The “Writings”

This week’s readings are from what the Jews consider the Writings.  One week is not enough to even scratch the surface of this section.  I want to give a brief overview.  The Psalms are of course well known but the rest of these books are rarely dealt with.  This is a shame!

The Book of Psalms is the great worship and prayer book of the Jews.  We have adopted this book for worship and prayer as well.  Nothing can teach you about prayer better than reading through the Book of Psalms.  The Psalms covers a wide range of situations, from times of praise, to despair and even curses upon enemies.  Truly every situation we face is dealt with somewhere in the Psalms.  We may also miss the set up of the book.  It is not random and quite a bit can be learned about individual Psalms by where they are placed in the book.  But we won’t come close to touching on this subject.  All I can say is: spend time with this book!  (I love Hebrew poetry and there is also a richness we can gain by learning about the techniques and style of this poetry.)

The other books of the Writings are mainly Wisdom Literature.  These books include Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Job.  This literature is concerned with tying every day experiences to our relationship with God.  A summation of Wisdom is “‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’” (Job 28:28)  This is not to fear as in "scared to even approach" but more like "respect".

We will spend two days in the Book of Proverbs at the end of the week.  However, we are skipping completely over the other books.  For many, the Book of Job holds interest, due to its discussion about the issue of bad things happening in a world created by a good, all powerful, God. I’ve taught a class on the Book of Job once and would love to do so again.  It is a disturbing book.  To be honest, I’m not sure the theme of the book is really about this issue.  Let me know if any major interest exists in exploring this book. 

So onward we go with just five readings to cover a major section of the Old Testament.  Obviously this is barely an appetizer!

Peace,

Randy