OT Themes

Okay, so here’s some of the themes we’ve been seeing in our OT study so far. (At least I have!)

God lovingly gathers, we lovingly gather to Jesus through the Spirit. Follow not only the scarlet thread of redemption, but the gathering presence of God thread through the Scriptures.

God intercedes, we intercede through the Spirit for people’s guilt and shame.

God delivers, we deliver. 

Q and A/rabbi, student/father, son type of discipleship or conversation going on.  Paul said these are examples for us to use (1 Cor 10:11).

God first shows us how each of these are done, then expects his students to go out and do these things by His Spirit. God intercedes and covers our sins in the Garden by placing skins of animals on Adam and Eve. Then his priests intercede through the temple system for sins. Now, we are the kingdom of priests and intercede for the world through the Spirit (Rom 8). God lovingly desires to gather by His Spirit in creation and gathers Israel. Jesus desires to gather us in. Through His Spirit we are to gather to Christ, reconciling the world to God. God delivers Israel through His representatives. God delivers us through us through Jesus who broke our chains. We are to deliver others by His Spirit.

In case anyone is interested, below is another assignment I wrote last year for school, this time for my Old Testament class, dealing with Joshua through Samuel.

(By the way, I recently sent out a post with a link to a song I’ve always liked but failed check the lyrics on it first to see if they were appropriate. I apologize if I’ve inadvertently offended anyone. And may God have mercy on us all in this storm.)

God’s Autobiography

In the Deuteronomistic History we see God as main character, but more importantly, as author. The Great Teacher’s pedagogy is displayed through His way of training the Israelites to cooperate with Him through His historical acts.

In Joshua we see God’s general modus operandi. First God showed the Israelites how to conquer a city like Jericho, and then He sent them out in His Spirit to conquer others.  Judges 3:1, 2 states “These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience).” David also says in 2 Samuel 22:36, “He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”  

Likewise, Jesus showed His disciples how to deliver people from demons and diseases and then sent “them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.” Luke 10:1

In Joshua we also have The How To, where at Joshua’s word the sun stands still: “There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded a human voice, for the Lord fought for Israel” (Joshua 10:14), but the book also includes this caution, “One of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the Lord your God who fights for you, as he promised you.  Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.” (Joshua 23:10)) Their duty was to be bold and fearless, that is, full of faith in the Lord as the Divine Warrior who fought alongside them.

In Joshua we also have God’s How Not To—Do not keep things devoted to the Lord, such as the Israelites did at Ai or make a treaty without asking direction from the Lord, such as they did with the Gibeonites.

In Judges, the recurring formulas and the patterns and cycles of history shows the author’s primary concerns and, therefore, God’s concerns. The main cycle seen over and over in Judges is: apostasy, hardship, crying out to the Lord, and rescue. The rescue comes from someone appointed by God and empowered by His Spirit. Through these examples we see how God chooses to work with human beings. In both the Old and New Testaments, the Spirit gave people the ability or authority to do what they normally could not have done.

The book’s downward spiral motif shows “the reason why a king was needed as inferred from Judges, was to help the people do what was right in the eyes of the lord, so that oppression would not come. Merely to have someone in charge who would go out and fight their battles for them missed the point of the Judges narrator entirely.” (Hill and Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, p. 241)

In Ruth, God provides a remnant and shows His love and care of the individual, even foreigners; the book of Ruth introduces the Lord’s active hesed, love and faithfulness. He also reveals how He first works with an individual, like Ruth, then a faithful family, like Boaz’s Ephrathites, and then to a nation, like Israel through their grandson David.

In 1 and 2 Samuel, we see God’s plan to work with His rulers, versus the typical way a secular king rules. Jesus too turned the world’s authority structure on its head. (Matt 20: 25-27) In Deuteronomy chapter 17 “strict guidelines are given which clearly distinguish between the usual type of pagan despotic ruler and the king whose rule reflects the covenant relationship with the living God.” (Goldsworthy, According to Plan, 165) The king should be a brother whom God chooses and should not acquire many horses or have the people go to Egypt for more, not have many wives or his heart may be led astray, not acquire much wealth; and should write for himself a copy of the Law, read it all his days, revere the Lord, follow the Law, and not consider himself better than his brothers.

In Samuel we see this style of kingship exemplified through the contrast between Saul’s leadership style and David’s type of covenantal leadership. When Saul offered a sacrifice without waiting for Samuel, “in doing so, he followed a Canaanite model of kingship, in which the king had certain priestly prerogatives” (Survey of the Old Testament, 264). He hadn’t seen God’s model for leadership in the king being in submission to the prophet, and where both are in submission to the Spirit of the God and the Law.

In Samuel we are also introduced to the Davidic covenant and how we are to walk with God in a parental relationship that evokes discipline rather than rejection (Survey of the Old Testament, 271).

The finding of God in the history of Israel is a bit like discovering the treasures of parables. “It is the glory of God to conceal things; but the glory of kings is to search things out.” And like the birth setting of His Savior, He has put into the biblical narratives possible items of stumbling. But with diligent looking, we find God’s character and how He wants human beings to work in concert with Him.