Sunday School Notes from 8/22/04

Introduction to the Old Testament III: Common Themes, Continued
Relationship Builders Sunday School
Sunday, August 22 2004

I. Miscellaneous Other Themes
a) Faith vs. unbelief (as opposed to Law vs. Gospel)
b) Water
i) Flood/baptism (compare 1 Peter 3:20b-21)
ii) Wells (throughout Genesis)
(1) Digging wells (or having them filled up—Gen 26:15)
(2) Meeting and marrying by wells (Isaac/Rebecca, Jacob/Rachel, Moses, Jesus [Jn 4])
iii) Red Sea (Exodus 14) and Jordan River (Joshua 3)
(1) Both waters divided
(2) Both delivered God’s people into a “land of promise”
(3) Again, note the inescapable connection to baptism—water kills the wicked and delivers the righteous
c) Garden/Promised Land/Tabernacle/Temple vs. “east”, “wilderness”, etc.
d) Kingly lordship (often associated with wearing robes) vs. slavish servitude
i) Example of Joseph (Gen 37ff)
ii) Jacob (“robe” of animal skin) and Esau (mess of porridge)
iii) Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4)
iv) Israel as a whole
(1) Was supposed to rule the nations for God’s glory (“creation mandate”)
(2) Saw great splendor during David/Solomon
(3) Ended up servile under pagan rulers (Ezra/Nehemiah)
e) Egypt
i) Many of the great among God’s people either sojourn in or arise from here
(1) Abraham (Gen 12)
(2) Joseph (Gen 37ff)
(3) Moses (Exodus)
(4) Jesus
ii) Pharoah as the prototype of God’s hardening (Romans 9)

II. Abraham = the primary prototype of the faith we as Christians are to have
a) Romans 4:1-25
i) Paul, in arguing for justification by faith alone, is setting forth the example of Abraham
ii) He begins with statement found in Gen 15:6, that Abraham “believed Yahweh, and it was counted unto him as righteousness” (Rom 4:3)
iii) He then contrasts the verbs “worketh” (or “to work”) and “believeth” (or “to believe”) (4:4-5)
(1) Working is connected with the verb “reckoned” in the KJV; Paul says the “reward” is “reckoned” to him that works, but out of a sense not of grace but of debt
(2) Believing is connected, again in the context of “reward”, with the verb “counted”; belief “on him that justifieth the ungodly” is therefore counted for righteousness
(3) Thus, the righteousness that was counted to Abraham came not because of what he did but because of what he believed
iv) Paul then shows us that this righteousness was counted to Abraham before he was given the sacrament/sign of circumcision (4:10-11)
(1) This makes him the father “of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also” (4:11)
(2) So, Abraham’s faith and belief was the paradigm for both the Jews (who claimed him) and the gentiles; Paul is trying to show that justification comes not from the law that was available only to Jews, but from faith that is accessible to all
v) Paul then goes on to describe and characterize this faith in detail; this is a pivotal point of understanding for us, because this is the faith that we are asked to have (4:18-22)
(1) Notice first in v. 18 what Abraham believed: “. . . that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken [in Gen 15:5], ‘So shall thy seed be’”.
(2) Verse 19 tells us why this was such a hard thing for Abraham to believe—he was nearly dead, “about an hundred years old”!
(3) Now for the nuts and bolts: look at vv. 20-22
(a) He “staggered not” at the promise of Yahweh through unbelief
(b) Instead, he was “strong in faith”
(c) This strength of faith gave “glory to God”; how? Abraham was “fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (v. 21)
(d) Verse 22: “And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness”. Abraham was given righteousness for not staggering at the promises of Yahweh, as unbelievable as they were (Heb 11:1)
(e) This is the kind of faith, the strength of faith and belief that was “counted for righteousness”; and this is the kind of faith and belief we, too, are asked to have
b) Galatians 3:6-9, 29
i) Paul is using the same theme here in Galatians to argue again for the avenue through which righteousness is imputed to God’s people
ii) Note in verse 7 that it takes faith, not physical connection, to be a child of Abraham; this recalls Paul’s argument from Rom 4
iii) In verse 8, Paul makes the connection between what was promised to Abraham and the gospel
(1) The gospel is what Abraham believed when he was told in Gen 12:3, “In thee shall all nations be blessed”, although Abraham himself didn’t have a picture of Jesus of Nazereth in his mind
(2) Abraham, though, in believing that Yahweh would do this, was in fact also believing in how Yahweh would do this—belief in God always encompasses belief and trust in all that he has done and will do
(3) Thus, Abraham believed in what Yahweh would do and how he would do it (thus, he believed in Christ)
iv) Again, Abraham’s faith is set before us as the example for us to follow—we, too, are Christ’s (like Abraham) and are therefore “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (v. 29)