The Story of the Old Testament Session 8: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah,...

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The Story of the Old TestamentSession 8: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel (Wisdom & Future Fulfillment)

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Recap Of Covenants#1 Adamic CovenantGenesis 2

#2Noahic CovenantGenesis 9

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Recap of Covenants#3 Abrahamic CovenantGenesis 12, 15, 17

#4Mosaic CovenantExodus 19-24

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Recap Of Covenants#5 Davidic Covenant2 Samuel 7

#6New CovenantJeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-32 (hints before this – e.g., Deut. 30:6)

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Introduction to the Prophets

General Placement of Prophets in Storyline of Old Testament

After the division and during decline and exileThree prophets are “post-exilic” (Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi)

General Message & Role of ProphetsExpose spiritual condition of the peopleDescribe the impending judgment resulting from the spiritual condition of the peopleSet forth a future day of fulfillment of the Lord’s promises

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Introduction to the Prophets

As we encounter each book, we will examine:

Unique Placement of Book in Storyline of OTGeneral Structure of the BookUnique Message & Role of the Book in the OTUnique Way the Book Points to Jesus

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Isaiah

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Isaiah: General Structure

66 Chapters (mini-bible):

Isaiah 1-35 – Threat from Assyria to the Southern Kingdom of Judah

Isaiah 36-37 – The Lord’s Deliverance of Jerusalem From Assyria

Isaiah 38-39 – The Babylonian Exile Proclaimed

Isaiah 40-66 – The Return from the Babylonian Exile Proclaimed

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Isaiah: Unique Message & Role

Condition of the People – Hypocritical & Unholy

Isaiah 29:13 – “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me. . . .”Compared to Sodom & Gomorrah (1:10)Contrasted With God’s Holiness (6:1-4) - “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the

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seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”

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Isaiah’s response: “And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

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Coming Judgment – Lev. 26 & Deut. 28

Exile of Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.Judgment of Gentile NationsBabylonian Exile of Judah in 586 B.C. main focus (saw in 2 Kings 25:9-11)

Temple, Palace, Houses Destroyed, All But Poorest in the Land Taken to BabylonProgression to Regression

But, judgment is not the last word!

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Promise of SalvationWho will be saved?

A remnant of Israel (1:9; 4:3) & people from every nation (45:22-23)Points us back to Gen. 12:1-3

How will they be saved?The Promised Davidic KingThe Servant of the Lord

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Promised Davidic KingIsaiah 9:2-3, 6-7: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. . . . For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful

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Promised Davidic KingCounselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

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The Servant of the Lord (Suffering Servant)

“[H]e had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was

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The Servant of the Lord (Suffering Servant)

crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.. . . . Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” (53:1-6, 11)

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What Will Experience of Salvation Be Like?

New ExodusNew Creation

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New ExodusReturn from exile described as “new exodus”Also points beyond return from exile because, as we saw in Ezra & Nehemiah, the return didn’t bring about the promised fulfillment & restoration

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New CreationCreation, Fall, Restoration/Re-CreationIsaiah 11:6-10 – “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together . . . . The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth

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New Creationshall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

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When Will the Salvation Take Place?When the Davidic King begins to reign and (as the Suffering Servant) bears the sin of the peopleThe Old Testament ends with the anticipation of fulfillment

What is the Ultimate Goal of Salvation?

The glory of God! (40:5; 41:16; 42:8; 42:12; 43:6-7; 48:11)

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Isaiah: Unique Way Points to Jesus

Jesus is the promised Davidic KingJesus is the promised Suffering ServantJesus will bring about the New ExodusJesus will bring about the New Creation

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Jeremiah

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Jeremiah: General StructureIntroduction (1)Prophecies About Judah (2-45)Prophecies About the Nations (46-51)Conclusion (52)

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Jeremiah: Unique Role & MessageCondition People – Spiritual Adultery

“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:11-13)

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Jeremiah: Unique Role & MessageCondition People – Spiritual Adultery

“You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? Declares the Lord. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.” (Jeremiah 3:1-3)

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Jeremiah: Unique Role & MessageComing Judgment – Babylonian Exile

Jeremiah warned the people over and over again (5:14-17; 6:1-9; 21:7; 25:1-9, 11)The people failed to heed Jeremiah’s warningsThe judgment came (Jeremiah 39:2-10)Goldsworthy: “The curses of the covenant, so plainly stated in Deuteronomy, are now reality.”

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Jeremiah: Unique Role & MessagePromised Salvation – New Covenant

Exile will end in 70 years with “New Exodus”“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (29:10-12)

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Jeremiah: Unique Role & MessagePromised Salvation – New Covenant

New Exodus points beyond the return from exile to a future time of restoration when the people can seek the Lord will their whole heartNew Covenant is needed (see Deut. 30:6)Jeremiah 31:31-34 – “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I

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Jeremiah: Unique Role & MessagePromised Salvation – New Covenant (#6)

was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

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Jeremiah: Unique Way Points to Jesus

Jesus brings about the New Covenant (#6) Through His Life, Death, Burial, Resurrection, and AscensionSchreiner: “Canonically, the promise of the new covenant is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, through whom the law has been written on the hearts of his people (Rom. 2:25-29; 2 Cor. 3:4-11), since he has fully and finally forgiven the sins of his people through the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 8-10).”

