BibleProject - Simkhat Torah: Celebrating a Year of Reading

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

When a Jewish synagogue finishes reading through the Torah together, they celebrate Simkhat Torah. What is Simkhat Torah? Find out on today’s episode as Jon and Tim reflect on our year-long journey through the Torah and look ahead to the rest of the TaNaK.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (00:00-09:30)Part two (09:30-31:00)Part three (31:00-57:45)Part four (57:45-01:15:47)Referenced ResourcesInterested in more? Check out Tim’s library here.You can experience the literary themes and movements we’re tracing on the podcast in the BibleProject app, available for Android and iOS.Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“Tzur Teudati” by Yaacov Alkobi“Simchu Na” by Hibba – Israeli Heritage Movement“For When it's Warmer” by Sleepy Fish“A Note From My Book” by Sleepy Fish and CoaShow produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder. Edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey, and Frank Garza. Podcast annotations for the BibleProject app by Hannah Woo.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

When a Jewish synagogue finishes reading the Torah together, They end by throwing a big party. It's called Simkat Torah. And today on the podcast, Tim and I want to have a little celebration of our own. Because, together, with all of you, we've read the Torah. We want to reflect on this reading journey we've had, and we want to look forward and talk about how to continue to read the Hebrew Bible, to the prophets and the writings and the way that we've read it together. So today on the podcast, our own Simcat Torah, there might even be dancing. Thanks for joining us.

Here we go. Hey Tim. Hey John. Hi, it's the end of the year. Yes it is. And we are coming back having finished reading through the Torah. Yes, this whole year 2022 has been dedicated to a podcast series going through the five scrolls of the Torah. Yeah, start in January. We've gone week by week, movement by movement

through the Torah, doing question response at the end, a double question response last week. And so there's a few weeks left in the year. Yep. And one of the things we wanted to do was just celebrate, stop and celebrate. Yes, we did it. Yeah.

And by we, we mean all of you who have been listening to the podcast. Yeah, we all did it. And then a whole bunch of you who listen to the podcast have also been doing the tour of reading experience that we created in our app throughout this year by Project App. And so it's been a guided reading experience through the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. So, way to go if you have listened and or read through the Torah, it's a significant investment of time and mental energy. And emotion, depending on your temperament.

And so, way to go. It's very significant. If only there were some way to celebrate having accomplished something like this, having read through the Torah. Okay. Well, John, let me tell you a story. I've mentioned now, and then that Jessica and I, many years ago, before we had kids, went to go live in Jerusalem for a year. It's a part of graduate school. This was the 2006, 2007 school year. And we had a small apartment.

Did you have a smartphone? That was like the year they came out. You know what? We got two little Nokia phones. Remember the super little tiny ones? Nokia phones. We didn't little tiny ones? Nokia phones. We didn't have them, but we got them for the year we were there. The bricks?

Yeah, totally. It was tiny. It felt like it's the size of my Toyota, like, key pod for my car. We could play snake on it. Oh, no. Just phone calls, and it was so laborious to text. Yeah. Because every button was three potential letters. You had to click through it anyway. I had a Nokia. Yeah. Because every button was three potential letters. Yeah.

You had to click through it anyway. I had a Nokia. Yeah. That year. That's how we communicated. Anyway. So funny. Well, because when we got back, when we moved back to the States, you started seeing

we didn't have them anymore. And we were like, oh man, we got to do that now. So then we signed up. Cool. Got our first phones. Anyway. Oh, those were your first cell phones, period. We got cell phones to live in Jerusalem and those. You didn't have a cell phone before 2007?

No, six, 2006. No. No, man, analog. Wow. Yeah, to keep it land-lined. Okay. Yeah, that was old fashioned. Yeah, that's a cute one.

Yeah, I tell you, I laid a doctor. I'm just thinking, like, I feel like the iPhone came out in 2008. Okay, this doesn't matter. So you're in Israel with your dumb phone. Okay, yes. So we had a little apartment in West Jerusalem and I forget the time of year.

It was in the winter. So it was like, you know, a dark, kind of cooler night. It gets cool up in Jerusalem. It's no one time. So I forget what we were doing. We were doing something in our apartment, making dinner or something. And you know how when you hear a car drive by that has someone's put thousands of dollars into the sound system in the car. Yeah. You know, and they want you to experience it with them. They do.

So that's what we heard going on outside. It was like a car was approaching with heavy, heavy base going on. And we lived on a little side street. It's like, what's this really weird? Why would a car be coming through? And so we looked out our window and we were in kind of a roof unit with slanted walls. And so it was like a angled skylight roof. And so we looked out our skylight roof. And all I could see was like colored light spinning on the street below. And I was like, what's

going on? So we ran downstairs. I'll never forget this. And they were just, I don't know, a few dozen fell like a hundred because it was packing the street. People dancing and singing and all jostling around. To this loud, basing music. Yes, surrounding a van. And the van had huge mounted speakers on it facing out. So it was actually, that's why it sounded so loud. It was where they weren't inside the car. They were mounted on the sides of the van.

And then I had this disco ball type spinning. Just lighting up the car. They were mounted on the sides of the van. And then I had this disco ball type spinning. Just lighting up the street. Yeah, on the top of the van, but not mirror pieces, but it was just dozens of colored lights being lit up from within the ball, spinning around. And there's all these people jocling around. And so it's just like house music, but like kind of, you know, Jewish style house music. And all the women were where it had head coverings, and we're wearing like dark dresses. And then all the men had these Eastern European style robes. Many of them had the long, you know, kind of hair locks on the side and we're wearing old-style hats. And they were all dancing. And then, it became very clear, they were all circling around this one guy in the front

who's carrying this huge scroll, like a gigantic scroll with a big silver crown on the top. And they were just dancing. Just dancing on the street. So I went down and asked one person like, what is going on? And this woman said that they were, it was Simchat Torah. So for example, Simchat Torah. And Simchat actually was the name of our landlady who owned the building.

Her name is Simchat. Her name was Simchat, which means joy. It's a joy of Torah. So many synagogues are set just kind of like in the Christian tradition, there's developed what's called the lectionary cycle. We're in the Sunday gatherings. The readings are read aloud. From often it's the prophet, Torah, prophets and gospels or something. And so in many synagogue traditions, they operate on a one year or a three year Torah reading cycle

in the Shabbat gatherings on time. Is it the Jewish calendar year? Yeah, and for Shabbat gatherings. And it's tied off of actually in the last chapters of Deuteronomy, where Moses talks about reading every seven years gather and read the Torah beginning to end to everybody. So that developed into like electionary tradition. And then every time they finish a synagogue,

finishes the Torah, they do a Simhattura celebration. And so they had begun from their synagogue, they were looping all around the neighborhood and then would end back at their synagogue and then just have a huge polyg, a big feast. And it was so amazing. So if we had to thought this through, we could have organized a big dance party. We could be doing a dance party right now. We could. So we're talking about it. You'd stay totally. So I feel like we can up the game at least a little bit. Some of the people on our podcast team thought, wouldn't it be fun to just take a moment

to have our own Bible project version of Simkhat Torah to celebrate Celebrate finishing a meditation year through the Torah. So John, yeah, I kind of have this idea Where I feel like we're not all together having a dance party. Yeah, but I guess wherever you are, we're gonna play, we're gonna play some Simhot tour music. Yeah. And you can dance.

Yes. If you did this with us and you want to dance, grab your Torah. Yep. And it's gonna be in your Bible or on your phone. Yeah. So I guess you can grab it wherever Yep, and dance around and celebrate our journey through the tour. Yeah, the joy of Torah and a one and a two and a one two three four سمعات الدورة سمعات الدورة سمعات الدورة سمعات الدورة

سمعات الدورة سمعات الدورة سمعات الدورة اسمحو عهو بي اسمحو دموخي اسمحو جي أوليم سمعات الدورة سمعات الدورة I really hope somebody just like parked their car and got out. I'm not the side of the street, you just started dancing.

Oh yeah, yeah, I hope so too. Yeah, maybe somebody did that. Yeah, tell us your stories. If anyone, if anyone had a cool dance party moment with your family or in your own, I know some people listen to podcasts while they watch dishes, maybe just there in the kitchen. Yep. Yeah, jamming out. Quick little dance party. Super the kitchen. Yep. Yeah, jamming out. Quick little dance party.

Simpratorra. Yeah. So we thought in this end of your episode, and Simpratorra celebration episode, we would also name a fact that we are not going to be continuing on doing reading journeys and then a podcast journeys through the profits going into the year 2023 and we've heard from many of you listen to podcasts you would love us to do that and that would be really fun to do. Like we could we could just keep going start in Joshua next year. Yep and and in Joshua we would do the same thing there's movements there's literary units we could trace themes we can see how it all connects to the same thing. There's movements, there's literary units. We could trace themes. We could see how it all connects to the bigger story. And it would be rad.

It would be rad. It would be totally cool. And probably one day we'll do something. Yes. Oh yeah. So we haven't actually technically announced this. For many people, they're going to be hearing about this right now. Okay, for the first time. So we need to tread lightly. going to be hearing about this right now. Okay, for the first time. For the first time. So we need to tread lightly. Yeah, I mean, I think what I've noticed is the few people I have told kind of were disappointed,

kind of sad about it. Yeah. And I feel sad that they were sad. Mm-hmm. And so two things. One is, it's going to be okay. We'll get to it. Also, we got some really cool conversations coming

on some new theme videos. And then also, yeah, there'll be a time to do it. Secondly though, you can continue to read through the Bible. You won't have, I guess this is a dialogue partner as you go, but Tim, you're gonna show us how the thing that we've been doing doesn't end here. And how this stuff that happened in the Torah is gonna get picked right up in Joshua. And through those stories all the way through the whole shape of the Hebrew Bible.

Totally. Yeah. So this conversation, we're just gonna do like an overview of how the core themes of the Torah launch into the prophets and then into the writings to the two big main subsections of the rest of the Tanakh. And so I thought we'd meditate on a few paragraphs right at the transitions between the Torah and the prophets and then the transition between the prophets and the writings. And these are transition between the prophets and the writings. And these are insights that were pointed out to me long, like at the beginning of me going down the rabbit hole of biblical studies. So many people have drawn attention to these seams or transitions between the macro parts of the tonk. But lo and behold, it's the language in the vocabulary all dialed in to what's been happening

in the Torah, which is dialed in to what's happening in the Garden of Eden. So we want to, at least, give you some inspiration to keep on reading through the Torah and prophets, and we will catch up and join you in the podcast one day in the future. So we've talked a lot over this year about how the Torah is a designed, well-designed whole, and that Genesis and Deuteronomy formed these balanced bookends. Yeah. If you've been following along, you've heard us talk about this many times.

Many times. Yeah. Five scrolls, one mega literary unit called the Torah. That's right. And it's a three-part mega thing with Genesis and Deuteronomy. Five scrolls, three parts. Five scrolls, three parts, Genesis and Deuronomy,

or Parts 3 and 1, 1 and 3, 3, yeah. As the outer frame. And then in the center is this big complex thing called Exodus, Leviticus numbers, which is so awesome how it's all wired together. But significant for what we're doing is how Genesis 1 to 11, which is the first movement of the Genesis scroll,

and then Deuteronomy, basically 27 through 34, are the two places in the Torah where the language of blessing and curse, and the themes of exile being inside or outside of a garden land are like really prominent. But in different ways. So in Genesis 1 through 11, God puts his human partners in a garden land, blesses them, they forfeit that blessing through folly, bring curse upon the land, and are exiled from Eden. And so God's on this mission to keep choosing one of their future descendants to restore

that Eden blessing. When you come to the conclusion of Deuteronomy, it's a bunch of people poised on the edge of a garden land about to go back into it because they've been in exile for a long time. And Moses warns them of the disastrous curse consequences if they aren't faithful to their covenant with Yahweh, but also of the eaten blessings that will pour out on them if they aren't faithful to their covenant with Yahweh, but also of the Eden blessings that will pour out on them if they do. And so it's as if the people of Israel with Moses that they're lead at the end of the Torah are like poised about to return to the Promised Land, but it's all going to hinge on how they respond to the command and the voice of Yahweh.

Yeah, it's interesting. As bookends, you've got the story begins with humanity in the garden land, with Atora, which is eat of every tree, except for the tree of knowing it's bad. Yeah. Yeah. And trust me for that. And then they're exiled from the garden land. And then that's how that's the first book end. Yeah. You go to the end and it's, they're now poised outside the garden land. The garden land. Yeah.

And they've been given a new Torah to then allow them to prosper as they go back in. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of symmetry there. Yeah, but it's inverted. It's inverted. Yeah. Which makes it feel like a mirror of each other.

Cool. So, yeah, there's a real beautiful symmetry there for how the Torah begins and ends. And also, we're all the way back on the Genesis, and there was a promise that that exile would be somehow addressed undone, resolved in some way through a future seed, a descendant of the woman's lineage. Yeah, the seed of the woman. And the Torah has been following, like, intensely through all the genealogies, keeping a particular lineage in front of you

that led from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abram, Abram to Isaac to Jacob. And then it's kind of a showdown between Joseph and Judah. That's how the fight begins. Jacob's 12 sons, two of which are Joseph and Judah. And Judah becomes Mm-hmm the kingly line. That's right. Which we aren't into the stories of the kings yet Mm-hmm, but yeah, he becomes like a royal leader of the tribes and the that seat of the woman promise gets attached to his his lineage

So you keep reading but Joseph becomes important because well his lineage. So you keep reading. But Joseph becomes important because... Well, he's important as a rival brother of Judah. And what God does with Joseph is at the poem at the end of Genesis applied as an image of what God will do with a future seed from the line of Judah. So Joseph becomes a narrative image of that future seed coming from Judah's line. So the seed's going to come from Judah's line, but Joseph is going to do Joseph-like stuff. Joseph-like stuff. Yeah. And then of course we then get into Exodus, Slavitticus, and numbers are more introduced to the Leviates who become specifically to descendants of Levi, Moses and Aaron.

