OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 1: Approaching the Old Testament
INTRODUCTION
The Bible is the Word of God. The word “Bible” comes from two Greek words: “ta biblia”, meaning “the book”. This is an expression used by the early Christians from about 150 AD. The Bible consists of 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The Bible is a book of books.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	WHY SHOULD A CHRISTIAN READ THE OLD TESTAMENT?
A.	We cannot understand the New Testament without the Old Testament (Matthew 1:1).
1.	To learn about David, we turn to 1 and 2 Samuel (in the Old Testament).
2.	To learn about Abraham, we turn to Genesis (in the Old Testament).
3.	Matthew 2:6 is a quotation from Micah 5:2.
4.	Matthew 2:15 is a quotation from Hosea 11:1.
5.	Matthew 2:18 is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:15.
6.	When Jesus was tempted by Satan, three times He said, “It is written . . . .” Each time, Jesus quoted the Old Testament.
a.	Jesus regarded the Old Testament as having authority and as the Word of God. 
•	How should a Christian regard the Old Testament?
b.	The Apostle Paul kept talking about “the Law” in the Epistles.
i.	What Law?
ii.	Paul meant the Law of the Old Testament: the Law of Moses.
c.	The book of Hebrews talks about the relationship between the Old Covenant 	and the New Covenant.
d.	The book of Revelation (at the end of the New Testament) is full of word 		pictures from the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah (Old Testament books).
B.	“Old Testament” defined
1.   The term “Old Testament” is a Christian description of the books given by God to the Jewish people that are related to the Old Covenant, which God gave to Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.
2.	The word “covenant” means a special agreement which ties people together. And in the Old Covenant, God tied Himself with the people of Israel.
•	It is impossible to fully understand the New Testament without the Old 		Testament.
C.	Old Testament quotations in the New Testament
1.	The New Testament contains at least 295 separate references to the Old Testament.
2.	The references are introduced 224 times by a formula such as “It is written” or “God says”.
3.	This refers to at least 278 different verses from the Old Testament.
4.	At least 56 times, the New Testament writers refer to God as the author of the Old Testament verses.
5.	There are 41 occasions in the New Testament (when quoting the Old Testament) that the introductory formula is in the present tense, such as “God says” and not the past tense, “God said”.
a.	The New Testament writer didn’t regard it as something that was finished.
b.	This means that it wasn’t just the Word of God then; it is still God’s Word now.
•	Statistics are from Roger Nicole, New Testament Use of the Old Testament in Revelation and the Bible, Grand Rapids, 1959, 1980, pp. 137-138.
II.	WHY IS THERE A LOT OF HISTORY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT?
A.	The importance of history
1.	God does not offer Himself to us as an object of philosophical ideas.
2.	He comes to help us; He demands a response from us.
3.	Histories in the Old Testament are examples of how God has helped people.
•	They are an endless display of God in action: saving, judging, and intervening 	in the lives of people and the destinies of nations.
4.	Karl Barth says: “The task of theological reflection and of preaching does not begin at all with abstract ideas, but with the reality of God’s action.” 
(Karl Barth, Collins, 1958, P. 31)
5.	A people who has no history is like a man with amnesia: a man who has lost his memory.
a.	The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed.
b.	The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.
c.	What we are today is the result of what happened yesterday.
d.	What we do today will shape tomorrow.
B.	The Old Testament includes several kinds (genres) of literature.
1.	The books include history, poetry, wisdom literature, and prophecy.
2.	The Bible is a book of organic unity and not a book of uniformity.
•	A flower with roots, stem, leaves, and bloom is a tree and not three trees; but it is diverse, not uniform.
3.	The Bible uses language in different ways, so we must be careful in the way we interpret the Bible.
•	Words must be interpreted in their context: in chapter, book, historical 		background, culture, and literary genre.
4.	We must ask two questions when we read the Old Testament.
a.	What did it say to the people when it was written?
b.	What does it say to us now?
III.	THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
•	We cannot deal with this in detail in this course. However, here are some examples:
A.	In the case of Amos, it is obvious that he prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam II in Israel, 793-753 B.C.
B.	When we come to the Psalms, it is more complicated.
1.	Some were written by David.
2.	Others were written by Asaph, sons of Korah.
3.	At some time, they were collected into five books and brought together in what we now call the book of Psalms.
4.	You see a similar procession in Proverbs.
C.	In Joshua 10:12-13, there is a short poem that was written in the book of Jasher.
1.	We don’t have that book today.
2.	The book was known to the Israelites in Joshua’s time.
3.	It does not mean that we have lost part of the Bible.
4.	It means that the Bible was part of a culture, and we should expect to see and hear parts of that culture referred to.
D.	In the Pentateuch (the first five books in the Bible)
1.	There is a lot of discussion about date and authorship.
2.	But again, we cannot go into details here.
E.	We shall not be able to look at every book in the Old Testament in this course.
1.	The Old Testament is like a palace with many rooms.
2.	We cannot explore all of them just now, but we can get inside the building.
IV.	THE ORDER OF THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS
A.	The Old Testament today follows the names and numbering of books as in the Latin Vulgate, which in turn followed the Greek Septuagint (LXX).
1.	The Pentateuch means “Five Scrolls”.
a.	Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
b.	The name of each book gives the idea of its theme.
2.	The historical books
•	Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, 	Nehemiah, and Esther
3.	The major or larger prophets
a.	Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel
b.	The term “major” refers to size of book, not greater importance.
c.	Lamentations is included because of its close thematic relation with Jeremiah.
4.	The minor prophets
•	Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, 		Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
5.	In the middle of the Bible are the poetic books.
a.	They are from many different periods of history.
b.	They are put after the historical books and before the prophets.
c.	Psalms, Proverbs (the wisdom literature), Job, and Ecclesiastes
d.	We have history, poetry, and prophecy.
B.	The Hebrew arrangement of the Old Testament
1.	The Law/Torah (Pentateuch)
•	The five books of Moses
2.	The prophets
a.	The former prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings
b.	The latter prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Book of the Twelve Prophets
3.	The writings: The Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Five Scrolls (Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther), Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles
4.	This Hebrew arrangement is what Jesus used.
CONCLUSION
In our next session, we will look at the Old Testament as Jesus used it.
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Does the Old Testament have the same authority as the New Testament? Discuss reasons for your answer.
2.	Why did the New Testament writers quote the Old Testament in present tense, instead of in past tense?
3.	Discuss the importance of history as it relates to God’s dealing with people, cities, and nations in the Bible.	
SELF-STUDY
1.	Write an explanation of what the following statement means to you: “A people who has no history is like a man with amnesia: a man who has lost his memory.”
2.	Memorize the order of the Old Testament in our English Bible and be able to recite each book in its order.

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 2: The Order of Books and Creation
INTRODUCTION
In our last session, we talked about the arrangement of the books in the Old Testament. At the time of Jesus, the Jews had all of the same books; however, they placed them in a different order. 
Let us look at a verse in the New Testament that makes reference to the Old Testament books.
•	“And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
•	“Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke . . . .’” (Luke 24:44)
The Jewish people at the time of Jesus had all of the books that we now call the Old Testament: the Jewish Bible. But when they placed these books in their special order, they put them in three big groups.
A.	The first group was called the Law: what we call the Pentateuch.
1.	Genesis to Deuteronomy
2.	They called it the Torah, meaning “instruction”; it was the first part of the Hebrew Bible.
B.	The second part they called The Prophets, which also included some historical books. They divided this into two parts: the former Prophets and the latter Prophets.
1.	The former prophets consist of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. 
2.	The latter prophets are Isaiah through Malachi, with the exception of Daniel and Lamentations.
C.	Then came the writings, which are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Five Scrolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther.
•	These are followed by Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
The New Testament quotes from all three parts of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, there are 94 quotations from the Pentateuch, 99 from the prophets, and 85 from the writings.
•	“From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah . . . .” (Luke 11:51)
•	The death of Abel: in the first book in the Hebrew Canon (Genesis 4:8)
•	The death of Zechariah: in the last book in the Hebrew Canon (2 Chronicles 24:20)
Jesus recognized the whole of the Old Testament as the Word of God. Why is this important?
We don’t have to go back and rearrange the books in our Bible to follow the traditional Jewish order. The point is that Jesus Christ accepted not just part of the Old Testament, but all of it, as the Word of God.

LESSON OUTLINE
I.	TRANSMISSION OF THE TEXT
A.	Can we be sure that our English Bible, or the translation into your language, is the Word of God?
•	Yes; because we can still refer to the Hebrew Bible, or Greek translation, and the Manuscript.
B.	The scribes went to the most extreme lengths to preserve the text of the Hebrew Scriptures.
1.	They were completely convinced in their minds that it was the Word of God and that nothing should be changed.
2.	“They counted, for example, the number of times each letter of the alphabet occurs in each book; they pointed out the middle letter of the Pentateuch and the middle letter of the entire Hebrew Bible . . . .” (F.F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments. London, 1984, 1991. P. 108)
3.	Can you imagine going through the whole of the Torah and counting the number of letters, and then taking your new handwritten copy and counting all over again to see if you had accidentally missed one letter?
a.	The middle word is in Leviticus 10:16.
b.	The middle letter is a vav in Leviticus 11:42.
4.	Kethib-Qere: When a scribe was faced with a variant reading, he simply placed one in the body of the text (Kethib) and copied the variant in the margin (Qere).
5.	How well did they succeed?
C.	Dead Sea Scrolls
1.	When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, they were older by one thousand years than the previous oldest-known manuscripts; yet, they were almost identical to any printed Hebrew Bible you could have bought in a shop in that day.
a.	There are some small changes in spelling and phrasing, but essentially they are the same.
b.	These Dead Sea Scrolls include the whole book of Isaiah and parts of every Old Testament book, except Esther.
2.	There were fragments of about 190 Biblical scrolls found in eleven caves. They included 20 fragments of Genesis, 14 of Exodus, 27 of Deuteronomy, 34 of the Book of Psalms, and between 20 and 24 of Isaiah.
a.	This showed that the Old Testament has not been changed. 
b.	It is also true to say the New Testament has not been changed. The evidence 		for the New Testament is even stronger.
D.	Translation: two ways
1.	Literal or dynamic equivalence
2.	Versions: LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch, Aramaic Targums, Syriac Peshitta
3.	The Septuagint LXX (Greek translation of the Hebrew text) was translated from manuscripts of the Old Testament which no longer exist.
•	We have all of these evidences that we can look at for verification of the Old Testament.
II.	CREATION
A.	Creation
1.	God is Creator: The universe is designed according to God’s intelligence.
a.	God is not a cosmic soul within the universe, not an impersonal cosmic force.
•	He does not depend on the universe or on anything in it.
b.	The universe is the result of the intelligent plan of God, which He created by 		His own power.
2.	Saint Basil: “It is easier to measure the entire ocean in a little cup than to 		grasp the greatness of God in the human mind.”
•	God does not try to put the whole ocean into the cup; He puts the cup into 		the ocean.
B.	“Bara” (create) in Genesis 1:1, 21, 27
1.	Man (humanity) is made in the image of God: intelligent, self-aware, having a 	supernatural capacity, and a moral consciousness.
2.	Architect, planner, artist, poet, musician, creator, thinker, and philosopher
GROUP DISCUSSION
Can we trust our English Old Testament Bible as the Word of God in the same way the Jews and Jesus Christ trusted it as the reliable Word of God? Discuss this question by citing evidence.
SELF-STUDY
Make a list of three quotations from the Old Testament that were spoken in the New Testament by Jesus Christ. Choose one from each of the three parts of the Old Testament.
1.	The Law
2.	The Prophets
3.	The Writings

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 3: The Image of God and the Fall
INTRODUCTION
In our last session, we stopped at how God created man in His own image. “Man” means their humanity; it doesn’t just mean man as distinct from woman. What this means is that God sees man as a spirit-being.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
•	What is it that makes man distinct from other animals?
A.	Man has an intelligence beyond that of animals.
1.	He is aware of himself and his surroundings.
2.	Man is an architect, a planner, an artist, a poet, musician, creator, thinker, and philosopher.
3.	Man is aware of his finitude: that he is limited.
4.	He is also aware that there is a God who is unlimited.
B.	Man has moral consciousness.
•	He knows what is right and wrong.
C.	Man has within him a supernatural capacity.
•	To experience the presence of God
D.	Man was not created as an evil, fallen creature.
1.	God built into man a capacity to respond to Himself.
2.	Man has a capacity to say yes or no.
3.	This capacity is the highest dignity we have as human beings.
II.	THE FALL OF MAN
A.	Satan raised a question in man and contradicted God.
1.	“Has God said?”
2.	“You will not surely die.”
B.	The dignity of obedience involves a measure of free will.
•	What do you want to be: a child or a robot?
C.	The concept of identity
1.	How do we describe identity?
2.	There are two ways:
a.	In the western world: individualism
b.	In the Old Testament parts of the world: solidarity
3.   Our identity with Adam; our identity with Christ (Romans 5:19)
	(See also Romans 5:12, 15, 17-19; 6:3-5, 10, 23)
a.	When we receive Christ as our Lord, we are identified with Him and the 		community of His people.
b.	This does not take away personal moral responsibility (Ezekiel 18:20).
c.	The context here is the matter of choice.
•	Does the individual choose to identify with a rebellious nation or with those who are loyal to the Covenant of God?
D.	The progress of sin
•	In the next generation, sin went further.