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Lamentations

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Lamentations: General StructureThe City (1)

The Wrath of God (2)

The Compassions of God (3)

The Sins of All Classes (4)

The Prayer (5)

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Lamentations: Unique Message & Role

The book is a poetic reflection upon the suffering left in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25; 2 Chron. 36; Jer. 39)

4/5 chapters are acrostic

Graphic depictions of the misery of the people in the wake of the destruction of Jerusalem

But, judgment is not the last word (1:9; 1:11; 2:20; 3:19-26)

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Lamentations: Unique Message & Role

Lamentations 3:21-26: “[T]his I call to mind, and therefore I have hope; ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

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Lamentations: Unique Way Points to Jesus

Schreiner: “The special contribution of Lamentations is to confront us with the terrible reality of the wrath of God, and so bars the way to any resolution less than the one the New Testament finally provides.’ The agony and desolation of standing under God’s wrath, so powerfully communicated in Lamentations, finds its apex in the suffering of Jesus the Christ, who was forsaken by God. The giving oneself up to suffering in Lamentations (3:27-30) anticipates the Isaianic servant of the Lord who willingly bears suffering, though in the latter case he does so for

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Lamentations: Unique Way Points to Jesus

the sins of his people. . . . Hence, the forgiveness pleaded for and the hope persisting in Lamentations find their resolution in the sufferings and glories of Jesus Christ, for the hope in Lamentations reaches its goal in the resurrection of the Christ.”

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Ezekiel

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Ezekiel: General StructureEzekiel’s Calling (1-3)

Coming Judgment Upon Judah (4-24)

Coming Judgment Upon the Nations (25-32)

Future Blessings for Israel (33-48)

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Ezekiel: Unique Message & Role

Condition of the People – Spiritual Adultery

Schreiner: “[T]he language used is shocking and X-rated.” (Ezekiel 16 & 23)“How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute . . . Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other

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Condition of the People – Spiritual Adultery

women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefore you were different.” (Ezekiel 16:30-34)Shocking description an attempt to break through to the people for they have become “a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not . . . .” (Ezekiel 12:2)

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Coming Judgment – Babylonian ExileEzekiel acts out the coming judgment in various ways (4:1-17; 5:1-12; 12:1-7)Judgment comes in Ezekiel 24 with the destruction of JerusalemDeath of Ezekiel’s wife a picture of the loss surrounding the destruction of JerusalemEzekiel 18:32: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” (see also Ez. 18:23)

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Promised Salvation – Indwelling Spirit!

Ezekiel 11:17-20: “I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”Ezekiel 36:25-27: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart,

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and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules.”Dissonance between present experience and future salvation captured in Ezekiel 37 where dry bones are given lifeDavidic King is also the shepherd of the people (Ez. 37:24) so he will seek the lost, heal the wounded, help the weak, gather the scattered

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Last 9 chapters describe a “new temple” which represents a New Eden where the Lord dwells with his people and ultimately points to the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21-22

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Ezekiel: Unique Way Points to JesusThe work of Jesus turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11)

The work of Jesus enables the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36)

The work of Jesus brings life from death (dry bones of Ezekiel 37)

Jesus is the Davidic King & good shepherd

Jesus brings about the ultimate reality of the new heavens and new earth in Revelation 21-22 to which the “new temple” in Ezekiel points

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Daniel

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Daniel: General Structure

Chapter 1: Faithfulness of Daniel & Co.Chapter 2: Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s DreamChapter 3: Deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach & AbednegoChapter 4: Nebuchadnezzar HumbledChapter 5: Belshazzar HumbledChapter 6: Deliverance of DanielChapter 7: Interpretation of Daniel’s DreamChapter 8-12: Expression of Yahweh’s Sovereignty Over History

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Daniel: Unique Message & Role

The Condition of the PeoplePrimary audience are those in exile from JudahBook begins with the first phase of the Babylonian exile under Jehoiakim’s ruleDaniel among those taken to BabylonExile occurred because of the spiritual adultery of the people (recalled in Daniel 9 prayer)

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The Call of the People – Walk Humbly Before the Lord Resting in His Sovereignty

Hannah’s Hymn Again Brought to the Surface

The Proud HumbledNebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4)Belshazzar (Daniel 5)

The Humble RaisedShadrach, Meshach, Abednego (Dan. 3)Daniel (Dan. 6)

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The Judgment Upon the PeopleBook written to those who already experiencing exileJudgment implicitly described through the description of the slow and gradual process through which the promised salvation will come aboutJudgment remains until the promised salvation arrives

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The Promised SalvationDaniel 2 & 7-12 give us significant insight into the process through which the promised salvation will come aboutThese chapters cover the period from the exile to the second coming of Jesus ChristThere is mystery present in these chapters and there are numerous interpretive options out thereWe don’t have time to discuss these options or adequately discuss any single option

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The Promised SalvationOur aim is to simply capture general thrust of what Daniel is communicating about the nature of the coming salvationPromised salvation will take longer than originally expected Salvation will be brought about by a “son of man”

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Daniel 2 & 7 contain dreams and their interpretationsDaniel 2 – statute that represents the line of pagan nations that will rule until the “stone” crushes them and inaugurates an eternal kingdom (Genesis 3:15!)Daniel 7 – four beasts also represent the line of pagan nations that will rule until the “son of man” reigns over an eternal kingdom (Genesis 3:15!)Daniel 9:24 – 490 years not 70!

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Daniel 7:13-14 – “[B]ehold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”Daniel 8-12 – more details to the “span of history sketched in by chapter 2 & 7.”

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Though many of the book’s nuances are beyond the scope of our study, the bottom line is clear through it all

The Lord “changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding . . . .” (Daniel 2:21)The Lord is sovereign over all things, all peoples, all times!

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Daniel: Unique Way Points to JesusJesus is the “rock” that brings down the great statute of Nebuchadnezzar’s dreamJesus is the “son of man” who will reign forever and ever!

Schreiner: “Jesus is the Son of Man, the king, the stone, who represents the saints. The saints triumph insofar as they belong to him and are united to him. His victory is their victory. The Son of Man will crush the head of the serpent, the ferocious and beastly kingdoms that oppress human beings and advance evil.”

The Story of the Old Testament Session 8: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah,...

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