I fully realize that I never did work all the way through the book of John, stopping at chapter 19. The thing is....I don't want to study that section of scripture right now. I'll come back to it during Passion Week, at the end of Lent.
The Bible just fascinates me! It is so amazingly complex. At the moment, I have gone back to the Old Testament this morning, to the section called The Minor Prophets. One thing we need to understand is that the books of the Old Testament are not given in chronological order. Obviously, Genesis had to come first; but, most likely, the next book (chronologically) should have been Job. And, similarly, the major and minor prophets are not given in order, in our modern day Christian Bible. Furthermore, the Jews group those same Old Testament books differently.
What I was examining this morning was the chronological order of the major and minor prophets. Although there is some question about that, we can date these books according to the kings and events they mention in the books themselves. Here is a link to a chart, which you might find enlightening.
http://minorprophetsbiblestudy.com/timeline-prophets/
This webpage, associated with Belhaven University, Jackson, MS, (a Presbyterian school) puts the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament in chronological order, according to this one Christian source. You will note that we you move down the page, the numbers get smaller, because these dates are B.C., before Christ.
Here is another reference page, this one from the Lutherans. Check it out.
http://clclutheran.org/atlanta/bibleclass/booksofbibleoverview/ot/booksofbiblechronological.html
You will see that the chronological order given here is different from that at the first link(!) You will also notice that, with the first source, some of the dates overlap. However, these prophets' messages were to different people groups within their timeframes; so, their ministries didn't overlap.
The Prophets Era in Jewish history coincides with the era of Hebrew kings. Prior to God's establishment of the first Hebrew king, Saul, through His judge, Samuel, God decreed that the Hebrew people were to be ruled by a series of "judges". As it turned out, Samuel was the last of the judges. God made it plain that He preferred this form of rule for the Hebrew people. But, since they clamored to have a king, like the pagan peoples surrounding them, God gave them their desire. This is recorded in 1 Samuel 8. Look at verse 7.
7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king.
Whoa....that's sobering. That should have indicated to the people that asking for a king was a hugely bad idea. I am digressing, however.
In my rambling around this morning, I discovered a book I may purchase, because I'd like to study this further. It's called, Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament, by John H. Walton. Dr. Walton is associated with Wheaton College, a respected Bible college, and his book, published in 1994, gets rave reviews. I want to run it by a Bible professor friend of mine first, though.
At any rate, this has been a poor devotional blog post this morning, hasn't it? I've been Ramblin' Rose...
Let's take a verse and just meditate on it this morning. How about the words of Jesus from John 6:63. Here is that verse in the NET version:
63 The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Yes! The words of the Bible, regardless of how the books are ordered, chronologically or otherwise, are spirit and they are life. Only within its pages can we discover how to truly live life to the fullest.
This is the beauty of daily devotions. Through His Word, He speaks.
Though not intending to endorse Catholicism, I love how the Catholics phrase this. The following is part of the Catholic catechism:
In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God". "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them."
Dear Lord, thank you for the beauty of Your revealed Word to us. I speak primarily of the written Word, the Bible, but also of Your Son, Your Word-Made-Flesh. Thank you for not forsaking us, as we walk through this life, as we go through this life-school. Thank you for "talking with us", giving us an instruction manual and calling us to study it diligently. In Jesus' name, amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment