 All right. Good morning to all of you. Yeah. And also those of you who are online, very good morning. So sorry for the slight delay in, you know, in starting today's class. Hopefully, you know, we will be able to do the setup on time next time onwards. If I'm assuming that I'm audible online for the online students, in case there's any problem, if you can just put that in the chat, that will give us an idea, you know, so that we can rectify in case there's any problem. Thanks for that. All right. So we've not met before, you know, this is the very first class that I'm having with all of you here. And even the online students. So hopefully as time goes by, I'll get to know all of you personally, you know, and also hear your testimonies, hear your stories, get to know what the Lord is doing in all of your lives. So the topic that we are going to be covering now is Old Testament Survey. Usually, when we say, when we say a study of the Old Testament, it involves a lot of details. And it can become quite in depth. But what we are going to be doing in our particular course is keeping it very simple. All we are doing is an Old Testament survey. As in we are just simply briefly looking at each Old Testament book. And just to get a rough idea, a rough summary of what each of those Old Testament books are talking about. So that's basically what we would cover in our particular course. So as I, you know, have absolutely no idea of your background and your places you're from and all that. How many of you are comfortable with English? You can follow the general English, which is spoken. If you can, if I can just have a show of hands, those of you who are kind of comfortable with spoken English and, okay, so at least I would have three-fourth of the class. We will see what can be done for those who are not very comfortable with the English language. We'll see what can be done later. But okay, for today we will just have to adjust. I'm so sorry. Next class, you know, we will see what can be done for all of us, all of our students. Yeah. So to get started off and with a brief introduction regarding the course itself, what the requirements would be, we would have a series of lectures every Monday. We would be having, you know, our talks in our Old Testament course. And then halfway through when we reach the midterm, you know, timing, we would have an assessment. So in the Google Classroom, you know, there would be a multiple choice questions posted. There would be around 50 questions posted. And you would have probably about one week to answer them. So we would have a midterm assessment, which would be out of 50. And then again, at the end, there would be the final assessment, which is also a multiple choice question set. So that's basically what you would have to, you know, succeed at, you know, to pass this particular course. So even for the online students, you know, both of us, those of us who are here on campus, and also our online students, we would all have the same. Okay, I think the audio and video are both back. So yeah, we are functional. As just saying that if you have any questions online, if you could please put that in the chat, you know, I'll try to keep an eye on the chat so that I can answer any questions which are posted over there. So while the class is going on, if you have any doubt, those of us who are here, you can raise your hand. If you raise your hand, you know, I can pause the lecture, and I can just address your question, whatever it is. So while the class is going on, you don't have to wait till the end of the session. If you have any doubts or questions during the class also, it is quite all right, you can raise your hand. And then, you know, I will try to answer the question. So in the same way, those of us who are online, okay, so those of us who are online, if you have any questions, you can just put that in the chat. Yeah, right, someone has asked whether the exam would be online. Both the students here and the students who are online will all be doing on the Google Classroom. It will be a Google exam, a multiple choice questions Google exam. So everyone would be doing it online. Yeah, now if you have any questions, you know, which require maybe more explanation, more time in answering, then those of you who are online, you can post those questions in the Google Stream page, you know, the page which you access to click on the link and all of that. So if you can put your questions there, I can even try to maybe type out an answer for you in the Google Classroom Stream page. Those of us who are here, if you have any extra doubts, you know, you can just come up to me after the class and we can, you know, I'll try to explain those things. So that can be done for those of us who are here, you know, on campus. Yeah, those who are unable to log in, that issue will be taken care of, you know, so I'm assuming that next time onwards, no, we will not have any problems. Next Monday, when we have our class, everything will go smoothly. So those of us, I know what's not able to log in at the moment, we are working on that. Yes, it will be taken care of, it will be addressed. Okay, we'll actually get into the real class, get into the topic. So we are going to be looking at the Old Testament. We will look very, very briefly at each book of the Old Testament, try to understand what is the main theme that was there? What are the main topics that were talked about? Who are the main characters? What was God trying to communicate when he wrote the stories of those particular characters in the, you know, in each of those Old Testament books? These are all the basic overview that we are going to be doing. Okay, so during this course. So the Old Testament, as we know, was written in the Hebrew language. The first five books, it's generally believed, were written by Moses and Moses would have written in the Hebrew language. So the original Bible, when God inspired Moses to start writing, he would have written the Old Testament in his language. He would have written it in the Hebrew language. So later, this Hebrew Bible, this Hebrew Old Testament was translated into various other languages. But originally, the, it was the Hebrew language in which we find the entire Old Testament written because that was the mother tongue of those people. That was the language in which they used to speak. Now, there are four small portions in the Old Testament, which are not written in the Hebrew language. They are written in a slightly different language, Aramaic. Okay, so Aramaic is very, very similar to Hebrew. But there are some slight differences. And after the Israelites came back from, you know, the exile, Aramaic became more common. That language replaced Hebrew to some extent. So at that time, people began to speak more in Aramaic. And in our Old Testament, there are four passages which we see, which are not in the Hebrew language, which are actually written in the Aramaic language, which would be understood only by the Israelite people. This Aramaic language would also be understood by all the other nations, you know, with whom the Israelites were now living. This is after the exile, much later. So Aramaic began to gain popularity. And it's interesting to see why God would have asked the writers, you know, the Bible writers to use a different language for these particular four portions. What is the significance? The entire Old Testament is written in Hebrew, except for these four portions, where God seems to have, you know, asked these writers to write it in a different language. What was the significance of that? Maybe we could just briefly, you know, look at that issue. This one person here who has raised a hand, Theophilus, if you have a question, maybe you could unmute and, you know, go ahead and ask your question. If not, we will just continue the class. Maybe, you know, by mistake you have clicked on that. Okay. So what are these four portions of the Old Testament that are written in a different language? That's just very, you know, if you're taking down notes, you could just write down Genesis 31 verse 47. It's just a name, the name of a place. It's not very important, not very significant. The name of that place is written in the Aramaic script, and not in the Hebrew script. Okay. So that's Genesis 31 47. But then the other three are kind of significant. Ezra 418. From Ezra 418 up to chapter six verse 18, that entire passage is written in the Aramaic language. And it actually talks about a letter, an order that was sent by King, by one of the Persian kings, asking the people to stop the temple construction work. Okay. So in Ezra chapter four, the king sends a letter saying you have to stop this temple construction work. And that's written in the Aramaic language. And it goes on from there up to chapter six verse 18, that entire section is written in the Aramaic language. And it talks about the political interactions which were happening at that time. There were people who were opposing the Israelites and stopping them from building. All those things are, all those details are mentioned. It's like as if, because other nations are being involved in this particular process that was going on at that time, God asked this entire section to be recorded in a different language, a language which would be understood by even other people. So Ezra chapter 418 up to 618, that entire portion is in the Aramaic language. The next thing we see is Daniel chapter 2 verse 4, up to chapter 7 verse 28. Daniel 2, 4, up to Daniel 7, 28. That again is in the Aramaic language. Now that portion is actually talking about the dreams which Nebuchadnezzar had. And then Daniel gives an interpretation for all of those dreams. So that section also is written in the Aramaic language. It's like as if God wanted even the other nations to read that portion and understand what God had revealed through dreams to Nebuchadnezzar about the things which would take place. And also some of the visions were given to Daniel directly. We see that in chapter 6, chapter 7. So God wanted everyone to be aware of what was said in those dreams and what is the meaning of those dreams regarding the end times and things like that. Those are the things which were mentioned in those dreams. So that portion also is written out in the Aramaic language. And then finally there's one verse, one single verse which is in the book of Jeremiah. The entire book of Jeremiah is written in the Hebrew language except for this one single verse and that is actually Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 11. Now you know if we could have maybe somebody read out that particular verse, Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 11. Just for us to understand maybe we can start off with from verse 10 itself. Jeremiah 10, 10 up to Jeremiah 10, 12. Jeremiah 10, 10 up to Jeremiah 10, 12. Yeah, if someone can read out please. Jeremiah 10, 10 up to 10, 12. But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble and the nation will not be able to endure His indignation. Thus you shall say to them, this God that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by His power. He has established the world by His wisdom and He stretched out the heavens at His direction. So over here we see it's talking about how there