Transcript for:
Biblical Theology Lecture Notes

e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e there we are great yes I went through two grad degrees with a laptop open and I mostly just texted my group chat friends you know full disclosure I did learn a few things um all right can we start countdown has concluded every uh how we doing everybody how are the brain juices so far we're going to believe believe for divine resurrection and just Resurgence of all your mental energy in the name of Jesus Amen great I love being in ation rooms you get hearty faith and amen and stuff like that well uh welcome everybody to biblical theology here we we go I'm very excited for this um this is uh this is my idea of a very good time so to get to nerd out on the entire Bible for uh three full days is just uh it's what I love to do and the fact that I get to do it with all of you is just going to make it that much better so let's uh let's just do some brief introductions here um if you wouldn't mind I'd love to go through the room and I know we're in a big giant room I'm the one that actually kind of collapsed it a little bit I just like feel together so uh I hope that's okay but uh we can just start over here in this corner and name where you are a role that you're serving in and I would love to hear your favorite ice cream flavor okay name where you are R you serve favorite ice cream ready Henry you want to go first I'm Henry I'm from I serve as our regional leader and it has to beio oo right out of the gate with pistachio that's a controversial take Henry we'll see how that uh holds up the rest of class I'm ER I serve City okay Philippines as levels are up so I to forget Icee and ice we're going to work on reminding you how much Jesus loves you so that you can enjoy it more all right yeah I made my name is I'm a Filipino serving ma okay great and my favorite ice cream flavor is pistachos pistachios two out of the three pistachio this is how you know you're out of your home country you got a lot of work yeah yeah we do yeah you better not say salted egg ice cream or we're going to have a real problem you know like yes blueberry butter cake sign me up all right great car yeah that's really big these days yep that's a good one yeah mark from the Philippines of okay Ser any kind of chocolate all right fair enough great great yep that's the it's hard to beat yeah from here Philippines I serve one of the it's a high place my favor ice the is the flavor is whenever Filipinos tell me I should try it you guys like her maybe 30% success rate whenever you say I should definitely try that's a very dangerous phrase yeah I'm Paul from China and great dude come one come all love it yeah you do all right fair enough okay I know about duria and I do know I don't want to try it so yes that is correct thank you for not I should try thank you yes I've heard the legend yeah myce and as chur and again this is so unlikely o yeah you know that's going a little Outside the Lines there because it's not just ice cream but it's amazing and we've shared it together so that's what makes it special yeah there you go what's up OED what's up my name is OED I am at church in Texas in the states over our campus ministry Communications and I don't know last night had this really great cheesecake flavor it was long it was words but it ended cheesec okay yep yes Ser as in the Philippines great div chocolate mint yeah no that's okay I'll allow it you're welcome hey Christie are from stes oh yeah that's how you know she's from the south yep great yeah there we go we can be friends yeah great we say three of you guys yeah strong orange and chocolate very controversial whether or not those things belong together but you do you amike okay you know what we will not judge you out loud anyway but [Laughter] uh all right Matt come on cookie dough cookie dough ice cream yep solid yep Matt also someone who has never failed me leading me to desserts so yeah I'm willing to follow you as you follow Christ towards sugar so yeah great avocado ice cream yep I should try it I just heard it avoc you know I have a really hot take on Avocado chol I think avocados are one of the most overrated Foods I don't dislike it I just think the hype around it is you know what we can settle down a little bit on it just a little bit $22 for avocado toast in America we can settle down just a little bit you know yeah I know I told you it was a hot take but all right yep really oh man we will never eat together is that's oh I'll be something will be born in me that is for sure I do not doubt that all right what's up Chris oh nice nice Chris you win the award for traveling the furthest to hear a guy who lives the closest so yep yep good job all right yes in the back great yeah the Filipinos and sweetness they'll get you yeah they will get you oh my gosh a a close race between durian and pistachio apparently we need salvation all over the room my name is yeah yeah yeah yep mhm yeah yes fantastic all right nice to meet you Rocky and I like sweet ice cream must caram oh yeah yeah totally yep cool okay yeah you're not going wrong there yeah you're good okay all right yes okay yeah just whatever they whatever they bring home huh fair enough fair enough that's a deep philosophical Ministry theological conundrum that uh sounds like you need Ministry on but we can work through that yeah we got two more yeah okay all right I saw the joy in your eyes Benny so that's wonderful yeah I think that TI the scales I think that did it I don't know whether to mourn uh what I'm supposed to do well my name is Seth and I am from Corvalis Oregon we're in the upper Northwest part of the United States and um I serve as lead pastor of Grace City Church uh there it's a small town it's only about 60,000 people it's about 25,000 people on campus at Oregon State University which we're right next to uh which is the campus that I got saved on uh through an every nation campus missionary that found me in the dorms and then gave my life to Christ went into campus ministry and four years later became the lead pastor at the Every Nation church and now I'm a professor at every nation Seminary I'm just uh I'm the poster child here so like I'm just on the whatever Every Nation plan there is I just I just fall in line with it and that's what I do so um yeah and my yeah my favorite my favorite ice cream we we have a place in Oregon if you do ever come to visit called salt and straw so it's a local ice cream shop starting to expand a little bit now um and they have I don't know if you've ever had a cinnamon Snicker doodle cookie I think it's a American thing but they have an ice cream built around that and it's like the best cookie you've had in the best ice cream you've had and it blesses me every time and also gives me diabetes I'm pretty sure but it's worth it um okay well um let's uh yeah where to begin we've got uh we've got quite a road ahead of us we uh what we're going to do is uh we are going to talk about the Bible from its beginning all the way to its end uh biblical theology you guys have already read your James Hamilton book and one of the challenges with Biblical theology is that there are a lot of different Nuance definitions of what it even is and you might have to go for a few more years of Seminary and start reading some much nerdier level books to even appreciate some of the differences but the perspective that you uh and I are going to walk through here together is the idea that biblical theology is trying to pull together the storylines of the Bible into the patterns that through which the authors designed them to communicate to us and uh we'll talk a little bit more about this uh this morning but it's amazing how in literature that there are multiple different layers through which authors can convey meaning and biblical theology is uh not just looking at the kind of raw ideas of a text but it's also looking about the literary structures and styles and context that are all involved with the writing itself all that to say uh you're I I'm really jealous for you if you've never gone through the story of God from its beginning to its end in a kind of formal way um then you're you're really in for a treat the Bible is absolutely incredible its authors were complete just brilliant just uh people that came together to design something for us that is an Incredible Gift uh and knowing it on the levels in which it was written to us uh I think does something to us there it's certainly possible to be up in knowledge going through Seminary but man if your heart doesn't explode with more love for Jesus in the next three days uh you lose like that is the goal that is always the goal is not just to know more but to love more um and when we love more and when we love God with all of our minds uh then really good things happen uh but just going back with a few more facts and interesting little details about Hebrew or the Greek words or some context or some literary structure stuff like eh but if you really let the story do with the story is intended to do you you will have your hearts just burning inside of you with a with a greater love for Jesus getting to know him a little better and having solidarity with Jesus because that's what he was doing as a little boy reading the story um and seeing his identity and his job description and his calling uh and his father and like just seeing all of it in in there and uh and we get to do the same thing as well um so anyway that's uh that's where we're going um my um my own Journey has been probably about 15 years going now with this material I first encountered it I'd uh become the ever Nation uh you know senior pastor in Corvalis um at 27 years old The Ripe old age of 27 years old and I didn't have any formal theological education at the time uh and I remember going to what was a it was like a small group sort of leadership conference uh near my church with a pretty big time leader in in the states at at the moment and they were he they were trying to convince me of a new model to do small groups but during the conference they had this little tool that they had been using inside of their small groups that they called the story of God and it was uh essentially a very stripped down and basic biblical theology that was being used in a small group format and as they gave us that tool and slowly started kind of walking us through how they would use it I literally discounted discredited and forgot everything everything they told about what the conference is actually about and just fell so in love not just with the tool but with the idea of the story of God so I immediately brought that tool back to my church I immediately started rewriting it and working it in our own sort of native language and started consuming all the books that I could ever get my hands on about it and then went to Seminary and filled in more of the gaps about it um and so it has uh absolutely transformed um the way that I relate to God um and the way that I'm able to lead and sh shepher my people I I'm not exaggerating it has been really really wonderful it's been an Incredible Gift not just in my life but even um through my life to to others and if you were to ask me if you were to ask me even when I began as as a pastor to explain the Bible or to explain the Old Testament I mean I would have thrown a poer book at you you know what I mean which is pretty good at the first three chapters of the Old Testament and the rest of it was I mean I don't know know it's uh it's a really long story uh it's a little bit confusing um I did my best you know on my kind of annual Bible reading plans to make sure like I was faithful to read it but I I definitely enjoyed the