And then of those two, Moses. And so Moses is in front of us as one with power over the snake. His staff even turns into a snake and God gets in power to grab it and master it. He healed it. Yeah. Through Moses, God brings down the biggest baddest snake in the story so far. King Pharaoh. King Pharaoh.

Yep. Destroy them in the waters. And then Moses becomes this heaven-honored mediator who can ascend into heaven and see God's back and no God face to face. Yeah, it's kind of right at the center of the Torah then. Yeah. Moses getting access to the garden space, the mountain garden.

The mountain garden. But the cosmic mountain garden. Exactly, yeah, heaven on earth. That appears on Mount Sinai, but then that heaven on earth garden presence shifts from the top of the mountain to hovering over the sacred tent. And Moses is the primary mediator. Even though there is a high priest

in the mix, a high priest is an idolater, his brother in the Golden Calf story. So Moses ends up being this powerful narrative image of the seed of the woman with power over the snake. But then Moses has his own failures in the wilderness exile. And so by the time we reach the end of Deuteronomy, he's saying goodbye to them. And so this is actually a perfect segue, then. He gives us many speeches to the Israelites. And then here is the last paragraph. And this is important. So what we're reading is not just the last paragraph of Deuteronomy, it's the last paragraph of the Torah.

Oh, actually, we did go through this already in the podcast. Yeah. So he gets taken up onto a high mountain, he sees the land that is relic again in Herod, and then he dies outside the land, and it seems like God buries him, and nobody knows where he's buried to this day. But verse 9, this is key. Joshua, the son of noon, was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses placed his hands on him, and that's an important symbolic ritual of appointing someone as your representative.

We talked about that last week. We did. And actually, you can see the effect of it. It says, then the Israelites listen to Joshua and they did just as Yahweh commanded Moses. So now listening to Joshua is like listening to Moses. Yeah. Joshua has this new representative of Moses

who is the representative of humanity for God. Yeah. Or Israel for God. Yeah, totally. So Joshua is the new representative of Moses, who is the representative of humanity for God. Yeah, very Israel for God. Yeah, totally. So Joshua is the new Moses. He's the new human. He was going to lead them back into the garden land. So you're like, okay, maybe this is the guy. Because Moses has been talking about a servant who's going to come.

Yeah. Do we think maybe this is that guy? Well, I mean, what he and Moses anticipated in his poems was there would be a long history of Israel's covenant betrayal that we lead to destruction doom. Okay. But that God, there would be a group in Israel that would maintain faithfulness called the servants.

The servants. Yeah. So with that forecast in our minds, Joshua appears and you're like, oh, maybe this is going to be the leader of faithful servants. And we're just going to have to read his story to see what happens next. But what's funny, so after you tee up Joshua and you're like, oh, bright hopes for the future. Then you get verse 10, which tells you, you know, but there has never again Arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses

You know the one who knew Yahweh face-to-face and all the signs and wonders and mighty deeds like what he did in Egypt all that stuff Yeah, that person's never come. So you're kind of like oh So maybe Joshua wasn't as bad as I thought he was going to be. It kind of deflates these hopes attached to Joshua in verse nine. The story is going to continue with Joshua, but we know he was not. Not the one. He was up. He didn't do better than Moses, right?

And Moses is the closest we got to the snake crushing. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And Moses is the closest we got to the snake crushing seed of the woman. So the fact that Joshua is described as a new Moses, because he's his replacement and the people now listen to Joshua as the way that they listen to Yahweh like they did to remoses. It's very clearly portrays Joshua as a new Moses. And then in the next line tells you, and there's never been anybody like Moses. Yeah, that's not a great setup.

Do you know what I'm like? Yeah, you're taking over. But I think it's part of the strategy for how the Hebrew Bible works, which is okay. So now you're set up to see the Book of Joshua, which comes next. You're set up not to see Joshua as like, oh, maybe he's the Messiah, but he

is like a Joseph figure. In fact, he's from the line of Joseph. And he becomes a narrative image of the new humanities victory over the snake and going into the garden land. But it tells you from the beginning that it wasn't the final deal, as it was just partial realization along the way. And so that's how the Torah ends. Anticipating a future Moses-like prophet. And Moses had it all, man, he was like a prophet, but he was- He was in charge, he was picking.

He was picking. He's picking. Yeah, he was a ruler and leader among the people. So he was like- Yeah. He was recovering the Adam and Eve royal priestly calling in the Ethan Land. Okay. So with that, we closed the Torah scroll and we open up the next scroll, which is Joshua in both the Hebrew Bible

and in Christian Bibles. Can we stop there for a second? Okay. Yeah. Because this will still be new to a lot of people. Okay. There's a different ordering of scrolls or books. Yeah, yeah. And your English old testament and in the Hebrew. Yeah, Hebrew Bible. Tenak, Hebrew Bible. Not different scrolls.

Same scrolls. Same scrolls, different order. Different arrangement. Yeah. And we. Same scrolls, different order. Different arrangement. Yeah. And we have a video that walks through that. But let's quickly tag it. Like, what is the shape of the Hebrew Bible? Yeah.

So, the Torah is the first third. And then come the middle section, which is split into two parts, but it's just the prophets. Okay. And so the tonk member is the acronym for Torah, but then Neviim, which is the word for profits, and then Ketuvim, which is the word for writings.

And then you put a little A in between the three. Ta-na-ha-k-na-ha-k-na-ha-k-na-ha. Yep. Torah Neviim, Ketuvim. Torah, profits, and writings. The profits are split into two. There's four works, and they're called the former prophets, and that's Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.

Yeah, and it's confusing to think of these as prophetic books. Because when I think of prophetic books, I think of the, what you're calling the latter prophets, which are clearly like, here's a bunch of apocalyptic poetry and crazy prophets doing crazy things. Right, right. Where Joshua judges Samuel Kings. Yeah, their narrative accounts.

There almost be like historical narrative. Yeah, that's right. That's what they are. It tells the story of Israel's entry into the land. That's what it begins with in Joshua. And then in the last paragraphs of kings, it's about the exile of Israel and their defeat by Babylon and their exile out of the land. So why are they called considered prophetic books?

Yeah, so it's retelling the story of Israel's time in the Promised Land, told from the perspective of the prophets. So anytime you tell a story, you're telling it from an angle, a certain perspective. And so there are many ways that you could tell the story of Israel's history in the land. And the prophets tell that story of one of consistent, covenant betrayal and failure, bleeding them to go right back out of the land from where they came in. And that history of failure with a few number of bright spots of different cycles and generations of key leaders throughout the story is

if it's hand in glove with the second half of the prophets, which is another four scrolls of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the scroll of the twelve. And that's the prophets. Eight scrolls. Eight, oh, the prophets, yep, are eight scrolls. Total of eight scrolls. And in your English Bible, that's going to be... They're split apart. Well, they're not together. Yeah. So they're not all contained in one area.

