July 31, 2024 • 19 mins
Unlock the secrets to a more profound understanding of the Bible with author Jonathan Sole in this enriching episode of the Pleasing God podcast. Join us as Jonathan shares his disciplined journey of writing "The Books of Scripture: A Concise Guide for Understanding and Applying the Bible" amidst the chaos of ministry work and raising five children, with two more on the way. Learn how Jonathan's commitment to an hour a day in his study transformed his vision into a vital resource that offers Christians a unified, high-level overview of the Bible. We promise you'll walk away inspired by his dedication and motivated by his insights into balancing life's many responsibilities.
Discover the key to unlocking the Bible's more challenging books like Nahum and Numbers, and grasp the significance of generational discipleship through the lens of Nineveh's story. Jonathan discusses the innovative structure of his book, following the Hebrew Bible's order, and how it aims to make scripture more accessible and engaging. Stay tuned as we also delve into the creative process behind our podcast's cover art, celebrating the collaborative effort that made it visually captivating. This episode concludes with a heartfelt reminder from 1 Thessalonians 4:3: "This is the will of God, your sanctification." Don't miss this conversation packed with wisdom, creativity, and a passion for God's Word.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God podcast, a
podcast focused on helpingChristians to think biblically,
engage practically and livefaithfully for the glory of God.
I'm your host, jonathan Soule,and I'm joined again with my
lovely.
I guess we can call you maybeco-host.
Yeah, On the website I thinkyou're content creator or
something like that chief editor.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
One who does makes this whole thing go.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, oh, you're taking a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, I do the behind the scenes.
Well, it's been a while, thiskind of like in the middle of a
summer break, but we did want torecord an episode and actually
you said you want to just takethe lead on this one.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, we're gonna do something a little bit different
.
If you have not heard, and ifyou have not heard, john wrote a
book, and so this podcast isgoing to be a little bit
interview type style, where Ithink I'm just going to sit and
ask you some questions so thatthe listeners can maybe get
briefed on your book.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, I didn't know, that was exactly how we were
doing this, but let's roll withit.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, so you wrote a book.
What is the it?
Yeah, so you wrote a book.
What is the title of your book?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I wrote a book and it's a book about books.
It's a book about a lot ofbooks.
The title of the book is theBooks of Scripture, and I think
the subtitle is A Concise Guidefor for understanding and
applying the Bible.
Correct, okay, good.
I got the title right Woof Madeit through that one.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And the first question I think is going to be
on a lot of people's minds Withministry meetings, five children
, with two on the way, Is thatan announcement.
Yeah, we're having twins.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We're having twins.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We are having twins.
We are having twins, yeah, yeah.
So we found out a month agothat we were having twins and
(02:10):
that was quite a shock andsurprise.
But I think the first questionon a lot of people's minds going
to be how did you find?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
time to write a book with all of the things that you
have going.
Do you want to maybe answerthat?
You just you prioritize what'simportant.
So for this project, I wasworking through my doctor of
ministry work and I hit a bigmilestone.
I got my third chapter approvedand I just wanted to take a
break from that.
That was a lot of research, Iwas dealing with practical
(02:35):
issues and discipling and Iwanted to do something different
.
And so how did I find the time?
I committed to writing an houra day, roughly, Some days maybe
two hours, Other days no hours.
But I put it on the scheduleand said I just want to write.
I had the idea going.
(02:57):
I had kind of a loose format ofwhat I wanted to do, what I
wanted to accomplish, and so Ijust began plugging away and it
came together.
Some days I wrote and it wasn'teven good writing.
So I didn't use it, but justfive days a week committing to
writing, and then, over time,project got completed.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So when did you start the project of writing the book
?
Because it really wasn't thatlong ago.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It kind of came together, Well, yes and no.
So the project of the actualbeginnings of hey, I'm going to
write this book, I startedprobably towards the end of
April.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Of 2024.
Yeah, and we're recording this,uh, end of july okay, one last
question about kind of the, theworkings of writing a book, and
then we'll get into the bookitself.
Where do you write?
Obviously we do have a lot ofkids, it's loud you work from.
(04:01):
So where do you write and isthere a type of time of day that
you prefer to write?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So I write in my attic study.
For the most part I didprobably 85% of the writing
there.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Where we are right now, where it's currently 15
degrees hotter than it isdownstairs.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
It's so blazing hot up here, sure because you can't
run the AC while we're recordinga podcast.
Unless you want this bighumming noise in the back, it's
a little toasty up here.
So yeah, writing in my atticstudy where it's quiet.
It's also the reason why werecord here.
It's a finished attic.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
by the way, it's not like a Rapunzel's Castle type
attic.
It's a finished attic.
By the way, it's not like aRapunzel's Castle type attic.
It's a finished attic.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I've never been in a Rapunzel's attic.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I'm just envisioning people thinking of an attic
where Cinderella gets locked upor Rapunzel's locked away
Unfinished.
Stone and cold and damp andmice.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
No, I have sheetrock and windows and computers and
bookshelves, skylight yeah it'sfine, it's a good space so, and
then some of the other writingum, I would just on my tablet
out and about doing stuff, andso, yeah, that's, that's where I
spent my time writing okay.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
so, getting into the book, you kind of alluded to
this, or at least startedalluding to it, but what
inspired you to write the book,or maybe what led to your
writing the book?
You mentioned some of yourdoctoral work, so just give us
an understanding of kind of whatit's stemming from.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So my conviction or objective in writing this book
was to create something that'saccessible for Christians,
church members, non-seminarypeople.
It's not technical at all, butI wanted to create a resource
that can help people to justunderstand whole Bible, or a
(06:07):
50,000 foot view of the books ofscripture.
So I take a huge overview.
I've limited myself to twopages per book of the Bible, and
so it's a super high flyover.
The Bible, and so it's a superhigh flyover.
But it was the idea is that, orthe conviction is, scripture is
(06:28):
one unified story.
The Bible is one whole story byone divine author, written
through 40 or so human authors.
But how they all work together.
And so what motivated me was Iwanted especially members in my
church to understand and grasptheir Bible better.
(06:49):
Sometimes you get lost in themiddle of Jeremiah and you're
saying, well, I don't knowwhat's happening here.
Or you start your read throughyour Bible in a year plan and
you get to numbers and you'rejust like you're done.
You know you hit February right.
And so how can I understand myBible better?
How can I get a snapshot ofeach book on a high level and
(07:10):
then go into that book?
So it's a companion for Biblereading.
So that's kind of what drove meis I wanted, I want someone to
pick up this book and say, hey,what's Nahum about?
You can Google it, or you canread my wanted.
I want someone to pick up thisbook and say, hey, what's Nahum
about?
You can Google it, or you canread my book, I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, so you kind of answered one of my other
questions.
I was going to ask you is what,what do you hope readers will
get out of out of reading thisbook?
And you sort of answered that.
But if you could maybe specifya little bit more.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Every one of the books of scripture is meaningful
to our lives because it's theinspired word of God and the Old
Testament is not outdated andthe minor prophets are not for a
time ago and we can learn muchfrom them.
Now understanding you knowcovenantal context and things of
that nature.
You know we're under the newcovenant, we're in Christ that
(08:02):
way, but you don't have to beintimidated by the thickness of
your Bible or kind of have thisburden, this kind of pietistic
legalism put upon you that, likeI, have to read through my
Bible no matter what.
The more you know andunderstand, the more you will
love the books of Scripture.
And so I'm hoping that I canjust unlock a level of
(08:28):
understanding for the reader tosay, hey, I can access this, and
through understanding therewould be a growing love for
God's Word.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
All right, cool.
So in writing this book, you'rewriting about the Bible.
So, assuming that you had to gothrough the whole Bible to
write the book, what was onebook from the Bible that you
most enjoyed studying andwriting about, and why?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Probably some of the books that I'm the least
familiar with, and I can't sayone book.
