The Victory Stele of Esarhaddon

This is the victory stele of Esarhaddon.    Esarhaddon was the king of Assyria from 681-669 B.C.  This stele graphically represents the suzerain - vassal relationship.  The large figure is Esarhaddon the suzerain and below him are two vassal kings kneeling before him.  The two kings are Ba'al, the king of Tyre, and Unshunkuru, the crown prince of Egypt.   Until the Assyrians, most covenants were tools of diplomacy meant to prevent war.  The Assyrians were bent on conquest and so most of their covenants were meant to subjugate people they had conquered.  In keeping with this arrangement, the sanction clause of Assyrian covenants contained no blessings and a lot of curses.  You will notice that, Esarhaddon is holding two ropes that hook to rings on the noses of the two crouching kings.

Week 2 Prayer Request

1.  Gabe Lundberg has an appointment October 15 with a Pediatric Ophthalmologist concerning a possible diagnosis of Juvenile X-Linked Retinoschisis.

2.  Leilani Owens has a great class this year, but is having to train 3 new teachers.

3.  The Howell's neighbor, Debbie, whose 23 year-old son committed suicide.

4.  Gary Owens' friend from small group, Jack Blackaby who recently received a difficult diagnosis

5.  Our small group

6.  Wisdom for the Merrill's as Josh is spending time with a Mormon family.

Week 2 Homework

Week 2 Homework

We did not have time to get to the material covered by last week's homework, so the homework this week is the same as week 1.  

We are going to attempt to organize the Bible and the concept of the Kingdom of God into some sort of framework - a beginning, middle, and end that will help us see the story more clearly.  However, we want to see how the Bible organizes itself not what I might think is a good way to do it - that is what we are trying to get away from with our approach  

Often we view the Old Testament as one thing - usually the law.  However, Paul does not see it that way.  Your homework is to read these passages and try to determine how Paul divides the Old Testament.  HINT: Paul divides the Old Testament into three parts.  

Galatians 3:10-18

1.  Paul describes two principles at work in the history of the Old Testament what are they?

2.  What time period or with whom are these two principles associated with?

Romans 5:12-14

The Romans passage is particularly difficult, but it contains some key points that we are going to be examining for the rest of the class.  Here are two questions to ask yourself that will help you try to figure it out.  

1.  Why does Paul say that death reigned from Adam to Moses, why not from Adam to Jesus?  In other words, what is different about the time from Adam to Moses?

2.  Why does Paul distinguish the sin of the people from Adam to Moses from the sin of Adam?

Chris’ homework is to study the difference between the Greek words ἁμαρτία and παράβασις.  In what situation does the LXX use the word παράβασις?

Week 2

The Kingdom of God

Are you uncomfortable with the Kingdom of God as the central organizing principle of the Bible?

-  Why not the death and resurrection of Christ?

-  Why not justification by faith?

Our uneasiness results because we have a 17th or 18th century European model of a kingdom and not an Ancient Near Eastern model.  

In a European model there is a king and subjects and the subject are to obey the rules and laws of the king.  

Q.  What happens to subjects of the king that do not obey the law?

If the subjects do not obey then they are wiped out by the king.  

                                                  King

             

                             Obey                                    

                                          

               

                                              Subjects

The European model creates a legalistic/authoritarian model of a kingdom which is why we are uneasy allowing it to be the organizing principle of the Bible.

In the Ancient Near East the model looks different.  Instead of a king and subjects, there were actually three levels: the suzerain, the vassal, and the subjects.  

                                                         Suzerain

                                           Obey

       

                                                          Vassal

                                                       

                                                         Subjects

Pharaoh was the earthly representative of the sun god Amun-Ra.  Amun-Ra is the suzerain and pharaoh is the vassal.  To the degree that the pharaoh correctly pleases Amun-Ra through his actions and rites, the pharaoh’s subjects benefit by Amun-Ra’s maintenance of ma’at.  

In Babylon the King was seen as the earthly representative of Marduk.

II Chronicles 9:8  -  Israel has similar concept.  

In the Ancient Near East this concept also worked between different nations.  The arrangement to form this relationship is called a covenant.  

Example:  Egypt may have a bigger army than the Hittites but fighting a war would by costly for both.  Instead of having a battle the Hittites from a covenant with the Egyptians.  The Egyptians promise the Hittites protection in exchange for the loyalty of the Hittites.  

Covenants usually have six parts:

1.  Preamble - Identifies parties

2.  Historical Prologue - Story of the relationship between the two parties

3.  Stipulations - Actions required of the parties

4.  Documentary Clause - Arrangement for storage of the covenant document

5.  Divine Witness - Statement about who oversees covenant

6.  Sanctions - curses and blessings the divine witnesses will administer depending

     on the obedience of the vassal to the stipulation

Q.  In this model how do the subjects, say a simple date farmer, receive the blessings and curses of the covenant?

-  The blessings and curses are based on how well the vassal keeps the covenant stipulations.  