is only one single living God and that all the other gods, they are not even important, they don't even count. So it says over here, these gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens. That particular line is written in the Aramaic language so that not only the Hebrew people who can understand Hebrew will read it, but even the other nations will read that one single verse and recognize the fact that there is only one living God, one creator God who has actually made the heavens and the earth and only He will be eternal. It says in that verse, all the other gods who call themselves gods, they would all perish from under the heavens it says. So these four portions or at least the three portions that we talked about, God chose to put those particular portions in a different language because He wanted everyone, even the surrounding nations to understand what is written. So maybe later on when you have time, you could just maybe look at those particular portions, just read through it and think in your mind, what if a non-Jewish person, what if a non-Israelite person was reading that particular passage, what would they think in their mind, what would be their reaction, what would be their response because God wanted that portion recorded in a different language because He wanted to convey that, He wanted to impress that upon those particular people. So maybe you could actually go through those three passages later when you have time. So that's just regarding the language of the Old Testament, coming to how the Old Testament books were arranged. Now today when we open our Bible and we look at our Old Testament, we see the Old Testament books arranged in a particular way. We start off with Genesis, then later on you have the historical books coming in, then you have some of the poetic books which are mentioned and finally you have the prophetic books. That's the way our English Old Testament is arranged, that's the way the books are arranged in the English Old Testament. But in the original Hebrew Bible which was written in the Hebrew language, at that time those books were arranged in a different way and it's good for us to just know about this. So what we are doing right now is just an introduction to the Old Testament. So we'll just look at some basic things that we need to know about the Old Testament and then maybe after the break we can start with the book of Genesis. So regarding the arrangement of these books, so they divided their Old Testament, the original Hebrew Old Testament was divided into three main sections. The first section was called the Torah. The word Torah basically means instruction. So the first portion, the Torah, consisted of the first five books. That would be your Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. So that first section is called the Torah and the word Torah means instruction. God gave the Israelite people many important instructions in those first five books because God said, I am going to come down and I am going to make these people my people and I am going to live among them and they should know who I am, they should know what I have done so far on this earth and they should know how they should conduct and behave in my presence and so God presents these five books to the Israelites like an introduction. So in these first five books, the Israelites began to learn who God is, how he is eternal, how he is the one who made everything which exists. So they began to understand who he is and it also talks about what he did for these people of Israel, how they were slaves and then God delivers them. He personally gets involved in their problems. He's the one who sends those plagues upon Egypt to help them, to deliver them. What all the things that God did for them are recorded in these first five books and in these first five books you also have a long list of instructions about all the things which the Israelites should do, how they should conduct themselves, how they should interact with one another, the property laws which they have to follow, all kinds of rituals, why are so many laws mentioned in this first section because these people are now going to be interacting with an extremely holy God. This is not just some man-made God which all the other nations are following. This is the living God, the most holy God, the one and only God there is and so these humans, these Israelites who are so imperfect, they need to now learn how to live in the presence of this awesome God, how to be acceptable in his eyes, what they can do so that he will be willing to accept them into eternity and they can continue to be with him. What are all the requirements? All those things are mentioned in these first five books. So Moses actually gives them a list of 613 approximately. I mean, you know, different people mention a different number but approximately 613 laws were given to the people of Israel which would tell them how they should behave in the presence of this living God and today how many rules and commandments do we, New Testament believers, how many commandments and rules do we have to follow? Once a pastor. Yeah, if you're summarizing both as saying, you know, loving the Lord and loving your neighbour as one single thing, yes, it would be one. If you're dividing them into two, you know, so the first would be love the Lord with all your heart and then love your neighbour as you love yourself. So we see that we do not follow the 613 laws which were given to the people of Israel. Now, why were they given that many rules? Because up to that time, they had been living just like all the other nations. They were doing whatever they wanted to do. They were not following the Lord. See, when God first came to Abraham and said, will you follow me? Will you obey me? Abraham gives up his entire, you know, family connections and he moves to a different nation where God says I will give you a promised land and from that day onwards, Abraham starts following the living God. He gives up all the, you know, idols that his family was worshipping and now he becomes a follower of the living God. So Abraham does that. He passes on his faith to Isaac. Isaac passes it on to his children and they in turn, you know, they pass it on to their descendants. But when they were living in Egypt, sometime during that time when they were living in Egypt, they start following the Egyptian religion and things become so bad that finally when, you know, God says to Moses, I want to deliver them and, you know, go to them and tell them that I want to rescue them. There's a question which he asks, he says, Lord, they'll ask me what is your name? Because by that time, they won't even remember who this living God is. You see, they will not even remember the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They would have forgotten by that time. And so, you know, Moses says they will ask who you are. What should I say at that time? So these Israelites were given the 613 laws so that they will learn how to behave in the presence of a holy God so that they will stay separate from the other nations and not be like the other nations. So that is why it took five Old Testament books to get this nation of Israel started off. That is where the foundation was laid. That is where all the instructions were given. And that is where some kind of relationship was built between God and this group of people, the Israelites. All right? Now that is the first section, the Torah, the first five books. The second section in the Hebrew Bible, in the original Hebrew Bible, the second section that, you know, they had in their Hebrew Bible, that was all the prophetic books. So, you know, we generally in our English Bible, we place all the prophetic books last. But in their division of the books, before them, it's the second section, the prophetic books are placed second. And there's a Hebrew term for that. They call it the Neveim. That's the term which they use. And then the third grouping, that is called the writings. Basically, it's the historical writings, the political writings, different kinds of writings. That would be the third section. The Hebrew word for that is ketuvim. So, a Hebrew person, when they would talk of their Bible, their Old Testament, they would basically talk about the Torah, the Neveim, which is the prophets, and the ketuvim, which is the writings. These were the three main sections. And just something that maybe we can look at regarding the writings, the third section. In the third section of their Old Testament, they basically first had these three books, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. And then in the ending of the third section, they had the historical books, which is basically Daniel. And then next you have Ezra and Nehemiah. And last you have Chronicles. So, at the very end of the Old Testament in the Hebrew Bible, the last book is not Malachi. It is basically Chronicles. So, this third portion, the writings, it starts off with Psalms and Proverbs and Job. It ends with Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, which were one single book. And you have the Chronicles, which is another one single book. In between, they had something which they called the Megilloth. That basically means five scrolls. In our modern day, we would say five books. And they gave a lot of importance to these five books. They would read out these five books during their festivals. So, each of these five books was read out during five important festivals. All the people who have come to celebrate the festival at the temple, they would stand over there and then you would have one of the spiritual leaders standing over there in the front. And he would read out from the scrolls. So, these five scrolls were given importance. And there was a reason why they read out these particular five scrolls during those particular five festivals. So, this is just something interesting that we can get to know about. So, what were these five main books which were given special significance and which were read out in public while the entire audience is standing over there and listening. The first, of course, would be the Song of Songs. And that was read out during their most important festival, the Passover Feast. So, during the Passover Feast, during the days of the Passover Feast, every day you would have the leaders standing over there. He would open up the scroll of Song of Songs and he would read it out section by section during that entire feast during all of those feast days. Why did the Jewish people choose this particular book to be read out during the Passover Feast? What made them choose this? And this is something which they did long back. At that time, they did not know the name of Jesus. They did not know that Jesus would one day come down and be their Messiah. They did not know any of the details. They did not know that he will become the Passover Lamb. But in the Old Testament times itself, the Jewish people decided that during their Feast of Passover, this is the book which they are going to stand and read out and the people would listen. So, they chose this particular book, the Song of Songs, specifically because it talks about the relationship, it talks about a marriage covenant relationship of complete faithfulness and devotion. So, in