But I really enjoyed themessage of Nahum Because it's
kind of like I don't know.
I think in the book I evenmentioned that it seems like the
sequel to Jonah, and how themessage is, you know.
(09:21):
He writes and it's like oh, thedestruction of Nineveh, and
he's rejoicing over thedestruction of these wicked
people.
But as I was reading that I waslike this is the failure of
generational discipleship.
So if there is this conversionin Nineveh under the preaching
of Jonah and Nineveh turns andGod relents the disaster upon
(09:41):
them, 100 years, 150 years later, nahum writes about the
destruction of Nineveh and justkind of piecing these things
together and hopefully the bookhelps to understand that.
The application section for thebook of Nahum is it is
absolutely necessary for onegeneration to commend the works
(10:01):
of God to the next so that onegeneration of Assyrians or the
Ninevites were spared.
But that story didn't seem toperpetuate and within 100 years
they were utterly devastated.
And I just really enjoyedmaking those connections and
then saying, hey, there's awarning here of generational
(10:25):
faithfulness and you can seethat throughout.
You know a lot of the otherstuff too.
You know the transition fromJoshua to Judges, but that was
one.
A lot of the minor prophets.
I was, you know, carefullyreading through the book of Joel
and I was just like whoa, hewrites really good.
So the Minor Prophets, I thinkthe Book of the Twelve.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, those are the ones where you kind of have to
sometimes go to the beginning,the Book of Context or what is
it called the?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Table of Contents and kind of find where those are
because they're tricky to find Icall it the sticky pages of
your Bible because they'reusually stiff, because they
don't get a lot of.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
We don't go there very often.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
But yeah, it was good .
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right.
So someone gets your book andwe'll talk about later about how
you can get your book.
But someone gets your book andthey open it up.
What are?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
they going to expect to see.
So I'll give a littleintroduction.
What are some of my convictions?
What am I writing from?
A couple of unique things.
I break from the English orderof the Old Testament and I do so
and I explain why.
So I ordered the booksaccording to the Hebrew Bible,
(11:32):
or Hebrew Old Testament, andthis is the way in which Jesus
and the apostles read their OldTestament, and so I put it in
that order so we can kind ofjust understand.
Because I think it's reallyconfusing when you go from 1 and
2 Samuel to 1 and 2 Kings whichis fine, that's one full story
but then you have the book ofChronicles and you're like this
(11:54):
is redundant, and if you'rereading through books of the
Bible in the order of the, itdoesn't make sense.
Why am I getting told this samestory in a different?
But when we understand thatChronicles is the last book of
the jewish old testament, it'sit's kind of the, the spark
notes or the cliff notes of theold testament.
(12:15):
It's genesis to, to the returnfrom exile.
Okay, um, so that's one thingthat's unique about that book.
They can expect, and the format, the structure.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, that's what I wanted you to touch on too.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah just I give a line about who the author is,
date of composition I thinkthose things matter, just to
know when the book was writtenand then I'll give maybe a
sentence or two about just thetheme of the book, what stands
out the most, followed by aparagraph that summarizes the
(12:46):
whole book.
So books like Genesis, exodus,the whole Pentateuch it was
challenging to summarize thatall in one paragraph.
And then I carefully selectedfour, roughly about four key
passages from each book thateither support the theme or the
(13:06):
summary, or some of the mainpoints of the book or an
application of the book.
And then what's unique, I think, and what I haven't seen in
something like this, is thesection that I titled the Christ
Connection.
Jesus on the road to Emmaus isvery clear that all the
scriptures point to him.
Everything written about him inthe law, the prophets and the
(13:28):
writings must be fulfilled.
And so I approach this as aconservative evangelical who
believes that the whole OldTestament is pointing to Jesus
and finds its fulfillment in him.
And so I try to draw out fromeach book where Jesus is in all
of scripture.
