Topic(s): Old Testament

Links to this entire series:

• Making Sense of the Old Testament: Part 1
• Making Sense of the Old Testament: Part 2
• Making Sense of the Old Testament: Part 3
• Making Sense of the Old Testament: Part 4
• Making Sense of the Old Testament: Part 5

At the beginning one must understand the Bible claims to be more than an ordinary book. It professes to be from God! More than 3,800 times in the Old Testament  spokesmen asserted their messages originated from heaven (cf. Ex. 4:12; 2 Sam. 23:2; Jer. 1:9). Christ endorsed the Old Testament as the Word of God, referring to it as “the scriptures” (Jn. 5:39) and “law” (Mt. 5:17-18), and the New Testament writings were treated with equal reverence (cf. 2 Pet. 3:2, 16). If these claims are true—and they are, being buttressed by a vast range of evidence—then one must give due attention to the Bible.

THE BOOKS OF JEWISH HISTORY 

The next dozen books are primarily historical in thrust. Joshua is the record of Israel’s conquest of Canaan, while the book of Judges covers the administration of fifteen rulers who governed the Hebrews over a span of some three and one-half centuries. Ruth contains the delightful story of an ancestress of Christ during this era. The books of 1 and 2 Samuel chronicle the legacies of Samuel, the last “judge,” and the reigns of Saul and David, the first two kings of Israel’s “united” monarchy. The books called 1 and 2 Kings survey the reign of Solomon, and the division of the nation (into Israel and Judah) following Solomon’s death. Then there are the narratives known as 1 and 2 Chronicles. These documents were intended to rehearse (for the post-Babylonian-captivity generation) the administrations of David and Solomon, and the fate of the Hebrew nation (as it divided and drifted from the divine standard into a state of apostasy). As a judgment from God, Israel (the northern kingdom) was vanquished by Assyria, and Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah record the three returns of Judah from the seventy-years era of Babylonian captivity, while Esther details the providential preservation of the Persian Jews during a time of great danger.  —Wayne Jackson, Stockton, CA