1.	Cain murdered his brother Abel.
a.	When the vertical relationship with God is broken, the horizontal relationship 	with our fellow humans will be broken too.
b.	Compare the first question in the Bible: Genesis 3:9, with Genesis 4:9.
2.	The judgment of the flood (Genesis 6-9)
a.	Those who were obedient to God were saved.
b.	Those who were not obedient came under God’s judgment.
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Discuss the capacity that gives man the highest dignity compared to other animals.
2.	What are the implications of the fall of man into sin as it affects our identity?
3.	How does identifying with Christ affect our community involvement?
SELF-STUDY
Study Genesis 3 and summarize the effects that man’s encounter with Satan had on his relationship with God.

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 4: Babel and Abraham: The Concepts of Covenant
INTRODUCTION
In this session, we are going to look at Genesis 11 and further. Our last session focused on the relationships that people have with God. Sometimes people have relationships of obedience and fellowship with God. Other people have a relationship which is disobedience. The great sin of mankind is to decide for themselves what is right and wrong. Man always asks, Why should God decide for him?
In Genesis 11, there is an example of the same thing. It is the story of the Tower of Babel.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	THE TOWER OF BABEL
A.	The whole thing is really based on a play on words in the Hebrew language.
1.	“Babel”: “Bab” is gate, and “el” is God.
2.	Bab-el is a gate to godhood.
B.	There is “Balal”: meaning confusion (Genesis 11:4).
1.	Here they were centering their minds on themselves, on what they would build, and on a name for themselves.
2.	In ancient Mesopotamia, there were towers of bricks connected with
idol worship, such as astrology, which had to do with knowing the future and controlling it.
a.	Ultimately, what they were trying to do was to become God.
b.	The result was the judgment of God, ending in confusion (Genesis 11:9).
3.	Again, we see a situation where man was disobedient to God in the vertical relationship, and the result was confusion in the horizontal relationship: between people.
II.	THE STORY OF ABRAHAM
A.	The background
1.	Abraham came from an area not far from Babel, where the tower was built.
2.	This area is called Iraq today.
B.	His journey (Genesis 11:31)
C.	Abraham’s time and people
1.	Middle Bronze II A (2000-1800 BC)
•	“And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river and led him throughout all the land of Canaan . . . .’” (Joshua 24:2-3)
2.	Genesis 12: The call from Ur. Nannar/Sin
•	“Nannar” or “Sin” was the god of the moon who was worshipped as the god 	who controlled the whole territory.
3.	Abraham’s faith
a.	“And he believed in (leaned on) the Lord, and He accounted it to him for 		righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).
b.	Abraham’s faith was like a journey, step-by-step.
4.	The practice of adoption and its reasons (Genesis 15:1-3)
•	Tablet from Nuzi in Mesopotamia, mid 2nd millennium BC: “The adoption 		document (lit. tablet) of Nashwi, the son of Arshenni: Nashwi has adopted 		Wullu, the son of Puhi-shenni. As long as Nashwi is alive, Wullu shall provide 	him with food and clothes; when Nashwi dies, Wullu will be the heir.”
D.	Covenant with Abraham
1.	Genesis 15:18: the covenant with a self-imprecatory oath
2.	The word covenant is “berith” in Hebrew; it ties people together.
3.	Jeremiah 34:18
4.	Hittite oaths of loyalty; Jezebel, Romans and Albans, Hannibal
5.	The oath formula: “If I break my words, may the god do this or that to me.” 
(Jeremiah 34:18)
E.	Application
1.	In the New Testament, we are told that Abraham is the father of the faithful: those who believe in Christ.
2.	God has come into our lives.
3.	He tied Himself to us.
4.	He has done it in the New Covenant.
a.	Jesus Himself took our nature.
b.	When we are born again, we receive His nature.
c.	That is the strongest tie or covenant that you could ever think of.
d.	This covenant must be understood in order to understand the whole Old Testament.
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	What lessons can we learn from the building of the Tower of Babel and from God’s judgment that followed, in our relationships with God and people?
2.	How does the concept of covenant apply to the Christian’s faith?
3.	How can you apply Abraham’s journey of faith to your situations today?
SELF-STUDY
1.	Learn more about the life of Abraham by studying Genesis 12-18; 21-22.
2.	Study Hebrews 11:8-19. Compare this New Testament passage with the Old Testament passages in Genesis, and list some lessons of eternal value that you discover from Abraham’s life of faith.
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 5: Abraham, Israel, Joseph, and Moses
INTRODUCTION
We continue in our studies with the life of Abraham. There are two important things about the life of Abraham. First, Abraham trusted God by faith; that was his relationship with God. Secondly, God made a covenant with Abraham and made promises to him; that was part of God’s relationship with him. God made two promises to Abraham: First, He promised him a son; secondly, He said his descendants were going to inherit a land.
Abraham believed the Lord. But after years and years, he still had no child. In Genesis 16, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, made a suggestion to him. Abraham’s life was a struggle between his relationship with God and his culture.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	THE IMPORTANCE OF WRITTEN MARRIAGE CONTRACTS
A.	Tablet from Nuzi:
•	“If Kelim-ninu (the wife) bears (children), Shennima shall not take another wife; but if Kelim-ninu does not bear (children), she shall buy a woman from the land of Lullu as wife for Shennima.”
B.	Old Assyrian marriage contract
1.	The old Assyrian marriage contract in 19th century BC describes how Laqipum has married Hatala, daughter of Enishru.
2.	If within two years she does not bear him children, she herself shall buy a female slave to produce a child.
•	In Genesis 16, the suggestion regarding Hagar did not come from Abraham or God, but from Abraham’s wife, Sarah.
C.	Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC) para. 146:
•	“When a man has married a lady and she has given a female slave to her husband, and the slave has borne children, if later the female slave claims equality with her mistress because she has borne children, her mistress may not sell her, but she may brand her with the slave-mark and count her among the slaves.”
II.	OFFERING ISAAC (GENESIS 22)
A.	In the culture of Abraham, people offered human sacrifices to their gods.
B.	Abraham struggled between faith and culture. 
1.	Sometimes God used Abraham’s culture as a means to communicate with him.
2.	At other times, Abraham’s culture was in conflict with the will of God.
3.	God allowed Abraham to go as far as the altar and then He stopped him. He made him realize two things.
a.	God does not require human sacrifice.
•	God is not like the gods of the heathens.
b.	God wants Abraham to put Him first, even before his son.
•	It is important for us to love God first.
C.	Isaac and Jacob
1.	Isaac had a son and his name was Israel.
2.	The word “Israel” actually applied to different things at different times in the Old Testament.
a.	Israel was the name of a man.
b.	Israel was a whole group of tribes descended from Jacob. All of these tribes together used the Covenant name “Israel.” It meant “a covenant relationship between the tribes.”
c.	Later, there was a Kingdom of Israel (The Northern Kingdom).
III.	JOSEPH, MOSES, THE BURNING BUSH, THE “I AM”
A.	Joseph is a preserver of the family.
B.	Moses is a deliverer of a nation.
C.	The Burning Bush (Exodus 3)
1.	The burning bush itself is a statement from God: a statement not in words but as powerful as any words could be.
2.	The sight of a burning bush in the desert was nothing special, just a dry thorn bush catching fire under the hot sun.
a.	Soon it would be gone leaving nothing but a patch of blackened earth.
b.	It could never last more than two or three minutes without burning itself up.
3.	But what caught Moses’ attention was precisely this: The fire blazed, but the bush was not destroyed by the fire.
a.	The fire burned on and on!
b.	The thing was unnatural.
c.	Moses was drawn to this phenomenon; this strange occurrence.
4.	There was nothing weird about the bush, nothing supernatural at all. It was just an ordinary bush.
a.	It was the fire that was supernatural: a fire that needed no fuel, that existed in itself.
b.	It was self-sufficient and self-existent.
5.	God spoke to Moses in this phenomenon as “I AM THAT I AM.”
a.	That is: “I am self-existent and do not depend on anything.”
b.	He is Eternal in Himself and causes all things to be.
c.	The universe depends upon Him.
6.	This was a special revelation to Moses.
D.	A series of plagues of judgment
1.	Directed to the gods of Egypt
2.	To make Pharaoh let the Israelites go
3.	To make the Israelites learn how great God is
4.	The last judgment: the killing of all firstborn children and the Passover
5.	The Passover lamb was a type of Jesus Christ.
IV.	EXODUS, COVENANT, SUZERAIN TREATY, LAW, LEVITICAL RITUALS
A.	Exodus: The Israelites miraculously came out of Egypt.
1.	They went through the sea.
2.	They came to Mount Sinai where God made a Covenant with the Israelites. This is the heart of the Old Testament.
B.	Suzerain/Vassal Treaty: a treaty between a great king and one who was under his control.
1.	Excavations in Huttusas, ancient capital of the Hittites, royal archives, treaty documents, parity treaties, suzerain treaties
2.	A Suzerain Treaty was similar to the Covenant God made at Mount Sinai.
(Exodus 19-20, 24)
a.	Not only did the Hittites use this type of treaty, but also those throughout the Ancient Near East.
b.	Example of what a Hittite king would say in treaty:
i.	First, it started with his name and title.
ii.	“These are the words of the Sun Suppiluliumas: the great king, the king of the Hatti land, the valiant, the courageous, the favorite of the
Storm-god . . . .”
3.	Outline of Suzerain Treaty (after name and title):
a.	Historical prologue: benefits basis for loyalty
b.	Principles: only one Suzerain
c.	Stipulations: do and don’t do in specific situations
d.	Curses and blessings
4.	Oath, treaty written in documents; documents put in temple
5.	Apply the outline of the Suzerain Treaty to the text of the Covenant in 
Exodus 19-20, 24; Deuteronomy 28.
6.	One principle and nine commandments
a.	“. . . no other God but me.”
b.	The nine commandments followed.
7.	The tablets of stone were in the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle.
8.	Why did God choose an international treaty?
a.	Israel then acted as a nation, a body politic, for the first time.
b.	Israel was recognizing that God was sovereign, existed independent of Israel, 		and was God of the whole earth.
C.	Detailed codes
1.	Ancient law codes
a.	It is not only in Suzerain treaties that we find a parallel to the Covenant.
b.	There are also parallels between the law of the Old Testament and the law codes of other ancient nations in the Near East.
2.	Examples
a.	The code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, ca. 1750 BC
b.	The code of Bilalama, Amorite King of Eshnunna, ca. 1885 BC
c.	The laws of Lipit-Ishtar, King of Isin, ca. 1875 BC
3.	One notable difference is that where the other ancient law codes vary degrees of punishment according to the rank of the person, the Old Testament treats all men alike.
D.	Do the laws of the Old Testament apply to Christians?
1.	Some try to separate the Ten Commandments from the rest of the Old Testament laws. No.
2.	Exodus 21:16 forbids kidnapping.
a.	It’s not in the Ten Commandments, but it’s wrong today.
b.	How do we decide?
i.	Old Testament law?
ii.	Culture?
iii.	Principle?
c.	The Law
3.	Deuteronomy 22:1, 8
4.	Love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8-10).
5.	The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Review Abraham’s struggle between his relationship with God and his culture. Then discuss some conflicts between your own culture and the Law of God.
2.	How do Christians in your culture generally respond when faced with such struggles?
3.	How do the laws of the Old Testament apply to Christians? Discuss by citing some laws in the Old Testament that are repeated in the New Testament.
SELF-STUDY
1.	Study the ancient treaty and law codes in this lesson and compare them with these passages: 
a.	Exodus 19-20, 24
b.	Deuteronomy 28
2.	Use the format of the Suzerain Treaty to outline these passages.
3.	What important lessons can you learn from this treaty?
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 6: The Tabernacle Worship
INTRODUCTION
In the last session, we stopped at the Covenant God made with Israel at Mount Sinai. We saw that this Covenant was in the form of an international treaty and that God played the part of a Great King, the Overlord, while Israel pledged allegiance to the Lord. We also saw that the Covenant involved laws, not only the Ten Commandments, but laws for the lives of the people which reflected the nature of God.
There is another side to the Covenant that has to do with ceremonial and religious rituals. They set aside one of their tribes: the tribe of Levi, as priests. God gave them many details on how to worship Him. They were to set up a tent that was to be big and beautiful.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	THE TABERNACLE
•	There are three important reasons for the Tabernacle and the religious rituals.
A.	The Tabernacle helped to unify the people of Israel.
1.	The Tabernacle was in the center of the camp.
2.	The Tabernacle represented the Covenant with God because inside of it was the
Ark of the Covenant.
3.	Inside the Ark of the Covenant were the tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments on them.
B.	The Tabernacle taught Israel a spiritual message.
1.	The Israelites had to learn about holiness.
2.	The word holy, “qadosh” means: set apart; to be treated with respect.
a.	Remember Moses at the burning bush.
b.	“The place where you are standing on is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).
3.	One of the most urgent needs we have among Christians right now is a vision of the holiness of God.
a.	Holiness is not a static but a dynamic idea.
b.	What is holiness?
i.	Usually people think of it as righteousness, as moral purity.
ii.	But how can a patch of the Sinai desert have ethical or moral attributes? 
4.	What is holy ground?
a.	There is a clue to the meaning of this in the anointing oil of the sanctuary.
b.	In the Ancient East, people loved to anoint themselves with fragrant anointing oil just as we use after-shave or perfume.
c.	In Exodus 30:22-33, the Lord gives instructions to Moses on how to prepare the anointing oil for the priest and all the objects in the Tabernacle.
•	Exodus 30:31-32: “This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man’s flesh; nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.”
5.	That which is holy is set apart; it is special and separate.
a.	In the Tabernacle, the various pots and pans and utensils were holy, not because they were made of gold (which they were), and certainly not because they had any moral quality (which they did not), but because they were to be used in the service of God.
b.	The Tabernacle containers were not to be used just to cook dinner or to throw out the slops; they were for God, and God alone, vessels of honor.
c.	The Israelites were not to regard anything associated with Yahweh as an object of familiarity or contempt.
d.	What is touched by God is special and must be regarded with respect and reverence.
e.	George Carey: “In the Bible, the term holy is invariably a dynamic, not a static, notion. It implies separation for God’s service. Holy things and holy people are those objects and people set aside for God’s use. They are not set aside for nothing, but for a definite and exclusive purpose . . . The Church’s holiness is inextricably linked with its mission to represent Jesus Christ in the world.” (George Carey, A Tale of Two Churches, IVF, 1985, pp. 138, 39.)
6.	God says to us, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
7.	What is the holiness of God Himself?
a.	The holiness of God encompasses all His attributes.
b.	It is like a diamond cut to an infinite number of facets, each one on fire with the light and splendor of His glory: that majestic serenity, that awesome purity, that divine power, that inexpressible beauty, that limitless knowledge, that inescapable presence, that unfathomable wisdom, that incorruptible justice, that boundless love, that inexhaustible grace.
c.	When God calls us to be holy, He asks us for nothing less than to manifest His character in the world, to reflect His person in the mirror of our souls and our lifestyles.
8.	Sin could be atoned for.
a.	The law gave consciousness of sin, but sin could be atoned for and covered.
•	Romans 3:20: “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in 	His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
b.	Atonement, sacrifice, the animal: an extension of Himself
c.	John the Baptist was a preparation for the coming of Christ.
C.	The Tabernacle was a “type” (symbol) of Christ.
1.	Typology, the book of Hebrews
2.	“The Law having a shadow of the things to come . . . .” (Hebrews 10:1)
•	It foreshadowed Christ.
3.	Isaiah 53; 1 Peter 1:19-20; Revelation 5:6a, 9-12
4.	“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14)
5.	Now the people are ready to enter the Promised Land. 
II.	GOD’S INSTRUCTION TO JOSHUA
A.	God’s Command (Joshua 1:1-4)
B.	God’s Promises (Joshua 1:5-8)
•	When the leaders and their people obeyed the law of God, they were blessed.
C.	Crossing the Jordan (Joshua 3:15)
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	How did God teach His people holiness through the Tabernacle, and what lessons can Christians learn from this?
2.	How did God prepare the Israelites before they could enter the Promised Land, and what principles can we learn from this as we claim God’s promises for us?
SELF-STUDY
1.	Study the book of Galatians and explain the connection between the Law and the Gospel.
2.	Consider the Biblical concept of holiness.
a.	What does holiness mean to you personally?
b.	What does your church teach about holiness?
c.	What are some things that you can do to promote a vision of the holiness of God among your fellow believers?
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 7: Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
INTRODUCTION
We are going to pick up this lesson from where we stopped in the last session. We are going to look at the land.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAP OF THE MIDDLE EAST
A.	Canaan, a buffer state
•	Map of Middle East: Canaan’s geographical position
B.	City States
•	Map of Palestine Topography
1.	Canaan’s four main divisions
2.	Hills and valleys were easy to conquer, but hard to hold
C.	Climate
1.	Dependent on weather: Baal or the Lord
2.	The blessings of the Covenant and the curses
D.	Canaanite Religion
1.	The people of Canaan were under the judgment of God.
•	The Canaanite lifestyle is described in the book of Leviticus, and much of it is confirmed by archaeology.
2.	The Canaanites believed in the god of fertility.
a.	Their pagan religion plunged them into the occult, spiritism, witchcraft, fortune-telling, male and female cult prostitution, and men and women mating with animals.
b.	Canaanite religion involved not just idolatry but the offering of their own baby boys and girls as sacrifices in the fire to demons.
c.	Incest and homosexuality were acceptable practices.
3.	God himself used strong language about the Canaanites.
•	He said, “For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:25).
II.	THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN
A.	Rahab of Jericho: The story of Rahab is in Joshua 2:1-21; 6:25.
1.	If ever there was an unlikely candidate for the blessing of God, it was Rahab.
2.	Rahab was a Canaanite and a harlot, but her life was spared and she became an honorary Israelite.
3.	According to the New Testament (Matthew 1:5), Rahab married Salmon, the leader of Judah.
a.	Her son was Boaz, who married Ruth, and her great-grandson was King David.
b.	Rahab is included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
4.	Why would a pagan Canaanite, an idolator and a prostitute be prepared to risk her own life to save the lives of Israelites?
5.	Rahab’s faith in God: Rahab made very clear statements about God.
a.	“I know that the Lord has given you the land . . . .” (Joshua 2:9)
b.	“For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you 		when you came out of Egypt . . . .” (Joshua 2:10)
c.	“. . . for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” 	(Joshua 2:11)
6.	Rahab’s insight
a.	Rahab was a person of extraordinary insight.
i.	She was aware of the past (Joshua 2:10).
ii.	She knew about the crossing of the Red Sea, which had taken place probably before she was born and in a land which to her was far away.
b.	But this was not just history.
i.	This God who had rendered powerless the greatest nation in the world at that time: Egypt, was about to change her world.
ii.	The promises of God were true; Jericho would fall, and Canaan was 		doomed.
c.	This was not a matter of petty nationalism: Israel versus Canaan, where the 		accident of birth destined her to give loyalty to Canaan and to surrender the 		Israelites to the King of Jericho.
i.	The Lord God is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
ii.	The power of God transcended and overruled Israelites and Canaanites both.
iii.	He was the Lord Jehovah, the I Am: That is the name she uses.
d.	In the light of this, she knew how events in Canaan would turn out in the 		long view.
i.	She could see the end result.
ii.	In view of this, she made a clear decision and was ready to take extraordinary risks.
iii.	Hebrews 11:31: “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.”
B.	Joshua 2:18: The Scarlet Cord, cf. The Passover blood: Exodus 12:22-23
1.	In a sense, Rahab is like the Gentile church.
2.	Jesus was a Jew; John the Baptist called Him “The Lamb of God”.
a.	He was crucified at Jerusalem during the Passover feast, and the early Church, a Jewish church, was saved through His blood.
b.	Jesus promised that as the disciples went out to preach the Gospel in other lands, miraculous signs would follow the preaching of the Word.
i.	Indeed they did, and as a result, many Gentiles turned from their pagan religion and their immoral lifestyles to serve the living God.
ii.	They did not personally see Jesus on the cross, but they put their faith in Him, and they were saved.
