Survey of the Poetical Books

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Well, good evening everyone I'm guessing this is everybody looks like we're kind of low tonight I think we're missing a few folks, but that kind of happens midway through we've learned that with our courses We have an eight-week course we start the course strong full house, and then people realize it's work And and anytime we realize it's a little bit of work sometimes that will that will cause us to be less than excited about Continuing on, but I am glad to see you all are here tonight And tonight we are continuing our survey of the Old Testament And we're going to be looking at a survey of the poetic literature of the Old Testament So far we have looked at the Pentateuch Which is the first five books of the Old Testament Genesis through Deuteronomy that was our? Second class our first class of course was an overview of the course second class was a survey of the Pentateuch Genesis through Deuteronomy and Then last week we went for an hour and a half looking at the history books from Joshua to Esther and we did a lot last week thousand years of church history of Old Testament history in an hour and a half which was which was Intense to say the least but we got through it, and we're going to get through tonight as well in this in this session We are going to be looking over the poetic literature Which will cover the book of Job? through the Song of Solomon so we're going to be Job to the Song of Solomon now prior to your participation tonight According to the syllabus you should have read introduction to the poetical books Which is in the commentary that you all have or should have which was the main text of this course Believers Bible commentary you should have read introduction to the poetical books if you did not Then that is part of your homework for this week if you did not get a chance to read your reading This book is very helpful.
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It's very useful and the information in it is is really going to Accentuate what I'm teaching you and So if you're not reading this you're not getting the fullness of the course just to give you Give you that thought the the readings is or the readings are important now When we discuss the poetical books of the Old Testament We need to recognize that these are unique within the Canon because they do not necessarily attach themselves to a specific period in Israel's history With the exception of a few of the Psalms which do reference historical events the rest of the poetical books sit in a Timeless place in the Old Testament their wisdom Transcends time and their wisdom is really for all time and therefore they're not tied to any particular point in Israel's history the wisdom and stories that they contain are just that they are timeless We do not know when Job lived though we will venture a guess in a few moments when we look at the book of Job and We certainly do not know when all of the Psalms and when all of the Proverbs were written or even by whom But these are not meant to tell us the history of Israel that was what last week was about that's what those books are about These books tonight are not about giving historical information.
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They are about gaining insight into God's mind Gaining insight into God's world That's what these books are about these tell us about God these tell us about the world these tell us about God's interaction with the world and It is important to note and this should be something that is readily understood, but not always understood It should be important to understand that poetry is not the same as history Poetry is not the same as history Historical narrative has rules for interpretation Persons places events are all intended to be understood as actual things This is part and parcel of why we look at the story of Adam and Eve and we take it literally because they are written in historical narrative The same as the story of Jonah Jonah has some very amazing parts and yet it's written in the historical narrative Now that's not to say that those books don't contain some poetry they do but the poetry is interwoven into clear Historical narrative and the poems are generally very recognizable additions to the historic accounts but poetry is its own type of literature where poetry might be within a historical narrative poetry is also its own set aside form of literature and Poetry contains elements which are intended to convey information rather than literally poetry conveys information Figuratively now we have to be careful about that word because people ask you or people ask me sometimes Do you interpret the Bible literally and you remember my answer I talked about this in the first week I say I interpret the Bible Literarily meaning that I interpret it according to the literature that it comes and so a historical narrative I interpret in the by the rules of historic narrative, but when I come to poetic literature, I interpret it according to the rules of Poetry and that is different than the rules of clear historic narrative And if you are taking notes now would be a time to have those ready because I want to give you some things to consider That belong to the realm of poetry Because the rules of poetry are still rules that help us to find a proper interpretation just because we interpret something Figuratively doesn't mean that we interpret it loosely or we interpret it subjectively But we are interpreting it it's seeking to be as accurate as possible following the rules following the Standards and so we're going to look at it several rules and these were in your text if you read them I'm Rehearsing some of what you've already read the first rule that is found Primary and very plainly and clearly in Hebrew Poetry is something called parallelism Parallelism most of us think of poetry as something that rhymes Because that's how English poetry typically comes to it In fact, most of us are unfamiliar with poetry that doesn't rhyme if we hear a poem and it doesn't rhyme It feels like it doesn't work You know, we know roses are red violets are blue I'm handsome and so are you I don't know that we just made that up on the spot David, but you understand that's That's a poem because it rhymes but we understand there are other types of poetry such as the Japanese that has the haiku and the haiku poem it has Was 17 syllables, that's that's that's one of the parts that make up a haiku is that it has a specific amount of syllables and That's a rule That's a standard.
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That's how that particular type of poetry works.
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It's not about rhyming.
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It's about structure when we come to Hebrew poetry We don't have rhyming words There are sometimes but it's rare We don't have rhyming words, but what we have is rhyming ideas and that's called parallelism Parallelism is the concept of having a rhyming idea and I do want to ask if you brought a Bible tonight And if you didn't there should be one in the seats around you the blue books are the Bibles the red books are the hymnals So if you see a blue Bible and you'd like to grab one, I'm gonna ask some of you to read some scripture tonight Because quickly and it's quicker if you guys would read it I Want to show you some examples of parallelism the first one is What we call synonymous parallelism synonymous parallelism synonymous parallelism is Found in Proverbs 1228 who wants to be my reader? Okay, brother, can you Proverbs 12 and 28? Say it again.
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All right.
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So listen again the way of righteousness there is life and in its pathway.
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There is no death What's the opposite of life? So what's this? It's a synonymous parallelism.
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It's saying the same thing twice Synonymous parallelism is when something is repeated and the way of the righteous there is life and in its way there is no death What's no death life? So there's parallel.
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Yes, Brian How about I just give you I'll give it to you.
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It's s y n o n Y m o u s synonymous Synonymous parallel there are tons of these I mean, in fact, I would encourage you if you have an opportunity just reading through Psalms Look for the times when it repeats the same thing twice.
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That's called a synonymous parallelism and that's often how you can Understand what it's saying because sometimes it'll say something rather cryptically But then it says it much clearer in the second line and when you know that it's a synonymous parallelism Then you know, he's simply saying the same thing again And again, that's an interpretive help The next one is called the antithetic Parallel the antithetic The Antithetic parallel is when a contrast happens Between one statement and another who's got their Bible ready All right, Psalm 1 verse 6 David read it to us, please Okay, that's Psalm 1 6 Okay, the Lord watches over the way of the righteous But the way of the wicked will perish So we see the way of the righteous is is protected and the way of the wicked is not and so there's a contrast there there's an there's an antithesis their statement and then the Opposite statement and antithesis is something that's the opposite of something you have thesis antithesis and synthesis Right thesis is a statement antithesis is the opposite and synthesis is when you bring the two together We write research we start with the thesis and then we consider the antithesis and then we find the synthesis the truth so we have synonymous parallel we have antithetic Parallel which contrasts and then we have something called synthetic Parallel.
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Well, I just mentioned the word synthesis What is synthetic parallelism synthetic parallelism is something that builds up? It's something that compounds or or grows Think of Psalm 23 shouldn't have to look this one up.
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What's the most famous Psalm in the world? The one that's preached at all the funerals The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want You see that's a parallelism we don't think of it that way but it is because the first statement is the statement of truth the Lord is my shepherd the Second statement is the building of that because the Lord is my shepherd.
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I shall not want You see and so we have various forms of the parallelism We ready You know what I just realized My microphone has been off this whole time.
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I got to start over.
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I'm just kidding.
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Thankfully.
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I was recording it here.
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Oh Goodness, I'm gonna have to go back and edit the video and Dub the video audio over boy.
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That's not good.
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Okay, so we have parallelism we have Various forms now we are moving on from parallelism.
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We have something else called literary figures literary figures Literary figures now parallelism we've explained as a form of Poetry pair of literary figures are as well.
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What are some literary figures? Well, the first would be comparisons a comparison somebody look up Psalm 5 verse 12 Psalm 5 verse 12 as With a shield.
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What do we call it when we use like or as? a simile, right so a simile is An example of a comparison when you say as or like something then you're using a simile now someone look up Psalm 84 11 and just read it when you get there Okay.
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So this time it didn't say he is as a shield.
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It said he is a shield and So now we move from the simile to the metaphor What's the difference between a simile or a metaphor a? simile uses like or as Gary you are strong like an ox right, that's simile but if I say Gary you're such an ox that's One thing it's not as it's not as pleasant But it's also a metaphor because now I haven't used like or as now I'm using it as a direct statement It is this And so we see both of those and those are comparisons comparisons are huge in poetry think about what the psalm says about the Sun as if it comes out of a Cellar in the morning and it makes it circuit across the sky and it goes back into that cellar at night And you say wait a minute.
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There's no cellar There's no there's no place from which it's coming in which it's going but the the metaphor the picture the comparison The Next thing we see in the next two.
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I want I'm gonna just write them down very quickly is alliteration and acrostic alliteration and acrostic What is alliteration? Alliteration is when you use similar sounding letters or the same letter in a close proximity of space for instance a lot of Pastors including myself when we make outlines we try to use outlines that have the same letter at the beginning Why because it's easy for you for people to remember you might not remember everything I said in the sermon but if you know, I talked about the power and the purpose and the prestige Then you you may remember those things because they're put together For instance, I used to have a group in the church.
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We were a men's group.
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We called it dads and dudes These you remember now I have a podcast.
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What's it called coffee with a Calvinist? I did that because the name it's alliteration the problem with alliteration when it comes to English you're translating Hebrew and so Recognizing alliteration is not as easy however It's not always impossible.
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There are things that come up that we can see but it's just hard to see it in English and so sometimes it's helpful to dive into a A study of the original languages to help you see these things Job 14 1 and 2 and I'll read it for you.
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It says Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble He comes out like a flower and withers he flees like a shadow and continues not you notice how many F's were in that how? Many of the F sound he he is full of days and few are few of days and full of trouble and he flees You understand so that even in English it comes across with that That that sounding of alliteration.
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It's it's it's poetic in its sound But acrostic is even more important because acrostic we see letters being used to start sentences Psalm 119 the longest of the Psalms follows the pattern of the Hebrew alphabet Aleph bet gimel d'aleph hey wild Zion you follow it and what it is is every section the word Begins with that Hebrew letter So aleph and bet is the first letter of the first and the second and the third is gimel Which is the third letter and it goes down the line now.
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Why would they do that? Because the Bible was intended not only to be read but it was intended to be memorized and so when you give someone a memorization you give it to them in a Acrostic if you think of this if you had to memorize all of the items in your house It might be good If you put them in an order of some kind an alphabetical order would be a way for you to remember those things And so we see this in Hebrew poetry it's also in the great Proverbs 31 passage the About the what the woman the virtuous woman.
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There's an acrostic there All right, I'm going to turn the page over now Because we've looked at parallelism.
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We've looked at literary forms the next thing we see in poetry is the concept of the anthro pomorphism I'm getting there all right so anthro a n t h r o po p o morphism m o r p h is m anthro pomorphism And this is this is a I'll give you the meaning of it.
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Anthropa is the Greek word for man and Morphos is the word for form and so when we see the word Anthropomorphism it's ref referring to a form of a man that's applied to God So for instance when the Bible talks about God's hands and when it talks about God's eyes and when it talks about God's Fingers, you know all of those things the the they are Anthropomorphism we also have a similar and I'm not going to write this one out but that we and a Distinction is the zoomorphism Now, what do you think the zoomorphism is Applying animals, right? We think of the word the the so being the the animal So we the idea we have anthropomorphism, which is the applying of man? Characteristics to God we have the zoomorphism, which is the applying of animal characters.
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What what what animal characteristics are applied to God? He is like a lion What else? Yes, he will gird us Under his wings.
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In fact turn everybody turn real quick If you have your Bibles, I'll turn to Psalm 91 verse 4.
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I'm going to show you something in this text Psalm 91 verse 4.
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I Can't believe I missed the turn my microphone on can you okay.
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I just I'm sorry.
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I'm really down on myself tonight Psalm 91 verse 4 he will cover you with his pinions And under his wings you will find refuge his faithfulness is a shield and buckler Notice what we have here we have the zoomorphism referring to God's wings and his pinions, but we also have the metaphor His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler So in that one passage we have an we have an expression of two different forms of literature we have the zoomorphism describing God is in his wings and we have also the metaphor of God's faithfulness being like a shield The last one I want us to look at is called personification Personification Personification is When an object or a quality is treated as a person you're in Psalm 91 turn over to Psalm 96 and Look at verse 11 Somebody read it for me Let the heavens be glad I Don't know about you, but the heavens don't have person I've never had the clouds try to speak to me I've never had the The clouds open their mouths and speak and show that they're glad I've never had the earth rejoice but this is an example of personification taking personal characteristics and applying them to the earth and to the Sky and even to the sea We see this also in Proverbs chapter 8, but now in Proverbs it's not an object that's given person, but it is a Quality listen to Proverbs chapter 8 verse 12.
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I Wisdom dwell with prudence and I find knowledge and discretion who's speaking Wisdom is speaking but wisdom is not personal wisdom does not have body form or function But wisdom is personified in this text so personification is applying personal qualities to impersonal objects or Characteristics so those are just four of the Figurative techniques that we find in Hebrew literature and Understanding them will help us to have a better and more right understanding of the text Whenever we go and study it So now that we have looked at those that is our introduction for tonight I want us to begin looking at these five books of Five books of these five poetic books, excuse me.
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And so what are the books again Job? Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs or Sometimes called the Song of Solomon and I'm going to talk about That in a moment what what the name? means So let's look first at the at the book of Job Let us go first to the book of Job If it's impossible to give an hour and a half lesson that truly encapsulates all of the poetic books It's even more impossible to think that I could take 10 minutes and give a really good overview of the book of Job However, as I hope you learned last week, there are some things that we can glean even from a short overview of a book like this Job stands unique in the Bible Because it provides a grand narrative account filled with dialogue But it's written almost completely in the poetic form It's not written as a Historical narrative even though it has the elements of history and narrative.
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It's written in the form of poetry I Don't know how many of you are familiar with the book Paradise Lost.
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Well to call it a book is unfair.
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It's 12 books Paradise Lost was written by John Milton he was a Puritan writer and it was about the death at the fall rather of Adam and Eve and how the Paradise that they had in Eden was lost 12 books of stories about how Satan fell in heaven and how he Infiltrated the garden and and all of these things 12 books and it's all poetry English poetry So It tells a story, but it's still poetic And that's the point that I'm making about Job Job tells a story, but it tells the story in the form of poetry This is why Job doesn't fall in the history books, but falls among the poetic books because even though it's telling a story It's telling it in verse.
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It's telling it using the structure of poetry and Job contains one of the most enigmatic stories in the Bible.
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Would you not agree? it's a book that from the very first chapter makes you go Wow and Even scratch your head a bit Job is an upright man The text clearly says it and yet he suffers Greatly so much so that we now have an expression in our language when someone goes through a difficult time We say they're going through the trials of Job because that is the Difficulty level his level of difficulty has been risen up to that's the standard of bad when you're going through bad you're going through the trials of Job The reader is given a glimpse Into the spiritual realm the spiritual background of the story God is engaged with an interaction with Satan and Job's life becomes the focus of their interaction God allows Satan to attack Job to demonstrate Job's faithfulness and Job's counselors consider this to be some kind of Retributive justice you must deserve this if you're suffering it must be because you've sinned in some way Job questions the reasoning of God only to be reminded at the end that God is sovereign and who are you old man to answer back to God? There really is no satisfactory answer given to Job except for who where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Yet in the end Job is not left in despair.
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He is returned to his position of blessing God does not leave him in that point of destruction But yet the story itself Often hits us right in the heart as we think about all that he suffered not only at the Hands of Satan having lost so much, but at the hands of his so-called friends who were as it were thorns in his side When it comes to the book of Job There's a lot that we don't know such as the author.
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We don't know who wrote it Yet many possibilities have been suggested Moses has been suggested as an author and even possible Job himself has been suggested as an author but here's the thing to consider if Job is the author this would be the oldest book of the Bible because the setting of Job is prior to the time of Moses How do we know that well? The account of Job is believed to have taken place before Moses because there's no mention in the book of Job of the law of God That's a key indicator because the law of God is it's so Prevalent and so focused upon after the time of Moses the fact that it's not mentioned in Job would indicate that is that Job probably Happened the the events of the story probably happened somewhere around the time of the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob Also the historical record of where and about the way that he lived Fits into that time period when you read the narrative or the poetic narrative as it were The setting of the book and the overall tone fit the patriarchal period Now I do want to address one thing quickly some people question whether or not Job is a genuine historical figure Whether Job is a parable That's an important question Because as I said earlier, I believe Adam and Eve are true historical people because their life comes to us in a historical narrative But when we come to Job his life comes to us in a poem and not only does Job's life come to us in a poem, but Job's life also comes to us as a clear moral tale of God's sovereignty it's a it has a purpose and one of the ways that you can tell a parable like when Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan is there's Clearly a moral to the story when you see the parable of the Prodigal son, there's clearly a moral to the story and and by the way, I don't believe there ever was a Good Samaritan I don't believe there ever was a prodigal son Because those are stories Now I'm not saying there couldn't have been But when Jesus gave those parables, he didn't say there was a guy named Jeff He said there was a man from Samaria blah blah blah blah blah and I think the reason why is because the story is not intended to tell a truth in story is Intended or not to let me back up.
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It's not intended to tell something that happened It's intended to give a moral purpose and that's what a parable does Some people get upset when I say I don't think there ever was a Good Samaritan.
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Well What I mean is I don't think that's necessary to believe when you read the story however, when you go to Luke 16, there's the the story of Lazarus and the rich man.
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It's the only one of Jesus's stories where we get an actual name.
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Did you know that? It's the only one of Jesus's stories when he talked about someone He said there was a man named Lazarus who had sores who sat Outside of the rich man and begged to have the crumbs that fell from his table He mentioned his name which to me is a huge point about that story.
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And I know that I'm taking us a little off the subject But now we go back to Job.
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Job is a name, isn't it? What else do we know about Job? What would make me think Job is not a parable? Here's here's my answer if somebody said well if Job fits the qualities of a parable, why would you not think Job is a parable? I'll give you two verses Ezekiel 14 13 and 14 and James 5 11.
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I want to read them to you Ezekiel 14 13 and 14 son of man when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send Famine upon it and cut it cut off from it man and beast even if these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness declares the Lord God Right there.
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We have three men named two of those men.
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I have no doubt truly existed Daniel and Noah and Job is listed among them.
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So what does that make me know? Ezekiel considered him to be a real person Ezekiel is a prophet of God and so right there is an indicator.
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Yes There's reason to believe Job was an actual person and not just a moral tale James chapter 5 verse 11.
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It says this behold we consider those blessed who remain steadfast you have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord how the Lord is Compassionate and merciful notice what James is using James is using Job's Life as an example for how Christians ought to live in the midst of persecution and trouble You've heard of the steadfastness of Job you to be steadfast It's not a moral tale at that point.
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It's an actual event and So again, I would say about the life of Job I would say that the Bible does not treat his life as a mere parable and therefore I won't either I will consider Job to be a historic account Though written in the poetic form.
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Yes, sir, David Ezekiel 14 13 and 14 and Then James 5 11 now before we run away from Job.
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I want to make a few other comments Many take great issue with Job's narrative because they believe it makes God appear to be arbitrary and Unable to be goaded into action by the devil However, the point that is often missed in the narrative is That the devil can do nothing without God's say so The devil has no authority of his own outside of God's decree So while we may not understand why God decrees as he does it should be comforting to know that nothing happens outside of his decree By the way that leads me to a moment of pure indulgence to remind you about Saturday Saturday we have a conference on the sovereignty of God and one of the things we're going to talk about in the conference is how God Is sovereign over all things and nothing happens outside of his divine decree.
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He is the one who is over all What if if and by the way, I've I've been tasked with preaching the sovereignty of God in the New Testament Brother Mike is preaching the sovereignty of God in the Old Testament brother Andy's preaching the sovereignty of God in the Psalms But if I were preaching the sovereignty of God in the Old Testament if I were if they told me this is what you're gonna preach I would have went straight to Job chapter 1 Is what do we see in Job chapter 1? God does as he pleases in heaven and on earth and no one can say Why have you done this? Isn't that what Nebuchadnezzar said after seven years of eating grass? Daniel chapter 4 after his mind is taken from him and he lives like an ox Ox He lives like an ox for for Seven years and when he comes back he says this is the God of heaven and earth and who can say to him Why have you done this who can thwart him Who can stand against the Almighty so we learn a lot from Job, but we mustn't miss the most important thing and that is the The power of God to do as he wills and the righteousness of God in whatever he chooses We've lost that because we want God to be our servant rather than our master So that is the book of Job There's so much more I could say but for the sake of time I want to move on Now we're going to look at the book of Psalms.
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Oh I have my notes backwards Psalms is backwards.
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My that was my mistake.
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That's okay Going to the book of Psalms.
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What can be said about the book of Psalms too much in an hour and a half outside Of the Gospel of John possibly there is probably no more book that is more beloved and has passages more memorized than the book of Psalms now the book of Psalms is the song book of Ancient Israel that is why in many of the Psalms when you read them it will begin with the statement to the choir master or To those who play this instrument or that instrument because the Psalms were the songs in fact there are There are movements in Christianity that believe that we should only sing the Psalms It's called exclusive psalm Nidhi And they say that we should not sing any songs unless they are from the book of Psalms Because these are the only inspired songs that exist Amazing grace is a good song, but it's not inspired by God How great thou art is a wonderful song, but it's not God breathed So the argument is if we are truly to worship God according to his standard we should use the songs that he wrote It's a good argument.
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I don't agree with it, but I Can handle it if I went to a church, and that's all they sang was the Psalms.
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I certainly wouldn't be offended But I do believe in the New Testament we're given a wider scope because we are told to speak to each other in Psalms and hymns and Spiritual songs and so I don't think we're limited to the Psalms But I do think it's important to sing the Psalms and that's why so many of our songs are based in the Psalms In fact so many of our songs We don't even realize until we've learned the song and then later we go back and read a Psalm And we say oh wait, that's that's that song I know The Psalms were intended to give the people of God a Mouth of worship.
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We are supposed to be a singing.
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Yes, sir You mean when you guys set free to it or what you mean when anyone does it? Well the ones who do exclusive psalm to do the ones I'm talking about They have hymn books that have taken the Psalms as written and put them in musical With it, you know in a way to sing it So I'm talking about folks who are very strict and not in a bad way, but they're very particular about that But yeah, you're right when when I talk about a song like maybe the song forever, which is a more contemporary song But it's based on the Psalms your love endures forever It's certainly not all of the Psalm, but it does hearken back to the Psalm, of course and Again, when we consider the songs as the psalm book of ancient Israel, it reminds us that as as God's people We are called to be a singing people We are called to be a singing people and God wants us to sing.
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I know some people don't like to sing as much as others Some people don't want to sing they stand so stoic in the church when the songs come on.
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They just sort of They don't want to have that, you know, I don't want to I don't want to express themselves.
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Oh, well, I don't sing well Nobody said you had to that's a great thing about a choir It really is the great thing about a choir is the voices come together and it it blends and there's no need for the solo In fact, I'm to be honest with you and this is maybe getting a little off the subject But I'm not a big fan of solos and churches I Don't think they're wrong necessarily and we do have them periodically But I think oftentimes what happens when there's so much Solos is that it focuses on the individual and the performance rather than on the corporate participation in the song The Psalms were corporate participation.
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It was meant to be sung together and so You know, I I've been to churches where every Sunday it's you three three songs in a special And then that's fine.
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That's their way.
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I'm not necessarily condemning them I'm just saying it becomes almost like every Saturday every Sunday.
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We're going to have a performance Like I said if you come here you'll see that we rarely rarely do that because we want it to be corporate And God encourages corporate singing we see that in the Psalms Oftentimes the Psalms are attributed to David but only about half of them are actually written by David There are many other contributors other than David to the Psalms including even Moses We have ASAP who wrote some of the Psalms Solomon wrote some of the Psalms and then some we are not certain the writing of the psalm spans about a hundred years except for of course the the Mosaic Psalm, which would have been older They consist of about a hundred and fifty individual Psalms Not about exactly 150 individual Psalms and they are divided into five books you may want to write this down if you're interested the the five books are the chapters 1 through 41 make up book 1 Chapters 42 to 72 make up book 2 Chapter 73 to 89 make up book 3 chapters 90 to 106 make up book 4 Chapters 107 to 150 make up book 5.
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How do we know the books? Well, they each one of them ends with a doxology So that tells us that that book is closing and we're moving into the next book Psalm 150 is the great doxology of the entire book You guys remember Psalm 150? Psalm 150 is the one that says Well, let's look at it because it just I know what it is, but it just for a moment says jumped out of my mind Psalm 150 says praise the Lord and Praise God in his sanctuary praise him in his mighty heavens praise him with his for his mighty deeds praise him according to his excellent greatness and then it goes on to say praise him with Trumpet and lute and harp and tambourine and dance and strings and pipe and cymbals and clashing cymbals and let everything that has breath Praise the Lord.
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That's the final statement is praise the Lord and That wraps up all of the Psalms and it brings together the purpose of the Psalms doxology means a glorious word doxa means glory and so it's a It typically refers to something that comes at the end like in a lot of the epistles.
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You'll see Paul Making a statement about the glory of God or something to that effect and that's doxology a glorious word more important than the the Books and we looked at the I mentioned the five books to you More and mentioned that they all end with the doxology But what's interesting is there's a parallel between those five books and between the books of Moses because the the first The first excuse me the Let me just read it as it's written because I'm not getting it out correctly Some have noted a parallel between the five divisions and the Pentateuch the five books of Moses the second division focuses on redemption much like Exodus the third division focuses on holiness like Leviticus and we can see sort of a parallel in those in those five But more important than that is the recognition of the different types of Psalms There are six different or five different types of Psalms.
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And this is what I want you to make note of There are Psalms that we would call Messianic Psalms, what are Messianic Psalms ones that are pointing specifically to the Messiah Jesus There are Psalms that are historical Psalms Representing and connecting to some kind of history in the nation of Israel there are prophetic Psalms Psalms that look forward to something that will happen an important event and Then this next one.
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This is a man may need to spell it.
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It's a penitential Psalms P-e-n-i-t-e-n-t-i-a-l Penitential p-e-n-i-t-e-n-t-i-a-l Penitential Psalms Now let me ask you this what is what is penitence? hmm It's confession.
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It's remorse.
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It's brokenness and there are Psalms that are penitential Nature, right? There are Psalms that are intended to display the broken heart of the psalmist think of Psalm 51.
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What is Psalm 51? David's What's that Yeah, it's David's prayer of repentance after he sinned with Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan came and stuck his finger out and said you Are the man? What does it say at the beginning of Psalm 51? Says this is the prayer of repentance of David when the prophet Nathan came to him so it connects it to a historical event and it shows the brokenness of David and The last is what we would call an imprecatory Psalm I-m-p-r-e-c A-t-o-r-y imprecatory Now what is an imprecatory Psalm? It is a psalm intended to call down vengeance upon God's enemies Blessed is he who takes your little ones and dashes their head against the stone That's hard to hear That's in the Psalms Speaking about the enemies of God The imprecatory Psalms are some of the most difficult because we live on this side of the cross and We are called by Christ our commander-in-chief to love our enemies but at the same time We know that there are those who are enemies of God in the world.
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And how then do we pray for them? Well, the imprecatory Psalms call for their destruction so are we to are we to consider that and call for their destruction or we as Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us Here's yeah, you beat me to it because honestly there are times when I pray God Save them or shut them up Break the teeth of the of the one who would speak against you if that's what is necessary to close his mouth But God do not let him continue To lead your people astray I want to see him saved but I care about the people of God as well So I pray God do whatever is necessary To close the mouth of the wicked The Psalms are a timeless treasure of music for God's people which remain relevant for all times think about this a lot of people carry a Small Bible with them and that small Bible usually includes not the whole Bible But just the New Testament, but also what? the Psalms and Proverbs because this book stands as Glorious poetic song for all time for the people of God to sing So that's the Psalms.
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Let's move now to the Proverbs where Psalms makes up the body of Israel's musical literature the Proverbs make up the wisdom literature and The book states its own purpose from the very beginning the book of Proverbs begins with its own purpose chapter 1 verse 2 to know wisdom and instruction to understand words of insight to receive instruction in wise dealing and righteousness justice and equity That is the goal the book begins by referencing Solomon it says in chapter 1 verse 1 the Proverbs of Solomon son of David king of Israel But it also does include contributions by others Proverbs were very common in the ancient world in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia wisdom writings played an important role They were kept in the royal court and used to instruct students for important positions They taught proper behavior correct speech and understanding of society They ensured the ruler would have wise subjects to do his will most effectively the Proverbs were used to teach boys to be men Think about what the Proverbs teach.
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I mean you guys read the Proverbs a lot, right? What do they teach? They teached my son do like this and don't do like that Be this way and don't be that way.
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It's Lit it's it's it's literature for life.
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It's it's teaching you how to be one of the most important things to understand about the Proverbs is is that something called the proverbial truth and When I say this understand what I'm saying, I hope it comes across clearly and it's not misunderstood a proverb is not a promise I'll say it again a proverb is not a promise a Proverb states a general truth which contains general wisdom not absolute certainty I'll give you an example One of my favorite Proverbs is Proverbs 15 verse 1 There's actually a program that I was certified to teach years ago.
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It was a Personal protection program called p15 v1.
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That was the name of the program p15 v1 and p15 v1 Was using Proverbs 15 verse 1 to teach people how to use words in self-defense What is Proverbs 15 verse 1 say a soft word turns away wrath So we taught in that program How to use soft words when dealing with angry people Proverbs 15 verse 1 the whole thing a soft word turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger and So we taught in that program how to use soft words when dealing with angry people and how not to use harsh words You want to start a fight? It's real easy We have something called the ladder of escalation When you have a ladder like this and you have steps on both side when this person takes a step up By up up up up up and this person takes a step up up up up up up up the next person Goes higher step up up up up and that gives this person the right to go higher But but but but and eventually they're gonna clash, but if this person goes up up up up up up and this guy can stay here Then he loses the ability to keep going up Because he doesn't have this person's bump up up to build upon that makes sense That was part of the program that we would teach we would teach people how to stay cool and how to use soft words To turn away wrath rather than using harsh words, which stir up anger you really want to make somebody mad It's easy But here's the rule and we taught this in every class It's not universal because some people just want to punch you in the face It's the truth there's there's it's not universal right I can be as soft and kind and gentle And sometimes it's still gonna come out swinging because he didn't care about me So the rule is true But it's not universal That's a proverbial truth Think about this one and if you're a parent you probably know it train up a child in the way he should go and When he is old he will not depart from it.
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Is that true? Yes, it's true.
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Is it absolute? No, it's not Because some children have been raised in godly homes by godly parents and have themselves turned away to All kinds of mischief and idolatry and falsehoods and everything else there is not a promise but there is a principle Because I will tell you this if you raise your child in the way, he shouldn't go.
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I'll guarantee he'll go that way So we should raise him in the way he should go Trusting God as we do it, but that's a proverbial truth not a promise We use the same language today If I say to a person if you want to live long, you're gonna eat healthy and exercise Well, that's not necessarily true because you can eat healthy and exercise and get hit by a bus But I will say this if you don't eat healthy and don't exercise and you probably won't live very long You understand it's a proverb.
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It's a statement of basic truth This is why the Proverbs can sometimes seem contradictory Listen to this listen to this Proverbs Proverbs 26 verse 4 Answer not a fool according to his folly lest you be like him yourself then Proverbs 26 verse 5 Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes The first one said answer not the fool according to his folly the second one which literally comes in the next verse Says answer a fool according to his folly You say but wait if one contradicts the other.
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Well, it does if you take both of them Absolutely, but they don't contradict if you take them proverbially for instance, I'll give you a modern example If I say look before you leap that's pretty wise But if I say he who hesitates is lost That's also wise and those two would seem to contradict one another wouldn't it But both of them are true They have a context Right, and so does answer a fool according to his folly and answer not a fool according to his folly Both of them have a context sometimes you have no choice, but to answer the person But sometimes it's best just to leave them in their foolishness and walk away And the context will determine at which point one of those is going to be the necessary rule of the day The Bible is not contradicting itself In fact if this is a contradiction in the Bible then it's in the worst place possible because it's literally sitting right next to itself.
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I Think it's written intentionally to show us that these rules these proverbs are written to give us principles not absolutes They're still true and they should still be understood as truth, but they are not absolute proverbs Should remind us that the ultimate source of wisdom is God himself God is the one who inspired the Proverbs to be written and therefore they have a wealth of wisdom which comes from the Lord Solomon is the writer of most of them and Solomon himself Was given wisdom from God Therefore when we read his wisdom, we are reading the wisdom of God We're doing really well on time tonight Better than I thought but we are going to push through if you need to take a break.
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Does anybody need to take a break? We can come on All right.
01:00:48
Well, we'll go on now to Ecclesiastes and to song of songs.
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We may even in five minutes early tonight.
01:00:53
Who knows? Ecclesiastes there are hard passages in the Bible and then there are hard books and Ecclesiastes falls into the category of a hard book I would say And it's hard because It contains entire sections which can leave us scratching our head It says things that would seemingly contradict and go opposed to other passages of Scripture which would make one say Well, is this the Bible contradicting itself? but as we'll see in the next few minutes, it's not it just is has to be read within the context in which it was written the traditional authorship of the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon himself He he's mentioned excuse me in verse 1 It says the words of the preacher the son of David King in Jerusalem Well, we know that the son of David who was king is Solomon.
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So it's referring to Solomon, but it calls him the preacher Koa koaleth in the Hebrew The the word there means the one who gathers or assembles the people the preacher the one who gathers the people and this is why in the Greek it's called the Ecclesia or the Ecclesiastes what's the Ecclesia is the church the gathering? The assembly and so the one who assembles the Ecclesia and it's important to remember that Perspective and I want you to maybe write that down perspective is essential in Ecclesiastes The entire book repeats a single phrase over and over and that phrase is under the Sun Under the Sun Why do I mention? that Sorry, I lost it again Under the Sun is mentioned several times through the book of Ecclesiastes Why is it important? Well What's that? 29 times.
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Okay Mentioned 29 times in the book of Ecclesiastes Why is that important because the perspective that is being given in Ecclesiastes is one that is given from the earthly point of view This is given from man's perspective The author is attempting from a man's point of view to make sense of life to make sense of pleasure to make sense of wisdom and to make sense of truth and there is another word which comes up over and over in the book of Ecclesiastes and that is the word Vanity We're going to talk a bit about what that means because I do think this is often Misunderstood more often than not.
01:04:19
I believe it is misunderstood Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 2 vanity of vanity says the preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity What does man gain by all of the toil at which he toils under the Sun? So we see vanity over and over and over and then we see the words under the Sun the word vanity in Hebrew is the word havel and it means Literally, it means vapor or mist some people try to translate it as meaninglessness Maybe you've read a translation that says meaningless meaningless.
01:05:16
All is meaningless.
01:05:19
I Do not think that is accurate They will say the reason why the writer is saying meaningless is because he's saying all is meaningless apart from God and That's possible, but I don't think it's right Because more than likely what he is intending to point out by using the word havel mist or vapor is the concept of temporary or fleeting It's not that what happens in this life is meaningless.
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It's what happens in this life is not lasting What happens in this life is temporary and I would point you to James chapter 4 verse 14 When James says this You do not know what tomorrow will bring What is your life for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then? Vanishes notice the word mist same concept is the writer of Ecclesiastes Your life is a mist It comes and it goes It's not meaningless, but it is temporary It's not without purpose, but it is not the focus it's not the most important thing And so we come to the end of Ecclesiastes And what do we see the end of Ecclesiastes the the writer? finalizes his words by saying this is the end of the matter all has been heard and what should we do fear God and Keep his commandments For this is the whole duty of man That's the whole duty of man.
01:07:18
God will bring every deed into judgment and every secret thing whether good or evil a Truly fulfilling life is found not in pursuit of worldly things but is found in pursuit of God and that's the wisdom That we find in Ecclesiastes There are some interesting statements in Ecclesiastes though that I do want to point out again Like there's a passage, and I don't have it written down, but I've had people ask me about this over the years There's a passage that talks about that when a man dies.
01:07:58
He doesn't know anything If anybody knows right off the top of their head which passage I'm talking about That is that passage is sometimes used by people who don't believe in life because it talks about that when a man dies he doesn't know anything and They say see here the Bible doesn't teach life after death, and I say okay So what you're going to say to me is it all that Jesus talked about life after death and all the New Testament about life You're going to take one obscure passage in Ecclesiastes One of the most enigmatic books in the Old Testament And you're going to use that one rather than all the rest of them to prove your view of the life of the soul after death dumb-dumb-dumb That's dumb yes I'm sorry.
01:08:51
I'm sorry.
01:08:52
He's dead yes Read it for me.
01:09:06
Yes.
01:09:06
Thank you.
01:09:07
Thank you.
01:09:07
Thank you.
01:09:07
That's the passage Ecclesiastes 9 5 and Again the argument is made see they die.
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There's no reward There's nothing for them the living know the dead, but the dead can't know the living because they don't know anything.
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They're dead The problem again is perspective because what is Ecclesiastes about? It's about life from this perspective perspective of this world, and what do we know in this world about dead people? They're dead We can think about them, but we don't know what they're thinking about they're in heaven or not But we know this They're not the same as they were So again, it's about perspective right.
01:09:53
Thank you for finding that for me brother.
01:09:55
I appreciate that like I said I I've had people ask me about it a lot over the years again finding the right perspective when you're reading this book is essential You know, isn't it Ecclesiastes that tells us to eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die Right How many people have used that as the attitude of their whole life? I may die tomorrow So I'm gonna have live it up today Yeah, I mean a lot of people have But that's not the point of the book and that's not the end the end drives to what? No the purpose of life is not those things the purpose of life is is to pursue God and and to seek his will and To fear him and keep his commandments.
01:10:44
That's the duty of man So as I said, it's not an easy book it's not it's not one that's Usually on people's favorite book list some people it's their favorite book But in general it is not among those that people go to in their hour of need Last one for tonight Is the song of songs the song of songs Now a lot of people call it song of Solomon that may be even how it's written in your Bible but the song of songs is Like the phrase King of Kings Why do we say King of Kings that means it's the greatest King What I'm saying though is the song of songs is saying it's the greatest song In the same way that we say King of Kings is the greatest King The song of songs is the greatest song if you look at song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 1.
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What does it say? the song of songs which is Solomon's So is it right to call it the song of Solomon? Yes, because it's his But it's the song of songs which is his it's the greatest of all songs and This book is a declaration of Mutual love Between a lover and his beloved It moves from courtship to marriage To the intimacy of a loving relationship And I find this very interesting Jewish tradition says that Solomon wrote Proverbs Ecclesiastes and song of Solomon So Jewish tradition says Solomon was the author of Proverbs Ecclesiastes and song of Solomon But the tradition goes further and says this it says he wrote them at different times in his life the the tradition is that the song of songs was written in his youth that the Proverbs were written in his prime and that Ecclesiastes is written in his old age as he looks back over his life and Seeks to find meaning.
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I think that makes sense whether or not it's completely accurate I don't know as we said with the Proverbs there were many and they were collected so But yes, he is Identified as the writer the main interpretive issue that we have when we come to the song of songs is Whether or not we identify this as a love poem between a man and a woman or an allegory of the love of Christ and his church Historically speaking the allegorical interpretation has been favored by many church Teachers down through the ages however The text does not seem to bear out the concept of allegory as much as it focuses on What seems to be a genuine intimacy? between a man and a woman and Someone would say but wait a minute Christ is the husband of the church.
