Christian Biblical Reflections. Completed.
PDF, DOCX, RTF formats.
Some words concerning Christian Biblical Reflections: I am most grateful to the Lord for allowing me to finish this work. The Book is some 2,500 pages of a journey with the Bible in the Christian path. CBR.1-3.v1. c570 pages. CBR.4.v2. c370 pages. CBR.5.v3.p1. c1020 pages. CBR.v3.p2. c550 pages. It has been 10 years in Labor & production, 7 years in typing, 3 years on the Prophets alone. It consists of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi, it is organized in Five Chapters in Three Volumes or broken up into Five Volumes. Due to further health issues, I delay no longer to send out this rush edition. The last 2 Selections are not properly edited; the Chronology in the Period of Daniel to Christ is not yet finished; spelling & grammar is still to be done, along with the Table of Contents, Index, etc. It does not look like I will be able to do all these things, but I’ll continue as best as I can. My original intentions is to have a 2 volume work on the entire Bible, Old & New Testaments, but as you see that did not happen. I make no apologies for my literary unconvential quirks. I never intended for the work to be for the market, but to be available in digital formats freely to all. The Summary at the end of the Book, at the end of the Minor Prophets, is intended to make the work understandable to the Bible Reader. I have not tried to produce a Commentary, there are many good ones available, better than I could do; nor a translation, which I am not qualified to attempt; but only share what my exploration of biblical hermeneutics has encountered as a Cobbler examining & repairing worn shoes of doctrines & practices. The work itself is self-explanatory as it progresses. If & when the work is properly finished, edited, & supplemented where necessary, at that time I will reissue the work again in the 3 formats of a rtf, docx, and pdf downloadable copies. Also links will soon be provided of where the work is publicly posted or archived. I pray the work might be of help to the readers, especially the Bible Students. -mjm, 2021.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgcwUEJ0moRUhq8jQFYfit2rgxiYaA?e=GcuqeD
CBR: Summary Reflections of the Old Testament: Genesis – Malachi.
Bible: Introduction.
The Bible as God’s Word, as the Revelation to mankind, as the Holy Scriptures of the Jewish People, the ancient Hebrews to the modern Israelis, is a Holy Book and Divine Writings through inspiration, and historical transmission by the people. When I come to its pages in my rebellious teen years, very illiterate and ignorant of the world I lived in, it instructed me with spiritual truth that I was amazed by and attracted to in the simplest way. It’s been 52 years that I have travelled with this Book of Life. Now in my 68th year, after reflecting on this Text of God, writing from my hospital bed, approaching death, I am anxious to complete the Christian Biblical Reflections as my last will and testament to my Family, Friends, and all the others who might by chance encounter this work. Many ask, “Why do you believe, follow, and value this Book?” My testimony is this: the Holy Bible of both the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament has been my salvation in God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let us turn to the Book.
The Book has educated and guided me in countless ways and in a manner that I did not readily perceive. It nurtured me in the English tongue and in other languages. Th reading of its pages, book by book, introduced a world of knowledge that soon captured my heart and mind. As it taught me, molded my thinking, I discovered a world of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and others that its doctrines taught. In order to understand this Book, we are led into a world of learning and literature. It causes us to learn our languages in a very clear and detailed way. We are made to attend to the letters, words, sentences, verses, chapters, and the books in a thorough manner. It makes us think and ask questions; it gives us answers in our quest. We are made to reflect on ancient things and discover new things in turn.
Outline:
Bible: Introduction.
Earliest Human Development, Evolution & Civilization in Genesis. (Gen 1-12).
World of Adam, Noah, Abram. (Gen. 1-50). Mankind & Gentiles. (2,000 Years)
World of Moses. Egyptians & Wilderness. Joshua. Gentiles. (200 Years)
World of Judges: Joshua – Samuel. Gentiles. (400 Years)
World of Monarchs & Kings: Saul – David – Solomon. Divided Monarchy. Gentiles. (600 Years)
Prophets: Isaiah to Malachi. Messiah. Gentiles. (400 Years)
World between Old & New Testaments: Messiah & Gentiles: Malachi – Messiah. (400 Years)
Genesis to Malachi and Mathew to Revelation tell a continuous historical story of a Land, People, and Book, comprising the story of Creation, Judgement, and Salvation. In Genesis, the origin of this story begins. God is declared existing as Creator of all things of Heaven and Earth and the world of man. It tells of the Creation Week, of the account of the creation of man, of the earliest civilization of mankind in the land of Shinar or Mesopotamia, of the Great Flood and the end of that world, of the new beginning of Noah and his three sons, and of the Tower of Babel in human unification and Divine intervention in the creation of languages, races, and nations. Then we have the chosen Shemites, the Hebrews, in the Call of Abram or Abraham, whose story continues in Isaac, then Jacob-Israel and the Twelve Sons of Israel. In this story of some 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham, we have God (Elohim) whose Name is Jehovah (YHWH) as the Lord of all the earth and mankind. We see Him interacting with His creatures from time to time and in various ways as in dreams and visions or appearances. All that He does conforms to the rule of life and purpose, that is, what He makes He also maintains to judge or save. He allows man, the human race, to evolve, develop, grow, multiply, invent, and spread throughout the world. He never loses sight of His Words, Commands, Demands, Promises, and Prophecies.
When we come to Genesis, the first Book of the Old Testament or Covenant, we confront doctrines and claims that are opposed to many of our knowledge, teachings, and ideas or theories. Nature as we know it in all its physical, material, and substantial forms, visible or invisible, is declared to be the Work of His Hands. It’s a simple or simplified story that we read, but it is clearly the claim of a Personal God as Creator and Maker, the Almighty or Shaddai, who involves Himself with those He chooses and Who follow Him. His Image and Likeness in man is of the utmost concern to Him, and He seeks to form and develop the divine life and nature in His people. He covenants with them, He cultivates spiritual qualities like faith, hope, and love, like joy and gratitude, like obedience, faithfulness, and sympathy, etc., etc. He does not impose His Will and Way on mankind in a capricious way, or as a Tyrant controlling man as a robot. These things and many such things are found in the Book.
God makes a Land for the People where His Words are fulfilled and unfolded, and in that People to produce the Story in the Book, which once recorded, becomes the Divine Scrolls of the Sacred Scriptures. In the Book of God’s Words man is offered a divine way to live which will lead to blessings, salvation, and eternal life. The Book will educate us in many ways which we will find surprising. We will discover that our English language is related to other languages as a class, that our Alphabet is derived from Latin, which got it from Greeks, which got it from the Phoenicians and Hebrews, which got it from earlier peoples: India’s Sanskrit and the early Sumerians. We learn from the Book the tongue expresses the thoughts of the mind. We learn that the Egyptian Hieroglyphics (Holy Writings in Pictures) were like the earliest Sumerians’, which indicate that man’s speech as a language is expressed in symbols and pictures. These symbols and pictures representing words and ideas are organized in syllables, sounds, and letters after the pattern of names and actions. The basic principle of symbolic representation of human thoughts would develop in time into more advanced grammar and syntax with fixed rules and distinction from other cognate tongues. We see this common history of languages everywhere, and in the tongues of the Canaanites with the Hebrews. In time, the written word became the means of communication among the nations and peoples in the trade and traditions. This development of language became very advanced in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and modern languages. Other nations also developed their writing from similar manners, until the modern world is filled with words and meanings far beyond the primitive origins.
In the Bible is found History, Religion, Science, Wisdom & such like; but it is not a History Book, Science Book, Medicine Book, Law Book, Philosophy Book, or the like; it records those things more or less, as part of the Divine Story of God’s participation in humanity. God’s interest is with His creative interest & design, His Will & Purpose. The Plan of God is a creative history, or story, a generational account of human life from its genesis to its completion. From Adam to Noah we find an ancient world, consisting of the simplest things of human life. We are given very little details, only seeds that will develop, evolve, & spread as civilization. It was a primitive world where God, as the Lord God, Jehovah, responds to man as he grows, moves & lives. We are not to think that God ordered the generations as a unrelated Participant, but seeks man’s response to Himself as Face to Face. Some say that “the chicken comes before the egg?” But in the Bible we have the Eternal Infinite Transcendent God creating all things, including the chicken & man from His own Being & Substance, His Spiritual Nature. This is the genesis, germ, grain, seed, kernel, the point of the creation of the universe & all in it, in the heavens or earth. What is determined is being, existence & life. The creative egg must produce or become the chicken, hence the chicken lays the eggs, the eggs become many chicken to this date. This is so with man. Adam was not formed out of nothing, but in Genesis he is created in God’s Word & Will. God’s Word is the Seed of Life by which he formed, molded, built man. Adam out of earth becomes a living soul, a life that lives, by the spirit, or divine breath. Always remember, “From nothing comes nothing,” zero is nothing by itself; it is no number. But God is One, & all must come from Him as a seed. It is the divine generation that Genesis of the Bible records & relates the earliest
Earliest Human Development, Evolution & Civilization in Genesis. (Gen 1-12). Scripture teaches me of God as Creator, a Personal God Who speaks, sees, moves, and exists in time & space. He does things in order & design, according to His Plan & Will or Desire. He is the Maker of all things: of the universe, nature, the world, life, reality, existence, being, substance, time, space, & whatever can be named of His Creation & Production. This is the Biblical Theology, Philosophy, Religion, Science, & Doctrine. It teaches me in simplicity & uniquely of truth, wisdom, & life. The world exists, nature is, man is, & Scripture testifies that this creation of things & beings is of God the Creator. Further it teaches you of created things that live, move, grow, reproduce, and such like. It teaches of man, humans, as the highest form of life on earth, above the vegetation, above the fishes of the sea & all aquatic life, above the birds of the air & all Aves creatures on land & in the air, above all animal life, above the mammals of the earth. Man is presented to us as the replica of the Divine, divine reproduction & representation, as superior to all other creatures, as the lord of the earth. Man as chief of creatures has meaning different than animals, has purpose, has place, responsibility, & accountability. Man, both male & female, is the Image & Likeness of God, God-like, divine. He is not God or Deity or the Divine One. Man’s formation is given, his 1st home & relations to animals, his purpose & role as a creature, as an earthling of nature in the world. He is the work of the Lord God, Jehovah, or Lord, & is placed in a Garden in Eden in lower Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf. His original charge was very simple; but he failed, the failure or fall was judged & they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Their fall was the snare of a serpent, later called Satan & Devil, as man’s enemy. Man by the Woman would continue in the earth as a seed, the Seed of Woman, at war with the serpent’s seed. Man in Adam’s fall, is punished, exiled, sentenced to labor till death; hard labor & toil, struggle, & all that comes with survival. Man, as Male, is head, the woman, as Female, is subject to the husband as the male; she suffers giving life or birth; woman as female, as wife, submits to husband’s headship; she is a mother of life in her suffering as her punishment & her reward. Their nakedness & innocence is replaced with clothes & shame, guilt, suffering, & death.
Adam’s children multiplied near Eden, near the Garden of Eden, within 100 miles North & South near the Great Rivers of Mesopotamia. The doctrines & the truth of what we have in chapters 1-3, must be enlarged & grow towards fulfillment in chapters 1-6, the old & earliest world. The commands of God, His worship, knowledge, wisdom, life & living, marriage, family, work or duty, & 100s of other doctrines of the 1st world. The generations from Adam to Noah consisting of some 1500 years of the ancient calendar of the pre-flood world, which is unknown to us, leading up to Moses. We see the continuation of Adam’s Fall, the Sin, & sin-nature, in his seed or progeny in the cosmic & human conflict of good & evil. Sins multiplied in countless forms, & multiplied in men or mankind, such as: hate, murder, lies, enmity, violence, rape, sexual promiscuity & perversions, excess, self-will, & countless other forms of man’s sinfulness. We must keep in mind that the Words of God must continue in man’s exile, in human development, & continues to this very day. God’s creation must continue, His judgment must be executed, & His salvation must operate & advance in adaptation or response to mankind. Man’s unique abilities begin to appear in his works, inventions, tools, instruments, food, clothing, trades, music, & much more. His knowledge of himself and His world, of nature & life, compounded according to his numbers. In time, men & women would compete with & against each other; they would fight & war; they would make & defend claims, revenge, enslave, etc. God’s judgment on the old world was a Great Flood that destroyed the Old World, sparing only a select few. But not only the evil is revealed but the good also, like: grace of God, His glory, wisdom, kindness, mercy, judgment, creating, preserving, saving, destroying, dividing, etc. Man also has virtues, blessings, goodness, rule, care, wisdom, knowledge, choice, will, feelings, discrimination, imagination, thinking, joy, protection, guardian-ship, faith, obedience, etc. Thus far for Adam’s Headship.
After the Great Flood of Noah & Noah’s three sons, we have the Federal Headship added in Noah with a New Covenant, a Testament & Will. Noah becomes the Patriarch of a New World, the Gentiles of the earth. Noah’s three sons (Shem, Ham, Japhet) become the Father of peoples, tongues, nations of all mankind in the world. Noah’s additional children, born after the Great Flood, also multiplied the people of the earth near & far. Also following the 2 Great Rivers, east & west; other generations would later follow other rivers & water places flowing & steaming in other directions. The story is told of 2 nations & peoples by the time of Abraham the Shemite “the River Crosser”. With the Age of Adam, Noah, & his 3 sons, came the Age of Gentiles. Mankind evolved in various ways overcoming struggles, adaptations, and mutations (Survival of the Fittest). The roots of unification quickly turned into an unhealthy fear, arrogance, and disbelief of humanity’s goodness. Nimrod is introduced of the Hametic roots as well as the last Usurper of Divine Power through War and Subjugation of the Mesopotamian people. The Sumerian Hamites became the 1st civilization developing thousands of diverse habits of living, encompassing both Good and Evil.
From these roots all other generations of mankind learned, copied, traded, followed, & added additional practices & innovations of their own. They created their own customs, traditions, inventions, adding knowledge, wisdom, & government. Evolving from primitive wars and conflicts, tools, weapons, & techniques were perfected to subdue & overpower their enemies. During this age slavery evolved, as well as racism, prejudice of other nationalities, jealousy, pride & unspeakable evils. Conversely, mankind with his depraved nature also developed the good,& better ways & things. Mankind of all the nations & tongues, family units & tribes in every country & land with national pride. The Sumerian way, the Accadian way; others, likewise from far east to west, and slowly learning how to communicate with each other through Pictographs, Hieroglyphics, Cuneiforms developing the Alphabet including every tongue everywhere. Through this constant intermarriage and intermingling of customs, languages, trading of commerce, slaves, captives of war, etc… laid the foundation for our modern world & civilizations. The major doctrines of human civilization was being birthed into education, customs, traditions, culture, etc… This gave way to the framework of theology, philosophy, religion, wisdom, governments, Kingships, Lordships, family, industry, trade, craftsmanship, schools, learning, writing, etc…
These five centuries between the Great Flood & the call of Abraham, shows God’s interest in the Gentiles, of which the Noahic Covenant was formed, according to the prophecy of the Father & Patriarch Noah, determined each unique place in the dispensation & the occupation of land. Shem was prophetically chosen, blessed and favored by God. Shem’s progeny (his seed) were to preserve the knowledge of the Biblical God & the origins of all things & all mankind. The divine truth, preserved in part, was often distorted, forgotten, altered, & displaced in various forms of idolatry & lies. Mankind fell into darkness & depravity: Wars waged, the Semites conquered the Hamites, and after 1,000 years Accadians, Babylonians, & Assyrians ruled over other the nations & peoples of other tongues. The skill of writing became necessary in order to exchange information & interact with each other. The 100s of years the Gentiles were in power from the Tower of Babel to Abram (400) years, & from Abram to Moses, some (400) years; which lead us lead to Assyria & Egypt at odds in competition & wars in the Middle East, foremost in Canaan & Arabia. Abram the Hebrew of Padan-Aram or Chaldea-Aramea, was called and led by Divine Words to become Abraham the Believer, Friend of God, Prophet & Patriarch of a new race of followers of the One True Living God. Abraham would witness of God in a world of Gentiles & testify of Divine Truth to mankind. His Testimony of God’s Covenant with man was of Faith & Obedience according to the Truth & Wisdom from Above. His purpose was to fulfill his dispensational call & prophetic responsibility & ministry, to become Father of many Nations, Spiritual Nations & of the Hebrews. In Isaac & Jacob, this was transferred & ratified by Word and Blood. In Jacob, who became Israel, who became the Patriarch of 12 Tribes of Israel, to whom the dispensational Covenant of God to Abraham was transferred to him as Jacob-Israel Israel still is not in possession of the Promised Land, nor has become a Nation from whom many Nations. He becomes a people in Aram, married to Arameans Semites & Hebrews. Israel with his 12 sons & 12 tribes of Israel return to Canaan, & still not in possession of the any part of the Land, except for a burial ground for his wives, Rachael and Leah. Meanwhile his other slave wives. In Egypt he becomes a great numerous people awaiting deliverance.
World of Moses. Egyptians & Wilderness. Joshua. Gentiles. (200 Years)
From the birth of Moses to the death of Joshua was some 200 years. During those 2 centuries the Hebrews multiplied as the house of Israel, they suffered as foreigners & slaves; were delivered by the LORD through Moses, Aaron & 10 plagues of judgment on Egypt, crossed the Red Sea (Yam Sof), lived & wondered in the wilderness, or the Arabian Desert. In the wilderness at Mount Sinai, or Horeb. God delivered to Moses 10 Words or Commandments of His Law or Torah as the Covenant between God and Israel as a Nation. In Adam His dispensational covenant was in His commandments, to Adam with Eve, was obedience to eternal life; a covenant which continued in man thence forward as a promise to Noah to Abraham, to Israel to David & to Messiah, Christ, in Whom it was a gift of God by the Holy Spirit, & in Christ offered to all men, Jews & Gentiles, continuing till Christ returns. Though the dispensations change, the covenants are not deleted but another placed above & beyond it, with better promises & properties, conditions, feature, etc. The world had become lawless, disorderly, vile, depraved & in endless such things, & only altered in the statistics of more in number, which invented more devices of a moral condition that was contagious, that made leprosy looked clean. God would fulfill His Promises, His Work would meet the need of this sickness & disease.
The Law, 10 Words, would be the moral medicine to prescribe for the diagnosis. We read the 10 Commandments of God’s Law, His words, written on Tablets of stones by the Finger of God, then rewritten by Moses on New Tablets. In the 10 Plagues of Egypt’s judgment, we read of the 1st & 10th as related & corresponding. As with the human hands in anatomy, our body has a left & a right, with 5 fingers on each, just like 2 tablets. The 1st tablet started with the great commandment in the Law on Sinai, as a thumb the great finger; the 2nd tablet ended with the great commandment of the voice of God adding no more. 2 hands with 5 fingers, each with a thumb as the first & the Last when the hands are held out with palms visible. In between are 8 fingers in pairs matching, each different set of 2. These hands & fingers interact with each other to do anything & everything. When the palms are turned down & become hidden, then they connect at the thumbs, while the fingers moved opposite each other.
