Learn the Bible on Your Own

By Wan M. Wong

The Bible embodies the high purposes of God and provides vast teachings on how believers ought to journey in their new lives aiming to attain these purposes. This is God's way to grow a sweet and fulfilling relationship between him and his people. The more we grasp the relevance, significance and implications of these teachings to us, the more we will begin to see God's heart towards us.
The ways of God are embedded in the Bible. They are not written like recipes of a cookbook. Nor are they in the form of doctrines or theological dissertations as academics and preachers like to turn Bible teachings into autocratic dogmas; they give no consideration for real-life situations nor genuine human factors. In contrast, the Bible teaches by presenting, amplifying, and demonstrating vividly and profusely with real-life cases, and with ample human touch.
Thus, if learning of the Bible is to advance, and to be fruitful, the learning must be dovetailed to the Bible's teaching approach. Learn the Bible on Your Own aims to help explore the Bible passages faithfully and fruitfully in this way, alongside the Bible, and lets readers deduce conclusions that may illuminate their understanding. It does not force-feed readers to conform to entrenched religious dogmas.
In Learn the Bible on Your Own, foundational materials previously dealt with are abridged and preserved to maintain context and continuity of teachings of the Bible. Materials that are crucial to the current round of learning are elaborated. This is most evident in the books of Moses, the gospel books and selected NT letters. In addition, prophetic and historical books provide many vivid real-life illustrations of the truths taught in the Bible. In all, the tutorial is about 20,000 words more than the Bible Explain Plainly Explained.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wan M. Wong
• Release date: Sep 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215336120

Wan M. Wong

The author, Wan M. Wong, is a retired Chartered Engineer (Britain) and a retired Professional Engineer (Ontario). He was an accredited volunteer of a security prison in Ontario for ten years, leading inmates in Bible study. He published some of his study notes in a printed book and distributed it as a free gift to inmates. He lives in Ontario.

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Contents

Welcome

The Bible: God's Story for the Human World

About the Old Testament

Genesis . . . . . . . . . . Exodus

Leviticus . . . . . . . . . . Numbers

Deuteronomy . . . . . . . . . Joshua

Judges . . . . . . . . . Ruth

1, 2 Samuel . . . . . . . . . 1, 2 Kings

1, 2 Chronicles . . . . . . . . . Ezra, Nehemiah

Esther

About Wisdom Literature

Job . . . . . . . . . Psalms

Proverbs . . . . . . . . . Ecclesiastes

Song of Songs

About the Prophetic Books

Isaiah . . . . . . . . . Jeremiah

Lamentations . . . . . . . . . Ezekiel

Daniel . . . . . . . . . Hosea

Joel . . . . . . . . . Amos

Obadiah . . . . . . . . . Jonah

Micah . . . . . . . . . Nahum

Habakkuk . . . . . . . . . Zephaniah

Haggai . . . . . . . . . Zechariah

Malachi

From Old Testament to New Testament

Mathew . . . . . . . . . Mark

Luke . . . . . . . . . John

Acts

About NT Letters

Romans . . . . . . . . . 1 Corinthians

2 Corinthians . . . . . . . . . Galatians

Ephesians . . . . . . . . . Philippians

Colossians . . . . . . . . . 1, 2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy . . . . . . . . . 2 Timothy

Titus . . . . . . . . . Philemon

Hebrews . . . . . . . . . James

1 Peter . . . . . . . . . 2 Peter

1 John . . . . . . . . . 2 John

3 John . . . . . . . . . Jude

Revelation

Welcome

Dear Friends:

Welcome and thank you for browsing this book.

The Bible encourages believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18) through pure spiritual milk (1 Peter 2:2). Many believers are doing that through listening to sermons and participating in Bible studies groups. But the scope of learning through these venues is often limited to suit the majority of the audience.

Some eager believers may also read reference books. But again, available books are often limited to popular subjects. There are Study Bibles that cover the Bible verse by verse, but they typically do not go much beyond explaining the meaning of the verse.

