#2a-How To Study The Bible-Old Testament Overview Part One

#2a-HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE- 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 The name "Old Testament" does NOT mean that these books are irrelevant or outdated. They in fact are used, studied and quoted by all the authors of the New Testament and can be considered source material for The New Testament. Jesus Himself quoted often from the OT books, and based His teachings on them. They are a profound source of Doctrine and should be studied for their beauty, complexity and wisdom. As is stated in this verse, we should appreciate the WHOLE BIBLE for its value:

(2 Tim 3:16-17 KJV)

ALL SCRIPTURE is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
{17} That the man of God may be perfect{Grk=complete},
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

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 ( Psalms should also be included in this group)
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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 Bible 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. WISDOM, SONG & 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 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 accounts of Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, and the biographies of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. In this book we have several prophecies concerning Christ (Gen_3:15; Gen_12:3; Gen_18:18; Gen_22:18; Gen_26:4; Gen_28:14; Gen_49:10).

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. It is worthy of notice that there are unmistakable evidences that the Egyptians have a tradition of a great exodus from their country, which could be none other than the exodus of the Hebrews.

LEVITICUS is a detailed description of Jewish religious ceremonies and sacrifices. No book contains more of the very words of God. He is almost throughout the whole of it the direct speaker. This book is a prophecy of things to come, a shadow whereof the substance is Christ and his kingdom. The principles on which it is to be interpreted are laid down in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It contains in its complicated ceremonial the gospel of the grace of God.

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 consists chiefly of three discourses delivered by Moses a short time before his death.
(1.) a song which God had commanded Moses to write (Deut. 32:1-47);
(2.) the blessings he pronounced on the separate tribes (Deut. 33); and
(3.) the story of his death (Deu_32:48-52) and burial (Deu_34:1-12), probably written by Joshua.
The great lawgiver stands before us, vigorous in his old age, stern in his abhorrence of evil, earnest in his zeal for God, but mellowed in all relations to earth by his nearness to heaven.

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. Joshua learned to rule by obeying first; then he ruled for God, not self. God commanded Moses to write in the book (Hebrew, namely, the history of God's dealings with Israel) and rehearse it in Joshua's ears. Joshua inflicted the first decisive blow on the doomed nations; this was an earnest to him of the subsequent conquest of Canaan.

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. "Judges" is so called because it contains the history of the deliverance and government of Israel by the men who bore the title of the "judges." The book of Ruth originally formed part of this book, but about A.D. 450 it was separated from it and placed in the Hebrew scriptures immediately after the Song of Solomon.

RUTH is a simple but beautiful love story. The history it contains refers to a period perhaps about one hundred and twenty-six years before the birth of David. Ruth is a gentile who becomes the great~grandmother of King David. Brief as this book is, and simple as is its story, it is remarkably rich in examples of faith, patience, industry, and kindness, nor less so in indications of the care which God takes of those who put their trust in him

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.
The authors of the books of Samuel were probably Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. Samuel penned the first twenty-four chapters of the first book. Gad, the companion of David (1Sa_22:5), continued the history thus commenced; and Nathan completed it, probably arranging the whole in the form in which we now have it (1Ch_29:29). The last four chapters of Second Samuel may be regarded as a sort of appendix recording various events, but not chronologically. These books do not contain complete histories. Frequent gaps are met with in the record, because their object is to present a history of the kingdom of God in its gradual development, and not of the events of the reigns of the successive rulers.

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. The two books of Kings formed originally but one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. They contain the annals of the Jewish commonwealth from the accession of Solomon till the subjugation of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians (apparently a period of about four hundred and fifty-three years).
The books of Chronicles are more comprehensive in their contents than those of Kings. The latter synchronize with 1 Chr. 28 - 2 Chr. 36:21. While in the Chronicles greater prominence is given to the priestly or Levitical office, in the Kings greater prominence is given to the kingly.
The authorship of these books is uncertain. There are some portions of them and of Jeremiah that are almost identical, e.g., 2 Kings 24:18 - 25 and Jer. 52; Jer_39:1-10; 40:7-41:10. There are also many undesigned coincidences between Jeremiah and Kings (2 Kings 21 - 23 and Jer_7:15; Jer_15:4; Jer_19:3, etc.), and events recorded in Kings of which Jeremiah had personal knowledge. These facts support in some degree the tradition that Jeremiah was the author of the books of Kings. But the more probable supposition is that Ezra, after the Captivity, compiled them from documents written perhaps by David, Solomon, Nathan, Gad, and Iddo, and that he arranged them in the order in which they now exist.
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rECj