Old Testament Episodes – Page 3 – What Does This Mean?

Sunday School: Job and Suffering Even Though We Don’t Know Why

Encore Post: Job was a good man. He loved God and served Him well. When Job lost everything he had, his friends thought that he must have done something very evil. Yet Job insisted he did nothing wrong. He could not figure out why these things were happening to him. Job was right. God allowed Satan to attack Job to test his faith, not to punish him.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin, sickness, disaster and death entered the world. Most of the time, innocent people suffer from them. Because God loves us, He does not want people to suffer and to die from these things. He wants us to live the way He intended us to live when He made the world and called it “very good.” So He sent His Son to die in our place and pay for our sins. Now our sins are forgiven and we will live forever with Him. One day Jesus will return to bring a final end to sin, suffering, grief and death. In life everlasting, He will dry every tear from our eyes.

Yet sin, suffering, grief and death continue in this world — even for us. When Job finally lost his health, he complained to God that it wasn’t fair. He was, after all, a good man. God pointed out that Job should trust Him, even though Job could not understand why he was suffering. God knows what’s best and sometimes He allows evil to happen because ending it is worse than allowing it to take its course. God can use the evil of the world to strengthen our faith — our trust — in him and his promises. Job repented of questioning God and placed his trust in God’s love. In the end, God restored Job’s prosperity.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

Rule #4: Use the Bible to Understand the Bible

Encore Post: Many beloved passages in the Bible are as clear as mountain streams fed by melting snow. “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son (John 3:16). “God is Love.” (1 John 4:8) These and dozens like them are so clear, we teach them to small children. Yet others are not so clear. Some, like the detailed laws God gave to Israel we suspect that God no longer wants us to observe. Others don’t seem to make sense to us at all. How can we be sure what they mean for us?

The answer is actually a part of Rule #1: since the Bible is God’s word, we can use one passage to explain others. We can be sure of the interpretation we discover this way, because the words we are using are God’s own words.

Let’s look at a few passages to see how this works. We know that most of the national law God gave to the Kingdom of Israel does not bind us, because St. Paul tells us not to allow anyone to judge us on the basis of them. (Colossians 2:16-23) We know, however, that the Two Great Commandments do, because Jesus tells us to observe them. (Luke 10:26-28) In another place, when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, we wonder what he was thinking. The author of the Book of Hebrews tells us. Hebrews 11:17-19)

So, when you wonder if there’s more to a passage, look elsewhere in the Bible. God will often give you more insight when you do this.

Rule #1 | Rule #2| Rule #3 | Rule #5 | Blog Post Series

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sunday School: King Hezekiah Celebrates Passover

Encore Post: Every year, Jewish people celebrate Passover. This festival remembers the time when God freed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea to safety. It remembers the night when God commanded their ancestors to sacrifice a lamb, place its blood on their doorposts, roast and eat the lamb with unleavened bread and prepare to leave Egypt. That evening, God sent the Angel of Death through the land to kill the firstborn son of every Egyptian from the Pharaoh to the lowest slave. When the Angel saw the blood on a doorpost, he passed over the home.

When the father of King Hezekiah died and he became king of Judah, he resolved to restore the worship of God according to the traditions of his ancestors David and Solomon. (2 Chronicles 29-30) His father had neglected the worship of God and allowed the people to worship the gods of other nations. King Hezekiah ordered the priests and Levites to perform the rituals commanded by Moses to make themselves holy, to cleanse the temple and make it holy according to the rules set down by Moses, Solomon and David. He ordered a large scale sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people and restore regular prayers and sacrifices there. Because the priests were caught by surprise by this, not enough of them were ready.

Eager to celebrate Passover again, Hezekiah and the people decided to celebrate it late — in the second month rather than the first (April into May) They invited everyone in Israel, including the survivors of the invasion of Assyria in the conquered northern kingdom of Israel. They people celebrated so joyfully, they decided to extend it to a second week.

For Christians, Jesus is the Passover Lamb, whose blood saves us from eternal death. In the Lord’s Supper, He gives us His body with the bread and blood with the wine. In it we receive the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. So we celebrate it with joy, because God set us free.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Blog Post Series

Faithful Ruth

Encore Post: Ruth was a gentile and as such cut off from God and His presence. When she married Naomi’s son Mahlon, Ruth became a Hebrew and one of God’s people. When Naomi’s husband died, her sons were her only means of support. When these sons in turn also died, she was a widow without sons — helpless in a society where having husbands and sons are key to survival. On top of that, she was in a foreign country, where no one cared about her. Yet all she could think about was her daughters-in-law. She tried to send them home to their families, but only one of them went back.

Because Ruth truly loved her Naomi and loved God, she refused. She would never leave her mother-in-law. Whatever would happen to Naomi, she would share her fate. So, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went home to Naomi’s family — the Bethlehem in Judea. Does that town sound familiar?

While she was gathering the grain left in the field for the poor, she met a relative of her late husband. This man, Boaz, went out of his way to provide for Naomi and her daughter-in-law. He claimed the right to marry Ruth under the Levirate law — the nearest male relative marries a widow and their children become the legal heirs of the deceased man.

When he did this, Boaz showed the true, selfless character of a redeemer. God blessed this marriage with children. Their son Obed would later marry. Obed’s was the father of Jesse, whose son was King David. And so the self-giving nature of Ruth and Boaz was blessed. In this way, God put a gentile into the family tree of the Son of David — and his own Son — Jesus (Matthew 1:5, ).

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Bread From Heaven Five Ways

Encore Post: From the time that people began to plant crops until this very day, bread has been a basic food for people. God fed His people in the wilderness with manna to teach them to trust their Heavenly Father for daily bread. Later Satan would tempt Jesus to make stones into bread rather than trust Him. Jesus quoted what Moses said to Israel about Manna: “people do not live only on bread but on every word that God speaks.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

Later, God would do other miracles with bread. The Prophet Elijah would feed the widow and her son with bread — their flour and oil did not run out for years. Elisha would feed one hundred men with a few loaves. Jesus would feed crowds in the desert with a few loaves and fishes. The crowds knew what it meant — Jesus was the Messiah and like Moses and Elijah.

Jesus also used bread in another way. During His Last Supper, Jesus took bread, broke it, blessed it and gave His body for them to eat. To this day, when we gather for communion, Jesus feeds us with His body — the true Bread from Heaven. When we receive this bread, we are given strength for our journey through this life to life everlasting.

Being Gathered Around the Bread of Heaven

Faith is not something that is our own initiative. Jesus tells us that much on a number of occasions but in John 6, Jesus is explicit about how the Father draws us. It is the Lord’s doing. And that is a message of wonderful comfort to us who can fall into despair.

Elijah was such a man who needed comfort. He was in despair so it appears even after that wonderful event at Mount Carmel. Jezebel wants him dead. Elijah flees and heads out to the wilderness. The wilderness is not a place to go alone. In the Old Testament, the wilderness is considered a place of testing, you might like to think of as spiritual testing. Elijah’s own feelings lead him to cry out to the Lord, effectively begging the Lord to take his life because he was no better than his fathers (other prophets). Elijah is not seeing the Word of the Lord converting the hearts of his hearers. So he is tired and worn out.

Elijah receives comfort from the very Angel of the LORD. I like to think this is the 2nd Person of the Trinity, in his Pre-Incarnate state. We also need to remember the blessing of this food. The cake (or bread) is not made by man. Man was supposed to eat bread by the sweat of his brow. This bread is made by the Son, for the strengthening of Elijah’s faith and also his body. For later at Horeb, the Lord is gracious to him telling him that Elijah’s preaching is not in vain. 7000 were kept safe from bowing down to Baal.

The Sacrament of the Altar is for the weak and despairing needing to be strengthened by the Words of Jesus, specifically “for you”. We are indeed weak, and the christian walk under the cross is too great for us to go it alone. Jesus tells us that much too in our reading from John 6. We don’t initiate or activate our faith. We don’t initiate our coming to Jesus. And we don’t initiate the strengthening of our faith either, rather we are drawn and gathered around the living bread of heaven which came down from heaven being sent by the Father. And who the Father gives to his Son the Son will never cast out. What peace and comfort we have in the coming of this Jesus, our bread of life.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

The Rainbow and God’s Promise

The story of Noah, is one that most people know, even those who do not believe in the One True God. One only needs to look at a recent movie to see that the story of Noah is one people have etched in their minds. Yes, we remember the rainbow but we don’t teach our children what it means. The world has commandeered it for their own sinful purposes.

The rainbow is a sign with a word of promise attached. This is not the first time that the Lord worked like this. We have a particular word to describe these things. We have narrowed the definition a bit, but the idea remains the same. We call these things sacraments. A sacrament is a rite commanded by God, which the promise of grace (forgiveness of sins) is attached. The rainbow is one such instance in the Old Testament that the Lord shows us how He deals graciously with his people. God’s grace is attached to the sign of the rainbow. Today with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, He is working the same way as He worked back in the days of Noah and even earlier in the days of Adam and Eve.

The rainbow teaches us the first commandment and its meaning well. You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, trust, and love God above all things. We fear the Lord because of what He can do, we trust the Lord because of the promise He has given, and we love the Lord because he has had compassion on us poor miserable sinners, whose hearts are still inclined to evil rather than good. His “bow” of wrath against humanity has been “retired” and hung in the clouds.

The rainbow points to Jesus and His cross. The greatest act of wrath and judgment against sin took place at the cross. Jesus took on the full righteous judgment and wrath of His Father for us. Jesus suffered and died on account of on our sins. But in Christ’s atoning death we have the promise of everlasting life with God in His Kingdom. And God deals graciously with us establishing with us an even greater eternal covenant in the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Preaching to the Sheep

The last few Old Testament readings, if you have been keeping score at home, have been telling us a bit about the preachers that the Lord called to serve his people, proclaiming repentance to them. If you remember from Ezekiel, he was called to preach to the rebellious house of Israel. Amos was called from his work as a herdsman and fig keeper. Both were told to preach the word that the Lord gave them to preach. This was their job, and they feared the Lord and did what He tasked them to do.

However, there can be those men who would rather speak their own mind. And that can be a major problem. It can be deadly for the flock, especially if the preacher does not preach Christ and Him crucified for the sins of the world. These are the men that Jeremiah confronts in the Old Testament lesson today. These are the shepherds who are really no shepherd at all, for they do not care for the sheep entrusted into their care. The Lord through Jeremiah says, “WOE! WOE to you, those shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep!” Rather than gathering them around their Lord, they have scattered them and driven them further away from Him.

This is a warning to those men who have been placed into this office. It is a warning to me, but it is also a warning to the flock to listen to the preaching with a discerning ear. It is a call to the flock as much as the shepherds to open up your bibles and dig into what is said there and compare what is being said by me in this pulpit. Your preacher must be preaching the Word of the Lord, and the Word of the Lord is at your fingertips to do just that checking.

The Lord has given His preachers His Son Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, to preach and proclaim. Jesus makes this obvious and plain. We are to preach Christ and Him Crucified for the sins of the world, and that he rose from the dead for our justification. That binds up the brokenhearted. That Word seeks out the sheep without a shepherd, and brings them back to their loving Father.
Don’t be surprised to see more on Ezekiel soon.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO