The Old Testament covers roughly two thousand years of the history of Israel, going back even before the father of the nation, Abraham, right through to just two thousand four hundred years ago, the period before the coming of Christ.

In what follows we will first itemize the books and afterwards make more general comments about reading them.

1. THE BOOKS

You will see from the main Old Testament Contents page that we divide the Old Testament as follows:

• The Pentateuch
• The History Books
• The Writings
• The Major Prophets
• The Minor Prophets

A. Pentateuch (“the five-volume book”)

• Genesis is ‘the book of beginnings

• beginning of the world ch.1 & 2
• beginning or entry of Sin into the world ch.3
• beginnings of nations and cultures ch.4-11
• beginnings of the Patriarchal family of Israel ch.12-36
• beginning of Israel’s life in Egypt ch.37-50

• Exodus tells of God’s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and the giving of the Law
• Leviticus tells of the priesthood and the laws relating to maintaining their relationship with God
• Numbers recounts the names of people, families etc. and their refusal to enter the Promised Land
• Deuteronomy is a series of addresses by Moses, recounting what has happened to them in the Exodus and what followed, with exhortations to the nation to remain faithful to God. This is all on the Plain of Moab to the east of the Jordan, just before Moses’ death and just before Joshua took the people into Canaan.

B. The History Books

• Joshua is about Israel taking the Land.
• Judges their early years in the Land.
• Ruth a ‘sidebar story’ about how a foreign woman becomes part of Israel.
• 1 Samuel is about how God raised up the prophet Samuel to lead the nation, but they opted for a king – who was Saul, later replaced by David.
• 2 Samuel (originally one book with 1 Samuel) continues David’s story to his death.
• 1 Kings sees Solomon, one of David’s sons, ruling initially very well then very badly so the nation is divided into two, ‘Israel’ in the north and ‘Judah’ in the south.
• 2 Kings follows the reigns of the various kings through to the Exile.
• 1 Chronicles initially covers genealogies but then recaps Davis’s story.
• 2 Chronicles recaps Solomon’s story and then the kings of Judah (only) through to the Exile.
• Ezra & Nehemiah recount the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the temple and then Jerusalem itself and the re-establishing of the people back in their land. (There is then a roughly four-hundred-year period of silence before the events of the New Testament.
• Esther is another ‘sidebar story’ of how the scattered nation are saved from extermination during the exile period.

C. The Writings

• Job, possibly the earliest writing of the Bible, is the account of a suffering man and the inputs to him by three ‘friends’, and then a young man, before God puts it all in context. The primary challenge-book on suffering.
• Psalms comprise 150 songs or poems by a variety of writers.
• Proverbs are wise sayings, mainly by Solomon.
• Ecclesiastes is a jaded reflection on the hopelessness of the world without God, probably written by Solomon in his later years. An interesting commentary on humanistic materialism.
• Song of Songs is a love song probably written by Solomon.

Each of these might be considered non-historical literature.

D. The Major Prophets

• so named by the sheer size of their writings.
• Isaiah, a colossus of prophecy recorded roughly about 700BC and after.
• Jeremiah was God’s mouthpiece in the Land in the reigns running up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/586 and the final deportation of the people into exile in Babylon. His primary thrust in this major book is what will happen unless the people turn back to God.  
• Ezekiel was God’s mouthpiece who was actually an exile in Babylon and again who prophesied and warned Israel continuously about the impending judgment.
• Daniel was the third of this trio, again an exile but who was taken into the royal court in Babylon where he acted as a prophet / spiritual advisor through several reigns into old age.

E. The Minor Prophets

• twelve much smaller books (Obadiah is only one chapter) that are the prophetic records of this varied group of prophets from different periods of Israel’s history – see individual Introductions.

2. READING THE OLD TESTAMENT

Some Questions

As with a number of the book-Introductions we might ask, why read it?  Why, as modern people, might we want to spend what is obviously going to be a lot of time reading of this small nation whose origins seem to be some four thousand years ago? If we are Christian believers, isn’t the New Testament all we need? And aren’t so many of ‘the laws’ so old and so out-of-date as to be irrelevant to us?

Some Answers

1. Why read it? Because it is almost certainly the greatest piece of literature that reveals God to us. It is about God, from God, and points us to God.

2. Israel? Jews? The creation and establishing this people reveals an immense amount about the potential of a genuine relationship with God. As we note within the text, we suggest there are three primary reasons (not stated, but assumed) why God created and interacted with Israel:

1. To reveal Himself and His grace and mercy in His dealings with Israel – watch for the number of times God seeks to guide, warn, help, direct His people, when so much of the time all they deserved was punishment.
2. To make clear that mankind are sinners who desperately need a savior. As just noted, despite all the help God constantly gave them, they demonstrated the fact that every person has this propensity towards self-centred godlessness, that the Bible calls Sin. Without God’s help from outside, we are helpless and hopeless, as both Israel’s and modern history shows very clearly.
3. To create a ‘God-aware environment’ into which His Son, Jesus Christ, could eventually come to save the world.

3. Outdated laws? We might suggest, as a start, that the Law of Moses was for that group of fallen people, a people called into existence to reveal Him, and to manage their fallen, imperfect lives at that time, i.e. the Law was first and foremost for Israel to follow. It was given preparatory to them entering and taking the Promised Land and therefore there are a number of restrictions on behavior within it that actually (and many people miss this) tell them not to do certain things that would be copies of what the occult-driven, pagan idol-worshipping, child-sacrificing, inhabitants of the Land, were doing.

We might also suggest that although they were specifically for Israel as they went into the Promised Land, the nature of those laws, reflect the design of God for the fallen world. They thus reveal the things God is concerned about for people and specifically things that were distortions or aberrations of His design, recognizing Israel as part of fallen mankind. Although all of that is true and the ceremonial laws, according to the New Testament, have been superseded by the work of Christ as the ultimate sacrifice, we should see all the Laws as an expression of God’s concern for the wellbeing of mankind.

Catching the Big Picture

The Pentateuch shows us the interactions of men and women with God in the bringing about the nation of Israel. The historical books that follow show that propensity we’ve referred to, that is seen as self-centred godlessness, so not only do we get the big picture of a people who keep on getting it wrong, we see that in the light of many personal and individual stories, and if we can be honest, we have to acknowledge that we are the same so often and we too need God’s help and salvation through Christ.

The historical books show us the goings on of the nation and of individuals within it, while all the time there are prophetic interventions where God, again through individuals, speaks words of correction, challenge, or encouragement. It is a book all about God and all about us. The more the reader can catch the big picture – the overall story spread over time – the easier it becomes to see the lessons that come through the records.  

The Writings provide more devotional or reflective material, that some feel falls under the heading of ‘personal and daily spirituality’. The Psalms reflect a kaleidoscope of personal experiences and point us again and again towards God. Proverbs are interesting but some feel ‘drier’ and yet provide a library of insights into human experience. Ecclesiastes helps us refocus on what is and what is not important in life. The Song of Songs, apart from being a love story (which we have sought to bring in a drama format in addition to the study notes) tells us that sex and sexual attraction was God’s idea.

The various prophetic writings provide us with the challenge of whether we will deepen our understanding or even perspective of life, us, and God. We need to remember they all came in a specific historical context (some clearer than others) and therefore understanding that ‘big picture’ referred to earlier will help us to understand what is being said and why. We are also, by some in particular – consider Isaiah – taken into a ‘beyond history’ perspective.