0:07
well last week I mentioned three different approaches to reading scripture and today I'm going to give kind of a beginning uh reading guide and again this
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again this is I didn't come down from the mount with this carved in stone this is really just my musings on the different types
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of Revelation that we have in scripture all of it is the revelation of God all of it is inspired but it's given to us in such a
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way that it um it is obviously not a homogeneous book it it is so incredibly different than the Book of Mormon or the
0:48
Quran or really any other religious book in that it is the living history of God with his people and it's dynamic as I said a couple weeks ago it's really an
1:00
epic and so we mentioned or I mentioned the historical approach then the theological approach and then a literary approach does anybody have any questions
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about those different approaches and the discussion we had last week I mean it's not a matter of doing one and then doing the other and then
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finally doing the third it's it really you kind of have to come up with your own reading plan but the point of the three approaches is to recognize that our approach to the
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scripture is powerfully impacted by what we expect to get when we arrive if we only go to the scripture for theology what we walk away with are
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proof texts if we only go to the scripture with history what we walk away with is Legend I mean that's what's happened in terms of of the church and
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approach to scripture when it emphasized one approach or another for example the literary approach well we get poetry but we don't really get the full Council of
2:10
scripture because we're only looking at the diamond from one facet we're not turning it and so what I'm recommending is that as you read the scripture you turn it and recognize that it it does
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have at least these three facets if not more so the his rical approach I put
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first uh primarily because within the reformed tradition it's not put first it's put second or or third uh what's put first is a theological approach and this was
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necessary historically because theology had been horribly perverted during the Middle Ages um by the time of the Reformation there definitely was need of
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some correction but from that Heritage we have kind of inherited a theologically Centric approach to scripture where we
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want to make sure all of our tees are crossed and our eyes are dotted properly and we if you remember the story of the shth we we want to be able to pronounce
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things correctly we want to be able to to to articulate our Doctrine in the proper reform reformed manner so that we can be can be TR anybody know what that means truly
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truly reformed okay so it's not a town north of Greenville it's truly reformed all right um and I'm not TR
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but told that a long time ago I mean frankly if you're Baptist you're not TR but beyond that if you don't say things in the right way according to the the right verbage then you're not truly
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reformed um that's that's straining at a KN and swallowing a camel and it's because even though the reformed tradition believes in the historicity of
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the scripture you rarely find a TR who doesn't believe in a literal creation or in a a literal real King David a historical figure that's not the point
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the point is that they they approach the scripture in order to glean theology from it to harvest theology from the fields so um the historical approach I
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think is the right place to begin especially for Gentiles and especially for Gentiles who have um grown up in a dispensational
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environment which has been around for about almost 200 years so we're dealing with uh an American church that while it seems to be um
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absolutely convinced that Israel of today is the the holy people of God and that's the Holy Land I mean they have this idea about what Israel is and and all of that but they have no knowledge
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of what God has done and revealed through Israel in the Old Testament so I think in a reading plan that takes the
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approach um in the Old Testament you begin with Genesis it
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obvious I would say that there are some of the and that's what I'm going to not all of the history books necessarily but I I think that because God has revealed his will through living Nation peoples
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history the history comes from first that if the theology comes first we get it into our mind that we have no need of the history but the theology
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without the history is not going to be fully accurate that I guess that's what I'm saying does that make
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yeah none none of these are hermetically sealed from the others these approaches okay and and I and I start out by saying I'm I'm not suggesting that you spend the next five years on the historical approach before you touch the
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theological approach I'm not suggesting that at all in fact not even a year what I'm really trying to say I call it an approach but again using the analogy of a gem
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a gem what I'm trying to say is that it is multifaceted it's not just history that see that's what liberalism has foed upon the modern church is that
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the Old Testament is just history and even as a history it's mostly myth myth and Legend but but it's also not just Theology and I think that's the reformed
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weakness I was thinking last week when you talking about the historical church not so much the gem analogy more likeing
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Forest hisorical approach is like maing the entire
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forest trees are going to be yeah losing the forest for the trees or the idea of of losing the the portrait for the brushstrokes I think those are good analogies that that that make the distinction between the historical
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approach and the theological approach um does anybody disagree with the statement that the Bible is not a Systematic
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Theology does anybody disagree with the statement that the bi that the Bible is primarily historical if it is primarily historical and not primarily theological where
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should we should we start with start with history because we're reading it as I mentioned last week we're reading it as part of the people with whom God is
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engaged okay remember the the the the fact that that the scripture is an engagement of God with his people and so we are if we're not reading the
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scriptures as people engaged with God then we're reading them
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only yeah uh what what I what do I think drives the King James only uh I mentioned this I think I think the unwillingness to deal with textual variance we talked about that and and um
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you know that there was a lot of discussion about the fact that we're not talking about and I think it's important to make this this comment again we're not talking about differences in
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translations we're talking about difference in the actual manuscripts that we have of the Greek and of the Hebrew now everybody understands we do not have the original letter that Paul
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wrote to Rome no one has discovered that they weren't dated anyhow so if they you know if it said you know um C yes certified male 2 of February ad uh 54 no
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we would know right away it was a forgery but we don't have the originals we have copies and they're called manuscripts because they were done by hand okay so these copies these
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manuscripts there are thousands of them whole and parts that have been found in the deserts in the monasteries um but there are
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there are variance between variance between them actually different words passages that contain verses others that do not contain those verses you see these in
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your marginal notes when you read your Bible it says some manuscripts do not have this verse okay has that ever You' ever read that and that bothered you I mean it should bother you
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especially this is with the discussion of plinary verbal inspiration if you hold to that modern Doctrine then what
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verbals do you say are God's word okay so if you believe that every single word in your Bible is the correct word then how do you deal
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with manuscripts well one way of dealing them is to as a congregation or denomination accept one translation as the word of
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God in other words you make the decision that the men who were convened by King James to translate the Bible into English were inspired by God to know
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exactly which manuscripts were correct and bar all the others the decision has been made for you that's that's why I think it's
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think it's done well it is a very it's no it's just religionism it's top- down religionism is what it is even the Muslims have this you know they have their different variants too you realize that Muhammad
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himself was illiterate he didn't write anything down and and there were multiple copies of what he supposedly heard so so they had the same problem and it leads to their different sects
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and denominations and there's there's heated disagreement within Islam as to what the proper reading of this verse in the Quran is so we're not alone in that
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right oh yeah it all in all lump up so 19th century Germans really ruined the world yeah yeah you talk about the Antichrist it's it's actually her Antichrist right oh yeah no that's really that thank you for that
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but and I like the way you say exposed to the King James only it's like radiation you know you too much exposure and you click click click Aon
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basically it's yeah it's established as the tradition and that's where the Catholicism comes in this is the tradition that we accept as being right correct then we don't have to deal with textual variance uh and I don't even
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know whether the King James Bible actually prints the variance I imagine some do now but um generally within the King James only you're not going to have a discussion on textual variance and
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textual criticism but it is a response to the liberalism that came out of the higher critics in Germany so it it's it's not that's kind of a
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background yes right but that that's language and so we have have to um you know if you if you hold to that kind of a view then the reality of textual variance will shake
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your faith in the Bible and that's not necessary it that comes from a view of scripture that we need to remember neither John Calvin nor Martin Luther
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held they did not hold to a plenary verbal in none of the reformers did they held to the Bible as a living revelation of God of God and to the manuscripts as our best
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copies now again we need to also remember that among all of the variants none of them touch upon the issue of Faith or the doctrine of Christianity
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there's there's none you know there are no no variance that they say that Jesus died for our sins and others that say he didn't nothing touching anything like that um so we don't hold to that view of
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plenary and we so we don't we don't say okay this is the version that we use here U there are some Churches where you don't bring your Bible the Bible is provided for you in the Pew and
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therefore instead of telling you what verse to turn to they just tell you what page okay so because everybody uses the same version everything's wonderful um our view is that within the church there
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should be at least a couple of people who have a working knowledge with the Greek and the Hebrew in order to navigate commentaries and whatnot but we do deal with the textual variance
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when we study the scriptures like on Thursday nights we look at a passage that has textual variance or a passage that there appear to be discrepancies
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between what seems to be the same narrative only recorded by different authors that's something that as a historian we we just deal with when when
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we're dealing in history and dealing with the same event we're dealing with different reports because we're dealing with different with different perspectives okay now
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obviously this introduces the possibility or at least the the the theoretical possibility that one version of an account is not
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correct and that is very disturbing okay um to use an innocuous example if Chronicles says that King ASA reigned
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for 40 years and King says that and I'm just making these up because I don't have it memorized ASA reigned for 38 years it's the same
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King he reigned for either 38 or 40 years right he did not Reign well I guess if he reigned for 40 he reigned
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for 38 okay but I I don't think yeah all right solved that one but I don't think that's what the author had in mind now there are other possibilities as the way
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they started the years of a king you know okay so yeah there are other ways of looking at it but the point is when we read our Bible just as as simple Christians not as Scholars we recognize
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that wait a minute that those do don't match okay and so I think we got to little be a little bit more
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loose not not in a liberal way but not so tight as to think that that that that everything that we're reading is exactly correct Justin and then Ariel I think in
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terms of also the historical understanding understanding you know especially looking at the New Testament what these people who were
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Jewish how they would understand things what what I think of is um this course left me it's in the beginning of the gopel says it's written in the prophet and then a completely different Prophet
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not the prophet think prophet Isaiah but it's Malachi instead right so but if you look at it historically again we're so removed from it and I get it but if you
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look at it it was normal for them to quote the Minor Prophets as part of a larger Prophet yeah and they were all bound together anyhow the Minor Prophets were one book and they may have attributed it to the senior of the of
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the prophet phets or they may have considered the Minor Prophets to be um subordinate to Isaiah or you know they we don't really know what they were thinking what we know is that the truth
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that is revealed about God about us about salvation about all those things is contained in the word without error but arel just gonna comment
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that last week I was asking well why would you move on to the the theological approach but this I guess would be the reason as believer you're reading historically maybe you don't notice
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someone brings to your attention oh you're reading John have you ever thought about the fact that that gospel doesn't match in the the Passover meal it's
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different if you understand your theology and you've also read theologically you recognize yeah it doesn't match but the work of God is the same right those things that don't match
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are not deviations from God's intent and for his people exactly but if you're not theologically understanding then the hisor can become a stumbling block
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exactly it's become Legend and myth and and if if the if the Passover accounts don't line up and harmonize that's the word to you know to to bring together
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what appear to be different accounts of the same event does that mean that Christ Our Passover Lamb has not been sacrificed no it does not the theology then comes in and clarifies
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literary and a while coming back later because geted I can start to see how seminarians end up becoming deeply
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warped by things that we are warned about in the SC Not to get right don't get don't and and actually to apostatize um because they've encountered discrepancies but that's
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because it it has been ingrained in their minds by their their teachers plenary verbal inspiration that is setting us up for a disaster for shipwreck okay because the the we cannot
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we cannot in good conscience and integrity deny the manuscripts that we have and then we cannot deny the variant that are between and we cannot deny the
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apparent discrepancies that are even in our English Bible okay think all of that is really part of educational system we think we read
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textbook and we think everything in that textbook is perfectly correct right look at it lots of lots of errors but we got in our mind if I'm reading book it must all be perfect but in in the old
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world most of it didn't even right it was all done by a lot of it history by telling stories so to be exact like we think a
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text that's I agree with that 5,000% that we should not look at the scripture as a textbook but rather as as a an epic a living history keeping in mind that it was written over a period of 1500
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years okay it it is the most unique book in in human history by far um now none of those things prove that it's the word of God the only thing that proves to us
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that it's the word of God is the testimony of the holy spirit in our heart so we're not going to set out and try apologetically to prove that because of these unique features of scripture it
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is obviously the word of God now it's obvious ly a unique book okay that's not obviously anything else until your eyes are opened through
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regeneration and then you know this is the word of God in which case the weeds might be an interesting day trip you know to try to figure out and I I found a book that is very
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interesting on the regnal years of the Jewish or the Jew the Southern and Northern kingdoms which apparently had different calendars for their the year years of reigning okay uh that was very
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interesting it did not have any impact whatsoever on the purpose of kings and Chronicles okay so that's where the the theology has to come in uh so um I think
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that when we start the Old Testament then we do begin with the history and I think that rather than okay rather than getting you know just saying okay I'm going to read the pentat took you know
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I'm I'm not sure that's the right approach in fact it's not really the approach that most of the Bible reading guides take but I would go Genesis and and
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exodus and then Joshua in other words I would follow the first many generations of God the
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revelation of God's people first the creation God is choosing Man In His Image he's creating a temple
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and placing within that the IM image of himself man that kind of sets the stage what does it sets the stage for the rest of the story that man is the image of
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God so when you get to Hebrews 1 and and you read that Jesus Christ is the express image you realize he's the man okay he is truly the second the last
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Adam so Genesis establishes that principle of creation and of identification God is identifying
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himself with his Creation in the in the creation man does that make sense that's the meta narrative that's what the story is all about it leads to the theological
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questions why did God create you know that the theology will will come out with the the U the questions the especially the why questions but then
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from Genesis I go to Exodus because Exodus is in a sense God's answer to uh the
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flood okay it begins with Abraham After the flood but it's God's answering also to Babel it's God's answer to mankind
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seeking his own identity and his own image and building a tower that will reach up to the heavens and we shall make a name for oursel no I will cause
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my name to dwell with this people again these sholk these insignificant little slaves will be my people and I will be their
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God so that relationship that's broken in the garden through human sin we now see the restoration of it in a land flowing with milk and honey okay um and
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so Exodus but then you know you've got um l icus Numbers Deuteronomy I don't know that I would go there yet numers numbers is historical
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numbers is historical but I and I wouldn't certainly say don't read numbers you know I'm just saying I think it's getting down into the minua before you necessarily have gotten
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the full picture of God dealing with his people and that's Joshua the conquest of the land okay so again not to diminish the value of any book
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this is simply an approach I would go from Exodus to
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Joshua now that does leave out the Wilderness and that's a very important period of time okay so um you know I would I would certainly think that if you went from Exodus to numbers to Joshua you wouldn't be doing anything a
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Miss but I I'm not sure getting into the minutia of the wilderness is worth breaking up the flow of the
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Deliverance that God is bringing you see the point it's it's kind of a theme the first of all the theme is man has fallen and his sin has
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made a separation between himself and his God that's actually I think in numbers um but now God is restoring that Abraham and then Isaac and Jacob and
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tribes in is in in Egypt and then we go to The Exodus and the Deliverance under Moses and then we go to Joshua and the conquest of the land so in a sense historically we're taking one segment of
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actual history and saying look at what God has done okay so um again not not um necessarily to to rule out any
28:05
Samuel and then if you want to round it out and and take the the entire panoramic view of what God did in preparing the way for his Messiah first and 2
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fourth Kings it's it's the okay the idea the the reason I would put in at least these two is that it introduces the idea of
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the kingdom of God so the rest of the Old Testament history is is very much about the search for the revelation of the kingdom of God
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and from David's death onward it's the expectation of the true davidic king so this is going to give the background not only of of the um gospels where Jesus
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comes preaching the kingdom of God but also the also the prophets if you just read the prophets without any of this you don't have their
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context and and I don't know what value that would be except in dispensational prophetic conferences where you're actually looking for the Fulfillment in modern current events but you don't
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understand the content and the Heritage from which those prophecies originated so this is like this is foundation right here okay would anybody want to add anything to that again numbers
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possibly judges judges again I think that's going to get down into it's important book but it's going to get it's actually to me it's more theological than it's definitely historical but it it is it is like to me judges is
30:01
the Wilderness the Wilderness magnified that here in the wilderness they were rebelling they were stiff necked okay judges reminds us just like
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after the the flood the flood did not eradicate sin neither did The Exodus the conquest of the land did not
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wash Away The Sins of God's people and so you have judges again I wouldn't rule it out but I I would want to take the The overarching Narrative of redemption
30:36
to the glory of God that's really what I'm focusing on is the historical
30:55
lerer for the revelation of Jesus Christ which isn't in we're in the land but not way yeah that's that's a good point
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um the the notion that was very very common in what's known as the second temple period the period of Christ period of Paul and the apostles um was
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that even though the temple was built and the people were back in the the the land of their Heritage nobody thought that Jehovah had
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returned the shikina glory had not come back to the temple as it was in the Tabernacle and in Solomon's Temple that never happened in the temple of
31:40
zerubabel and the only Glory that was reflected by the temple in Jesus's day was herod's because he was the one financing his family was the one financing the the
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embellishment of this building and this is why Jesus himself gave relatively little respect to that building okay because that wasn't what God intended in