Psalms and I definitely did not enjoy Leviticus you know turns out Leviticus is where all the action is that's where it's where it's all happening that's the that's the main event and uh and then sometimes you get stuck in a devotional and you're in the middle of a genealogy like okay all right Jesus I have real problems in my life I serve people with real problems in their lives I can't even pronounce these names and I have no idea why this is intended to bless me anyone else turns out genealogies man that's where all the action is so important um and just once the pieces start coming together you don't have to be an expert at biblical theology um but it's kind of like it's kind of like looking at a map it's easy like where I come from there are lots of forest it's easy when you're in the middle of the forest to get lost because all the trees look the same but when you get to look at a map or to get any level of elevation above the forest then you can get a lay of the land and you may not understand exactly where you are but you have a context you know what I mean I know the general area that I am I know the direction that I'm going and I if I'm thinking of this in terms of biblical terms I may not understand every chapter and every verse that I'm in but at least I know where it lands in the bigger scheme of where the story began where the story's headed what and what part of the story I might be in even now and because of those small details it's amazing how you start to get like a low resolution vision of exactly what is going on and then progressively as you continue to read and meditate and study and go through Seminary and so on and so forth like that low resolution starts to become a little bit more medium resolution um and then it's just a process of growing growing growing and then you find that man I don't just have a like a a big map that I'm in but I'm actually able to go down at lower and lower elevations and get more comprehension over the details uh as I'm reading through it and so that's that's hopefully the journey somewhat that you've been on up to this point and that we get to pour some rocket fuel on and accelerate that's the Hope how's that sound great um and as we are uh all going through this um I will say that uh I uh I love for this to be as conversational as possible so at any at any point that you have comments or questions you guys are already you could you've been here a while um the first year I taught this it was like the first class that uh that students were taking you know so they were all having to warm up and get used to each other and so forth I'm expecting you're a little bit comfortable with each other I also know just in a a global Cort like this with all the different cultural variations and nuances to difference and honor and and uh so forth um it would it would be a great privilege if um you would voice your questions thoughts comments opinions uh even contradictions if you sing something that uh you're you're not sure what to do with or that you've heard something different on or that you have a different sort of thought or perspective on please by all means uh it would be no dishonor to me it would actually be a great honor to really work this through together so I'm not here as the expert in the room and I'm not perfect I'm just trying to point you to the one who is is just doing my best um and many of you men and women like you're not only like Superior to me in the Kingdom now but will be one day so I'm just here to help us walk through this thing based on some of the amazing deposits that God has already been provided for me sound good you ready to do this I think that's all I think that's all we need to get out of the way um all right Luke chapter 24 Luke chapter 4 24 is where we going to start we're going to start with Jesus that seems like a good place to start now on the first day of the week first day of the week um what's the first day of the week it's Sunday it's interesting phrase maybe that'll come up later very early in the morning there were women that took spices to Jesus's tomb but when they arrived the stone was rolled away and they couldn't find his body while they were wondering this uh two men showed up in clothes that gleamed like lightning in their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the CR but the men said why are you looking for the living among the dead he's not here he has risen remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that this is the thing that would happen the son of man must be delivered over to the hands of Sinners be crucified and on the third day be raised again and then they remembered his words but did they believe in his words then or even now not yet they went to tell all the fellas about what they had just heard but even the fellows did not believe the women because their words seemed like nonsense but Peter and John actually ran up to the tomb and investigated for themselves and then went away wondering what in the world has happened here so rumors of the Resurrection have been spreading but do the disciples believe it not yet their their faith or their beliefs are not in the resurrection yet keep that in the back of your mind now that same day two of them two of who yeah disciples yeah followers of Jesus the same day two of them were going to a village called Emmas about 7 miles from Jerusalem apparently they were with Jesus in Jerusalem all the stuff went down and now either they're walking home or they're walking back to either way they're headed seven miles to EMAs and how long does it take someone to walk seven miles now my legs versus maybe a filipino's legs are slightly different but let's just uh ballpark this thing 3 hours maybe if you're just let's assume you have been traumatized by seeing a beloved leader brutally murdered because that's what's happened maybe 3 to four just keep that in mind they were talking with each other about everything that had happened what had just happened yeah Jesus was killed how how are you feeling if you're having that conversation yeah yeah bad would be the general umbrella hopeless mourning sad all the above dejected yeah MH and as they were talking and discussing these things with each other Jesus himself came up and walked along with them hello but they were kept from recognizing him followers of Jesus that don't recognize Jesus and Jesus asked them a question what are you guys talking about they Stood Still again their faces are downcast yeah one of them named cleop asked him are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have happened here in these days Jesus what thanks okay okay really try to be here in that or be there in that moment traumatized followers of Jesus now in the presence of Jesus but can't recognize him and Jesus's first move is to interrogate them and play koi with them is that what you would expect what would you expect like a hug maybe you know what I mean something Comfort them my Jesus would just give him a be hug you know nope he's gonna play koi about Jesus of Nazareth they replied he was a prophet powerful in word indeed before God and all the people and the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him but we hope that he was going to be the one to redeem Israel H redeem Israel was their hope that's an interesting hope have you ever thought much about the Redemption of Israel in your life apparently they were and what is more it's the third day since all this took place in addition some of our women amazed us cuz they went to the tomb early this morning but they didn't find a body came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive and then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it was just as the women had said but no one saw Jesus now Jesus speaks again in his first words my sons it's me don't worry I'm here they're there now nope y'all are fools idiots morons is this what you tell to grieving people who've just lost friends or family members do you show up to the funeral home you what are you doing nope Jesus does not have a very compassionate moment here but he calls them fools and says they're slow slow to believe he insults their faith Jesus ever insulted you before apparently that's a thing how foolish you are and slow to believe all the prophets have spoken did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory and then beginning with Moses and all the prophets he started to explain to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself so on this s Mile Walk of what we estimated to be maybe 3 to 4 hours the resurrected Jesus is walking alongside to men and he's going to give them a quick little bible study on everything from Moses through the prophets now Moses is a shorthand way of describing the first five books of the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy that's a Torah or the penet Moses is the authoritative author of it he didn't write everything in the penet he just had editorial authority over the penet and if that sounds controversial to you it shouldn't because Moses died before the penet was even finished there was a lot of collaborators into the material that went into the penet and so Moses didn't necessarily have to write at all though he certainly wrote some but he could pull in different pieces and writings and oral traditions and different things from that moment stuff that was delivered directly from God on Mount Si and he pulled all that in now Moses is attributed author so it's like referred to as the Books of Moses and then the prophets and the prophets in the Hebrew Bible begins in Joshua so this is a short-handed way of describing all the first five books of the Bible and then the rest of the Bible Joshua all the way through Malachi and Jesus says everything in what we call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh he started to show them everything everything concerning himself and what was his expectation Jesus's now listen he's talking to mourning people disregarding their emotions I don't know if we can take pastoral lessons here but apparently ignoring emotions based on false like information is a thing that Jesus is happy to do his expectation is that they should have known from the beginning of their Old Testament all the way to the end that there was one very clear and consistent thread namely a messiah figure that would first have to suffer before he entered into his glory it should have been so Crystal Clear to them and so then he just starts walking them through if you ever get the offer to just go back in time and be present at one moment in history I'm just going to humbly suggest this one wouldn't be terrible a 3 to four hour Bible study from Jesus about Jesus sign me up however we uh we don't uh get the exact uh experience that they do but this is what we are going to attempt to do together to do what Jesus was doing for these men on the road we're going to take slightly long than three to four hours but the hope is that we land in the same place that these men landed verse 28 as they approached the village to which they were going Jesus continued on it as if he were going farther but they urged him stay with us for it's nearly evening and the day is almost over so he went in to stay with them and when he was at the table he took bread gave thanks and broke it when was the last time Jesus had broken bread yeah and when he broke bread which at the Passover he did and then said what this is my body when he broke the bread he gave it to them and then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and then he disappeared from their sight what a let down you finally recognize him and then he's gone dude I don't know what following Jesus is like