So if it's Daniel the son ofman in chapter seven, if it's
(13:53):
Genesis, he's the seed of thewoman in chapter three and
Exodus the Passover lamb.
I could go through, but I won'tpick it up and then, I'll give
an application which is relevantto the contemporary reader
today.
What does this message ofObadiah?
How does that apply to me,because it means what it says,
but how does it apply to my life?
(14:15):
How can I take Nahum ObadiahHabakkuk Luke and, on the
flyover, grasp the meaning ofthis text for me?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, I really like the way it's set up.
It's giving you the context ofthe book itself, who it's being
written to and all of that, butthen also seeing Christ and then
how this can apply to us.
I think it's kind of a good,full and concise understanding
of the Bible and an easy way toread.
I think what I like about it is, like you said, you have one
book of the Bible and an easyway to read.
(14:45):
I think what I like about it is, like you said, you have one
book of the Bible on two pagesand so it's easy to grasp.
I think this could be a goodgift maybe for a new believer to
be able to go through the Bibleand read through and understand
, kind of the Cliff Notesversion of the.
Bible.
It could be good for someonegoing into a Bible study to kind
of have a better understandingto go through a book of the
Bible.
It could be good for someonegoing into a Bible study to kind
of have a better understandingto go through a book of the
(15:07):
Bible.
So, yeah, I think this could bebeneficial for most everybody.
Anything else from the bookthat you want to kind of go?
Before we start asking I ask acouple more questions.
But anything else specificabout the book that you'd like
to point out?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It was a joy to go through this process.
I never felt like it was aburden.
It forced me to read through myBible in two months.
And when you have to writeabout what you're reading, you
read differently.
So I thoroughly enjoyed theproject.
I was motivated throughout.
Formatting is frustrating, somaybe I'll think about on the
(15:46):
next one how I can maybe do thatdifferently or maybe go through
a different agency or something.
But from start to finish, a joy.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
All right, two more questions.
How can one get their hands onthe book if they would like to
purchase it?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You can find it on Amazon.
Okay, probably the best way tofind it on Amazon is to probably
type in the books of scripture,but the most direct way would
probably type my name intoAmazon, type Jonathan's soul
into Amazon and I'm pretty surethe title will come up, so you
can get it on Kindle orhardcover paperback kindle, and
(16:28):
do you plan on writing any otherbooks?
yes, um, yes, uh, I need toprioritize you're finishing up
your doctoral study this year,so that's yeah, so between now
and february February gettingthat project wrapped up I'd like
to turn my D-Men work into abook, and so Foundations of
(16:51):
Discipling is one that I'd liketo do, and I've really been
toying kind of wrestling with anautobiography.
I kind of have this like weirdfeeling about like I don't want
to write about myself, but youhave a story worth telling.
So I don't know, from prodigalto preacher or something like
(17:12):
that, or the long, the longjourney home, I don't know
something like that.
But so I definitely want anautobiography, to write my
autobiography, even though mystory is not over.
That's, that's what'schallenging.
Maybe I'd have a coupleeditions, who knows?
I definitely want to writeabout kind of taking my research
and my findings for discipling.
But yes, I enjoyed the process.
(17:35):
I enjoyed.
I hope that this serves as aresearch I'm sorry, a resource
for the church, and so if I canput out some material that's
accessible, readable, verypractical in the way, I think,
so I think I'm pretty practicalin the way I write, academic
(18:08):
world to the church andproviding helpful resources to
help Christians think biblically, engage practically and live
faithfully for the glory of God.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Okay, well, those are the questions that I had for
you today.
This was kind of fun being onkind of the interviewer side of
things.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, I tend to, I guess, over-answer answer
questions, that's okay yeah, um,but I'm proud of you.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I know it's.
We've had a lot on our plates.
We've been in a very busyseason.
We talked about the last timewe recorded we were entering
into our really busy two monthsand it has been wild and um,
you've been able to kind of putthis out in the midst of that.
So I'm proud of you for allyour hard work and your
diligence.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And thank you for your support and just riding
this wave with me all the way.
