Introduction to Christian Ultra-Libertarians for Truth

Welcome to our first verse by verseTGNN’s Bible teaching series—book-by-book, through the lens of fulfillment and spiritual liberty. presentation as Christian Ultra Libertarians for Truth. For those of you who aren’t aware of what we are doing now, we are still, every Sunday, gathering at 10am to study the scripture. We will pray. We will sit in silence. We will listen to the Word set to music. And we will go through every verse of our text.

What has changed is we are no longer calling our gatherings “a church” as I do not believe that in our day and age trying to play church is the most effective use of our time in being Christians – I think it is in becoming disciples through a study of the Word. I’ve spent decades watching and listening to people who have turned to religion for weekly sustenance and find God’s way of fortifying human beings as His children is far more on point through our new approach than brick and mortar religion and all of its trappings.

So welcome to the physical headquarters of Christian Ultra-Libertarians for Truth, an online educational community that strives to teach seeking souls principles of the faith in Light, Learning, Love and Liberty. As stated, because this “religious instruction” we will still certainly pray and listen to the word of God set to music before every study, we will still sit in silence to prepare our minds and hearts to learn and listen to the Spirit and we consider the contents of ancient scripture.

The Purpose of Studying the Old Testament

So, let’s PRAY
Song
Silence

The Old Testament Verse by Verse

Introduction and General Overview Part I February 6th 2022

“By the LAW is the knowledge of SINMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace..” We are about to enter into a book that is ALL about . . . LAW, and by it, the knowledge of SIN.

So why study this tome if we are not saved by the LAW but by grace. To show us the foundation of all God did to bring forth His Son to save the world by grace. It is one heck of an amazing journey folks.

So, the Old Testament – a name given to the Jewish collection of books that is called, by them, the Tanakh or Jewish Bible. As we move through this voluminous tome of sacred writ we will add information relative to the Jews process of writing and receiving revelation.

Understanding the Structure of the Tanakh

But I thought we would begin with a general overview of the books contained herein, their order, author and assumed publication as a general overview.

As Christians, the origins of the faith and the very foundation of it lies in the physical, literal and spiritual history of a people collectively called the Nation of Israel. Without them there would be no us – as has been amply proven in our study of the last book of the Apostolic Record, the letter to the Romans. Christians take the Old Testament narrative and use it to better understand all that God did PRIOR to the arrival of Jesus that describes, prophesies, pictures his arrival on scene to save both His own nation and the world.

When we read the letters of the apostles in what most conveniently call the New Testament, and the authors speak of reading and searching the scriptures, the “scriptures” that they are talking about is what is found in the Old Testament or Tanakh. So before reading verse one of the first verse of Genesis, I think a general overview of the contents and actual books in the Old Testament will help us with future understanding.

The Bible is divided up into sections that, when understood, help us understand what we are reading. Some have said that we can see the Bible like we read the newspaper which usually comes with a sports section, a financial section, editorials, a front page and all the rest; the Old Testament (or Tanakh) is also divided up into helpful sections.

The word “Tanakh” comes from the first letters in Hebrew of the three main parts of the collection which spell TNKh.

• T: (for Torah, the Teaching of Moses, the first five books).
• N: (for Nevi'im, the books of the prophets).
• Kh: Ketuvim, for the Writings, which include the psalms and wisdom literature.

The consonants are spaced with vowels sounding out the word Tanakh.

The Old Testament: Canonical Differences

The Old Testament, known as the Tanakh in Judaism, is typically read in Hebrew and contains different books in a different order than the Christian Old Testament. It might surprise you to know that the Catholics and Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, Coptic) are typically the only Christian denominations that include all the books contained in the Tanakh. The extra books are the result of breaking some accepted Old Testament books into parts, or putting the parts together, and also some books that are considered pseudepigraphal in nature, which Protestants typically do not recognize as canonical.

The real difference, however, is not just the inclusion or exclusion of these other books but their order. The Nation of Israel believed that they were going to go on forever, and so their Bible (or Old Testament or Tanakh) ends with 2nd Chronicles. That book instructs them to go out and build a temple. In contrast, the Christian reordering of the Tanakh places Malachi at the end, which is a book that foretells the coming great and dreadful day of the Lord. This order and reordering significantly affect how people understand the faith. To accept the ordering of a Jew of their own books is to accept a continuing nation of Israel at play in the world—which, ironically, is how most Protestants see her. On the other hand, to accept the reordered Protestant Old Testament is to embrace the idea that Israel as a Nation was to be destroyed and included with the rest of the world rather than remaining God’s chosen people by bloodline.

