A Walk Through the Bible With Bro. Bill Parker Sr.

A Walk Through the Bible

With Bro. Bill Parker Sr.

Lesson 8 Job-Song of SongsThe Poetical Books

Praise Chapel Puget Sound


Outline of Job● Job is understood to be the oldest

book in the Bible.1. Job is a fascinating book of the

Old Testament, it begins a new division in the scriptures.


2. The books from Genesis to Esther are all narrative books, and are vitally meaningful to us as living

parables, by which we can see what is going on in our own lives.


3. Job begins another section, the poetical books of the Bible.4. These include Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and the little book of Lamentations.


5. It is admired as one of the most beautiful writings that man has ever known.


● The prologue starts with Job and his prosperity.1. He is recorded as the greatest

of all men of the east.2. He had seven thousand sheep,

three thousand camels, five hundred oxen, five hundred she asses.


● Job was an actual, living person and these events actually took place.1. God recounts them for us so

that we might have an answer to the age-old, haunting question, why does apparently senseless tragedy strike men?


2. Any time you get into difficulties it is well to turn to the book of Job.


● Job is a man who experienced an agony of human despair and desolation of spirit which accompanied the apparently meaningless, senseless tragedies that came into his life.

A Walk Through the Bible1. The answer to that question is

given right at the beginning of the book.

2. At the beginning we are given program notes that explain to us something about the drama, something that even the characters are not permitted to know.


3. The answer given is that senseless suffering arises out of Satan’s continual challenge to the government of God.


● The book opens with God meeting with the angelic creation, among them is Satan.

1. Satan is convinced that self-interest is the only real motive for human behavior.


2. Satan’s philosophy is that the question “what’s in it for me” is the only accurate explanation for why people do anything.3. Satan challenged God saying in effect, no wonder Job worships You, he’s got it made.


4. God allowed Satan to take the wealth away from Job.● Unaware that he has become the battle ground for a conflict between God and Satan in which God is planning to pull the rug out from under Satan.


1. Job is faced with a series of catastrophes, one right after the other.2. Job’s oxen are taken by enemy

raids, his mules are decimated, next his sheep are killed by a

terrible storm. Then his herd of camels is wiped out.


3. Then comes the news that his seven sons and three daughters were killed when a great tornado hit and demolished the house

they were in.


4. Job’s response was “naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return; the Lord gives and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”


Could you or I have that same attitude?


● Job is stricken with boils from head to foot. Job has to stand alone.

1. Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die!

2. The final test comes with a visit from three of his friends.

A Walk Through the Bible● At this point the whole book slightly shifts it’s focus.

1. We are no longer looking only at Job but also at his controversy with these three friends, and their discourse occupies the major part of the book.


2. From their very human point of view they attempt to answer the same

question of why do senseless tragedies afflict men?


3. The major part of the book, written in poetic language, records the

attempts by these men to come to an answer.4. The three friends’ answers are all the same.


5. They answer the question of Job’s problems with assurances that there is only one explanation

possible. Job has committed some awful sin.


6. They try to break down Job’s defenses with arguments.7. They are not necessarily wrong in their explanation. There are tragic events, pain and suffering which do occur because of sin.


8. Any time we violate the laws of God’s universe, including the laws of health, there is an immediate and sometimes violent

and physical reaction and much suffering comes from that.


9. The problem with his friends’ arguments, and their evil, lay in the assertion that this is the only explanation possible for all kinds of suffering.


● They each take three rounds with Job.

1. Each of the friends present three arguments, nine arguments in all. And each plays the same tune.


2. They try various approaches.a. First they try sarcasm and

irony.b. Then they appeal to Job’s

honesty.c. Then they accuse him of

specific crimes and misdeeds.


3. Finally they act hurt and go away, miffed and sulking appealing to Job’s conscience not to insult them anymore.


4. To the friends the answer is simple. The righteous are always blessed and the wicked always suffer. Therefore if you are suffering it must because something is wrong in his life!


5. Their answer is neat and tidy and explains everything, unless you are the sufferer.


6. At first Job is irritated with these friends. Then he becomes angry and finally sarcastic.


7. Job tells his friends that they think they have all the answers, so there is no use in talking to them anymore.


8. Job points out that many people who are wicked are prospering and flourishing and living in ease,

and nothing horrible is happening to them.


● The glorious thing about this man is throughout the whole book he is

utterly and completely honest.1. In his desolation he expresses

in various ways the ultimate cry of the human spirit.


