Lesson Goal
I hope to teach how to preach a sermon expounding a single Hebrew word.
Lesson Intro
The Hebrew Scriptures contain two great divisions, the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40). Christianity was originally a Jewish religion. It only separated from its Hebrew roots when Christians and Jews had a falling out over Jesus' being our mutual Messiah and other matters such as the relationship of the law to the New Covenant. Unfortunately, since that separation we have neglected the Jewish roots of our faith, and because Hebrew has not been mandatory in many Bible colleges, this has led to many misunderstandings of the Old Testament among Christian churches. If Bible study is important to us, then becoming a student of Hebrew and Greek is a worthy lifetime goal.
Lesson Plan
We will look at a very brief outline of the Old Testament, why understanding the OT is important for Christians, the Hebrew Alphabet, the Hebrew language and some resources for preparing a sermon on a Hebrew word.
Lesson Body
Old Testament Overview
The Old Testament or Hebrew Bible or Tanak is that collection of books originally written mostly in Hebrew. A few small sections were written in Aramaic. Tanak is a modern Hebrew acronym for the 3 main divisions of the Old Testament, the Torah (law), Nevi'im (prophets) and the Ketuvim (writings). Sometimes the Old Testament is also simply summarized as the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40), meaning the first 5 books of Moses plus everything else. The words Old Testament are the equivalent of the words Old Covenant, the significant difference being that a testament involves a death and a covenant does not necessarily.
What is the importance of the Old Testament to Christians? It tells us who created the universe and contains significant and reliable history unavailable in any other source. About 1/3 of the New Testament alludes to or directly quotes the Old. The OT was used as the basis for preaching the Gospel, before the New Testament was even written. It tells us what Christ was doing before his incarnation. It gives great details of God's dealings with humankind before Christ. It prepares the way for Christ. It provides examples of the mind of God on civil matters. It contains the word's best and earliest psychology books. It provides wisdom for material success in this world. It provides a basis and a foundation for the Christian Church. It provides a reason why law alone cannot guarantee righteousness in fallible human beings, and that our only hope is in Jesus.
Understanding the Old Testament
In order to understand the OT, we must learn about the techniques and genres of literature that it contains. The Hebrew writers were amazingly skilled at using techniques such as plays on words, metaphors, hyperbole, symbols, allegory, personification, irony and parallelisms. They also used a variety of genres including poetry, narrative, prophecy, law, proverb, chronicle, and genealogy lists. It is also helpful to understand something about ancient history and ancient literature and thus the context within which the OT was written.
Preachers who wish to be masters of their craft will also want to learn at least some basics of Hebrew. Preachers need to read the whole Bible regularly for themselves. It is important to understand the historical timeline of the Old Testament: creation, patriarchs, monarchy and the post-exilic period. Preach the completeness of the Bible as a unit and demonstrate how the struggle between human traditions and faith works. The OT is a book about God's interventions in human history and the lead up to the most important divine intervention of all, the incarnation of Jesus.
The Hebrew Alphabet
As most of you know, Hebrew reads from right to left. For many of you this will be just review, but can you still say the alphabet by rote memory or have you long forgotten it? Review your old Hebrew alphabet.
The letter chet is perhaps the hardest for most English speakers to pronounce. It is not the ch in chemical, nor the ch in child, but similar to the ch in the Scottish pronunciation of loch, or the German pronunciation of ich, and most like a Dutch g such as in van Goch. Pardon the graphic description, but it is the sound you make when you clear your throat to spit.
However, a preacher's purpose in studying Hebrew is to read it not to speak it. It is as different to modern Hebrew spoken in Israel as Anglo-Saxon is from modern English. So, in one sense it is a dead language as far as conversational use is concerned, and nobody really knows for sure how it was pronounced thousands of years ago anyway. In another sense it still lives as a language but only for study purposes.
I highly recommend taking a minimum of one semester in biblical Hebrew at a good Bible college, seminary, graduate school or synagogue. There are also very good computer courses available today, which will give a diligent preacher who can study alone, a good introduction. The reason that you the preacher would want a basic introduction to Hebrew is so you can use some of the wonderful tools available for word study. If you can't even read the letters of the alphabet, you are handicapped. However, if you can at least read the letters, many wonderful modern tools such as computer programs, open up to help you with other more difficult issues, such as the meaning in a particular grammatical setting and context.
[[insert Hebrew alphabet]]
The Hebrew Language
While learning the Hebrew alphabet is a small beginning, most preachers will not have the time or desire to become Hebrew scholars on a doctoral level. This means that large measures of humility are in order here. Let's not be among those guilty of thinking that a quickie check up of a word in the back of concordance gives a sufficient or even accurate rendering in a particular context and in a particular grammatical setting. It may not. Why?
Just for starters, biblical Hebrew covers a period of about 1500 years of a once living language. Living languages change drastically over time. Just as modern English has changed in 1500 years, so too, biblical Hebrew in an early book can be quite different from the same language in a much later book. Biblical Hebrew is basically two varieties of Hebrew: Golden Age Hebrew (1200-500 BC) and Silver Age Hebrew (500-60 BC). After the last book of the Old Testament was finished Hebrew evolved again into yet another form called Mishnaic Hebrew, the Hebrew of the early Rabbis. One solution to the dilemma of a changing language that Hebrew scholars emphasize is the analysis of context. You and I may not be experts in that, but modern computer programs, lexicons and better quality commentaries that actually analyze the text can really help.
A Hebrew Bible
It is important to have access to the Hebrew text. Scholars usually use the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), which in typical flowery scholarly language simply describes the Hebrew Bible published by the German Bible Society in Stuttgart. If you cannot read Hebrew well, an interlinear Bible is good. These are usually available with a familiar translation such as the NIV or KJV.
Lexicons & Dictionaries
Although a concordance is a good start to a word study, a lexicon will take you into greater depth. One of the most popular lexicons for Hebrew is the BDB (Brown, Driver, Briggs) Lexicon. A Hebrew dictionary will also be very helpful. The better ones will even explain a word's usage in certain passages.
Detailed Commentaries
Some commentaries actually go into a verse by verse analysis of the original languages and provide excellent depth of research. They are so much better than those commentaries which simply try to explain a passage in the author's own words or include only a few key words of Hebrew.
Bible Software
One of the most helpful things in the computer age is a program that has the Hebrew Bible and several English translations, along with other research tools, such as an inbuilt lexicon and grammatical helps. BibleWorks, Libronix and others provide excellent programs that combine many of the above helps into one simple program.
Example Sermon
Title: "What was the Law?"
Goal
To understand what the word law means when we refer to the Old Testament.
Intro
Christians today understand the word law to be something that a policeman or a judge enforces. In come countries, Christians are suffering, where even rightful worship and evangelism activities may be against the national law. However, the word law in the Old Testament means so much more than just a legal system.
Plan
We will examine the Hebrew word translated as law, torah, and see that it is instruction, revelation from God, that it existed before the law of Moses, and that even though Christians do not apply that law in the letter, the spirit and intent of those instructions still reflect the mind of God.
Body
1. Instruction
The word torah is broader than a mere law. It means instruction (Proverbs 1:8; 3:1; 4:2; 7:2), doctrine (Isaiah 1:10; 8:16, 20; 42:4,21), legal instruction (Leviticus 6:7; 7:7), and the first five books of the Bible (Joshua 1:8).
Application: We often view the God of the Old Testament as a different person than Jesus Christ. Yet they are one and the same. Understanding that torah means instruction, helps us to see God as a merciful God, rather than a harsh and legalistic God.
2. Revelation
To many Christians the word law is negative and revelation is positive, but they are the same thing. Proverbs 29:18 says that without a vision or revelation the people are perishing. It is often misquoted as a support for visionary big-mindedness, rather than a revelation or vision from God. In context it is actually is speaking of revelation and torah (instruction) in the same positive tone. God's torah, law, instruction IS revelation.
Application: Understanding the OT law as revelation from God, helps us appreciate how beautiful that instruction is.
3. Torah Existed before the Law was Given
The word torah has a very broad meaning to Jewish believers. It means the 5 books of Moses, the national constitution of Jewish faith, a legal code with 613 commandments, a way of life, an instruction on how to live. It cannot exclusively mean the national law delivered during the Exodus, because it was first used to describe Abraham who lived long before the law was given (Genesis 26:4-5). So Abraham was blessed not just because of his faith but, because of he obeyed God's torah (instructions).
Application: It is important to understand that God's instructions were around long before his specific instructions through Moses in the Ten Commandments.
4. Hebrew Word Pictures
Hebrew was a language which conjured up pictures in the mind of its speakers. The word torah comes from the Hebrew word yarah, which begins with the Hebrew letter y. This letter pictures a hand and the word yarah means to shoot out the hand in a pointing gesture. This contrasts with another Hebrew word for instruction which is lamadh which begins with the letter l, picturing a goad to train animals with. Yarah gives the opposite sense like goading, or forcing. The sense of yarah is one of pointing to the right way, rather than goading someone into doing the right thing. So, torah carries that same sense of instruction, a pointing out of the right direction.
Application: We need to see God as a loving Father, who points out the right direction for us to go. He is not a harsh task master, or bossy overlord, but a gentle shepherd.
5. The Fault with the Old Covenant
The NT clearly shows that the torah was holy, right and good. It further shows that there was no fault with the OT instructions (the law), but that it was inadequate as a means to salvation, because no human being could keep it perfectly. The fault with the Old Covenant was us, all of us, with human beings and not with God or his instructions (Hebrews 8:8).
Application: The law is not our salvation; the OT instructions are not our way into heaven. We can only enter eternal life through Christ. However, the law is for our instruction, not in the letter, but in principle. We don't sacrifice animals, but we are to be living sacrifices. We don't need to keep a Saturday Sabbath, but we rest in Christ and our eternal rest is in heaven. We don't need to be circumcised in the flesh, but we are circumcised in our hearts.
Outro
The Old Testament is useful to us, not as our testament or covenant, but for instruction. Even when torah is logically translated as law, the emphasis is still on instruction. The law of Moses might better be translated as the instruction of God revealed through Moses.
Christians are not required to keep the letter of the Old Testament torah. However, we must never forget that it was God's law. It was God's instruction, a revelation from him from which all Christians can learn and apply in the spirit.
Suggested Assignment
Choose a word from the Old Testament that forms a relevant topic for Christians today. Look it up in a lexicon and a Hebrew dictionary. See it in several verses which use that word in the same manner. Research the verses in a few commentaries that analyze verses in depth. Use your research to form several points as a sermon outline with practical applications for today.
Lesson Outro
We have looked at a very brief outline of the Old Testament, why understanding the OT is important for Christians, the Hebrew alphabet, the Hebrew language and some resources for preparing a sermon on a Hebrew word. Once this small step is mastered, you can go on to prepare sermons after having examined a whole verse, pericope or chapter in the original language.