The Jewish Canon

One Professor of Jewish studies, Levine, comments: Not only do the two texts—the Jewish Tanakh and the Old Testament of Christianity—have different orders, with the church’s canon, at least the Old Testament part of it, ending with the prophet Malachi, predicting the return of Elijah, which gives you a very nice segue into John Baptist in the Elijah role. The synagogue’s canon ends with Second Chronicles, the Edict of King Cyrus of Persia saying, "okay, you Jews who were in Babylon: go back home to Judea, let whoever among you is able to, go up. Let him make aliyah [return up to Israel] and then go build a temple to God.” According to the Talmud, which is essentially ancient Jewish commentary on the Tanakh itself, the list of the Jewish Bible was set around 450 BC.

The order of the Jewish Bible is as follows:

1. Torah (Law): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy (FIVE BOOKS);

2. Nevi’im (Prophets): Joshua/Judges, Samuel/Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Twelve Prophets (SIX BOOKS);

3. Ketuvim (Writings): Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Esther, Daniel, Ezra/Nehemiah, Chronicles (ELEVEN BOOKS).

That is twenty-two books.

Many people want to know about the extra, the so-called deuterocanonical books, that are in Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholic Bibles. They were NOT accepted by the Jewish scholars in Jerusalem in Jesus' time and are not considered scripture. Even the Catholic saint Jerome did not want to include them in his Latin Vulgate Bible. Interestingly, there is no consistency on the full body of books received by Catholics or any Orthodoxies.

Jerome's Influence on the Protestant Canon

So, when did we get the books and their order of the Protestant Old Testament? The man most responsible for what became our traditional Bible of sixty-six books was the Catholic theologian, Jerome. His Latin Vulgate translation, written between A.D. 382 and 405, with his “new” arrangement of the books for both the Old and New Testaments, became the standard for Protestant scholars and translators. And once a tradition becomes established, it is difficult to change, isn’t it?

Jerome had a rationale for his books of the Old Testament. In my estimation, it was a really bad rationale, too. Ready for this? His rationale is revealed in a quote from him from 391 AD which says: “As, then, there are twenty-two elementary characters by means of which we write in Hebrew … so we reckon twenty-two books, by which, as by the alphabet of the doctrine of God, a righteous man is instructed…”

In other words, Jerome limited the Old Testament books used by Protestants to 22 because they coincided with the 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet! Now, that is true but also simplistic because the books accepted by Jews and Christians alike are the same except for the Apocryphal writings. Some people get all excited about the apocryphal books and focus on reading them and those not canonized in the apostolic record.

Overview of the Hebrew Bible's Structure

suggest that all of this emphasizes and puts a super large explanation point on the fact that our faith is not in paper and ink, but in power and by the Spirit and that we are not called as lawyers but lovers and to focus on EVERYTHING written is a recipe for relating to the world in the former.

So let me take a few minutes and run through the books of the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh. But first I want to explain three T words –

Key Terms

Torah
The Torah means the Law and is found in the first five books of the Old Testament.

Tanakh
The Tanakh we understand, right? It is a word created by the three sections of the scripture – the Torah, (the Law) the Neviim (or the books of the prophets) and the Ketuvim (or the writings).

Talmud
And the Talmud (which means teachings) and are the writings, stories and such that explain and interpret the Tanakh.

The Structure of the Tanakh

So let’s briefly talk about the three sections of the Tanakh beginning with the Torah or the Law

The Law (Torah)

Genesis through Deuteronomy. These first books usually contain stories/narratives that run in chronological order (or close to it)

Genesis
Date written – 1350 B.C.
Author – Moses

“In the beginning…” So Genesis is a book is about beginnings. The early history of God’s people from the creation through the patriarchs (Jewish fathers like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). Genesis contains two covenants (promises) that God made to mankind. The first is to Noah in Genesis 8:21 not to destroy the earth by water. The second is to Abraham in Genesis 15 which sets the stage for much of the rest of the Bible. There God promises to make Abraham a great nation with numerous descendants. He promises him the land of Canaan (15:7). The story of gaining that land will be a major part of the story from Genesis through Joshua (where we will read about many battles as the people take the land God had promised them. Genesis ends with the story of Joseph and tells how God’s people ended up in Egypt due to famine and Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery).