These things are prophetic symbolism of a unique kind in the 10 Commandments, when explored & understood, they explain the Law, the Torah. In analogy, we see in the divine Word in 10 Books are to be understood the essential books to our picture of the Bible. Here are the 10 Books you must compare against your list: on the left is the Old Testament consisting of Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah & Daniel; on the right is the New Testament consisting of the Gospel of John, Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews & Revelation (Apocalypse). In Genesis all is hidden as seeds; in the Apocalypse all is matured as to what they became. I have fully substantiated the 5 Old Testament books in Christian Biblical Reflections of the Old Testament of the Bible. So too, Exodus, is not one of the five O.T. essential Books, but supports Genesis & Deuteronomy (the 2nd Law). Deuteronomy as the 2nd Law replacing the 1st Law is the key book of the Torah, all the essentials of Exodus, Leviticus & Numbers are in Deuteronomy, the Words of Moses, the lawgiver, prophet & deliverer of Israel. All the rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, offerings, anointings, the Aaron & Leviticus priesthood all displace by the Melchizedek priesthood symbolized in Genesis, revealed in Psalms, prophesized in in the prophets form Israel to Malachai. Israel as a Nation was expected to witness to the Gentiles of God & His kingdom. The temple hid the tabernacle; prophets prophesied of Messiah would fulfill & displace the law, priesthood & monarchy, the poetic Books of Job, David, Psalms, Proverbs, Solomon’s Song, are incorporated in the spiritual truth of the New Testament as useful to this new dispensation.
Egypt has left remains of the great empire of Kings & Pharaohs who ruled for some 2500 years, more or less in various degrees of power & at times by foreigners. The Egyptian world is well documented in thousands of tests & artifacts, monuments, & testimonies of other nations. In Moses’ day it had a long rich culture, advanced far beyond the days of Joseph the son of Jacob, who like Moses, became a prince of Egypt. Polytheism, idolatry, was grotesquely weird & insane. Its holy language & script was means of perpetuating this falsification of God & His truth. It was the Emperial Power, along with a few other powers to the north, south, east, and west. It was the envy of the world, & jealousy of the kingdoms of the north-west, & of the north-east. It became the teacher of many nations, peoples, & countries. Even in our age its glory is golden & strange. Moses, the Hebrew, was raised in all this, just as was Joseph Jacob’s son in his teen years, Moses treated as an Egyptian, raised in royalty, & power as a prince. Then he fled Egypt from Pharaoh, & settled among the ancient Arabs, the Midianites, in the land that covered what the Arabs now call “the Hegira’, where the sacred pilgrimage journey from Medina to Mecca in Saudi Arabia covers, & where many returns from Mecca to Medina to the sacred mosque of Mohammed the Prophet of the Quran of Allah. In Midia (“northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea”) he married Jethro’s, the Midian priests, daughter & worked as a shepherd of Jethro’s flock.
Thus, Moses the Hebrew, from birth, nursed by his mother an Israelite slave, from early childhood learned the way of Egypt till he was a grown man; then from manhood to senior years lived as a Midianite among the ancient Arabs, who were descendants of Abraham the Semitic Hebrew. In this world & age Moses was called of God to deliver Israel from Egyptian slavery, to become God’s people & servants. In this, God created a new dispensation with Moses, as lawgiver, & the Torah’s foundation of the new nation. The five Books of Moses speak of all these things, where God by Moses & Aaron established a national people of a divine theocracy to further his purpose with man. But this dispensation, as a Mosaic system, was doomed to fail, because of the natural man’s reluctance to faith & obedience to God. Though the were progeny seed of Abraham the Friend of God, they followed not Abraham as a nation from time to time. But God had his witness & testimony in the world among the nations in his own people.
Though the Mosaic system failed, the Books of Moses, the Torah, would not fail, but continue to this hour. The Writings of Moses would lead to the Judges from Joshua to Samuel, thence the Monarchy from David to Messiah, Who according to Moses’ Law & Prophecy, foretold us of the Messiah-Prophet, Who would make the Law glorious in its fulfillment, & add a new dispensation, the new Testament & Covenant, established better things, promises, & purposes. In the Book He would form a Nation by the Book, beginning with Joshua or Jesus,then all the 20 Judges of Israel,the Monarchy of the 20 Kings of Judah, and the 20 Kings of Israel, with the 20 Prophets of the Divided Monarchy, that is, the 2 Kingdoms. The Gentiles would have a Sign & Wonder, Testimony and Example of the Divine Word, fulfilling the transformation of the natural man to the spiritual man. Then the Word Incarnate would appear, and with him a New Testament,to complete the Bible, the Book of God, the Word of God. This new dispensation would continue with the Jews or Hebrew or Israelites till the Second Advent of Christ-Messiah. The Hebrew Bible becomes the Third of the themes of God with His creation. He needs and wants a Land, a People, a Book; in order to create the people as the Lord’s so He may have a Home to Dwell in and with them as God. The Gentiles would enter relations with God by their treatment to Israel; Israel would be disciplined by God by using the Gentiles to punish Israel for disobedience to the Law of Moses, and their disregard for God, their unfaithfulness, unbelief, ingratitude and idolatry, till the Times of the Gentiles are come to full end. The Church of the New Testament is also subject to the power of the Gentiles till the End. Both Jews and Christians are to be a spiritual people subject to a higher power, living in a spiritual Kingdom with spiritual Laws. The Arabs too, in the Quran, where it substantiates the Bible, confirms scripture, supports Truth and the Doctrines of the Word of God, are blessed with the true believers as children of Abraham the Believer.