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Hagi in Zechariah or even in Ezekiel so yeah the idea land Temple Kingdom become
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motifs that the Jewish people who are the people of God are constantly seeking in the Old Testament historically so Hebrews bring this out brings this out
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in chapter 11 when it says is you know if they were seeking a land of this Earth they could have simply gone back but those who had Faith were seeking a city whose maker was God so that there's
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this expectation expectation of Deliverance and also recognition and I think that's good Ezra Nehemiah um and through the the last of the the post exilic prophets
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there's a recognition that it ain't happening yet this isn't it we're no longer in Babylon we're back in the land we're building the Temple but does this not seem a little thing in your
33:15
thaton yeah it's specifically says AR yeah it it would it it specifically says that in the days of Solomon all of the land that had been promised from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt had been given to Israel there's a
33:28
there's an actual verse that says the promise is fulfilled so anybody who says otherwise what they're really saying is well that didn't work God's going to do
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it again okay unless they're just flatly denying that they ever control the land they did control the land that wasn't the point judges is the point that once they control the land they're going to
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still muck it up and that's they're really they're they are God's people but they are a micro mosm of humanity okay would you throw Ruth Ruth U no I I think
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Ruth would be a very good book to read especially I would throw it in right around here because um
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well Jud yeah and it again it it has that note of Deliverance that is what I'm trying to focus on here that it is yeah so it would be a it
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would be excellent if you're you let's say okay I'm going to go ahead and read through these over the next six to nine months or months or whatever but when I get into this area here era maybe maybe right after 1
34:39
Samuel I'm G to take a little break and read Ruth it's only what like how many chapters not not that many okay and it is a case study but it's it's a very
34:50
important case study because it's the family of family of David so yeah also well no Jonah I wouldn't necessarily put in there because it's it's prophetic and I think I would put
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the prophets more in the theological or even the literary version Martha so this
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also are interpers crial yeah in the history so
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first actually read the prophets at the same time as the history that t yes I I think after um I think that's like reading like reading um even a hisor hisorical fiction uh
35:58
after you have and I don't don't get me wrong the prophets are not historical fiction but it I I'll use a personal example I enjoyed the historical fiction
36:09
novels of Sharon K Penman they were said in the late Middle Ages or high Middle Ages focusing primarily on the plantagen dynasty of Henry thei through to Richard
36:22
III um but prior to reading Penman I had read Thomas read Thomas kain's Trilogy on that era the plantagen
36:33
in other words that I I exposed myself to the history so that the the prophecy or in this case the historical novel had
36:44
connections in my mind already if I had started with penmen they would have just been fables they would have had no points of connection with the actual history so I think when you go back even
36:55
to the literary approach and you say okay I'm not going to I'm not going to abandon this but as you're reading Isaiah then read First Kings you
37:06
know read the historical book in which historically that Prophet fits and what that does but I would I would want to see you understand and then when you
37:18
even if you didn't read it at the same time when you when you read of the threat to threat to Hezekiah the history will be there to connect to it won't just be well I don't
37:30
know who these names are so I just keep on reading you know that's what kind of happens is because I I have five chapters I need to read today before I can check off this box you know like
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that's not the approach the approach of desperation is not the one we're advocating but that's a good point Martha that reading the prophets in in the historical order um is is at least
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something that you should do once or twice in your life just to to get the whole picture so when you go to the New Testament then um you know there there aren't a tremendous
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number of of of books that are I mean there are there the first five books are historical but there are a lot of letters and then
38:16
there's the apocalypse The Book of Revelation um Hebrews I I think personally is the transcript of a sermon um or something very similar so these
38:26
are not there's not as many his historical books uh percentage wise in the New Testament as there are in the Old Testament but where do you start when you get to the
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gospels yes if you're taking a historical approach well then take the one that is self-identified as a historical approach okay take the one where the guy starts
38:53
out by saying having made careful Sur chch and inquiry oh Theophilus this is what happened okay and it has the advantage of of the four
39:05
gospels the guy was a gentile he speaks our language I mean you if you I mentioned last week that we're we're presuming a sense of
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biblical ignorance here because we are Gentiles now that may be also true of modern Jews the especially American Jews but you know for for much of Christian
39:29
history the Jew still had a thorough understanding of his own history and Heritage he didn't have to start with this because he'd already been immersed
39:39
in it his entire life well we're are not and especially the impact of dispensationalism has dispensationalism has essentially divorced us or or detached
39:50
us as us as Christians from Israel which is the same as detaching us from our own own Heritage we have been adopted and engrafted into an olive tree of which we
40:01
know nothing because we're told oh that's not true that that's all for Israel and and then again in the Millennium but has nothing to do with us but now we're realizing wait a minute it has a whole lot to do with us so we need
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to see that we're not starting something new we're actually reading the continuation and fulfillment of what we've already been reading and so I think Luke acts is the best place to
40:28
start and frankly I would read it just like that Luke acts first and second Luke you wouldn't I feel like in the Old Testament we're trying to learn a
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language that we don't know read what God did for the Jews you wouldn't transition right out of Ezra into Matthew and then read Luke