Exodus
Date written – 1350 B.C.
Author – Moses

Exodus picks up 400 years after Joseph’s time in Egypt and the respect the Egyptians once had for him being forgotten. As a result, the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews – a great type for how sin enslaves us. The word “exodus” refers to the events of God providentially delivering his people from slavery in Egypt to freedom (Exodus 1-14) and them travelling with God through the wilderness to Mt. Sinai in Exodus 15-19. This is one of the most significant events in the history of God’s people as it formed the foundation for the Hebrews to have a relationship with God while in the wilderness. At Sinai God made a covenant with his people that they would follow him and obey his rules (which was to be holy). The most familiar part of this is the 10 commandments found in Exodus 20. In Exodus 24, after the 10 commandments and further laws were given the people confirm their willingness to obey the covenant and laws of God. The rest of the book (chapters 25-40) regards the priests, further instructions and laws that lead us to the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus
Date written – 1350 B.C.
Author – Moses

This book contains a huge list of very specific rules and regulations for how to conduct sacrifices and make atonement for sins. It gets pretty cumbersome. There are a couple of interesting things that can aid us when we read this book. First, we learn that God is dwelling among his people in the tabernacle. The second point is that we see in Leviticus just how important holiness is to God. The point made here is we have to approach God on his terms. We respect his conditions and terms and do our best to abide by them. The word “holy” occurs over 60 times in less than 30 chapters. One key verse is Leviticus 20:26 – “You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” It is helpful to see Leviticus broken down into smaller chunks (Jim George’s book The Barebones Bible Handbook):

Chapters 1-7 Laws of Acceptable Worship
Chapters 8-10 Laws Pertaining to the Priesthood
Chapters 11-16 Laws for Uncleanness
Chapters 17-27 Laws of Acceptable Living

We’ll get

Understanding the Journey from the Exodus to the Promised Land

Numbers

Date written – 1350 B.C.
Author – Moses

We find even more laws in Numbers. By now it is clear that it was important to God to let his people know what he expected of them. Remember, they had lived in Egypt for several hundred years and Egypt was a pagan society that worshipped several false-gods. It would be important for God to reconnect with his people and lay down specific regulations about how he was to be worshipped and how to make atonement for sin through sacrifice. We also find more detailed stories about God’s people in the wilderness with God.

When God’s people left Egypt they went into the wilderness and were on their way to the promised land with God as their guide and provider. They came to Sinai and God established the ground rules and a covenant with his people, which they accepted to obey. They left Sinai for the promised land, which picks up in the book of Numbers.

In Numbers 13 the Hebrews are right on the edge of the promised land. They send spies in to find out more about what they are up against. Instead of trusting God, who promised them the land (remember the promise to Abraham?) they were afraid and decided not to invade the land (the land is currently the country of Israel today). Because they disobeyed God they would die in the wilderness as God would not allow them in the land for 40 years (See Numbers 14:34).

Reiterating the Covenant

Deuteronomy

Date written – 1350 B.C.
Author – Moses

The word Deuteronomy means “Second law.” This is a speech given by Moses reminding them of the laws God has already given to them. The reason for this is because they are at the end of the 40 years and most of the people who rebelled in Numbers 14 had died. God promised that none of those who rebelled would make it to the promised land alive (Num 14:20-25). Now their children were about to go into the promised land and Moses wants them to remember all the things God had commanded their fathers. And so he reiterates the Law for a Second time in this book called, Deuteronomy.

What is interesting is that as Moses talks about all the events of the past he says “you did this” and “you did that” but it was their parents who had done all those things. Moses is identifying the children with their parents and warning them not to make the same mistakes their parents made, which resulted in their deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. in the wilderness. Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses and the stage has been set for the Hebrews to enter the promised land in the next book, Joshua.

Deuteronomy ends the Torah or the Law section of the Tanakh. And this brings us to the . . .

Entering the Promised Land

Historical Books: Joshua-Esther (and Lamentations)

Joshua

Date written – 1250 B.C.
Author – Joshua

Here the people finally get to be in the promised land! The book of Joshua tells the story of the invasion and the many battles that God’s people fought to take over the land. One of the things that stands out in Joshua is that when the people were doing their best to obey God, God gave them success. But if the people were disobedient, they faced defeat in battle. One problem in Joshua is that they didn’t fully obey God and they left some people alive in the land. And these would come back to haunt them over and over again (Which we read about in the book of Judges).

Judges

Date written – 1150 B.C.
Author – Samuel

In Judges 2:8-9 we read about the death of Joshua. Remember that Joshua was Moses' successor in leading the people into the promised land. In the very next verse you read about how it all fell apart in the leadership vacuum that followed as it says – “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel.

The Cycle of Israel in the Book of Judges

The LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress. Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

We see how quickly things fell apart and how God’s people did exactly what God warned them not to do – idol worship and acting like the surrounding nations. The rest of Judges deals with the leaders God raised up to deliver God’s people from other nations. We will see this pattern repeated over and over in the book. The cycle is borrowed by Joseph Smith and used heavily in his Book of Mormon – it goes like this:

Things are good People get comfortable They fall into sin Invaders come in and defeat them People cry out to God for deliverance God raises up a judge People get comfortable again…(repeat!)

From the book of Judges, we readily see the human cycle of comfort, sin, defeat, deliverance, comfort, and repeat.

Ruth and the Genealogy of David

Ruth

Date written – 1125 B.C.
Author – Samuel

Ruth is basically a bridge book that gets us from Judges to 1 Samuel. The first words of Ruth are “in the days when the judges ruled,” and the last word is, “David” who is the prime person in the next few books of the Bible (1 Samuel-1 Kings 2). Ruth is a love story that helps us understand the genealogy of David. We remember that Ruth is one of the few women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

Samuel and the Transition to Kings

1 Samuel

Date written – 930-722 B.C.
Author – Samuel

Samuel had a mother named Hannah who prayed for a son even though she was barren (1:5). God saw her faithfulness and answered her prayer and he was called, Samuel, which means, God hears. She dedicated her son Samuel to the Lord and left him in the temple to grow up there in service to God. Samuel becomes God’s spokesman through the appointing of Saul as the first king of Israel (1 Sam 9) and ushers in David as the king to replace him (1 Sam 16). Samuel contains many stories of God’s people and their continued battle against those people who remained in the promised land and opposed them.

2 Samuel

Date written – 930-722 B.C.
Author – Samuel

The first half of 2 Samuel deals with the life of David. In chapter 7 God makes a promise to David that he will establish David’s throne forever (7:16). But a few chapters later, David’s affair with Bathsheba derails much of what God was trying to do (chapter 11). Much of the rest of 2 Samuel deals with Nathan’s prophecy in 2 Sam 12:11 that calamity is going to fall on the house of David.

The Legacy of Kings

1 Kings

Date written – 560-540 B.C.
Author – Unknown

1 Kings’ two most prominent figures are Solomon and Elijah. 1 Kings is about God’s promises to Solomon, the building of the temple, and the start of other successors to the throne. 2 Kings will go into a more lengthy list of kings of Israel and whether or not they followed God. Solomon started strong but in the end he did exactly what God warned him about – he began to worship false gods because of all the marriages he had with women from other countries. His politics got him in trouble with God.

2 Kings

Date written – 560-530 B.C.
Author – Unknown

On the religious side, 2 Kings tells us a lot about Elisha the prophet. On the political side, we get a laundry list of kings and whether or not they served the Lord. One major turning point in 2 Kings is king Josiah’s discovery of the Book of the Law (which was probably a scroll of the book of Deuteronomy). Based on that discovery, Josiah instituted a bunch of reforms to get the nation turned around. 2 Kings ends with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian armies.

OKAY – 1st Chronicles

Date written – 450-430 B.C.
Author – Ezra

For 8 long chapters we have a long list of names. It isn’t until chapter 9:1 that you see the connection back to the end of 2 Kings – “The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.” The reason for this list of names is that people are looking back at their history. They are remembering.

Historical Context of Biblical Narratives

where they came from. They are recounting how God has worked in the past to bring them to where they are now – in captivity in Babylon. When we look at the past, it can give us hope for a brighter future. This isn’t a list of names for the sake of giving us a hard time to finish reading Chronicles. These names were meaningful to them. These are their forefathers, their patriarchs. After listing all these generations of past Israelites, the writer goes back to Saul and works from Saul to David to Solomon, echoing much of what we read in 1 Kings. However, in Chronicles we get much more of a religious feel to what we read as more space is given to the Levites (the tribe the priests were to come from) and preparation for the temple. 1 Chronicles ends with David’s death.

Overview of 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah

2 Chronicles
Date written – 450-430 B.C.
Author – Ezra
Summary – 2 Chronicles is similar to 2 Kings. It starts with Solomon and the temple and then goes to his successors and whether or not they were faithful to God. Like 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles ends with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. The mention of Cyrus, king of Persia in 2 Chronicles 36:23 ties us in to Ezra (See Ezra 1:1). Remember, 2nd Chronicles is the last book of the Jewish Bible.

