Exodus

Posted on August 11, 2024 by billbushauthor

The book of Exodus is full of familiar stories, including the story of Moses, the plagues of Egypt, the Passover, parting of the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments, and the golden calf.

The major event in Exodus is the Passover, which is our clearest Old Testament picture of our individual salvation through faith in the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God commanded the community of Israel to take a year-old male lamb without defect, slaughter them at twilight, and spread the blood on the sides and tops of the doorframes.

That night God struck down every firstborn of every household that wasn’t covered by the blood of the lamb.

Safety came not from being an Israelite but from applying the blood. Israelite families who didn’t obey God by putting the blood on their doorframes lost their firstborn. Egyptians who obeyed and spread blood on their doorframes were spared.

Genesis 8:4 tells us that Noah’s ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month, which we learn in Exodus 13:4 is the month of Abib (later called Nisan).

God tells Moses in Exodus 12:6 to slaughter the lambs on the 14th day of the month. And in 12:14, God tells the Israelites to celebrate the day (14th of Nisan) for generations to come.

In Luke 22:1-20, Jesus is crucified on the Passover, the 14th of Nisan. He rose three days later, the 17th of Nisan (or Abib), the same day the ark came to rest.

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Genesis

Posted on July 29, 2024 by billbushauthor

Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is the first and one of the most exciting books in the Bible.

The first 11 chapters occur at a breathtaking pace and leave us asking many questions.

How long did Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden before the fall?

How could people live for so long?

What really happened in Genesis six that caused God to flood the world in judgment?

What exactly was the tower of babel?

In the first 11 chapters, God created the world and then pronounced three judgments at the fall, the flood, and the tower of babel.

The pivotal moment of the book comes when God steps into history and makes a covenant with Abraham.

Genesis 12:2-3 reads, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

With Abraham, God begins his plan of salvation for the world.

The remaining 39 chapters of Genesis tell the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, ending with the nation of Israel in Egypt.

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One Purpose for the Bible

Posted on July 21, 2024 by billbushauthor

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the fourth of four weeks to show the centrality of the Bible

There is one purpose for the Bible.

Paul writes in Romans 15:4 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

What? Everything that was written in the past. In other words, the Old Testament. Some want to dismiss the Old Testament, but that is a grave mistake. It was written for us.

Why? To teach us. God has acted throughout history. He guided people to preserve His words so He can teach us how to live our lives in a manner that frees us to love Him and to love others.

Purpose? Through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. God did not give us the Bible so we could have an easy and prosperous life. Yes, following his commands does mean less self-destruction and more peace-filled lives.

But we live in a fallen world and God has promised us suffering and hardships while on Earth. He also promises a future utopia and eternal life with Him.

In summary, the Bible has one central theme, on central character, one central author, and one purpose.

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One Central Author of the Bible

Posted on July 14, 2024 by billbushauthor

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the third of four weeks to show the centrality of the Bible

There is one central author of the Bible.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

To Paul, all Scripture would have referred to what we know as the Old Testament. He says that the Jewish Scriptures were God-breathed, meaning that God worked through the authors of the Old Testament to weave His message throughout.

Peter explains further in 2 Peter 1:20-21, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

God didn’t put the biblical authors in a trance or dictate to them, except where He shows up with specific messages. He allowed the authors to be themselves in their time period and the Holy Spirit guided them accordingly.

So even though the Bible was written by over 40 writers, God Himself is the lone author. That’s how our holy Scriptures became consistent, useful, and powerful.

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One Central Character in the Bible

Posted on July 7, 2024 by billbushauthor

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the second of four weeks to show the centrality, or unity, of the Bible

There is one central character in the Bible.

Psalm 40:7 says: “Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.’” (The KJV has “the volume of the book is written of me”)

The writer of Hebrews quotes this passage in Hebrews 10:5-7: “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “…Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll…”

The scroll or the Jewish Bible, what we know as the Old Testament, was written about the Messiah, and since Jesus is the Messiah, the Old Testament is all about Him.

He explains this to his disciples in Luke 24. He walked with two of the disciples going to Emmaus after he had risen from the dead. They did not recognize Him and Jesus didn’t tell them it was him. Instead, He listened to them and then corrected their false expectations.

Luke 24:27 says: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, doesn’t arrive until the New Testament, but a proper understanding of who He is and what His mission was about requires an understanding of the Old Testament. After all, it was written about Him.

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One Central Theme to the Bible

Posted on June 30, 2024 by billbushauthor

The Bible is an anthology, or collection of books, written over a 1,600-year span on three different continents in three different languages by over 40 authors from every walk of life including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, etc.

