Exodus
The book of Exodus is a book of the OT Law.
The title of the book came from the Greek
word exodus, meaning “a road out of” or “departure.” The principal theme of
this book is God’s deliverance of the Jews from
Egypt.
The book also documents
Israel’s
birth as a nation, God’s giving of the law to His people, and the beginnings of
Israel’s ritual
worship.
It begins with the Jews
enslaved in
Egypt.
Despite the enslavement of the Jews they
continued to grow in numbers and the Pharaoh introduced a harsh policy designed
to alleviate fears of a possible Israelite rebellion and consigned the Jews to
hard labor.
God then calls Moses (who
left after killing an Egyptian for beating a Jew) to be a deliverer of His people.
Moses returned to
Egypt,
confronts the Pharaoh and a series of 10 plagues sweep through
Egypt,
the last one being the death of the first born.
The Jews are delivered. The Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his arm
after them.
God protected them in events
such as the parting on the
Red Sea.
God provided food and water to His people
while they were in the wilderness.
God
then instituted His covenant, which necessitated obedience to the Ten
Commandments and to laws governing a variety of civil and religious
matters.
The covenant was ratified
through blood.
God then gave directions
for the tabernacle.
The Israelites broke
the law with the construction of a golden calf idol and Moses intercession
allowed the people to repent and renew the covenant.
Israel
finally obeys God by constructing the tabernacle and brought offerings.
Job
The book of Job is largely narrative material.
This book deals with a huge question of: If
God is good and just and powerful, why do good people suffer?
Job was an upright and faithful man who had
done nothing wrong, and yet catastrophe overwhelmed him.
Satan was behind the scenes trying to get Job
to loose faith in God.
Although Job had
questions and suffered he remained faithful.
The book begins with Job as a wealthy, righteous, and respected
man.
Satan accuses Job before God.
God permits Satan to inflict suffering upon
Job.
Job then lost his sons and
daughters, his sheep and herds, his servants, and his health.
Even through this he remained faithful.
Job breaks a little and wishes he was never
born.
His friends believed he was
suffering because he had sinned.
Job
defends his innocence.
Elihu explains
that this is not a punishment that it may be due to his self-centeredness he
had fallen into.
The Lord finally speaks
to Job and asked him several questions to demonstrate Job’s finitude and
ignorance to his why.
Job then repents
and is delivered and God gives him twice as many worldly goods as he had in the
beginning and restores his family.
Ecclesiastes
The genre of this book is wisdom and is written by King
Solomon.
This book highlights two
contrasting ways of looking at humanity’s plight in the world.
One is the secular, humanistic, materialistic
viewpoint that sees life as futile, meaningless, and purposeless.
The other viewpoint is the godly or spiritual
perspective.
The book begins to bring to
light the futility of human endeavors.
Everything seems to run in cycles, sun rises and sets, people are born
and people die, the wind blows and there is little satisfaction in life.
Solomon then investigates the possibility of
finding meaning in things such as knowledge, wisdom, laughter, pleasure, wine,
good works, wealth, music, women, and other worldly pleasures.
He found that none of this brings
satisfaction.
He adds that we should be
content and rejoice in the blessings God has provided us.
He then goes into the limitations of human
knowledge and wisdom.
His advice here is
to choose to enjoy life despite life’s enigmas and mysteries.
Work hard and enjoy life for death awaits us
all.
He encourages us to live joyfully,
live responsibly and fear God and keep His commandments.
Live in this world but not of this
world.
Song of Songs
The genre of this book is poetic and is also written by King
Solomon.
This book illustrates the
greatness of sexual love between husband and wife through songs.
This book reflects the joy and pain of
relations and the boundaries for experiencing that joy and pain.
He outlines the courtship and the process of
falling in love.
He sings of a beautiful
girl longing for her lover to be with her.
One day, her beloved appeared and a wedding procession was grand.
They rejoiced with each other and dined in
the garden with their guest.
The wedding
was consummated and joy was abundant.
Marital problems hit and the husband withdrew.
They renewed their love and reconciled with
each other.
The marriage deepened and
their relationship matured.
They took a
trip together and people were amazed at her beauty and their love for each
other and the bride exulted, “Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot
sweep it away.”
This really sheds light
on what deep meaningful relationships are about and the meaning of marriage as
it was intended to be with a man and woman.
Habakkuk
The genre of this book is prophecy.
Habakkuk was a prophet and wrestles with the
question of why innocent people suffer while evil people so often seem to prosper.
God responded to him with the fact that
His people must trust Him and the wicked will be judged.
Habakkuk is talking with God about the
wickedness of
Judah
and asked God how long He would be silent about this matter.
God replies that He has a plan to use the
Babylonians as His whipping rod against the people of
Judah.
This judgment would be swift and
violent.
Habakkuk then asked God why a
righteous and holy God would use an evil nation like the Babylonians to bring
judgment on
Judah.
God replies that He is fully aware of the
transgressions of the Babylonians.
However,
Judah
is also guilty.
God explains that both
Judah and the Babylonians were under condemnation.
Habakkuk is enlightened and ends this book
with a psalm of praise to God.
He celebrates
God’s power.
Habakkuk came to see that
God’s knows best and with this knowledge he gained confidence and expressed joy
before the Lord.
