When in the course of the study of the Bible,
when we're confronted with this opposition by
some Christians to really focus a study on the
Hebrew Bible, the first question that we would
have to ask of them is why? The rebuttal, the
response to this opposition would have to be
the acknowledgement that without an understanding
of what's contained within the Hebrew Bible,
Good news that comes in the Christian Bible would
make little sense. Imagine, if you will, someone
with this radically supersessionist viewpoint
and one that only focuses on the canon of the
Christian Bible, the New Testament only. Imagine
the practice of that reader would be to completely
ignore the Hebrew Bible as if it never existed.
The Christian Bible would make little to no sense,
and it would appear to proclaim confused news
at best. The response might be that they would
advocate for some awareness of Hebrew Scripture,
generally those passages that will assert dominance
of one group over another group, or maybe a very
narrow concept. of divine action in people's
lives, but then they would choose to reject the
rest, especially those troublesome rules of Leviticus.
We all know, however, despite our different faith
traditions, that the taking and leaving from
Scripture as we individually see fit, well, it
never works out in the end. So Christians should
embrace the Hebrew Bible as a whole. or not at
all. And if that choice is not at all, well,
Christianity is left without a very critical
foundation. That said, like Arlo Guthrie and
his telling of the story of the picking up of
the trash in Alice's Restaurant, or the song
by the same name, that's not what I've come here
to tell you about. What I'd like to do in our
time together is to illustrate the beauty of
and to make an argument for the necessity in
studying the Hebrew Bible this week on the Semi
-Seminarium. Why study the Hebrew Bible? Well,
to answer this question here in the very beginning,
we have to assert what is the Hebrew Bible. Now,
whenever I say what is the Hebrew Bible, I don't
even mean what are the different books of the
Hebrew Bible, because those opinions vary, especially
between the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible.
But whenever I say what is the Hebrew Bible,
what I mean to ask is what is it about? What's
the ultimate point? Well, very simply, the Hebrew
Bible is the story of the holy, of the divine
creator in relation to its creation. Not only
does the Hebrew Bible tell the story of God and
of people, but when read with the right set of
eyes, it can also be of the way that different
people thought of God at different times in different
ways. The author Stephen Geller argues this changing
perspective shows us a culture that had as yet
developed no theological, philosophical language
adequate to describe the events around them.
So, we can't read and as a result value Hebrew
scripture. Simply as it's some kind of rule book
or an instruction manual, the value of Hebrew
Scripture is in its nuance. And the nuance within
Hebrew Scripture is expressed in several ways.
But in order to capture the Hebrew Bible and
its main significance, we can narrow these perspectives
down to just a very few. We can actually place
just two lenses by which we might view the Tanakh.
The Hebrew Bible can be viewed through the lens
of a road map in which we in the present day
can find our own failures and our own successes.
Well, despite their uniqueness to us, they're
not unique at all. That the Hebrew Bible also
can serve as a mirror by which we also see ourselves
in relation to God. These different lenses are
illustrated by the various stories that we find
contained within the Hebrew Bible. The beauty
of the collection is that it offers times when
God is the focus of the narrative and times when
God, while ever present, is not in the frame.
These shifting perspectives aid us, we the common
everyday reader, in using Hebrew scripture as
a guide, as a roadmap to our lives. And just
as there are times when our present circumstances
seem to overshadow the actions of God, so does
the Hebrew Bible shift perspective and provide
us a roadmap towards right relationship with
God. And all of this is juxtaposition, which
is revealed through the opening pages of Genesis,
contrasted with the lessons of Job. The opening
of the Hebrew Bible, the book of Genesis, begins,
with no humans in sight. Much of the story of
Genesis is propelled by the actions of the divine
and the reactions of creation as a result. And
it's in this way, again, if we look with the
right set of eyes, that we're instructed that
the God that is the creator of existence is a
reality. and all of that that is entailed is
beyond human control. As the scholar John Levison
relates, the human experience early on must take
a back seat as God takes precedent over abstract
theology. Just as the First Testament provides
us a perspective in which the divine seems to
hold center stage, and as a result, Order, then,
is brought forth through the taming of chaos.
However, the book of Job appears to place us
in a space of experience where the action or
even the inaction of God does still seem to appear
to act in an orderly way. That the book of Job
is one that is well -worn in our history seems
to indicate, at least to me, its ability to tap
into some fundamental concern of the human experience.
And that is the oversimplified question of why
do bad things happen to good people? With the
opening pages of Genesis, we could follow along
and ascertain that apparently not following God's
commands was the most efficient way. for humankind
to receive some form of chastisement from God.
The roadmap is a very simple one for us to follow.
Do what God desires, and as a result, be blessed.
But Job, on the other hand, takes us down an
entirely different path. Not only that, the travails
that befall Job, despite his apparent piety,
seems to find a receptive audience in every time
and place. This despite the fact that at the
end of the tale of Job, we receive little understanding
as to the order of things other than as Job chapter
1 verse 21 says, the Lord is given and the Lord
is taken away. This realization by Job is far
from the X marks the spot on our roadmap. Despite
understanding the reason for his chaotic calamity,
when all is taken from him, Job is able to realize
that divine presence is all that he ultimately
truly desires and in that way provides us today
with an understanding that above material possessions,
God's faithfulness is what we should desire most
of all. The Hebrew Bible can also act as a mirror.
A mirror in which we can see ourselves and be
confronted with the naked truth of our selfish
reality. There are two particular stories within
Hebrew scripture that for me most vibrantly illustrate
this idea. One is through the teaching of the
prophet Nathan to his friend David. And the other
is through the book of Ruth. Our story of David
comes from the book of 2 Samuel. Infamously,
at this point in the story, David has taken Bathsheba,
the wife of Uriah, in the 11th chapter as a sexual
partner. The resulting assault led to Bathsheba
being pregnant despite her marriage to this warrior
Uriah. David, recognizing the situation that
he's in, commands that Uriah be placed in harm's
way until he is killed, Eventually, he is. His
friend and prophet Nathan comes to the king to
illustrate to him the wrong that he's done, and
by doing so, tells him a story. And in the story,
Nathan depicts a character that has created a
grave injustice that, given his power and his
ability to avoid injustice, commits it anyway.
Well, upon hearing the story, David is obviously
incensed at this injustice until Nathan reveals
that the story is about David. Well, this story
for us can serve as a mirror. While we may not
be adulterous kings, we are confronted with acts
of injustice that we could choose to not commit,
and yet, We do every day. The book of Ruth also
reflects something about us that we often refuse,
just like David, to see. And that's our own xenophobia.
The book of Ruth is complex. And it's complex
for a number of reasons. But, as a roadmap, it
can offer us an example. in our lives today,
of how we should be able to see God within the
faces of every person that we encounter, especially
when those faces look differently or they speak
differently than our own. The book was especially
salient because it was written at a time when
the world... that the audience lived in was rapidly
changing, just as our world is today. The lessons
that the book of Ruth teaches them, the audience,
and us today, revolves around this understanding
of the desire of all of God's creation, all of
God's creation, despite their nationality, be
reconciled. to God's divine presence. In the
post -exilic or the post -exile period, the Hebrew
world that the people faced was a new reality.
The forced migrations of different people groups,
as well as the remnant of people that remained
in the land of the Israelites, created a world
that was much more multicultural and multi -ethnic
than before. How were the people of Israel to
honor God and protect their earlier notions of
sacredness as the chosen people? Well, one response,
was that the people should dissolve marriages
to non -Hebrew people and remain within the 12
tribes. The 10th chapter of the Hebrew Bible
book of Ezra illustrates this by relating that
the marriage to non -Hebrew wives was offensive
to God. In this recognition, the characters say
that they have trespassed against God. by bringing
into their own homes foreign women from the people
of the land. That's the 10th chapter of Ezra,
verse 2. This reflects not just a pattern of
preference, but rather an act of sin by the people.
This teaching in Ezra illuminates some belief
that God is still only desiring to bless the
people of Israel. And that those of foreign descent
are, well, they're simply of no value. Well,
the book of Ruth stands as a commentary against
this notion. And when read with the right set
of eyes can reveal that God, in fact, does care
for the whole of creation and that all peoples
can be used by God and blessed by the divine.
The book of Ruth, by illustrating the human perspective
of the characters involved, puts the reader in
this very precarious position when it comes to
locating the hero of the story. The emotional
engagement of the characters' plight, while their
plight for survival, it makes it very difficult
for the objective reader to ethically somehow
discern Well, that the accident of their birth,
that it was outside of the chosen people, was
somehow, while unfortunate, unworthy of their
concern. And not only that, but the use of the
law to restore Naomi and Ruth of Moabite, despite
her foreign heritage, also reveals something
of importance to us. It shows us. that the law
can be applied and used by those that show faithfulness
to God to bring blessings above their heritage.
The book of Ruth shows an evolution of theology
within the Hebrew Bible, which is represented
by this expansion of an understanding of who
it is that God wants a relationship and how God
works in the world. And for we, the modern Christian
reader that wants to perpetuate a narrow view
of who are God's people, well, that book stands
as a remarkable example of God's love and grace
for all of us. Why should we study the Hebrew
Bible? Because in so many ways the lives... depicted
on those pages are just like ours. The stories
of the Hebrew Bible reflect the people trying
to make sense of the world around them and how
they made sense of God. They tell the stories
of people trying to come to grips with a divine
creator that wishes a relationship with them.
And they show people continuing to mess up in
their pursuit of that relationship. They reflect
the joys and the sorrows of the human experience.
They're us. And if we choose to read these stories
with the right set of eyes, we can see them as
a roadmap for our own lives and, at a time, a
reflection of our best and our worst selves.
The Hebrew Bible shows us that despite all of
the changes to human civilization over the millennia,
the story is still the same. That God loves us.
And he wants us to be in relationship with the
holy. Well, there you have it. As you can imagine,
I would find it hard for anyone to believe that
there is not incredible significance and beauty
within the Christian study of the Hebrew Bible
in its right context and for the right reasons.
I want to particularly thank Dr. Lisa Davidson,
my Introduction to Hebrew Bible professor, whom
I cribbed. several of my points from her lectures.
Thank you, Dr. Davidson. Hey, listen, if you
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be blessed and please be a blessing. Shalom.