World of Judges: Joshua – Samuel. Gentiles. (400 Years)
World of Judges, from Joshua to Samuel, some 400 years plus, was the period between Joshua to Samuel. The Book of the Law of Moses was to be read, studied, obeyed and fulfilled by the children of Israel of the 12 sons of Jacob, in covenant with the Lord their God. The Judges were not Kings but deliverers of Israel from the local Gentile powers in and around Canaan or Palestine. Joshua’s conquest of Canaan by eradicating or expelling the 7 Gentile nations of Canaan was incomplete at the time of his death. Israel was to complete the conquest and possess the land as the land of Israel, by doing so making Canaan or Palestine to be Israel. But they constantly failed in disobedience to God and the neglect of the Law of Moses, the Word of God, the Bible, the Book, that is Scripture. Instead Israel intermarried with the forbidden Gentiles of Canaan, & practiced the idolatries of the Gentiles; making the God of Israel like to one of the dumb vain idols, so-called gods? But often repentant in their affliction by the Gentiles, sought the Lord their God with tears, & He in mercy & compassion, remembering His promise to the Patriarchs, would deliver them repeatedly. This period of the Judges progressed increasingly worse from generation after generation; and they were delivered by Judges spectacular ways. Barack & Deborah, Gideon, Jepthah, Samson, & at last Samuel. Samuel was a Priest, Prophet or Seer, & Judge, who would anoint their first two kings, Saul and David, in the creating the Monarchy, subjugating the Theocracy of the Mosaic system to human Kingship and Lordship, thus rejecting God, the Lord, as their true King. The Gentiles continued to spread throughout the earth entering ever new countries and lands. Mankind continued to alienate themselves from the truth of God, the way of God and the knowledge of God. The Gentile powers and rule of governments increasingly became imperial, where a King became a Great King or King of Kings, as we read in Genesis, in the days of Abraham, against the Mesopotamian Great King Chedorlaomer of Elam, invading the southern nations and Canaan. By the time we reach Samuel the Land of Israel was dominated by the Lords & Kings of the Philistines or the ancient Palestanians, the Ishmaelites, Medianites, Moabites, Ammorites, desert Arabs and others; all were multiplying in numbers and power. Israel would often ally themselves with these nations, often fight with them, & intermarry with them, & fornicated with them in idolatry. Samson & Samuel shows how degraded the people had become not trusting in the Lord to defend and protect them, to bless and keep them. The Law of Moses was almost vanquished and nullified, its feasts rarely kept, & at Shiloh they looked for a King like those of the Gentiles. They demanded old Samuel to find and anoint for them a King to put their hope and trust in, to fight their battles, & to rule over them as a Lord over slaves. Samuel was reluctant to do so, but the Lord God granted their wish and gave to them Saul of Benjamin, in whom they delighted to their own harm and loss. King Saul proved to be useless against the Lords of the Philistines; he became cowardly & yielded to the Peoples’ lust; he was rejected by the Lord, & slowly became insane.
World of Monarchs & Kings: Saul – David – Solomon. Divided Monarchy. Gentiles. (600 Years)
World of the Monarch & Kings of Israel and Judah; Saul, David, Solomon and their 2 kingdoms with their 20 Kings each. King Saul was helpless against the Philistine who defied the Lord God of Israel openly, challenging the army of Saul to battle, and even to offer one man to one man contest to decide the battle.The hero champion of the Philistines was the giant named Goliath, which terrified the warriors of Israel and Saul. Then came David, a shepherd boy, to bring food to his brothers in the battle, including his uncle Joab, a Captain in King Saul’s army. David defied the giant for defying God and Israel. He accepted the challenge from the giant Goliath; and with his slingshot and five smooth stones in his hand, met the giant Goliath in the battle field. With one fatal shot, the giant fell dead on the ground and David cut off his head with Goliath’s own sword, thus defeating the Philistines, who fled from the battlefield. This lad, David the shepherd boy, was the one Samuel had secretly anointed at the Word of the Lord. The transfer of the Throne & the Kingdom of the Monarchy was now of utmost necessity, but the insane King Saul would resist it in every way. When he knew the people rejoiced in David who slew 10,000 and Saul merely his 1,000, His insanity became openly displayed to kill David. Samuel was preparing to die; so, set in order the matter of the Kingdom to be transferred to David by the choice of God. Samuel died. Soon after, King Saul and his son Jonathan died in battle while fighting against the Philistines, thus David became King over Israel & Judah.