This is the first of four weeks to show the centrality, or unity, of the Bible

There is one central theme to the Bible.

Paul writes to Timothy the following words in 2 Timothy 3:14-15: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 

After Adam and Eve sinned, God taught them the concept of sacrifice. He demonstrated deliverance through Noah. He promised Abraham that all the peoples on earth would be blessed through him.

Throughout the Old Testament we read God’s promises of salvation, we see pictures of how God saves His people, and we watch as predictions come true to validate the prophecies of the coming Messiah.

When John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching, he declared: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

In John 12:47, Jesus states: “For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”

While preaching in Acts 4, Peter says: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Everything from Genesis to Revelation points toward the redemptive work of Christ.

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Jesus Holds All Things Together

Posted on June 23, 2024 by billbushauthor

In his gospel, the apostle John introduces Jesus with a callback to creation. John 1:1-4 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

John makes it clear that the Word he is writing about is Jesus in verse 14: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

Jesus made everything. Just like God and the Holy Spirit, nothing was made without Jesus’s involvement.

The apostle Paul also makes this abundantly clear in Colossians 1:16-17: “For in him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Jesus not only created everything, He holds it all together.

The last three weeks we’ve seen how God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are connected to Creation. The three Persons of the Trinity are seen throughout Scripture, starting with, “In the beginning.”

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The Spirit of God Hovered

Posted on June 16, 2024 by billbushauthor

In Genesis 1:2, we see the Holy Spirit’s involvement in creation.

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

And again in Psalm 33:6 – “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”

The Hebrew word for spirit in Genesis 1:2 is the same word used for breath in Psalm 33:6.

Job 26:13 expands on what the Holy Spirit did: “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens.”

The word garnished in Job 26:13 means adorned or beautified.

One of the reasons landscapes and mountains and stars take our breath away is because God added a touch of beautiful when he created all things.

The word hovering in Genesis 1:2 (hovering over the face of the waters) is the same word used in Deuteronomy 32:11 and gives us a picture of what was about to take place.

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young,”

God was about to bring order out of chaos, give birth to everything, create beauty from nothing, while the Spirit hovered in preparation and anticipation.

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In the Beginning God Created

Posted on June 9, 2024 by billbushauthor

The Creator of everything is:

Spaceless because He created space
Timeless because He created time
Immaterial because He created matter
Powerful because He created everything out of nothing
Intelligent because creation is precisely designed
Personal because He made a choice to convert a state of nothing into something (impersonal forces don’t make choices)

The Bible claims that Creator is God. The first verse (Genesis 1:1) in the Bible states: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

One of the reasons the idea of a Creator is attacked/dismissed comes down to accountability. If a personal being created us, then the Creator has the authority to tell us what to do and to judge us accordingly. Without God, we can live our lives any way we want.

We see this throughout the Bible: God giving mankind instructions, mankind ignoring God’s direction, and God intervening/correcting people.

Ultimately, God will judge every person, nation, and spiritual being justly (see the book of Revelation), and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11).

That’s one of the points of Genesis 1:1—to lay the groundwork for God’s involvement in humanity.

The biggest miracle happens in Genesis 1:1. If God created everything out of nothing, then all the other miracles of the Bible, including Jesus’s resurrection, are simple.

The next two weeks we’ll look at the work of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus in creation.

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Genealogy Shows the Shortening of Life

Posted on June 2, 2024 by billbushauthor

In response to the second rebellion of mankind, the sons of God marrying the daughters of man, God states in Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

This didn’t happen immediately, as the table below demonstrates. Following the age at death column, notice how the life spans shrunk through the generations.

Another interesting note is the Shem, Noah’s son, was still alive when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were born.

Once again, we see that a closer look at a genealogy, this time the one in Genesis 11, shows fascinating information behind the mundane read of numbers and hard to pronounce names.

Much of the bible is the same way. A casual read can be confusing and boring, but understanding what was written and why can open up wonderful truths and insights that bring the ancient Scriptures to life.

ScriptureManYear BornYear DiedAge at Death
     
Gen 5:32; 11:10-11Shem15562156600
           11:10-13Arphaxad16562094438
           11:12-15Shelah16912124433
           11:14-17Eber17212185464
           11:16-19Peleg17551994239
           11:18-21Reu17852024239
           11:20-23Serug18172047230
           11:22-25Nahor18471995148
           11:24-26; 32Terah18762081205
           11:26; 25:7Abraham19462121175
           21:5; 35:28Isaac20462226180
           25:26; 47:28Jacob21062253147
           50:22Joseph  110
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