exile in Babylon, the Medes and Persians conquered the Babylonians and adopted a more tolerant policy toward the Jews. After 70 years of exile, the Persian king Artaxerxes I began allowing the Jews to trickle back to their homeland. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah narrate their return. Ezra records the rebuilding of the temple and Nehemiah describes the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. Maybe God hadn't forgotten his promises after all.

This map shows the route the Jews followed into exile in Babylon and back again to their homeland.

.

Between the Old and New Testaments

After the Jews return and are reestablished in their land, there is a 400 year period of silence - no prophets, no voice from God, no new books of the Bible. Scholars call this the "inter-testamental period" - the time between the writing of the Old and New Testaments


Jesus’ first coming

At the end of all that silence, instead of sending another prophetic spokesman, God himself is born into the human race to confront humanity face to face. John opens his gospel by saying:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

God became flesh… he became a man and was born into the world. He is the God-king that Isaiah predicted would be “born to us” in Isaiah 9.


As Jesus approaches him, John the Baptist looks at Jesus says,


"The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" – John 1:29


God came as a human sacrifice to take away the sin of the world, as Isaiah predicted in Isaiah 53.


Recall that God told Abraham, "through one of your descendants, all the peoples of the world would be blessed." God told the Israelites that sin must be paid for by the blood offering of a spotless, innocent substitute. God told Isaiah a human, my chosen one, will have to die and atone for human sin. And here, in John 1:29, when John sees Christ coming to be baptized, he tells us, "behold the Lamb of God who takes a way the sin of the world." Jesus is the coming king AND the sacrifice for human sin foreshadowed in the Old Testament!


Jesus was not a religious innovator who put a new spin on Judaism. He was standing on the shoulders of centuries of prophecy, of symbols, and promises that all pointed to him - all describing why he was coming and what he would do.


The death of Christ

All four of the Gospels, which document the life of Christ, devote the largest share of their attention to the events leading up to the crucifixion.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, he was welcomed as the messiah – the promised descendant of David who would rule as king over the entire world (Matt. 21:8,9). But instead of assuming his throne and setting up a kingdom on earth, he was crucified.

Luke 23:38


What a bizarre image… a king who is sacrificed (like the lambs and goats of the Old Testament) for the sins of the world.


In his death, Jesus was removing the alienation between man and God caused by sin. Man’s first problem was finally solved. But the time to restore dominion and set up his kingdom had not yet come.

Luke 23:44-46


Problem 1, alienation from God, is solved!





After the resurrection


After his death and resurrection, Jesus helped the disciples understand the significance of what had happened.


Luke 24:44


Then he commissioned the disciples to tell the world about what he had done.


Luke 24:47,48


Notice in verse 47 he says "all the nations." As Jesus followers respond to his command to take his message of forgiveness to all the nations, we are witnessing the fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham to bless the peoples of the earth through one of his descendants.


Before this new community of Christ’s followers, “the Church,” can take up this task, Jesus told them to wait for the arrival of their leader, the Holy Spirit:

Luke 24:49


As the book of Acts opens, Christ tells his disciples that the Holy Spirit will empower them to take his message to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and remotest parts of the earth. Acts 1:8


The Church Age


Acts 2:1-4


Acts is a record of how the Holy Spirit drives the explosive growth of the early church. Peter, Paul and other apostles and Christian workers carried the Christian message to every corner of the Roman empire. Paul says,



“Everywhere we go, we tell everyone about Christ. We warn them and teach them with all the wisdom God has given us, for we want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. I work very hard at this, as I depend on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.” – Colossians 1:28.29


Jesus’ second coming

The problem of lost dominion won't be resolved until Jesus Christ returns. When Jesus comes for the second time, it won't be to die for sin, but instead to set up his throne as messiah-king and reestablish his rule.


Revelation 5:5,9,10 Problem 2: Lost dominion – Solved!

The blood of the ruling king paid the ransom – the price to release us from the penalty of our sin. He is our blood sacrifice. As a result, "every tribe, language, people, and nation" is blessed, as God once promised Abraham. But, he also shares his dominion with his people: “they (God’s people) will reign on the earth” – co-regents as they were originally designed to be. Problem 2 – lost dominion – is finally solved!

Through one person, Jesus Christ, the alienation caused by sin is removed AND dominion is restored.


Satan’s rebellion destroyed

What about Satan and his angels? What will God do with them? God responded to Satan’s rebellion through his dealings with man. Instead of crushing all opposition, he chose to silence his critics once and for all by coming as a man, living on the earth, and offering himself as a sacrifice for a race of rebellious humans.

This act of love, motivated by a desire to be with us, not only undid the problems related to the fall, it laid to rest any lingering questions about God’s goodness.

Once his rescue plan is accomplished, at the end of history, a thousand years after Jesus returns to earth to set up his kingdom, God will finally destroy Satan and all who side with him:

Revelation 20:10


New Heaven and New Earth


Revelation 21 & 22 provide a picture of our final state with God in the new heaven and new earth. As we read a few verses from these closing chapters of the Bible, think of all of the loose ends in our story that John is tying together!


Revelation 21:1-4 The Eternal State: living in the presence of God!


Revelation 22:1-5 Problems of Genesis resolved!


Revelation 22:16 Fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant


Further down John writes,

The Spirit and the bride (the church) say, “Come.” Let each one who hears them say, “Come.” Let the thirsty ones come—anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge. – Revelation 22:17

God is offering each of us his life, right now, “free of charge.” We could never pay the price of our own sin, but Jesus’ picked up our tab. By dying in our place for our sin, by being our sacrifice, Jesus is able to forgive us and give us his life.

Through this incredible story, God is trying to get your attention… he’s letting you know he’s really there and wants a relationship with you. He invites us to “come and drink the water of life.” Will you respond?


So that’s the big picture. This is why we talk about the Bible as a single story written by God through many authors.


Starting next week, we’ll begin studying each of the major types of literature in the Bible. As we do, you’ll see in greater depth how God’s plan is woven throughout each part of the Bible. Having the big picture (the broader context) will help you better understand the individual passages that we study

Assignment


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Copyright 2007, Xenos Christian Fellowship