3.	In Exodus, the Passover lamb was killed in the camp of Israel in the land of Goshen.
a.	Through their obedience and faith in the blood of the lamb, Israel was saved from the death of their firstborn.
b.	As they came out of Egypt there were great signs and wonders.
c.	Even the Canaanites heard of them.
i.	Even Rahab, pagan and immoral, heard of the God of Israel.
ii.	She did not see the death of the lamb at Passover or the Exodus, but she put her faith in the God of Israel.
iii.	She put out the scarlet cord as a sign of her faith; she was saved from death; and she became part of the family of Israel.
C.	What do we learn from this?
1.	First, the fact that Rahab was a harlot and a pagan Canaanite did not stop her from turning to God and receiving her blessing.
a.	She lived in a city which was already under the judgment of God; yet, she and her family were saved. 
b.	Do not let your environment, your traditional loyalties, or the pressure of your 	peers stop you from coming to God.
2.	Second, in the life of Rahab there was a direct link between knowledge and faith, faith and commitment, commitment and action. 
•	You know the truth and power of God; you know the certainty of death and 		eternity; you know the urgent need to accept Christ right now, even though it 	could bring short-term difficulties.
3.	We also see that she had a strong understanding of the sovereignty of God.
a.	Man is not the center of the universe; God is.
b.	Jericho would fall.
c.	Even if our world crumbles, the purposes of God go on.
d.	Rahab said, “. . . for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11).
III.	THE JUDGES
A.	This book begins with: “Now after the death of Joshua” (Judges 1:1).
1.	What happened here?
a.	There was no one great to lead them like Moses or Joshua.
b.	There was no one king.
c.	Everybody did what he thought was best.
2.	“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was 	 right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6 and 21:25).
B.	The cycle of the judges
1.	Backsliding, disobedience, idolatry (influenced by Canaanites)
2.	Judgment, God removes hand of blessing and protection, oppression by enemies
3.	Israelites cry out to God for help (repentance); God raises up a judge 
4.	Deliverance (God saves them); a time of peace and blessing follows
5.	The Israelites start backsliding again.
6.	Then the whole cycle repeats.
C.	Who were the judges? 
•	They were the “shophetim” (Hebrew word): meaning leaders, deliverers, and judges.
IV.	RUTH THE MOABITE
•	Understanding the character of Ruth depends on three keys: identity, loyalty, and faith.
A.	Identity
1.	In the Bible, people saw their identity in community.
2.	People did not assert their identity by saying why they were different.  Their identity was in who they belonged to.
3.	Ruth said her identity was with Naomi’s people: “Entreat me not to leave 
thee . . . .” (Ruth 1:16-17)
4.	The step of changing identity was far more difficult for Ruth than it was for Rahab.
a.	Rahab was facing a crisis.
i.	She knew her city was doomed.
ii.	She could see no other future.
b.	Ruth had better opportunities in Moab among her own people than in Judah where she might face rejection and end up with nothing.
5.	The key to Ruth’s ability to do this was loyalty.
B.	Loyalty
•	“Then he said, Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness (hesed) at the end than at the beginning . . . .” (Ruth 3:10)
1.	The translated Hebrew word “hesed” includes loyalty, faithfulness, lovingkindness, mercy, and Covenant faithfulness.
2.	Think again about ancient Israel: the extended family; the sense of community, of corporate identity; the awareness of solidarity with others.
C.	Hesed is an attribute of God
1.	Deuteronomy 7:9; Genesis 24:27; Exodus 15:13
•	He keeps His Covenant and is loyal to you.
2.	Exodus 34:6: “The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 		abounding in goodness (hesed) and truth (faithfulness).”
3.	All of Psalm 136 is about the hesed of God: “. . . for His mercy (hesed) endures 	forever.”
a.	In God’s creative and sustaining work in nature (Psalm 136:1-9)
b.	In miraculous deliverance and intervention in history (Psalm 136:10-15)
c.	In His providential work through and for His people (Psalm 136:11-22)
d.	In his mercy, deliverance, provision, and sovereignty (Psalm 136: 23-26)
4.	The hesed of God is offered (Psalm 107:1, 8, 15, 21, 31, 43):
a.	To the oppressed, the refugee, the hungry (Psalm 107:1-9)
b.	To those whose sins have brought them hard circumstances (Psalm 107:10-16)
c.	To those whose sins have brought emotional disturbance (Psalm 107:17-22)
d.	To those without help in dangerous circumstances (Psalm 107:23-32)
e.	In all ups and downs of life (Psalm 107:33-43)
5.	God looks for the same characteristic (hesed) in us.
a.	Ruth had it in her relationship to Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17; 3:10; cf. 2:12, 20; 4:17)
b.	Boaz understood Ruth since he was the son of Rahab.
c.	From this line came David, Solomon, the kings of Judah, and Jesus Christ.
d.	While some nice things were going on with Ruth at this time, it was also a 		period of danger in Israel because a new people, known as the Philistines, had 	arrived in the land in great number.
V.	THE INVASION OF THE PHILISTINES
A.	Who were they?
1.	They were an Indo-European people.
2.	They had great knowledge of metal, especially the working of iron.
3.	They were prepared to take over the same land the Israelites were just possessing.
B.	God’s Deliverance
1.	The Judges
a.	Samson (a foolish man who disobeyed God many times)
b.	Samuel
2.	The Kings: This will be our subject in the next session.
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Discuss the lessons we learn from Rahab’s faith. Apply these lessons to situations that people in your culture face when they risk being identified with Christians openly.
2.	Discuss how it is possible for God to accept and use pagans, idolaters, and prostitutes in His plan of redemption.
SELF-STUDY
1.	Study the book of Judges and then follow the instructions below to prepare a chart on the cycle of Judges.
a.	List the steps in the chart.
b.	List the various reasons and times of backsliding.
c.	List the names of the Israelites’ various oppressors.
d.	List the different times of repentance.
e.	List the names of the judges that God used to deliver the Israelites in each occasion.
2.	Write out some practical and spiritual lessons that you can learn from the events in Judges.
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 8: The Kings, David, Psalms, and Hebrew Poetry
INTRODUCTION
We have already seen many key ideas from our studies of the Old Testament.
These are: 
1. 	Covenant
2. 	Loyalty
3.	Identity
4.	Faith
We saw the last three expressed more in the life of Ruth. All are connected together. The same occurred in the life of Rahab. We also saw these in many of the leaders of Israel.
In this session, we are going to look at a new development in the history of the people of God.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	FROM ISRAEL’S TRIBAL CONFEDERATION TO MONARCHY
A.	The Philistine threat
B.	Samuel, Saul, and David
1.	Samuel was the last of the judges and the first of the prophets.
2.	Saul started well, but became proud.
a.	“Saul answered and said, ‘Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?’” 
(1 Samuel 9:21)
b.	Read 1 Samuel 15:12. “So when Samuel . . . .”
c.	In 1 Samuel 15:22-23, Saul was rejected as king.
d.	Saul was finally alienated from Samuel, from David, and from God.
e.	He then went to consult a witch.
3.	David spent seven years in Hebron.
a.	He captured Jerusalem.
b.	Great success, great blessing, great failure, great forgiveness
c.	Psalm 51
d.	David understood the spiritual principles that lay behind the Old Testament 		ceremonies.
II.	PSALMS: HEBREW POETRY
A.	When we think of King David, we often think of the book of Psalms because David was 		a psalmist, a poet, a musician, and a singer.
•	However, there are songs from many different poets in the book of Psalms. 
B.	Hebrew poetry is also found in many other parts of the Bible.
1.	As quotations in the historical books, in most of the prophets, and in the wisdom literature
2.	Nearly all of Job is also poetry, as is all of Lamentations.
3.	There are songs of praise, celebrations of holy days, prayers for help, prophecies about Christ, expressions of grief.
III.	THREE CHARACTERISTICS IN HEBREW POETRY:
A.	Parallelism: ideas that run in parallel
1.	Synonymous parallelism emphasizes the truth by repetition.
a.	Psalm 19:1: We call this synonymous parallel.
i.	Psalm 19:2
ii.	Psalm 19:7
iii.	Psalm 19:8
b.	Now try Psalm 114.
2.	Synthetic parallelism keeps to the same truth but adds a new thought. There is development.
a.	“And I will send fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour her palaces.”
(Amos 1:7)
b.	The expression, “It will devour” goes just a little further than “I will send fire.”
•	It describes the result of the fire.
c.	Sometimes you will find a series of synonymous parallels suddenly climaxing in 	a new line which completes the idea.
d.	Read Psalm 2:1-6.
3.	Antithetic parallelism
•	This emphasizes a truth by contrast and is very common in Proverbs.
(Proverbs 12:1-2, 5, 18)
B.	Figurative speech
1.	Let’s go back to Psalm 2.
2.	Read Psalm 2:3-4.
3.	Psalm 23:1-4
4.	Remember when you come to poetry in the Old Testament that it is using language in a special way.
5.	It is not a literal language.
a.	The hand of God and the eye of the Lord are figures of speech.
b.	Jesus said God is a Spirit.
c.	God is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-10).
6.	“The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110:1).
a.	Footstool expresses total defeat and subjection.
b.	Right hand expresses a place of honor.
7.	“God stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in” (Isaiah 40:22).
•	Hardly literal!
8.	“Who has measured the waters (of the sea) in the hollow of His hand, measured the heavens with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” (Isaiah 40:12)
9.	“Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales . . . .” (Isaiah 40:15)
10.	“So the heavens are a curtain, a tent, a set of clothes” (Psalm 102:25-27).
C.	Emotional expression
1.	Another characteristic of Hebrew poetry is its intense emotional expression.
a.	The writers communicated their very strong feelings of joy, of despair, of cries for justice.
b.	You have to remember this when you read the psalms: They are saying, “This is what it really feels like when you are in this situation.”
2.	Some of the psalms are also prophecies (Psalm 22). 
3.	David was a prophet as well as a poet.
IV.	SOLOMON’S REIGN AND WISDOM
•	David was a man of war, but Solomon was a man of peace.
A.	Solomon’s wisdom
1.	Wisdom in judging (1 Kings 3:28)
2.	Wisdom in politics (1 Kings 5:12)
a.	Among his own people to administer justice
b.	In international relations
3.	The temple and the palace
a.	Pride, wealth, marriages, backsliding
b.	He created an aristocracy.
•	It affected the role of women.
c.	He was judged by God (1 Kings 11).
d.	The kingdom divided.
B.	Wisdom literature
1.	“He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a dog by the ears” (Proverbs 26:17).
2.	“Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp will be put out in deep darkness” (Proverbs 20:20).
3.	“Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight” (Proverbs 11:1).
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Discuss the result of being isolated from godly people, as expressed by Saul.
2.	Review David’s life. Discuss what made him a “man after God” despite his great failures.
3.	How did Solomon’s love of women affect his relationship with God? What lessons can we learn from this?
SELF-STUDY
1.	Compare and contrast Saul with David. What similarities and differences can you discover in these two kings?
2.	Study Psalm 114.
a.	What type of parallelism is used?
b.	Practice the parallelism, line by line, of Hebrew poetry that is in this Psalm.
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 9: Wisdom Literature, Division, and Exile
INTRODUCTION
We ended our last session talking about Solomon. He is associated especially with two things. The first is the building of the temple in Jerusalem. The second is the giving of wisdom: wisdom in his politics, in administration, in judgment, and in proverbs (literature).
One book which is associated with the name of Solomon is the book of Ecclesiastes. This is a very important book for this time in history. A man is looking for an answer to life and he looks for it in building great projects, in the pleasures of his body, in all aspects of life he can think of; and every time it ends in nothing. Life is deeply unsatisfying.
He eventually comes to one conclusion: The thing that is most important is to do the will of God. But this is not the end, it is the beginning, of wisdom. This is the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. There is a key expression in the book: under the sun.
If you are looking for satisfaction under the sun, you will never find it. You have to go beyond the sun to the great Creator Himself.
Another book of wisdom literature is the book of Job.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	THE BOOK OF JOB
•	Nobody knows exactly when this book was written, but it describes a situation in very ancient history, perhaps at the time of the Patriarchs, Abraham, and Isaac.
A.	Job was a good man who suffered terrible things.
1.	God allowed Job to go through a period of testing.
2.	But something was wrong with Job’s theology.
•	His theology was: “If I do right, I will have good health and material 			prosperity. If I do wrong, bad things will happen to me physically and  		materially.”
3.	So when God allowed Job to go through a period of testing, there was a problem.
4.	He lost everything without committing a terrible sin.
•	His particular view of God did not match his experience.
B.	Job’s friends
1.	They had the same view of God as Job did.
a.	Eliphaz is gentle and kind in his approach, but wrong in his doctrine.
b.	Bildad is a religious legalist.
c.	Zophar is a religious dogmatist.
d.	Elihu wants to correct everybody, but has nothing new to add.
2.	All of them hold the same position.
C.	Job’s theology changed.
1.	Many innocent people suffer.
2.	Many oppressors are strong, rich men.
3.	God blesses people, but not necessarily all the time.
4.	When disaster comes, it is not necessarily a result of sin.
5.	God does the right things.
D.	God’s answers
1.	To Job
2.	To Job’s friends: They must repent and Job should intercede for them.
3.	God healed Job and brought him great blessings.
4.	Job learned to trust God in a new way.
II.	DIVISION c. 931 BC
•	The disobedience of Solomon and his pride led to the division of the Kingdom after 		Solomon’s death.
A.	The Kingdom of Israel
1.	Israel in 9th century BC
a.	Not all of Israel’s kings were from the same family.
