30/05/2026
Pastor’s notes for 31 May 2026
This month’s Pastor’s notes were taken from: R.C. Sproul, “Before the Face of God: Book 3: A Daily Guide for Living from the Old Testament.”
The Old Testament Canon
The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. [Rom. 1:2]. Read Romans 1:1-6
The books written by Moses comprised the first canon or list of authoritative and God-breathed writings. Ancient Israel placed the five scrolls in the most holy place of the tabernacle, next to the ark of the covenant, as a memorial before God. They were to live by these books; God would call the people to account for what these five books recorded of the covenant between God and his people.
Other books were written later. Over time, through common use, study, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, certain books gained authority as inspired. We do not know at what time the complete list of Old Testament books came into being, but by the New Testament era three different Old Testaments circulated. At one extreme, the Samaritan version accepted only the five books of Moses. Jesus did not take this view, for when he said the Samaritans did not understand God’s revelation (John 4:22) he quoted other books as God’s Word. At the other extreme, the Alexandrian Canon based on the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) seems to have included the Apocrypha.
By Jesus’ time the orthodox Hebrew canon was almost certainly the Palestinian Canon—identical to the Protestant Old Testament in that it does not contain the Apocrypha. It looks different, since the books are divided and organized differently, so that the Hebrew Bible contains twenty-four books, corresponding to thirty-nine in the Christian Old Testament. They did not divide Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles and counted Ezra-Nehemiah as one book and all twelve Minor Prophets as one. Much of the reason for this is due to the length of the scrolls upon which the books were written.
The Jewish Bible is organized into three parts: (1) the Law (the five books of Moses); (2) the Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and “The Twelve,” what we call the Minor Prophets), and (3) the Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles).
Coram Deo (“before the face of God”)
Most Christians readily agree with the traditional canon of Scripture. In practice, though, we often set up our personal “canon within the canon” of certain favorite books we read. We avoid others we dislike or do not understand. This week challenge yourself to read a book of the Bible you usually ignore.
For further study: Deuteronomy 31:24–27; Psalm 1