I Kings 9:1-9 shows that Ancient Israel had this concept.  

-  The European concept of monarchy only has two levels, the Ancient Near East has three.  The vassal king acts as a mediator between the suzerain and the subjects.

Q.  How does this construct work in Christianity?

-  God is the suzerain, Jesus is the vassal, and we are the subjects who receive the blessing of the covenant based on Jesus’ obedience.  

Q.  What principle operates between the suzerain and the vassal?  What principle operates between the vassal and the people?

-  This is why the birth of a King in Luke is good news to shepherds.  Jesus is the obedient Vassal King who will bring the blessings of the Suzerain to his people. 

-  Those who recognize Jesus as the obedient Vassal king and identify themselves with Him will receive the blessings of the Kingdom.  That is why when Jesus heals people He tells them their faith has made him well.

-  Using this model, faith becomes a more concrete and less abstract concept.  Faith is like when the Fellowship of the Rings when the Fellowship pledge their lives to Frodo.  They have faith in Frodo in his plan and his work.

-  So we see the Kingdom is about faith, faith in the vassal King Jesus.  This concept contains the concept of grace since the subjects receives the blessing through the work of the vassal and not their own work.  All of this is accomplished in the person of Jesus.  

Week 1 Prayer Requests

1.  The Lundberg's neighbor passed away from cancer leaving behind her husband.

2.  The Howell's neighbor, Debbie, whose 23 year-old son committed suicide.

3.  The Howell's neighbor who is awaiting the results of a lymph node biopsy after being diagnosed with malignant melanoma.

4.  Aarron's friend, Rainey, who was recently diagnosed with a lung tumor.

5.  That our small group would be a profitable time and that we would get more people from the church involved.  

Week 1 Homework

Week 1 Homework

Q.  Does the idea that the theme of the Bible is the Kingdom of God bother you?  What don’t you like about it?  We will open the next session of small group with this question.  

We are going to attempt to organize the Bible and the concept of the Kingdom of God into some sort of framework - a beginning, middle, and end that will help us see the story more clearly.  However, we want to see how the Bible organizes itself not what I might think is a good way to do it - that is what we are trying to get away from with our approach  

Often we view the Old Testament as one thing - usually the law.  However, Paul does not see it that way.  Your homework is to read these passages and try to determine how Paul divides the Old Testament.  HINT: Paul divides the Old Testament into three parts.  

Galatians 3:10-18

1.  Paul describes two principles at work in the history of the Old Testament what are they?

2.  What time period or with whom are these two principles associated with?

Romans 5:12-14

The Romans passage is particularly difficult, but it contains some key points that we are going to be examining for the rest of the class.  Here are two questions to ask yourself that will help you try to figure it out.  

1.  Why does Paul say that death reigned from Adam to Moses, why not from Adam to Jesus?  In other words, what is different about the time from Adam to Moses?

2.  Why does Paul distinguish the sin of the people from Adam to Moses from the sin of Adam?

Chris’ homework is to study the difference between the Greek words ἁμαρτία and παράβασις.  In what situation does the LXX use the word παράβασις?

Week 1

What is the Theme of the Bible? 

-  We want to look at the Bible as a coherent story and see how it all fits together.  Typically we look at the Bible from the perspective of exegesis or systematically.  Both approaches are valuable but they have their deficiencies.  Exegesis focuses on only a small portion of the Bible, whereas systematics looks at topics extracted from the story.  One sees the trees and misses the forest, the other zooms out and misses the forrest. 

-  The benefits of this approach will be to:

    1.  Get more out of our own reading of scripture.  If we understand the overall theme 

     then we can see how passages fit together.  

    2.  Understand the Old Testament better and hopefully make it relevant. 

    3.  See the gospel throughout the whole Bible and see God’s plan of redemption 

    woven throughout the Bible even in parts like the genealogies.  

    4.  Communicate the Old Testament to our children better.  

Q.  What are some problems you have teaching the Old Testament to your children?

 

-  In many ways the Bible is a difficult book particularly the Old Testament.

Q.  What are some things that are difficult for you as you study the Bible?

-  How does the Old Testament with its emphasis on law and land fit in with the New  Testament?   On this side of Christ, most of it seems unimportant and even irrelevant. 

-  It is difficult to connect the historical story of the Old Testament with Christ.

-  How does the law, land, sacrificial system, and temple find its fulfillment in the person and work of Christ?

-  It mostly contains the history of an ancient people with language, customs, and thoughts very different from our own.

-  It contains a hodgepodge of different literary styles and genres (poetry, genealogies, prophecy, and history) most of which are foreign to us.  

-  The Bible is probably not the book we would have written if we were God.  

Q.  If you wanted to communicate the message of redemption how would you have written it?

-   We would have written a neat, orderly, systematic theology in an outline form with lots of bullet points.

-   It seems like the topics are scattered and jumbled.

