EMMAUS SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES

With the book of Leviticus what I would love for people to see as they study through this book is what a beautiful and wondrous thing it was for God to make a way for His presence to dwell among his people. Because that is the heart behind the book, we saw in Exodus that God has redeemed his people for relationship and now in Leviticus we begin to get a more full and beautiful picture of the Covenant-keeping God’s ambition to pursue humanity and make a way for his presence to dwell among them!
At first glance this book can seem very monotonous and hard to get through with all the details concerning offerings and such, but don’t miss the beauty and wonder that a Holy God is making a way for his children to approach him! He is not distant and unconcerned, He is a God of mercy and love and longs to be with his children, and though sin has separated His children from being able to freely enter his presence he is making a way for them to do so. And hopefully as you study the book you will begin to see how all of this is pointing to a much bigger purpose God had in mind in sending his Son so that all might approach freely,(as seen in the book of Hebrews, which incidentally I would highly recommend reading alongside any serious study of Leviticus) don’t miss how this fits into God’s universal Plan of Redemption. Think about it, even from just a cursory glance one can see the themes of Holiness, Atonement, Blood, Sin, Guilt, Offerings, God’s Character…can you see how all this fits into the context of the whole Bible? Leviticus gives us a foundation for our theology, many of us may have general understandings of concepts like atonement, sacrifice, the Perfect Spotless lamb, man’s sinfulness, but an in depth study of Leviticus will bring depth and fullness and beauty to your understanding of these theological concepts!

This morning I was up early grading a students work on Genesis. So far I haven’t gotten any farther than chapter two. I have been so floored by what I’m seeing in God’s character through Genesis 1 and 2. The trip wire for my thinking this morning is this “God let Adam name the animals.” I started thinking about that, and it began to occur to me that this one fact reveals the character of God in unimaginably awesome ways. It goes beyond this one fact though. The story continues and we see that God created this fine world, this good world, and then put mankind in the middle of it and told them to “subdue” it.

Here’s whats jumping out at me today. God creates this AWESOME world, a world that he’s thrilled with. A world full of all sorts of crazy plants ad animals, and then he lets man, a young man, a new man, begin assigning lasting names to them all. Here’s what hes saying essentially… “heres my awesome world, now have at it, make it your own.” I think this is what God means when he says, “subdue and have dominion” over the Earth.

God does not say “heres my perfect world, ITS PERFECT! so try not to wreck anything.”..which is probably what I would have said. No, God knew that there would be some wreckage involved, but he still handed us the keys…and not reluctantly either! He handed us the keys to His world with joy, knowing that one day Michael Angelo would turn a cold block of marble into a masterpiece the world would marvel at forever…and the coolest thing is that God saw that coming…he saw it coming and was excited about it…and is still excited about it…the creative potential of mankind is miraculous, because it comes from a miraculous God in whos image we are made…and praise Him that he lets us learn to paint with beauty on the canvas of his wonderful creation, even when it means we’re going to make a mess sometimes

A God who rescues those in slavery

(You may not realize that naming my blog is one of the most exciting parts of any book.  I can’t bring myself to call any book Sarah on ….   so now I have drawn Michele into my naming creativity.   Feel free to comment – is there anyone out there?)

Sorry – Exodus!  Awesome!

I loved this book because it reminds me of what God has done for me!  I haven’t always been a crazy bible studying Christian.  I felt like I was stuck in a sad, unhappy life and God came and found me and pretty much lifted me out of it!  I wasn’t looking for God but he redeemed me and in fact I ended up moving to the other side of the world.   God has used these experiences away from family and friends to mold and shape me and show me who he is.  But most of all he did it so that I could have a relationship with him.

This is what God did for the Israelites.  He took them out of Egypt and into the desert so that they could learn how much God loves them and how much he desires relationship with them.  They don’t always get it right in fact sometimes they get it really wrong.  But thats the thing God has already rescued them by taking them out of Egypt now it is the process of making them more like him that they are taking one step forward and ten back.

But that is what is encouraging to me.  God never gives up on them, he continues to pursue them and continues to show them that he is good, that he loves them, that he wants them to have a relationship with them.

So God moves into a tent in the middle of their tents and shows himself in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire at night.  That is what God does for us only he actual sent the Holy Spirit to come and live in us.   Next time I am wondering where God is I need to remember actually he is right here and he wants me to know it.

