The Historical Setting And How Much Of It Does Your Sermon Require? Essay

In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.

A cultural value that is important and must be taken to account is Direct vs. Indirect. I say this because how you communicate with some will greatly affect how much they retain of listen to. In this matter, Drew has expressed that he feels Christians are aggressive and history has shown their moral compass lacks right vs wrong and good and bad. Knowing this I would want to work around being direct and indirect when communicating with him. I would never want to be to direct and push him away nor would I want to be so indirect that it seems as if I’m walking on egg shells. In the end, how I communicate to him will greatly impact if he listens or shuts me out.

The readings of Exodus explain the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and how the covenant was renewed. The rejuvenation made Israel a nation and formed a relationship between god and his teachings. The nature of god’s presence reveals how the Israelites were authentic and productive with how they reproduced and how the land became filled with Israelites. The reality demonstrates how the new king of Egypt stated that, “The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are”(Exodus p. 16). This reality proposes how the Egyptians became resentful against the Israelites in order them to suffer brutal slavery and make life difficult for them with intense work and punishment. The texts in Exodus acknowledge the sacrifices Hebrew women had to make in order to live through nature and reality. It states “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives” (Exodus p. 16). Gods presence through nature and reality reveals how

It was after the escape, did the followers of Moses wander into a desert. Unified by the laws given from God to Moses. The laws were called the commandments. These commandments that were given from God describe

didn’t she want more out of her life? Or more precise a life after death? This gave her a means of

Israel was the land stuck between the Jordan River and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The people who lived there are referred to as Israelites, and these people are mainly mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 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. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to

Ramses the Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelites out of Egypt, so Moses stepped in and led the Israelites out of Egypt, which we know as the Exodus. If I were an Israelite, I would join Moses out of Egypt. I would do this because being a slave would mean being tortured. Moreover, Moses had powers from God, so it was save to be with him. He had the Ten Commandments, so people would know how to live their daily lives.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.” Prior to taking my Exploring Religion class at Nazareth College, I will admit that I was pretty religiously ignorant, even in the religion that I identify with! It was not that I did not want to learn about religions, I just was never very motivated to do my own research, and because these topics are so touchy in schools, we never went in depth, in high school. I am beyond thankful that a religious studies class is a requirement at Nazareth because after taking it, I feel that it is very important to be educated on religion as it is so controversial in our society, today.

This lead the reader question why God did not provide defined rules, or expectations, prior to the commandments? Previous covenants focused on God’s obligations: to not destroy mankind again and to provide Abraham offspring and the land of Canaan, whereas Exodus focused on Israelite responsibilities (p. 114). In the end, the reader found Exodus a “rite of passage” that displayed God’s trust in the Israelites and a formalized relationship with God.

There are scholars and historians who have the opinion that the Israelites were a mixture of several nomadic and semi-nomadic groups of people that lived in the Levant and more specifically Canaan. As a result of famines, droughts or economic situations the Israelites were part of or members of groups such as the Shasu, Hyksos, and the Habiru that moved around Mesopotamia, the Levant, Saudi Arabia, the Sinai Pennisula and

Reflecting on chapter fourteen of Barbara Brown Taylor’s book “The Preaching Life”, I gained great insight into the understanding of imagination, and its relationship to conscious reality. Taylor, in this autobiographical insight of her life as an Episcopal Priest and Preacher, presents the reader with the challenge of understanding the concept of imagination, as perceived through the eyes of children versus the lack of imagination in adults. . Moreover, it is a comparison and contrast to the imagination, as it is perceived, applied, and evaluated through the eyes of adults. Possibilities are what children perceive through imagination, where as adults often see problematic probabilities. Her scenarios about children’s play and discovery are a reminder that followers of Christ need to redirect their thoughts and actions toward the positives of life, and avoid the negatives.

The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other

Israelites - the sons of Israel - the tribes that descended from the biblical Jacob. The term Israelites is usually used to describe the people when they were a loose confederation of tribes and before organizing into the kingdoms of Israel and

The point of this assignment is to discuss the passage chosen, as well as information regarding the historical/cultural background of the passage and applying it to my life as a human being. It is also important that I apply this information on the passage to the Christian life or church ministry. The passage I have chosen for this assignment is from Matthew chapters 5-7 and is labeled “The Sermon on the Mount”. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and most prominent of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount was to show people who converted to Christianity how to live. It is to show how Christians should live in their actions, words, thoughts, and others ways of life. With that being said, this way of life was preached by Jesus Christ as he “went up on the mountain” to deliver his powerful message. The information for this passage is in, of course, the bible and our textbook “Encountering the New Testament”, as well as many other resources on the web that are related to the bible and passage.