2. Job feels like God has been hiding from him.● God answers Job and asks him if

he wants to debate his case.


1. God tells Job that he has been saying that God has been hiding and not willing to debate with Job. God asks “do you want to debate your case?”


2. God puts Job’s feet to the fire and gives him a science quiz. God asks “where were you when I created the earth?” The quiz involved questions about the earth, the heavens and living beings.

A Walk Through the Bible3. God’s argument is that life is too complicated for simple answers. 4. If you are demanding that God

come up with simple answers to these deep an complicated

problems, you are asking him to do more than you are able to

understand.


5. The point is that man must take the position of trusting God, not arguing with Him.


● Job overwhelmed by the might and wisdom and majesty of God, falls on his face, repents, and learns the lesson that God wants him to learn.


1. God does not exist for man but man exists for God.

2. There are many questions that simply cannot be answered because our minds are inadequate.


● At the end of the book Job was restored. His inventory was doubled.

1. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand oxen, and one thousand she-asses.


2. He was given seven more sons and three daughters. Why weren’t

they doubled? 3. The fact that his family died didn’t mean he had lost them.


4. He still had his family, and they would be reunited in eternity. ● Job died, an old man, and full of days. (Job 42:17).


● The great lesson of the book is that there are times when we cannot be told the whole picture.

There are times when God does not adequately explain life to us.


● Life is too complicated for us to handle alone.● In Romans Paul rejoices, “We know

that in everything God works for good with those that love Him, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).


A Walk Thru The BibleOutline of Psalms

● The Book of Psalms is poetry, but is laced with extremely strong theology.


● The Hebrew term for the Psalms is praises.

1. There are 150 psalms in the book, making it the longest book in the Bible.


2. Fifty-five of these are addressed to the “Chief Musician”.3. Psalms is really five books in one. Each division is closed by a doxology.


4. The first one is at the end of chapter 41.

● Hebrew poetry is different from how we think of poetry.


1. Hebrew poetry is structured conceptually rather than metrically.2. The parallelism is of ideas, not just sound.


● Of the 150 psalms, seventy-three are attributed to David; twelve to Asaph, who was a musical director; twelve to the sons of Korah; one to Moses and about fifty are anonymous.


1. Many scholars divide the Book of Psalms into five books, paralleling the five books of Moses.2. The Psalms from 1 to 41 are really about man, which some call the “Genesis package”.


3. From 42 to 72 are about deliverance, “the Exodus book”.

4. From 73 to 89 the sanctuary is the predominate theme, “the Leviticus book”.


5. From 90 to 106 are about unrest and wandering, “the book of Numbers”.


6. The fifth book, Psalm 107 through 150, focus on the Word of the Lord, the “Deuteronomy section”.

7. This is a common way of organizing the psalms, but it is not the only way.


● The fifteen Songs of the Degrees, or the Songs of Ascents, are

traditionally thought to be so named because the Temple had fifteen steps.


● There is also another theory that because God turned Ahaz’s sundial back fifteen degrees and gave Hezekiah 15 more years of life. These Psalms of Degrees may be about those events.


● The Book of Psalms is quoted more than any other book in the Old

Testament and provides testimony to the divine inspiration of the

Scriptures.


● More than even the Book of Isaiah, the Messianic Psalms speak about Christ’s birth, His betrayal, His agony, His death, resurrection, ascension, His coming glory and

His worldwide reign.


1. That the Messiah would be the Son of God is mentioned in Psalms 2,45,102 and elsewhere.2. He would be the Son of Man is emphasized in Psalm 8.


3. He would be the Son of David is elaborated especially in Psalm 139.4. His office as a prophet is in 22, 25, and 40.


5. His office as a priest is in Psalm 110.

6. His office as a king in is in 2, 24, and 72.


● Psalms 22-24 are the Shepherd Psalms.

1. Psalm 22 is the Suffering Savior, which is parallel to the Good Shepherd passage in John 10.


2. The Living Shepherd is in Psalm 23; “The Lord is my Shepherd” which is parallel to the Great

Shepherd passage in Hebrews 13.


● Let’s take a look at Psalm 22. It opens with a declaration, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

1. This was the fourth of seven exclamations of Jesus on the cross.


2. Psalm 22 reads as if it were dictated as He hung on the cross,

yet it was written seven hundred years before crucifixion was invented.


3. Psalm 22 goes on about the crucifixion in incredible detail to describe the horrible death Jesus suffered!4. This Psalm is true prophecy in its purest form. Written hundreds of years before the event happened.


