Lesson Two: Old Testament Overview
The Old Testament consists of the 39 books of the original Jewish Bible, still used by Jewish people today. The word "Testament" means "covenant, agreement, contract". The word "Old" means "older, original," or the way God related to men and women before the Coming of Christ.
The Old Testament contains many observable kinds of information:
The Revelation of the Creation of the World by God, The entry of Sin into the World. The Flood
The History of the Ancient World Through the eyes of God, the division of the languages of the world
The History of the calling and God's dealings with Abraham and his decendents, the People of Israel
The Laws given to Israel, forming their "Constitution" and duties to God and morality of life
The Early history of Israel, the kings and judges and captivity of Israel to Babylon
The Writings of the Prophets, dealing with confronting sin and waywardness from God,
The Prophecies of The Coming Messiah, the Future Resolution of history, end times, and New heaven and earth
The Psalms, Songs of worship and praise and deep teachings about God
The Wisdom Books, Job, Proverbs, Eccelesiastes, Song of Solomon
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Perhaps we could title the Bible God's Plan. The Old Testament would be Volume One: The Plan Begins. And the New Testament would be called Volume Two: The Plan Completed.
The Purpose of the Old Testament was to reveal THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE COMING KING! All through the Old Testament the student of the Scriptures can find Jesus.
The Subject/Theme of the Old Testament was to reveal THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE COMING KING. All of the Old Testament looks forward to the Messiah and His kingdom.
The General Content of the Old Testament:
Please open your Bibles to the 'Table of Contents' as we work through this material. The Old Testament is neatly divided into three major sections.
a. HISTORY, Genesis to Esther.
b. POETRY, Job to Ecciesiastes
c. PROPHECY, Isaiah to Malachi
The Specific Content of the Old Testament Books.
Historical Books
The first five books of the Old Testament are called "The Pentateuch" and are believed to be written by Moses.
GENESIS is the book of beginnings or origins....of the world, the human race and especially the Hebrew nation. It contains the stories of Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, and the biographies of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.
EXODUS is the book of the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery. It includes the origin of the Passover, the Red Sea crossing, and the Ten Commandments.
LEVITICUS is a detailed description of Jewish religious ceremonies and sacrifices.
NUMBERS records the journeyings of the Israelites from Mount Sinai, where they received the Ten Commandments, to the Jordan River, just before their conquest of the Promised Land.
DEUTERONOMY means 'second law.' It is a of repeat of Leviticus and Numbers.
JOSHUA is about the new generation of Israelites crossing the Jordan River and beginning the conquest of Canaan, or "The Promised Land" under the leadership of Joshua. This book includes the famous story of the battle of Jericho.
JUDGES is the record of thirteen judges or popular leaders. The book records the sad result of man doing what is right in his own eyes. Main characters include Samson and Gideon.
RUTH is a simple but beautiful love story. Ruth is a gentile who becomes the great~grandmother of King.David.
I SAMUEL records the history of Israel from the last judge, Samuel, to the death of Israel's first king, Saul.
2 SAMUEL is the story of Kings David and Solomon.
I KINGS records the history of Israel from David's death, through the reign of Solomon, to the life of the prophet Elijah. After Solomon's death, the Jewish kingdom is divided into Israel, or "the North" and Judah, or "the South."
2 KINGS is about the ongoing civil war between Israel and Judah. Both kingdoms are finally destroyed by the judgment of God.
1,2 CHRONICLES are a kind of repeat of 1,2 Kings, with an emphasis on the history of the southern kingdom, Judah, from the reign of David to the Babylonian Captivity.
EZRA and NEHEMIAH are about the return of the Jews to Israel after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Ezra is about rebuilding the Jewish temple, while Nehemiah is about rebuilding the wall and city of Jerusalem.
Hebrew Poetry
The second section or division of the Old Testament is Hebrew poetry. All of these books were written at different times during the historical record of the first 17 books. Psalms, for example, was written by a number of people, most notably David, during the books of Kings and Chronicles.
JOB, the oldest book of the Bible, tries to explain the most difficult question or life: why bad things happen to good people.
PSALMS is a book of prayer and praise.
PROVERBS is a collection of wise sayings.
ECCLESIASTES is about how to trust God and obey his commands, even when life makes no sense and even God seems unfair.
SONG OF SOLOMON is a love story. It has often been understood as a picture of God's love and relationship with us.
Prophecy
The prophetic books have been subdivided into two categories: the Major Prophets, called "major" simply because they are longer books, and the Minor Prophets, or shorter books of prophecy.
Major Prophets
ISAIAH is about the future kingdom of the Messiah. Isaiah is full of beauty and hope. Some of the most familiar passages of Bible prophecy are found in Isaiah.
JEREMIA AND LAMANTATIONS are prophecies of warning and judgment on wayward Israel.
EZEIKEL was written during the Babylonian captivity of Israel. It is about how the glory of God will return one day to the sanctuary in Jerusalem.
DANIEL is history and prophecy concerning Gentile world rule in relation to Israel and the Kingdom of Christ. It includes the famous stories of the three men in the fiery furnace and Daniel in the Lion's den.
Minor Prophets
HOSEA about backsliding and spiritual adultery.
JOEL, the prophet of Pentecost.
AMOS, about judgment on complacency and materialism.
OBADIAH one short chapter on the doom of ancient Edom.
JONAH, and the whale, Of course! But showing a picture of a reluctant evangelist, and a great revival despite him.
MICAH about Israel's sin and God's grace in the promised Messiah.
NAHUM, about the doom of ancient Nineveh.
HABAKKUK, the just shall live by faith.
ZEPHANIAH, on God's judgment and the future of Israel.
HAGGAl, about Zion's temple.
ZECHARIAH, a fairly long "minor" prophet with several chapters on Armageddon and the end of the world.
MALACHI, on robbing God, judgment, and the return of Elijah in the last days.
The Teaching of the Old Testament
(from material prepared by W. P. Ern Baxter).
One word sums up all..Christ. But let's see how this comes to pass. We will imagine a stranger with only an Old Testament in his hand. He opens to Genesis 1 and begins reading verse by verse. Soon he comes to Chapter 3, with its promise of Someone coming. He reads on and finds a repetition of the same promise in almost every book, until as he reads from Isaiah onwards the very Fullness of prophecy appears. But he comes to Malachi 4, the last chapter of the Old Testament, and the promises have not been realized. The reader has now become conscious the Old Testament is ,.. a book of unfulfilled prophecies.
So he turns back to Genesis 1 and starts again. Soon he is conscious of something strange and unusual: sacrifice and offering already in Genesis 4. He wonders what can be the purpose of it again in chapters 9, 12, and 22, and still more clearly in Exodus, until in Leviticus there is an entire organization of sacrifices, offerings, rites and ceremonies. He sees them referred to again and again, with very little explanation of their real meaning, until once more he reaches Malachi 4 without the light he needs. He is now conscious that the Old Testament is also ... a book or unexplained ceremonies.
Once more the reader returns to Genesis, and it is not long before he becomes aware of another great fact: man's great desire and longing for God. He reads of it in chapters 4, 5,15, 28, and 49 and throughout the rest of Bible history, but most of all in Job, Psalms and the Prophets. He reads again and again about people crying out for relationship with the living God and for the blessings God has promised. There are often answers, and there are great moments of satisfaction, but something is still missing. Again, the Old Testament ends without the complete realization of satisfaction in mans relationship with God. And our reader becomes conscious of yet another fact, that the Old Testament is ... a book of unsatisfied longings.
These are three threads running through the Old Testament making it by itself an incomplete book. It ought to be studied from this standpoint and with this perspective if it is to be rightly understood. Only thus will it be appreciated as the foundation of the New Testament.
And we will imagine that someone now gives our stranger a copy of the New Testament. As he begins to read, he finds there the very things he has failed to discover in the Old Testament! On the very first page he reads, 'That it might be fulfilled... ."
And soon he realizes that:
Jesus the Prophet fulfills in His life, the prophecies.
Jesus the Priest explains. in his death, the ceremonies.
Jesus the King satisfies. in his resurrection, the longings.
Jesus, my Prophet, Priest and King, is thus the key to the lock, the perfect explanation of Old Testament history, ceremony and prophecy.
Homepage for this study: http://www.theanswe r.org/biblestudy /inspiration. htm
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--Bible Verses to Ponder--
(Psa 1 KJV)
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
{2} But his delight is in the law of the LORD;
and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
{3} And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;
his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
{4} The ungodly are not so:
but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
{5} Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
{6} For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous:
but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
(Deu 17:18-20 KJV)
And it shall be, when he{the earrthly king of Israel} sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom,
that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book
out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
{19} And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life:
that he may learn to fear the LORD his God,
to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:
{20} That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren,
and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left:
to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom,
he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
(Josh 1:6-9 KJV)
Be strong and of a good courage:
for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land,
which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
{7} Only be thou strong and very courageous,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law,
which Moses my servant commanded thee:
turn not from it to the right hand or to the left,
that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
{8} This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth;
but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
{9} Have not I commanded thee?
Be strong and of a good courage;
be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed:
for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
(Deu 6:5-9 KJV)
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
{6} And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
{7} And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
and when thou walkest by the way,
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
{8} And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
{9} And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Let us but feel that He has His heart set upon us, that He is watching us from those heavens with tender interest, that He is following us day by day as a mother follows here babe in his first attemps to walk alone, that He has set His love upon us, and in spite of ourselves is working out for us His hightest will and blessing, as far as we will let Him - and then nothing can discourage us. A.B.SIMPSON
