Meeting God in the Old Testament  Chapter Five: Lawgiver Once God rescues the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, His interest in them does not diminish. Instead, He elicits an agreement from them that they will be a people for His own possession. He then spends the next forty years revealing a system of law to them that will be their moral polestar for the next years. This giving of an ethical code is something that no god from any of Earth’s mythologies ever bothered doing. Why is it significant, then, that the REAL God is a Lawgiver?    Deuteronomy 5-6   Exodus19; Leviticus 19: 1-4; Numbers 

-36; Psalm ; Psalm 19:7-14  Questions: Deuteronomy 5-6  1. What do we learn about God from Deuteronomy 5:6-10? Why is this important?  2. Do the commandments described in Deuteronomy 5:11-21 appear to have any purpose in mind? What is it? Why would God be interested in that purpose?  3. What appears to motivate the Israelite elders in Deuteronomy 5:22-29? Does God desire to create this motivation in them? Why? 4. In Deuteronomy 6:3, God tells the Israelites that it will be well with them if they obey Him. In what senses is this true? Meeting God in the Old Testament: Chapter Five It’s commonly said that the Old Law was designed to exact robot-like obedience from God’s people. What does Deuteronomy 6:4-6 tell us about this belief? What, in turn, does that tell us about God? Consider Deuteronomy 6:7-9, 20-25. What do these Scriptures tell us about God’s interest in seeing children taught the Law? Why would God have this interest?  7. What does Deuteronomy 6:17-19 say about God’s motivation in giving law to the children of Israel inthe first place? Questions: Other Scriptures  1. Describe the argument that God makes in Exodus 19:3-6. What connection does God see between redemption and possession?    2. What point does God want to impress on Israel in Exodus 19:21-23? Why is this significant?  3. What is God’s message in Leviticus 19:1-4? What does this tell us about God’s purpose in giving the Law?  4. Tell the story of Numbers 15:32-36. What do we learn about God from this Scripture?  5. Describe David’s attitude toward the Law as he presents it in Psalm 19:7-14. What causes this attitude? What are the results of this attitude? Why would God want to create this attitude?  3 Questions: Application  1. Why is it important today to understand God as a Lawgiver? 2. How should our insight into this aspect of God’s nature change our way of life

160210 Lesson 6 - Meeting God in the Old Testament as Conqueror IPad

Genesis 33:18, 20 reads:  “Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. . .  Then he erected an altar there and called it El-Elohe-Israel.”Translated, the name of Jacob’s altar is “God, the God of Israel.”  When Jacob chooses this name for his new altar, he probably doesn’t intend to make a statement of huge Scriptural significance.  His new name is Israel, God is his God, and he’s quite happy about that.  However, the name that Jacob applies to his altar can  be  applied  equally  well  to  the  entire  Old  Testament.    Those  thirty-nine  books  of  the  Bible  are  about God and how He is defined by His relationship with His chosen people.  God is the hero of the story.Often,  when  we  study  the  Old  Law,  we  do  so  on  a  small  scale  as  we  become  entranced  by  the  stories  of godly  men  ranging  from Abraham  to  Nehemiah.    Although  these  stories  are  instructive  and  important, sometimes they distract us from understanding God.  This textbook aims to correct that mistaken focus.  It divides  the  history  of  God’s  ancient  dealings  with  mankind  into  twelve  segments and  describes  each segment in terms of the aspect of God’s cha