Ezra
Date written – 457-444 B.C.
Author – Ezra
Interestingly, Ezra the scribe doesn’t come on the scene until Ezra 7. What we see in the first 6 chapters is Cyrus, the king of Persia, sending Jews back to their homeland. Remember the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles? The Babylonians defeated Jerusalem and took many people away into captivity. In the Bible this is called “the exile.” The Persians defeated the Babylonians and the Persian leader Cyrus was a smart guy. He reasoned that his empire would be more secure if he let prisoners (those exiled Jews) go back to their homes and worship their own “gods.” In the process he let many Jews go back to their homeland and even helped them in rebuilding their temple.

The Samaritan Influence

One interesting thing we get here that is not mentioned in Ezra are the Samaritans who we read about 500 years later in the New Testament. The Samaritan culture are basically the people who stayed behind and didn’t go into exile. They stayed back and many intermarried with other cultures (See Ezra 9). When the Jews came back home from Babylon/Persia they found people settled on their lands (the Samaritans). That is why there was so much bitterness toward them. They were not “pure” Jews by lineage and some moved in on land that wasn’t theirs. Ezra 1-6 is about the rebuilding of the temple. Ezra 7-10 is about restoring its worship.

In Ezra 7, Ezra comes to Jerusalem in order to restore the law and temple worship in its proper form. What is interesting is that originally Ezra and Nehemiah were one book. They were separated many years later so if you want the whole story you have to read them together. Ezra ends with the confrontation of sin and confession on the part of the people.

Nehemiah
Date written – 424-400 B.C.
Author – Nehemiah
Ezra spent time bringing spiritual restoration to the people in war-torn Jerusalem. Now, Nehemiah comes as a leader to rebuild the city wall. There are many things we can learn from Nehemiah. Many people come to it to learn about leadership. Nehemiah exhibits some outstanding leadership skills when he comes to rebuild the wall. There is also a great element of trust in this book. The people have to put trust in Nehemiah to lead them as Nehemiah puts his trust in God. Ultimately he leads the people to trust in God as well through his example. Nehemiah came from Persia to rebuild the wall. That is the link between Nehemiah and Esther, our next book.

Esther's Role and Themes

Esther
Date written – 450-430
Author – Unknown
A Jewish woman who through a contest becomes queen of Persia (the greatest empire in the world at the time). This leads to her being in a place to save the Jewish people from extermination. For this reason the book of Esther is used most to teaching about providential circumstances (Esther 4:14). It is also an explanation of where the Jewish feast of Purim came from.

Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther deal with the time after God’s people came out of Babylonian captivity. While, Ezra and Nehemiah deal with those who came back to Israel/Jerusalem; Esther deals with people who decided

Chronology and the Order of the Bible

Not to come home and to stay in the land of their captivity.

NOTE: Genesis-Esther is pretty much chronological (with the exception of Chronicles). Once you get to Job things start getting more out of order in history. (see onboard chart)

This brings us to what are called by some, the . . .

Wisdom Writings

Job-Song of Songs

Which we will cover next week before getting into Genesis.

Referenced for this table: Edwin R. Thiele’s The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings and John Schaller’s Book of Books

DATE (BC):

HISTORICAL AND POETICAL BOOKS: Notes and the Prophetical Books

PSALM

?-1500s Genesis?Job (life)?

Moses Reporting History

Psalm 90?

1400s Exodus?Leviticus?Numbers?Deuteronomy?Job (written)? Moses writing in real time

Job not author?

1300s Joshua?Judges 1-3

Reign of Judges spans from 1300 BC to 1100 BC

1200s Judges 3-5

1100s Judges 5:31-10?Ruth

1000s Judges 11-21?1 & 2 Samuel?1 Chronicles 10-22

900s 1 Kings 1-16?1 Chronicles 23 – 2 Chronicles 15?Proverbs?Ecclesiastes?Song of Songs?Job (written)?

800s 1 Kings 16 – 2 Kings 13?2 Chronicles 16-24 Joel?Obadiah

700s 2 Kings 13-18?2 Chronicles 25-32 Amos?Hosea?Isaiah?Jonah?Micah

600s 2 Kings 19-24?2 Chronicles 33-36 Hosea?Jeremiah?Daniel 1?Micah?Nahum?Habakkuk?Zephaniah

500s 2 Kings 24-25?2 Chronicles 36?Ezra 1-6 Jeremiah?Lamentations?Ezekiel?Daniel?Haggai?Zechariah

400s Ezra 7-10?Nehemiah?Esther Malachi