I’m excited to be teaching this Fall series on the Bible, God’s Word and the foundation of our beliefs. There have always been those among us who’ve asked me why it’s important to know what’s in the Old Testament, and it’s questions like this that confirmed to me that it was time to reacquaint all of us, or teach to others for the first time, about The Big Story: Experiencing the Whole Story of the Bible.
Why We Study the First Five Books of the Old Testament
- We believe that ALL scripture is inspired by God and profitable (2 Tim. 3:16)
- Jesus said that He came to fulfill the Law (the Torah) and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17-20)
- We learn about God’s promise-keeping character (Gen. 22:14)
- We understand the destruction that happens when living a life without God at the center
- It is against this backdrop of sacrificing animals for our sin and hundreds of laws to maintain that Jesus’ sacrifice of dying on the cross, once and for all sin, is such good news! We only realize how necessary and sweet the Gospel is, when we understand how bad things are without a Savior!
The Torah
The first five books in our Bible are referred to as the Torah. In Hebrew Torah literally means teaching or instruction. The Greek word for these first five books is the Pentateuch. Since the Bible is laid out by genre, and not always in a chronological fashion, these five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are referred to as “The Law.”
This section of our Bible sets the stage for the rest of the redemption story that will span all of world history. As our friends from the Bible Project would say, “the Bible is one unified story that leads to Jesus.” There are specific prophecies about Jesus someday coming to destroy the evil one and his works as early as the third chapter of Genesis (Gen. 3:15).
Interesting Facts about Torah
- The Torah makes up 20% of the entire Bible.
- Genesis is the second-longest book in the Bible.
- The Old Testament content makes up 75% of the Bible.
As we are learning the overall arc of each genre of Scripture, I want to remind you of a few key timeline points to remember.
The Beginning
Genesis, the first book of the Bible, does tell the story of creation and how God’s good world is corrupted and polluted by human’s decision to disobey God and thereby sin. Sin not only puts humans on a path to separation from God, but it introduces guilt, shame, trauma, and relational brokenness, and affects all of creation. The first 11 chapters of the book tell the story of humans who continue to disobey God and live for themselves instead of worshiping God. The word for “worship” (bow down) doesn’t even appear until Genesis 22!
Key Events in Genesis 1-11
- Creation (Gen. 1): God created the heavens, the earth, and humans
- Fall (Gen. 3): Humans introduce sin into the world by eating forbidden fruit
- Flood (Gen. 6): Things get so wicked in the world that God sends a flood and repopulates the earth through one man (Noah) and his three sons and their wives.
- Tower of Babel (Gen. 11): As the world is being repopulated, instead of worshipping God, humans elevate themselves and try to build a tower to reach God (put themselves among the divine), so God comes down and gives people different languages. The people are unable to finish the tower and begin to spread out because they are now speaking different languages.
If you take the first five books and look for an organizing principle, you can consider two men in the foreground.
Abraham and Family: Genesis 12-50
God chooses one man to be the father of a nation in Genesis 12. He calls him to go to a land that we now call “Israel” and promises that he will be a father, not only to children but to nations. This feels like a cruel trick when decades go by and Abraham and his wife Sarah don’t have children. Finally, when he is 99 years old, an angel comes and promises that Sarah will have a son, which seems “laughable” to her, but the next year she gives birth to Isaac. Isaac and his wife Rebekah have twins, Esau and Jacob.
While Esau has many children who become different people groups, it is Jacob’s 12 sons that make up the beginning of the nation of Israel. God’s intent is to bless every nation of the world through his chosen nation. God’s chosen people end up in Egypt because of a famine and one of Jacob’s sons named Joseph serves as second in command to Pharoah. After Joseph was gone, the Egyptians made slaves of God’s chosen people, and so they prayed and cried out for a deliverer. They were slaves in Egypt for 400 years!
Moses: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Exodus: Moses becomes the deliverer that is sent by God to help the Israelites “exit” Egypt and head back toward the promised land that Abraham was given by God This is the story of the their exit from their enslavement in Egypt.
God performs all sorts of miracles through Moses and he leads the people of God for 40 years as they wander in the desert being prepared to go into the promised land. This 40-year camping trip is what we have captured in these last four books of the Torah, beginning in the book of Exodus.
The people of God receive “the Law” contained in the 10 Commandments, and in total 613 commands are a part of the partnership (covenant) with God.
Leviticus: The priests get specific instructions on purity and worship which serve as a handbook for their duties in the tabernacle.
Numbers: In the book of Numbers, this growing nation is counted in a census.
Deuteronomy: Moses delivers the law a second time to this new generation of Israelites and then dies before the people cross the Jordan River and go back into the promised land.
Recognizing the Need for the Gospel
Contrasting the sacrificing of animals for our sin while keeping hundreds of legalistic rules and rituals, with the sacrifice of Jesus’ shedding His blood for us on the cross to forgive all sin once and for all, is so powerful. We can understand how necessary and sweet the Gospel is as we grasp how bad life is without a Savior!
It is my prayer that as we go through this series, you will get acquainted, or re-acquainted with God’s Word and learn to love and cherish it! May God bless you through the power of His Holy Spirit to grow deeper in your understanding and appreciation for His Word!
I look forward to seeing you next Sunday at our Worship Service in the Dome at 10:00 a.m.
You can also live stream our service on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 a.m.
If you missed last Sunday's message, "The Big Picture #4 - The Torah", click here.
You can find "The Big Picture" Digging Deeper reference material here