•	Its early years were unstable.
b.	King Omri established firm political control and built Samaria as a new capital city to rival Jerusalem.
c.	Omri’s son, Ahab, married Queen Jezebel, a Canaanite.
d.	God raised up Elijah the prophet to bring these northern tribes back to God.
e.	Ahaziah (1 Kings 22:40)
f.	Jehoram, Ahaziah’s brother (2 Kings 1:17)
g.	Jehu carried out a military coup in Israel, c. 841 BC, against idolatry and Baal, but he was not a good or righteous man.
•	He established a dynasty of five kings.
h.	Then in the 8th century, Israel again fell into a period of instability.
2.	Israel in 8th century BC
a.	The rise of Assyria, tribute system, deportation
b.	Prophets: Amos, Hosea, Micah
c.	Look at the first verses of the books to see when these prophets prophesied.
i.	733 BC: Tiglathpileser III, an Assyrian king, deported most of the people.
ii.	722 BC: Samaria was destroyed during the end of Shalmaneser V’s reign and the beginning of Sargon II’s reign.
B.	The Kingdom of Judah
1.	The Kingdom of Judah had two advantages.
a.	All their kings came from one dynasty, one family: the royal house of David 		and Solomon.
•	This should have given them more political stability.
b.	The capital was the city of Jerusalem, so the Temple of the Lord and the 		Levitical priests were at the center of national life.
i.	This should have made it harder for Judah to backslide spiritually.
ii.	Sadly, some of Judah’s kings were bad. 
2.	Three of Judah’s kings
a.	Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:5-7) trusted in the Lord and was a strong, good king.
b.	Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, did much evil in the sight of the Lord. 
(2 Kings 21:3, 6-7, 10-16)
c.	Josiah, grandson of Manasseh (2 Kings 22-23), was a very good king. He tried 		to reform the country.
i.	Discovered the Book of the Law (1 Kings 22)
ii.	Turned to God and made a great series of reforms (1 Kings 23:6-7, 10-13)
iii.	God blessed Josiah during his own lifetime, but his reforms came too late for Judah’s judgment. The Kingdom of Judah was coming to its end. The men who followed Josiah: his two sons and his brother, were not godly or competent like Josiah.
iv.	Jeremiah prophesied during the time after Josiah, saying “Do not trust in these lying words, saying ‘The Temple of the Lord . . . .’” (Jeremiah 7:4)
v.	Jeremiah’s prophecy: the broken pot/jar (Jeremiah 19)
vi.	Babylonians came and beat Assyrians. (The fall of Nineveh 612 BC)
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Discuss various ways in which man is looking for answers to life’s problems in the world today.
a.	What is the result of man’s search?
b.	Discuss the ultimate solution.
2.	Discuss Job’s problem, his faulty theology, and how this concept plagues the modern Church.
3.	What should be a balanced view of a Christian’s understanding of suffering?
4.	Pray for those who may be going through hard times among you.
SELF-STUDY
Study Hezekiah’s life and reign in 2 Kings 18-20 and write a summary statement on the following:
1.	His spiritual reform
2.	The secret of his victory in battle
3.	The importance of godly counsel
OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY
SESSION 10: Babylonian Captivity, Return from Exile,
and the Prophets
INTRODUCTION
In our last lesson, we left Judah in a very sad state. We saw how Assyria had come against the nation of Israel and then Judah. Then a new power rose known as Babylon. After destroying Nineveh, the Babylonians passed through Damascus to Jerusalem. More than once they attacked Jerusalem, and they destroyed it in the end. They also destroyed the Temple and brought the people back to the land of Babylon.
LESSON OUTLINE
I.	DESTRUCTION BY THE BABYLONIANS
A.	597 BC: Nebuchadnezzar moved against Jerusalem.
1.	Occasionally, events described in the Bible have been precisely confirmed by archaeology.
2.	Example: The capture of Jerusalem dated in 2 Chronicles 36:10 as the spring of the year was confirmed by Babylonian Chronicle as 16 March 597 BC (2 Adar, 7th yr).
•	The city was not destroyed, but the people were deported.
B.	586 BC
1.	Babylonians came again and destroyed Jerusalem.
2.	The impact of the exile of the Jews in Babylon
3.	Changes in their religious system: There was no temple, but the people gathered in small groups for prayer: synagogue.
II.	PERSIA CAPTURED BABYLON.
A.	“For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.” (Jeremiah 29:10)
1.	Babylon fell October, 539 BC.
2.	Cyrus allowed the Jews to go back and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.
3.	The time from the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC to its rededication in 516 BC was precisely 70 years.
B.	Sheshbazzar, Zerubbabel, and the High Priest Joshua
1.	We have a teamwork of national leaders (Ezra 5:1).
2.	Haggai and Zechariah
a.	Haggai 1:2, 4, 9
b.	Haggai 2:4
c.	Zechariah 4:6-7, 9-10
C.	Esther
1.	Between Ezra 6 and 7, there is a gap of 59 years.
2.	“Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)
D.	Ezra and Nehemiah
1.	Ezra 7 in 457 BC
2.	Nehemiah c. 444 BC
•	The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem
III.	THE PROPHETS
A.	Who and what were the prophets?
1.	“Nabi”: spokesmen for God
2.	Looking back, speaking out, looking forward
3.	They were not fortune-tellers but preachers of righteousness.
a.	Prophecies, Covenant loyalty, and repentance
i.	Hosea married Gomer who committed repeated adultery and became a prostitute.
ii.	“Go again . . . .” (Hosea 3:1)
iii.	Hosea 11:8a, 14:1a, 4a
b.	Prophecies and social justice
i.	Isaiah 10:1-4
ii.	Amos 2:6-7
iii.	Amos 5:12; 8:6
B.	Conditional prophecies
1.	Mountain peaks of prophecy and valleys in between
2.	They say what will take place, but not always in a given timetable.
3.	Elijah, Elisha
•	Preaching but not writing
4.	The writing prophets
•	History, prose, poetry, figurative language, symbolic language, and the beginning of apocalyptic literature

5.	Examples:
a.	Ezekiel 26: the doom of Tyre
b.	Isaiah 53: the sufferings of Jesus
c.	Jeremiah 31:31: the New Covenant, a living relationship with God for anyone
d.	Ezekiel 38: Gog and Magog
CONCLUSION
In the New Covenant relationship, we experience God’s hesed: the steadfast love of God. It is a relationship of faith.
The blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles. That blessing, which God promised Abraham 4,000 years ago, is in Jesus Christ.
GROUP DISCUSSION
1.	Discuss how the changes in the religious system of the Jews during their exile prepared the way for the spreading of the Gospel by the early Church.
2.	What is the misconception that people have about the prophets, and how can the study of Old Testament prophets correct this misconception?
3.	What is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, according to Jeremiah 31:31?
SELF-STUDY
Study Hebrews 8-10 and list reasons why the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant.