First Quarter

Sovereignty of God

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 — NOVEMBER 27, 2016

The theme for the fall quarter is God's sovereignty. During these thirteen weeks we will explore images of the authors of Isaiah, Hebrews, and Revelation to discern the sovereign nature of God.

The four lessons of Unit 1, The Sovereignty of God, examine Isaiah's rich images of God as the one who rules the whole universe. We will discover the world as a peaceful kingdom, a mountain of God, the foundations of the earth, and a new and everlasting covenant. This unit begins on September 4 with The Peaceful Kingdom, based on Isaiah 11:1-9, where we find a world filled with the peace, justice, and righteousness of God. On September 11 we turn to Isaiah 25 to catch a glimpse of The Mountain of God where there is no oppression. Foundations of the Earth, the session for September 18, considers God's ultimate power as seen in Isaiah 40. Isaiah 61, the background Scripture for Everlasting Covenant that we will study on September 25, spotlights promises that God makes and reliably fulfills.

Unit 2, The Sovereignty of Jesus, stretches over five weeks as we investigate images of the reign of the resurrected Christ found in the Letter to the Hebrews. During these sessions we will encounter images of Jesus as the imprint of God, the owner of a household, the great high priest, a priest forever, and the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. The Imprint of God, based on an image found in Hebrews 1, is the first lesson in this unit that begins on October 2. We turn on October 9 to two background Scriptures, Hebrews 3:1-6 and Matthew 7:24-29, to see how Jesus is portrayed as the Builder of the House. We encounter Jesus as The Great High Priest in the lesson for October 16 from Hebrews 4:14–5:10. Jesus is seen as The High Priest Forever in Hebrews 7, which we will delve into on October 23. This unit ends on October 30 with a lesson from Hebrews 12:1-13 as we learn about Christ as the Pioneer and Perfecter of Our Faith.

The final four lessons, which compose Unit 3, titled Alpha and Omega, look at the metaphors in Revelation of one who makes all things new, a vision of the New Jerusalem, a river of life, and the beginning and end of all things to explore how God reigns. The unit starts on November 6 with Everything Is Brand New, rooted in Revelation 21:1-8. I See a New Jerusalem, the session on November 13, examines the eternal beauty of the heavenly city as seen in Revelation 21:9-27. The Living Water, described in Revelation 22:1-7 in the lesson for November 20, brings life and healing. The unit concludes on November 27 with titles depicting Christ — Alpha and Omega — as found in Revelation 22:8-21.

Meet Our Writer

DR. JERRY L. SUMNEY

Dr. Jerry L. Sumney is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and is past president for the Southeastern Region of the society. At the national level, he also served as the chair of the steering committee for the Theology of the Disputed Paulines Group from 1996 through 2001 and currently serves as the chair of the steering committee for the Disputed Paulines Section. He is also currently chair for the Pauline Epistles and Literature Section of the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. He was elected to membership in the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS) in 2005.

Dr. Sumney has written six books: The Bible: An Introduction (2010); Colossians: A Commentary, New Testament Library Series (2008); Philippians, A Handbook for Second-Year Greek Students (2007);Servants of Satan, False Brothers, and Other Pauline Opponents (1999); Preaching Apocalyptic Texts (coauthored with Larry Paul Jones (1999); and Identifying Paul's Opponents (1990). He is editor of The Order of the Ministry: Equipping the Saints (2002) and coeditor of Theology and Ethics in Paul and His Interpreters (1996), Paul and Pathos (2001), and Romans in the Society of Biblical Literature Bible Resources series (2012). Dr. Sumney also has written more than thirty articles in journals and books. He also contributed entries to the New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible and the Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, and Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics. In addition, he is a contributor to The College Study Bible and the CEB Study Bible.

Prior to joining the faculty of Lexington Theological Seminary (LTS) where he is Professor of Biblical Studies, he taught in the religion department at Ferrum College from 1986 through 1997. He received his B.A. from David Lipscomb University in 1978, his M.A. from Harding University in 1982, and his Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in 1987.

Dr. Sumney has presented papers at regional, national, and international academic conferences. He has also led numerous workshops for elders and deacons; Bible study workshops and series, including in the Lay School of Theology at LTS and in the school for licensed ministers sponsored by the Kentucky region of the Christian Church. He is the regular teacher of an adult Sunday school class in his home church, Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in Lexington.

Jerry and his wife, Diane, have three daughters: Elizabeth, Victoria, and Margaret.

The Big Picture: God in Isaiah, Hebrews, and Revelation

This quarter's lessons come primarily from three different types of books of the Bible. Each represents a different kind of writing and addresses an audience facing very different questions. So we must look at each one individually.

The book of Isaiah was written over the course of some two hundred to three hundred years by three different prophets, all of whom are referred to as Isaiah. The original Isaiah, who lived in Jerusalem during the eighth century B.C., spoke to the kings and people of Judah. He prophesied during the time that the nation of Israel, also known as the Northern Kingdom, was attacked and defeated by the Assyrians. He saw the threat to Judah and called the people to faithfulness to God, telling them that if they did not repent, the nation would fall. His oracles were collected and began to be set in book form either during or soon after his lifetime. Most of chapters 1–39 are from this original Isaiah.

The second prophet who went by the name Isaiah was active while Judah was in exile in Babylon. We can tell this Isaiah was in Babylon because he contrasted God with the gods of the Babylonians rather than the gods of the Canaanites, as the first Isaiah had done. This prophet proclaimed the good news that the exile was about to end and that the people would be allowed to return to Palestine. This return fulfilled God's promises and showed that the people remained in covenant with God. This prophet emphasized consolation. Prophesying in the final years of the exile (about 545–539 B.C.), this prophet often spoke in long poetic oracles. His work appears in chapters 40–55.

The final section of Isaiah is written after the people of Judah have returned to Jerusalem. It is written by either the same prophet who wrote in exile or someone who adopted his style. Chapters 56–66 are called Third Isaiah because the material in them comes from this later set of circumstances and addresses different concerns. When he wrote, the first wave of exiles had returned home. But the beginning of their new life was not as glorious as what Second Isaiah had envisioned. Things were not all comfortable and they were facing opposition from some who were residents in the area of Jerusalem when they arrived. Third Isaiah assures its readers that God is faithful and that God will save them from their opponents. Thus, they will eventually experience the blessings of God.

Our readings in Unit 1 come from all three Isaiahs. As we will see, all three — chapters 11, 25, 40, and 61 — offer hope and call for faithfulness. Our first Isaiah reading (from chapter 11) comes from the original Isaiah who primarily called the people to repent and warned of consequences if they did not. But it is a passage that offers great hope after the time of punishment, if the people repent. Our second Isaiah reading (chapter 25) comes from a section of the book whose style suggests to many interpreters that it is written by yet a different author but included here because the hope it offers is consistent with the message of Isaiah. All parts of the book of Isaiah remind the people that God is faithful to the covenant and that God has the power to fulfill the promised blessings.

Hebrews is one of the most distinctive books of the New Testament. Interpreters have struggled to identify its literary type, with many concluding that it is something like an extended sermon or homily. More than any other book, it relies on quotations from the Hebrew Bible and on its readers' knowledge of Judaism. The primary audience of Hebrews is Jewish Christians. When Jews became members of the church in the earliest days, they remained observant Jews even as they were church members. For these Jews there was no contradiction between being believers in Christ and being faithful members of the synagogue. In fact, the apostles themselves continued to be faithful Jews and to worship and offer sacrifices in the Temple, as well as being regular members of their local synagogues. At some point, some synagogue members who were not in the church began to reject those who were in the church. That trend may have begun when the church began accepting Gentiles without requiring them to convert fully to Judaism or when they began to make more exalted claims about Jesus. This opposition worsened when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70. Some Jews who were not in the church may have thought that what they saw as the unfaithfulness of the Jews in the church was part of the reason God had allowed the Temple to fall. After all, early prophets had said that the original Temple would fall because of unfaithfulness, and it had. Later prophets had said that a more glorious Temple and nation would arise when the people were faithful. But now the Second Temple had also fallen — and its fall was interpreted by some as the result of unfaithfulness. Whether Hebrews was written shortly before or after the fall of the Temple (and there is significant debate about which it is), the Jewish church members it is written to are facing increasing rejection from their fellow Jews outside the church.

Hebrews is written to encourage believers who are being pressured to abandon faith in Christ and return to a form of Judaism that does not include Christ. The pressure has gotten to the point that Hebrews sees it as persecution. To combat this pressure, Hebrews tells of the great blessings believers have in Christ and makes a series of comparisons between Judaism and the church. The writer constantly claims that the blessings in Christ are greater than those in Judaism without Christ. He makes these comparisons as stark as he can so that his readers can see that the blessings are greater than the troubles they endure for being in the church. But even as he says that the blessings in Christ are greater, he acknowledges that there are significant blessings in Judaism. Unlike what we find in Paul and other New Testament writers, Hebrews rejects participation in or questions the validity of the Jerusalem Temple services. If Hebrews is written before A.D. 70, his point is to keep Jewish church members from relying on those services rather than on Christ as the means by which they maintain their relationship with God. If the book is written after A.D. 70 (as a majority of scholars think), then the rejection of its services is a way of affirming that the Temple is not needed for Jewish church members to continue their intimate relationship with God. Either way, the constant theme is the superiority of the church over the Temple and Judaism.

These comparisons make Hebrews a dangerous book for us. It is easy for us to denigrate Judaism and simply claim superiority as Christians. But we must remember that this book is written by a Jewish author for Jewish Christians who are doubting their decision to have faith in Christ. They recognize the ways God is present in the Mosaic covenant and they know the blessings and relationship they have with God in it. This book does argue that there are more and better blessings in Christ than in the Mosaic covenant, but it recognizes that there is real relationship with God and substantial blessings in the earlier covenant. In our reading of it, we must celebrate the blessings we have in Christ without denigrating the blessings of the Mosaic covenant.

The third book that a major portion of our texts come from is Revelation. Its literary type is called apocalyptic. Writings of this type have a heavenly being mediate a special message to someone on earth to reveal God's plan to set things right in the world. These writings come from communities in crisis. They appear when it seems that the forces of evil are so great that they will overcome the people and purposes of God. When God's people are being persecuted and evil seems to be overpowering God's will, it suggests that either God is not as powerful as we say God is or else that God is not as loving and just as we say. Apocalyptic texts give assurance that God has the power and the will to defeat evil and to vindicate the faithful. Their most central purpose is to assert that God is the God of power, justice, and love that we say God is. Because God has these characteristics, God will not allow the wicked to prevail. These writings say this will be evident when God acts to bring ultimate salvation and judgment. This literature looks beyond and behind the scenes to tell its readers that God will not let the wicked get away with harming them and that God will vindicate their faithfulness. When all is said and done, the blessings that the faithful receive far outweigh any suffering they endure for the faith. Since this is the final resolution of things, God's justice, love, and power are what determine the character of final existence.

A second important task of apocalyptic writings is to exhort the persecuted to remain faithful. By assuring them about the character of God and about God's determination to act to save the faithful and punish the wicked, these texts remind the faithful that the difficulties they endure will be worth it in the end. God will not allow their suffering to be the last word; they will receive blessings that far outweigh their suffering. The audience of these books is the faithful who may be wavering. These believers are wondering if they had made a mistake when they turned from other gods to the one God. After all, you would think that turning to the true God would mean that your life would get better. But the opposite has been the case. Apocalyptic works argue (and all the New Testament agrees) that evil has taken control of the world, that God is not in immediate control. While God has ultimate power and will one day assert it, at the moment evil is in control. These powers of evil punish faithful people for turning to God. God does not intervene to stop this at the moment, but God's response will come and will be decisive. Then evil will be subdued and God's faithful people will be vindicated. The job of God's people now is to be faithful in the midst of a world dominated by powers that oppose God's will. While this analysis of the world makes us nervous, we can see the truth in it when we think of the ways we are trapped in systems that implicate us in unjust systems. Examples include our participation in an economic system that relies on child labor or near-slave conditions to make tennis shoes and all sorts of clothing (remember the garment factory fires in Bangladesh and Pakistan) or even our tax system that requires us to pay for things we think are wrong (perhaps weapons or some medical procedures or any number of things — few of us think everything the government spends money on advances the kingdom of God). Writers and readers of apocalyptic texts are the recipients of the ill effects of those systems rather than those who benefit from them.

By the time John writes Revelation, there is a two-hundred-year tradition of writing in this style. John draws on that tradition for the imagery he uses. The language is dramatic, even grotesque (for example, chapter 17 or 19:17-18). These images are intended to shock. They must be dramatic enough to illustrate to the oppressed that the power of God is greater than those powers that now tyrannize them and the world. As the literary tradition shows, all of the imagery is symbolic; none is to be taken literally. So as we read Revelation, we must look for what it wants to tell us about salvation or about the defeat of evil without thinking that the descriptions it gives are the literal reality. John is grasping for ways to express how certain God's victory is over evil and how glorious salvation is.