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What's wrong with seeing this as an allegory? Well We have to step back and say is that the real purpose? because The intention should be trying to understand the truth of what was written and what it meant now Can we see the love of Christ for his church in this? Yes, but but is that the intention? Is that what Solomon was writing about or was Solomon truly writing about a Shulamite with whom he was truly in love? That's the question and and I think that it is a testimony of the unique love which exists in a good marriage I Want to state this emphatically the love relationship which exists in a good marriage is one of the most exalted Expressions of Mankind in the Bible the first married couple Was married before sin entered the world Marriage is not a product of the fall marriage precedes The fall so therefore marriage is what we were created with the intention of having prior to sin Marriage is exalted among men and should be the Bible tells us the marriage bed is undefiled and So to know that there's a whole book of the Old Testament That's dedicated to the exaltation of the love between man and wife.
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I have no issue with that at all In fact, I find it Both humbling and encouraging as a married man to know that there's a book of the Bible That focuses on a love between a man and his wife.
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My wife and I have taught many times about our relationship How much we love one another We think about the distinction of the love that we have for one another even different than our children We love our children But the love that we have for one another Does and should even exceed the love we have for our children because our children will one day go and have their own marriages and Have their own Husbands and wives and my love for my wife should be the outside of my love for Christ should be the absolute Highest expression of my love my love for my wife is so much more than my love for anyone else and should be Oftentimes what happens and the problems that happen in a marriage is when the love for either children or other People become the focus and the love for the spouse is put aside When you read the Song of Solomon, what do you see you see a person who loves? his wife You see a person who is Infatuated with her beauty who is who is who is drunk with her her her essence He loves her and should In the New Testament, what is the husband called to do? Husbands love your wives Even as Christ loved the church Gave himself up for her as I said, is there a Christian application? Yes I think there's a Christian application, but could not the Christian application be that husbands should love their wives There is sanctity in marriage A marriage is a gift from God and To have a whole book dedicated to its importance.
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I think is a gift as well So that ends our study tonight of the prophetic or excuse me of the poetic literature I'd like to take the next minute or two.
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We have a few we got done I can't believe it but a few minutes early I'd like to take it the next few minutes and see if there's anyone who has any questions about the poetic literature and if you do I'll seek to answer it as best as I can.
01:18:37
Yes, brother.
01:18:42
All right, let me get it What page is this on 462 I Didn't mention it as one of them because there's several Well, I have to be reminded.
01:19:09
So let me read 462 referring to the Formal parallelism this type of parallel in form only the two or more lines don't contrast expand or emphasize It is just two lines of poetry put together to express a thought or theme.
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The example is Psalm 2 6 yet.
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I have set Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion Essentially what I believe that the point that is being made is there are times when you have verse But not necessarily verse that matches the verse that came before it so the line in the poetry is not necessarily saying either an antithesis or a Comparison of what came before it but it's still a line of the poetry.
01:19:52
It needs to be understood as distinct It's two different distinct statements So it's formally parallel, but not functionally parallel.
01:20:00
I think that's the difference.
01:20:02
Yeah Is there anyone else who has any questions? Yes.
01:20:08
Oh, I'm sorry.
01:20:09
Thank you.
01:20:10
I forgot to mention the handout.
01:20:12
Yes, I The book from Rose publishing did not provide much in regard to the to the to the Poetic books, but what it did provide for us is a look at the psalm Psalm 23 and I do think understanding psalm 23 when it comes to metaphor when it comes to Similes and things like that that we find in psalm 23.
01:20:37
I think that helps us understand other psalms So that's a breakdown of that and that's what that handout is for.
01:20:42
It's just basically something to help Your study it's for you to have it's not necessarily something we were going to go over in class But I meant to mention it when I mentioned psalm 23 earlier and I forgot so thank you anything else You guys enjoy the night.
01:20:56
Yes, sir.
01:20:57
Jamie.
01:21:12
I don't know No, I really don't the whole picture of the throne room of God and the entrance of Satan into the throne room of God and the ability for Satan to interact with the Lord I mean, I sort of take it at face value what it's saying, but I don't know what that would have looked like Yeah, and there's a and and what's interesting is Satan remains with the access To God at that point some people believe that access is lost now because of the coming of Christ this actually goes to a View of the millennial position if you believe that the millennium is something to come Then you believe Satan will be bound in the future.
01:21:54
That's called pre millennialism, but Ah millennialism believes that we are currently in the millennium and that Satan is bound now That would be closer to the position that I would hold and you say well, how is Satan bound? I see so much wildness in the world.
01:22:08
The Bible says that when the gospel was preached Jesus said to his disciples.
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I saw Satan cast down like lightning from heaven and so there is a certain binding that happens when the gospel is proclaimed and So, I don't know that Satan has access to the throne room of God now as he did in the time of Job I don't I can't prove that he does or he doesn't but I like to think that that time has passed Well, you talk about Stephen that's an axe Yeah Again, I don't know what Stephen saw.
01:22:50
I I think the focus in that is Christ standing What's interesting about that is the Bible says Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father But when Stephen was dying Christ was standing why? Now he was standing in his defense he was standing for him Yeah, so there's a there's a there's a there's a lot in that I don't know how he saw the presence of God though in what way it just says he was seated at the right hand of God Or standing at the right hand of God.
01:23:16
All right, there's a lot I'm sure there's a lot more but time has come and time has gone.
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Let's end with a word of prayer Father thank you for your word May it be that we continue to want to dig deeper.
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Thank you for the opportunity to be together tonight Thank you for this class Thank you for all who come that want to learn may you bless us with your knowledge and understanding in Christ's name.