40:50
that's that's a that has a a benefit um I'm not sure that I'm not sure that we've picked up enough you know if if I'm talking to a new
41:01
believer who's just now starting to read their Bible I'm not sure they've picked up enough yet to start with Matthew because Matthew's very Jewish it's
41:12
considered the most Jewish of the four and and you know I I I've heard over the years I I've heard people recommend you know you need to start with the Gospel
41:24
John no no that's like you need to start with Plato okay no and I've even had had them say I've heard them say because it's such a simple
41:36
book no it's not it it is it is the most difficult of the four gospels because it is the most theological I think starting with
41:47
Matthew has has Merit definitely uh I certainly think that if if it was a Jewish convert I would definitely start in Matthew um but I think that Luke
41:57
again if we're just following the historical Arc Luke follows that Arc better it it it continues The Arc of Deliverance and then acts of course um
42:10
you know it says your Bible may say the acts of the Apostle it really should say the acts of the Holy Spirit okay when Jesus uh before his Ascension says there are many things I I need to tell you but
42:21
you are not ready um and many more things you will do because I go to the father acts is the narrative the history of what Jesus said he would do when he sends the comforter so Luke acts is
42:33
really first and 2 Luke oh comment okay um so I I think that um you know he says in as much as many have undertaken to compile an
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account of the things accomplished Among Us just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and Servants of the word have handed them down to us it seemed fitting for me as well having
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investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order most excellent Theophilus so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have
43:06
been taught so you he's saying you need to know what happened not just the theological ramifications of what happened the things you have been taught
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that's the doctrines now I'm going to tell you the exact truth of those things so I think Luke is here and he says almost the same thing in the in acts 1 verse1 um he's kind of saying what I'm
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trying to say and that is the historical Foundation is absolutely critical it seems like whoever Theophilus was he he had gotten the doctrine but he didn't
43:40
understand the Moorings the anchor the foundation of that Doctrine and he and so he had the truth but he did not have the exact truth and so Luke was going to reveal that to him moving on um I think
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then go to Matthew again it's it's not these are not carved in stone but I think Matthew would be the one I would read next possibly Mark
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um somewhat ambivalent between the two and then from there um John okay I would go to John but see at this point you have you have two synoptics under your
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belt books that were avowedly written to record the chronological events of Jesus's Ministry life in
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Ministry John does not claim that John actually begins with the exact Greek words found in the Greek of Genesis 1
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nrk in the beginning and so for a Jewish reader but for anybody who's already you know locked them anchored themselves into the Old Testament history as soon
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as you start reading John your mind goes back to Genesis and that's what it's intended to do because John is dealing with the new creation he's dealing with the new Heaven and Earth okay the new
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Temple tear down this Temple and in three days I will rebuild it you know but John is not a synoptic John is not a um Moment
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by Moment Diary of Jesus's life and Ministry it's more thematic and so it is historical but we're going to find that it's not as easy to harmonize John with
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the other three as it is to harmonize the other three among themselves so John John starts to introduce the Theology of it and then finally as we're
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finishing up with this today um I would actually go with Romans right um and I'm going to say
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why uh for two reasons Romans is unique among Paul's letters in that he was not writing to a church that he had founded nor is he writing because of a particular issue as he does in other
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letters like Galatians for example but then the second reason is if that if you
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Romans without getting too much into the weeds if you read it from a bird's eye perspective it is actually a retelling of The
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Exodus it's framed and the retelling of the ex this look at acts 7 and is it seven or eight Steven's defense Steven's offensive defense what is it it's a
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retelling of The Exodus it's a retelling of the history of God's people this was many of the Psalms are the same retelling the story was a
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recurring Trope within the life of God's people because it kept them in mind of what God's doing that he is making for
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himself a people where his name and in whom his name will dwell okay he's making for himself we could say he's making for himself an Eden he's making
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for himself a tabernacle he's making for himself a temple okay um and so Romans is framed in that larger metan Narrative of
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The Exodus and if you've read The Exodus or Exodus several times you begin to recognize in Roman the um what what do I say the the
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pattern the pattern that Paul is using showing that in Jesus Christ the true Exodus has come about so that brings us
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without I mean there's a tremendous amount of theology in Romans as there is in in John but from a historical standpoint Romans is like the cherry on the top of the icing on the top of the
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cake okay well let's close in prayer father we do thank you for your word again we we Marvel at its complexity but
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also at its Majesty that it is it spans so long a period and yet it it is not homogeneous it it lives with the people
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with him with whom you engaged we pray that it would live with us in the same way as we engage with it uh even now through the reading of your word and the preaching
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and singing we pray that you would make it alive a living word within our hearts and our minds for we ask in Jesus name