So some believers turn to learning the Bible on their own. It is a practical answer to meet our needs, especially if a tutorial book is available alongside with the Bible for more gainful learning. Let us consider this scenario a little further.

Why do we embark on learning the Bible beyond the general level as mentioned above? The reason starts with God. First, forgiveness of sin and eternal life for believers of Christ are very important but only the beginning of God's purposes of his redemption plan. God's high purpose is to have all believers to be his children that they will live their new lives and walk with God daily as his children.

Learning the Bible is God's way for nourishing his children to see the needs, to acquire the knowledge, and to put it into practice for that purpose which God has intended from the beginning of creation - the joyous and blessed way.

But the Bible does not teach this knowledge as a standalone subject. It has to be set in various comprehensive messages and told in various situations throughout the Bible to make the knowledge a living knowledge, not a mechanical assembly. This characteristic makes the learning complex.

Consider the elements of each book of the Bible that may need to be identified, elaborated, and addressed. These may range from textual context; the parts of a subject matter; a point of significance, implication or amplification; a need of supplementary information; a concern of something, for example, an exegetical error or theological bias . . . These issues are best dealt with by tutorial in the learning course. And this tutorial book aims to do just that.

Let us see a few examples of what the tutorial book touches on.

|| Genesis 1:27 says that God created Adam and Eve in God's image. What is God's purpose? What has this to do with God's redemption plan?

|| How is holiness as understood by many believers compared with holiness taught in Leviticus? What importance of correct understanding of holiness is so that it is not a yoke on a believer?

|| What is the book of Ruth about? How does it concern God's people at large?

|| The book of Ecclesiastes teaches God's people to enjoy, eat and drink, as a solution for burden of life. Is this Bible truth? What is the basis of your view?

|| What characterizes the love of God in the book of Hosea? What does that love mean to us?

|| Paul writes a bold slogan, We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). How do you see the slogan-style teaching like this?

|| What does abiding (in God/Christ) really mean? How important is this teaching to individual believers?

|| What is the rationale that the OT books should be an integral part of our Bible?

Let us stop here. If this brief introduction of the tutorial book interests you, would you be pleased to consider taking it along with your Bible learning journey? Thank you.

About the author

Wan Ming Wong is a retired Chartered Engineer (Britain) residing in Canada. He was an accredited volunteer of a security prison in Ontario for ten years, leading inmates in Bible study. He published some of his study notes in a printed book and distributed it as a free gift to them.

He is the author of The Bible Plainly Explained, an Ebook available for free download in major book stores.

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The Bible: God's Story for the Human World

The Bible is God's big story to tell the human world what God has to do with us human people, from its beginning to its end.

It begins by telling us how God created the universe from nothing but by his word. And a beautiful and magnificent universe came into being. When everything was ready, he made our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. He endowed them to partake his divine nature and gave them the garden-like land as a gift for their abode. For what purpose? That they might be in joyous fellowship with their Maker.

Then the sabotage of Satan turned everything ugly and repugnant to God. He induced Adam and Eve to become estranged from their Maker, and be enslaved by Satan to usurp God. God immediately judged the guilty three. All must die and Adam and Eve forfeited their divine nature and were expelled from God's presence forever. The sentence was to take effect in all future generations also.

The event provoked God's wrath. Death came as consequence and evidence of the sinful acts. The first catastrophes rained down - the great flood and the Babel Tower dispersion. But God dearly loved his human creatures. He began to toil untiringly to redeem and restore the shattered human race until the task would be accomplished totally and successfully.

God began to unveil his action plan and act on it. From all peoples of the world he chose Abraham to be his instrument and witness to God's plan. God set him apart so that he became the human beacon to proclaim God and his actions.

God made a promise by oath to protect and bless him and his descendants; in return, he and his descendants must serve God loyally with full commitment. God would not take disloyalty lightly. They were known as Israel which was the name of Abraham's grandson Jacob given by God. With this special status for Abraham's race, hostility came from other nations against them.

God's plan began to unfold. It was a rugged path. Abraham's descendants grew into a numerous people. They went through bitter slavery in Egypt and God mightily delivered them in an exodus. On the journey God made Israel a nation under direct reign of God, with a full set of Law which was mapped to reflect God's deity, divine power and divine nature of righteousness (uprightness), purity, love, mercy and grace.

God's intention was to make Israel a prototype of his redemption work for the whole human world. But the people were blinded by the sin of the fall and their estrangement from God. They clamoured to run their nation, following the patterns of other nations. This totally betrayed everything that is of God.

So through a long journey in this condition, God taught them, nurtured them, disciplined them through direct intervention and also through the powerful Godless nations. God also sent prophets to teach them, guide them and warn them of grievous consequences of impenitence. But they ignored all messages. So finally their nation was cruelly destroyed by enemy nations. They were exiled.

But one thing kept the light of hope from being turned off. God unveiled in prophecies glimpses of the centrepiece of his redemption plan - the Messiah: Who would he be? How to identify him when he came? What he would go through in sacrificing himself to be a ransom for reclaiming back the lost people to God? . . .

These happenings make the bulk of the Old Testament books.

Then a climax of the story came - the Messiah was born to the world. He was traced by following hints of the prophecies and he was Jesus of Nazareth. It is amazing that he is identified as the Son of God and the Son of Man. And most terrifically, he was the incarnate of God, the Creator of the human race and all things. No wonder the Bible exclaims that this is the love of God manifested for the world (1 John 4:9).

From this point on, the story of God focuses on the story of Jesus Christ: his life, his missionary journeys, his marvellous teachings in parables and metaphors, his supernatural acts, and his life among the socially discarded and his disciples, until he was put to death by the religious leaders of his own people. His death can be explained by his own words in Mark 10:45.

Then God capped the episode - He raised the Messiah from the tomb and he met his disciples before he returned to God in heaven. This is the evidence of Jesus' deity. The resurrected Christ would come to the world a second time to receive all his redeemed children into the renewed heaven for eternal reunion.

The whole of Jesus' story is narrated in the gospel books of the New Testament. And its last book - Revelation - is the finishing touch of God's great redemptive work.

To sum up, the Bible is God's story for us whom he created. It is his story to tell us his agony in our estrangement from him; his untiring toiling to work out a redemption solution to bring us back to him; his love, grace and illumination of our hearts to see the reality of our lost state and the need of his redemption, and respond with a cry, Lord, I come, I come!

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The Old Testament

About the Old Testament

The Bible consists of two divisions: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is actually a full version of the Bible of the Jewish people, and it has a Hebrew name. It is written by Jewish writers in Hebrew in a period of about 1500 years from Moses to Malachi. The New Testament is written mainly by disciples of Christ in Greek in a period of about 60 years after his ascension to heaven.

Today most of the established English versions of the Bible are translated from the original Hebrew or Greek manuscripts respectively. The names of the individual books of the Bible may be found in the Table of Contents of this book.

A challenging question for the believers of the early gospel age is whether or not the Old Testament should be an integral part of the Bible. Finally an informal consensus is reached that the Old Testament is too crucial to the whole truth of God to be rejected.

Essentially, the Old Testament is Bible history from the beginning of the creation to the birth of Jesus Christ on earth, which ushers in the New Testament age. This historical account is filled with actual life stories of the historical people (mostly the Jewish descendants of Abraham) and God's communications to them through his servants Moses and prophets, and historical happenings.

Therefore the Old Testament needs to be incorporated into the Bible to make God's revelation complete and serve the intended purposes of the Bible.

Finally the word testament used in the titles of the Old and the New Testaments needs some clarification. In English, the word means a person's sign (for example, a signature) affixed to a will or an agreement. The Jewish Bible does not have this title. Apparently it is inserted by the compiler(s) of the Bible to signify that God's redemption has a pre-messianic and a post-messianic perspectives.

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Genesis

The Essence of Genesis

Genesis is the sole authentic information source of the origin of everything and the revelation by God of his divine nature, his will for creation and his majestic sovereignty. Major events that begin in Genesis set the patterns and have profound implications that still dominate the life of this world and its final outcome at the end-time. These are cardinal truths on which the entire Bible is hinged.

