David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Proverbs Part 2
In “Unlocking The Bible”, David Pawson explains Proverbs in way few can.
The Bible needs to be read in context and not “cherry-picked”, like “Promise Box” verses, because in it’s true context it may be giving a warning, or telling us what people did who were in the wrong. (Some people may quote verses as if they were God’s actual words, when they are only in God’s Word to warn us against what some people said or did, like Job’s comforters, etc.)
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Proverbs Part 1
Proverbs Part 1 – a “WORD FOR” every occasion…
David Pawson in his “Unlocking The Bible” DVD, on Proverbs, explains why it is still relevant to us today.
Solomon’s book of Proverbs is a collection of 900 common sense, down to earth, sayings. Far from being “religious” they make no mention of prophets or priests and many of these sayings have become part of the English language and are in common use today. Proverbs are wise sayings which can be compared to us saying “well, it’s like this…”. They cover most of our common every day life, but from a worldview of living in a way which God would approve of, and God is mentioned 90 times.
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - 1 & 2 Kings Part 2
"Kings" Pt 2 - How are the mighty, fallen…
In David Pawson’s Unlocking The Bible DVD, on the book of Kings, Part 2, he gives an overview of the kings of Israel to show the point and purpose of the book.
Solomon started well. God was so pleased with him that He allowed him to ask for anything he wanted. At first, Solomon was so unselfish that he asked for wisdom to govern, and hence we have the book of Proverbs…a book of guidelines for living, of general wisdom. Because Solomon’s answer was so unselfish, God also added more than he asked for, including health and wealth, so that even a visiting queen was impressed.
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - 1 & 2 Kings Part 1
“Kings”Pt1 — Replacing God as King
The Book of Kings is called the “Book of the Kingdoms” by the Jews, meaning in Hebrew, the “Book of Reigns”, and the Jews believe Jeremiah wrote this book.
It covers the second phase of Israel’s history, where the people replaced God with a man to be their king. Some kings were good and others were bad, which resulted in Israel losing all which they had gained when God was their King.
David Pawson summarises the book of Job in this part of “Unlocking The Bible”.
Job’s wife doesn’t say “I’ll pray for you”, she tells Job to curse God and die. This shows one of the problems of marrying someone who doesn’t share your faith. Here, David Pawson identifies the first of “Job’s comforters”, showing the extent of his problems.
Then religious ‘friends’ make Job’s nightmare even worse. Except for the last talker, each spoke three times. A young man who had tagged along, Job had refused to even acknowledge!
Introduction to David Pawson’s “Unlocking The Bible”, on “Job”.
David Pawson helps us to make sense of the book of Job…
He points out that in spite of being the world’s oldest document, the questions raised in the book of Job are still being asked today…such as:
“Why are we here?”
“Where does evil come from?”
“Why does God allow suffering?”
“If there is a God, does He care?”
“If God is both all powerful and also all good, why doesn’t He do something?”
Job has the integrity to grapple with these problems without minimising God, like some religious leaders have been teaching, saying that He is either unable to help us, or that He doesn’t care about what happens to us.
David Pawson shows us how we can use the Psalms. Martin Luther noticed that the Psalms are the Bible in miniature, and twenty of the Psalms are even quoted in the New Testament. Many Psalms are not by King David at all. Some are by Moses, Job, Asaph, the sons of Korah and more, all written over hundreds of years.
We can learn from the content of songs, and the Psalms begin by teaching us that the ones that are ‘blessed’ are those that do not follow advice of the wicked. There are different types of Psalms. The Psalms cover emotions from joy to grief. Some Psalms say “please”. Others say “thank you” or even “sorry”. Others are Psalms of lament and still more are cries to God for help. Some are complaints to God, and others ask God for justice. Some promise to praise God later, after He has answered the prayer! The Psalms teach us to be very honest with God.
Last week we looked at why poetry and music are in the Bible. David Pawson shows how Psalms are used in worship; (in fact King David even provided musical instructions to the music director to explain how the Psalms are to be used in worship). This Poetry is included in the Bible for us to use in prayer and worship, (and remember Jesus used Psalm 22 from the cross).
Most of King David’s life is in the Psalms, having been written as the result of his life experiences.
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Hebrew Poetry
“Music is the shorthand of emotion” said Leo Tolstoy.
In David Pawson’s look at the place of Hebrew poetry and music in the Bible, he shows why God would provide us with it as part of His inspired Word. For this week, and the next two messages, we will look at the reasons for poetry and music being included in the Bible…
David Pawson points out that poetry and music reach the parts in us that prose, on its own, cannot reach, (just as we use poetry to such good effect as the language of love.) Poetry is a wonder language…it is visual as well as verbal. It is even more effective if it is read aloud.
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - 1 & 2 Samuel Pt2
Nothing ‘old’ about “The ‘Old’ Testament”
It is Hannah’s prayer from 1 Samuel 2:1-10 that Mary made into her own prayer in Luke 1:46-55. This means that she knew “The ‘Old’ Testament” by heart and applied it.
By reading “The ‘Old’ Testament”, we will be able to see so much of where the New Testament comes from. For example, Paul’s reference to the armour of God in Galations 6:14, can be seen to come from Isaiah 59:17. Of course they didn’t have the chapters and verses then. They knew the Scriptures so well, they didn’t need it. (Archbishop Langton of Canterbury added them to enable him to find his way around!)
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - 1 & 2 Samuel Pt1
God is working His purpose out…
Samuel was the last judge and prophet to lead Israel.
1 & 2 Samuel go together in the Jewish Bible. 1 & 2 Samuel covers the last 150 years of the climb towards Israel becoming the most powerful civilisation of that time.
David Pawson’s analytical mind gives us a way to remember the historical record of Saul and David.
I Samuel covers Saul as the King, but features David’s rise from shepherd boy to a king in waiting…and 2 Samuel covers David’s reign as the King.
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Judges & Ruth Pt2
The book of “Ruth” – A Tale Of Two Women
In his series “Unlocking the Bible”, David Pawson treats Judges and Ruth as sequential. So, he summarises the book of Judges being about Israel as already having a King, who was their God, but using His servants to rescue a situation. Gideon refused the offer of kingship for this reason.
Then David opens up the book of Ruth for us.
In this week’s “Thoughtful Thought” we will make the story what is called “a long story short”, by just comparing Naomi’s two daughters-in-law; Ruth and Orpah.
David Pawson "Unlocking the Bible" - Judges & Ruth Pt1
The importance of obedience
David Pawson’s “Unlocking The Bible” series – and this week David’s video looks at the book of ‘Judges’. From it we can learn…
"The importance of obedience"
Judges and Ruth go together when the Jews compiled the Bible and next week we will see that; but as for this week, David focuses on the book of Judges.
Last week we looked at lessons we can learn from the book of Joshua.
We alluded to Joshua’s mishaps…which we can learn from and which are covered in this week’s message.
Mistake # 1.
- Joshua had just had an amazing victory at Jericho…so much so that he became so over-confident that he did not ask God before attacking Ai and as a result was soundly defeated. For this Joshua blamed God (Joshua 7:7-9).