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This is my experience that people often have of the Old Testament. Most people have some interest in the Bible. We know its a good book. At some level we want to learn it. The challenge is the OT is so big that its hard to understand it. The Old Testament is 39 books; its 1283 pages long. The Old Testament is a library of books, its not one book. In some places it has material that is confusing and even irrelevant for our lives today. There are some passages not manybut a few where God is angry and where people die. Help me outI have a question for you. If you were asking a friend to describe the OT in one word what would the word be? Im guessing that if you asked most people to describe the Old Testament in one word they would say, confusing. Or irrelevant. One way to learn the Old Testament is to start reading it. How many people have read the Old Testament? How many people have read it and not finished it? Ive read it through three times. My experience is a person will start to read it and then get bogged down halfway through Exodus. That is the place that God gave the Israelites 621 laws and regulations that seem confusing for us. Today Im starting a sermon series called Old Testament=2012. The aim of this sermon series is help us see the relevance of the Old Testament for our lives in the north Metro in 2012. This three week series is part of a Year of the Bible focus were taking at Chain of Lakes in 2012.

The Old Testament is a beautiful collection of books. It has some of the most profound stories that have ever been written in the history of the world. Its vital book to know to help us with our faith. I want all of us at Chain of Lakes to learn the Old Testament. The reason is when

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we learn the Old Testament we are going to learn a lot about ourselves; we are going to learn a lot about God; and we are going to learn about how God relates to each of us. What Ive tried to do is to give you some information that will help you understand the OT. Id like to encourage you to get out this brochure that is in the bulletin. Go to the sermon notes section. Today Im going to share with you in a two sentences the story of the Old Testament, Im going to share three very important people in the Old Testament; Im sharing three important Scriptures and six important dates. I want to encourage you to fill out this outline and keep it. If you can learn the information on this outline you have the key to unlocking the Old Testament. In the devotion you have six more readings about the Old Testament. SLIDE This past week I did an interview of Rabbi David Locketz, associate Rabbi at Bet

Shalom in Minnetonka. Later in this sermon Ill share some excerpts from that interview. We also have the entire interview on-line and you can find it at our blip TV site. What is the story of the Old Testament? Let me drill down the purpose of these 1283 pages to two sentences. SLIDE: The Old Testament is a story about a relationship between God and a group of people who became a nation. This relationship reveals who God is, who we are as individuals, who we are called to be as a community, and what God intends for the world. If we have this understanding of the Old Testament as we read it, these stories will make sense. Let me read this through again so you have it A basic question about the Old Testament is how do we read it? Do we as Christians read the OT any different than a Jew would read it? I asked Rabbi Locketz the question how would you encourage us to read the Old Testament. This is what he had to say: First clip5:19 to 7:27

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I love that statement that Rabbi Locketz made these and those are the words of God. Two people can be right even if they dont agree with each other. The Old Testament is a story of a relationship between God and a group of people. As Christians we do believe that the Old Testament helped people get ready for the Messiah. This is a different view than our Jewish brothers and sisters have. Two people can be right even if they dont agree with each other. This relationship between God and a group of people started in Genesis 12. The storyline of the Bible starts at Genesis 12. Up until this point the earth had been created, and the flood had happened, and God had thwarted an attempt in the story of the Tower of Babel for people to become like God. Then God initiated a relationship with one man that started the storyline of the Scriptures. The mans name was Abram; his name was later changed to Abraham. The story is one that Gary read earlier. God told Abram this: SLIDE I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 12:2-3 On your outline you can fill in an important person was Abram and an important Scripture was Genesis 12:1-3. All of you who read the devotions I write will recognize this passage. I refer to it often. It is one of the most important passages in the Old Testament. In this story God blessed Abram and asked Abram to be a blessing to the world. Two weeks from today Im going to talk more about blessing because it is an important theme in the Old Testament. Much of what happened in the Old Testament after this story is Gods attempt to bless this group of people and is a story of how well this group of people did to receive the blessing and then to bless others.

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This relates to us in 2012 because you and I share in this blessing that God gave Abram. We are called to bless others. This is part of our Purpose Statement at Chain of Lakes. In our Purpose Statement we say that we want to impact the world. Another way to make an impact is to bless people. The story then goes on. A had a son Isaac who had Jacob and Essau. Jacob had 12 sons2Benjamin and Joseph were his favorites. These 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. The sons were jealous of Joseph and sold him off to a slave trader who took Joseph to Egypt. When a famine hit the land the ten sons went to Egypt and were eventually reunited with Joseph, who had become a powerful man in Egypt. At the end of Genesis Jacobs family was in Egypt. At the end of Genesis Jacobs family and the Pharaoh got along well. That is the story of Genesis. Jacobs family became the Israelites. They proliferated at a great rate. A new Pharaoh became ruler of Egypt. He became scared of the vast number of Israelites and put them in slavery. The Israelites called out to God from their misery. This leads me to the second person and second Scripture. The person was Moses and the Scripture was Exodus 3. God called Moses to go back to Egypt to liberate the Israelites from Pharaoh. The passage goes like this: SLIDE Then the Lord said, I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good land and broad land, SLIDE a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Exodus 3:7-11.

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Moses didnt immediately agree to do this, but God convinced Moses and Moses went back to Egypt. Many of us learned these stories in Sunday School or we watched them in the movie Ten Commandments where where Charlton Heston was Moses. SLIDE How many of us have seen the movie the Ten Commandments? A short sidenote.

Did you know that the Ten Commandments was the fifth highest grossing movie of all-time. Made in 1956. In 1957 it made a net profit of 185 million. Adjusted for inflation the box office gross was almost 1 billion dollars. It was a four hour long movie. I think people are interested in these stories. People need some help in understanding how these stories fit together. Moses was able to free the Israelites They wandered the wilderness for 40 years God gave Moses 10 commandments in Exodus 20 God also gave the Israelites 620 laws to follow Moses died at the edge of the Jordan Joshua led the people across the Jordan into the Promised Land This is the third important date1250. This is when the Israelites crossed over into the Promised Land The story then became one of Israel taking over the Promised Land. With Joshua they were successful. After Joshua died the people were ruled by Judges. They were a loose confederation of rulers For 200 years the Israelites would be attacked and they would attack others. The people got tired of having judges. They wanted a king. They cried out for a

king. Often when God wanted to communicate with people in the Old Testament God would send a prophet. A prophet is a messenger from God. God sent Samuel the prophet to let the people know of all the downsides of a king. Samuel shared that when the people had a king they would have to pay money and go off to war. The people didnt mind. They wanted a king. This was a significant theological shift. Instead of relying on God the people would rely on a king. Saul became the first king. David was chosen as the second king. David defeated all of the enemies of the nation. The people became a nation that was called Israel. This process that

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was started by Gods call to Abram in 1900 had turned into a nation of people who were safe from their enemies. David wanted to take the Arkwhich carried the 10 commandments and build a Temple for God. Instead of building a physical Temple God had other ideas. This is the third important Scripture 2 Samuel 7:17-24 God shared with the prophet Nathan what God wanted to do. Nathan told this to David SLIDE When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever 2 Samuel 7:17-24. Some people see the inkling of the Messiah in this passage. When Jesus was called son of David, it meant that Jesus would be the one who would establish the kingdom that God promised to David in 2 Samuel 7. At the height of his power, David committed a grave sin. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had Bathshebas husband, Uriah, killed. God punished David and David was never as powerful again. David had a son Solomon who built a Temple. Solomon had a son, Reheboam, Davids grandson. Most people who have been involved in the church know the basic story of Genesis to Solomon. Its my experience that the stories after Solomon are not that well known. The information in the rest of the sermon is not that well known by most people. Reheboam was a king of Israel. Reheboam was hated by the people of Israel. He imposed harsh labor on them. Israel went through a civil war. The northern tribes became the nation of Israel with Samaria as its capitol and the southern tribes became the nation of Judah with Jerusalem as its capitol. This happened in approximately 925. This is the fourth date in the important date section of the outline.

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The story then became about the kings of Israel and Judah. Sometimes the kings followed God and the people were blessed; most of the time the kings didnt follow God and the people were not blessed. At this time a lot of changes were happening in the nations outside of Israel and Judah. The empire of Assyria developed under a number of rulers. Assyria was so powerful that it ordered the nations to pay them a tribute in order to keep the peace. All sorts of geo-political relationships and rivalries broke out. It was politics that would rival any politics of 2012. God sent prophets to Israel to share with Israel how to stay blessed. The prophets of the 8th (Isaiah, Micah, Amos & Hosea) century warned the northern kingdom of what would happen if the people didnt follow God. The people didnt listen. In 725 the Assyrians invade the northern kingdom of Israel and put Samaria the capital of Israel under siege. After a three year siege Samaria fell in 722 and the people were exiled. 27,290 from Samaria were forced to leave the country. This is the fifth important date. The destruction of Israel722. A new empire arose. It was called Babylon. In January of 587 the warriors of Babylon surrounded Jerusalem. Jerusalem was under siege for 18 months. In 586 King Zedekiah tried to escape the siege of Jerusalem. He ran away. The forces of Babylon captured Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. They took Zedekiah and his sons to King N. Zs sons were killed in front of him. Then the kings eyes were gouged out and he was taken away as a prisoner. Tens of thousands of people were forced to leave Judah to live in a foreign country. The Temple was destroyed. 586 is the sixth date on our sheet. This was the greatest theological crisis of the Old Testament. It seemed that the covenant that God had established with Abram had ended when Babylon burned the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 and exiled the people.

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God hadnt broken the divine covenant at all. The people of Judah were in exile for about 50 years. The emperor Cyrus conquered Babylon. Approximately 50,000 people came back to Jerusalem. They rebuilt the walls of the city and built the Temple in 516/515. When the people would lose their religious fervor God would send prophets to bring the people back to God. The very last prophet of the Old Testament was Malachi. In the last three verses of the Old Testament the prophet Malachi wrote this: SLIDE Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statues and ordinances that I commended him at Horeb for all Israel. Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse. Malachi 4:4-5 In reading this passage we can identify this prophet as John the Baptist. John the Baptist came to fulfill these words of Malachi that were written about 450 years earlier. There is continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Its important for us to understand this. There is a term in the Christian church called supersessionism. This is the belief that the New Testament replaces the Old Testament. This is a dangerous belief because it does a disservice to the stories of the Old Testament. Its also dangerous because we cant understand the New Testament without understanding the Old Testament. Rabbi Cohen shared his thoughts about supersessionism. He said this: Video: 20: to 20:45 I think that last statement is powerful. To say that the New Testament replaces the Old Testament is to say that God broke a promise to the Israelites.

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Let me close by responding to this question. The question is this: why read the Old Testament in 2012. The title of this sermon series is Old Testament=2012. I read the Old Testament to learn about myself. Genesis 12 story Retreat at Plainview SK sayingthis is your story Moses 3 God asks me to do things that are uncomfortable I understand the reluctance of Moses As a new church we have to do things that are not in our comfort zone Because God calls usGod is going to help us and be with us When you are asked to do things that you feel uncomfortable I hope youll say yes. God will help you Micah 6:8 Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with our god Vision for our life All of this is in the OT. I cant imagine living without these stories and these words We learn so much about ourselves in this story. We learn so much about starting a church. The story of the Old Testament is a story about our lives. When we read the Old Testament in 2012 we are in one sense looking into a mirror. Were seeing ourselves and we are seeing ourselves as God wants us to be.