for you but it should never be boring the second you're like oh Jesus you're here and like where'd you go come man this it's never boring and then they said to each other were not our hearts burning within us while we while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us and then they got up and returned to Jerusalem at once they found the 11 and said it's true what do they believe now the resurrection when they did not believe in the resurrection what was the main symptom that we noticed them having they were blind they couldn't recognize Jesus right they were blind to Jesus they couldn't see him they couldn't recognize him but now that they do have Resurrection faith they see yeah MH did Jesus talk a lot about blindness and sight have a lot to do with that in his ministry we're going to see where that story all began and somehow it's connected not just to generic belief or faith but more specifically to Resurrection Faith so um before we dive into Genesis I want to just take a moment and unpack a little bit that Jesus and some of his followers maybe would have understood a little bit more clearly than uh than we might uh so let's go to Second Timothy Start in verse 14 one of the things that is uh very helpful to do is read the apostle but the apostles aren't really writing anything new we call it the New Testament but there's not a lot new about it the apostles are just those that meditate on the Old Testament day and night and now are able to see with sight through Resurrection faith and able to then like through this lens of the resurrection of Jesus look back into what God has said and speak it now into the life of God's people for their encouragement and growth but the Apostle Paul had some um fundamental assumptions in his ministry I'm not so sure that we always do in ours here's his commands to Timothy he says as for you continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it and how from infancy you have have known the holy scriptures and what is the holy scriptures that he's referring to it's the Old Testament these this Old Testament this Hebrew Bible which is able to make you Wise Wise for salvation through faith in Messiah Jesus is that your definition of the Old Testament is that your definition of the purpose of the Old Testament that's Paul's he just summarized it for you I hope that you Timothy my son and the Lord that you oh you just soak yourself in that Old Testament you meditated on so deeply and so richly that though you have been convinced of its truth and power that it's something you would dive into more and more and more why because it's able to give you wisdom wisdom for salvation that comes through faith in Messiah Jesus I think we can all just admit like I explained my journey of picking up my Old Testament and that was not what I got out of it that's not even close to what I got out of it I saw a lot of laws rules stories some of which were interesting all of them seemed disconnected a little bit random and odd at times prophets that seemed crazy um but then the Psalms were nice and encouraging I guess you know for the most part but this is Paul's assumption he then goes on to say that all this Hebrew Bible is God breathed and useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work now that part of the verse I'm pretty sure you know I'm pretty sure you've taught I'm pretty sure you've done uh one toone discipleship ad nauseum talking about that verse correct but I'm pretty sure this first part wisdom of Salvation through faith in Christ Jesus that part probably didn't hit you quite the same yeah probably not and so how is it that this uh uh that this book is meant to be uh delivered to us and received well here's the Apostle Paul again who thought a lot about his Hebrew Heritage as he's leading a Christian church and those two things are not two separate things to him he says for I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact my brothers and sisters that our ancestors our ancestors who's our who's our who's he writing to Corinthians who's in Corinth Gentiles and Jews yeah who's our it's everybody all those who are in Christ Jesus yeah there that's not my people but apparently now they is my people yeah I want you to know brothers and sisters that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea what story is he talking about Exodus they were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them what story was that yeah Exodus 17 yeah they all ate the same spiritual food drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that come and Paul says that rock was the Messiah question Apostle Paul I don't think it was it never that it would seemed to be a rock like just a rock what is Paul doing Paul is doing biblical Theology and he's now taking Resurrection faith and seeing that Jesus was the point of the story and he's interwoven into the story and so now as he looks back into the story he's able to pull Christ into it it's as if like we walk through the whole story blind unable to see him in it but now he can see and once you can see man you can't unsee he then goes on to say now all these things occurred as what's the word here examples examples this is the anyone know the Greek word here it's typos or type which uh which examples as an okay translation of it can also be like a pattern so what he's going to speak about is the idea of patterns that what occurred as he's referring to here in this Exodus story wasn't just something that happened it's something that happens it's not an isolated event or story it's an ongoing story and the pattern of that story continues sometimes the characters slightly change but the way The Story Goes typically Remains the Same sometimes with subtle adjustments and alterations but Paul looks into his Old Testament and he sees patterns he sees predictable ways that stories tend to go that just repeat themselves and overlap on new characters at new times and new circumstances but they're not really new stories they're just old patterns on repeat and so this is one of the ways that Paul reads into his Old Testament he's able to read it and identify patterns and pretty pretty soon by the uh by lunchtime you're going to see a few yourself and realize that within the first couple chapters of the Bible there's already patterns that describe to you the entire Bible how we doing okay questions your comments so far yeah yeah through the through the Patriarchs mhm yeah and in the Hebrew world the the the fathers are Patriarchs are representative representatives of the people so it's not just exclusively the Patriarchs but yet it's all our people like like a head of a household is a representative of a household kind of idea yeah yeah you're asking for dessert before the main course um if you'd like I will take you through Exodus 17 um be happy to do that when we get to Exodus 17 but if I skip Exodus 17 you be sure to remind me and I'll make sure yes please do and I'll take you back through it yeah because Exodus 17 you guys that's where all the action is I'm telling you right now and if you don't preach Exodus 17 on Easter Sunday I I don't know I don't know what you're doing with your Easter sermons but for crying out loud Exodus 17 yeah Old Testament there's uh an entire class we would have to do called uh you know like the Canon of scripture or text in Canon and you would find that the answer would be yes and it's complicated um yes it is inspired and trustworthy but um the Old Testament is striking strikingly more simple for um because Jesus is our shortcut because Jesus believed in it and believed it was inspired quoted from almost every book inside of it so there you go do you trust Jesus you trust the Old Testament how you get to the place of trust in the New Testament which Jesus did not write and here's the crazy thing he didn't write anything down if you're aware of something please share you know didn't write anything down he left one thing behind mind is his legacy a community so the process how the scriptures were formed and canonized and received as inspired it's a whole thing that would take a whole thing uh but yeah that would be um yes we can shortcut it a little bit but to actually go through it on a academic level uh it's yeah there's it's a little crazier than than uh we first assume send us a video send you a video yeah I did three credits and Seminary on it you know um and you like uh you blows your mind you lose your faith then you regain your faith and then uh and then you're not sure about your faith and then you're back on your faith again it's it's yeah it's it's a wild ride um yeah yeah Pedro you mention Torah is andh yeah sure let's do that so the is a an uh what do you call it an acronym so Tanakh is uh there's no uh vowels in the Hebrew Bible so you just know by context like how to interpret stuff the T stands for Torah that's your first five books of the Bible n stands for the nebim and the K stands for the Kim so uh there's the law there's the prophets and then there's the writings so that um you know you'll hear um you'll hear different ways in which the Old Testament is broken down and none of them are necessarily wrong or bad obviously Jesus refers to it on like two different levels he later refers to it on actually these three different levels uh the Torah the writings and the prophets um the Torah is Genesis through Deuteronomy the prophets begins in Joshua um and goes uh through Malachi and the writings uh start with the Psalms and go through Chronicles so the order of the Hebrew Bible was a little different than our modern Bibles now and there's again all kinds of fascinating reasons why the order was the way it was and the why it is the way that it is uh I don't know that we can make like strong moral statements necessarily about the order of the Bible because you'll see when you mix and match it these two different ways they tell two um cool different types of stories um so for example like our Bibles in with Malachi how do Malachi serve as a good conclusion to the Old Testament yeah it prophesies the coming like of like uh yeah the coming of the promised one from the Old Testament and before that like someone that's going to prepare like the way like the spirit of Elijah that will come right is that a good way to introduce the New Testament please say yes yeah yeah that works great uh but the final book in the Tanakh is Chronicles yeah and uh why Chronicles why would Chronicles be the last book well where does chronicles begin with the genealogy and who's the first of the genealogy Adam Chronicles resmar for you the whole Tanakh and the last the last verses of Chronicles um are about uh the or about the release of the Exiles back to Jerusalem but it literally stops mids sentence the Tano doesn't even end with a completed sentence or thought it's as a way of saying dot dot dot and you'll see a little bit more when we get closer to the end of the Old Testament like why that is a really dope way the Old Testament both of them are doing a similar thing in terms of leading you into the anticipation because the Old Testament no one ever thought the Old Testament was a complete story it was leading up to an incredible tension of something that had to be fulfilled uh if you want to like really nerd out on this stuff so uh in uh the prophets once you go to Joshua well let's just look at it shall we and Joshua 1 here's the commands given to Joshua as he takes over from Moses keep this book of the Torah always on your lips and meditate on it day and night yeah so we just got done with the Torah and what is the first thing in the next book tell us to do go back and reread the Torah and think about it a lot so as you're reading