The author, Moses, is unique and most eminent. He is the author of the first five books of the Bible, miraculously preserved from infanticide and brought up in Egyptian royal court and called by God for God's mission (Exodus 1-2). The veracity of God's law proclaimed through him is so unassailable that Jesus Christ merely points to it in Deuteronomy in rebuffing Satan and the devil retreats (Luke 4:1-13).

Let us go through the Essence of Genesis using its outline as a guidepost.

|| Creation (1:1-2:25)

|| The creation falls into sin in Eden and the consequences (3:1-24)

|| Progression of sin and God's response (4:1-6:8)

|| The great flood (6:9-10:32)

|| The dispersion of nations (11:1-26)

|| God's call to Abraham (11:27-25:10)

|| God's call passed down to Isaac (25:11-35:29)

|| God's call passed down to Jacob (36:1-50:26)

The creation account (chapters 1-2) is very concise, yet it summarily expresses all the awesome properties of the creation. From a beginning of void and darkness comes the vast universe which is still beyond astronomers to fathom fully enough. The immeasurable and diverse world of living things is still obeying the biological genera and hierarchical order laid down in the creation process.

The creation of the human beings Adam and Eve is very special and unique in that the creation process is mentioned twice (1:24-30; 2:4-9, 15-25). They are made in the image of God (to partake of God's divine nature) and have the privilege of receiving God's breath that makes them the only genus of living beings which have a soul (2:7). They enjoy fellowship with their Maker.

But the magnificence and the lofty purposes of the creation of human beings and the joyous relationship between the human creatures and their Maker are completely ruined in no time because Eve and Adam yield to the temptation of the serpent, Satan. The bait is simple - take God's word as nothing.

God immediately metes out judgment of death on all the three offenders (chapter 3). The human race immediately falls into Satan's slavery where death and sin dominate (chapters 3-5).

God takes three countermeasures. First, the great flood which wipes out the entire human race except the family of Noah (chapters 6-9). Second, he forces the rebellious human race to disperse across the face of the earth (chapters 10-11). These two are punitive measures.

The third is God's initiation of his redemption plan and his call of Abraham to serve in the plan. This is a judgment/restoration program. It continues from that time on until the end-time of the present creation (chapter 12ff). Abraham and his descendants become chosen people of God and the ambassadors of the plan.

Thus Genesis speaks of many cardinal truths taught in the Bible: Who God is; his personal nature; his will and purposes of creation and special desire of relationship with his human creation; his majesty, power and sovereignty over all creation.

Most noteworthy is that these truths are revealed through the acts of God and not so much of his words. The significance of this revelation process is that the truths come to human people through real-life experiences and cognition, not in abstract expression of words alone. These are not human-conceived dogma. So the truths may take root in the human hearts and grow and bring about desired results.

Therefore, it is most vital for us believers to be clear about these foundational truths and hold them fast in our hearts and apply them in our lives and build ourselves on them. Faith comes from this solid foundation. If this foundation is not solid, faith will be shaky and even compromised.

Exploring Details, Section by Section

1:1-2:25 God's Creation Acts

The creation account actually takes up only chapter 1. Its continuation in chapter 2 is elaboration of certain details. How amazing that one chapter can cover all the most crucial details of creation: the immeasurable vastness of the outer space; the sequential order of the six days of creation; the genetic law of inheritance, according to their own kinds of the living things.

These features still control the functions and existence of the entire universe. The scientific laws underlying the control mechanisms are so advanced that scientists still cannot break through them all in their researches.

God speaks sparingly during the creation process in chapter 1. But the few words which he says at the end of each creation day speaks of God's great satisfaction of his creation work, God saw that it was good.

Note the elaboration in chapters 1 and 2 on the creation of the human race. No such elaboration is given to the creation of any other thing. That highlights the specially elevated position which God has given to the human race. They are made to have fellowship with their Maker God (1:2; 2:7). Finally, God makes a mate, Eve, for Adam. What thoughtfulness God has for the happiness of human family life.

3:1-24 The Entry of Sin into Creation and God's Judgment

Sin enters the creation (3:1-13)

Note the details of the episode. (1) The real and disguised faces of Satan. (2) The ploy he uses and its characteristics. (3) The ulterior purpose of Satan. (4) The automatic effect of sin begins on Adam and Eve. (5) Who do you think Satan is and what does the Bible say of him?

Some people in evangelical circles simply consider Satan as the personification of evil. Is this view biblical? Some believers believe that Satan is real but they cannot accept that the all-righteous God has created him. But what does Genesis 3:1 clearly say? Read other Bible passages which take Satan as real: 1 Kings 22:23; Job 2:1-7; Isaiah 14:12-15; John 8:43-44; 12:31; Luke 4:1-13; Revelation 20:7-10.

God's metes out judgment (3:14-24)

God immediately metes out judgment on all the three guilty parties. It is prophetic. The effects begin immediately and will last until the end-time.

Judgment on Satan (3:14-15): Satan and God will be perpetual antagonists against each other. Satan will cause God's Messiah (born of a woman) to be nailed on the feet (Messiah crucified), but the Messiah will bruise Satan's head (triumphs over Satan in resurrection and throws Satan into the lake of eternal fire).

There is an illuminating example of the antagonism graphically displayed in the contest between Moses (on God's side) and the Egyptian Pharaoh (on Satan's side) (Exodus 3-12).

Judgment on Adam and Eve (3:16-24): Eve will live under the direction of her husband Adam. God's judgment of Adam will automatically take effect on Eve and every descendant also. Every one will die; their relationship with God is severed; the divine nature imparted on them becomes warped against God. They will be involuntarily enslaved by Satan forever.

4:1-6:8 The Aftermath in Two Opposite Pathways

The entry of sin begins to bring radical havoc to the human world. Note some of the highlighted consequences: Murders and violent crimes emerge (4:8, 23-24); God is kept out of the minds of people (4:20-22; 6:1-3); deaths (chapter 5). God is deeply grieved (6:6) but not despaired. Note the parallel account of Adam-Seth-Noah. They call upon God's name (4:25-5:32; 6:8). This is a frequent reminder from the Bible - two ways of life, two eternal destinies: death or salvation by God.

6:9-25:10 God's Response: The Great Flood, the Mass Dispersion, and God's Call to Abraham

The three events documented in this section are monumental. They are a link that provides pivotal facts and truths for learning to know God, his ways of governance of his creation, and the principles and purposes of his acts in relation to the attitude of the human world towards him. A predominant block of this chain is God's salvation-redemption for the human world.

The great flood and Noah's family line (6:9-10:32)

As time moves on from creation to Noah's days, the state of affairs of the human world has declined to irreparable corruption (6:1-12). Note the key reason for God's treatment of Noah's family differently from the general population (4:25-26; 5:22, 29; 6:8).

The building of the ark must have taken a long time because of its size and the primitive skills available in that age. Yet there is no mention in the account that some individuals show curiosity or concern of why Noah is so committed to build the ark. So when the flood comes, no people except Noah's family are prepared and all others perish in the great flood.

The wipe out of all living things except those protected by the ark permits a second round of creation from the remnant of the original stock. Sadly the renewed things soon give way to corruption because of the sin inherited from Adam and Eve.

The mass dispersion (11:1-26)

It is not incidental that the people migrate en masse to Shinar and settle there (11:1-2). In biblical terms Shinar symbolizes the activism centre of opposition to God (Daniel 1:2; Zechariah 5:11). Note how one-minded they are to mount a defiant unity that would demonstrate their people power against God and his will to create the human race (11:1-4).

Genesis then focuses on the race from Shem (11:10-31), the first son of Noah (10:1). From Shem comes Terah who is readying his family to move to Canaan and settle there, away from the population in Ur (in today's Iraq). Terah dies on the journey (11:31-32). But he has paved the way for his son, Abraham, to be called by God for services in God's salvation-redemption plan to be formally declared imminently.

God's call to Abraham (11:27-12:3)

This short passage of Genesis is the fulcrum on which the entire Bible history turns from here on towards the coming of the Messiah who will accomplish God's salvation-redemption for the fallen human race.

The mandate of God's call to Abraham is very significant: the world history is mapped by it ever since. Read the details of the mandate carefully (12:1-3). Discerning Bible students can see that the outworking of things in the world and in various social scenes is amazingly tracking along the mandate closely.

Note that although God now chooses one man, Abraham, to be God's instrument and servant, the mandate reflects God's original will for creation of the human race. Everyone is invited to receive God's salvation-redemption in spite of being an enemy of God due to the fall in Eden. But there is always a human responsibility to respond to God's goodwill in God's terms.

Abraham obeys God and lives out the call (12:4-25:10)

Abraham obeys God's call and lives out his life as a sojourner and witness on earth. God watches out for him, but that does not mean his life is all smooth. The following events are worth noting.

|| The first major obstacle - famine and God's protection for him (12:10-20).

|| The agonizing separation from his nephew Lot (13:8-13), and his continual guard for Lot (14:12-16).

|| The anxiety and agonizing consequence of trying to solve his childless problem by a human method (16:1-16; 21:1-21). God lets him go through this lesson.

|| His concern for even the very sinful people and plead for them before God (18:20-33; 21:22-34).

|| A great relief of his childless anxiety - the birth of the son, Isaac, promised by God (21:1-7).

|| A final testimony of his obedience and trust in God's call - seeking a bride for son Isaac (24:1-9).

25:11-35:29 God's Call Passed Down to Son Isaac

|| God's call to Abraham does not die with Abraham's death. God appears timely to Isaac and renews the call twice (26:1-5, 23-24).

|| Like his father, Isaac faces the childless problem, but he has learned to trust God because God's plan hinges on the continuity of the Abraham family line (25:19-26).

36:1-50:26 God's Call Passed Down to Son Jacob

Jacob's life is very tortuous and filled with many long-lasting agonies. He began as a cunning youth cheating his elder brother to cede the first-born son privileges to him. Yet the very close relationship between God and Jacob prunes him and turns him around. His life is a great lesson for God's people to meditate on what it means to follow God and what a sweet, deep relationship may transpire.

|| At critical moments, God appears to Jacob to reaffirm God's call to Abraham and to assure Jacob of God's presence with him. See God's tender loving care for him (28:10-15; 31:3; 32:24-29; 35:1, 9; 46:3-5).

|| In spite of God's gracious walking alongside of Jacob, Jacob endures many heart-breaking situations: the defilement of daughter Dinah and the ensuing massacre (chapter 34); his son Reuben commits incest (35:22); his dear wife Rachel, for whom he has worked for seven years for her father, dies in child-birth on the homeward journey (35:16-20); Jacob's sons conspire to sell their young brother Joseph (chapter 37).

These tragedies have moulded Jacob to abide even closer to God. Yes, the earthly life is bitter, but the fellowship and the promise of eternal hope in God worth these all. Jacob sees and understands these contradictions and quietly accepts them. Read Jacob's recount of his life before he dies (47:27-31; 48:3-7, 15-22; 49:29-32).

God's call to Abraham continues in effect after Jacob. His son Judah and Joseph each plays a notable role in the redemption story. Judah, who began as a heartless person and who lived a careless life (37:26-27; 38:1-30) finally turns his life around. Unknowingly he becomes the catalyst for the Jacob family to settle in Egypt (44:18-34). He is finally included in the genealogy of Messiah Jesus (Matthew 1:2-16).

Joseph has gone through the tragedy of being sold to Egypt (37:33-36). But surprisingly, he becomes the ruler of Egypt under Pharaoh. This is God's arrangement to bring the family of Jacob to Egypt to become the object of the next leg of God's redemption plan (50:18-20) - the exodus. God has disclosed this to Abraham previously (15:12-16). Who can foresee God's plan and his power to make it happen?

Summing Up

Genesis is the book of the Bible by which God discloses himself, his will and his powerful acts of creation so that the human race may know that they are God's creation for the purpose of displaying