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David forged a united monarchy from a loose confederation of twelve tribes; Solomon overlays that monarchy with a brilliant administrative structure. God grants Solomon his request for “discernment in administering,” and in doing so, Solomon builds a kingdom unlike any that had ever appeared before. Too, Solomon carries out David’s wish to build a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, a temple worthy of God’s name. Throughout his reign, Solomon lives in wealth and splendor, greater than any other king on earth.

Traditionally attributed to the apostle John, 1 John is a very personal discourse on a variety of topics by one who had an extraordinarily intimate relationship with Christ. In this epistle, John discusses the appeal and challenges of emerging Gnostic beliefs in the early Church and the impact such beliefs have on a believer’s view of salvation. Join Logos Bible Study’s Dr. Bill Creasy as we explore this intimate epistle.

With the death of Ahab and Jezebel, Jehu (841-814 B.C.) murders all of Ahab’s family, consolidating power in the north. Meanwhile in the south, Athaliah (the only female king) murders her grandchildren and crawls over their butchered bodies to seize the throne, initiating a 7-year reign of terror. With the ensuing chaos, both kingdoms weaken and begin to crumble. Black storm clouds gather in the north as Assyria (Northern Iraq of today) emerges on the stage as a world power.

With Moses dead, Israel stands on the threshold of the Promised Land, looking to Joshua for leadership. Join Logos Bible Study as Dr. Bill Creasy takes us across the Jordan River and into the land of “milk and honey” in a brutal conquest - a campaign of extermination that raises profound moral and ethical questions in its day, as well as in ours.

Seventy-three of the 150 psalms are traditionally ascribed to David. As we read the "Davidic Psalms," we see deeply into David's heart as he struggles with God, with others and with himself. These psalms are deeply moving and often, brutally honest.

God then gives his people their second greatest gift: The Tabernacle, a portable structure by which a sinful people gains access to an infinitely holy God.

In Leviticus, God tells his people to “be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19: 2). Leviticus is a handbook of holiness. Here God prescribes the five great sacrifices that enable a sinful people to be brought into fellowship with a holy God: 1) the burnt offering; 2) the grain offering; 3) the peace offering; 4) the sin offering; and 5) the guilt offering. Four of these five are animal sacrifices.

Moving from Genesis to Exodus, 400 years flash by and the Israelites grow from a family of 73 to a nation of 2 million; and they move from freedom into slavery. We shouldn’t be surprised. Half a millennium earlier, in Genesis 15: 13, God had told Abraham: “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.” Why would God allow this happen?

It is one thing to conquer a land; it is quite another to settle it and live in it. At this point in our story, Israel is not a nation; it is at best a loose confederation of tribes, each living in its own territory, isolated by rivers, mountains, valleys and other natural terrain. When an outside threat intrudes, the tribes coalesce, a leader (called a “judge”) emerges, and he (or she, in the case of Deborah) deals with the threat. There are 13 such leaders in Judges, and as our story progresses, they become more and more corrupt.

Jesus resurrection is the single most important event in human history. In last week’s lesson, we followed Jesus through his death, burial and resurrection; this week we shall delve deeply into the resurrection, understanding it’s full impact on both Jesus...and on us.

As we move through the Bible, we encounter both oral and writing prophets. Elijah and Elisha, for example, are oral prophets, neither one writes anything that we know of. We simply have their stories in 1 & 2 Kings, stories about what they said and did. Writing prophets, on the other hand, write books. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the twelve Minor Prophets commit what they have to say to writing, sometimes in long books like Isaiah (66 chapters), and other times in short books like Obadiah (1 chapter).

Although not the first of Paul’s epistles, his Epistle to the Church in Rome (or simply, Romans) takes the place of first importance. Written from Ephesus in A.D. 57, Paul crafts a formal argument in Romans, employing the structure of a “scholastic diatribe,” stating and defending his theses that we are “saved by grace through faith.” Romans is a brilliant work, and it is foundational for understanding the all that Paul has written.

Jewish Bibles classify Daniel among the “Writings,” not the “Prophets”; Christian Bibles elevate Daniel to the position of a major prophet. Daniel is taken captive to Babylon after its first attack on Jerusalem in 605 B.C. Daniel’s book is set in Babylon and spans the years 605 – 539 B.C.

Isaac survives, and our story continues with tales of Isaac and his twin sons, Jacob and Esau.

If Isaiah is the Thundering Prophet, Jeremiah is the Weeping Prophet. Called to be a prophet in the thirteenth year of King Josiah (626 B.C.), Jeremiah serves through the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem (586 B.C.). Jeremiah is one of the few prophets who is both a priest and a prophet, an unenviable—and untenable—position, much like a lawyer representing both parties in a particularly nasty divorce! Jeremiah did not want to be a prophet; he tries to quit on several occasions; and he regularly weeps over the message God has given him.

The Babylonian Captivity is catastrophic for the Jews. In Psalm 137 we read: “By the waters of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137: 1). And 1 Chronicles 9: 1 tells us: “The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.” Cyrus the Great king of Persia (559-530 B.C.—modern-day Iran) conquers Babylon by 540 B.C., and following his enlightened policies allows the people conquered by Assyria and Babylon to return to their homes and rebuild.

Paul arrives in Corinth in mid-A.D. 50 and spends 18 months forming a church there. Of all the churches Paul founded, the Church at Corinth presented the greatest challenges and the most difficult problems. When Paul finally leaves Corinth in A.D. 52, he sails home via Ephesus, recognizing an enormous opportunity in that city. In A.D. 54, Paul begins his third missionary journey, going directly to Ephesus and spending most of his time there, A.D. 54-57.

Jesus launches his public ministry when he is “about thirty years old” (Luke 3: 23); it lasts three years. During that time “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4: 23). In this session we sample his teaching, preaching and healing.

Notice that from Genesis through Judges, our story moves across a linear timeline: We move in a straight line from Genesis through Judges, from creation through roughly 1,000 B.C. Ruth is a recapitulation; it turns around and goes back to “the days when the Judges ruled” (Ruth 1: 1). Back in those awful days, there was Ruth, Naomi, Boaz—and the greatest love story in the Bible.

Joel may be the earliest of the writing prophets; if he is, then he introduces the term “the Day of the Lord” as a reference to a set of final, catastrophic events that will befall Israel—and indeed all humanity in the “end times.” Illustrating his message with reference to a dreadful locust plague that occurred in the past, we shudder as God makes clear that if Israel does not repent something much greater than a locust plague will occur.