through josua you're meant to see all the patterns and connections from the Torah supposed to give you context the first book of the writings is the Psalms what does Psalm 1 tell you to do I'll give you one guess go back and meditate on the Torah this is what the blessed man does and some like uh Psalm 2 is actually Psalm 1 Psalm 1 is the introduction to the Psalms and it's actually the introduction to the whole section of the writings so this is uh this is the design or the thought process behind the construction of you know these 39 different books altogether is that you read through the prophets and they're all telling you like dude go back to the Torah and you read the writings and it's like dude go back to the Torah and so do you see how it's like like as you're moving forward you're always recycling back as you move forward you're always going back and you're just doing this constantly over and over and over it's not a book you're meant to read from and it's not a book it's obviously a library books that's what Bible means but you're not just supposed to read it from cover to cover beginning to finish you're supposed to meditate on it and regurgitate it and continually go back through it why do they tell you to do this because the way that it was written was with so many different layers and patterns there's zero way you're going to get the full depth of the wisdom that it provides on just one pass through and you can't just read it linearly because the Bible is designed with interconnectivity and so you're going to be reading in the middle of kings and see something that's going to push you back into somewhere in Exodus or you're going to be reading through the Psalms and you're going to see an interpretation of something happened in the beginning of Genesis so this is uh this is how you're supposed to read your Bible yep how we doing yeah yeah yeah it's messing with you though I love it this is uh this is my happy time so yeah so yes you are correct oh we like you with the mic you got power on you now yeah great good chat so all all all all and this is Old Testament first I don't have I don't have a question I'm just processing what I am receiving at the same time of the Resurrection faith of believe in the Old Testament and that's what we are and we Romans 10:9 I mean yeah Romans 10 like it just talks about how like the Israelites yeah they just didn't believe they were chosen and and because of that they continue to run away and then God opened the door through Paul to share the gospel to the Gentiles mhm so that they can be added in and make the Israelites mad so they can come back to Jesus as his first love because that's why some as one Global family as one yes yes and I don't have a question I'm just processing and I don't know what I'm asking but well the good news is we're gonna we're going to talk more about it as we go through the story sure good yeah yeah yeah okay sure all right yeah great all right you guys uh let's take a break break time again e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e spe and we're on okay all righty well we're going to do a few more nerdy things before we do the Bible nerding things um let's uh let's talk a little bit more about the Bible before we start diving into the story um we've already like talked about the idea of patterns um and I want to talk a little bit about um from a Hebrew author's perspective what Biblical literature is and is not and what I want to help introduce to you guys is the idea of a text focused approach which sets out to understand not the realities behind the text but the text itself as a pattern of meaning and effect and what I mean by that is this that there's often times where we look at the Bible with Hyper literal eyes not realizing that it's the text itself and what it's trying to say to you and the message that it has for you that is actually separate from but though it's related to the events that it's describing now that is a very complicated idea I just said out of my mouth so let me unpack this for you there's a famous example um by Renee margarit and his famous uh his famous picture of the pipe so let's look at that picture up there for a moment anyone speak French what does that say this is not a pipe this is not a pipe so what is it then what is that picture it's not a pipe what is iture it's a picture of a pipe do you see the important difference listen to his quote about it ah the famous pipe how people reproached me for it can you imagine how mad everyone gets you put up a big sign this is not a pipe and you're like and yet could you stuff my pipe no it's just a representation is it not so if I had written on my picture this is a pipe I would have been lying all pictures and all texts are this way the biblical texts are that they are [Music] representations of characters and events they are not the events or characters themselves so what we are not doing is looking at something directly without bias or perspective we're being given an authors representation of what is going on I'll give you another example here think of these two pictures for a moment on the left is a picture from the Hubble telescope one of the first images that looked out uh more deeply into space than we ever had before looking at all the galaxies and whatever stars planets and everything that's in the photo and then notice the uh the painting on the right one of my favorites Vincent Van Go's star night now between those two images which one of them is a starry night both and none of them they're both representations of a story night that's not the night sky it's just a picture or a painting yeah now the one on the left is a photograph with Hyper realism is there an advantage to a photograph yes yeah you can study it differently can't you if you want to do scientific measurements on it if you want to do the distances between all the galaxies if you want to like measure out I'm G to try to sound like I'm smarter than I actually am like Lighty years and whatnot you know what I mean then you're going to need uh you're going to need a Hubble Telescope photo however Vincent Van go story night is not hyperrealistic just look at the size of the moon for crying out loud but it's trying to do something different it's not trying to tell you literally what the star looks like it's trying to tell you what the Stars feel like it's trying to give you an impression of what the like standing under the night sky looks like and did you know that van go painted this from an insane asylum and the trees that he could see from from his view that you seeing popping up there almost as if directed his gaze back to the heavens in the only hope of his own sanity was looking out this window and notice what he looks and sees and notice how he tries to convey it to us notice that it's a night first of all with deep blues and notice how the night sky and the blues continue even on the ground but how the night is swirling and moving it's living it's active but then on the ground you have all these straight and rigid lines you think van go ever felt at home in our realm as a Creator not mentally stable he sees hope in the sky something other than just the rigidity of the boxes he never fit in and you could spend the rest of our day just talking about the yellows that he uses my goodness van go and yellow I have a good friend that um really loves art and uh he went to France to walk through uh some of the art museums and see some of his favorite paintings and he talks about how he would stand in front of his favorite paintings for hours like paintings he's already seen that he has hanging on his walls as you know reprints you know I think to myself how do you stand in front of a painting for hours they're telling you something it's just whether you have eyes to see I'm here to tell you that the Bible is more of a van go than a photograph what we are never given is a photographic or video camera footage of characters or events that happen and it was never intended to do that and how lame the Bible might actually be if it attempted to do that and so often times where we get really stuck in biblical study especially with the influence of Greek thought and the early church has continued into the Western mindset that is I think pervasive throughout Christianity even though we're more representative of beyond their Western World As We tend to think of the Bible so hyper literally um and it's not as if the Bible isn't describing real people and real times and real events but it is not a photograph and it really doesn't care at all about the photorealism that often times we assume that it has the Bible's trying to do something oh so so much more important not just tell us what happened but what always happens and not just tell us what God did but why or not just tell us that we exist but what is our purpose what is it mean to be human who is God actually like but I spent a good frustrating part of my early Christianity trying to ask questions of the Bible it was not interested in answering and imagine someone looking at Van go and saying like well I don't think the relative size of the Moon in sorry I'm using a British accent I hope there's no Brits here but it's trying to sound snoody my apologies but the relative size of the Moon compared to like the you know all the stars in the sky like they're not they're not right I don't think the geographic distance that he had between the steeple of the church and the town with the neighboring that that isn't right and I don't know if that night sky like we know the date that he painted that painting from and actually the constellations we can trace them back and we know that that's not an accurate depiction of all the stars in the sky and we know clearly since he didn't draw all the stars in the sky he had no idea what was actually going on you know what I mean tell me does it sound like you're a local atheist or fundamentalist now I know because I've taught this a few years already this is really going to start messing with you guys bial local authors are very willing to violate Sentiments of photorealism to convey something more beautiful and Rich and we get really hung up on well was or Adam and Eve real people in a real garden and it's almost as if the Bible's saying sure I believe they were but oh are you you're trying to stare at it as if it's a Hubble picture there's something more now obviously this raises all the alarm Bells doesn't this send us down a liberal path of treating just the Bible as just pure metaphor and don't we lose the inherency of the Bible and haven't we just now Jesus wasn't even real anymore no no we don't now we don't when the Bible is insistent on real people and things that happen and the historical significance of it it makes it known to us including the gospels pardon me wordes it up oh he makes it known to us yeah yeah uh it's very clear but we're going to have to come to terms with ven go was looking at a very real starry night but he want wants you to know what's going on in his soul and he wants you to have an impression of how to feel about it and he wants you to look into the details that don't they bear they bear connection to reality but they are not the reality themselves yeah how we doing it's okay if you're not good you're going to have to wrestle a little bit this is Seminary and you're going to have to realize that uh yeah we're going to read genealogies that aren't going to be complete that's skip generations and we're going to read stories of characters uh that uh we don't get every detail about them that we want and we're going to we're going to encounter stories that seem when twins are born is it possible that one really like is