Everything he does is about restoring relationship!

I am really enjoying studying these old testament books. There is so much to say about Exodus – so much going on… where to begin.

I always thought that the most important part of the book was the first half up until the chapter 15 when Pharaoh’s army goes into the sea. Then it gets into laws, covenants, the tabernacle, mount Sinai and the golden calf. Why is the rest of it in there (besides being historical information)?

The point of the book is to show that God desires relationship with his people. He is willing to go to great lengths to achieve it. The first half with all the plagues and a mean pharaoh shows the extent to which God would go to save his people. It also shows that he did not forget the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Genesis. God used the Egypt detour to make his name famous in the world by defeating the Egyptian empire from the inside out. Back to the point: God saved his people, but just to bring them to the Promised Land? No, much more.

God provides for them in the wilderness. God protects them in the wilderness. God guides them in the wilderness… he is teaching them about himself throughout their journey. He is patient with their complaining continually. He is forgiving of their sin and unbelief. God makes to main covenants with the Israelites in the wilderness. The first is the covenant of the Principle and Case Laws (Ch 20-24). This is a Suzerainty Covenant requiring that Israel obey their end of the deal, basically it is conditional. The second major covenant is the covenant of the Tabernacle (29:42-46). This is a Promissory Covenant requiring nothing of Israel, it’s a gift.

The Israelites take no time in breaking three different laws of the first covenant. God forgives them and renews this covenant again with them in chapter 34, but this covenant still stands as a conditional covenant to their obedience. The promises of the first covenant are land, blessings of food and other things like that. But the cool thing is that the other covenant of the Tabernacle, promises relationship between God and his people. God did not want their ability to have relationship with him to be based on their own works. God could still have relationship with his people despite their sin. This is a shadow of what we were given through Jesus – an way to relationship not based on our own righteousness, but his.

Ohh my gosh!!! Exodus is my favorite book in the OT so far!!! I REALLY enjoyed studying this book!

You have all probably heard the stories since you were children. Moses writes how the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt, and how God chooses him to deliver them from Egypt, and bring them into the land God has promised. Moses goes through the story of how he was rescued from Pharaoh TWICE, and then how God brings the Israelites out of Egypt through amazing signs and wonders.

I had heard these stories since childhood as well, but THIS time I got a lot of new perspective on the story. Moses presents these stories to show the Israelites the reason why God does all these things for them. The answer is found in Exodus 29:45-46.  God did all these things so that people would come to know him. He wanted to show himself to them, so they would come to know him, and have a relationship with him. It is so clear after studying the book in this light how much God wants a good relationship with people. He wants people to know him, and he wants to be with them.

I also LOVED learning about the building of the tabernacle, and finding out its purpose and symbolic meaning. It is also so cool to look at this book in light of the New Testament. It brings out the AWESOMENESS of the cross, why it is so amazing, and significant.

These are a few things I loved learning from Exodus. One of the biggest things, however, that was so cool was learning more about God. His character and ways are all throughout the book, and I really REALLY enjoyed learning more about who he is, and what he is like. I have come to love him a little more, appreciate my relationship with him a little more, and I feel like the more I learn about him, the more secure I am in my relationship with him. I know I can trust him. I am safe with him. He is good, loving, gracious, and merciful. Man…I am SO blessed. So so blessed to have a God like him. THANK you God. 

This book answers that question somewhat for me, but it definitely answers the question for the Original Reader!

The Original Reader is urgently needing both an identity and faith as they are waiting to enter the Promised Land (Palestine). It was really great to see how Moses chose stories from their ancestors specifically to show…

• the faithfulness of God
• that they were chosen by God
• that they were blessed by the grace of God and not because their ancestors were all that good
• that they should trust God like their ancestors
• that it wasn’t a mistake that they were slaves in Egypt
• that God never forgot his promise
• that God can and will provide for their needs
• that God is mighty in battle
• that God has steadfast love

I think that God’s “steadfast love” (24:12) was the most important and exciting theme that I saw in the book. God gives steadfast love to all kinds of people in this book. It was so refreshing to read about it all.

Perfection gone wrong!  This book is a revelation of how our whole world ended up in the mess we have now.   It could be called Revelation.