The Philistines occupied the coastal borderland plains in South Canaan going towards Egypt. The Northern Coastland was possessed by the Phoenicians, above the Sea of Galilee, in upper Galilee. These nations were never dispossessed from the times of Joshua to David, their great cities still flourished, & their maritime commerce never ceased. They traded & interacted with many other Gentiles in the spread & dissemination of language, culture, & goods. The way of Gentiles could be seen everywhere in Israel. The idols of the Gentiles also were established in Israel north, south, east, and west. The world of the Gentile Nations continued to lead humanity to ever greater and newer civilizations, and Israel moved in it’s current direction. King David, with his mighty men and great army, led by his generals or chief captains, and marshalled by his uncle Joab, fought the Philistines & other Canaanites & conquered many local nearby countries, thus making them subservient to Israel. King David established the Kingdom, then he set his heart on the House of God: It’s construction, the Priesthood, the worship in rituals, ceremonies, & musical celebrations in conformity to the Law of Moses that had been given by the Lord. King David composed many Psalms and songs which became part of the book of Psalms of David, with contributions by many others from Solomon to Hezekiah, all the way to Josiah. He built a great Palace for the Monarch, like the great Houses of the Gentile Kings. He wanted to build a great Temple for the God of Israel, far exceeding all the Temples of the Gentiles, the greatest and magnificent House of Jehovah God, the God of Israel. He allied himself with the Gentiles to collect all the supplies and material for the Great House. However, the Lord would not permit him to construct the Temple of God because the blood of his hands. The Lord chose his son Solomon to build the House of God and to establish all things related to the House and it’s worship, Priesthood, & much more. So the Monarch of Israel reached its golden glory in the days of King Solomon, after the death of King David. King Solomon married the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt & built a great House in Judea outside Jerusalem, which took 20 years to build, & before he moved hi wife, & wives into it. He married 100s of daughters of the Kings & Lords of the Gentiles all around himself. These were his concubines and all this was to maintain peace and acquire help and wealth. Even so, peace was short lived.
King Solomon had taxed the people heavily, burdened with labor greatly, in order to build the Temple and pay the Gentiles for their help. The 10 Tribes of Israel which resorted to the House of Saul, led by Jeroboam I in the rebellion & division of the Kingdom of the Kingdom in the South, as the Capitol, with the Priesthood of Levites. The Northern Kingdom of Israel of 10 Tribes made Samaria the Capitol & Jeroboam 1 its King. All this was allowed by the Lord through the mouth of the prophet Ahijah. But God intended to restore and reunite the kingdom to the House of David, but King Jeroboam resisted the will of God, to keep the Kingdom for himself. The 2 Kingdoms continued till their captivity, & exile by the Gentile powers; the north conquered by the Assyrian, in the days of its 20th King. Judah and Jerusalem continued longer, but were conquered by neo-Babylonia in the days of its 20th & last King, King Hoshea. This period from Jeroboam I to their captivity was above 250 years, & none of the Kings of Samaria were good. The Southern Kingdom of Jerusalem & Judah continued over 100 years (total sum of of less than 350 years) till there conquest, destruction, captivity, exile, deportation, and dispersion among the Gentiles. The Kings of Jerusalem had 10 bad Kings & 10 good Kings, & of the good kings the greatest were Hezekiah & Josiah. We must leave the age of the Monarchy of Israel & turn our focus to the Prophets.
Prophets: Isaiah to Malachi. Messiah. Gentiles. (400 Years)
Prophets of the Divided Monarchy & their Captivity: Elijah to Isaiah to Malachi: (400 Years). Those who God has revealed Himself, & spoken to & sent to speak on His behalf are prophets. We are concerned with the line and School of Prophets from Samuel to Messiah. The prophets of the Monarchy were many; the Prophets of the Divided Monarchy into 2 Kingdoms were 20. The 20 Prophets were the Monarchal Prophets ministering during the days & the years of the Kings. Elijah is the first introduced to us in the reign of King Ahab & his wife Jezebel, in the Northern Kingdom of Samaria of the 10 Tribes of Israel. The idolatry had become so prevalent that God needed to intervene. Jezebel had 400 false prophets to her shame. The spectacular and miraculous ministry of Elijah & Elisha were recorded to develop the Scriptures in its prophetical testimony of the Word of God. In the Prophetical Books of Isaiah to Malachi, God revealed His dispensational relationship with His people by the federal headship of their Kings & Rulers. The Kings were God’s representatives to the Nation, & as such were responsible to God for the state of the Nation before Him. The continual need to send them Prophets, like He sent Judges in the period of the Judges, raising up deliverers & Judges, to recall them to the Law of Moses, to Himself as their God, to obedience unto righteousness & holiness, to faithfulness & usefulness, only confirmed the sinful nature of man. How is He to save the world if his chosen people were as bad as the Gentiles who knew Him not? & how could He treat the Gentiles with judgement & punishment if Israel was as guilty, if not more guilty than the Gentiles, because they had the Divine Word in the Law of Moses?
