The Story of the Bible - The Writings

            It’s all but done. The term “B.C.” is drawing to a close in this point of the story of the Bible. We’ve read about creation, mankind falling into sin, God reaching out to man through Abraham, then through Israel. We have read about judges and kings leading Israel, both toward God and away. In the latter case, we have read of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah whom God sent to warn His people what would happen if they did not repent and follow Him once again. We reached the point of the tale where Israel was taken from the Promised Land into captivity by conquering nations. We have pretty much summed up Israel’s history from creation to captivity and the commentary concerning the various events in our study thus far.

But what about all the other books we did not go over? Now that we have seen Israel start with Abraham, meet God as a nation, go into the land He promised, demand a king over them, then reject Him utterly, and be taken into exile, what do all the rest of the books in the Old Testament tell? A lot. Allen Hutchison, our communications director, guest taught last week on them. The Old Testament of the Bible is broken into three parts – the Torah, (which is the first five books), the prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), and the writings. The Torah tells of creation’s beginning and God’s instructions on how to live with the laws with a little history. The history continues in the prophets as Israel responded to the laws and what God did according to their response. The writings provide a little more commentary and practical advice, as well as stories and accounts, describing how to follow God. Scholars came up with various orders to the writings, but the one we shall use here is as follows: Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

Emotion and thought and story wrap themselves in a wondrous way to recount a tale or speak to our feelings in music, and Psalms is no exception. Psalms is a book of songs, some speaking repentance of sin (Psalm 51), others rejoicing over the goodness of God and His provision, like Psalm 23. Still others tell Israel’s history in a song format (Psalm 78 and 107) and include prophecy as well, pointing toward a coming savior of the world (Psalm 2). Psalms also illustrates a lot of battles with doubt, recognizing that faith is hard to maintain, especially when bad people persecute good people and do not seem to get punished for it. And this struggle is a major part of King David's life; indeed, the "man after God's own heart" wrote Psalms expressing doubt in God. However, in most cases, the doubters end their Psalm with an expression of trust in God's character. 

Proverbs is full of practical advice on how to follow God with one’s whole heart, mind, and soul. It is not an easy task to follow God and the writings don’t sugarcoat it; Proverbs does come after Psalms with its mixture of angst and rejoicing, after all. Proverbs is written mostly by King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived (Chapters 30 and 31 are written by a chap named Agur and a king named Lemuel who wrote what he learned from his mother). Allen focused on a few chapters, including Proverbs 3. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8)" These verses sum up the themes of all the writings and how each person fared taking these words to heart or not. In this case, "fear" is not meant as terror, but reverence. Remembering and honoring God in our walk is fear in this case, something Solomon says is the beginning of wisdom: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proberbs 1:7)" and "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10)" He extols the virtues of wisdom, calling it more precious than jewels, bringing better profit than gold, and so on.

Throughout the book, Solomon illustrates the proverbs through use of poetry and rich description. The Song of Solomon, the Psalms, Lamentations, and others utilize the same styles to teach and instruct. Accounts such as Ruth, Esther, and Daniel give backstory and genealogy to major characters in the story of the Bible. First and Second Chronicles provide a brief overview of the books of Samuel and Kings. Ezra and Nehemiah detail Israel's return from captivity. Job is a story of enduring hardships. Ecclesiastes is a compilation of an old man's experiences, of how he tried everything, and learned that everything was pointless without God. Every book urges the reader to do the same thing: Follow the Lord with all of your heart. God made everyone different and knew that each one of us would learn differently. Therefore, the Bible repeats and expands upon His words in various ways. Sometimes, we learn through the example of a widow following her widowed mother-in-law back to her own country out of selfless love. The Psalms might speak more to others with their poetry. However, this does not mean any one of them is less important than the other or we should not examine them all. It is a testament of God's provision for each one of us and how He reaches out to many through His word then and now.