October 30, 2021
HH #5.5: Family Discipleship
<p><strong>Note for parents</strong></p>
<p>After each episode of Household Hermeneutics, we are going to have a second, much smaller episode that will encapsulate the topic of the main episode and provide some resources and other useful things that you can use to teach your kids in a family worship setting. This week’s main episode covered the Old Testament canon of Scripture, so today’s family worship episode is going to be about how the Bible is perfect, true, and does not contain any errors. Then we will work on a new memory verse together, and we will also memorize a question and answer from a catechism. As we usually do here, we will end with a hymn.</p>
<p><strong>Family Worship - The Old Testament Canon of Scripture</strong></p>
<p>In our last episode, we answered the question: “Are there any errors in the Bible?” We determined that the answer is “no,” because the Bible is inspired by God, it is His own words, and since God cannot lie, then His word cannot contain any errors. The Bible is 100% true and trustworthy, because it was inspired by and given to us by a perfect and truthful God.</p>
<p>Today, we’re going to look at the books that make up the Bible, specifically in the Old Testament. We’re going to ask ourselves “what is the Old Testament?”</p>
<p>Chapter 1, Section 2 of the Westminster Confession of Faith says this on the Canon:<br>“Under the name of holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these:</p>
<p>Of the Old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth I Samuel II Samuel I Kings II Kings I Chronicles II Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes The Song of Songs Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi</p>
<p>All which are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.”</p>
<p>Let’s look at the Old Testament more closely. It is made up of 39 books, and they are broken into a few different groups. The first 5 books are the books of the Law. Moses wrote them and this sets up the framework of the nation of Israel.</p>
<p>The next 12 books are the books of history, and they cover the time from Joshua up through the building of the second temple. They talk about the history of God’s people and the story of how God is moving towards Jesus. We believe they were written primarily by Samuel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.</p>
<p>The next 5 books are the Wisdom books. These are the books that offer us wisdom about God and the wise way to live our lives. We believe they were written by David, Solomon, and Moses.</p>
<p>The next 5 books are called the Major Prophets, and they’re called that because they are longer than the minor prophets. They give warnings to God’s people and the surrounding nations of what God plans to do.</p>
<p>The last several books of the Old Testament are called the Minor Prophets. Minor prophets have a shorter message of warning to deliver. They are under 10 chapters each and are usually to one specific people group.</p>
<p>Now that we understand what the books of the Old Testament are, and what they are about, let’s look at why we can be confident that they are the exact books God wanted us to have in our Old Testament, and there aren’t any missing.</p>
<p>Deuteronomy 4:2 - “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”</p>
<p>Moses and then Joshua wrote several books in the OT, and then the rest were written mostly by the prophets. There are many places in Scripture that talk about the books being written and added to the canon. When Moses wrote the first five books, for example, they were placed into the Ark of the Covenant, right alongside the Ten Commandments.</p>
<p>Another reason we can trust the OT list of books is that the earliest peoples and historians believed that they were the true Words of God.</p>
<p>Also, Jesus and the authors of the NT books frequently quoted the OT Scriptures, over 295 times, and 100% of the time they are quoting from OT canon books, never from works in the apocrypha or other historical writings.</p>
<p>So, when we consider the Old Testament, we can trust that all 39 books it contains are there because God wanted them to be. They are his inspired, inerrant, books, and we trust that they are the correct ones because the Bible says they are, history shows that the earliest people reading the books considered them to be canon, and because they are quoted as Holy Scripture so many times by the writers of the New Testament.</p>
<p><strong>Memory Verse</strong></p>
<p>Deuteronomy 4:2 - “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.”</p>
<p><strong>Catechisms</strong></p>
<p>Keach’s Catechism</p>
<p>Q. 4. What is the Word of God? </p>
<p>A. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.</p>
<p><strong>Worship Song</strong></p>
<p>Holy, holy, holy!</p>
<p>Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty!<br>Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.<br>Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!<br>God in three persons, blessed trinity!</p>
<p>Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,<br>casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;<br>cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,<br>which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.</p>
<p>Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,<br>though the eye of sinfulness thy glory may not see,<br>only thou art holy; there is none beside thee,<br>perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.</p>
<p>Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty!<br>All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea.<br>Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!<br>God in three persons, blessed trinity!</p>
<p>Credits: Words by Reginald Heber (1826), Music by John Bacchus Dykes (1861)<br>Public Domain</p>
<p><strong>Resource Recommendations</strong></p>
<p>Holy, Holy Holy - https://youtu.be/sI6ZkTbUgW4<br>Books of the Bible Memory Song - https://youtu.be/i7ZtWRSCH7E</p>
