Foreshadows My Spiritual Journey Essay

Even in the days of Jeroboam I, the man who founded the Kingdom of Israel, God already knew that Israel would be troublesome. It was forewarned that, “…the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles.” The Israelites’ reason of doubt for God was that they were unsure that they could take over their promised land. God told them that they could remove the current inhabitants, but they were convinced that they could not. Not believing in the word of the Lord led to their exile for forty years of “wilderness wandering.” They had forgotten all of the great things that He had done for them, such as delivering them from Egyptian enslavement. Hope was given up on Him

According to the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the Hebrews were promised that as long as they followed the Ten Commandments that God had given to them through Moses, they would be blessed with prosperity and good fortune. However, if the Hebrews failed to follow God’s instructions, they would be cursed with a plethora of disaster and disease.

Without devotion to God, violence and death would flourish in Israel. These factors would impede God’s blessings of security and life; thus, the Mosaic covenant demonstrates the continual faithfulness of God in the Old Testament. Finally, God is faithful to Israel during the people’s complaints in the desert. Rather than abandoning the nation for its faithlessness, God provides them will nourishment and protection during their journey. These acts further reinforce the faithfulness of God, even when his followers stray. In all, the Pentateuch demonstrates the theme of God’s faithfulness.

If the Children of Israel remembered God's promise, it could easily be imagined that they would feel a sense of excitement at its fulfillment. They would jump for joy and look forward to living in the land they had been promised. The Abrahamic Covenant should have affirmed the belief of the Israelites in God. With the promise before them, they should be able to move forward without fear. Instead, the Apostle Paul reminds us in chapter ten of I Corinthians that it was the complete opposite. Specifically in verses six through eleven we see Paul's warning to not behave as they did.

incredible heart change happens.” (Scott, Talks) “God will not give you more than you can

Moving on, from what Richter named the barrier (people, time, and space), chapter three contains the outworking of God through the five men discussed before. As she states, “the biblical writers consciously organized their material in a systematic fashion in order to communicate certain central truths.” The author briefly details the aspects of the covenants within the Old Testament surrounding Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Taking, in turn, each of them and expositing them in a way that shows the redemptive story that is taking place. “For each of these characters was called to mediate a covenant between God and humanity”. Tying into the culture of the people, God used the fallen and difficult Israelite culture to set up his redemptive plan the would show to be faithful, even to a faithless people.

The next section is composed of verses seven through ten. This section is summarized by God commissioning Moses, saving the Israelites from their oppressors in Egypt, and taking them to the good land. The first important verse in this subsection is verse eight. Verse eight reads “so I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites” (BibleGateway). This is important because the idea of covenant promises is now being fulfilled through the Moses.

Jesus was truly God and truly human. Yet he was tempted by the Satan in the desert. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil .and he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “if you are the Son of God, command these

Furthermore, your heart is what keeps you pumping every day, it keeps you alive every day, some people give up their hearts to give to others, and it is like one of the best things that has ever happened to you. Joby was considered the heart of the army because he had to lead the soldiers out with his beating of the drums. The general says, “But if he beat a sure, steady, ever faster rhythm, then their knees would come up in a long line down over the hill, one knee after the other like a wave….” For example, the rhythm Joby did on his drums determines how the soldiers are going to fight and it motivates

Perhaps even the nastiest, vile beings have goodness hidden in a petrified heart. Evidence from the Story “Poker Flats” by Bret Harte proves this. Three characters in particular showed this, their names, John Oakhurst, Tom “The Innocent” Simson, and Mother Shipton.

Their message of repentance unto the Lord or face destruction was received as well as the same message is today. Though foreign armies were conquering lands around Judea, the Israelites did not perceive their need for salvation, and did not fear God. In fact in light of the pluralistic culture of Jeremiah and Uriah’s day, many prophets were preaching good news in the name of god’s but only these two men are recorded as speaking for the Lord. I am not applying this to this week’s coursework to say that in a pluralistic culture we should all take the same approach as these men did in proclaiming damnation to all who will hear.

Moses was tending to his father-in-law’s sheep when he saw a burning bush. The bush was not being consumed by the fire. God called out to him and told him he was on Holy ground. God then explained that the Hebrews were suffering and that He was going to send them to a great land flowing with milk and honey. This place was called the Promised Land. God sent Moses to the Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Moses questioned his authority to do what God told him. God explained that He would be with Moses on his journey. Moses questioned whether the Hebrews will know who God is. God then says “I am who I am” this was what Moses was to tell the Hebrews.

Growing in a knowledge of God teaches us how to behave especially with those we live with proximity to for communal living. This what God did with the Hebrews after he and Moses liberated them pharaoh in Egypt. While Israel traveled in the wilderness God though Moses gave them the law (Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 5). Israel receiving the law was a way for them know how to interact with each other while living in proximity. Not only did they receive the law but they were also commanded to be holy like the LORD (Leviticus 19:2). Since Israel, the prophetic community was called to be holy like the Lord, Israel, they were called to a higher standard of living in the world as opposed to other societies around them (Leviticus 11-15).

All these parables seek to illustrate the reality and the attitude of the people of Israel, whom Jesus spoke to at that time. They partly reflect the love and sacrifice of God for humanity, and this is

To speak of the Hebrew Scripture is to speak of story, a story stretching from the very beginning of time to only a few centuries before the beginning of the Common Era. It is to speak of richness of content, of purpose and of reality and to engross oneself in an overarching narrative that, depending on your personal convictions, continues to the present day. Within this richness is found a wide variety of different events and experience, told through a series of genre ranging from foundational myth to apocalypse, law giving to poetry, genealogy to wisdom and many more. Within this diversity however, three broad sections can be discerned that speak to a shared purpose and content, these are the sections of Law, Prophecy and Writings. It