This book answers many of the questions we have about why there is suffering in the world and has something to say about why God allows it.   God created a perfect world and humans to live in it and everything he made is good.   As we all know it all went wrong when Adam and Eve decided they needed to know the difference between good and evil and the serpent convinced them that God was holding out on them.    Death and sin came into the perfect world and it has been a battle ever since.

Yet in Genesis we see a series of stories of people messing up big time and God still working out his plan in their lives.   God promises Abraham a child yet he tells a king his wife is sister and the king takes her as his own wife, he sleeps with his wifes servant in the hope of getting a child and then he gives another king his wife to try and cover his own butt.  Seriously….  but still at a ridiculously old age God gives him a child but his wife Sarah and the history of a nation starts.  The history of redemption is a step closer.

This book is full of messed up people and still God finds ways to make sure that his plans still work out.  God uses messy, messed up people to work out his plan of redemption.

It becomes more and more clear as I read through this book that God knows the beginning from the end, he knows the plans he has for peoples lives and will work them out regardless of their mistakes, sin or the injustices that happen to them.

So it is safe to say the people God uses are not chosen because they are so amazing and wonderful but because they show through God’s interactions in their lives that GOD IS AMAZING AND GRACIOUS and that he can redeem anyone and anything.

This world is full of suffering but God is and does bring redemption and life.

Okay, so…longest book we’ve done so far. I really enjoyed Genesis, more than I thought I would! The lectures (by Eileen) were REALLY good and opened up my eyes a little and prepared me to dive into studying it myself. I love how it was mostly stories. These are stories I’ve grown up hearing, but studying it this way has brought tons of meaning into them. Moses wrote to the Israelites who had just come out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. He wrote this history for them because they had none before it. They possibly knew some of this stuff through stories handed down through the years orally, but probably most of this stuff they were hearing was new to them. These stories also open up, MOSTLY I should say, the involvement of God in Israel’s history. These stories reveal SO clearly God’s sovereignty, faithfulness, grace, love, and mercy towards the Israelites. Genesis shows how the nation as a whole even got started.

I am so thankful for the book of Genesis and that I got to study it. I cannot even put into words how much I learned from it this past week (especially because my fingers are very tired from typing Haha! ) But seriously, I learned so much about God, his sovereignty, his faithfulness, patience, and grace through this book. The characters are not really the perfect heroes children’s books sometimes make them out to be. These were normal people who made MANY mistakes, and yet God showed them SO much grace and mercy. He used them, regardless of their faults, to accomplish his plans. He turned their ugliness into beauty. He used their mistakes and turned situations into something good. This book showed me so much of the goodness of God. He really is good and worthy of my trust. I’m thankful I can say I serve a God like this.

Is our life here on earth meaningless? Is it pointless? We all do live for such a short time, will not be remembered past a few generations, and our material possessions will not come with us. Is all of life vanity? These are the struggles that Solomon discusses in Ecclesiastes. He has observed the world “under the sun” and has found no meaning in life. He has a cynical, negative, and pointless view of the world and everything in it.
At the end of the book, there is a nugget of gold- Solomon (if he is the true author) hits the nail on the head. He tells us the meaning of life- to fear God and follow His commandments. It sounds too simple to be true! And it is that simple. God asks us to fear Him- not necessarily be terrified and run for our lives fear- but to be in awe, to hold Him in reverence, to hate sin, and it says in Proverbs that to fear God is the beginning of wisdom. God created us to have a relationship with Him, but we screwed that up from the beginning- though that is still what He desires. He wants us to know Him intimately and be made like Him. That’s it. And that will manifest itself also by making Him known to others, living a full life, and enjoying the fruit of the Spirit, among other things. God wants us to be sanctified, to be made like Christ. God is the meaning of life, the purpose of life, the fulfillment of life. Is He for you? Or on the flip side, imagine life without God. Seriously think about it. Does life seem even worth living? I don’t think it does- life is all vanity or pointless without God! He is EVERYTHING. We need to live life “under God”- not just “under the sun” or we’ll miss out on the most important aspect of why we are here on earth—to know and become more like God.

Is life on this earth meaningless? If one searches for the answer ‘under the sun’ then they will certainly deduce, yes everything is meaningless and empty. One cannot find fulfillment in life through wisdom, money, power, fame, things, pleasure, women, or entertainment. The way to fulfillment must be found through GOD and our attitude and response to HIM. Specifically, the author concludes, the purpose of life on this earth is to fear GOD and obey HIS Commandments. It is the only way to find fulfillment in life.

