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Category: Joshua – Esther – Old Testament History

Old Testament History lessons: Joshua – Job

scriptures from Old Testament history. (Many lessons for a 21st c. world.) SHARE history’s lessons with your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ who think the TV News is ‘new.’ What is your WITNESS for Christ Jesus?

  • Looking Back – Chronicles of the Years

    “So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. – 2 Chronicles 15:6 NKJV

    Chronicles is more than just recording the history of the hebrew people. Kings and other historical books of the Bible record the events of a nation. Why would someone write out a history of events which will only be read by generations to come? God knows.

    In Looking Back – Nations in the eyes of the LORD we examined history from the perspective of God. Why would the LORD allow His chosen people to fall into captivity? In fact, the Lord had warned Israel to keep her covenants since the time of Moses. 

    We observed that events predicted by Prophets would be like someone in pre-colonial days accurately predicting the amazing power of the United States today.

    The Lord knows what will happen, revealing future events to Prophets. Surely the Lord holds power over the nations and reveals events impacting His chosen people Israel.

    The Lord had a hand in the fall of Jerusalem many times and also in the rebirth of Israel in the 20th century.

    Two Perspectives – Looking Ahead and Looking Back

    Looking back on the nations by the Lord always comes from an all-knowing perspective of everlasting to everlasting. ‘God only knows,’ would be man’s best expression.

    Human perspectives of mankind measured in years can look ahead in speculation or back in retrospection. The chronicles of years of mortal men record history as it happened or as events take place presently. Some Prophets with longevity like Daniel reveal the future from the Lord, then live to record some fulfillment. Even the Psalmists reveal prophesy from the Lord in songs of present praise or lament.

    Moses chronicles the journey of the Hebrew people to and from slavery in Egypt. Yet the Lord reveals not only the Law through Moses, but also prophesy as Moses records history.

    Do the warnings of Deuteronomy not reveal precisely how Israel would turn away from the Lord? 

    The book of Kings records the history of a United Israel and division into the kings of Judah and kings of Israel. Kings reveals which kings ‘did evil in the sight of the Lord’ or what good they accomplished. It continues with defeats, captivity and restoration in an account nearly parallel to Chronicles.

    So what’s the difference in these two books? (One scroll practically reads like the other.)

    1 & 2 CHRONICLES
    The ACTS of the Old Testament

    I want to attribute the apt description above and following explanation of this historical book [a single scroll in Hebrew] to Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

    WRITER: Probably Ezra. There is a striking resemblance in style and language to the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Evidently Chronicles was written during the Babylonian captivity… probably between 450 and 435 B.C.

    Ezra records events which go back to and before the chart above, again, like you or I might do to record historic events for centuries preceding us. Again, Dr. McGee observes:

    COMMENT: Many treat Chronicles and Kings as if they were “Cabbages and Kings.” Are the Chronicles a duplication of Kings? Although they cover the same ground from Saul to Zedekiah, they are not duplications…

    In Kings, the history of the nation is given from the throne; in Chronicles, it is given from the altar. The palace is the center in Kings; the temple is the center in Chronicles. Kings records the political history; Chronicles records the religious history…

    Kings gives us man’s viewpoint; Chronicles gives us God’s viewpoint (note this well as you read Chronicles; it will surprise you).

    To be continued…

     

  • Banquet of the King in the House of Wisdom – 5

    Banquet of the King in the House of Wisdom – 5

    Wisdom and King Solomon

    2 Chronicles 1:

    Solomon the son of David established himself in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great.

    In case you came into our series late, Part 1:

    We have explored great wisdom shared with us mostly from Proverbs, wisdom of kings and of leaders. The Bible’s wisdom whispers to the wise, yet our experience resounds with shouts of fools.

    How did a wise and powerful King Solomon begin his reign over a united Israel at the height of its glory? In prayer.

    9 O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.

    2 Chronicles 1:10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”

    Leadership and Wisdom

    Would a king or president, prince, premier or prime minister pray now to God for wisdom? Though we might hope for our leader’s wise guidance from God, political leaders and kings lead the people astray, rarely calling on God for direction.

    1 Kings 4:

    29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men…

    32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005…

    34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

    Yet an older King Solomon would lament:

    Nothing is new under the sun.

    What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done,
    and there is nothing new under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 1:9

    Certainly for kings and presidents: All is vanity. 

    No man can accomplish in this brief breath of life even a portion of what God can do.

    Ten centuries later (AD 1st c.)

    The LORD, therefore, would send to us another son of David. In Person and in power, a Son of Man would speak the words of life in parables. His words show the way, are the truth and will be the life for those who believe. He invites common sinners to the banquet table of of the King. 

    This son of David, son of adam invites you to the wisdom of heaven. You with ears to hear hear the living word from the house of eternal wisdom. Hear the good news of the King who invites you to His banquet.

    To be continued…

     

  • for it was not the season for figs – 5

    for it was not the season for figs – 5

    The Lord vs. Kings

    We began this series examining an incident of the Lord Jesus cursing a fig tree. 

It seemed so unlike the Son of Man who would a few days later sacrifice His own blood as perfect Passover sacrifice for the sins of man.

    In the Beginning:

    It is in Eden where we first hear of the leaves of the fig tree made to cover sin.

    Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

    Recall that in the beginning, after the Lord created the heavens and the earth, He walked with man {adam} and the woman {Eve} He had created. He walked with them personally.

    The Lord then gave the Law to Moses and appeared to Moses and the Elders of Israel personally

    THEY FEARED His awesome Presence!

    The Law was then administered by judges, not Kings.

    Later the Lord would relent and grant a king to Israel in Saul.

    Yet prior to Saul’s anointing we hear a parable preached against the people who wanted to replace their seventy judges with a king.

    In the previous episode we briefly looked at the story of the hero Gideon, after which this story is told.

    Judges 9:

    Parable of the Trees
    The Olive Tree
    the olive tree is the national tree of Israel

    8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them,

    and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’

    9 But the olive tree said to them,

    ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’

    Olive oil was used for lamps, grain offerings and anointing Kings of Israel.

    The Fig Tree

    10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’

    11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’

    The fig tree was a common metaphor for Israel as a nation. It often symbolized the health of the nation both spiritually and physically.

    The Grape Vine

    12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’

    13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’

    “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

    1 Corinthians 11:25
     Brambles [Thornbush]

    14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’

    15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, 

    of course, a bramble bush cannot offer shade

    … but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’

    For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. – Deuteronomy 4:24

    And you have asked for a King?

    Christ Crowned with Thorns

    So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him,

    “Are you the King of the Jews?”

    John 18:33

    To be continued…