(Overdue) Week 2-3- Old Testament 1 & Hermeneutics

Old Testament 1
My second class was Old Testament 1, with Bruce Chick. A little about Bruce, he is the pastor of Sovereign Grace in Roanoke, VA. Bruce has an amazing testimony that he shared with us, from growing up in and out of church, to getting saved, playing professional baseball in the Triple A, to becoming a pastor. He is a godly man, humble, and wise. We were so served all week by his example of humility, but his amazing knowledge and skill in handling the Old Testament texts.

OT 1 focused on the Pentateuch, which is the first 5 books of the bible. It was a challenging week, probably the toughest yet, but sensed God's grace through it all, and learned so much!

God was at work creating categories for me to see the richness of the Old Testament - that are rich with God's covenant making and keeping power for his redeemed people.

Hermeneutics

Following that, was Hermeneutics with Mark Mullery. Mark is the pastor of the Sovereign Grace church in Fairfax, VA. "Biblical hermeneutics is the craft of interpreting scripture." It is the process, skill, and steps that we use to approach and interpret scripture. Here is an excellent quote that came out of our lectures to help explain:

““Biblical interpretation has as its goal to discover the original meaning and intention of the text. Its goal is exegesis—to lead the meaning out of the text—and shuns eisogesis—bringing meaning to the text. Or as Luther put it: ‘The best teacher is the one who does not bring his meaning into the Scripture but gets his meaning from the Scripture.’” ( Bernard Ramm, Protestant Biblical Interpretation, p. 115.)

This would be my aim too - to allow scripture to speak for itself. May God continue to grant us at Oasis to do that very thing, that the emphasis and focus would never be our words, but that we would allow God to speak to us through His word! That we would tune in and listen to His voice in scripture!