Summary: If we were going summarize the Old Testament with just two words, it could easily be described by the words, grace and fire.
God’s grace is found all over the Old Testament. Sin entered the world, but God, from the very beginning, showed us what He was going to do about it— He was going to give grace.
But along with the grace we also see fire. God takes sin very seriously.
It is always helpful to have a nice, large layout of exactly what ground you are covering. Mountain orienteers use terrain maps in order to gain a working knowledge of the mountain range they will climb. Military strategist use general, overview mapping for supply and troop placement. City Planners need diagrams with a topical view of a particular area before considering any minute details of planning they might be trying to put into place.
Professions such as these understand the value and necessity of getting a basic picture of the whole, before diving into the depths. So why should it be any different when it comes to Scripture?
Sadly, however, many Christians begin in the details of the Bible by starting some new reading regimen and then get lost in the intricacies of Scripture, especially when it come to the Old Testament. In other words, they failed to get an over-view layout of how the Old Testament works. This can quickly lead to despair, frustration, and ultimately, Biblical ignorance.
Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to give you the picture that is so desperately needed for your understanding of the Old Testament. And the way this will be accomplished is by taking everything contained in the Old Testament, and zooming-out in order to give us a large overview so that we can see the whole picture. And the way this will be accomplished is by asking two basic questions:
1) What Does it Look Like?
2) Where Are We?
As you follow along, the first question will answer how the sections of the Old Testament are broken up and then provide the basic content contained in that work. The second question will briefly explain how the Old Testament flows together.
So let’s take on the first question and see what we can find:
What Does it Look Like?
We’ll first start with the layout of the Old Testament.
What is confusing to many people is the fact that the Old Testament has three major sections and is not one long successive story.
Section 1: The first section consists of the books Genesis through Esther. These 17 books contain the law and history of the nation of Israel. This section of the Old Testament is written in a ‘pros’, style of writing: meaning that what you are reading, is just a straight forward, everyday style of communication.
Section 2: The second section of the Old Testament consists of the “Poetic Books” or, “Wisdom Literature” consisting of the next 5 books: Job through Song of Solomon. These are the books that relate more to the heart and emotion of an individual. This is exactly why many people find so many personal helps in these books of the Old Testament; because they speak to our emotions and issues everyday life. Has calamity ever struck your life? Then you can find comfort reading in the book of Job. Have you needed guidance in worship? You have more than likely found it beneficial to read a Psalm or two. Have you needed some specific wisdom on a particular matter? There may have been more than one occasion when you found yourself in Proverbs seeking guidance. Has there ever been a time when you needed relationship advice? Well, then you may have blushed when you came across the writings of Song of Solomon.
These are the books that reach right into your life and immediately meet you right where you are.
Section 3: The third section of the Old Testament involves the final 17 books and are known as the “Prophetic Books.” The Prophetic Books are those which levied warnings, judgments, and prophetic hopes to God’s people.
It is also important to recognize a couple of other things when considering these books. First, it is important to remember that the Prophetic Writings are broken up into two groups: 1) The Major Prophets and 2) The Minor Prophets. Now, this is not to say that one set of prophets are more important than the other. These phrases have to do with the length of the books. For example, the prophetical writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are far longer books than the remaining books of Joel through Malachi. Therefore, the larger books are “major” and the small are “minor.”
The second matter of significance when considering these books is that these writings occurred inside of the historical section (section 1) of the Old Testament. What you will find also is that the Prophetic Writers are either speaking to God’s people warning them of judgment and exile, speaking to God’s people during their exile (because the people would never repent), or speaking to God’s people after their exile.
Where Are We?
A Glimpse of History
What we are witnessing when we read the first section of the Old Testament— The Historical Books— are little glimpses of history that guide us along through the creation of the universe, mankind, and the formation and preservation of the nation of Israel.
But even as brief as these ‘glimpses’ are, the historical books are still formidable in terms of their content. Therefore, it is necessary to narrow the scope a bit and only cite the “major themes” of this section.
Genesis 1& 2— God’s creation of all things
Genesis 3— The Fall of man
Genesis 4&5— God’s children increase in wickedness
Genesis 6-11— God has had enough with the wickedness of mankind, and determines to wipe the world clean of His creation, however, until Noah found grace in His sight. Through Noah and his descendants, God pushed a “restart button” on humanity and once again, the earth began to be relished by mankind. But just as before, God’s crown of creation fell away from Him and this led to the unfolding of God’s plan of redemption through the nation of Israel.
Genesis 12-50 — Abraham (formerly Abram) comes on the scene and becomes the Patriarch of Faith as God promises him that a nation would be created from his seed and a land would be given as an inheritance.
From the time Abraham begins following God in Genesis chapter 12, all the way through to chapter 50, you see God putting together this special nation from whom the Savior of the world would come.
Exodus- Deuteronomy— Provides the account of the Hebrew people leaving Egypt, the giving of both God’s Moral Law (The Ten Commandments) and national laws, the people at the edge of the Promised Land but refusing to go in, the 40 years of wilderness wanderings, and Moses final address to the people.
Joshua— Provides the account of the Promised Land being entered, conquered, and inhabited by God’s people.
Judges— Cites the rebellion of God’s people after Joshua. The people go through a cycle of disobeying God, God giving them over to other nations, the people repenting, and God raising up a ‘judge’ to lead them out of bondage. You will see this cycle occur fourteen times during the course of this book.
Ruth— This is a side story that occurs during the time of the Judges. In this book you’ll not only read a compelling story of love, but you will also see how God begins to build and preserve the family line from which Jesus would come.
1&2 Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles— These books catalog the history of the kings and the different directions God’s people took. One thing God’s people found unsatisfactory was the fact that they did not have a “king” to rule over them as other nations. However, on this point, they were completely wrong; God was to be their king. But still, this did not satisfy them. They wanted a king that was physically present—one of their own people— so God finally allows it. That said, the people choose a king, but they choose the wrong king— King Saul.
During the reign of King Saul, his pride and sinfulness is more than God is willing to bear so God dethrones Saul and chooses a king for Himself— King David. The story of David, you’ll find, occupies a large portion of narrative of in the nation’s history, and for good reason. David was God’s choice to rule as king, and once again, we find that Christ would come through the royal line of David. Further, God expresses to David that He would establish his throne forever and thus, David is used as a ‘type’ (a shadow, or picture) of Christ ruling His people.
After David comes Solomon. During Solomon’s reign, the nation experiences the greatest and most prosperous time under his leadership despite the poor treatment of some of his own people.
Once Solomon leaves this world, the throne is left to Rehoboam. Rehoboam was a wicked king and it was under his reign that the kingdom split into the Northern and Southern kingdoms— 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel made up the northern kingdom which Jeroboam eventually took kingship over, and the southern kingdom consisted of the remaining two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, of which Rehoboam had ruled.
After this, we read about several other mentioned kings, their reigns, and the successes and conflicts in which the children of Israel find themselves because of them.
Ezra and Nehemiah— In these books, the entire nation is in ruin from being in exile, the nation must rebuild. Ezra is an account of God’s people rebuilding the temple, and Nehemiah is the account of the wall being built around Jerusalem. However, in both of these books it is recognized that their full restoration will only come with the final coming of Messiah.
Esther– Esther is the last of the historical books and in this work we read of Israel’s return back into exile by the Persian Empire.
A Warning of Judgment
As an aid to the reader, we will move from the Historical Books to the Prophetic Books. This requires that we move out of order and look at sections 1 and 3. The reason this is beneficial is because the Historical books run in tandem with one another.
Imagine for a moment that the historical books are the bricks of a house. Now, if these are the bricks, then the prophetic books are the mortar that fill in the gaps and binds the bricks together. All of the prophet’s writings can fit inside the national historic narratives of the Old Testament and then binds it all together. Let’s take a look at the Prophetic Books and see how this works.
Isaiah- Malachi—From the historical books of the Old Testament, we find that during the reign of kings, it is like listening to a broken record in terms of the pattern for this nation. Once again, we first see Saul on the throne, then David, then Solomon, and then Rehoboam.
From the rule of Rehoboam, he begins to take an extreme position against his own people and treats them more like slaves than subjects. As mentioned before, this causes a split in the kingdom; and what makes the situation worse is that though you will occasionally find kings who lead the nation into godliness and prosperity, the majority of the nation’s history is plagued with wicked king after wicked king in both kingdoms. Subsequently, these wicked kings took the people they had rule over, down with them, which caused no small amount of problems. It was during this portion of Israel’s history that the prophets began to play a more prominent role.
God used these mighty men of faith as a mouthpiece to guide God’s people in wisdom, encourage them toward righteousness, and condemn them in judgment.
As you move through the different prophets, you will eventually find that God sends some prophets to the Northern kingdom (Israel), and some to the Southern kingdom (Judah). Ultimately, neither kingdom could be persuaded to wisdom and righteousness and God’s warning through His prophets became a reality.
In 722 B.C. just as God’s prophets declared, the Northern kingdom fell to the Assyrian Nation and this portion of God’s people was sent away into exile. The southern kingdom (Judah) did a little better and held on a little longer, but eventually, they too fell and were carried away by the Babylonian empire about 150 years later in 586 B.C. But God in His mercy used the prophets to minister to His people both during and after these times as well.
It is actually in this very portion of Scripture where many well intending Bible students become confused. They read the historical books, and subsequently, of the split of the kingdom, not realizing that they are suddenly reading an account of two different kingdoms. This then creates a huge problem when the prophets are read. Because if the reader is unaware of what particular people group the prophet is speak to, then confusion is sure to follow.
But if it can be realized that since there are two kingdoms, and that God sent some prophets to speak to the northern kingdom (Israel) and God sent others to prophesy to the southern (Judah), then you will have far greater success understanding these prophetical writings.
A Touch of Emotion
If the historical books are the bricks of the house, and the prophets are the mortar that binds it together, then please think about the wisdom literature as the furnishing decor that makes the house, a home.
In your personal life, you have a story that you are writing with every decision and action you make; and in this this story, your life is filled with trials, joys, worship, and pain.
Well, if you were to write down all of your personal thoughts, reflections, throughout the history of your life, you would have something similar to the Poetic books in the Old Testament. These books come down to our level and give real, identifiable emotion to some of the people of whom we are reading.
In these writings we are taken from general facts about a nation’s history and are led to examine the heart of certain individuals. With Solomon we learn about wisdom, relationships, and the true meaning of life. It is in the Psalms where we find David and other hymnal writers on the top of the mountains of faith declaring their praise to God, but also brought down low to a valley of despair. By the record of Job we see what it really means to suffer and what it is really like to trust God like never before at the end of our trials.
The Poetry Books touch us with real emotion.
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