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Now on the board is a passage, and what my goal was, I got a little slowed down there in the last section. My goal was to read this and practice our observation skills, but before I do that, I would be remiss if I didn't ask, how many of you did the workbook?
Good.
Well, then I don't want to miss that. I want to go over that. We'll come back to this if we have time. Let's go to the workbook. You had options. You could have done 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, or 38 in the workbook.
I'm going to turn to 28. 28 was on looking for things that are emphasized, and did anybody do 28?
That was my second choice, but I'm going to do the third one.
Ross did 28.
Okay.
No, he's...
What about 30?
You did 30, Corey?
Yeah.
What?
I did 30.
You did 30 as well? All right. Well, let's look at 30 since we got two of you that did it. Everybody turn to your books, page 73. This is exercise 30. It says, there's probably no tool in teaching more powerful than repetition.
If I want to make sure that you catch on to what I say, I'll repeat it over and over and again and again, time and time, time after time, repetition reinforces. And I say this a lot. I say, the key to learning is repetition, and repetition is the key to learning.
So I definitely agree with the good doctor here. So it says, suppose you've been chosen to replace a beloved leader who served faithfully for decades. You're a good person, but you've got some big shoes to fill.
Your own record is a little sparse, and you might have a few doubts about yourself. Will the people accept me? Can I take over a huge responsibility without wrecking the organization? Will I become as popular as my predecessor?
Would you have any other concerns? This is based upon Joshua 1. Did you guys write anything? What did y 'all write? Go ahead.
I wrote, I would be concerned that I would not be able to do everything that was expected.
Of me.
Very good.
And it says, what kinds of affirmation would you desire if you found yourself in this situation? Corey, did you write anything on that?
It seemed like God was calling you to do it.
It says, read Joshua 1. This passage records what God told Joshua when he called him to replace Moses. Ahead of him lay Jericho and numerous other fortified cities that the Israelites had to get through to possess the promised land.
Many of us would be shaking in our sandals. What phrase can you find that is repeated in this chapter?
Anything?
Be strong and courageous or have good four times. Is that the same one you found? The Lord, your God.
All right.
Why do you think such repetition was used?
There's words of encouragement.
Right.
Absolutely.
And from whom did Joshua hear this phrase? You should find two answers.
Yeah. Good.
Let's, uh, that's good. That's good. Um, it says, can you find a repeated emphasis on anything else? Did y 'all find anything else? Be strong and courageous.
And, uh, that was that God was keeping his promise to give them the, uh, the land.
God was keeping his promise.
Uh, moving on to, well, actually I'm going to go backwards cause I heard tail Ross did. 28.
So, uh, uh, yep.
10 to 31, which is about what?
It says, read Proverbs 31. How would you feel if this were a speech delivered about you at a testimonial dinner? That's an interesting question. Feel pretty good, huh?
Yeah. Yeah.
Since much of the book of Proverbs consists of bite-sized bits of wisdom. How does this passage emphasize its content based on the amount of space it gets?
Oh, what?
No. Find you, find you a godly woman.
Well, that's, that's, that's what you should want, uh, as a single man. If you are interested in, um, being in a relationship, you should certainly want a godly woman. But what is the amount of space emphasize?
That's important, right? Cause think about it. How many Proverbs stand on their own? It's just one. It's just, yeah, it's just brother Andy's talking about that right now. He just started teaching through Proverbs on Wednesday night and it's, you know, a lot of Proverbs are simply stand alone statements of wisdom.
But the Proverbs 31 woman is several passages long.
Emphasize. 22.
Emphasizes the, the importance of that particular reality. A woman, uh, and, uh, a noble woman is, uh, like a Ruby.
Uh, moving on to 30. Well, uh, it may do 34. Oh, did I skip 32? It may do 32.
That's fine. This was about things that are related. Again, each one of these was about what we talked about tonight. The six things. So in numbers 21, four to nine list, all the things you see where one action led to another action.
What did you say? Isn't that just the worst? I mean, about when the people complain and God sent venomous, venomous snakes. I tell you what, just the worst story in the old Testament to me. Yeah, that was something to cry about.
And we're sorry that he prayed to God to help them. And so God told him, make an image of a snake. If they looked upon a snake, then they would be.
That's right.
Irony too. Snakes bit him and you have to look at the snake.
Yeah, but there's.
I'm sorry.
But again, I. No, just remember observation. The the snake is a type of Christ. We learn this in John three. John three says Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole, so too must the son of man be lifted up.
Why then would Moses choose or why would God choose that Moses make a serpent? Because the serpent is identifying with the with the curse. Christ becomes the curse for us.
Wow.
So we don't we have to see it from that perspective. This is Christ is becoming the curse. And that's a picture of Christ.
OK. All right.
So moving on to number thirty four. Who did thirty four?
Three.
Huh?
On a tree.
I'm on a tree.
Yes.
He made him a new no sin to become sin for us.
Thirty six. Then I skip one.
There's everybody.
Thirty eight.
OK.
I know you did.
We already did you.
Who did I leave out? You did thirty eight.
Did thirty eight. All right.
Well, let's look at thirty eight. First Kings 11. And the question is, how could someone as wise as Solomon make the mistakes he did? I want to hear your answer. That's right.
In fact, he has to make the conscious effort to stay faithful to God.
Automatic.
Ecclesiastes gives his view of this, this, this man who has everything. And yet, you know, it is in one sense, it is vanity.
So why do you think Solomon got involved with so many women? Because he could. I heard lust. I heard because he could.
It's like kind of like if you're like really rich and famous. If you have anything you want, it's always got to be something new or some bigger thrill.
Well, I want to hear. Did you do this one, too?
I did.
Is that what you wrote?
I just want to hear if you wrote it.
OK. You did it, too.
What do you have? 700 wives and 300 concubines. I imagine you were. I mean, I'm just. Peer pressure. Now, I want to I want to throw out a thought, but I want to hear your thoughts first, brother. You have something there.
OK, we often we often and everybody sort of did. We often assume Solomon's sin was was that of fleshly lust. And I don't I don't deny that that is within the realm of possibility. But also within the historical context that he lived, a ruler.
It was often judged by his military might and the size of his entourage. And so his harem, his women, his wives were an indication of his of his pride, but also his power in the world. He was I think a lot of these marriages were politically motivated, receiving wives from other areas.
I can say this without knowing for certain, but I have a feeling he did not have a relationship of intercourse with all of these women. And I say that because in the book of Song of Solomon, he is in love with the Shulamite.
He has a woman he has loved and that he has this affection for, but he has these wives who are his who are his political wives. And so we think it's lust. But do we know that? I think we have to again, we're we're jumping to some conclusions, not necessarily wrong.
I'm just saying we're assuming some things where we step back into the cultural context and we say maybe that may not be actually what the reasoning is. Well, peer pressure.
OK, yeah.
And again, I'm not. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm giving you other thoughts. I'm giving another way of looking at it. Yes, sir.
As wise as he was, he made some bad decisions for sure.
Oh, yeah.
So like I said, there's. When we get into the. The history of these texts and we get into what was happening politically, socially, the different motivations, it's interesting. We tend to we tend to look at things through our lens rather than looking through the lens of history or the lens of culture, look at the values of our day.
To value the mores of our society and culture.
When we get to interpretation next week and the week after, we're going to spend a lot of time with context and talking about how do you how do you read within the parameters of the text? I want you guys to do this.
I want to I want you to add something to your to your week. If you have time, certainly not. Well, it won't affect your grade, but if you have time, I would like for you to listen to my podcast that I did yesterday.
The title of it is the text cannot mean what it doesn't say. That's the title of the podcast. The text cannot mean what it doesn't say. And that is the heart of interpretation. You have to read what it says before you can know what it means, and you know that it can't mean what it doesn't say.
So listen to it's me and another pastor. We spent we spent an hour talking about hermeneutics, and it's going back and forth about bad interpretations. So do that for me, if you would. Anybody else want to go over their workbook with me?
Anybody else?
I'm almost out of time, but I certainly don't want to leave anybody out.
I had a question, just remembering. Lemuel was supposed to be Solomon. So that would be in the very beginning of the 31st proverb.
Proverbs 31.
You're not following?
I'm not. I have to look it up.
I learned from my mother or something like that. It started out that way. He was King Lemuel. I'm not saying his name right.
And I thought that I had heard, and I don't remember where it came from, but King Lemuel was Solomon. So that would have been, his mother would have been Bathsheba. That's not possible.
No. Okay.
I'm a little confused.
I'll have to.
I'm confused too now.
I don't remember.
I don't remember that. It could be, but it just might just be something.
I'm not. I'm not.
There's a reference to Edgar and Lemuel, and then those who say that they were just pen names for Solomon.
Oh, I got you.
I got you.
I couldn't find it anywhere.
I'd have to look it up. I'm drawing a blank right now, so I'm not certain as to, but like he said, I'll have to look that up.
We don't have time to go over the passage I was going to go over. We're out of time, but just to mention what I was going to do, I wanted to show you in Matthew chapter 16, verse 13 to 20, how to draw out some observations from this.
So if you want to, if you want to add to your work this week, and I'm sure you do, I say sarcastically, if you want to add something, write down Matthew 16, 13 to 20, and look for, look for a few things.
Look for. I'm sorry. Let me go back to look for what is emphasized. What is related? What is repeated? What is alike? What is unlike? And then start looking at the grammar and the, you know, look at it from various translations.
This is one of the most important passages in the new Testament. This is what we call the good, the good confession where Peter is asked or the disciples are asked, who do the, who do, who do the people say that I am?
And they say, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. And Jesus says, but who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven and I tell you, you are Peter.
And on this rock, I will build my church. That one passage has been used by the Roman Catholic church to build the entire papacy. The entire argument for the papacy is built on Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, that when Jesus called Peter, the rock upon which he would build his church, that that was promising that there would always be a Pope, a rock upon which the church would be built.
And I, time does not allow me to express how bad, how bad of theology it is. But they find, they use this passage to argue that this is where Jesus told Peter he's going to build his church on him. And I certainly would not agree with that interpretation.
But this is what I was, this is the part we didn't get to do tonight. So if you want to do it this week, make some observations, look at the who, what, where's, why's and when's, see what you come up with as far as observation.
I'd love to hear that at the beginning of next week's class. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your, your truth. Help us to be good students of it. Help us to desire your word.
Help us to, as we read earlier, be ones who go to it like we would dig for gold. Lord, let us look, dig, dig into your word in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Doesn't Peter throw that out in the water and hurt Peter too?
Well, I would say,.
I would say,.