By the end of Part 4 you will have covered every critical event of Old Testament history and have learned how God’s laws impartially work out in human experience. You will gain a deeper appreciation of the individual and societal results of disobedience to God’s directions and how they ironically provide the basis for true hope.
In Part 4 we look not at the offense toward the outside pagan world but at the inner life of the elect nation Israel. Having been chosen by God as the instrument for bringing His Kingdom to the human race, Israel experienced a special history. Her history was controlled by the great covenants such as the Abrahamic unconditional covenant of election and the Sinaitic conditional covenant of kingdom rule. On the one hand, Israel's future destiny was secure in terms of her racial continuity, her national geographic location, and her mission to the world. On the other hand, Israel's passage through time toward that destiny was conditioned upon her loyalty to Yahweh: blessing for obedience; cursing for rebellion. Thousands of Israelites would be lost. At times her very historical existence seemed to hang by a thread.
Download the Course Notes PDF for Part 4
It's time to derive your worldview from the Bible