The Story of the Old Testament (Part 1)

The above picture is a graph showing every single time the 66 books of the Bible reference each other.

(It’s a lot.)

Despite the Bible being a collection of books, they are so interconnected and dependent upon one another that they form one coherent story.

A story about humanity’s separation from and eventual return to God through the work of Jesus.

Today, we’ll see the role the Old Testament plays in that story.

Spoiler alert: It’s a big one.

The Tanakh

Christians aren’t the only ones who see the Old Testament as sacred; Jews do, too.

(After all, it was with them that these books originated.)

In Judaism, the Old Testament is called the “Tanakh,” an abbreviation of the three different headings the books fall under:

• Torah (Teachings)

• Nevi’im (Prophets)

• And Ketuvim (Writings)

Acknowledging the same books, Christians divide them differently:

• The Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy)

• History (Joshua to Esther)

• Poetry (Job to Song of Songs)

• And the Prophets (Isaiah to Malachi)

Each feeds into one another, telling the most important story in human history.

The Pentateuch 

The Pentateuch is where we begin. It explains the origin of humanity and our purpose - intimacy with God. But we sinned and, as a result, were separated from Him.

But God wasn’t done with us.

He made plans to defeat sin through a sinless human. Then God called a man named Abraham (originally Abram) to father the nation this hero would come from. God makes a “Covenant” (promise) with Abraham that so long as he and his descendants are faithful, God will protect and guide them towards this goal.

Years down the road, Abraham’s family (the Israelites) are enslaved by Egypt.

So God raised a leader called Moses to bring the Israelites out of captivity. They are successful, and God promises to lead them to their own “promised” land. But there’s a problem.

Despite being God’s chosen people, the Israelites aren’t that good at following Him.

They complain, plot against Moses, and are generally just a bad time. Even Moses cracks under the pressure and fails to perfectly maintain the Covenant. As a result, they wander in the wilderness for forty years before entering their land.

So ends phase one and, believe me, it gets worse before it gets better.

But today, we’re out of time so come back tomorrow as we see where this Old Testament story leads.

For now, be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter