Week 6:
Ester and Job, and first part of Psalms

What does Faith play in Troubled times – what should we believe.

Faith on trial – This section features people struggling with difficult situations. As God reveals himself to us in the pages of scripture. These stories are about God. See God at work. Job is someone we can understand. Crises are crises. Job and his friends were working under an assumption that justice pervaded the world. If God was just and good, than justice would prevail. When Job finds himself in suffering, he questions God’s justice. Job is not the one on trial here, it is God. How is God going to work in a world of suffering? How God works in this fallen sinful world. This book shifts from question of God’s justice to question of God’s wisdom. For us to determine if justice is done, need evidence, but don’t have it. God is wise his wisdom is something we can affirm. When we affirm God is wise, we know he is just.

The Bible is a God focused perspective. God’s role is the most important work. The profit explains what God is up to. Chronicles, goes beyond the doom but instead it looks at patterns. When kings are faithful, and people kept the law – God did wonderful things. The kingdom of God is not about a king – Chronicles takes this and tells how to think – spiritual not political. The kingdom of God has a spiritual element to it. Until we get the spiritual things straightened out, we cannot expect the political things to be proper. God and the law is in place, the community forms an identity and there is spiritual leadership. Chronicle wants the audience to understand the spiritual aspect of God.

God reveals his kingship, he is ruling over the world. As he brings a king to the throne, David, he shows what his rule is like. God brings order to the world. David was not always the kind of instrument he could have been. David did the bad things because he had the power and he could. This is not what God’s kingship is like, God does not abuse this power. God brought him victory and successes, then things began to fall apart. Failures of the kings, abusive power, values of the covenant and faithfulness and law were not being passed down. There were misguided worship practices. The pattern of failure. Kings is written in a perspective of “What went wrong.”

Thoughts of week three...

This section of the Bible begins moving into literature that is narrative, events in peoples lives. The stories about people are actually stories about “God.” God reveals himself to us so we can know him – he reveals himself and the faithfulness of his promise to give the Israelites their land. God brings them in, helps them concur the land so that God can dwell in this land. God is establishing his name there to dwell – his presence. The battle stories are God’s victories. How he delivered on his promises. In Joshua we learn of God’s great faithfulness to the people of Israel.

Repetitive themes I noticed in week two readings…

Holiness – everything that God is – it separates Him from us. We reflect God’s attributes in our lives. People see this – being Holy. Law designed to help us be like God.

Caring for God’s presence – relate to him – initiative is God establishing a relationship and setting his presence, and revealing himself to us. Importance that His presence be honored – it is a great honor.

Sacrifices helped the people work with God’s presence. They were done at the temple to keep God’s presence clean and Holy. A place where God dwelled – not a place for a lot of people to go to meet like our current churches. His presence needed to be treated with GREAT respect! We need to be just as concerned about caring for God’s presence. Care for it carefully in our lives. Protect God’s presence to renew our relationship with Him.

Week One complete! This is exciting. I am really excited about how much I learned and how quickly I got through the Bible text readings. This week really helped me understand our God and understand how much he cares about us. Genesis shows us how God needed to present Himself to us, and Exodus He makes His presence known. I found the reading interesting as he describes the tabernacle tent of meeting. Like then through time until this day, our churches are where we meet and experience His presence, where we can really connect with Him and honor Him. I love our places of worship, they are