Image courtesy nvd9612 via www.pixabay.com
Parts of the Sword:
We all should be reasonably familiar with the basic parts of the Bible:
Old Testament: 39 books total
Law Books: 5
History Books: 12
Poetry Books: 5
Prophetic Books (4 Major and 13 Minor): 17
New Testament: 27 books total
Gospels: 4
History: 1
Letters: 21
Prophecy: 1
66 Books written over 1,400 years by 40 authors in 3 languages (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic). So I guess that’s all there is to it!
These facts are nice from a trivia perspective, however I believe there’s more to it than this. Quite a bit more to be honest.
First, I dislike referring to the sections as the Old or New Testament. To the innocent, everything is innocent. To the corrupt, everything is corrupt. There is a push today to “Andy Stanley” the Word of God. The idea is we need to detach from the “Old” Testament which was written by an ignorant group of sheep herders as they were carried along by the spirit of patriarchal oppression which was dominant in that day. Also, during this time events were under the control of a maniacal, homicidal deity who gleefully oppressed the innocent and virtuous denizens of his creation. Instead, we should focus on the “New” Testament. This is where we find the lovey dovey groovy schmoovy messiah who came to give us all good vibes and validate and affirm our lived experiences. He never raised his voice nor said anything harsh. In fact the modern day culmination of all that divine love happened between August 15 to 18 in 1969 at Woodstock when LOVE was made complete. Yeah, baby!
Sigh…anyway…
I would encourage you to view the Bible as a modular book. What do I mean? The Law books (Genesis through Deuteronomy) is one module. The poetry/ wisdom books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs) are another module. The same is true for each group of books listed above: History, Prophetic, Gospels, Letters, etc. Each individual group constitutes one module. These modules should be cross referenced (heavily) when you read/ study one of the other modules. This should be done contextually as a complete group.
As an example: when reading the Letters in the “New” Testament you should be referring back to the History or Prophet modules, etc, from the “Old” Testament. If you took out all of the references in the “New” Testament which are from the “Old” Testament, the “New” wouldn’t exist.
I believe the Law module (Genesis through Deuteronomy) is THE foundation for the entire Bible. Even with the “New” Testament this does not change. I also believe the Law module is a blueprint for building the Church.
Pentateuch/ Law Module:
- Genesis: Where do we come from? Why are things the way they are? The importance of a future vision and divine intervention working in our lives. The importance of heritage. The importance of an initial cleansing followed by selecting the path to follow: Melchizedek vs. Nimrod. The importance of trusting God to bring us to a place that will set us up for his will to be done in the future.
- Exodus: We’re delivered from our imprisonment/ slavery for the purpose of serving God and being a light to the world. This is where we learn to follow God and rely on Him for everything. This is also where we need to begin working out the residual issues we’ll face from our desire to “return to our own vomit”. This will be a very challenging but important step. Without it we simply cannot build the tabernacle/ church in the way God demands us to. This is the stage where the “old” self must be completely killed off and the “new” replace it. This also has overtones of being the called one to lead others out of their enslavement-a Moses character (don’t let your ego go too far with this). This will be challenging since we’ll have to learn to trust God completely in the face of forces considerably more powerful than us.
- Leviticus: This is where we learn the principles God expects for us to implement to worship Him and build his church. Those principles being represented by the various sacrifices: wave offering-acknowledging Heaven, sin offering-acknowledging our sin, thank offering-developing a mindset of gratitude, heave offering-offering what we’ve been given as a gift to Heaven, fellowship offering-having communion/ fellowship with the saints, and the other offerings and practices…The idea of presenting ourselves in a way that reflects beauty and glory (the robes, etc. of the priests). Only after the first two items: Genesis, Exodus are completed, are we ready to begin building God’s church/ house/ kingdom. This is where we’re also obligated to develop a mindset of the binary of “clean” vs. “unclean” and train ourselves to prefer the “clean”.
- Numbers: This is where we reinforce the importance of heritage/ lineage. This is extremely important for our faith. John 13:3 (NKJV) states: 2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.-bold and italics mine for emphasis. Although Jesus was existing in our mortal sphere as a mortal, he had a clear knowledge he was in fact from God. A clear knowledge of our spiritual lineage is critical for our faith. It’s just as important as our biological heritage (parents, ethnic background, etc.). Grrr…of course now I have to mention the elephant in the room. Histrionic theological fashionistas will be triggered at the idea of a European heritage being acceptable (this is the genealogical “blasphemy of the Spirit”) while a “minority” heritage is the most holy thing in all of creation and must be deified. One of the main points of the book of Numbers is we all (regardless of tribe) trace our lineage back through Adam, the son of God. This is why God is (present tense) judging the nations (plural) and not just the nation (singular) Israel. Every nation is morally obligated to obey God regardless of their willingness to acknowledge that fact or not.
- Deuteronomy: This is where we reinforce our commitment to God’s Law. During the process described above we should become aware of rifts in our appreciation/ commitment to God’s Law which need to be filled in. This is the nature of Deuteronomy: getting rid of the dross to purify the “silver” to harden our faith even more and make it more solid.
Poetry/ Wisdom Module:
It’s my opinion this section serves as the philosophical foundation for the entire Bible. The Poetry/ Wisdom Module is the one you should begin with and strive to understand before you pursue a study of any other books. This is an entirely separate study however; perhaps I’ll work on that one at a later date. I would read the books in this module in the following order:
Lamentations: Although not considered part of the Poetry/ Wisdom literature, I’ve included it as it is short but deals with a lot of universal themes: being afflicted, a sense of dullness, spiritually wasting away, being entrapped, being overrun, and more. It can be a great way to start some conversations which are relevant to everyone. It ends with the admonishment to return to God so that he’ll restore us to himself.
Ecclesiastes: This book introduces many of the philosophical elements found throughout the Bible: the circular reference, juxtaposition, the paradox. It presents some of the most fundamental questions we all have. If God why evil? What’s my purpose? How do I find satisfaction? Is it wrong to pursue my own interests? In my opinion Ecclesiastes is an amazing primer for the book of Job. It’s much more than can be covered here. For a more complete study of the book click this link: https://simplifiedtheology.org/ecclesiastes/
Job: This book goes into great detail about the big questions of life: if God, why evil, is God malicious because he allows/ causes suffering, what’s the point of it all? These are just a few of the questions it asks. A lot of timeless themes are introduced as well. Themes such as the false accusation, the accusation vomit (being accused of many things in a rapid fire manner to “see what sticks” in 2020-present day this encompasses the list of “isms” and “o-phobes”), the Kafka Trap (where you defend yourself because you’re innocent, but that defense is used as confirmation of your guilt) and others.
Psalms: This is where we learn it’s o.k. to be real with God. Once we’ve opened the door to all the big questions in life, they’ll inevitably be on our mind. The Psalms are great for letting us know we can express these things very honestly to God.
Proverbs: Once we’ve completed all of the above steps (in order), the natural result is a desire to seek wisdom and understanding. Proverbs helps train us in how to think. It helps us focus on what God finds most important and and just as if not more importantly, why.
Song of Songs: Once all of the previously mentioned building blocks are in place, we need to develop a sense of belonging and understand how and where we fit it. Solomon’s Song of Songs is perfect for that.
History Module:
Joshua-Esther: These books give us the time and place of all the events. They let us know these people, places and things are historical and give us an idea of when and where they did in fact take place. It also reinforces the blessings for obedience and the discipline process for disobedience to the Pentateuch/ Law Module.
Prophetic Module:
Isaiah-Malachi: I simply refer to them as “the Prophets”. I don’t like distinguishing between “major” and “minor” prophets. It makes it seem the message of one is somehow more important than the other. That’s simply not the case. Micah (my favorite) is seven short chapters but is brutally poignant. These are the licensed “watchmen” appointed by God to critique the nation of Israel (as well as the nations around them) and their religious leaders specifically.
“New” Testament Gospel Module:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John: This puts the cap on everything which has come before. Matthew establishes Jesus’ authority over the Church including it’s leadership. He spends a lot of time correcting them directly. This is a continuation of where the prophets left off 400 years prior. Mark is like a journal of all the things Jesus did, showing our faith is meant to be lived in very practical ways. Luke gives an insane level of detail about events showing us these things were real, not imaginary. John establishes Jesus’ deity and timelessness. We have four perspectives to give a full picture of one individual.
“New Testament” History Module:
Acts: This is the history of the “New” Testament church. It helps set the stage for the time and place and to introduce some new characters, etc. I would recommend reading the Pentateuch/ Law Module then the Gospel Module then Acts. Keep in mind the philosophical idea from Ecclesiastes: there’s nothing new under the sun, what has already been done will be done again… When reading the Pentateuch/ Law Module (especially Leviticus) keep in mind the principles being taught via the sacrifices/ practices, etc. as opposed to the physical practices (which are no longer applicable).
“New” Testament Letters Module:
Romans-Jude: These are like the professors’ commentary on the text book (which is everything up to this point). They talk about [insert issue here] and how it should be properly viewed/ handled in the context of the text book (everything up to this point).
“New” Testament Prophetic Module:
Revelation: Think of this book as an epilogue. It’s partly a letter but also a behind the scenes look at how the story finalizes.
In order to become proficient and achieve mastery with the sword, the duelist must have an intimate knowledge of the parts and their function. For a visual representation of this please watch the following (start at the 1 min 50 sec mark): https://youtu.be/lddhRjqmcSg?si=_kEHHhu5KY08GTM4
Disclaimer:
Masayuki Shimabukuro, Carl Long, et al do not endorse and are in no way affiliated with www.simplifiedtheology.org. Likewise, www.simplifiedtheology.org does not necessarily endorse the aforementioned parties and has no affiliation with them of any kind. The linked video is being utilized simply as a visual reference. All rights are retained by the respective parties.