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Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Job

Posted Friday, March 16, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: Old Testament  
Three of my favorite OT books are covered in this section - Joshua, Judges and Ruth. I love their stories, the messages they present and the way they communicate those messages. I have developed a series of three sermons on Ruth which I have enjoyed presenting several times. Each of the sermons focuses on one of the main themes of the book by going through the entire book. So essentially I preach the entire story for three weeks in a row, but emphasize different aspects each time. For example, one of the sermons is a first person sermon from the perspective of a formerly bigoted Moabite-hating worker who is employed by Boaz, and for that sermon I leave out the entire encounter between Ruth and Boaz at the threshing floor. By the way, the connections between Ruth 3 and Genesis 19 (story of Lot and his daughters) are fascinating. I have also tacked Job on here for lack of anywhere else to put it. Job was my father's favorite book, but I have not caught the Job charm yet. I still like the book, but it is not one of my favorites.

1)     Joshua-Ruth, Job

a)     Plot

i)        Joshua 1-5 Preparation for the Conquest

ii)      Joshua 6-8 Conquest of Jericho and Ai

iii)    Joshua 9-12 Conquest

iv)    Joshua 13-21 Division of Land

v)      Joshua 22-24 Changing of Guard

vi)    Judges 1-2 Recap of the history

vii)  Judges 3-16 The Judges

viii)Judges 17-21 Everyone does what is right in their own eyes

ix)    Ruth – Ruth the Moabitess

x)      Job 1-2 Prologue

xi)    Job 3-29 Job and his friends

xii)  Job 30-37 Elihu

xiii)Job 38-42 God gives his opinion

b)     Theological Themes

i)        God fulfills his promise (Land promise to Abraham)

ii)      God is faithful (second generation)

iii)    Sin has consequences (Achan, loss at Ai, and continued fighting)

iv)    Sinners need a savior (Judges)

v)      People are sinners (Judges)

vi)    Israel became like Canaan – Do not become like the world (Judges)

vii)  There is hope for sinners (Ruth)

viii)God is sovereign (Ruth)

ix)    God is compassionate (Ruth)

x)      God does not always share what he is doing (Job)

xi)    Sometimes it is good to not talk (Job)

xii)  God is the Creator and can do what he wills (Job)

Friday, March 16, 2007 12:20 PM

Brian wrote: Job

Have you ever considered how most of Job is dealing with bad theology?

Most of what Job's friends do is misinterpret Job's tragedy and misrepresent God's character and what is important to Him. But we have taken the events that are the context for the theological debate (which covers ~80% of the book) and made those events the point. If those events were the point, could we not expect the whole book to be only the length of Ruth?

Friday, March 30, 2007 7:02 AM

Josh wrote: Intertextuality...

If you connect Gen 19 with Ruth 3, you should probably read Judges 19 (if you can stomach it) with the first half of Gen 19 in view...sleeping in the square, old man who insists on hosting, homosexual mob, substituted virgin women...

It seems to be a pretty definite riff on Gen 19, only this time it demonstrates that the children of Israel had degenerated to the level of Sodom and Gomorrah, the most heinous of OT examples.

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