God’s Address—Living with the Triune God, Revised Edition

A Scripture Workbook in the Style of Manuduction to Accompany The Lion, the Dove & the Lamb

A. Bryden Black

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532684920
  9781532684937
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532684944
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

How may the notion of Trinity become a practical, down to earth, living reality? The parable of the Good Samaritan must be one of the most familiar stories of Jesus. Yet we often miss what prompted it. Jesus asks the lawyer pointedly, "How do you read?" This workbook seeks to show how people may read their Bibles in a most constructive way that leads to their living with and so loving truly the triune God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shares life-giving Holy Spirit with his people. In nine study sessions, for either individuals or small groups, with Questions for Reflection after each, readers are taken through the Story of Salvation. From Abraham to the New Testament church's catechism, they are presented with a particular strategy on how to approach the Christian Scriptures that the central actor in the drama, the triune God, more readily comes into view. This workbook therefore addresses what seems an intractable problem. No longer a formal creed from the fourth century, and certainly not just a medieval scholastic "game," the goal is for the notion of Trinity to become a practical, down to earth, living reality, for the church and for individual disciples of Jesus.

Part One (Session 1)

The Story Unfolds

Abraham to Exile

The Gospel accounts of Jesus vary, with Mark, probably the first written version, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist, who immediately prepares Jesus’ Way, locating that Way within the prophetic narratives of Isaiah and Malachi (Mal 3:1, plus Exod 23:20, and Isa 40:3). Matthew and Luke begin further back, with the birth of Jesus, their respective accounts having different emphases. Matthew, for example, presents Jesus’ genealogical identity as the rich climax—indeed, a new beginning—of the Abraham and David stories, and Luke the resumption of the Spirit of prophecy in various guises. Then John’s Gospel goes all the way back to “in the beginning was the Word.” For the person of Jesus is to be located uniquely within the God of Genesis’s very own identity, the Creator of all the earth, as well as the human matrix of Israel, and Mary and Joseph. We, however, begin this workbook with the adult Jesus and the ministry of John in the wilderness, only then to return all the way back to Israel’s origins.

Reading—Matt 3:1–12

What exactly is it that John the Baptist is expecting?

What is it about the Jewish faith that instills this sense of expectation?

To answer these questions, we return to the beginning of Israel’s story.

The story of God’s dealings with people takes on specific focus with the call of Abram/Abraham, the ancestor of the Israelite nation. Previously in Gen 1–11 the scope has been global, even cosmic, with God’s relationship with the entire creation to the fore, and then with humanity itself generally.

Gen 12:1–3

God promises three things to Abram—land, descendants, blessing

The entire Old Testament (OT) story circles around these three: Will there be descendants? Will they live in the land—or not? Will they be blessed there—or not? will they be a blessing? Or will the land “vomit them out” (Leviticus)? Will a remnant then return, perhaps? A raft of such permutations drives the story, while it looks again and again as if God’s promise, and Abraham’s line, is in jeopardy. Yet both keep being renewed, in various ways, as an ongoing testament to God’s faithfulness and purpose.

Gen 15:1–6 (–21)	The covenant between Yahweh and Abram
Gen 17:1–8 (–16)	The covenant renewed (Abraham and Sarah’s names changed: inserting the H implies God’s ruach (Spirit) will now enliven each of them to “make” a son)
Gen 22:(1–) 15–18	The promise repeated

It is this covenant promise that gives the Israelites a keen sense of history. They have a destiny, since they have a destination, a goal, which God has promised them and toward which he is leading them. The nature of this goal becomes more apparent as time goes on, as God guides his people.

The patriarchal age, depicted in the stories of Abraham and his descendants, envisages a world around 2000 to 1800 BC, in which God calls out a particular family.7 The Exodus under Moses, set between say 1450 and 1290 BC, shows that family becoming a nation, and assuming the identity of God’s particular and chosen people. (Read Exod 1:1–14, chapter 3, 7:1–7, 12:1–20, 13:1–16, 15:1–21, the highlights of chapters 19–24 [19:1–6, 20:1–17, 24:1–11], chapters 32–34, and 40:33–38). The beginning of the Ten Commandments encapsulates the Exodus narrative: “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod 20:2–3). Deuteronomy sees Israel poised to enter the promised land and fulfill God’s promise to Abraham and Moses, living there as a particular people, covenanted with Yahweh, and demonstrating “righteousness and justice” among themselves (Deut 7:6–11, 6:1–9). While the conquest and initial settlement of Canaan occurs under Joshua, the period of “the Judges” is seen to be...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part One (Session 1): The Story Unfolds
• Part One (Session 2): Get Ready!
• Part Two (Session 3): Ready for What? For Whom?
• Part Three (Session 4): Full Immersion in the Rule of God’s Life
• Part Three (Session 5): Abiding in the Rule of God’s Life
• Part Four (Session 6): Growing into the Fullness of God’s Life
• Part Four (Session 7): Growing into the Fullness of God’s Life
• Part Four (Session 8): Growing into the Fullness of God’s Life
• Part Five (Session 9): God’s Faithfulness in Overflowing Life
• Conclusion
• A Closing Prayer (Karl Barth, 1886–1968)
• Notes for Leaders
• Summary Chart of the One Baptism
• Bibliography