● All the Psalms are designed to teach us to do one thing…to worship!


A Walk Thru The BibleOutline of Proverbs

● Unlike other books of the Old Testament Proverbs is difficult

to outline. It seems to change the subject with every verse.


● Proverbs is all about the things man should decide, the choices of

life. In chapter 1 verses 2-6 we read the purpose of this book.


1. That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words

of insight, receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice

and equality; that prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth—


The wise man also may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.


2. This book is designed for man in every division and age of his life. From childhood through youth and maturity to understand what life is all about.


3. Verse 7 gives the key to the whole book. It states the summary and conclusion of this book. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools

despise wisdom and instruction.”


4. This book approaches life from the position that God has all the answers—God is all wise; God

knows everything.5. Proverbs is to our practical life what

the Psalms is to our devotional life.


6. The Proverb does not argue, it assumes. It is not an apologetic device; it is a practical instruction device.7. Since there are 31 chapters, many will read the chapter that corresponds to that day on the calendar.


8. Chapter 1 verse 8 you have the beginning of ten discourses to a son from his father. They begin with the child in the home dealing with his first relationships.


9. In chapter 3 you have the young man as he grows up and leaves home. There is a thoughtful word of warning here concerning some of the temptations he will meet.


10. That takes us to chapter 10 and so far there have been no proverbs.

11. In chapter 10 we have a collection of proverbs that are noted for us as the proverbs of Solomon.


12. These are the wisdom proverbs of the wisest king that Israel ever had.


● Solomon wrote three-thousand of these, though only a few are

included in this book.1. Most of these we believe, were

arranged during the reign of Hezekiah, somewhat later.


● After that there are about fourteen chapters of “maxims in joining

prudence” 375 aphorisms and couplets and then sixteen epigrams.


1. A contrastive Proverb would be, A fair woman without discretion is like a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout.


2. In a completive Proverb, the second line agrees with or amplifies

the first line: As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.


3. An example of a comparative Proverb is, “the tongue of a nagging woman is a continual dripping in a very rainy day.”


● The last of the book is a wonderful description of a virtuous woman. Many feel this is King Lemuel’s

description of his own mother….


A Walk Thru The BibleOutline of Ecclesiastes

● Ecclesiastes is a widely misunderstood book. The Hebrew word for this book is Koheleth, “the preacher”.


● Ecclesiastes deals with ten vanities.1. The vanity of human wisdom: both

the wise and foolish die.2. Human labor: the worker is no better than the shirker in the end.


3. Human purpose: man proposes, but God disposes.

4. Human rivalry: success brings more envy than joy.

5. Human greed: much feeds lust for the elusive more.


6. Human fame: brief, uncertain, and soon forgotten.

7. Human insatiety: money does not satisfy but only feeds other desires.

8. Human coveting: gain cannot be enjoyed despite desire.


9. Human frivolity: only camouflages the inevitable end.

10. Human rewards: good and bad often get wrong desserts.


● It appears to be Solomon’s sermon on the natural man’s quest for the good life.

1. The first two chapters are the quest by personal experiment – the

preacher’s own search for wisdom and pleasure.


2. The conclusion is that material things cannot satisfy the soul. The last few chapters are the quest reviewed and concluded. And it concludes that all is vanity.


3. Ecclesiastes is the most misused book of the Bible. This is the favorite book of atheists and

agnostics.


4. Many cults love to quote this book’s erroneous viewpoints and give the

impression that these are scriptural, divine words of God concerning life.


5. In its introduction this book is very careful to point out that what it

records is not divine truth.


6. One phrase is repeated again and again: “under the sun”, “under the sun”. Everything is evaluated

according to appearances alone—this is man’s point of view.


7. Ecclesiastes views God as men in general view God—as a not very vital concern of life. Sort of a high calorie dessert, which you can take or leave.


● During the 40 years of Solomon’s reign, there was utter peace in the kingdom of Judah and Israel.


1. Since he did not have to bother himself with military life, he had all the time he needed to pursue his investigations into the meaning of life.


2. He had all the wealth he needed, and he had a keen, logical, discerning mind which had gained him the reputation as the wisest man in the world.


● The writer has completed his survey of life, and he gives this conclusion at the beginning of the book. He says everything is futile, empty, meaningless—there is no sense to anything.


1. He supports this conclusion with a series of arguments that he has gleaned after sifting through the philosophies of life.

2. The book says there is nothing new under the sun, and how true that is.


● In chapter 2 the writer examines the philosophy of hedonism—the pursuit of pleasure as the chief end of life.


1. This is very familiar even today. The purpose of life is to have a good time…”do your own thing”.

2. He goes on to itemize pleasure. He tried the acquisition of possessions, wealth. How many are living on that level today?


3. He found that it all comes out at the same place. The fool and the wise man alike die.


● In chapter 3 he views life from an existential viewpoint.1. Basically existential thinking

suggests that the only thing we can trust is our own reactions to life as we live through things.


2. This philosophy was very popular after world war II. Things were in shambles and people felt they had no one to trust.


3. The writer feels that man can never rest with simple external explanations of things. He has to look deeper.


● In chapter 4 he turns to capitalism, of all things.

1. He sets forth the competitive enterprise of life.


● In chapter 5 he tries religion. Religion which recognizes that

God exists.1. He tries to do good and to be good.

And he points out that there is no practical value to it.


● Chapter 6 sets forth his experiments along the line of materialism.

1. If you have everything, but in trying to satisfy yourself you discover that there is still a craving that these things can’t meet, then you are no better off than if you had never been born.


● Chapter 7 Solomon approaches life from the standpoint of stoicism. A cultivated indifference to events.1. His conclusion was that in order to view life this way, aim for a happy medium. Be moderate in all things.


2. Avoid extremes as much as possible, don’t volunteer for

anything, try just to get through. That is his viewpoint.


● Chapters 8 through 10 are a connected discourse examining

what might be referred to as the wisdom of the world. Or the

common sense view of life.


● Then in chapter 9 he examines the world’s value judgments and points out again that they all come to the same thing.


● In chapter 10 he exhorts us to maintain discretion in life—be temperate, diligent, cautious, accommodating—try to get by the best you can.


1. This is only an enlightened expression of selfishness, which is the motive underlying it all.


● In chapter 11 we read that success is simply a matter of diligence—in order to get something out of life, you need to work and apply yourself.


● When you see a worldly man thinking and acting on the basis of “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” don’t blame him, what else can he say? This is the conclusion of any approach to life that erases God from the picture.


● The writers conclusion is that everything is indeed vanity unless you put God in the center of your life.


A Walk Thru The BibleOutline of The Song of Solomon

● The Song of Solomon is regarded today as probably one of the most obscure and difficult books

in the Bible.


1. Throughout the Christian centuries it has been one of the most read and most loved books of all.● This is the last of the five poetical books of the Old Testament.


1. Each of these books reveals one of the basic elements of man.

a. Job is the voice of the spirit, the deepest part of man’s nature.


b. The books of Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes form a trilogy which sets forth the voice of the soul.


c. The soul of man is made up of three parts: mind, emotion and will; and in these books you have the expression of these elements in man’s character.


● First and foremost, the Song of Solomon is a love song describing with frankness and yet with purity

the delight of a man and his wife in one another’s bodies.


1. The book comes to us in what we would call a musical play.2. The characters in this play are Solomon, the young king of Israel.

a. This was written at the beginning of his reign.


3. The second character is a Shulamite girl. She was a simple country girl

that fell in love with the king when he was disguised as a shepherd.


4. They fell in love, and after they had promised themselves to each other, he went away and was gone for some time.5. The Shulamite girl cries out for him in her loneliness.


● Then comes the announcement that the king in all his glory is coming

to visit the valley.1. While the girl is interested in

this, she is not concerned because her heart longs for her lover.


2. Suddenly she receives word that the king wants to see her. She does not know why until she goes to see him.


3. She discovers that the king is her shepherd lad.4. He takes her away and they are married in the palace.


● The play is set in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and a chorus of singers referred to as the daughters of Jerusalem, asks certain leading questions from time to time.


1. The Shulamite girl addresses them on three occasions.

a. The word Shulamite is the feminine form of Solomon. Therefore we would call her Mrs. Solomon.


2. She is the bride, and we read of her experience with this young man their courtship and the strength and the

methods and delights of love.


● The language of the book is highly poetical and figurative and there is difficulty determining who is speaking at any one time.1. The bridegroom always refers to her

as “my love”, and the bride calls him “my beloved”.


● It is important to see that the book describes married love as God intended it to be!!● The love of a husband and wife are a picture of the love of Christ and

His church.


1. In other words, the love of a husband and wife is simply a manifestation and a picture of that deeper love which is God’s intention for human life.


This Concludes our presentation on the five

poetical books of the Old Testament

A Walk Through the Bible With Bro. Bill Parker Sr.

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