Week Fifteen Reading Assignment:
2 Kings 9 - 1 Chronicles 7
"Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."
(The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 1563)
(The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 1563)
This Week's Teaching Video: Alphabetizing Old Testament History: L&M
Charting our Progress
Deja VuPerhaps you know the experience of driving along in an unfamiliar town or neighborhood, trying to find your way. And then, as you keep looking around you, you see something familiar. "Wait a minute," you say to yourself or your passenger. "Haven't we seen that before?"
Passing by the same thing twice is usually a bad sign when you're driving. It is often an indication that you're going in circles. And it usually means that you're lost. As we turn the page this week from 2 Kings to 1 Chronicles, we'll find ourselves driving by some familiar material. And we'll wonder: "Haven't we seen this -- read this -- before?" Well, you have. For the writer of Chronicles goes back to the beginning and re-tells much of the history that we have already read. So what's a person to do with such unsolicited repetition? First, enjoy it. The fact is that every student needs a review of the material from time to time, and the writer of Chronicles offers us that sort of oppor-tunity. Chances are we didn't absorb everything we read up until this point, and so the review will be helpful to us. Second, differentiate it. As we read, we discover that the earlier material is reviewed, but it is not verbatim. The writer of the Chronicles makes very specific choices about what to include, what to exclude, and what to emphasize. So, in addition to enjoying the review, watch to see what is different about this reporting of the history from what we read earlier. And, finally, appreciate it. Once you recognize the differences in the repeated material, you catch a glimpse into the heart and faith of the writer, as well as the needs of his generation. And that is a special kind of insight to have as we read any book of the Bible. |
The Divided Monarchy:
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Is My Name Written There
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