And thank you for the designand the cover art, because I
would have just had a blackcover with a title on it.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
And I was not going to let you just have a black
cover.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Right, maybe the next one would have been blue.
So thanks for helping to designthat and getting this project
to completion.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah Well, no problem , I enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Great.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You want to close this out?
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Sure, I want to thank you for listening to the
Pleasing God podcast.
If you have any questions, Iwould love to hear from you.
You could reach out atquestions at
pleasinggodpodcastorg.
And remember 1 Thessalonians4.3,.
This is the will of God, yoursanctification.
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God podcast, a
podcast focused on helpingChristians to think biblically,
engage practically and livefaithfully for the glory of God.
I'm your host, jonathan Soule,and I'm joined again with my
lovely.
I guess we can call you maybeco-host.
Yeah, On the website I thinkyou're content creator or
something like that chief editor.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
One who does makes this whole thing go.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, oh, you're taking a lot of credit.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Well, I do the behind the scenes.
Well, it's been a while, thiskind of like in the middle of a
summer break, but we did want torecord an episode and actually
you said you want to just takethe lead on this one.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, we're gonna do something a little bit different
.
If you have not heard, and ifyou have not heard, john wrote a
book, and so this podcast isgoing to be a little bit
interview type style, where Ithink I'm just going to sit and
ask you some questions so thatthe listeners can maybe get
briefed on your book.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Okay, I didn't know, that was exactly how we were
doing this, but let's roll withit.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, so you wrote a book.
What is the it?
Yeah, so you wrote a book.
What is the title of your book?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I wrote a book and it's a book about books.
It's a book about a lot ofbooks.
The title of the book is theBooks of Scripture, and I think
the subtitle is A Concise Guidefor for understanding and
applying the Bible.
Correct, okay, good.
I got the title right Woof Madeit through that one.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And the first question I think is going to be
on a lot of people's minds Withministry meetings, five children
, with two on the way, Is thatan announcement.
Yeah, we're having twins.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
We're having twins.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
We are having twins.
We are having twins, yeah, yeah.
So we found out a month agothat we were having twins and
(02:10):
that was quite a shock andsurprise.
But I think the first questionon a lot of people's minds going
to be how did you find?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
time to write a book with all of the things that you
have going.
Do you want to maybe answerthat?
You just you prioritize what'simportant.
So for this project, I wasworking through my doctor of
ministry work and I hit a bigmilestone.
I got my third chapter approvedand I just wanted to take a
break from that.
That was a lot of research, Iwas dealing with practical
(02:35):
issues and discipling and Iwanted to do something different
.
And so how did I find the time?
I committed to writing an houra day, roughly, Some days maybe
two hours, Other days no hours.
But I put it on the scheduleand said I just want to write.
I had the idea going.
(02:57):
I had kind of a loose format ofwhat I wanted to do, what I
wanted to accomplish, and so Ijust began plugging away and it
came together.
Some days I wrote and it wasn'teven good writing.
So I didn't use it, but justfive days a week committing to
writing, and then, over time,project got completed.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So when did you start the project of writing the book
?
Because it really wasn't thatlong ago.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It kind of came together, Well, yes and no.
So the project of the actualbeginnings of hey, I'm going to
write this book, I startedprobably towards the end of
April.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Of 2024.
Yeah, and we're recording this,uh, end of july okay, one last
question about kind of the, theworkings of writing a book, and
then we'll get into the bookitself.
Where do you write?
Obviously we do have a lot ofkids, it's loud you work from.
(04:01):
So where do you write and isthere a type of time of day that
you prefer to write?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So I write in my attic study.
For the most part I didprobably 85% of the writing
there.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Where we are right now, where it's currently 15
degrees hotter than it isdownstairs.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
It's so blazing hot up here, sure because you can't
run the AC while we're recordinga podcast.
Unless you want this bighumming noise in the back, it's
a little toasty up here.
So yeah, writing in my atticstudy where it's quiet.