the Song of Songs, it talks about two characters, a man and a woman who are completely devoted and committed to one another and they are willing to live within the limits of that covenant relationship. They choose not to be unfaithful to each other. They choose to be loyal to each other and to love each other and be devoted to each other. And so, even before New Testament times came, the Old Testament people were already becoming aware of the fact that God expects complete loyalty and love and he really takes the relationship that he has with his people very seriously. So, during the Feast of the Passover, the leader would stand and read out from the Song of Songs and it would be a reminder to the people that God expects complete loyalty from his people and he, in turn, he promises that he will stay faithful to them and he will love them, he will respect them, he is willing to even admire them if they will follow his instructions. And so, these were the aspects that were brought out and we who look at this detail about the Passover Feast from our New Testament times, we understand there's a much greater, deeper significance. They just thought about it as a covenant. God is being faithful to his people, he's considering the people as if they are his bride and he expects his people, the Israelite people to be faithful to him as though he is their husband. So, that is basically how they understood it. But we who look at this from the New Testament times, we see to what extent this husband was willing to go to to sacrifice himself on behalf of his bride. So, we get a wider understanding of this relationship that God established with his people. So, the Song of Songs was read out during the festival of the Passover and in New Testament times, we understand that Christ was willing to sacrifice himself for his bride, the people of God, the church, which will include Gentiles as well as the Jewish people. Now, the second scroll from which they would read out that was the Book of Ruth. This Book of Ruth was read out during the Feast of Weeks. It's also called Pentecost, the Feast of Pentecost. So, the Book of Ruth was read out during the Feast of Pentecost. Nowadays, when we think of the word Pentecost, we just think of the word Holy Spirit. That's basically the connection that we make between Pentecost and the Spirit coming down upon the believers. But originally, the word Pentecost was a agricultural word. That is basically when you would be collecting your harvest, the crops would have become ripe and so you're gathering the harvest and so Pentecost actually has to do with that. And this Book of Ruth, it talks about a bunch of events which took place during that time, during the time of Pentecost. So, the reason that they would read out the Book of Ruth during the Feast of Pentecost is because there's a connection between the two. The same way the events which took place in Ruth's life happened during the Pentecost time, during the harvest time. And she would go to the field and she would gather all the grain which has fallen on the ground. So, this Book of Ruth was read out for that reason during the Pentecost Feast. The third one, this was the Book of Lamentations. The Book of Lamentations was read out on a very significant day, the day of atonement. On that day of atonement, the leader would stand in front of the Jewish people and he would read out from the Book of Lamentations. Why did they choose to read out this particular Book? Why not something else? It is because the Book of Lamentations reminded them of how they had been unfaithful to the Lord until finally God had to punish them. He had to send them into exile because the Book of Lamentations, it talks about the fall of Jerusalem, how Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and the people were taken as captives, as slaves, they were taken away to Babylon. So, this Book of Lamentations talks about the sin of the people, the need for repentance and then they read this out on the day of atonement because the day of atonement is a day of hope. That is the day when God is willing to forgive the people. That is the day when the High Priest would go inside the Holy of Holies and he would sprinkle the blood on the altar and so it was also a day of hope when the people can go to the Lord and say, yes Lord we have sinned, yes Lord you have punished us because of our sins but still there is hope because you have chosen to make atonement and so this Book of Lamentations was read out on the day of atonement to remind the people that you must repent of the sinfulness in which you have been indulging and if you repent there is mercy, there is atonement, God will be willing to forgive and of course we who are in the New Testament, we have a wider picture of this atonement because we know that it's not just the sheep and the lambs which can wash away our sins, it's actually Jesus Christ who washes away our sins. So these lambs and sheep are only pointing forward towards Jesus. So the Book of Lamentations was read out on the day of atonement. Someone here asked for the spelling of the Nevi'im and the Ketu'im. The spelling for the Nevi'im is N-E-V-I-M. You would have an apostrophe, you know, N-E-V-I apostrophe and then I-M because it's basically two phrases, Nevi'im. Ketu'im is K-E-T-U, you can put apostrophe over there and then you have V-I-M. So Nevi'im and the Ketu'im, that would be. So we talked about three of the scrolls which were read out on feast days. The fourth book which they read out was Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes was read out during the Feast of Tabernacles. Now we know if you look at