holding on to the heel and do parents really name their children like liar and deceiver and there's a lot of other CR was this I think the biblical authors are far more willing to draw a van go connected to but in a representation of so that you can know some truth and meaning and theology behind what's happening and oh my goodness Jacob grasping his brother's heel is for all the actionness whether or not he was literally born holding his brother's heel I know I'm messing with you guys we'll get there don't worry yes um so does that also then uh speak to what inspiration is and how that then translates into the drafting of the scriptures yeah because um yes we're looking at the Hebrew authors but then what about God wanting to communicate yeah with God man you uh you're asking some pretty brilliant questions you're like two for two today for sure yeah totally yep so yeah I'm hoping there will be some answer yeah okay let's uh this isn't going to seem related but I'll get there yeah okay uh who is Jesus Son of and of and Son of Man yep is he God is he only God no no he's also human what is the Bible is it the word of God yes is it the word of man who wrote it people did now this is actually a very important Christian distinctive Muhammad Joseph Smith I'm sure many others went into transes and received God's words directly Christian inspiration does not work like that the scriptures are a product of divine inspiration and human authorship together in Partnership we have these categories that don't fit neatly in our head but they exist because you believe Jesus is a Son of God and Son of Man you believe the Trinity is One and also three and if you don't you flunk just go just leave now pack your bags and the word of God is also authored by humans and when it's authored by humans it comes with their personalities it comes with their culture it comes with their literary Styles comes with their language and their vocabulary and think how limiting a language is vocab ulary is to express every bit of communication God might want to deliver you realize how limiting our language is it's a very small box right praise God for the gift of tongues amen which kind of like opens up that box a little bit yeah and so like this you will see from the beginning of the pages of the Bible all the way to the end this is God's intent a deep intimate partnership with the Bible um the question is can we hold hold on to the authority of the Bible if it has a thumb prints of humans on it Muslims will stumble over that and so will Christians that presume our God is like Allah he is not God works with humans that was his plan a there's no plan B and even the scriptures themselves and what we call the inspir ation of the scriptures still comes as the union of humans and the Divine together that is the question isn't it yeah what did Paul say about it they are God God breathed and the idea of inspiration that somehow these scriptures that were recognized and canonized didn't just have the thumb print of human but the thumb print of God rested over in such a way as to protect their integrity to not be full of corruption um but even that require a solid few days to really go through what did this process of authorship look like and how many layers do it go through through and all all that and so when we get to the final product of what we call the Tanakh or what we call our new testament like yeah we're we are uh putting our faith in the sovereignty of God to inspire and work through even the fallibility of humans and the authorship of his word that he protects with Integrity so that we would have wisdom for salvation through faith in Messiah Jesus I know I know I know I went through it too welcome to the club yeah wiwin oh you are asking a very complicated question yeah interconnected of these different books that's really amazing and we can yeah insiration yeah like the traditional Christian perspective is that ins like inspiration and being able to like decide like with that's one of cohesive way yeah I problem yeah and they are organized to like like the Books of Moses that's one that's one book written in five volumes and they're all organized together with Leviticus at the center and the center of Leviticus at the center of what everything is about so yeah yeah totally yes with a decalog um would that be that's like the only no that is that is God's saying nope I'm going to take care of this one okay yeah but obviously it's still that's the exclusion or that's the exception it's still humans that still recorded the events well the Finger of God recorded on the tabl Finger of God recorded on tablet so was that the B's way of also trying to INF not the Lord also infusing that so that we don't feel everything's just written by man it's a good question that's worthy of a good cup of green tea and a PhD study degree yeah like yeah Evo ice cream yeah yeah sure green tea ice cream why not um yeah that's a I um I've only recently started to ponder because uh Pastor Greg Mitchell preached on the decalogue and he brought that up to me uh at 2: a.m. in a hotel because he's a night owl that doesn't have any consideration for my very delicate sleep cycle but Pastor gra only seems like a nice guy but just you wait till you get to know that's how all the Canadians are you know they seem like a I'm just joking I say that because I mean it and so what I American sarcasm is like our you love language if you couldn't tell but Greg pointed out that like this is the only part of the scripture that God like himself like it's like do you think that matters I said yeah that probably matters and I probably haven't thought about just how much that matters and why that matters and the significance of it but yeah it's significant yeah um Dr Seth you mentioned there are some parts where the Bible is not willing to answer which is so beautiful the way you put it but I was just thinking how do we like when we are engaging our culture with the story of the Bible is there standard way of um filling those gaps which the Bible is not willing to answer it's a very good question um I I think I don't know that there's a simple answer to it I mean I'd be very interested even in some of your other perspectives here um I can think of one example from my context I don't know if it would relate to yours but constantly in Reading Genesis I have people always wanting to know scientific questions about it yeah regarding Evolution the age of the Earth things like that and I know there's a lot of great Christians out there that help to provide apologetic answers to those sorts of things now even at times using the Bible to try to justify their answers I don't disagree with their maybe scientific conclusions I do not agree with using the Bible to say things it's not trying to say the Bible is trying to give you answers to questions you need to know not all that you want to know so I just think it's a pastoral or an Evangelistic issue what's going to help someone maybe take their next step in faith if this is a hurdle how however um this isn't the thing that will actually bring them to Faith and Messiah Jesus so if I can have to clear that out of the way for them in whatever way I need to I will but I need to be very careful to not misuse the Bible to say something it doesn't say and let it say what it says because what it says is going to lead people to wisdom to Salvation through faith in Messiah Jesus and I need to let it I need to let it cook as my the young kids say so like I need to let it do what it does yeah yeah I think that requires us wisdom to be honest all right how we feeling you guys ready for Genesis should we do it well in previous cohorts I made significant enemies with my whole uh this is not a pipe uh part of the lectures so if that's where you stand right now you're in good company but uh it's I'm intending Seminary I'm intending to mess with your minds here um and also prepare you that when you dive into Seminary level scholarship and resources and materials you're going to be exposed to things some not always by Scholars that are going to sign off on all of our Every Nation doctrines that we believe uh but that doesn't always mean they don't have something helpful or useful to contribute to your understanding and there's just attention there this is probably why we don't do Seminary from day one of someone's discipleship because it requires maturity to hold tension and to be able to hold on to like sound Doctrine um but be able to benefit from wisdom which can come from all kinds of places including one of the assignments that I think you'll have uh after I don't think you read it before I think you'll read it after the Intensive is Robert alter who's a uh Jewish scholar not even religious Jew um but writes about biblical narrative it's insane it'll blow your mind he probably knows more about the Bible and uh and its structure and everything than any of us do uh but there's a lot he has to offer um now obviously when you don't know personally the one that the Bible's pointing to that's a thing but you'll see that there's uh there's a lot to learn so okay let's do it then Genesis chapter 1 which begins with the most iconic beginning of any book in literary history in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth so there you go that's when that happened now this is uh this is where like you get um maybe people that want to interrupt with questions of well when was this but if we're going to learn to be good biblical theologians there there's a pretty simple answer to give when did God create the heavens and the Earth was it a few thousand years ago or a few billion years ago when was it it was in the beginning yeah I'm answering the text with the text is the Bible a 21st century science textbook no it's a Biblical van go that is not going to tell you how God made the world or how long it took to to make the world or what the world is made of in all of its elements it's going to tell you why he made the world and what the meaning and purpose of the world is and that is something that science nor any other resource in the world can provide and that is what you require to live without purpose and meaning you don't exist and the only way for you to get out of bed in the morning is to light to your yourself or distract yourself you were made for meaning it's a it is a such a deep core need uh that without it there is no existence and that's exactly what the Bible is going to tell you all about meaning purpose the why the big why yeah is there a question yeah Christopher yes that's my point but the process is going to tell you the why it's not meant to be studied for like hey if I wanted to create a world what would my formula look like it's not trying to do that it's trying to give you a theological interpretation of what the world is and is about so even the process is involved with that so like yeah so there you go and we'll get there oh yeah it for sure gives us a process but the how isn't the point it's the why that's the point oh yeah for sure through ex absolutely the ised yep yep comes from the but the how the how is a van go is the point yeah it's not like there's zero how in Genesis 1 um but uh you're not just supposed to get stuck on uh the seven days you're supposed to get you're supposed to be able to see what the seven days mean yeah for sure so I think you're there there the how is telling you the why it's how God's revealing to you the why one verse in you guys we're killing it absolutely crushing it now you're a Hebrew author writing Heavens is the word for the skies Earth is the word for the land yeah so when you're in Hebrew author in the ancient world what are the skies just everything up