Well there goes my aspirations to be a millionaire and invent the cure to cancer–because I would not find fulfillment out of that anyways. It amazes me that the author was seeking fulfillment in life much like our society does today (‘there is nothing new under the sun’). But this book truly does and should teach us that our goals and aspirations for life should be influenced by a worldview shaped by a reverent fear of God. Obedience, not rebellion, is the way to fulfillment.

Ecclesiastes is a bit of a challenging book to read because you would think a guy like Solomon would have something more constructive to say than “live it up now because that’s all there is to life”.  I guess this is probably the thoughts of many people – live your life, enjoy it while you can because this is all there is.

So we see Solomon talking about life and all the things he has tried and his summary is that they are all meaningless.   There is nothing good in life, we all live and we all die.  There are some good people and some bad but the same thing happens to them all.

How did the “man of wisdom” get it so wrong??  It seems that somewhere in his life Solomon lost sight of God and his perspective on life is totally warped because of this.   It is true without God life is without meaning, we can sucked into finding meaning in our jobs, our families, our wealth but at the end of the day true meaning can only be found in God.

This book is like a mirror for us to hold up and see where we think the same as Solomon and if we do we should take it as a spotlight from God to look at our lives and realign to his ways of doing things.

The ultimate piece of wisdom is found in the last two verse of this book:

Fear God and keep his commandments.

So simple…..

Kind of…..

What does it mean to fear God?  I think this points us back to proverbs were we see that the fear of God is the hatred of sin.  This is not the sin of others (I can be so good at seeing that) but my sin.   This is a call to allow God to put his spotlight on my life and point out areas where I am not doing things his way.

This is an entire book of flawed theology … except for the final two verses.

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. ”

I’m going philosophic today… Solomon is narrating his own life and philosophy. We all have a world view, whether we call it that or not. It is simply how we answer fundamental questions about life. Solomon looked at purpose and meaning in life based on whether it gave him pleasure and enjoyment. He set his life up to “test” what was good in life and then pursue those things that were pleasurable (2:1). He did not withhold any pleasure from himself. In retrospect was he satisfied? No, not really. He concluded that it all ended up being meaningless: VANITY OF VANITIES. How could pleasure lead you to meanlessness? Or what leads a person to purpose and fulfillment in life?

The pursuit of pleasure implies something about Solomon’s theology. This man was very wise and had a relationship with God from the beginning – God was the one who gave him his wisdom (1 Kings 3:10). Why would he “test” pleasure? What did he need to know? He didn’t trust God’s goodness so he wanted to test and see if God was holding out on him. He tested to see if sin was good, he did not withhold any desire from himself.

Sin is not good and God is not holding out on us. The fear of God and obedience of his commandments are the way to life. Do we trust God though? Is he really good?  You bet he is. But we cannot determine what is the meaningful in life by what is pleasureful. This form of living will only result in a pleasant life of meaninglessness. Don’t get me wrong it will probably be more pleasant than the life that God has for us. Will you experience more pleasure? Yes, probably. But is pleasure, the meaning of life? God holds the meaning of life.

Why then do we experience less pleasure and more pain when living in fear of God and obedience of his commandments??? The answer is that fulfillment in life comes from being more like God – how we were created. This comes through sanctification. He is changing us. As we know change is not pleasant – but it is good when it is from God.

Ecclesiastes. Words of wisdom, that aren’t always wisdom. Solomon writes Ecclesiastes as he is looking back on the life he has lived, and as he realizes that he has made many mistakes. He realizes that he has failed in many ways and wants others to know the wisdom he has learned so that they can live out the things that he failed to.

Solomon approaches life with a cynical attitude, claiming that life is worthless, it has no meaning, and it is empty. He goes on and on addressing different topics such as wisdom vs. folly, the poor vs. the rich, and the righteous vs. the wicked. He claims that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, because in the end everybody dies the same, and ends up in the same place. Because of this he also suggests that people should just do whatever makes them happy, and live their lives for their own enjoyment and pleasure since everyone ends up in the same place anyway. He goes on for twelve chapters, ending with a wise conclusion that he has discovered that totally contrasts some of his arguments. After he has gone on for twelve chapters he ends by saying that the true meaning of life, what gives purpose and what everyone should be doing is this: fearing God and keeping his commandments. He leaves it there, that is the end. He leaves the reader to think about the implications of this and ponder what this means for them.

