From Creation to Consummation:  An Overview of Holy Scripture

In our exploration of Holy Scripture, "From Creation to Consummation", we have been taking the large and making it smaller.  In our first session we saw together why the Bible is reliable.  We touched on seven reasons:  1.  The Bible claims to be the very words from God; 2.  The Bible makes accurate, verifiable predictions; 3.  The Bible has one unifying theme and completed prediction:  the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; 4.  The Bible is an accurate historical book; 5.  The Bible has the power to convert man-centered haters of God into God-centered lovers of Christ; 6.  The Bible has been preserved throughout the ages by God's providence; 7.  The Bible stands triumphant over all the speculations of man.  Then in our last session, we looked at how the Old Testament fit together, and how the Old Testament is a matter of who God is and how God promises.  Now we're breaking our study down into one of the divisions that we looked at last sessions:  The first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch.

Author and Name
The first five books of the Bible seemed to have been grouped together from the moment of their completions.  Now this is testified in the Bible itself, so that we see the first five books referred together as the law of Moses (12.23.25), the book of the law of Moses (6.8.31; 23.6; 12.14.6), the book of the law (12.22.8), the law (6.8.34; 12.25.4), and the book of the law of the Lord (12.34.14).  Outside of the Bible we have a couple of words that believers have come to use.  These would be useful for you to be familiar with.  The first is the Torah .  This is the Hebrew word for the first five books.  "Torah" means "teaching" or "instruction".  The second word is Pentateuch .  "Penta" means "five" and "teukhos" implement, vessel, scroll. The importance of these books can't be underestimated.  Whereas the Gospels are the heart and center of the New Testament, the Torah is the heart and center of the Old Testament.  So, who wrote the Pentateuch? 

Teaching of Jesus
"Deuteronomy states (31.9) that Moses wrote this Torah (Ex 17.14; 24.4; 34.27; Num 33.1,2).  Many scholars do not take this claim seriously, despite the fact that it has the backing of Jesus Christ (John 5.46, 47; 7.19)" ( Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible.  Zondervan, 1976: (4:675).  What is so shocking about that quote?  It's shocking for at least two reasons:  1.  The Word of God is rejected.  2.  The testimony of Jesus Christ.  Let's look at the quotations cited here, and then deal with whether Jesus is a true teacher or not. 

Deuteronomy 31.9 says, "Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel" (ESV).  Why is this a big deal?  What does it really matter who wrote the Pentateuch?  I mean, doesn't it really just matter that we have it?  Well the big deal comes when the Bible says something, and if the Bible is wrong, then that is a big deal.   If the Bible can't be right when it states who wrote parts of the Bible, how can we know that it is right about the big things like:  Who God is, What sin is, Who the Savior is?  So, all we have is the testimony of the Word itself.  Moses is dead.  All the Israelites of that generation are dead.  How can we know?  God knows.  That's why the testimony of Christ is so crucial.

What did Jesus believe about the authorship of the Pentateuch? "If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” " (John 5:46-47 ESV)  "Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”" (John 7:19 ESV)  So it is evident that Jesus firmly held that Moses was the instrument which God used to write the Torah.  We must notice that this was the teaching that was prevalent in Jesus' day.

Teaching that Prevailed in Jesus' Day
Just like in the Old Testament, the people talked of the Torah in terms of the "Law of Moses."  Listen to this, "And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) " (Luke 2:22-23 ESV; qtd from Exodus 13.2, 12).  Did you hear the two ways in which the Torah was described?  Luke calls it first, the "Law of Moses" and then calls it the "Law of the Lord."  The two terms are synonymous with one another.  Even the Pharisees, who were the most conservative of all the Israelites, spoke of the Torah this way.  When they came to catch Jesus in a trap, the authorship of the Torah was common belief to both Jesus and the Pharisees.  "They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? ”" (Matthew 19:7 ESV; qtd from Deut. 24.1-4) 

Now people who reject what the Word says, as we read in that quote, will not reject that Jesus held a very conservative position on Scripture.  But what they will do is reject His teaching on that subject.  They reject it by saying that He did not know who had written the first five books of the Old Testament and that He used the teaching that was common to all the Jews (even though that teaching was wrong).  In saying that Jesus didn't know who wrote the Torah, they cite texts like Matthew 24.36.  "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only" (Matthew 24:36 ESV).  They note that Jesus did not know everything when He was here on earth.  Therefore, He probably didn't know that Moses was not the author of the Torah.  But there's something to notice from this passage in Matthew 24.  Remember the context of this sermon.  Verse 3 tells us that "As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”" (Matthew 24.3 ESV)  This question sparked an entire response that lasts six pages and two chapters in my Bible.  Now I notice two things about Jesus' response.  One, He told a lot of information.  Two, He was silent only on the thing which He did not know.  Any unlike other prideful teachers, He acknowledged that He had no knowledge of it (see again verse 36). 

Now what would you think of a teacher of used faulty information?  He's not a good teacher.  Only those teacher who relay true information are good teachers.   "And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him”" (Mark 1:27 ESV).  When Jesus spoke, He knew exactly what He was saying.  His sermons were not a collection of commentary from other people.  He spoke as the God of the universe, clothed in flesh, and infallible teacher of truth.  I mean in John 14.6 He even summed Himself up as "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."  So we can be confident that when Jesus spoke on any subject, He was the authority on that subject.  And when by some mystery He does not know something, we can be confident that as a good teacher, He was silent about that subject just as He was in Matthew 24.  

What is it about?

Contents Outline
The Pentateuch is about God and His People
Genesis (Creates the People)

•     First Half
• Creation
• Fall
• Flood
• Dispersion
• Second
• Abraham
• Isaac
• Jacob
• Joseph  
  

 Exodus (Takes the People)
    Takes possesion of the people of Israel

Leviticus (Defines the People)
    Marks them out by religious practices
    Marks them out by commands to live as God's Holy People

Numbers (Leads the People)
    Wilderness wanderings

Deuteronomy (Prepares the People)
    Three addresses by Moses before the people enter the Promised Land

Themes
·    Creation
·    Sin
·    Judgment
·    Election, choosing Israel as his 'own possession among all peoples" (Ex. 19.5; Deut 7.6; 14.2; 26.18);
·    God promises, of Land and posterity (Gen. 12.1-3; 15.18-21; Deut 1.11; 6.23)
·    Deliverance, demonstrated in the Exodus events (Ex 14-15)
·    Covenant, bound Israel to God and the stipulations of the law that accompanied it (Ex 19.1-Num.10.10; Deut 5-6; 10.12-11.32).

The themes begun in these first five books are the themes which run throughout the Bible and are the themes which are expressed even in Revelation.  There's not a book of the Bible that is silent about these themes.  We see the importance of the Pentateuch in that the events recorded in its pages are the events that are center page in the New Testament.  With all of the events that had taken place throughout history up until the Christ's ministry, the events of the Pentateuch are the events which demand His attention on earth.  These themes are the things which He proclaims, debates over, and for which He dies.  These themes of the Pentateuch are the very themes which prepared the world for His coming.  "In the Pentateuch we understand that, because of the nature of God, mankind, and the world, we are not dealing with myth, fable, mere astrological tales, or literary creations, but with the truth communicated by God to mankind through history in concrete word and concrete event" (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia .  Eerdmans, 1986: (3:741).

What is our relation to the Law of Moses?
When Pastor and I met to talk last week this issue came up.  He didn't even know that we would be on the Law of Moses this morning.  The question that had been raised to him was from a church member who was reading through the Pentateuch and was shocked.  Can we eat ham?  What about all of these feasts?  How are Christians to respond to the Law now that Christ has come?  

Purpose of the law

Before we can understand the usefulness of the Law to us, we must understand the original intentions of the Law.  First, God was making a people for Himself and was defining a multitude of things.  He was binding them together as a people.  He was defining their entrance into the community (circumcision), their conduct as a community (moral law), their education for exultation (ceremonial law), and their relation to God (priestly law).  All of this was God's revealed will for the Jew.  But we find that instead of trusting the God of Israel to save them, they instead turned the law of God into what can save them.  The law's purpose was to lead them to cry out to God, "I can't obey this law!  Have mercy on me, a sinner!"     
   
Law in the New Testament
Acts 15:1-21
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,
16       “ ‘     After this I will return,
          and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
                    I will rebuild its ruins,
                    and I will restore it,
17           that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
                    and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
                    says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’
19 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, 20 but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 21 For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues .”

Now the Jews ask the Gentiles to submit to three things: 1.  abstain from things associated with idols, 2.  abstain from  sexual immorality, 3.  abstain from what has been strangled, and blood.  In doing this, the apostles recognize that the believer is not bound to the Law of Moses.  Does that mean we are not bound to the Law of God?  No, believers have a stricter law to obey.  For example, Jesus said "“ You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:27-28 ESV).  And the New Testament is full of commands which the believer is bound to obey if He confesses Christ.  There are commands to give, pray, be sexually pure, be faithful to your spouse, not to steal, to work, to love God, and to be happy in God.  Again, although God commands us to obey these Laws as His revealed will for the Christian, we are unable to keep His commands perfectly on earth.  Therefore, we do not believe that we earn merit with God by His commands.  In His commands we learn how righteous God is, how sinful we are and how desperate we are in need of grace to obey His commands.  Let's listen to the words of Jesus as He addresses this very thing. "He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted ” " (Luke 18:9-14 ESV).