Wednesday Night Bible Study | 03.03.2021
Audio
Notes
Big Picture Overview of OT – Understanding Isaiah in Its OT Context (Part 4)
Hebrews 11:1-16, 39-40
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 12:22-24
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Isaiah 51:11
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Revelation 3:12
“The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.”
Revelation 21:1-3
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Revelation 22:1-3
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Isaiah 48:18-19
“Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring [zareka = “seed”] would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before Me.”
Isaiah 66:22
“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”…
Genesis 4:17, 4:23-26, 6:6, 10:6-20, 11:1-9
Daniel 3, Isaiah 47:8-13, Revelation 17-18
Note: Genesis 11:3 lebenah v-hachamar => Exodus 1:14 bilbenim bechomer, 2:3 tebath b-chemar < Genesis 6:14 tebath
Genesis 1:1-2:3
And God said. And God saw … was good.
And God blessed => “Be fruitful & multiply,… fill….”
And God said (6x – vv. 3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24) begins each day. “Then God said” (2x – vv. 11, 26). “God blessed them and said” (2x – vv. 22, 28). => “Ten Words”
Genesis 1:26-31
Genesis 6 & 9 Noahic Covenant(s)
Gen. 6:18 Moses’/OT’s first use of Hebrew term b’rit
God establishes his B’rit with Noah AND gives Noah a Command: Noah & family must come into the ark.
8:20 – 9:17 – What is most commonly called the “Noahic Covenant”
Again, Moses/Genesis’ use (now repeated) of Hebrew b’rit (9:9, 9:11, 9:12, 9:13)
Notes: (1) The covenant is (a) Unconditional, (b) Universal & (c) Everlasting!!!
Notably Universal: with Noah AND ALL Noah’s seed, …
AND ALL living creatures,… AND for perpetual generations!
(2) Noah & Ark Animals, Flood Subsiding & Restoration of Creation Mandate (and Noah’s Name) reflecting Genesis 1-2:4.
(3) The Sign/Token –- famously the rainbow –is for the LORD (!) 9:12ff.
(4) Noah’s “Fall”/ failed 2d Adam ….
(5) (5) Noah’s curse on Ham & Canaan, blessing of YHWH, Shem’s God.
Further problems with humanity, summarized in the Genesis 10-11 Table of Nations and Tower of Babel – in particular highlighting rising conflict with Nimrod & the people/kingdoms/cities that come from him (including Babel & Assyria/Nineveh) … culminating with the TOWER of Babel!
This all sets up the major contrast/tension between the City of Man/Idolatry/Man’s Glory and
the LORD’s plan/promise/covenants with & through Abram.
Genesis 12-28ff. Abrahamic Covenant(s) –
including the initial/calling commands & promises the LORD made to Abram of land, seed & blessing [Genesis 12:1-3].
1 Now the LORD said to Abram,
(A) “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And (1) I will make you into a great nation, And (2) I will bless you, And (3) make your name great;
And (B) you shall be a blessing; 3 And (1) I will bless those who bless you, And (2) the one who curses you I will curse. And (3) in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The LORD further specifically makes & cuts his covenant(s)with and/or for Abram and his seed & family. God confirms and expands on the promises as the story of Abram moves forward. See, e.g.:
the specific b’rit of 15:18ff. …
the b’rit olam of 17:7ff.,… and
the LORD’s magisterial covenant oaths in 22:15ff.