The Lord must keep His Word & His Promise, Israel must be chastised by the hands of the Gentiles, till he send the salvation and blessing promised since the days of King David & King Solomon. The Prophetic Spirit testifies of Messiah, Who from the beginning pf creation was the Model of our creation in God’s glory; Who was promised as the Seed of Woman to deal with the enmity between Satan & sin, & by the conflict of this enmity He would prevail in regaining what was lost, that is innocence, life, eternal life, and God’s presence. The law of Moses, that is the Mosaic system, was given to guide Israel till Messiah, Who would complete the work the Law in the transformation of man’s inner man, to make the natural into a spiritual man. In the internal guidance of the Law, God would use Israel as light & testimony & example to the Gentiles, that He might reclaim man &thus save the world. The Prophets who would review Israel’s behavior & state, would preview a coming King & Lord & Messiah, by this word the law of life & salvation. This distinct purpose was symbolically by signs & wonders, by poetry & parables, & by graphic examples in the life & ministry by the Prophets. Elijah & Elisha were the 1st to exhibit this typology; after them other prophets would be used in a lesser fashion. The 4 Major Prophets of Isaiah, Jeramiah, Ezekiel, & Daniel showed a fuller prophetic feature of this. Then all the 12 Minor Prophets from Hosea to Malachi completed the work in specific or targeted systems and conditions, supporting the witness of the Major Prophets. The emphasis & focus of the Major & Minor Prophets always brought judgement on Israel for their failure, though always giving hope to a Remnant. The Gentile powers in afflicting & destroying Israel, were by that, accountable to the Lord God for their actions, & God would deal with them accordingly. Israel as a people, nation, congregation, son, wife, and other such relations to God, as man, that is Adam, the 1st man, to prepare for the 2nd & Last Man, the Lord from heaven. So, the Prophetic Word concerning Messiah & His Kingdom & 100s of or related things, was given of the future for both Israel & Jews & all Gentiles. Malachi gives the promise of the coming Messiah.
World between Old & New Testaments: Messiah & Gentiles. Malachi – Messiah. (400 Years)
After Malachi, the last of the Prophets, came the period prophesied by Daniel, concerning the 4 Great Monarchies of the Gentiles: Neo-Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, & Romans. The Jews would be ruled by these Gentile Powers, dispersed & disintegrated as a People, no longer a Nation. The Mosaic system of the Law barely survived, the Hebrew language all but vanished. The Greeks would influence the Jews until they were Hellenist Jews, not Hebrews. They translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek (called the LXX, Septuagint, or 70). Various Apocryphal Books came to be popular, as seen in the Latin Vulgate of the Roman Catholics & in most of the older versions up to the Protestant Reformation. These Apocryphal Books were modeled after the Bible Books in Poetry, History, & Wisdom literature. In them memory of the Hebrew Bible was kept alive, Mosaic system kept alive in parts and pieces. The Jewish Wars with Greeks is seen in the Books of the Maccabees. Longing for Messiah increased in many ways. The Samaritan Version was preserved the ancient Hebrew as the Sacred Scroll. Greek Philosophy was absorbed into Jewish mysticism, producing a Jewish Philosophy seen in various parts of the Apocrypha, & ultimately seen in the Philo of Alexandria. In Josephus, all these things may be learned, & all the details relevant to them. The Maccabean Dynasty in seeking to restore Judaism, resisted the Greeks & were destroyed. The Romans conquered the Greeks and ruled the Jews.
Among the Jews who long for a restored Judaism of the Torah, the Essenes became the most prominent & influential. They are now known by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran. Their Jewish Asceticism & Mysticism were a rejection of Jerusalem’s Judaism as corrupt. Their community was male celibates in white linen gowns. In contrast to another form of Judaism before the New Testament developed into the Sadducees of the Temple, & the Pharisees of the Law. Other sects were like the Zealots wanting to overthrow the Romans. These & other forms of the Jews under the Great Gentile Powers prepared the way for the Messiah & His kingdom. The Messianic longing becomes great as they saw in the Book of Daniel & all the Prophets.
Here ends the Summary of Christian Biblical Reflections of the Old Testament Bible. -mjm, 2021. (This Summary was typed from the hand-written original by all my kids, a grandson. Thanks.)
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