This is an ongoing study starting in Genesis, and working all the way to the Revelation. The idea is to study the Scriptures as history, or rather to bring the historical element into our study of the Scriptures. The study begins as any “book order” study would, in Genesis, although Job is placed somewhere in Genesis, since that book probably occurred around the same time as Abraham’s life. Exodus follows, and then Leviticus is something of a “side bar,” mostly focusing on the way the Temple actually ran, and the spiritual and theological implications of the Mosaic Law. From that point forward, books and sections of books are pulled in chronological order, and intertextual clues are sought out to better understand the way they fit together.
There is actually an older version of this study, here, but our small group decided to go through the entire thing again, only this time with more detail. As I build the slides for each study, they are posted here. If you have questions, or would like the original Powerpoint version, or even to peek at the notes for each set of slides (it takes me about 10 hours to build one set of slides), email me. My guess is that the study will take between 150 and 200 sections to complete, though I might be surprised. Occasional side trips into doctrinal concepts sneak in, so it might take longer, or it might end up being much shorter than I think.
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The 35th hour of material is up for our small group’s narrative study of the Scriptures. This material focuses on Genesis 32, and the strange incident at Peniel. Why is God wrestling with Jacob? How does a man prevail over God? An interesting aside in this set of slides —we find out the true origin of the name “Palestine.” Hint: It doesn’t have anything to do with the Philistines.
For those following along in our narrative study of the Scriptures, the slides for the 34th hour are posted here. This hour we discuss the 31st chapter of Genesis, where Jacob decides to flee, and ends up confronting Laban in the mountains of Gilead.
The 33rd set of slides for our small group’s Narrative Study of the Scriptures are now up. This time, we’re discussing Genesis 29 & 30, dealing with the birth of Jacob’s first 11 sons, Dinah (his daughter), and his increasing wealth in flocks and herds.
Enjoy!
For this hour of the narrative study in our small group, we’re looking at Genesis 28, specifically the dream Jacob had at Bethel on his way out of the Land. Was he simply fleeing, or was there more to his travel to Haran?
For those following along through our narrative study of the Scriptures, the 31st set of slides are up. This session covers Genesis 27, where Jacob “steals” his father’s blessing from Esau. You’ll have to read the slides if you want to hear the other side of the story; it’s a very interesting section of the Scriptures.
We are still winding our way through Genesis in our narrative study of the Scriptures. The slides for the 30th hour, which continues our look at the lives of Jacob and Esau, slides are posted here. The primary focus is Esau selling his birthright, including the commentary provided on the event by the writer of Hebrews, and the single chapter devoted to Isaac, which is Genesis 26.
We continue working our way through Genesis (there’s a lot of material to cover in Genesis) with chapter 25, up to the birth of Jacob and Esau. The end of this study spends a little time talking about predestination in light of the Romans 9 passage, which relies on the birth of these two men as background.
Slides here.
The 28th set of slides for our small group narrative study is up. This one covers Abraham’s sending of the servant to find a bride for Isaac. I’ve done this one a little different; I’m trying not to embed the actual Text so much in each slide, to allow a slightly larger typeface, and more notes and information on each slide. Instead of actually reading the Text, I’m using the Listener’s Bible to play each section in turn.
The 26th set of slides from our small group’s narrative study of the Scriptures is up. This one finishes out Genesis 22, including a discussion of the way James and Paul use Abraham as an illustration in the New Testament. There is also a short discussion on the Cave at Machpelah, and finally a review of the tests of Abraham’s life.
The 26th set of slides from our small group’s narrative study of the Scriptures is (finally) up. This one covers Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac, including a look at one Rabbinical and Islamic views as well as parallels with Christ. This section also covers an overview of the tests of God.
The slides for our 25th session in our small group’s narrative study of the Scriptures are up. This set covers Genesis chapter 21, which means it includes the weaning of Isaac, the ejection of Hagar and Ishmael, and the treaty with Abimelech.
Enjoy.
The 24th set of slides (24th hour) of our small group narrative study of the Bible is up for your perusal. This one covers the second part of Genesis 19, from the point where Lot flees to his incest with his daughters. This set of slides also discusses Lot’s spiritual condition, and some things we can learn from Lot’s life.
Narrative 23, the first of two parts on the Cities of the Plain in Genesis 19 is up for your perusal and study. This part contains various pictures of the area around Sodom, and discusses Genesis 19 up to the point where the Angels have had enough, and are about to destroy the Cities, just as day is breaking.
The slides for the 22nd hour of our small group Narrative Study of the Bible are up. I must say I had to wrestle with this one a good bit, and I still don’t know if I’ve really gotten it right, or explained what I think well. The problem relates to the relationship between God’s statement/question on telling Abraham about the destruction of Sodom, and Abraham’s plea for justice in response. These are both very interesting passages, difficult to understand and to digest.
Take a look if you want to see my [...]
The 21st set of slides for our small group’s narrative study of the Bible is up. This one deals with God’s appearance to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre, and the second promise of a son through Sarah.
The 20th set of slides from our narrative study of the Scriptures is up. This is the second part of our study in Genesis 17, dealing with the Covenant of the Circumcision.
The 19th set of slides (the 19th hour) of our narrative study of the Scriptures is now up. This is the first of two parts in Genesis 17, discussing the Covenant of Circumcision.
The 18th set of slides for the narrative Scripture study are up. This one discusses Hagar in some detail, to see what we can learn from her story, and her interactions with Sarai and the Angel of the LORD.
The slides for the narrative study of the Scriptures are up. This set of slides considers Melchizedek, the priestly king who met Abram after he defeated the five kings who had taken Lot as a spoil of war.
The slides for the 16th hour of our small group narrative study through the Scriptures are posted. In this set of slides, we’re discussing the rescue of Lot and God’s cutting of a covenant with Abram. We’ve skipped Melchizedek here, leaving it for the next study, because there just wasn’t enough time to cover this interesting figure as well as he deserves. Even narrative studies sometimes have to work a little out of order.
Narrative 15, Call of Abraham, is up. The slides cover Genesis chapters 12 and 13, the first part of the record of Abram. When I first started working on these, two weeks ago, I was afraid I was going to have to break someplace awkward because there wouldn’t be enough material here. I was astounded at the amount of interesting material, once I started really digging into it. There are two or three threads going at once, all relating to the preparation of the seed by God, or the story of Christ. I tried to capture all of [...]
I really, really struggled with the Book of Job. There’s not a lot of commentary out there, and most of it doesn’t really bring any meaning out of the story being told, but rather just focuses on the structures within the Text, and the one or two statements here or there that indicate specific doctrines. Ray Steadman’s sermon put me onto an interesting perspective, however, that’s developed in a slightly different way here in these slides.
Next up we launch into the life of Abraham, starting with his call from Ur into [...]
The slides are up for Narrative 13. This one discusses Nimrod and his possible connections to other characters we know from history, and the Tower of Babel. There are a couple of slides discussing the influence of Babel on the modern world, and then finally a single slide overview of the past 13 sessions.
I just finished up the slides for the 12th hour of our narrative study of the Scriptures. This set deals with some final strings in the Flood, then goes through the story of Canaan’s curse (if you don’t remember, Noah gets drunk, Ham sees him naked, with the result being a curse on Canaan, Ham’s youngest son), and has one slide on the Table of Nations. Next we will deal with the Tower of Babel, I think, and touch on Nimrod along the way.
At the same time, I also taught through the slides for section 6, the [...]
For anyone who’s following along, the second set of slides is up for the Flood, set 11 for our Narrative Study of the Scriptures. In this set, we deal with the story of the Flood itself, given the background of the patterns, and information about the Ark, from the last session. In the next session, we’ll discuss Canaan’s Curse, the institution of human government, and the table of nations, if we can get through all of that in an hour.
The slides for our narrative study, session 10, which covers background and patterns in the Flood, as well as an examination of the Ark Noah built, is up. There are a lot of interesting things here, including the two chiasms in the Flood story, the pattern in Noah’s genealogy, and some other odds and ends. Did you know the first ship built larger than the Ark, using the smallest possible size for the Ark, was built in 1858? It was eventually broken up for scrap, a commercial failure. The second ship built larger than the Ark was built [...]
The slides for the ninth session of our Narrative Study of the Scriptures are posted here. In this session, we take a break from the Scriptures to look at fundamental worldviews, including how to judge a worldview, what some specific worldviews believe, and how they relate to different governmental systems.
The slides are up for the 8th session of our small group’s narrative study of the Scriptures. This one deals with Cain and Abel, including the parallels between the story and judgments of Adam and Eve, and the story and judgments of Cain.
The slides are up for session 7 of our small group narrative study of the Scriptures. This one covers total depravity and the transmission of sin, two somewhat controversial areas (but I’m no stranger to friendly disagreements!).
The slides from session 6 of our narrative study are posted here. The topic this time is the first set of consequences of the Fall, focusing on the interaction between God, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. We also examine the judgments and the immediate results of this first sin. The next set of slides will deal with the development of total depravity and the transmission of sin, since these two doctrines are related to the immediate consequences of this first sin.
The slides for the fourth and fifth session of the narrative study are now up. These two sections are interesting because we take an in-depth look at the temptation of Eve, and her fall, pulling in various Rabbinical sources to provide a more complete picture. After going through the fall in detail, we spend some time looking at how the temptation compares to the dialectic process, a commonly used model of social interaction, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is a commonly used method of looking at people, and where they are in their lives.
The Fourth Session
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This one focuses on the creation of man, the first Toledot in Genesis. There are some comments on the breath of life, Man’s purpose and place on the Earth, the soul of man, and the ending state of man after his creation. My plan is to cover the Fall in the next one or two sessions, depending on how much information I end up pushing into the slides. From here, the studies will follow Genesis for some time, until we skip over to Job in its place, around the time of Abraham. We will fall out of the [...]
Includes an overview of Genesis, several thoughts on the structure of Genesis, the seven days of Creation, and some thoughts on the difference between the Genesis account of creation and alternate worldviews.
Slides here.
Our small group is transitioning to a narrative study of the Scriptures again, starting at Genesis. This is the first set of slides we’ll be working from, next week. This study discusses the concept of dispensations, laying a groundwork for the entire study. We don’t need to try and define which dispensational “system” is “right,” but we do need to understand the concept, see where it comes from, and what the underpinning points of Scriptural interpretation are. The study then transitions into a look at the Fall of Satan. Some folks might find some of this material a [...]
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