It's also the reason why werecord here.
It's a finished attic.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
by the way, it's not like a Rapunzel's Castle type
attic.
It's a finished attic.
By the way, it's not like aRapunzel's Castle type attic.
It's a finished attic.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I've never been in a Rapunzel's attic.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I'm just envisioning people thinking of an attic
where Cinderella gets locked upor Rapunzel's locked away
Unfinished.
Stone and cold and damp andmice.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
No, I have sheetrock and windows and computers and
bookshelves, skylight yeah it'sfine, it's a good space so, and
then some of the other writingum, I would just on my tablet
out and about doing stuff, andso, yeah, that's, that's where I
spent my time writing okay.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
so, getting into the book, you kind of alluded to
this, or at least startedalluding to it, but what
inspired you to write the book,or maybe what led to your
writing the book?
You mentioned some of yourdoctoral work, so just give us
an understanding of kind of whatit's stemming from.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So my conviction or objective in writing this book
was to create something that'saccessible for Christians,
church members, non-seminarypeople.
It's not technical at all, butI wanted to create a resource
that can help people to justunderstand whole Bible, or a
(06:07):
50,000 foot view of the books ofscripture.
So I take a huge overview.
I've limited myself to twopages per book of the Bible, and
so it's a super high flyover.
The Bible, and so it's a superhigh flyover.
But it was the idea is that, orthe conviction is, scripture is
(06:28):
one unified story.
The Bible is one whole story byone divine author, written
through 40 or so human authors.
But how they all work together.
And so what motivated me was Iwanted especially members in my
church to understand and grasptheir Bible better.
(06:49):
Sometimes you get lost in themiddle of Jeremiah and you're
saying, well, I don't knowwhat's happening here.
Or you start your read throughyour Bible in a year plan and
you get to numbers and you'rejust like you're done.
You know you hit February right.
And so how can I understand myBible better?
How can I get a snapshot ofeach book on a high level and
(07:10):
then go into that book?
So it's a companion for Biblereading.
So that's kind of what drove meis I wanted, I want someone to
pick up this book and say, hey,what's Nahum about?
You can Google it, or you canread my wanted.
I want someone to pick up thisbook and say, hey, what's Nahum
about?
You can Google it, or you canread my book, I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Yeah, so you kind of answered one of my other
questions.
I was going to ask you is what,what do you hope readers will
get out of out of reading thisbook?
And you sort of answered that.
But if you could maybe specifya little bit more.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Every one of the books of scripture is meaningful
to our lives because it's theinspired word of God and the Old
Testament is not outdated andthe minor prophets are not for a
time ago and we can learn muchfrom them.
Now understanding you knowcovenantal context and things of
that nature.
You know we're under the newcovenant, we're in Christ that
(08:02):
way, but you don't have to beintimidated by the thickness of
your Bible or kind of have thisburden, this kind of pietistic
legalism put upon you that, likeI, have to read through my
Bible no matter what.
The more you know andunderstand, the more you will
love the books of Scripture.
And so I'm hoping that I canjust unlock a level of
(08:28):
understanding for the reader tosay, hey, I can access this, and
through understanding therewould be a growing love for
God's Word.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
All right, cool.
So in writing this book, you'rewriting about the Bible.
So, assuming that you had to gothrough the whole Bible to
write the book, what was onebook from the Bible that you
most enjoyed studying andwriting about, and why?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Probably some of the books that I'm the least
familiar with, and I can't sayone book.
But I really enjoyed themessage of Nahum Because it's
kind of like I don't know.
I think in the book I evenmentioned that it seems like the
sequel to Jonah, and how themessage is, you know.
(09:21):
He writes and it's like oh, thedestruction of Nineveh, and
he's rejoicing over thedestruction of these wicked
people.
But as I was reading that I waslike this is the failure of
generational discipleship.
So if there is this conversionin Nineveh under the preaching
of Jonah and Nineveh turns andGod relents the disaster upon
(09:41):
them, 100 years, 150 years later, nahum writes about the
destruction of Nineveh and justkind of piecing these things
together and hopefully the bookhelps to understand that.