the first five books you get to know that the Feast of Tabernacles is basically when all the Israelites would gather, they would build small tents and they would stay in the tents for the days of the festival as a reminder of how once upon a time they didn't even have a land of their own. They were living in tents but God finally gave them their own land where they could build permanent buildings and live in their own, you know, homes. So as a reminder of what God has done for them, they would celebrate this Feast of Tabernacles when they would make many, many tents, small, small tabernacles, the word tabernacle basically means tent. So they would make many, many tents and they would stay in those tents during the days of the festival as a reminder to them of what God has done for them by delivering them out of Egypt, bringing them into the Promised Land and giving them that entire land for themselves. So why was Ecclesiastes read out during this very joyful Feast of Tabernacles? Because the book of Ecclesiastes talks about, it talks about, you know, in three or four places in Ecclesiastes it says, you know, life has no meaning under the sun. If you remove God from the equation, life is meaningless. So all you can do is trust God and eat and drink and be merry and enjoy, you know, those are the wordings which are used in the book of Ecclesiastes. But at the end of Ecclesiastes it says, remember this also, you must enjoy, you must eat and drink but one day you will be held accountable for all that you are doing. So keep this in mind and enjoy your life. So during this Feast of Tabernacles, which was a Feast of Celebration of Deliverance of what God has done for them and of all that, you know, all the harvest which God has provided for them in the middle of all that celebration, this book of Ecclesiastes was read out as a reminder to the people that, yes, the Lord can make your life meaningful and you can eat and drink and enjoy but do it all with the awareness that one day you will be held accountable for all of your actions. So that is the fourth book which was read out and it was read out during the Feast of Tabernacles which finally brings us to the last scroll which was read out and that was the book of Esther and the book of Esther was read out during the Feast of Purim. What exactly is the Feast of Purim? If you look in your Esther chapter, the last chapter, the second last chapter 9, Esther 9. In Esther chapter 9, verses 26 to 32, it explains God delivered the people, you know, from being killed. So in gratitude for what God had done, they decided that from now onwards we will celebrate the festival of Purim, how God delivered us and this will always be a reminder to us that we were living in a foreign land away from our people and even in that foreign land, God took care of us, he protected us and he provided for us. So this Feast of Purim would be a reminder of God's faithfulness even when they were living somewhere else, you know, in a foreign land, even in that Keyden Nation, God was there watching over his people, you know, protecting them and keeping them. So the book of Esther was read out to remind them of the story of how God delivered them, you know, so very sorry for all the online issues that are happening but yeah, next week, you know, everything will be better, I promise. So okay, let's just look at, you know, before we finish this particular portion of the, you know, topic, let's look at a couple of New Testament verses which talk about the Old Testament books being arranged in this particular order, Luke chapter 24 verse 27. Luke 24 is basically the chapter where you have some followers of Jesus who are walking on the road to Emmaus and they are very, very sad that Jesus was crucified and they don't know that he has been raised from the dead and they are feeling very sad about it and then Jesus comes and joins them, they don't recognize him and I know they start telling, you know, how he was crucified and all that they start telling him and then he says, this is what he says in Luke 24, Jesus is talking to them and this is what Jesus says, maybe we can look at Luke 24 verses 26 and 27. Luke 24, 26 and 27, if someone can read out. Ode not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. It says over here that Jesus starts explaining to these followers how the Old Testament is talking about him. It says, you know, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. So when it says that when it uses the terms Moses and prophets, it's basically talking about the Torah which was written by Moses and it's talking about the second section, the prophets, the Neveem. So Jesus starts explaining from the Torah and he explains from the prophets, look how all these verses are talking about me, how they are talking about the Messiah who will come and save his people. So in Luke 24, 27, we have a reference to the way in which the Old Testament books were arranged. We see that mentioned and there's actually one more verse. I think your bell might go off now. It's supposed to at least because you know, it's kind of break time but we have another one scripture. Matthew 23 verse 35. Matthew 23 verse 35. If we can have someone read out that as well. Matthew 23, 35. That on you make, that on you make all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteousness availed to the blood Zechariah, son of Berekeah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Okay, let's keep this verse in mind. We'll come back from the break and we'll see how is this verse connected to the way the Old Testament books were arranged. Okay, so we will see the connection after the break.