there and what's the Earth or the land it's everything down here who lives in the land we do who lives in the skies yeah yeah Divine Spiritual Beings in a different a different type of Realm yeah so God creates Divine space human space now let's talk about the Earth would you like to know more about the heavens I would but you don't need to what you need to know is where you live exactly you want to now the Earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over over the waters and here is our first pattern our first scene that we're supposed to see not just read and so here is what the Bible gives to us it says that the Earth was formless and empty so here's our first Hebrew phrase we're going to learn it's my favorite personally toou Vu toou Vu formless and empty toou is what formless is or without form Vu would literally mean like uninhabited there's nothing filling it and so well this one's empty but imagine this water bottle had water in it the bottle is the form the water is the filling currently this is uh this has toou but no voo yeah but what happens with water when there's no form it's chaos it goes everywhere yeah you need form to contain it and what's the point of having a form for something like water when there's form it means water can do what I'm hearing lots of mutterings water can produce life you can drink it you can use it for all kinds of useful purposes if water has no form what does water do it brings death and it destroys yeah the same thing with or without form can either destroy and bring death or be the necessary thing to bring life toou Vu toou Vu is a big problem because Life as we know it cannot survive to is being described here as the picture of deep dark Waters but it's also described in other parts of the Bible as the Wilderness or the desert how are they related how would like the deep dark Waters in the middle of the ocean be related to a desert yeah we can't live there yeah life can't be sustained in either place both need some kind of form or place for people to inhabit for there to be inhabitants yeah in Jeremiah chapter 4 when the uh Babylonians come to town and ransack Jerusalem it describes the city as toou who all the houses and dwellings destroyed all the people removed without form without population yeah so this is where the Story begins however there's one more character that we've been introduced to who is the spirit of God now when it says the spirit of God is hovering over the waters that word for hovering is a unique word you'll see used elsewhere like in places like uh Deuteronomy chapter 32 which describes an Eagle fluttering over its nest in fact the uh Aramaic translation of the Old Testament known as the targums actually translates this verse as the spirit of God fluttered over the waters meaning this is the first time in the Bible that you'll see the spirit of God metaphorically representative of a bird and believe it or not that's not the worst bird that I've drawn this week okay so here's our scene and you're going to want to draw this or write this down or burn this into your brain because this is a pattern that is going to come up more than once it's a very important one that goes from the beginning all the way to the end so out of this crazy chaotic tooo Darkness what does God then do verse three speaks God speaks and what does he say and then what happens okay here's the next thing we need to know the Hebrew word for Spirit anyone know this one it's a good throat clearing word ruach ruach now ruach can mean Spirit but it can also mean wind or breath and you could see how these three ideas are actually somewhat interrelated yeah it's an invisible sort of power or force that has a tangible effect in our world right and it's like you think of like uh the spirit of God and even our breath like our breath is like the sign that there is life coming in and out of us yeahh so um what just happened here in verse three when God spoke let there be light there was light but exactly what just happened well to figure that out we're all going to do a little experiment together apologize for everyone that's been through this experiment before but you just pretend like you don't know what's going to happen we're going to take our hands and place them about an inch from our mouth and we're all going to say let there be light together on the count of three ready 1 2 3 let there be light and what did you just feel Yu you just felt your Ru what happens when you speak you release your ruach what happens when God speaks he releases his ruach into the dark Waters and what happens to the darkness light when you speak you release your ruach when God speaks he releases his Spirit if you ever heard the verse the power of life and death are in the tongue yeah you had no idea how big of a deal that actually was you release your spirit always intended to give life but when you do it with the inent to bring death you see what a violation that that is how we doing now you might say to yourself Pastor Seth did you just make this up did you just give us an elaborate little dance around what was going on in Genesis 1:3 nope I just read the apostles and this is what they thought about and they had some time with Jesus so I'm sure he helped them think about it the Book of John in the beginnings does that sound familiar to you was the word oh okay a word and the Word was with God wait a minute how is a word personally with someone and then the Word was God okay so is this word separate from God or is it God yes yes it is and this word was a he he was with God God in the beginning I thought he was God and he's also with God yes through him all things were made without him nothing was made that has been made in him was life and that life was John makes a very big deal of life and light and dark and death you can even do a fun little study through the Book of John looking at all the events that happened in the middle of the day and everything that happens at night in him was life and that life was light for humans and the light shines in the darkness and the Darkness has not overcome it what is he doing he's just retelling the Jesus story as a new genesis Story fallowing the same pattern yeah once you learn biblical theology you'll start thinking like the apostles not just reading the apostles so you learn what they say you can actually learn how they thought so that when you're reading your new testament you're like yep I get that I get where they're coming from I get how they pull that together I get why they made that conclusion and then at some point you'll just real oh right meditating day and night okay that makes sense Jesus is actually wanting to invite me into this all right back to Genesis God saw that the light was good the Hebrew word this is Tove Tove and notice how this already sounds there's going to be seven different repetitions every single letter not just word in the first chapter of Genesis is carefully placed and selected there are uh seven words in the first verse of Genesis 14 words in the second verse of Genesis the last verse of the creation account uh is a series of three times seven and there are repetitions of seven all over Genesis the amount of times that God sees something and the amount of times that God declares something as good and notice where we started listen to it if you can in the Hebrew we started with toou Vu and then God changes it to to tooo and he makes it Tove and Tove and Tove can you hear it it's like crazy too and it was Tove can you hear it it's quite beautiful God called the light day and the Darkness he called night they were separated from each other and there was evening and there was morning the first day and then God said let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water so God made the Vault and separated the water from under the Vault from the water of above it and it was so and God called The Vault sky and there was nothing and there was evening and morning the second day anyone have a clue what just happened on the second day anyone have just any clue Okay so we've got the waters below and then we have what's described as the water above and it says that God placed a vault between them a vault is the word raaka which is like a dome so the idea is that there's Waters below there's Waters above and why from a Hebrew perspective would they describe there being Waters below and Waters above well what color is the sky colors the water what occasionally falls from the sky what's keeping all that water from just falling down some sort of barrier it's called arakia and here's what God did he knows that uh he knows that we need the waters to come down but he knows there has to be a form around it cuz what if it just only ever rained all the time foreshadowing it would be toou Vu AKA a a flood so something has to hold it back to release it in proper form so that life can grow and not destroy it yeah and so here we have our vault also makes sense when they say open the floodgates of heaven or the windows of Heaven yep yeah we're just thinking like Hebrews Hebrews did how we doing yeah man we are we are looking at a van go man we're looking at a van go that uh is is helping a ancient Hebrew understand their cosmology is not speak they are inter um I think he's inspiring them but he's inspiring them using languages and images and ideas that they already have in place and this is actually a common conception of a cosmologist even in neighboring sort of communities like the Mesopotamians and the Babylonians and the Egyptians they had this kind of a worldie if you will that we know isn't like exactly scientifically correct based on what we know but I don't think that was the point of it was how do you understand the world as it is okay let's take that and let God put his stamp on it to show you the meaning behind it mhm MH yeah on on some way in a very van go way he did but it's not I know you're not the only one that has ever wrestled with this we're it's not a it's not a photograph of exactly what God did it's a painting or a representation interpretation of what God did to create the world did God have to bring order did he have to create physical material and then bring it into order not just random atoms out there but actually make it meaningful in order yes he did well how did he do that well I don't even think any of us have the pray grade to actually figure that one out so we're going to get a painting to understand like okay he for sure did bring order and here's watch where we're going see if it's helpful by the time we get to the end of the chapter if it helps to give a better picture once you see kind of the full painting if that uh if that helps a little yeah okay keep going that was day one in day one just addressed part of our problem the too problem day one two and three are all going to address the toou problem providing forms spaces definition boundaries days four five and six are going to provide inhabitants filling now God said let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear and it was so God called the dry ground land and gathered the waters and called them seas and saw that it was [Music] good so now we're going to create another space we're calling this land and this we call the sea then we have vegetation seed bearing plants and trees and trees that bear fruit dear reader our fruit trees is going to be a significant part on page three it's what we call foreshadowing we're not getting a botney lesson on all the plants that God makes we're foreshadowing where are the stories going and then God said let there be lights the little word here is lamps or luminaries same word that is used of the manora in the Tex temple in the Vault of the