The application section for thebook of Nahum is it is
absolutely necessary for onegeneration to commend the works
(10:01):
of God to the next so that onegeneration of Assyrians or the
Ninevites were spared.
But that story didn't seem toperpetuate and within 100 years
they were utterly devastated.
And I just really enjoyedmaking those connections and
then saying, hey, there's awarning here of generational
(10:25):
faithfulness and you can seethat throughout.
You know a lot of the otherstuff too.
You know the transition fromJoshua to Judges, but that was
one.
A lot of the minor prophets.
I was, you know, carefullyreading through the book of Joel
and I was just like whoa, hewrites really good.
So the Minor Prophets, I thinkthe Book of the Twelve.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, those are the ones where you kind of have to
sometimes go to the beginning,the Book of Context or what is
it called the?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Table of Contents and kind of find where those are
because they're tricky to find Icall it the sticky pages of
your Bible because they'reusually stiff, because they
don't get a lot of.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
We don't go there very often.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
But yeah, it was good .
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right.
So someone gets your book andwe'll talk about later about how
you can get your book.
But someone gets your book andthey open it up.
What are?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
they going to expect to see.
So I'll give a littleintroduction.
What are some of my convictions?
What am I writing from?
A couple of unique things.
I break from the English orderof the Old Testament and I do so
and I explain why.
So I ordered the booksaccording to the Hebrew Bible,
(11:32):
or Hebrew Old Testament, andthis is the way in which Jesus
and the apostles read their OldTestament, and so I put it in
that order so we can kind ofjust understand.
Because I think it's reallyconfusing when you go from 1 and
2 Samuel to 1 and 2 Kings whichis fine, that's one full story
but then you have the book ofChronicles and you're like this
(11:54):
is redundant, and if you'rereading through books of the
Bible in the order of the, itdoesn't make sense.
Why am I getting told this samestory in a different?
But when we understand thatChronicles is the last book of
the jewish old testament, it'sit's kind of the, the spark
notes or the cliff notes of theold testament.
(12:15):
It's genesis to, to the returnfrom exile.
Okay, um, so that's one thingthat's unique about that book.
They can expect, and the format, the structure.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, that's what I wanted you to touch on too.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah just I give a line about who the author is,
date of composition I thinkthose things matter, just to
know when the book was writtenand then I'll give maybe a
sentence or two about just thetheme of the book, what stands
out the most, followed by aparagraph that summarizes the
(12:46):
whole book.
So books like Genesis, exodus,the whole Pentateuch it was
challenging to summarize thatall in one paragraph.
And then I carefully selectedfour, roughly about four key
passages from each book thateither support the theme or the
(13:06):
summary, or some of the mainpoints of the book or an
application of the book.
And then what's unique, I think, and what I haven't seen in
something like this, is thesection that I titled the Christ
Connection.
Jesus on the road to Emmaus isvery clear that all the
scriptures point to him.
Everything written about him inthe law, the prophets and the
(13:28):
writings must be fulfilled.
And so I approach this as aconservative evangelical who
believes that the whole OldTestament is pointing to Jesus
and finds its fulfillment in him.
And so I try to draw out fromeach book where Jesus is in all
of scripture.
So if it's Daniel the son ofman in chapter seven, if it's
(13:53):
Genesis, he's the seed of thewoman in chapter three and
Exodus the Passover lamb.
I could go through, but I won'tpick it up and then, I'll give
an application which is relevantto the contemporary reader
today.
What does this message ofObadiah?
How does that apply to me,because it means what it says,
but how does it apply to my life?
(14:15):
How can I take Nahum ObadiahHabakkuk Luke and, on the
flyover, grasp the meaning ofthis text for me?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, I really like the way it's set up.
It's giving you the context ofthe book itself, who it's being
written to and all of that, butthen also seeing Christ and then
how this can apply to us.
I think it's kind of a good,full and concise understanding
of the Bible and an easy way toread.
I think what I like about it is, like you said, you have one
book of the Bible and an easyway to read.
(14:45):
I think what I like about it is, like you said, you have one
book of the Bible on two pagesand so it's easy to grasp.
I think this could be a goodgift maybe for a new believer to
be able to go through the Bibleand read through and understand
, kind of the Cliff Notesversion of the.
Bible.
It could be good for someonegoing into a Bible study to kind
of have a better understandingto go through a book of the
Bible.
It could be good for someonegoing into a Bible study to kind
of have a better understandingto go through a book of the
(15:07):
Bible.
So, yeah, I think this could bebeneficial for most everybody.
Anything else from the bookthat you want to kind of go?
Before we start asking I ask acouple more questions.
But anything else specificabout the book that you'd like
to point out?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
It was a joy to go through this process.
I never felt like it was aburden.
It forced me to read through myBible in two months.
And when you have to writeabout what you're reading, you
read differently.
So I thoroughly enjoyed theproject.
I was motivated throughout.
Formatting is frustrating, somaybe I'll think about on the
(15:46):
next one how I can maybe do thatdifferently or maybe go through
a different agency or something.
But from start to finish, a joy.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
All right, two more questions.
How can one get their hands onthe book if they would like to
purchase it?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
You can find it on Amazon.
Okay, probably the best way tofind it on Amazon is to probably
type in the books of scripture,but the most direct way would
probably type my name intoAmazon, type Jonathan's soul
into Amazon and I'm pretty surethe title will come up, so you
can get it on Kindle orhardcover paperback kindle, and
(16:28):
do you plan on writing any otherbooks?
yes, um, yes, uh, I need toprioritize you're finishing up
your doctoral study this year,so that's yeah, so between now
and february February gettingthat project wrapped up I'd like
to turn my D-Men work into abook, and so Foundations of
(16:51):
Discipling is one that I'd liketo do, and I've really been
toying kind of wrestling with anautobiography.
I kind of have this like weirdfeeling about like I don't want
to write about myself, but youhave a story worth telling.
So I don't know, from prodigalto preacher or something like
(17:12):
that, or the long, the longjourney home, I don't know
something like that.
But so I definitely want anautobiography, to write my
autobiography, even though mystory is not over.
That's, that's what'schallenging.
Maybe I'd have a coupleeditions, who knows?
I definitely want to writeabout kind of taking my research
and my findings for discipling.
But yes, I enjoyed the process.
(17:35):
I enjoyed.
I hope that this serves as aresearch I'm sorry, a resource
for the church, and so if I canput out some material that's
accessible, readable, verypractical in the way, I think,
so I think I'm pretty practicalin the way I write, academic
(18:08):
world to the church andproviding helpful resources to
help Christians think biblically, engage practically and live
faithfully for the glory of God.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Okay, well, those are the questions that I had for
you today.
This was kind of fun being onkind of the interviewer side of
things.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Yeah, I tend to, I guess, over-answer answer
questions, that's okay yeah, um,but I'm proud of you.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I know it's.
We've had a lot on our plates.
We've been in a very busyseason.
We talked about the last timewe recorded we were entering
into our really busy two monthsand it has been wild and um,
you've been able to kind of putthis out in the midst of that.
So I'm proud of you for allyour hard work and your
diligence.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
And thank you for your support and just riding
this wave with me all the way.
And thank you for the designand the cover art, because I
would have just had a blackcover with a title on it.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
And I was not going to let you just have a black
cover.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Right, maybe the next one would have been blue.
So thanks for helping to designthat and getting this project
to completion.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah Well, no problem , I enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Great.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You want to close this out?
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Sure, I want to thank you for listening to the
Pleasing God podcast.
If you have any questions, Iwould love to hear from you.
You could reach out atquestions at
pleasinggodpodcastorg.
And remember 1 Thessalonians4.3,.
This is the will of God, yoursanctification.
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