Correct. And it's not eat books, it's actually. Oh, yeah, totally. Because the 12 minor profit all get their own yeah, are all counted as separate books. And then in our Kings and Samuel are split into. Yeah, because they're just big scrolls. Correct. Yeah. So what do you got Samuel? Samuel was split in the first Samuel. Yeah. So you don't want to, you got six. Six plus fifteen. Twelve. Twenty one, right?

Three, twenty one. Nice. Math on the quick. Math on the fly. I look math. Yep. So my twenty one books in my English Bible that are, they start here where Joshua starts, but then at one point they turn over towards the writings.

Yep. And then it ends with the latter prophets, where in the Hebrew Bible, you go straight from the former prophets, which I think of as the historical books, and but you're saying they're written from the point of view of the prophets. Arguably so is the Torah.

It totally is. But it's not called the prophets. No, it's called the Torah. Yeah, and then they, yep, that's right. Okay. And then the latter prophets. And the latter prophets all begin with little, like, heading, little narrative introductions. So the vision of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke in the days of, and it'll name a bunch

of times and things and so on. And all, that's just a big glowing hyperlank back to the former prophets. So the prophets are all bound together, telling you a story from one end to another, and then going back and presenting force groles, giving you the words and poetry and writings of key figures. During those times.

That hyperlink back to different moments within the history that you just read. It's bound together real tightly. Okay. And it all reflects this perspective that one Israel was unfaithful to the covenant, but God didn't abandon Israel in the land. Israel left them stage to go in the land. They're going to go in the land and instead of becoming the image of God in the garden land, like filling this covenant promise with God, they abandon it. Exactly. So that's what they abandon it. And so God's going to keep handing them over to de-creation and ruin and covenant curse and so on. And they just consistently don't get the clue. The Israelites don't. And so it comes about and the leads up to the ultimate.

And we're not talking on the Israelites. This is like... No. This is the story of humanity. Exactly. Yeah. We're meditating on human nature. And humanity's exile from heaven on earth

by retelling how all these generations of characters are themselves forfeiting Eden over and over and over and over again throughout the history, leading to the ultimate loss of Eden, which is Israel's exile from the garden land. And then the latter prophets come along and reflect on that and say, yeah, here's why it happened. And then they also say, but you always purpose for creation and for his covenant people, transcends even their own failure. And he's going to create a new covenant family through whom he's going to restore the

Eden blessing to the world and send that snake crushing seed. And so the latter prophets really fixate on that. Cool. So here's what I thought we'd do. We looked at the bookends of the Torah. What if we just looked at the two bookends of the prophets? Okay. Which is the opening of Joshua.

Opening of Joshua. And then the last paragraph of Malachi. Which is the last prophet in the 12th. And just like there's all this electricity between the beginning and end of the Torah, there's a lot of electricity between the beginning and end of the prophets, and those beginning and endings of the prophets

have all this electricity with the beginning and ending of the Torah. It's all super hyperlinked together. So that'll just merge. So let's do that right now. Let's transition to reading the beginning and ending of the process. Okay, Joshua, Chapter 1. Chapter 1, let's just dive in. Okay. And it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of Yahweh.

Oh, I remember him. Yep. Then Yahweh said to Joshua, son of known, the assistant of Moses, saying, my servant Moses is dead. I think I already knew that. And now, rise up. Cross the Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I'm giving to them, the Israelites.

Every place, the souls of your feet will tread. I've given it to you. Just like I said, to Moses. From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, up to the great River Euphrates, the land of the Hittites, up to the great sea in the West. That's really far north. This will be your territory. Yeah. Super far north. It's be your territory. Yeah, super far north.

It's a big territory, okay. Yeah. So let's just pause real quick here. This is a bigger territory than Israel ever like possessed. And this is a whole puzzle. I don't forget if we talked about this in numbers, but this came up earlier this year. Yeah, and some contacts.

There's two sets of descriptions of the promised land in the Torah. One of them is fantastically huge. And this is an example. This is another example, but here in the prophets. And then one of them is a little more realistic that actually describes the land, the tribes, actually come to possess in this book. So what's interesting is the fantastically huge borders, when they're described, they're described in Genesis 15, what's

in numbers, I think a Deuteronomy and then right here. Usually there are Eden hyperlinks or vocabulary in it, in the fantastically huge descriptions. And there's one staring at us right here, the mention of the fantastically huge descriptions. And there's one staring at us right here, the mention of the river Euphrates. It's one of the four rivers of Eden. Of Eden. That's right. Or the one river goes out of Eden.

Turns into four. Turns into four. So you're going to cross a river and possess this land, the boundaries of which was one of the connection points for the shape of the land of Eden. So, when you get these fantastically huge lists of the borders of the Promised Land, I think

it's the narrator portraying the Promised Land as an Eden-garden land. And this is a good example of that. Verse 5, No one will stand before you all the days of your life just as I was with Moses. So I will be with you. In other words, it's very clear that you're like the next Moses like one. You know, I know you're not really the ultimate Moses like one, but for the moment, you are like Moses. I won't fail you and I won't forsake you. Be strong, courageous. You'll give this people the land as an inheritance, just like I swore to give them. Okay. So then now you're thinking, okay, so we're going to go in

and there's going to be some conflict. There's people there. They're going to try and stand against you. Yeah. And everywhere you tread, I'm going to give you the land, but you know, you're going to have to work for it. Where are you getting that? It says no one will stand before you the land, but you know, you're gonna have to work for it. Where are you getting that? It says no one will stand before you. Oh, no one, well, okay. But that's an anticipation of the fact that there's gonna be lots of people who resist them,

but none of them are gonna win. They're all gonna lose. At least that's the promise here. Yeah. So be strong and creative. Yeah, the whole thing is, get ready. The whole book of Joshua has the flavor of a military campaign to it. So what is the instruction that Yahweh gives to

a captain planning a military campaign for seven? Be strong and courageous to keep to do the whole Torah that Moses my servant commanded you to keep to do the whole Torah. To keep to do. That's right. And that word keep is one of the words of the job description of Adam and Eve in the dark. To keep and work the garden. To work it and to keep it. And then God gives them a command. Yeah, it gives them a Torah. Yeah. here, God asks Joshua to keep to do the whole Torah that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Again, this is the language of going into Eden and living by God's command, think by God's instruction. Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left.

Don't do good or don't do bad. Just do, right? Just do the left. Don't do good or don't do bad. Just do, do the word. Do the word so that you may have success wherever you go. This scroll of the Torah will not depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night. So we usually associate the phrase meditate on the Torah day and night with Psalm 1. Yeah, we've talked about that. And there's an important relationship, but it appears first. Yeah.

Okay. Is this haga? This is haga, yep. Meditate. Yeah, to recite quietly out loud to yourself as you read and memorize something. And what's the purpose of that quiet meditation so that you may keep to do all that's written in it, then you will prosper in the way you go and you will have success.

Didn't I command you? Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid. Yeah, well you're going to just with you wherever you go. So what's interesting is the instruction given to this guy who's about to lead a military campaign is to become a scholar. Become a student of the Torah. Become a student and meditator on the Torah.

That's the instruction. Yeah. And to do it boldly. Yeah, that's right. So there's something going on here where so we're presuming there's a whole bunch of stuff in the Torah that I guess is going to be helpful. And there are going to be all this stuff we talked about in Deuteronomy about portraying the Canaanite, the Seven Canaanite tribes like Snaky People

that need to be exiled from the land. And that's what Joshua was going to lead the people to do. But there's a whole lot of other stuff in our version of the Torah. You're like, well, what's Joshua going to do with all that? But it's apparently going to shape him into the kind of person who just knows how to live by the will of Yahweh. So what's interesting is here's our first post-Moses figure, and he's portrayed as being called to this ideal leadership role to lead the people into the land. And the most prominent thing about his character and this like job description is

that he is to be a meditator on God's written instruction. So there's this is meta. This is both for Joshua as a character within the story, but we're also, I think, being given a portrait here by the final framers of the whole tenac of what the ideal posture is of God's people as we are still waiting for our entry into the garden land and it's to take up a Joshua like taught. To be strong, courageous, and to keep and do the whole Torah. Yep, totally. In other words, it's Joshua being told to do this, but we have this feeling that

he's a model for the reader as something for the posture for the reader to adopt as we as the reader waits to go into the garden land. Okay, So that's the opening paragraph of the prophets. Right. So let's hold all that in mind. And let's go to the final paragraph of the prophets. Correct. And we just talked about the prophets or Joshua Judges Samuel King's. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then the 12.

So this means going to the very end of Malachi. But think through what is in all of that. Yeah, so much history. So much history. Yeah, and we just summarized it. It is in all of that. Yeah, so much history. Yeah, and we just summarized it as a history of failure. Yeah. And then a history that is... How many centuries are we talking about?

Oh, well, it depends on when you date the events of the book of Joshua. So some people debate if it's in the 14 to 12th century. So it's bat in the middle. Let's just say it's around the 1200s. And then it narrates down to the exile to Babylon, which happened in 586. So that's about a six little over 600 here stretch. But then... Somewhere in there was King David. Yeah. And that's right. That's right. His whole... And then there's three prophets at the end of

the 12 prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and they are all located after the people first returned to the land from Babylon. Okay. So yeah, Ezra Nehemiah, which in the days of Ezra Nehemiah? That's part of the writings. The book, the story of Esernima is in the writings. But three prophets who were, did their thing in those days are in the end of the prophet. So then that takes you another hundred years forward into the late 500s and 400s. So it's like, you know, a long, many, many centuries.

Okay. And so we're gonna go to the last paragraph of Malachi. So we're gonna fast forward like 800 years. Yep. Totally. To the end of Malachi. And Malachi is standing in a day when Israel has some of Israelites have returned back to the land and they've staked out a life in Jerusalem and it's hard. This is what we call the Second Temple period because they rebuild. They rebuild the temple. The temple. And Malachi is convinced that what's happening in the temple is just totally offensive to Yahweh. This new temple.

Yeah, the new priesthood is offensive to Yahweh. That some things don't change. Something, yeah, that people in the way they'd worship Yahweh, they allow injustice in the land. And so Malachi says, you know what? That thing that happened with Babylon, that was just the lead up to like the bigger, even more bigger, battered, de-creation that Yahweh has coming. And he calls it the day of the Lord.

Malachi chapter three verse. He's not the only one who talks about the day of the Lord. No. So Malachi chapter three verse. He's not the only one who talks about the day of the world. No. So Malachi chapter three verse 16 He says, you know, there were some who fear Yahweh Mm-hmm. Some just some. Yeah, not everybody. So we're now not all Israel is Israel. Yeah There's and fearing Yahweh that's a phrase in Hebrew to describe the person who mm-hmm instead of choosing good and bad on their own terms. Yeah.

Like goes to Yahweh and says, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. And I will fear you in the best way possible and do what you say. So there's a crew, Malachi is describing a crew within Israel. They're the ones who fear Yahweh. And they get together and when they talk together, Yahweh, and they get together, and when they talk together, Yahweh listens and hears them.

And so a scroll of remembrance was written before him, before Yahweh, about those who fear Yahweh and who love to meditate on his name. They ponder his name. Is this a different word here? It's not haga. It's not haga. Nah, chashav. But it's to mues and to hold it the forefront

of your attention. So there's this crew within Israel who fear Yahweh. Yeah. And these are the servants? Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. And what they love to do is to ponder the scroll

of remembrance. Which is... I think it's a reference to... Well, as we're gonna see, to the... To the Torah? To the Torah. Okay. Yeah, just wait for it.

Just call the Torah, guys. Yeah. Then what we're told is a little quote from Yahweh. This is what Yahweh of Host says, They will be mine. They are my treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son. Who is his servant?

So there's a day coming. You're always going to do something on the day. And this crew that actually fears him, they will become the treasured possession. And that's a big glowing hyperlink to the Torah. How so? Treasured possession. When Yahweh brings Israel to Mount Sinai and says, keep my covenant, we're making a covenant.

I brought you out of all the nations to be my people. Keep my covenant. And if you do, you will be for me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and a treasured possession. Oh, OK. Yeah. So in other words, all of Israel is proven themselves unfaithful to the covenant, but there's this crew of those who fear Yahweh and love to meditate on his name.

And they love to hear the scroll read before them. And those are Yahweh's covenant people who are like a subset within Israel. So on that day when Yahweh does this, what we're told is you will see a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. You'll see a distinction between the one who serves God and One who does not serve God because look the days come. Who's the you here? Who's this Malachi talking to? This is God still talking? Well, it's hard because it's mentioning God in the third person.

So it seems like it's Malachi again talking to those who fear the Lord. And on the day of the Lord that's coming, there's going to be this distinction, a separation between the righteous and the wicked, the servants of God, and those who don't actually serve God. The days coming, burning like an oven, and all the arrogant, and everyone who does wickedness will become stubble, like chaff, that the wind blows away. This is exactly where my mind went. Like reading Jesus without this, how should I say this? I've heard Jesus, you hear Jesus talk a lot about separating the wheat from the chaff. Oh, totally.

The righteous from the wicked. Sheep in the goats. Sheep in the goats. Yep, yep. And reading Malachi here in light of what we've talked about, what Moses predicted. Yeah. This was very centered in Israel's story,

that Jesus was coming and saying, look, there's going to be a group of people who are going to stay faithful. And I'm finding them. I'm getting that crew. And it just makes what Jesus was saying like so much clearer. It's good.

It's good. Yeah, that's totally right. The fact that there's this crew within Israel that calls themselves the God-fearers who loved to meditate on the name and that they're the righteous, these are the people from whom the Tanakh comes. This is the minority report, crew. Within Israel, this is the prophet. This is the crew of covenant-fasal Israelites that was a minority throughout most of Israel's history.

That's what we're meditating on. And that Yahweh is going to bring about a day that, like, fire will separate the consumables from the things that can endure the fire. A great test. Yes. And this is what John the Baptist is on about when he starts. Exactly. Like that day's coming. It's totally right.

Yep. So let's keep reading. Okay. on about when he starts, like that day's coming. It's totally right. Yep. So let's keep reading. Okay. So the coming day will consume the wicked and will not leave behind for them root or branch. But for you who fear my name, that burning fire is like the sun of righteousness rising. Like day one of Genesis, like the sunrise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like fattened calves.

Leap like fattened calves. Which is a compliment. The joy of a full party calf. Yeah, yeah, like a well fed calf gets the gate opened and it's just like, go for it. Woo, and it's yeah, just, yeah. So it's so like, go for it. Yeah, just, yeah. So it's so funny, like there's a fire coming and depending on how you relate to the fire, it can either keep you warm and bring you joy, like the sunrise, or it can consume you.

And you've got to, just like the fire of Yahweh that came on Mount Sinai, the people were convinced it would consume them so they didn't go up. But then when Moses and the elders go up, they're not consumed. God lets them enjoy his presence and have a meal in his presence. So this gets even more intense. So you who fear my name, who experience my fire as like a sunrise that heals you, you will trample down the wicked. And they will be like ash underneath the souls of your feet on the day that I'm going to act. Now, the wicked here, these are the ones that aren't fearing God's name.

And I'm like to think of just as Malachi just centering in on a distinction between Israelites who fear, don't fear, or really just like the screw that fears God and like the whole rest of creation. It seems centered on Israel. The whole book seems centered on Israel. But remember Israel exists as a, you know, a microcosm of all humanity. Okay, yeah. So in other words, what Yahweh, and that's the whole story, is what Yahweh is doing with

Israel, is an image of what he's doing with all humanity. Yeah. So there's a day coming that will separate those who are faithful to Yahweh and those who are not in fire, imagery. Why would that be? We get all this sounds really nice, like healing in the wings, the son of righteousness. And then leaping around like fat and calves, even that you can kind of figure out. And then he's like, and then you get to trample the wicked. It's like, well, yeah, well, okay.

So I hear back think this is the cap to the prophet. So the prophets began with Israel called to go crush the seed of the snake living in the land, in the garden land, which in the narrative is, you know, like the giants in Nephilim and all of their snake seed in the land of Canaan. So I think that's the image here. But it's a troubling image for us and we've named this before. It is for me and it is for a lot of people. I mean, there's also a visceral, like, destroyer enemy's thing that happens for people.

It's kind of like, those people are in the way. They're the enemies, we gotta get them. And that doesn't, you know, square with the teachings of Jesus, the apostles. Totally, right. So you get to these places where it's like, I get it, like, when people cause evil, it's like you're just kind of like everything's like, oh, I hope they get what they deserve. Yeah, yeah.

But you read this to Jesus lens and you're like, trampled the wicked. Totally. Yeah, it seems like Jesus would take a phrase like this and he saw himself with orders to let his enemies trample him. Right. And he said, that's how the king of God's going to come. Yeah. So

You can't to read Malachi as a part of a unified story, a lease of Jesus means you can't just rip this passage out of context and Make it mean whatever you want it to mean, but I think in the context what it you know in the context this is written among a persecuted religious minority within a people that is a persecuted ethnic minority living in an occupied territory under centuries of impression. Impire is no pressure. So I don't know what it's like to have enemies and to have experiences like that generation

after generation. And I think that's a part of what the vision of a world set right is a world where the tables get turned and the mighty fall from their thrones and the poor are elevated. And I think that's the kind of visceral feeling that's coming out in a moment like this of trampling the wicked under the souls of your feet. But you have to. But to figure out what does that actually mean to

trample the wicked under the souls of your feet when to the lens of Jesus? Yeah. It's not what you would expect. It's the opposite. So what Jesus said? Yeah. It's the opposite. Yeah, that's right. So that requires some sensitivity for how to do biblical interpretation. That's yep. Okay, so that sensitivity for how to do biblical interpretation. That's, yep. Okay. So that's all about the day of Yahweh. So we're meditating on this little crew within Israel, right? Then there's a day coming that'll separate that crew from the wicked. Last paragraph of Malachi, last paragraph of the prophets. Remember the Torah of my servant Moses that I commanded him at Mount Hora,

to all Israel, you know, the statutes and the judgments. And I go, yeah, yeah, I remember that. Because, well, you know, I read that scroll of remembrance that those of you're the Lord. Okay. Right? So this is book ending this chapter in a way. Yeah, so this whole last paragraph

is designed as a symmetry with the Torah scroll at the beginning and at the end. Yeah. So remember, there's a day of Yahweh coming that will separate the righteous and the wicked. So let's think more about that. I'm going to send you Elijah, a prophet, before the coming of the day of Yahweh that is great and fear inspiring. Okay, a couple things. Elijah. One is great we're getting another prophet. This is kind of the like,

this is where we're used to, hand off to a new prophet. And often, yeah, a prophet. But what's weird here is Elijah, he already came and went. He went about 400 years ago from Malachi's perspective. So that's odd. Yeah, so notice this pairing of Moses and Elijah. So what's interesting, Elijah, the narratives about Elijah that are in the middle of the King's scroll,

are all so hyperlanklength and patterned after the most story. Culminating, in the fact that Elijah goes to Mount Sinai looking to meet Yahweh, and he you know, he had, there's an appearance, the fire cloud storm, and he talked with Yahweh on top of the mountain. So he's clearly portrayed as a prophet like, oh yeah, he gets fed in the wilderness. Yeah, food, some ravens, God commands ravens to feed him. So he's portrayed as a new Moses, a prophet like Moses.

And when Jesus goes up to the mountain and transfigures into this figure, who shows up with them, Moses and Elijah. Exactly. So what Moses is to the Torah, Elijah is to the narratives of the prophets. Oh, okay. He becomes kind of like an icon of the heaven on earth mediator who ultimately fails, but he was pretty awesome. So you could read this and say, oh, Elijah's getting resurrected and coming back, or you can say, oh, just like we're getting someone like Moses, but better, we're also getting someone like a larger but better. That's exactly right.

So notice then, what's just happened is that's really feels like similar to the end of Deuteronomy where Moses has been like scroll of the Torah, be faithful to the covenant. There's a separation happening within Israel. A faithful are called the servants. He'll vindicate them. And in the meanwhile, wait for the coming prophet who will restore and do all the stuff that Moses and now that Elijah did. So both the Torah and the prophets conclude with hyperlinked conclusions, pointing you forward to a great seat of the woman who's going

to come bring restoration and defeat evil. A prophet. Yeah, a prophet figure. Yep. And a day of the Lord. And that gets intensified. I suppose in the Deuteronomy scroll, the language of day the Lord isn't there, right? Ah, well, not in Deuteronomy 34.

Okay. It's anticipated in Moses' song. Oh, is it? It's all going to hit the fan at one point. Yeah. But Malachi turns up the volume, just calling it the coming day. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how the prophets begins and ends, which are showing Malachi,

in the arrangement of the Tanakh, then the next and final third collection, called the Ketuvim, begins with the Psalm scroll. And final third collection called the Ketavim begins with the psalm scroll and if you look at what is in the Tanakh the next literary unit after what we just read in Malachi in the Hebrew Bible it's psalm 1 Which we've read many times So I just want to scan it real quick because we're going to see all the same themes coming up again. Yeah

Have we have we jammed on it on the book? Oh, maybe not. You know what? Maybe not. We don't have time Yeah, so read through this whole song Mm-hmm. We are going to put out a whole video on the song. Yes, we are next year in 2023 That's true and the reason why is because it talks about the kind of person who meditates on the Torah as a tree of life. But now you're situating this whole idea of the person who meditates on the Torah in the largest context possible. Of the Tenant, of the whole Tenant. That's right.

And this now, you're talking about it as a seams. So we're going from the seam of the prophets now into the last third of the Hebrew Bible, the writings, which is Psalms and then there's Proverbs and he has to use the Job. Lamentations of Job and you've got Ruth and Esther and as you remember, all of it. Song of songs, Chronicles, Daniel, it's all the good stuff.

Okay. It feels like kind of like, yeah, the extras. Yeah, totally. And it's interesting, because every one of them is hyperlinked like mad into back into the Torah and prophet. And this is often referred to as the writings or the Psalms, Jesus calls it the Psalms. Yeah, because Psalms is the head scroll

of this third and final collection, at least the way Jesus saw it. So we're at the seam there, and you're saying, as we read the first literary unit at the seam moving into this last third. Yes. What are the ideas that we're gonna meditate on? Totally, yep.

And it just happens to be. Yeah. So then just, it doesn't take that long, I'm just gonna read someone. Okay. Yeah, and you'll just see it pop. read someone. Okay yeah and you'll just see it pop. Oh, the good life. Blessed. Oh yeah.

Oh how blessed. Oh how blessed is the man. Is the man. You say the good life. The good life, yeah. Of the man who doesn't walk in the council of the wicked. There it is, okay. Oh, the wicked. We've heard this a lot, and now the wicked's just like that's just...

Yeah, I just learned a lot about the wicked in the story of the prophets, and then in the last paragraph of Malachi. Okay. And doesn't stand in the path of sinners, doesn't sit in the seat of Mocker's rather, his delight is in the Torah of Yahweh, the instruction of Yahweh. And on Yahweh's instruction, he meditates day and night. You're saying instruction, that's just a way to translate Torah. Yep.

Where law is the typical English translation in our Bibles. So there's this guy who doesn't associate with the wicked. Yeah. He doesn't walk, stand or sit with them. Right. His delight is in Yahweh's instruction, Torah, and on the Torah, he meditates day and night. He meditates. And that's what Moses said to do. and that's what Moses said to do. There, Joshua was... It's what Yahweh told Joshua to do. Oh, Yahweh told Joshua he would win the military camp. Yeah, and meditate.

It's verbatim, copy and pasted. Wow, okay. So now, if a sudden, Psalm 1 is linked to the end of Malachi, distinction of righteous wicked, and it's super hyperlinked to Joshua, chapter 1. Here. Because what this guy is doing is what Joshua was told to do. He will become like a tree, planted by streams of water, which gives its fruit and its time, its leaf, just never withers, and everything he does, he's successful. Success. And that's in Malachi and in Joshua. Yes. And that word success is spilled with the same letters as the word wisdom.

Ok, what? Which, um, it's the word ha-skill, but it's what the woman saw when she looked at the tree that it was desirable to make ha-skill. Well, that's a different word. Yep. It's a synonym for wisdom. Ok. Yeah. So this person, the Joshua-like figure, becomes like the tree of life, planted by the river with perpetual, right, leaves and fruit. Yeah. And in doing so, they become the thing the woman wanted. The thing the woman wanted, which she grabbed for the tree of knowing going bed. So this is hyperlinked to Genesis 1 through 3. So whoever wrote someone wrote it as a synthesis

of the beginning and ending of Atora and the beginning and ending the process. So rad to think about. It's really rad. It makes you think of the just the brilliance of a Mozart or like where they just have so many things happening that they can just pull from all of these musical motifs and bring them together in new ways. In ways that just bring you a sense of awe and make you kind of wonder like how did someone's mind do this? Yeah, totally. Yeah, this is just the first half of Psalm 1 and it's weaving together language words imagery

from the beginning of Genesis The end of Deuteronomy the beginning of Joshua the end of Malachi. We're not even done yet Not so the wicked They're like chaff That the wind drives away. Oh, yeah, the chaff. So what Malachi said, the wicked will become like stubble, consumed in the flame. Therefore, the wicked won't stand in the judgment. Oh, yeah, that sounds like Malachi.

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. And the assembly of the righteous. And we're talking about a crew. A crew that fears the Yahweh and loves to ponder his name. Yeah. Because Yahweh knows the path of the righteous. Remember, because he said that crew is my special possession, but the path of the wicked will perish. So all of a sudden, the whole psalm scroll has introduced by upholding this model human

human, who's like Joshua, and like Adam and Eve, and like Moses, who's the embodiment of the instruction and Torah of Yahweh, and they become like a tree of life that provides life to everyone around them, and Yahweh's, he's gotten thy on that person, and in the coming separation between the righteous and the wicked, that one will flourish like the Garden of Eden. That's the imagery here. So whatever the Torah is about is also what the prophets are about, is also what the writings are about. Because the beginnings and endings have all been coordinated.

So if you've ever been confused about what the Bible, the Hebrew Old Testament is about. Welcome to the club. But whoever organized it together has given us clues in these matching mirror beginnings and endings as to what the big ideas are. And so let's at least, if you're going to read on to Joshua after this year of Torah and go on into the prophets, at least kind of let these passages be your kind of guideposts for what to pay attention to. And when you say what the story is about, what you're saying is, if I could try to recap, please, the story is about humanity, given the opportunity to be gods, the people of God, God's image, and they're given a Torah. Adam and Eve are given a Torah. And they are meant to fear God and live in abundance and in abundant land with God where God and creation are one. Heaven and Earth are one heaven and earth are one. Yeah.

Well, God's presence is in the middle of creation. God's creation are one. God. Okay. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. I think so too.

God's presence is in the middle of creation. Yeah. And heaven and earth are one. Yeah. There you go. And so that isn't where humanity is at. Obviously, something went wrong. We've taken of the tree of knowing good and bad. And the whole story was about God saying, I'm going to fix this through some sort of human seat of the woman

who's going to defeat evil, make things right. And as we trace and find this person, we know this person is going to keep God's instructions, Torah. And we're given a story of a people, who are given an opportunity to kind of reboot a covenant relationship with New Torah, which now isn't a simple little like... One command. one command. One command. It's a whole covenant code, which we have portions of in the Torah.

And so Moses, at the very end, is there going to go back into the land, this image of the garden. He's saying, do what humanity has never been able to do. Yeah, sure. The one thing, no one's figured out, this is what you gotta do. You gotta keep the Torah. And for them, it was a covenant command. But for us, reading the Torah, we don't have that covenant law code, but what we have is scrolls that tell a story with some of the law code and that in and

itself becomes God's instruction for us. Yeah, that's right. It kind of becomes a little meta at that point. And now we are hearing Moses say this to ancient Israel and we realize, oh, that's us too. Yeah, we're we're have the opportunity to and we say that's us. You're talking about you and me sitting right here. Yeah, I am okay But also at the profits who have formed this collection Mm-hmm 800 years in the future right telling these stories that they're talking about them exactly We have this opportunity. Yeah, yeah from the perspective of the people who put the tonk together This is the crew sitting back in the land

After the return from exile, but like the day of Yahweh and the new Eden has not come. Yeah, and we're waiting for it And so that's what it's the whole things about and there's so many more stories to go But let's frame the stories of Joshua and moving forward. It's all about will you yeah like keep this covenant? Yeah, and will you fear God? Yeah, and walk with him and find the place we're having in earth unite. Now that we fast forward and there's been a great exile and there's an opportunity to come back to the land and try again like and we're still not figuring it out. Will you be that people? And when Psalm 1 starts, it's just this call,

like look how beautiful the life is to actually be that kind of person. That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Psalm 1 is describing what it would have been like if Adam and Eve, or Moses, or Joshua,

or David had actually done the will of God consistently and from the heart. They would have become like trees of life to everyone around them. So Psalm 1 begins this collection. Yeah, the Psalm scroll. It's a whole meditation on all these themes through the form of poetry, but then you get the wisdom scrolls. And Proverbs begins by saying like every one of us is an Adam and Eve sitting at the tree and

Take the tree of life that is wisdom and trust you know live by God's wisdom You get portraits of Daniel who does live by God's wisdom and he suffers miserably along with his people and his Moments of exaltation of Babylon become images of a son of man's exaltation through suffering over the Tations. That's Daniel chapter seven. So like, we're just working the themes in the writings. You're just all these creative ways of working the core themes over, but that's basically it. So the tonot comes with a conclusion with us sitting in the same positions the Israelites were with Moses Waiting to go into the garden land. It's kind of begging you to be part of the crew. Yeah that decides

To meditate on God's instruction and to be that kind of person because to be that kind of person means that you can be the place. We're heaven and earth unite. Yeah. And that God can then unite heaven and earth through you and the crew. With also this vision of when that happens, it's going to be intense because it's going to be a reordering of everything. Yeah. It's going to be another de-creation, recreation, like the flood, like Sodom and Gomorrah, like the exile, but it'll all be a recreation and there were back to the cycles of this thematic cycle or melody throughout the Hebrew Bible over

and over and over again. And it's training all of us to see our lives as a cycle in the drama where every one of us has the potential to become a conduit for God's Eden blessing out to others if we will align ourselves with the will of God. And to its Jesus fulfillment, the God actually became the human partner that we've all failed to be on our behalf so that he could become the channel of eternal Eden blessing for all the nations, so that even when I fail, if I'm attached to the one that my failure has no chance of overcoming God's own faithfulness that's demonstrated in the coming of Messiah, this Nick Ressur. Yeah, so much comes together in so many interesting ways.

Yeah. I guess it makes me think, you know, Jesus does come and talk a lot about the language of Malachi of the separating weep the chaff. And he creates a crew of faithful. Yeah. But you don't get stories of them just going and being like Torah students. Mm.

Like, you know, they become like students of the teachings of Jesus. Yeah. And, you know, they become like students of the teachings of Jesus. Yeah. And, you know, you get a few stories of Jesus going to like synagogue and like reading the Torah. But it's not like a massive motif. Well, I spoke, this is why the sermon on the Mount is so pivotal. Because Jesus defines Torah observance, that's faithfulness to his vision of what it means to live by the Torah. Yeah, and he famously says, like, I've come to fulfill the Torah.

Yeah, I haven't come to cancel the Torah in prophets. Opposite, I've come to fulfill them, which will lead to a greater righteousness. I told you. Where I gave you righteousness, the fulfillment of the Torah is going to give you greater righteousness. Greater righteousness, and then we're on into the sermon on the Mount. is going to give you greater righteousness. Greater righteousness. And then we're on into the sermon on the Mount. So in a way, he was about Torah observance, but the Torah observance dreamed of by Jeremiah

or Ziggiel or God's spirit would write God's will on the heart so that you don't just observe commands, but just your very core is saturated with this will and desire of Yahweh so that you know how to live in alignment. I think it's a good place to end because this gets back to what kind of literature is this. And this is wisdom, Messianic wisdom literature. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we go into it, any of these stories, any of these poems, these ideas are supposed to bring us to a place where our will and God's will align, our vision for what it means to have the good life, what righteousness is, that that becomes not something that we have to like even learn anymore or deserve, but like there's this like relationship with God that develops. And what we get in Jesus and the apostles,

the writings of apostles is talking about Jesus and his unity with Jesus and the gift of the Spirit. And then we still have these writings to meditate on. And all that kind of works together to help us reclaim this thing of being the image you got. Yeah, that's right. And because we're brought into the story through Jesus Messiah, it's precisely through his story,

his example and what he accomplished for humanity that humanity couldn't do by itself. That all creates a whole new cycle of the pattern that we are brought into. And this is what's so great about Jesus It's a whole new cycle of the pattern that we are brought into. And what's so great about Jesus that portrayed as the new human, because when I associate myself with him through trust, what's true of him becomes true of me.

Or as Paul will say, the Messiah is my life. And it's not even fully me who's living anymore. It's me, but Messiah living in me and through me. And that's the me that I really want to be. I just rhymed and I didn't even mean to. I could go on a coffee mug, but Messiah is the me who I really want to be. But that's true. That's what it means to live in a messianic fulfillment version of this story. So Lord have mercy on us, but also, let's keep reading on into the prophets and the writings.

And for those of you who do keep going, feel free to reach out and tell us what you're learning, what you're seeing and discovering. And like I said, in some future time, John and tell us what you're learning, what you're seeing, and discovering. And like I said, in some future time, John and I will join you, and we'll do our journey through the profits as well. Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. This episode was produced by Cooper Peltz with Associate Producer Lindsey Ponder, edited by Dan Gummel, Tyler Bailey and Frank Garza. Hannah Wu provided the annotations for our annotated podcast in our app. Bible Project is a crowdfunded nonprofit and we exist to experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything that we make is free because it's already been paid for by thousands of generous supporters.

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