sky to separate the day from night and let them serve as signs to Mark sacred times days and years let there be lights in the Vault of the sky to give light on the earth and it was so he made two great lights the greater light to govern the day the Lesser night to govern the night he also made the stars now in the ancient world around the time where the Bible was written what did everyone consider the sun moon and stars to be Gods gods that ruled and that people worshiped and served yeah what is uh what is this God saying they serve me they all serve me and then we'll finish here and take another break and then God said let the water team with living creatures and let birds fly above the Earth so God created the great creatures of the sea and that is the word tanim which uh if we had more time we could go into it it's a reference to Rahab or Leviathan or the great sea monster essentially in every other mythological telling of creation this is the most representative being of chaos and disruption and disorder the most sort of demonic type of figure what does God say I met it it's like my pet it's like my goldfish in my aquarium mhm and so God makes fish fish and he makes more birds something like that do you see how we're filling now what do we have to fill next the land and what does God fill it with living creatures wild animals livestock all according to its kind so God made the wild animals livestock and creatures that move along the ground according to their kind and God saw that it was good I don't know what animal that is it's a vano do you see the poetic symmetry we have created three forms land sea sky and we just filled all three of the forms fish Birds animals do you see the Symmetry should the story be finished if it's just following the OCD level symmetry of which it's designed it should be finished but is it we'll figure out the bonus creature after the break come on spee spe e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e and how how late are we going to when is lunch 12:20 just 12 great so we got 24 minutes till everyone gets really hangry and uh starts craving pistachio ice cream okay quick announcement um this afternoon's class is going to be downstairs in classroom uh 101 so it's just right below here pretty much so uh when we go to lunch we're going to need to take all of our bags and our stuff with us because we're going to be moving and they have to reset this room is that it I I get it all great um Al righty enjoy your luxury space here while you can do some laps around the room if you need to you know whatever whatever makes you happy all right well this is exciting because uh here it is now I already set it up and previewed it that if you just look at the design and structure of the Bible you've already seen patterns of 1 two 3 one two 3 and they've completed themselves we already have symmetry and everybody loves symmetry yeah so why would would you violate the Symmetry and do a whole other passage on a filling of the land when you've already thoroughly covered the filling of the land to highlight it dear reader this was the Crown Jewel yeah okay here we go verse 26 then God said let us make humans in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea birds in the sky and the livestock and wild animals and all the creatures that move along the ground so God did create Mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them male and female he created them okay now starting in verse 27 what is that what is verse 27 we were just told that God made humans in His image and then we just got retold it in 27 what's that it's a poem it's a deliberate poem and is a poem giving us entirely unique information so in the Hebrew language they don't have underlining or italics or exclamation marks they don't even have the word really or fully they don't have any natural way to emphasize something but what do they use repetition and so here this uh you will see this in the pituk where after a very significant moment there will be the Outburst of a poem a little little diddy just like this you're going to see another one in Chapter 2 so they're going to get packed in here in the first couple chapters of Genesis and then they're going to start spreading out and uh we don't have the time but if you want to look into where all these little poems are they help you understand the overall structure and significance of an event that is happening they don't always fall on the events that you think you might choose uh but there's uh there is scholarship if you want to go read John Simer he believes this is the way you're supposed to understand and this is the author's way of helping you work through the Torah is by placing these poems in here to highlight and emphasize key moments that when they happen so um God makes humans what's unique about humans comparatively to everything else all the other creatures that God has made in God's image what does it mean to be made in God's image well let's start here the Hebrew word for image is Salem Salem now when you are going about the work of trying to interpret an ancient texts like the Hebrew Bible one of the ways you figure out the meanings of words is looking at other places those words are used and then comparing their context so if you were to do a word search on cem and to find all the other places in the Hebrew Bible where it's used it's one of the main words for an idol so what are humans we're Idols how do you feel about that Christopher has a question do you feel good or bad about Idols I don't feel good about yeah yeah I wouldn't think you would MH or does it well let's uh let's unpack it right but let's just start with how we're reacting let's just pay attention to that you don't like something fair enough and why don't you like it because it's number two of The Ten Commandments for crying out loud right right so at some point in the story Idols became a really really bad thing but is Exodus chapter 20 the beginning of the story no and is it the beginning of our understanding of what an idol even is apparently not something has gone wrong and been perverted but that's not how it originated so we got to ask a deeper question then not assume what an idol is based on Exodus 20 and Beyond what is an idol based on what we see in Genesis 1 it's an image and what is an image well an image is actually a relatively common thing in the ancient world they're used both religiously and politically politically they're used if you're a king in charge to represent the boundaries of your kingdom so let's just say I'm the king of the Philippines I'm tall you maybe they'd buy it you know probably not but if I was the king of the Philippines and in order to convey my kingdom and my authority I might place a statue of me on all the islands of the Philippines so that even though I'm not there physically you would know my authority is yeah come now come the second usage of Idols was always in temples Idols were never Gods nor were they worshiped directly Idols are representations of gods they're physical representations of an invisible God sometimes it was believed they were animated or filled with the spirit of that God but they were not the God thems and so you would Place Idols typically in the middle of temples in order to represent that deity and which deity that Temple belonged to apparently this God has his own Idol and we are the physical representation of his authority on the earth even though he isn't visible and we are the image or representation of him that is not meant to draw worship unto us but unto him and we also just got a significant clue not just about who humans are but where humans are and we'll get there in a moment so here we have our humans male and female and what is the purpose or job description of a human it gives it right in the verse so that so that we would rule rule what all of the earth question who is the king of Heaven and Earth please say God you make it you own it it's yours yeah who did God just delegate authority of the earth to humans okay here's the question we probably should have been asking much earlier and much more often what does this tell us about the nature of this God oh my gosh he loves partnership how much so does he sign up interns to be Gophers to get him cups of coffee he delegates real actual meaningful authority to them hboy what does this do to the significance levels of humans how important are they they are all the way important maxed out they have just been made Kings and Queens over God's good world yeah what is going to make sure that the humans do a good job if they're given this much responsibility that means the potential for a lot of failure correct what do we do to even give them clarity about how they're supposed to do their job well foreshadowing how are we going to make sure the humans actually image God in the way that they rule so far how's God doing as a ruler of Heaven and Earth how do we know it's good everything he makes is good I mean take a look around if you will look out of your planes when you fly here does it look good to you yeah it's all very good so this is what apparently God is up to also notice God started with deep dark Waters of toou Vu yeah this is the thing that usually represents some level of personal chaotic resistance to the will of gods and every other mythology of the ancient world how did God solve tooo he just spoke was there any resistance what did John say the darkness didn't stand a chance couldn't overcome it now if you read the anuma Alish if you lead uh about Marduk uh in the Babylonians or if you read the Egyptians or you read the Mesopotamians they'll all have relatively similar creation stories similar in that they have some sort of the same representative ideas including Waters of toou Vu but how do the gods overcome it violence extreme violence they're using have to pull up Swords literally ripping bodies and two uh one story has the clanging of swords together that produces Sparks and those Sparks become the stars in the sky one story has a has a god having his arm sliced and the blood that runs from it becomes the rivers of the world violent warfare that's our world our world is dog eat dog and it's not just in our realm it's in the Divine realm but this Creator God how does he create he just speaks so when you describe the power of a God how are you able to observe someone's power it's not just by how much they're able to do but by how easily they can do it if you see someone with giant muscles in the weight room lifting it's not just how much weight they lift it's how easily they're doing it yeah one of the best if like uh I take my kids uh to a few uh NBA games and my favorite part of it going in Aames is going early to watch them warm up because when you see them warm up that's when you see how good they are like the things they they don't miss by the way when I just they don't ever Miss and the things that they do and the best players like the Kevin Durant and the Steph curries and the Damen lillers like what they can do when they're just warming up it's like I couldn't even hit the backboard trying to do the things that they're doing it's just so easy to them when my boys were young I love to wrestle with them and one of the reasons why wrestling was so fun even though it was so rough is it was still peaceful why because when my kids were young my power was so much greater than theirs I could control them now my second oldest son is 6 foot6 he's bigger than me my oldest son got into weightlifting and creatine Heaven Help Us you know what I mean I tried wrestling him when he was about 15 years old and I almost got my nose broken a knee lost track of it flying into the face I can still beat