The Old Testament can be intimidating ground
for Christians. It’s a bit of a haze of stories and history, and it isn’t always
chronological. You've probably heard of David slaying Goliath, Joseph being sold by his brothers
because of his awesome cool jacket, Daniel getting thrown into the Lion’s den, Noah building
an ark, and Jonah getting swallowed by a giant fish. But do you know in which order they
happened? If our Old Testament history is rusty, we
have a problem. In order to truly understand everything that Jesus does, we have to understand
what his people have been through, and the history of the culture that he stepped into.
It’s also essential to our understanding of the context of many OT stories. In this video, we’re going to walk through
a zoomed-out overview of the entire OT so that when we pick up the bible and turn to
Isaiah or Exodus or Nehemiah, you’ll at least have a big-picture understanding of
where the story fits into the grand scheme of things. We’re going to tag all the major
players along the road, but we’re going to be moving pretty fast. It all begins with Creation, in the garden
of Eden with Adam. God creates Adam and Eve and places them in authority over all creation.
Deceived by Satan, Adam and Eve sin and are kicked out of the garden. They have a few
sons, famously Cain and Abel. Over the next few generations, great corruption
fills the earth and we meet Noah. Noah and his family build an ark and they along with
the animals on board survive the great flood which destroys everything else. Somewhere during this time is when scholars
believe the story of Job takes place. We aren’t entirely sure about the timing, but we do
know that the lessons are universal so the timing isn’t really important. Ten generations after Noah, Abraham shows
up. Abraham and his wife Sarah are promised that their descendants will be a great nation,
that they will receive land, and they will receive God’s blessing. Abraham and Sarah
have Isaac even though they are ridiculously old. Isaac Marries Rebekah and they have Jacob
and Esau. Jacob has a crush on Rachel, but gets tricked
into marrying her sister Leah. He ends up marrying them both and having a bunch of kids.
Somewhere in the midst of all this, God renames him Israel, and in a simplified way, his kids
become what we know as the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph is the favourite of the children. The
other kids weren’t so fond of this favouritism and sell Joseph to slave traders in Egypt.
Eventually the whole family migrates to Egypt to survive a great famine in Palestine. The Israelites begin to grow in number in
Egypt, becoming a threat to the Pharaoh, who enslaves them all. Moses turns up, the 10
plagues happen, and all the Israelites escape across the Red Sea. They head to Mt Sinai,
receive the law, including the 10 commandments, but they sin against God and end up wandering
the desert for 40 years. During this time come the books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Moses dies and Joshua picks up the reins and
leads the Israelites back into the Promised Land. The land is divided up according to
the 12 tribes. Next comes the period of the Judges. God appoints
a series of leaders to help guide his people and lead them against the enemies that oppose
them. The most well known judges are Deborah, Gideon and Samson, but there were actually
many others. Ruth also appears during the time of the judges, though she wasn’t a
judge or even Jewish. The people of Israel see that all the other nations have a king
and they plead with God to give them a king so they can be like everyone else. God allows it, and Saul becomes the first
King of Israel. Israel is pleased and Saul leads them reasonably well until they come
against the Philistines and of course, Goliath. In comes David, he who slays Goliath and wins
the war on Israel’s behalf. David ends up becoming the next king, and he wrote many
of the Psalms. David was followed by his son Solomon, who wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
and the song of Solomon. When Solomon dies, things get complicated.
The kingdom split in two. For the next few centuries, there are two kingdoms that are
a part of the story. There’s the Northern Kingdom, known as Israel, comprised of 10
of the original tribes, which is led by Jeroboam, who was one of Solomon’s commanders in the
Army. Then there’s the southern Kingdom, known as Judah, comprised of 2 of the original
tribes, which is led by Rehoboam, who was Solomon’s son. Told you it was complicated. This is the period of time when the books
we know of as the prophets begin. During the divided kingdom era, we have Isaiah, Micah,
Habbakuk, Zephaniah and Nahum who prophesy to the Southern Kingdom, Judah; and Jonah,
Hosea and Amos who prophesy to the northern kingdom, Israel. The prophets are sent to
guide God’s people and deliver his messages to the people. They give a whole lot of warnings,
promising imminent destruction unless the people repent and Follow God. The people don’t
repent. In 722 BC, Assyria conquered the Northern
Kingdom of Israel and all of the surrounding area all the way down to Egypt, leaving only
Judah. They exiled all of the people of Israel and scattered them throughout their entire
kingdom, replacing them with exiles from other areas of their spreading kingdom. The 10 northern
tribes were completely wiped from history. The southern kingdom of Judah put up a good
fight and survived the Assyrians, but failed to serve God fully. The Babylonians, under
King Nebuchandnezzar, rose up and wiped out the Assyrian Empire and, over the course of
about 20 years, conquered and deported all of Jews from The southern Kingdom of Judah
to Babylon. The Prophets Daniel, Ezekiel and Jeremiah (who wrote Lamentations) all prophesied
around this time. For about 50 years, the Jews stayed in Babylon
under the Babylonian Exile. Then came Persia. The Persians conquered the Babylonians and
all their land, and in 538 BC, King Cyrus made a decree that all the Jews could go back
home. In three waves led by Zerubabbel, Ezra, and Nehemiah respectively, the Jews went back
to Israel and rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple. Haggai, Zechariah and probably Joel prophesy
during this time. We know that some of the jews didn’t return
home because the story of Esther takes place in Persia after the three waves of returning
exiles. The last we hear about Israel in the Old testament
is from Malachi, about 450 years BC. Malachi calls God’s people to return to covenantal
faithfulness and await his coming. During the 450(ish) years between the Old
and New Testament, power changes hands a number of times. Persia remains in power up until
330 BC, when Alexander the Great (AKA the Greek Empire) takes over the ‘known world’
in 7 years. He dies young, and the empire crumbles in certain areas. While the Greek
influence remains strong, the area of Palestine is ruled intermittently by Syria and Egypt.
Under the Maccabees, the Jews established a wobbly independence in the land for about
a century, and in 63 BC Jerusalem fell to the Roman Empire, which conquered pretty much
everything. Rome maintained power in Palestine all the way up until Jesus was born, and in
comes the New Testament. So there you have it, an overview of the entire
OT. Now hopefully as you read through the OT you’ll have at least a decent handle
on where you find yourself in the story of God’s people.
