WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:01.120 Okay, we're in a series right now. 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:02.399 We're calling cover to cover. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:03.439 It's uh 15 weeks. 00:00:03.520 --> 00:00:04.719 We started last week. 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:10.560 And these first few weeks, I'm actually gonna get into the beginning of the Bible today, the first cover of the Bible. 00:00:10.640 --> 00:00:20.079 Um, but what I'm trying to do throughout this time is uh, you know, share with you some ways of interpreting the Bible and learning how to read the Bible better. 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:31.519 Um, and so we're gonna take a lot of these things that uh will it'll have kind of an educational component that will hopefully be able to be applied when you're reading the Bible at home by yourself. 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:36.640 You know, maybe you're listening to someone teach the Bible and you're going, should I be taking what they said? 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.000 Is that correct? 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:43.920 Um you you won't sort of be at the mercy of everybody else who'll be able to actually take these tools and use them for yourselves. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.960 And we live in a day now where you have more tools for for this process than you've ever had. 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:50.799 It's a great time to be alive. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:56.000 Um this week, what I want to do is I want to look at the Bible uh as literature. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:00.079 We're gonna look at the Bible as literature, as history, and theology. 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:06.400 Um, I I got a letter a few weeks ago from uh a guy I've known most of my life. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:14.879 It was he's actually my dad's friend, so he kind of became my friend over time, but he was my dad's friend, he's uh uh older than I am, and he's a guy I've known. 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:20.719 I don't know him like super well, but I've known him for a long time, and I always had great affection for this guy. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:30.719 And he sends me a letter in the mail, and so I get the letter and I'm reading it, and I'm trying to take what I know about him, what I know about his life. 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:37.680 Uh my dad's given me little updates about him over the years, and so I know a little bit about his journey and kind of where he's at. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.319 So I have a little bit of context, and then I have the letter and I have the things that he wrote down. 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:45.840 And as I was reading it, I just have the words on the page. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:52.400 I'm trying to, I'm going, I think, okay, that totally, I totally get what he meant there, but I wonder what was behind that. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:53.599 I wonder what he meant there. 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:58.400 And I start kind of drawing conclusions or making assumptions about what I think that he meant. 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:08.719 And I decided as I was sitting there trying to decide what action I was going to take from this letter, if I was going to take any at all, I decided to pick up the phone and call the man. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:11.520 So I call him and I say, hey, thank you for the letter. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:14.479 We have a conversation, I ask some clarifying questions. 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:16.800 Hey, tell me more about this, tell me more about that. 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:22.400 And it turns out some of the interpretations I had from his letter, the assumptions that I made were dead wrong. 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:23.680 I actually was wrong about it. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:25.199 I was missing on something. 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:42.000 I might have taken the wrong action related to it had I not called him, asked a few questions, and ultimately learned more that caused me to be able to absorb the letter in the way that he intended it, and then take even better action than I would have taken had I never called him up. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:57.520 I would say this: one of the things I, one of the reasons I did that is because I care about this guy, and it's a way of showing honor to someone to dig deeper beyond just their words into what was their intent. 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:04.960 And what I would tell you is to take a critical view of the Bible, not in a nasty critical way, like don't be critical. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:13.199 No, I'm talking like to go in and ask the right questions to dig deeper is the ultimate honor of the Word of God. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:34.800 And the more that we learn these literary tools, we don't just read something on the surface, jump to a theological conclusion, but we look at these literary elements, and it at times it may take some education, it might at times be a bit laborious, but if you'll do it, you'll honor the text the most you possibly can to go, what was the intent of this author? 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:38.800 And then now what is the appropriate action that I take from it? 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:40.879 And that's what we're trying to learn how to do. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:44.879 In a sense, it might feel like we're demystifying the Bible. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:46.159 That's not what we're doing. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:49.439 In a sense, what we're doing is we're, I think we're honoring it. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:04:06.080 It's we're not taking the awe away from the Bible, we're not taking our reverence away from the Bible, but when we look at it as literature and history, we are honoring, okay, this inspired word and what was the intent of the original author, just like uh I did with the letter from my friend. 00:04:06.159 --> 00:04:10.159 And so what I want to do is continue to try to equip you uh to be able to do that. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:14.000 I want to give you a couple of vocabulary words uh as we start off. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:25.759 These are things that you know may come up in the future, but these are just good things for you to have as you think about interpreting the Bible as literature and history before you create your theology. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.480 Um the first is the word exegesis. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:31.040 All right, exegesis, go ahead and bring up that vocabulary word. 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:36.800 It means it is the critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a scripture. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.079 So when you think about exegesis, think of it simply like this. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:47.839 This is a primarily historic, this is historical in nature, and what you're trying to do is discover the original intent. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:53.199 We're gonna look today in Genesis 1, attributed to Moses. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:05:00.800 We're talking 3,500 years ago, and he's writing it to a specific group of people at a specific moment in time. 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:14.800 Exegesis would be to do our historical contextual work to understand and close the historical distance between us and 3,500 years ago so that we can know what they would have heard when they read it. 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:16.000 That's exegesis. 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:17.839 The second is hermeneutics. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:24.560 Hermeneutics is a branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary text. 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:36.720 So now what that means is once we've done exegesis and we know what they heard then, we know hermeneutics is the study of interpretation, which is what do we do now? 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:47.680 So, how do I take what was heard and said then, and then how does that now interpret into our context as in terms of how we interpret it and what we do with it here and now? 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:48.639 Does that make sense? 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:52.720 So those two terms, okay, you're gonna want to be familiar with. 00:05:52.879 --> 00:06:04.639 This is why when you think about the Bible in its literary form, you want to be careful that you don't fall into mindsets that might sound good on the surface but might not actually be as good as they sound. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:09.759 For example, you hear people will say, I just take the Bible literally. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:13.040 You don't need to study it, just read it and do what it says. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:15.839 You know, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:17.199 You read it, do it. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:26.399 And in a sense, that sounds good, and I would hope that the spirit of that statement would be, hey, let's not overcomplicate and think our way out of obedience. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:34.879 Okay, I hope that's the spirit of that, but that really could be a mistake because the Bible is full of literary artistry. 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:46.399 And so you have a lot of things like figures of speech, you have different ways that we would look at things in our modern Western context versus an ancient Near Eastern document. 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:49.279 You're you're going to miss things if you take that approach. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.120 Let me give you an example. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.879 If you ask me, Greg, are you ready? 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:59.120 And I say, I was born ready. 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:01.519 I was born ready, right? 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:02.959 That's a figure of speech. 00:07:03.199 --> 00:07:09.759 A thousand years, 3,500 years from now, they're studying what I said and they're going, you know, Greg Ford made this statement. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:11.519 We take him literally, all right? 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:13.759 And he said he was born ready. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:14.319 Okay? 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:15.839 And what am I saying? 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:25.279 Am I literally when I say I was born ready, am I literally saying, hey, from the moment I emerged from the birth canal and came out as an infant, I was prepared for everything I needed. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:36.560 If you take it literally, you're like, you know, this was a statement that Greg was making that, you know, when he, you know, most you know, infants are completely helpless and they don't know anything and they have to go through a process of development, but not Greg Ford. 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:40.720 Greg Ford came out, and when he came out, he was born ready. 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:42.079 No, that's not what I'm saying. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:43.040 It's a figure of speech. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:47.360 What I'm saying is, look, I am passionate about how ready I am. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:48.480 I am excited. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:50.639 Whatever we're into, I'm totally into it. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:52.800 I can't be more ready than I am right now. 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:55.279 That's the statement, it's a statement of passion. 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:56.879 It's not a literal statement. 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:00.800 The Bible is full of these types of things. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:08.480 Okay, so when we think about particularly Western, we like literal, we like definitions, we like bullet points. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:19.839 When we look at numbers, we look at numbers as quantitative, and we're looking for numeric accuracy, which is why we might argue for this number means this in the Bible. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:25.279 When you look from an Eastern perspective, they use a lot of word pictures, they use a lot of symbols. 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:30.160 They're not necessarily breaking down the definition of omnipotent or omniscient. 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:35.120 They're saying God is a strong tower, he's a rock, he's living water. 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:46.240 They're using a lot of word pictures and even numbers in the Bible often are more uh qualitative or symbolic than they are quantitative or numeric. 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:48.000 Let me give you, here's a great example. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:55.279 You know, the we looked uh toward the end of last year, we looked in Matthew 14 and 15 of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. 00:08:55.440 --> 00:08:57.200 Remember this in Matthew 14? 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:02.480 And if you keep reading in Matthew 15, Jesus feeds 4,000. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:03.120 Right? 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:04.000 You remember that? 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:05.440 We talked about that? 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:10.720 Okay, so if you start reading that, you look at numbers through a Western lens. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.279 We read it and we remember the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000? 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:14.799 How many loaves? 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:16.639 Five loaves, how many fish? 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:17.519 Two fish. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:26.320 And then he feeds five loaves, two fish, they feed all these five thousand people, and then at the end of it, they collected baskets of leftovers. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.080 Remember how many baskets there were? 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:29.279 Twelve, all right? 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:33.519 So we see five loaves, two fish, five thousand people, twelve baskets. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:35.120 And we don't think anything of it. 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:37.039 We just go, well, that's five, two, whatever. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.080 They're just uh quantitative numbers. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:45.440 And then you read chapter 15 and he feeds 4,000 with seven loaves. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:48.480 It says a few fish and seven baskets left over. 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:50.240 We read right over it. 00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:55.840 In in the Jewish Near Eastern, still to this day, numbers have symbols. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:03.840 So the number two is symbolic, it represents the two tablets that Moses uh brought off the mountain. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:08.080 The number five represents the five books of the Torah. 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:11.039 The number seven represents completion. 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:15.039 The number twelve represents the twelve tribes of Israel. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:16.399 They are symbolic. 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:22.080 So when you understand that, and again, Matthew, his audience is prime exclusively Jewish people. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:23.360 That's who he's writing it to. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:30.159 So when he's saying those symbolic numbers, he's throwing out those numbers, he's speaking shorthand to his audience. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.559 If we know that, now we can get a more robust picture of what he's talking about. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:36.639 Let me give you an example in our context. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:44.399 If I say the number 23, Michael, see Michael Jordan, that quick, right? 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:45.279 Number 23. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:46.960 Now, this is a great story. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:50.799 All right, hang with me, even if you're not a sports person, this is gonna make sense. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:53.759 Michael Jordan, number 23, I say 23, Michael Jordan. 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:54.240 We're in church. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:57.919 He's like, Michael Jordan, you know, he didn't even worship, and he was a Michael Jordan, you know. 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.399 We we know who Michael Jordan is, right? 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:02.159 Okay, so quick story. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.360 Michael Jordan wins three championships and retires. 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:06.399 He goes to play baseball. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:10.720 It doesn't go so well, there's a strike in baseball, and he decides to come back to the NBA. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:16.080 He comes back to the NBA, he doesn't come back at number 23, he comes back number. 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:22.240 Comes back as number 45, not number 23. 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:32.240 Michael Jordan, who's known for being a clutch player, Michael Jordan, who's known for his killer instinct, Michael Jordan, who never went to a game seven in a uh championship series and won every okay. 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:36.320 Michael Jordan in the playoffs has the ball with the game on the line. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:42.720 We're in number 45, and a guy named Nick Anderson steals the ball from him, and they lose the game. 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:49.039 After the game, the reporter puts a microphone in Nick Anderson's face and says, How did that feel? 00:11:49.279 --> 00:11:53.519 And he said, I could have never done that to 23. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:58.879 And then the line that will live in infamy. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:04.559 He said, 45 is not 23. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:05.759 Okay. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:08.080 Is he talking about numbers? 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:12.159 No, he's not talking about, he's not talking about the number 45, he's not talking about the number 23. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:13.600 He's talking symbolic. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:23.840 He's saying the same dude, he's not the same dude wearing 45 to 23, and of course, Michael Jordan shows up the next game, pulls off his uh uh warm-ups, and he's wearing 23. 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:25.120 He took a fine and everything. 00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:29.919 The number had been retired, he snatched it out of retirement and said 23 is back, all right? 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:32.559 And then went on to win three more championships. 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:38.000 So the idea is, again, we understand the idea of numbers being symbolic. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:42.799 When you look at that, now that's a literary element that Matthew uses. 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:47.919 So in that story, feeding the 5,000, were there literally 5,000 people? 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:51.440 It says there are 5,000, not including women and children. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:52.960 Maybe, I don't know. 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:54.240 There might have been 5,000. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:55.919 I don't think that's the point Matthew's making. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:13:06.320 What Matthew seems to be making with this five books of the Torah, two books or two tablets, he's they're on the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee. 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:09.440 He's talking about God's chosen people, the 12 tribes of Israel. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:12.720 It just steeped in Hebrewism. 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:19.200 And so he's like, okay, the same God who provides and loves these people, right? 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:23.440 Jesus serving these people, they go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:27.360 The other side of the Sea of Galilee is Gentile, it's pagan. 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:33.120 And the number four in Jewish symbolism is the four corners of the earth. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.279 So it represents the Gentile world. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:48.879 So when he goes and feeds the 4,000, and they use seven loaves of completion, and they have seven baskets left over, it seems like the point Matthew is making isn't just about quantitative 5,000, 4,000. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:51.919 What he's ultimately doing is talking qualitatively. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:01.039 He's saying this don't forget, Jewish people, don't forget God's covenant with Abraham, which is I want to bless the whole world through you. 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:04.080 You're my chosen people, but it's not just about you. 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:08.639 I want to do something in you that I want to do through you that will go to the ends of the earth. 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:11.759 So just like in chapter 14, I fed you. 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:14.639 In chapter 15, I feed the ends of the earth. 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:18.559 Don't get caught up in just you, but what I'm trying to do through you. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:19.840 Does that make sense? 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:28.960 Now, this thing starts to take on a whole new power because I have the literature right, I've got the history right. 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:31.120 Now I start to get the theology right. 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:34.080 Now that starts to tell me what I'm supposed to do about it. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:35.519 How am I supposed to think? 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.879 If this is how God thinks, how am I supposed to think? 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:41.679 Okay, so this is what we want to continue to do. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:42.559 Alright. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:47.519 I don't just want to get you thinking about this stuff, I want to arm you to be able to do it well. 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:49.440 Last week we gave away one of these. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.639 This is the best study Bible I've ever used. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:56.960 I wish I would have had this for the last 20 years instead of the last couple years. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:58.399 This is so good. 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:00.480 Um, I get no kickbacks. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:04.799 I told you last week I have nothing going on with Amazon, but if you go on Amazon, you get one for free. 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:07.759 If you want, uh, we did a drawing last week. 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:09.279 We gave one away last week. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:11.440 We're gonna give another one away this week. 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.360 So uh I don't know how we're gonna do it. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:15.039 Do you have a QR code or something? 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:15.840 What are we doing? 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:17.279 I should have thought about that. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:18.960 What are we doing? 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:20.080 There it is. 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:20.720 All right. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:25.279 So if you text the 9700 Text Study Bible, it'll send you a link. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:27.840 You click that link, free. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:32.960 But you just fill it out, it'll take you 30 seconds, and then we'll enter in a drawing. 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:34.639 We're gonna give another one of these away this week. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:38.639 I got another resource to um encourage you with. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:43.279 Alright, so this book is phenomenal. 00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:46.960 It's called How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:52.080 How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth, written uh by Gordon Phi and Douglas Stewart. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:53.679 Alright, so have you ever wondered? 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:59.759 You read like there's all these translations of the Bible, so you read the NIV, and you're like, who wrote the NIV? 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:02.639 Like, who decided that the NIV was the NIV, right? 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:03.919 You probably wondered that. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:14.080 Alright, so it's a committee of some of the best scholars in the world that ultimately go through, so the NIV, for example, first came into being in the early 80s. 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:16.240 Hasn't been around that long. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:26.320 But they even as they've continued to advance in scholarship and understand a lot of the early writings even better, they've found they find some little discrepancies, things they can do better. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:30.960 So in 2011, they released a revised version of the NIV. 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:33.200 Okay, so there's a committee of people that do that. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:35.200 Gordon Fee was one of those people. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:36.960 So this is one of the most prominent scholars. 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.519 He actually passed away a couple years ago. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:44.720 Uh, but this is his fourth edition revision of this book, How to Read the Bible for all it's worth. 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:45.600 We talked last week. 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:48.799 Sometimes people go, hey, I want to read the Bible all the way through cover to cover. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:49.519 Great. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:17:00.639 I would encourage you before you read the Bible cover to cover, read this book first because this will help you understand how to read the Bible cover by cover uh cover to cover. 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:02.240 I can't recommend it highly enough. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:02.799 All right. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:07.200 So I'll I'll uh continue to keep that in front of you. 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:08.160 Alright. 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:15.599 Let's go into Genesis 1. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:28.480 Um, we're going to look at based on what we just talked about, literature, history, and theology, we're gonna start all the way at the first, the beginning of the first cover of the Bible. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:31.920 So um a couple things I want to show you. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:40.160 So one is if you do have the cultural background study Bible, I'm gonna give you just demonstrate to you one way that this will absolutely change the way that you would read the Bible. 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:42.559 So go ahead and bring up that first screenshot. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:46.480 Oh, actually, yeah, that's good. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:54.000 Okay, so that first screenshot, you'll notice right there as you look at it, you see how that second heading down there says literary setting? 00:17:54.319 --> 00:18:01.200 So before you even read, start reading in Genesis, you can look at the a lot of the elements of literary style. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:05.599 So go ahead and go to that genre um chart that uh I gave you. 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:07.039 I think I skipped over that. 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:10.559 So this is uh kind of a um a basic chart. 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:11.759 Yeah, go back one. 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:18.240 So this is a basic chart of all the 66 books of the Bible, and then some different categories or genres that they fall in. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:29.039 So it's everything from um the law to um you know poetic books to the major and minor prophets to the gospels, the epistles, and the letters. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:45.599 And what I want you to bear in mind with this, okay, you don't need to memorize this or whatever, but what I want you to think about is that within these books, it's not as clean as like, okay, this book is uh an old testament narrative book, or that's written in narrative form. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:52.559 What you're gonna find is like poetry or poetic literary elements are scattered throughout the whole Bible. 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:57.599 And we're gonna see it as early, poetic elements as early as Genesis 1. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:07.200 So this is why like a study Bible is so helpful, because when you're reading it, before you just start charging in, it will show you and tell you about some of those different literary elements. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:12.559 So you're prepared as you start to read them and you're you're you know aware and you're looking for them. 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:14.960 So let's let's go to Genesis 1. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:23.839 Uh, if you start reading in Genesis 1, you're gonna uh notice pretty quickly that there is like there are stanzas, right? 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:27.200 So you'll start to notice even um the literary style. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:36.640 So it you know, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and you're gonna you'll notice some things that will kind of jump off the page to you. 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:40.079 So you're gonna notice that there are some refrains. 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:52.640 So you're gonna see that it's repeated multiple times in Genesis 1 that after God creates on a on a day or he creates something, it says that he saw that it was good. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.400 And then he does a second day and it says, and he saw that it was good. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:58.400 Then he does a third day and it saw that it was good. 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:02.160 So you're gonna see that's repeated, he saw that it was good. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:13.440 Then you're gonna see another refrain that that will uh be on there and it'll say there was evening and there was morning, and this then there was the first day, and there was evening and there was morning and the second day. 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:16.240 So they keep repeating that over and over again. 00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:39.279 So from if we're looking before we start deciding what theological truths we want to get from Genesis 1, we start with the literary uh nature of this, and so we start to notice when you see those types of refrains, just like if you wrote a poem and you had something you said at the end of every line, pretty clearly that's the one of the main points you're making. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:43.440 That's the thing you want the listener to hear because you keep saying it over and over again. 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:48.079 And so we we know we we want to pay special attention to those two refrains. 00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:54.240 There was evening and there was morning, and we want to pay attention to the refrain that he saw that it was good. 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:54.799 Okay? 00:20:55.680 --> 00:21:15.759 Okay, now when you do some historic and go to that next screenshot, that number two screenshot, what you're gonna what you're gonna have in this cultural background study Bible is uh this is again, I just took a screenshot out of this one, but what you're gonna see is uh he's going to explain some of the historical context. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:18.400 So if you think about this, who is writing this? 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:20.559 The book is attributed to Moses. 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:22.400 Who is he writing to? 00:21:22.559 --> 00:21:24.000 The children of Israel. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:24.960 When? 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:31.599 After hundreds of years of being in Egyptian slavery, where does he write it to them? 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:52.240 Well, it's a few months after they have come through the Red Sea and escaped Egypt, so they're now free, and they are at Mount Sinai, and you have a group of people who have a mixture of theology, the study of God, and cosmology, the study of the origins of the cosmos. 00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:59.759 They have been, they have this mixture of oral history that's come from their Hebrew family members. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:07.279 And the Egyptian cosmologies and theologies that they've been told as they lived in that culture. 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:21.359 We know that the Egyptian theologies lingered because all the way into the book of Joshua, Joshua, even after Moses is dead and gone, Joshua's still telling them to put away their Egyptian idols. 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.000 He's still telling them not only to put away the idols, but put away those theologies. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:43.920 So this is a moment in time where Moses is going, look, I want to take a moment to hit the reset button on some important things because we have hundreds of years of bondage in Egypt that we have to start sorting out theologically and psychologically. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:45.359 Is this making sense? 00:22:45.680 --> 00:23:00.799 So what you have when you start to look in that screenshot I showed you explains what would have been some of the obstacles and the mindsets that those that group of people would have had coming out of that culture. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:06.960 So one of the things it talks about is how they would have viewed, how Egyptians viewed the nature of existence. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:17.279 So if I say to you, hey, something didn't exist and now it exists, in our world we think it had no physical properties, now it has physical properties. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:19.920 It had no atoms, now it has atoms. 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:26.480 Or experientially, we know there are things like love or time that don't have atoms, but they're very real. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:27.440 Those exist. 00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:29.759 So we'd be talking about one of those two things. 00:23:29.920 --> 00:23:41.200 In the Egyptian mindset, the idea of existence didn't necessarily have to do with physical properties, but of having a role or ultimately a purpose or function. 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:42.799 So think about this. 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:51.440 Some of you have experienced this where it feels like times in your life where you don't feel like you have any role or function, it almost feels like you don't exist. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:56.000 Like you know you have a body, you know you're here, but you're like, oh, I feel invisible. 00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:57.680 I feel like I don't know who I am. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:02.720 Essentially, I don't know who I am, I don't feel like I exist because I don't have a role and function. 00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:13.039 So in the Egyptian world, not only people, but things like water, things like sky, physical things, it wasn't that they didn't have physical properties, it was talking about what was their role and function. 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:21.759 So now knowing that, it starts to make sense why, as Moses is telling this story, he's saying God gave function. 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:25.599 He took light and darkness and he separated them and then he named them. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:32.960 This is why, again, culturally, naming something was very significant because you're declaring its function or its role. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:39.039 So he calls light day and he calls darkness night, and what is he doing? 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:42.000 He's giving it a function and he's creating time. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:59.519 Okay, and so each of these things, again, as he makes the ecosystem, he's giving it function as he's bringing it, not only giving it physical properties, but ultimately, again, this ties into what they would have understood in terms of the concept of existence. 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:08.720 And so then what he uses here from a literary element, okay, so now we're just going back and forth between literature and history, and then theology is just gonna jump off the page. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:13.839 So now when we think about literary, we're gonna look at the structure, okay? 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.839 So he go ahead and bring up that chart uh of the the days of creation. 00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:24.480 So again, this is a summary of Genesis 1, and then the bottom is Genesis 2. 00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:27.680 So day one, uh he separates the light and the darkness. 00:25:27.839 --> 00:25:29.680 Day two, he separates the sky and the water. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:32.240 Day three, he separates the land and sea. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:36.160 Day four, he creates the sun, moon, and stars. 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:38.319 Day five, birds and fish. 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:41.279 Day six, beasts and humans. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:44.000 Alright, now let's stay there for a second. 00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:48.240 Notice, okay, this is built in what's called a chiastic structure. 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.799 So a chiastic structure, we talked about this back. 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:54.480 If you remember the Sermon on the Mount, we talked about chiastic structures. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:59.519 Chiastic structures are structured A, B, C, C, B, A. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:00.240 Okay. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:05.039 So uh go ahead and go to the whole story of Noah. 00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:06.640 I'm gonna give it to you super quick here. 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:07.519 Go ahead and bring it up. 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:11.039 The story of Noah is written in a chiastic structure. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:11.920 Go ahead and bring this up. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.640 We don't have time to do the whole flood narrative today, but I just want to show it to you as a literary element. 00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:22.720 And it's not A, B, C, C, B, A, it's A, B, C, D, E, F G, all the way to P and then back down to A. 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:29.279 So if you look at the story, you'll see that it is structured all leading to the center. 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:35.759 And if you went to P there, the point in the center, the greatest point is that God remembered Noah. 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:40.240 So he's gonna tell a whole story that's structured, all right? 00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:50.160 It builds up and then back down, but in the center, and the the reason this matters is because the structure helps you see the most important point. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:55.599 There are gonna be a lot of points that are made along the way, but the structure helps you see the main point. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:01.119 And the main point there, the letter P is that God remembers Noah. 00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:10.400 In other words, in all of this hardship and this huge trial and this crazy experience, God never forgot his relationship to Noah. 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:17.279 That is what that is the main, not the only, but the main theological point of the story of Noah. 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:22.480 How would I know that other than understanding the literary element that points me to the main point? 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:24.079 So that's a that's a bigger example. 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:29.440 The whole book of Leviticus, the whole book is written as a chiasm or chiastic structure. 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:32.319 So let's go back to seven days of creation. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:38.400 This structure, this literary structure is what we would call a parallelism or an inverted chiasm. 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:41.039 So instead of being ABC, go ahead and bring it up. 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:45.759 Instead of being A B C C B A, it's A B C A B C. 00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:48.400 So look at this day one and day four. 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:52.960 Light and darkness, look at day four, sun, moon, and stars. 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:59.599 Look at day two and day five, sky and waters, and day five, birds and fish. 00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:06.400 Look at day three, land and seas, and day six, beasts and humans. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:07.599 Make sense? 00:28:07.839 --> 00:28:15.519 So the point here is he's giving us a literary design, literary structure, so that we know what category to put this in. 00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:17.839 This isn't a lab report. 00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:22.960 This isn't, he's not making uh statements about literal time. 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:36.480 You could argue, you could make the argument that there are 24 hours in a day and it was a literal seven-day creation because he made night and day, and of course, gave it function, and therefore uh they defined a day as this many hours, all of that. 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:41.519 You could do that, but the point isn't to argue for was this a literal seven-day creation or not? 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:43.759 That's it, it maybe it wasn't, maybe it wasn't. 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:45.359 That's not ultimately the point. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:29:00.240 And when you're looking at interpretation, you're reading whether it's a poem, whether it's a historical narrative, whether it's a prose, whatever you're reading, you're asking, you're calling up your buddy and going, what's the point? 00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:01.839 What point are you making? 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:12.400 You're looking at the text, you're trying to understand literature and the literary style and what is it pointing to, looking at the historical elements, what is it pointing to, what is the point of this text? 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:21.839 So once you start doing that and we understand this isn't something that um, you know, he's necessarily making a statement about sequence. 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:57.440 He's giving us a poem that ultimately will then cause uh there was some common ground that they would have had with their beliefs about uh that they were given in Egypt, but then there the biggest points come from the contrast between Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai, the God ultimately that will be of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God that Moses is presenting to them, and the gods of Egypt. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:02.880 The gods of Egypt were creat they created humans. 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:12.000 Their cosmology was that we believe they created humans because they were tired of making their own food, raising their own plants, and taking care of their own needs. 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:16.640 So they created humans as slaves to pamper them. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:28.400 The image of the gods was not on human beings, the image of the gods, the only human beings the image of the gods was ever on were certain kings or in certain statues and temples. 00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:39.039 That's why you would try to get in proximity to the temple, because the closer you could get to the God, the more you could appease the God, and then the God would keep you safe or give you something great. 00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:42.720 They never thought of themselves as being in the image of God. 00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:48.559 They never saw themselves as being created to be partners with God, it was just to be slaves of God. 00:30:48.880 --> 00:31:01.839 So now when you read the text and you start to see that in verse 26 of chapter 1, he says, Let's make mankind, man and woman, in our image. 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:11.119 Now they're starting to see these people who have been hundreds of years, all they know is bondage and slavery and oppression, are starting to look and go, wait a second. 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:16.720 We thought that was only for kings and important statues, but no, we are made in God's image. 00:31:16.880 --> 00:31:18.000 Who's made in God's image? 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:19.279 Who's made in my image? 00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:23.039 My children are made in my image, my children bear my likeness. 00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:26.319 He's like, You are my sons and daughters, you are my children. 00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:29.200 And so this is starting to shape their theology. 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:33.680 He gives them ultimately a new, fresh, reset theology of work. 00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:49.599 And so it says in chapter two that when he had created all the world, he had created the whole ecosystem, and it said, but things weren't doing what they were supposed to do because God had not yet sent rain and there was no man and woman to work the ground. 00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:53.279 So he sends rain and sends brings man into the world. 00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:54.160 What is he doing? 00:31:54.319 --> 00:32:02.079 He's going, look, this isn't just you make bricks to appease me, or you show up so that I'm not mad at you because I see you as a slave. 00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:05.440 He's saying, Be my partner in the world. 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:09.119 I've made this great world with this great ecosystem with great work to do. 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:10.880 And I'm not just having you do it for me. 00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:12.079 I want to do this with you. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:16.880 I'm inviting you, I'll send rain, you work the ground, and we'll bear fruit together. 00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:22.240 So he's inviting man and woman into partnership with God, made in his image. 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:34.799 And then, of course, the refrain we come back to is not only it was good, it was good, it was good, but we see the evening-morning refrain, which this time last year we looked at how in the Jewish mindset the day starts when you go to sleep. 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:37.759 It starts in the evening instead of the morning. 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:38.160 Why? 00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:44.799 So that the first act of the day, every day, is to go into a catatonic state and a rest. 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:50.000 Rest is not a reward for a hard day of work, it's a way you start every day. 00:32:50.079 --> 00:32:56.880 You come from a place of rest because in my rested state where I'm producing nothing, I'm loved and approved of by God. 00:32:57.039 --> 00:32:58.079 I'm his son. 00:32:58.880 --> 00:33:03.200 You're his daughter, and so it's in that state that I wake up and I get to work. 00:33:03.839 --> 00:33:08.000 Rising and grinding is the second part of your day, not the first part of your day. 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:11.440 And I come from a rested psychological emotional state. 00:33:11.599 --> 00:33:13.680 We see again, it starts to jump off the page. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:19.119 You see that God, it said he completed all of his work of creation, so then he rested. 00:33:19.279 --> 00:33:20.880 Well, had he completed it all? 00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:21.279 No. 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:24.240