As I was going through Ecclesiastes, it really hit me this idea Solomon kept bringing up that life is all about being happy and if you aren’t, then what is the point of even living. This seems to be the view of many people today, especially in America. The truth that goes against this is similar to what Job learned and what we can see through the life of Jesus. Sometimes it is God’s will for us to suffer, and that doesn’t mean that you have done wrong, or that you are on the wrong path. Jesus came to earth in order to suffer for the sins of the world. This was God’s will. It was a part of God’s plan and will also for Job to suffer. This goes against what I have thought to be true. I realize that life isn’t about my being happy. It isn’t about me finding pleasure or enjoyment. It’s not even about me. It is all about God. My meaning in life isn’t going to be found by my seeking out my own happiness. My meaning in life, my purpose, is to fear God and obey him. This hit me and challenged me to not go about my day doing things that I want to do that will make me happy. I want to do things because it is what God wants me doing. It also may not matter so much WHAT you do, as HOW you do it, and the motivation behind it. I realized that often my motivation was for my own happiness. I want my motivation instead to be, “God, you are God. I want to love you today and serve you with my actions and my heart. Its not about me. Its all about you.” God, make this true in my life. Starting today.

We have a serious problem in our churches as it becomes more and more like the society in which we live in.  The problem is in relation to our sex ethic as believers.  Before the 1900′s, most Christians were not willing to entertain the idea that Song of Songs was a love poem describing human sexuality between a husband and a wife, and so they allegorized it with all these silly meanings.  What this subtly communicated over the ages to the average Christian is that sex is bad, God would never talk about it, and so neither should we.  And I think that created a vacuum, a void of understanding in believers.

As our world is becoming progressively more and more sexified, if I may coin a term, in that we are being barraged with images and concepts because of our technological age, far more than we used to be.  What a 10 year old sees on TV, looks at on the internet, observes in magazines is sex, sex, sex…everywhere there is sexuality on display.  Sex sells.  And our kids are the target and the recipients of this form of advertising.  The entertainment industry makes mainstream and cool what 30 year olds are going through for a 10 year old, and so you have kids in grade 4 talking about how Katy Perry’s “I kissed a Girl” song and idealizing it.

So, in the midst of our sexually addicted society, the church has not had a voice for centuries, and we’ve often been communicated as Christian kids that sex is bad and we don’t talk about it.  So, if God doesn’t have a view of sex and if the Bible doesn’t speak into it, and if the church doesn’t have anything to contribute, then where are kids to find their view of sexuality?  Our society!  The sex-charged world around them!

We need the Bible and God to speak into human sexuality.  It was not a mistake that God created humanity with brains that were acutely aware and given toward processing love and sexual signals.  It was not a mistake that he created them with sexual organs with more nerve endings than any other part of the body.  No, he created all of this, and said it was “Very Good!”  God cares about us having a healthy view of sexuality, and a healthy view is not “no view”.  So, where do we go to find a healthy view of human sexuality within its appropriate context, both for the single person, and for the married?  Song of Songs!

This book is HOT. I didn’t realize how explicit the song is, it is filled with sexual innuendos.

Why would God put his book in the bible? I think it is because God want’s to celebrate romance and sex in the context of marriage.

There are also some wisdom for single in the book. I think it is meant for singles to read as well, even to understand the sexually explicit content – the revelation is that sexual romance is something that consumes a person with passion and it is not something to play with because once it is stirred up their is no going back (8:4).

The author of this book wrote to rebuke Solomon’s lifestyle of sexual promiscuity – he had over a thousand wives. The author shows that Solomon has forfeited romance and true love for something counterfeit. The author’s purpose in writing this book was to try to steer the Jewish society clear of the unwise and joyless sexual lifestyle of Solomon. This is a message that is needed in this age as well.

The book ends with the groom speaking to Solomon telling him that he is not envious of all his wives, he would not trade his “vineyard” for Solomon’s (8:11-12).

“My vineyard, my very own, is for myself; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand” — celebrate your spouse.