Thursday, August 18, 2016

The History Behind the History

I've been plugging away at my District School of Ministry course-work.  I wish I could say I have been on top of things better, but life kind of gets in the way sometimes.  My summer has been jam-packed between the new job, lots of Mercy Chefs deployments/trips, and various other outings.  When I attended my last course I was just submitting my test from my May course.  The good news is I have now put a plan in place to get caught up-and so far I have stuck it.  Mostly because I want to graduate on time!

My most recent book I have been studying is Christ in the Synoptic Gospels-actually I just finished reading the last chapter tonight.  I will take the test Saturday, and begin my new book Sunday.

The most intriguing chapter in this book was Chapter 3 "The Historical Background".  I've read the Bible, and studied World History when I was in school, but this chapter put the 2 together in a neat way.  In school, the teachers were not concerned with putting emphasis on how the times were interwoven with biblical times.  And the Bible was written by people who didn't have a need to explain the whole world political situation at that time-it was just understood as its original audience lived in those times.

Greece and Alexander the Great, Ancient Rome, and more.  So many political conquests and empires played their part in preparing the world for Christ's appearance.  The chapter laid out things in such a way that you know it was not by accident that God sent His Son at a time when the world was ready for Him.

Galatians 4:4 says, "But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law."  This chapter filled in my mind what this scripture means when it says the time had fully come.  God didn't pick this time by accident.  I love how my studies are showing me how things fit together so well!