|
Analyzing Scriptural History
by Bobby Bruno Joshua 1-2 What did God do to get Joshua and Israel ready to go into the Promised Land.? God reminded Joshua that what He had already promised Moses He would do for Israel, would be done, and no one would stand in their way. God also reminds Joshua that the nation will be successful only if they follow that Law given to Moses, and that they were not to depart from it one bit. God then gives to Joshua directions on what to bring into the land and where the different tribes were to settle in it. God had Joshua send in spies into Jericho to scout out the city for weaknesses so that Israel could come into the land more freely. Joshua 24 What is the significance of the covenant renewal and the series of funerals that close out the Book of Joshua? Now that they have entered the land, Israel, through the demands of God through Joshua, rededicated their nation and lives back to God. The nation threw away their idols and chose to follow the Law of Moses. God reminded them of all He had done to get them into the land He had promised them and that He would protect them in the future, but only as long as they continued to follow Him and no one else, and in all His ways. As one, the nation of Israel voiced their assurance that they would. Because of the pledge they had just made, if they decided to go their own way again, God would not be as kind to them and would bring about such evil that the land would be destroyed, and the nation along with it. The significance of the funerals is that the patriarchs were now able to be buried in their own land instead in the foreign land where they had first laid. Their final resting place was now the place that God Himself had chosen for His people. Joseph was now laid to rest with his own people, just as Joseph's father was buried in the land of his father's after his death. Judges 2:6-23 Why is this scripture the key to understanding the entire book of Judges? Once again the people of Israel decided to go their own way and to worship idols of other cultures and nations. Just as God had promised, He left the people to their own devices and allowed them to be conquered time and time again. But God did not completely abandon His people. God gave the nation a series of judges that God would be with to keep Israel from being completely destroyed. As long as the judge was alive as God's representative to the nation, Israel would not know defeat. But when the judge died, and no replacement was yet provided, Israel would be hampered by the surrounding nations as flies on food. Because of this, many other cultures mixed with the Israelites to create a country populated by Israel and their enemies. The Book of Judges tells of these exploits of the Israeli nation as they went from faith to failure time and time again. It tells of the shining moments when the judges would keep Israel turned toward God. It also tells of those times when Israel chose to forget the God of their father's who had brought them out of Egypt. Ruth 4:18-21 What is one key thing about the Book of Ruth based on the genealogy at the end of the book? One of the things God told His chosen people was that they couldn't intermarry with people from other nations. Yet Boaz married Ruth because Ruth's deceased husband was a relative of Boaz, and Boaz was required to marry her (by God's law) to keep the dead man's property in the family (in this case Naomi's, because Ruth was her daughter-in-law). From this union came the family line that produced David, Israel's greatest king. This shows that God will use who He will to bring about the salvation of His people, for, from this line came Jesus Christ, the salvation of the world. I Samuel 16-17 According 1 Samuel 16 and 17, what are the good reasons for how David is prepared/fit to be Israel's king? The main reason that David was fit to be king was because God chose him to take over the kingdom after Saul was released from the job. As king, David would have to be a brave man, as well as a warrior, who could win in battle (as the fight with Goliath proved). David could speak well and was good-looking, which in those days meant that he was beautiful, built, and brawny. David looked and sounded like a leader (again, as the fight with Goliath proved). The next best reason that David was fit to be king was in the fact that he knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord was with him. David may have had great strength (shown by his single-handedly killing of the lion and the bear), but his true strength came from knowing that God was with him in everything he did. Being a shepherd gave David a lot of time to spend with God while he was tending the sheep; learning from His wisdom and trusting Him through his trials as a shepherd alone in the fields. II Samuel 7 In II Samuel 7:11-16, David wants to build a house for God, but God insists on doing something more for David (and Israel). What are some things God will do? God will establish a kingdom through David's line that will never end. The house that the Son will build will be a house for God to live in. Unlike Solomon's Temple, it will be the place where God's throne will be forever. Through Jesus Christ, David's "house" and "kingdom" will endure forever, as will His throne. Verse 14 speaks about when Solomon does wrong in God's eyes. He will be flogged and beaten with the rod of men. Solomon's reign ended because of his preoccupation with his harem and with his wealth, giving his enemies the chance to overtake the nation. This flogging and beating also belongs to Jesus Christ, as He was beaten and flogged as an innocent man, and put to death for the sins of the world. Unlike Solomon, who had slowly turned most of his heart from God, Jesus obeyed and followed God to the letter, never straying from the Father's commands and words. Jesus has built the house of God through the line of David as David was promised by God. I Kings 11:1-13 Why does the kingdom of Israel experience division? Will the losses of the kingdom of Israel be limited? The kingdom was divided simply because Solomon loved his women more than he loved God. He would do anything to please his harem, including building places where these women could worship their foreign gods. Displeased at Solomon's apparent turning away from all that God had told him not to do, God let Solomon know that his kingdom would be taken away from him, but not before he died. Solomon's son would be the one to see the kingdom of Israel fall. But, as usual, God would not leave the nation without a remnant to carry on in His Name. One tribe would become this remnant and would carry on the line of David in to the future. In the same way He did here, God will someday call out a remnant from the Jews that would last throughout the Tribulation period in the future. God promised that the Jewish race would never be extinguished; the remnants are the fulfillment of that promise. I Kings 12:26-33 Describe Jeroboam's sin in chapter twelve of 1 Kings. In order to keep his kingdom from falling into the hands of King Rehoboam, and his people from following the King instead of him, Jeroboam set up a series of false idols, shrines, and sacrifices to them and made the people believe that if they worshiped them then Jeroboam would remain king. Jeroboam's sin spread among the people of Israel causing the entire nation to sin against God. I Kings 17-18 Tell what God does about Israel's idolatry in 1 Kings 17 and 18. God doesn't have to (and shouldn't have to) let us know that we need to turn our lives back over to Him once we have freely given them to Him. Even still, when we fall away to worship other "gods", the one, true God will remind us that He is still with us and wants us to come back into relationship with Him. How He does it may differ for each believer, but make no mistake, God will get you back, even if He has to allow yourself to make yourself miserable to do it. As in the case of Israel, God sent Elijah to prove that God is stronger than any god devised by man. Baal's priests were destroyed and the nation of Israel returned to God again. In our nation today, we see the slowly falling away of people from God. like the people of Israel, we, too, follow many idols; be it the idols of entertainment, money, cars, power, pride, education, and so on. Many new faiths have entered our country changing the religious landscape one culture at a time, threatening to place many new idols into the Christian culture from which America was started. Who has God called to speak to our nation at this time? Billy Graham has spent his entire life trying to convince people that God loves them and wants a relationship with them. But has our country followed his voice to repentance? Some have, but enough? Who is to be the voice of our generation in 2012 and beyond? Right now, it doesn't seem as if God has one Bible-believing, true-bloodied Christian speaking for him out in the masses. In the churches, yes, but out where the people who don't care about church are? We pray that God will lift someone up who cannot be denied and who will be believed. Jesus Christ is that Man, but He isn't physically here at this time. Who will speak for Him in this time where this country is heading towards a great fall? May God answer that question soon. Bobby Bruno was saved 15 years ago in a way that left him no doubt that Jesus wanted him to reach others with His great and abounding love. He started writing at the age of 12 and hasn't stopped since. He achieved Associates Degree in Biblical Studies from Ohio Christian University in early 2014. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |