Jesse Tree Introduction

The Jesse Tree

This is a Bird's Eye View of The Scarlet Thread of Redemption from Genesis to Luke. Our family has been enjoying the Jesse Tree since December 1997. The pictures I will be showing are very "well-loved" (worn) symbols, but I want to show them to you so you will have a model to create your own Jesse Tree!

Each day, I will have the Jesse Tree Scripture and activities for that day to do with the family, especially younger children. I will include portions of previous Bible Book Club posts for your own personal enrichment and devotion.

For many days, I have a link to an audio of me telling the story in a narrative way that might be enjoyable for you and or your children. 

Here is a download of just the Jesse Tree Scripture reading schedule and possible activities for your kids (without the adult devotional):

JESSE TREE (Please remember it is copyrighted)

INTRODUCTION

Through its symbols, the Jesse Tree tells the story of God’s plan of redemption through the Old and New Testaments. The symbols unveil the character of God and we understand more clearly Who we worship and wait for at this Advent time. Each day, the Scripture is read and a symbol is added to the tree. Suggestions are given for activities that might help in your enjoyment and understanding. Feel free to improvise and make the Jesse Tree personal for you. Be sure to start your tree on December 1st so that you will finish on schedule on the Lord Jesus’ Birthday!! When children are small, a Beginner’s Illustrated Bible is good, but there are no stories for Days 5, 13-19, and 21. When children get older, a Bible Story Book like the Egermeier’s is excellent. Eventually, you can read from a regular Bible. 

Here is a little more about the history of the Jesse tree:

In the old days, in the front of any family Bible, a record was kept of that family's history: the marriages, the children born of those marriages, the marriages and offspring of those children. Over the course of generations, those fading, spidery lines spread outwards like branches and twigs from a single trunk. That is why we call such a record a "family tree." 

Similarly, there would have been in any number of churches, a "Jesse tree" -- a depiction of Jesus' family tree in wood, or stone, or stained glass (see picture above). Church garments might even have been embroidered with a tree. 

Even thousands of years ago, when the stories of the Old Testament were first told, families were pictured as trees branching out from a single trunk.

"A shoot will spring from the stock of Jesse, and from his roots a bud will blossom," said the prophet Isaiah in the Bible (Isaiah 11:1-5), foretelling the birth of Jesus. It is this verse which gave rise to the tradition of Jesse trees in churches. 

Jesse trees were the Bible-storybooks of unlettered people. A priest could point to the figures or symbols, and tell the stories of those Old Testament kings, prophets, heroines, warriors. And the tree itself served to show how the New Testament grew out of the Old Testament; how, for Christians, the birth of Jesus was not just a beginning, but a completion. He was the flowering of a tree planted long before, by God's own design. By tracing his earthly ancestry back to King David and beyond, it was easy, too, to see Jesus as a real historical figure.  

A Jesse Tree my friend made with painted metal ornaments

That forest of ancient Jesse trees fashioned in the Middle Ages is long gone. Puritan vandals of the seventeenth century, in their attempt to destroy "graven images," smashed the heads from saints, the wings from angels, the figures from Jesse trees. No tree survives undamaged. 

But in recent times, a new tradition has grown up -- a new strain of Jesse tree "grown" at home. Still planted for the sake of its stories, symbols are added day by day during the season of Advent, and day by day the old stories are retold, culminating in the stories of the first Christmas.  ("Introduction," The Jesse Tree by Geraldine McCaughrean)

Introduction to Revelation

It is Time for a Pep Talk

I cannot believe that in 19 more pages of my Bible, we will be DONE with the Bible Book Club (sniff, sniff). This is no insignificant 19 pages. I have looked forward to it and dreaded it all in one breath. On the one hand, it is a really important book, and we have been told in Revelation 1:3 that we are blessed if we read it:

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, 
and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near. 

I studied it in-depth once. The first time through, my Precept Bible Study had me illustrate Revelation 4-21 on a sort of timeline. That was instructive, but it also left me with more questions than answers. The next time through it, the Bible study had me look at all the symbolism, and that gave me a headache!  As you know, prophecy is a weakness of mine. (I struggled mightily through Daniel.) I have backed out of tough theological corners here in the Bible Book Club by saying that we would discuss this or that when we got to the book of Revelation. Well, here we are, and I tremble in anticipation.

I wrote the above yesterday morning. In the afternoon, I listened to Revelation as I walked to an International Furniture Giveaway that my community does every fall for the international students on the OSU campus.  These verses sang out to me:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, 

“Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, 

“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”  (Revelation 7:9-12)

People from many nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues at the International Furniture Giveaway!

That is when God reminded me what Revelation is really all about: WORSHIP! What an awesome thought to think of people from all over the earth worshiping God!

When I arrived at the furniture giveaway, I had a visual glimpse of what this verse might look like (minus the white robes and palm branches). Different languages were spoken everywhere I turned. What a picture, and what potential for God to receive worship and glory!

As to add punctuation to the worship theme, I went to my bookcase this morning for something else and God said, "Read this."  He led me to the introduction to Revelation in The Message by Eugene Peterson:

The Bible ends with a flourish: vision and song, doom and deliverance, terror and triumph. The rush of color and sound, image and energy, leaves us reeling. But if we persist through the initial confusion and read on, we begin to pick up the rhythms, realize the connections, and find ourselves enlisted as participants in a multi-dimensional act of Christian worship. 

John of Patmos, a pastor of the late first century, has worship on his mind, is preeminently concerned with worship. The vision, which is The Revelation, comes to him while he is at worship on a certain Sunday on the Mediterranean island of Patmos. He is responsible for a circuit of churches on the mainland whose primary task is worship. Worship shapes the human community in response to the living God. If worship is neglected or perverted, our communities fall into chaos or under tyranny.

Our times are not propitious for worship. The times never are. The world is hostile to worship. The Devil hates worship. As The Revelation makes clear, worship must be carried out under conditions decidedly uncongenial to it. Some Christians even get killed because they worship.

John's Revelation is not easy reading. Besides being a pastor, John is a poet, fond of metaphor and symbol, image and allusion, passionate in his desire to bring us into the presence of Jesus believing and adoring. But the demands he makes on our intelligence and imagination are well rewarded, for in keeping company with John, our worship of God will almost certainly deepen in urgency and joy. (The Message Remix, p. 2245)

Don't you love that? What a confirmation that the book of Revelation does not need to be scary or confusing but a means by which we can deepen in our worship! So, that is my prayer for you as you work hard to dig deeper into this very important book. 

Onward and upward on the homestretch!

The New Testament opens with the first coming of Christ in the four Gospels and closes with the second coming of Christ in Revelation. 

This letter is written in "apocalyptic" form which is a type of Jewish literature that uses symbolic imagery to communicate hope for those in persecution. The events are also not always in chronological order. 

Date Written: About A.D. 95 when the Roman authorities exiled John on the Island of Patmos. 

 http://www.maps-of-greece.com/patmos-map.htm

According to several early church fathers (Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius), John was sent to this island as a prisoner following his effective pastorate at Ephesus. Victorinus, the first commentator on the Book of Revelation, stated that John worked as a prisoner in the mines on this small island. When the Emperor Domitian died in A.D. 96, his successor Nerva let John return to Ephesus. During John’s bleak days on Patmos, God gave him the tremendous revelation embodied in this final book of the Bible. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary, p. 930)

Audience: The seven churches in Asia experiencing persecution under Emperor Domitian (A.D. 90-95). It is also for believers everywhere.

http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/JBPhillips.htm

Following the map above, the letters were read and passed on the "Roman Road" going clockwise starting in Ephesus and ending in Laodicea. 

Outline by Chapters

1. Introduction: "Things You Have Seen" (1)
2. Letters to the Seven Churches: "Things That Are" (2-3)
3. Message to the Church: "Things That Will Take Place Later" (4-22)

Different Views of End Times

There are many different views about how the end times play out with the prefixes of a-, pre-, mid-, and post- thrown out there. I will try to briefly present the views but will bring the focus back to worship every time.

Our "end-times" view (eschatology) does not define who we are as followers of Christ. What defines us is our belief (what I talked about in Jude) that propels us forward in love, and that is what really matters! We can all agree that Jesus is coming again, and we know that God wins in the end! The "when and where" will have to play out, and I pray we are worshipping Him in the process.

Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles

Saint Paul Writing His Epistle by Valentin de Boulogne or Nicolas Tournier
About 16th Century, Blaffer Foundation Collection, Houston, TX
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/File%22-Saint_Paul_Writing_His_Epistles%22_by_Valentin_de_Boulogne.jpg

The Pastoral Epistles are a little different from the other Pauline epistles we have been reading. They are personal letters written to pastors rather than churches. Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus to encourage these younger men as they shepherded the churches of Ephesus and Crete.  The letters focus more on the challenges of church life.

Here is a brief overview:

1 Timothy: Protecting the Faith

Written in Macedonia

A.D. 62-63

The Pastor and Church Government (1 Timothy 1-3)

The Pastor and Personal Progress (1 Timothy 4-6)

2 Timothy: Proclaiming the Faith

Written from Rome

A.D 67

The Pastor and Coming Apostasy 

Titus: Practicing the Faith
Written from Corinth
A.D. 63

The Pastor and Church Problems (Adapted from The Daily Walk, December 2008, p. 8)

While these are written to pastors, they are personally applicable to everyone!

Enjoy!

Introduction to the Prophetical Books

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS

Download the Year Two BBC Overview and Timeline 

The Bible is not written in chronological order but according to the type of book:

Books of Moses (Law or Pentateuch): Genesis - Deuteronomy 
History: Joshua - Esther
Poetry and Wisdom Literature: Job - Song of Solomon
Major Prophets: Isaiah - Daniel
Minor Prophets: Hosea - Malachi

I find it easier to understand prophecy when it is read in the context of the historical period. So, that is why we are interspersing the prophets in the historical context of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. 

I will not be doing a strictly chronological approach because I do not want to jump back and forth once we start a prophetic book. So, when we get to a book like Isaiah, that covers the reign of four kings of Judah spanning six decades, we will read through all of those kings in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles before we study the entire book of Isaiah.

The prophetical books are broken up into two sections: 5 Major Prophets (Isaiah - Daniel) and 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea - Malachi). We will read them in chronological order. That way we will get breaks between the longer major prophets of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel with the shorter Minor Prophets. Here is a brief rundown of the order of the historical dates for each prophet with the Major Prophets highlighted in bold. They are all B.C.:

841-824.....Obadiah (this date is hotly debated!)

825-809....Joel

784-772.....Jonah 

767-755.....Amos 

755-714.....Hosea 

-----722 Assyrian Captivity of Northern Kingdom of Israel

739-681.....Isaiah 

733-701.....Micah 

650-620....Nahum 

636-623....Zephaniah 

627-574.....Jeremiah 

574-538.....Lamentations 

621-609.....Habakkuk 

605-586 Babylonian Captivity of Southern Kingdom of Judah

605-536.....Daniel 

593-559.....Ezekiel 

------538 Cyrus of Persian issues edict allowing Jews to RETURN to land

520-505.....Haggai 

520-489.....Zechariah 

435-415.....Malachi 

Theologically, the prophets concentrate on warnings of impending judgment, teachings about righteous living, encouragement to the faithful and oppressed, and predictions of God's future plans.

                                                                                         

I am approaching the prophets with fear and trembling! :)  I hope that you are game and that breaking up the longer books of the Major Prophets with the shorter books of the Minor Prophets will make it easier! I believe God has so much to teach us through the study of these books.

I LOVE what Eugene Peterson says about the prophets:

Over a period of several hundred years the Hebrew people gave birth to an extraordinary number of prophets – men and women distinguished by the power and skill with which they presented the reality of God. They delivered God’s commands and promises and living presence to communities and nations who had been living on god-fantasies and god-lies. 

Everyone more or less believes in God. But most of us do our best to keep God on the margins of our lives or failing that, refashion God to suit our convenience. Prophets insist that God is the sovereign center [emphasis mine] not off in the wings awaiting our beck and call. And prophets insist that we deal with God as God reveals himself, not as we imagine him to be [Isn't that powerful? Ponder that for a moment].  

These men and women woke people up to the sovereign presence of God in their lives. They yelled, they wept, they rebuked, they soothed, they challenged, they comforted. They used words with power and imagination whether blunt or subtle. . .  

Prophets make it impossible to evade God or make detours around God. Prophets insist on receiving God in ever nook and cranny of life. For a prophet, God is more real than the next-door neighbor.  (The Message Remix, p. 1194, 1197)

With fear and trembling, let us start the prophets in the next post!