Our goal is to assume that God is wiser than us and try to take the Bible on its own terms and for the most part the Bible is not written as a systematic theology.  The Bible is a narrative history written in a chronological fashion and the reason it is written this way is to tell a story.

Q.  Why use a story?

-  Stories are actually a great way to communicate, even a child can understand them.  In many way 
   easier to understand than a systematic theology.

-  Stories have a beginning, middle, and end.  They are coherent and have a point.  

The key to solving this problem is to organize the story of the Bible under an overarching theme.  That is what I want us to accomplish today.  

Q.  What do you think is the theme of the Bible?  Does it have one?

-  Death and resurrection of Christ?

-  Justification by Faith?

I think the key is to discover what the New Testament views as the theme of the Bible and I think the New Testament teaches that the Kingdom of God is the theme of the Bible.  We are going to spend the rest of this class using the grid of the Kingdom of God to interpret the Bible.  I am going to use Luke & Acts to demonstrate this.  Luke & Acts act as a bridge connecting the Old Testament to Paul.  This will also give us a taste of the method we are going to be using in small group to show how the Bible fits together as a coherent story.

1.  Luke begins with stories of pious Jews like Elizabeth & Zechariah and Simeon & Anna and others awaiting the consolation of Israel - when Israel's true Davidic king would come and restore the Kingdom of Israel.  

Luke 1:31-33   Mary is told that her son will inherit the throne of David and be king and that the kingdom that comes will have no end.  These are the promises of the Old Testament that these pious Jews were looking for.  Christ is described using royal terminology and so in His kingdom, God’s purposes for Israel are being fulfilled.  

Luke 1:54-55, 1:68-75 

Q.  How do Mary and Zechariah connect the birth of Jesus to the Old Testament?  

-  He is the royal king who will bring about the promises of the covenant with Abraham.  

Luke 2:8-11 

Q.  Why is the birth of a king good news to a bunch of shepherds?

  -  This king is also a savior and his kingdom brings with it what Israel had been waiting for - the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises about the restoration of Israel and you poor, dirty, marginalized shepherds will benefit from the work of this King.   

Jesus’ baptism is an anointing where Jesus is declared the Son of God just as David had been anointed at Hebron.  Son of God is actually not a divine term but a term of royalty.  

Luke 8:1  

Q. What is the content of Jesus’ preaching?

How do we know the Kingdom of God is here - because the king is here - and why is that good news - because the king is a savior.  

Q. During Jesus’ ministry what does he do?

 -  Heals the sick, casts out demons, forgives sins.  All the kind of things the Old Testament prophets described would happen when the Kingdom of Israel is restored.  They also demonstrates Jesus’ authority as king.  

Luke 7:18-23

-  John is discouraged because he expected the Kingdom of God to come and yet here he is imprisoned.  Jesus responds by quoting Isaiah 29 which is a prophecy about the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  

Luke 11:20

-  Jesus asserts his authority as King by casting out demons.  No more is man under the rule of Satan.  That is why the birth of a king is good news because this king is a savior.

Acts 1:6-8 

-  Now that Jesus has risen, the disciples want to know when the restoration of the Kingdom will happen.  Jesus starts telling them about being witnesses and talking about the Holy Spirit

Q.  Does Jesus answer their question or is He changing the subject?

-  The Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel is the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  

Q.  When does the Holy Spirit come upon them?

-  At Pentecost, and in Peter’s sermon he explains Pentecost as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel which is a prophecy about the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  So Jesus was not changing the subject He was saying that the Holy Spirit is the Kingdom of God.

Acts 8:12  

-  For Phillip what is the content of the good news/gospel?

Acts continues with the apostles preaching the good news and the good news is what Jesus taught in Luke 8 - the Kingdom of God.  

Acts 28:30-32  

-  Acts end with Paul imprisoned in Rome and preaching to a group of Jews - and what is he preaching?  The Kingdom of God.

-   A lot of people find it disappointing that Acts ends right here.  We don’t find out what happens to Paul.  According to church history, he was released and then killed by Nero.  However, for Luke’s purpose it makes perfect sense to end here.  How does Luke begin his work?  With pious Jews awaiting the consolation of Israel and the Kingdom of God and it ends with Paul proclaiming to the Jews that the Kingdom of God has arrived through the person and work of the Jesus Christ the King whose birth is good news because He is a King who is a savior and His Kingdom is the restored Israel, the Kingdom of God that will come about through the Holy Spirit and preaching.

-  We see how Acts & Luke acts as a bridge.  We start with Old Testament Jews speaking in Old Testament Jewish concepts like the covenant of Abraham and the restoration of Israel.  Then we see Jesus come and how He fits in with this story but then He fulfills this story visibly demonstrating the fulfillment of these prophecies.  Paul’s preaching shows how Jesus’ teaching and works fit in with the Old Testament organically and so Luke links the Old Testament with Paul through Jesus.