Bible Alive: An Old Testament Analysis of Faith

Bible Alive: Analysis of Faith in the Old Testament

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An Old Testament Analysis of Faith
1. Think of the word amen. When do we use it? What does it mean?
2. Read Ex 17:12 and Is 33:6. What do the images used here speak about faith called aman? What does aman imply Is “aman” an individual experience?
3. Israel placed its aman in Yahweh. Describe Yahweh according to Ps 36:5-7. Is Yahweh faithful? If so, to what? What is this faithfulness founded on?
4. Read Deut 9:23 and Ps 119:66-67. If Yahweh is faithful this way, what must his people do?
5. Can we call this aman only intellectual assent or an emotional state? Does it involve something deeper? If so what?
6. In this sort of aman, or faith, who is our founding father? Gen 15:1-6. What is significant about this figure’s aman?
7. Read Is 28:16. What is faith for Isaiah? Say I am a king descended from David and the dreaded Assyrians are at my front door having devastated the land … and I am next! What should I do, according to Isaiah, assemble an army? Why or why not? What, for Isaiah, does faith consist of?
8. The intellectual quality of faith is more prominent in Isaiah 40-66. Read Is 43:8-10. Israelites are deemed “faithful” inasmuch as they do what, according to this passage? Is this a purely intellectual activity? Why or why not?
9. What is the foundation stone to Old Testament faith? Why? Consider Gen 1-2, Ex 3.
10. Read Gen 6:9, 22, 7:5 and 22:1-18. How is Old Testament faith expressed? The response of faith is primarily emotional, intellectual, or something else? If something else, what is it?
11. Read Deut 6:17 and 7:11-13. What is Old Testament faith essentially related to? What does this reality between God and Israel grant the people? What is humankind’s response in faith? Is faith ever a one-on-one affair between God and individual believer?
12. Read Job 4:6. With what in the righteous man does faith unite? What does this generate?
13. Read Ex 20:3 and Deut 5:7. Can Old Testament faith have any compromises?
14. Think of the Books Daniel and Judith. What becomes of faith after the Babylonian captivity in 538 BC?
15. Let’s summarize Old Testament faith. Gather all these themes.