them barely and don't test me on it but it's not peaceful anymore why because our powers are closer now does this God have any competitors even close to his power nothing resists him do you see it this is what I mean when I say You're supposed to ask questions not how God did it but who did it and why did he do it because apparently this God is making good things barely flexing his pinky finger yeah when all the four of chaos and resistance are assembled against them it doesn't even matter and when he makes living beings he could have settled with the animals birds and fish and he didn't he made us in His image he shares his image with us he lets us be like him and what is the first thing that God does to the humans no other God does this every other God makes humans in order that they would bless him her or them that's why humans are made slaves but what is this God do what have humans done for him yet apparently this God is just like that generous abundant overflowing outpouring and another fun question before God made humans was he lonely how do we know that cuz us and who's us is it who's us who's the Trinity yeah but we're just reading the story so far like I've never seen that word where have you learned that word who's us thankfully the biblical authors wrote Psalms to help us interpret things apparently God has an assembly of other gods a Divine counsel if you will and especially when he's making very big decisions he consults with them have you not read Job 1 the sons of God this is his Divine counsel God has a staff team we just you guys just told me why did God make humans oh he loves partnership he loves partnership humans aren't the only ones he's in partnership with there are others there are others in that place we were not told very much about the Unseen realm the Divine Realm you know the skies the heavens and when he's making humans apparently there are already others with his image and if they have his image there it means they're also responsible to rule rule where in the heavens and then who was assigned and who is assigned to rule here humans and sometimes they're referred to as the sons of God aren't they but how are the humans sometimes referred to sons of God which is a family term so God makes a family here but he also has a family there everywhere God creates he makes family he makes relationship and love and partnership everywhere he is which gives us a clue does this God really care about love and relationship yes the question is how much and the answer is all the way because he doesn't just value it it's what he is in the beginning who created the heavens and the Earth and what was hovering over the waters and what did God do to bring light so already in three verses we have God the spirit of God and the word of God and which one of them are creating yes do we have any fancy words to describe what this is like no not yet but we do know it seems as if there's a bit of complexity to the inner being of this God and the breadcrumbs are just going to accumulate to lead us down a trail but we don't have to go all the way to Jesus to start realizing that God is father son and spirit that the Hebrew Bible is going to introduce to us plenty of times where there's going to be God and the word of God and God and the spirit of God and God and the angel of God and sometimes they're distinct and sometimes they're the same thing so what are you supposed to do is there one God or they're multiple gods and they're already within the Hebrew scriptures trying to create a very a a very like complex weaving together of oo there's more that meets the eye that's the Trinity it's definitely the Divine counsel you're wrong you're wrong wrong and you're right here's what I would say here's how I say it this is directly referencing the Divine counsel I believe it's indirectly referencing the Trinity because what do the Divine counil the fact that God consults in both Heaven and the Earth with his image Bears what does that tell us about the nature of God it's God's way of in this story and not get guys all the cookies are not on on the bottom shelf you're going to have to read the rest of the story and then reread the rest of the story you're supposed to read Job 1 and Psalm 82 and then go reread Genesis 1 be like oh there they are but the way we expect to see a story is tell me everything in the front and then tell me the story it's not how you do it man you just let the story go and it slowly builds and accumulates where you get more information about more of the characters as you go and then you go reread the story that's what you're supposed to do so I think this is God helping us to see his relational nature is so much more profound than we realized and Jesus is going to be the full perfect Revelation and consummation but it's not as if uh it's not if it was hidden we just didn't have eyes to see m he says let us make them in our image yeah it's a lot cleaner if you just presume it's a trinity but then you got to ignore all the other encounters with the Divine counsel that are very explicit and here's the other problem that we have that trips us up in the beginning it says God created the heavens and the Earth that's just the Hebrew word Elohim Elohim is just we think of that much more specifically than what the word actually means we we interpret that word as God and what do we think God is well God's the all powerful Creator Elohim doesn't mean that Elohim just means powerful spiritual being it's a very generic category so who are we being introduced to a powerful spiritual being oh by the way that is the one true creator Elohim but how many eloh team are there many there are many powerful Spiritual Beings only one Creator Elohim sorry guys it's just Bible and Psalm 82 look what it does Elohim presides in the great assembly and Rend judgment among the Elohim but look what the English translators have to do for you make sure it's lowercase with quotation marks there's no lowercase and quotation marks in Hebrew what are they trying to do for you help you with the struggle you're happening right now in real time it's the same word it's the same idea like what what have you been reading man to not see that this is the thing that is going on did you not know did you not know that our war is not against flesh and blood what do you think Paul got a Theology of the powers and the principalities and powers for crying out loud or you could have just read the stuff we were all saying was supposed to be so important I am Yahweh your Elohim I just brought you out of e uh out of Egypt don't have any other Elohim before me what did you think that meant yeah but what's an idol representing and Elohim now westerners say like oh it's just money sex power it's things that we value more than God were there real gods in Egypt please say yes I will bludging you with material to prove to you who do you think God was rescuing them from Pharaoh Pharaoh was one of many one of many the Nile represented a god frogs represented to God who is the greatest in the Egyptian Pantheon the son God raw what was the ninth plague all the plagues or just assault on the Egyptian Elohim and why I'm spoiling the story a little bit but I'm just going to do it anyway because I can why did God do that because when Moses asked pharaoh to let the people go what was Pharaoh's reply who's Yahweh why should I obey him is he denying Yahweh exists no everybody has a God but yours is a slave God because you're slaves my gods are more powerful because we're more powerful this is just an honest question and what does God do he gives them an answer who is Yahweh that I should obey him well we're just going to go down the line until we get to the firstborn of pharaoh who believe to be the next incarnate Son of God how we doing uh once you see it you can't unsee it but it's crazy how it's crazy how you guys are charismatics right don't you fight the devil and do like Deliverance Ministry and stuff like that what are we talking about man you don't think the Bible talks about this and I think unfortunately until you thought deeply about it you just realize you've been far more Mater like influenced by modern materialism and substituted real Spiritual Beings for philosophies and ideas and values and metaphors money sex power unfortunately the late great amazing hero to me deep in my soul Tim Keller money sex power as the counterfeit gods of his book which is great however those are Elohim real personal Spiritual Beings it's not just the idea of money it's a principality for crying out loud okay it's got to be quick because we got more material to go to but yes Angel is just okay the re I can recommend to you guys some good books to read but the problem with Angel it's a junk drawer term we've made too inclusive Angel is a term that specifically means messenger like who we saw in the resurrection account and who did the women say that they saw to men you know what Angels never have wings you know who Angels always look like us and you've apparently entertained some angels without even knowing it I want to ask you to raise your hand if you are one in the room but yeah it's just a specific type of spiritual being of which Elohim are a specific category and then you're going to meet a few other different categories as we go through but there is a diverse like range of Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Realms of which Angels we've just used that to describe all of the Spiritual Beings on the good team and then demons say all the ones on the bad team but there are diversities even Paul like Powers principalities like he had rulers of the air he had different language for it so and it's just Bible language that we've just simplified and as a result became less accurate yes correct yeah Jesus Wasing yeah not refering to he's referring to not just money but the god of money yeah it's both yeah lust is it just pornography or is it a spirit of lust like please tell me your every nation people that believe in these are real spiritual like I'm just telling you what you already believe you just didn't realize how influenced you were uh by the Demonic campaign to like hey if you don't know we exist you won't mess with us you know the greatest trick the devil devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn't exist Comal it philosoph or psycholog you limit the biblical resources and power I believe in Psychology and I even believe in philosophy I believe in like you know um do not conform to the patterns of world but renew your mind you know like I believe in all those things and there's a real person we should get off get off your back in the name of Jesus soces yeah because I've read the gospels and Jesus was doing that a lot apparently so do you follow Jesus or not like like what are we doing here you know sorry I'm really making fun of you guys s hard here uh but yeah I'm just introducing you stuff you already believe it's crazy like how much stuff junk we pick up to like Cloud the stuff we know is actually true how we doing okay where are we with break did I go oh it's like 11:59 so we're there okay let's see if we can do a quick little deal here for lunch okay ready for your fanger He blesses them then he commands them be fruitful and increase in number and fill the Earth and subdue it subdue is the word kibos it's kind of an old-fashioned phrase anymore but put the kabash on it it's a violent militaristic term dear reader what in the world would in this good beautiful peaceful World humans ever have to militarily violently conquer foreshadowing after lunch okay do we need any instructions before lunch or we just go eat take your stuff yeah don't forget to take your stuff great for e