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Thayer Thursday – Bible background is crucial

As I’ve taught about how to understand scripture in context over the past several years I’ve noticed that in many ways it’s easier to do this with the New Testament.

Even though we’re almost 2,000 years removed from the time of the New Testament, we’re much more familiar with 1st century culture and history (the setting of the New Testament) than we are with Ancient Near East culture and history (the setting of the Old Testament).

For instance, most of us know what a Roman soldier looked like and how they fought. But how many of us know what an Assyrian soldier looked like and how they fought?

Both the Romans and the Assyrians were super-powers, both are integral to the story of scripture, but we’re much more familiar with the Romans.

This is understandable though.

Not only is it a function of time (the Assyrian empire was about 700 years prior to the Roman Empire) and current historical significance, but it’s also a function of what most people in the church spend more time studying: The New Testament.

Many of you are probably thinking: “Of course! That’s where Jesus is!”

I get that – especially the week after Easter where we spent time as a community remembering the centrality of His death and resurrection. However, the more time I spend studying the Bible the more I have come to recognize that virtually ignoring the Old Testament is at best like skipping to the final chapters of a magnificent novel because we only want to find out what happens in the end.

At worst it gives us a gross misrepresentation of who God is and what Jesus accomplished on the cross. The Bible does not contain two grand narratives, it contains one.

So what does this mean as we enter into the story of Jonah for this sermon series?

It means we are probably going to have to do a little bit more digging.

It means that there are going to be characters we don’t know and actions we don’t understand.

But when we spend time learning about these characters and the entire context of Jonah – we will probably be surprised by the picture of God we find.

We will discover that the protagonist in Jonah is not a fish, or even Jonah! Jonah turns out to be the antagonist and the fish is simply a tool used by God.

The protagonist is God.

Probably most importantly: we’ll recognize that the popular distinction of a “God of wrath” in the Old Testament and a “God of grace” in the New Testament is a misreading of Scripture.
Right at the beginning of Jonah, in 1:2 we’re introduced to the city of Nineveh. Whether or not we understand who these people are determines if we will understand the entirety of Jonah.

Nineveh was an Assyrian city, one that would become the capital of their empire. Assyria was a super-power. In 722 B.C. they destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel and attempted to do the same to Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 17-19).

The Israelites would have naturally despised Assyria. Therefore, Jonah did not want to go preach against Assyria and thus (as we find out later) give them the opportunity to repent.

Jonah saw the Assyrians as “outsiders” and wanted nothing to do with them.

So Jonah ran.

He went the opposite direction.

This knowledge of the context sets up the entire theme of Jonah: Who does God care about, and by extension, who should we care about?

 

Chris Thayer

Sermon Title: ‘Running For Your Life’
http://vimeo.com/channels/gsumc

Posted by on April 11, 2013.

Categories: Biblical Scholarship, Biblical Theology, Blog, Hebrew Bible

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