OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY OVERVIEWOLD TESTAMENT HISTORY OVERVIEW
The Bible is the chart of history. It affords a panoramic view of the whole course of events. . . . It gives us, not events only, but their moral character, tracing the motives of the various actors in the drama, as well as the results of their actions. Events are shown in relation to their causes and effects, and the judgment of God as to their character is revealed. Without the Bible, history would be a spectacle of unknown rivers flowing from unknown sources to unknown seas; but under its guidance we can trace the complex currents to their springs, and see the end from the beginning.
—DR. H. GRATTAN GUINNESS1
SALVATION HISTORY
Some assume the Bible is an inaccessible, impractical book. But the Bible couldn’t be more practical, as it is grounded in actual history involving real human beings, their trials and tribulations, and their relationship with God. Yes, the Bible includes philosophy and instruction, but it is also a history book that reveals God’s truths through the experiences of real-life people. It is, as D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones poignantly notes, “a textbook of the soul.”2
Undeniably, the Bible contains extensive history, from the beginning of time through the entire span of mankind’s existence. That includes the future, which is revealed in descriptions of the creation of the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17, 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1). Indeed, many of the future events predicted in the Bible are presented as history, as if they’ve already occurred. “It is clear that prophecy in the Old Testament and the eschatology [end times] of Jesus and the apostles is presented as a real projection of history in the future,” contends Graeme Goldsworthy.3 But biblical history is a specific type of history—referred to as “salvation history” or “redemptive history”—that only includes relevant slices of secular history. (In this book I use the term “salvation history” except when quoting authors who refer to “redemptive history.”) The Bible’s historical books were not written to give us history for its own sake, but to show how God works through history.4
Some critics emphasize the many gaps in the Bible’s retelling of history. But those omissions simply mean that those periods are not relevant to salvation history. The Bible, for example, barely touches on the four-hundred-year period between the time of the patriarchs and the exodus, though many significant events in secular world history occurred during those times, such as the rise and fall of various Egyptian dynasties.5 It’s important to understand that salvation history is distinct from secular history, because salvation history relates God’s sovereign workings in history, describing those events and people through which God reveals Himself and brings salvation to mankind.
Goldsworthy describes salvation history as the “framework within which God has worked, is now working, and will work in the future.” It “implies a recognition that Yahweh, the God of Israel, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Lord of history. History happens because of his decrees.”6 B. K. Waltke says it “refers to the biblical texts propounding a glorious progressive history of redemption that runs through the entire biblical corpus, from the creation of the world to its fulfillment in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ and finally his second coming, which introduces the eschaton [the end of history]. The Israel of God establishes and advances the kingdom of God against the gates of hell itself.”7 In Bible History: Old Testament, Alfred Edersheim observes that “we notice large gaps in the history of Samuel, Saul, and David, long periods and important facts being omitted, with which the author must have been acquainted . . . while other periods and events are detailed in great length.” These omissions are intentional, argues Edersheim, because “as in the case of other parts of Holy Scripture . . . we must not look for biographies . . . but a history of the kingdom of God during a new period in its development, and in a fresh stage of its onward movement towards that end.”8
Despite its gaps, salvation history is a complete, coherent history for God’s purposes, and it is a record of events that actually occurred, not a series of fictitious stories designed to teach various lessons. God’s written revelation to us is tied to His purposeful interaction in history. As Ismael E. Amaya explains, “God’s self-revelation to man did not consist primarily in the communication of certain ideas, propositions and doctrines about God to be believed by human beings, but rather consists in the confrontation of God with man in real historical events.”9 George Eldon Ladd affirms, “The Hebrew-Christian faith did not grow out of lofty philosophical speculations or profound mystical experiences. It arose out of historical experiences of Israel, old and new, in which God made Himself known.”10 As I noted in Jesus on Trial, this is true of the very establishment of Christianity, which was not based on theological ruminations into which the New Testament writers retrofitted certain historical events to suit their ideas. Instead, Christianity arose when men and women actually witnessed the bodily resurrected Jesus, and that experience radically transformed them from feckless skeptics to bold proclaimers of the Gospel.
Salvation history, then, traces the development of the nation of Israel and records God’s dealings with His chosen people. The Israelites loom large in salvation history for numerous reasons. God chooses and forms the nation of Israel to bring salvation to all mankind, so His Word necessarily records the history of His dealings with that people. But the story of that love relationship, the history of Israel’s obedience and disobedience, and God’s corresponding blessings and judgment, is also instructive to us today. In His interactions with the Israelites, God reveals His nature and faithfulness and shows us, by their example, how we should conduct our lives and how to develop and sustain a relationship with Him. Through the pages of the Old Testament we can learn from Israel’s mistakes and avoid making them ourselves, and we can also emulate its times of obedience.
Crucially, by seeing God’s interaction with His people, we better understand His character. We discover that despite the Israelites’ persistent disobedience, God refuses to give up on them and patiently brings them to spiritual maturity and ultimately back to a proper relationship with Himself—and He will do the same for us. As Jeremiah relates, “So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. Then the word of the LORD came to me: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done?’ declares the LORD. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel’” (Jer. 18:3–6).
BIBLE BASICS
To better understand the Bible and God’s redemption plan we should comprehend how the books of the Bible are classified and arranged as well as the main events of Old Testament history.
There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New, but these numbers don’t reflect the respective lengths of these works—the Old Testament is actually about three times longer than the New. So if you’re reading through the Bible, it’s quite a relief to reach the beginning of the New Testament, knowing that you’re three-fourths of the way done.
Old Testament books—which were written in Hebrew, except for several passages in Aramaic—are divided into three sections: there are seventeen historical books (Genesis through Esther); five poetical books (sometimes called Wisdom books, comprising Job through Song of Solomon); and seventeen prophetic books (Isaiah through Malachi). The New Testament books—which were written in Greek—are also in three sections: five historical books (The Gospels and Acts); twenty-one doctrinal books (Romans through Jude); and one prophetic book (Revelation).
The Old Testament historical books can be further broken down as follows: the first five books (Genesis through Deuteronomy) are the books of the Law (the Hebrew term is torah), or the Pentateuch. The next twelve books (Joshua through Esther) can be grouped into those describing events before the Babylonian captivity (the nine books spanning from Joshua through 2 Chronicles) and those relating events afterward (the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther).11
Then come the poetical or wisdom books, which contain extensive verses of Hebrew poetry. Yet they are not the only Old Testament books that include poetry, and they also incorporate wisdom literature, such as the Book of Proverbs. Biblical wisdom, according to the ESV Study Bible, can be defined as “skill in the art of godly living, or more fully, that orientation which allows one to live in harmonious accord with God’s ordering of the world.”12 Wisdom literature consists of biblical “writings that reflect on or inform that orientation.”13
Finally, the seventeen prophetic books are divided into two categories. The Major Prophets (Major in the sense that their accounts are longer, not necessarily that they’re more important) include Isaiah, Jeremiah (who is believed to have written both Jeremiah and Lamentations), Ezekiel, and Daniel. The twelve Minor Prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The books of the Old Testament do not always appear in chronological order, especially the poetical and prophetic books. The historical books from Genesis through 2 Kings, however, are mostly arranged in chronological order, retelling events from creation to the Babylonian exile.14
OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY
The historical books of the Old Testament are a record of God’s sovereign interaction with His chosen people. It is noteworthy that many of the biblical writers and figures, Old Testament and New, emphasize in their speeches and writings the importance of God’s historical interaction with Israel by relating extensive summaries of that history. The repetition of these historical synopses throughout the Bible shows God’s emphasis on salvation history. He wants us to see how He works in history and how He progressively unfolds His preordained plan for our redemption. These mini-histories also showcase God’s character—His loving-kindness, His patience, and His unfailing trustworthiness and grace, which in turn reinforce our faith. Though many people believe God acted harshly during Old Testament times, those acquainted with the full scope of this history understand that even when He brings judgment, there is almost always the promise of future redemption.
These historical summaries sprinkled throughout the Old Testament vary in scope, but they include many of the same central events. You will find such recapitulations in Deuteronomy 6:20–24 (covering from the exodus to the Israelites’ occupation of Canaan); Deuteronomy 26:5–9 (from settlement in Egypt to the occupation); Joshua 24:2–13 (from Abraham to the occupation); Nehemiah (from creation to the return of the people from exile); Psalm 78 (from the exodus to the time of David); Psalm 105 (from Abraham to the occupation); Psalm 106 (from the exodus to the exile; also see 1 Chronicles 16:8–36); Psalms 135:8–12 (from the exodus to the occupation); and Psalm 136 (from creation through the exodus to the occupation).15 New Testament writers followed suit, in that the recorded speeches of Stephen (Acts 7), Paul (Acts 13:17–41), and others in the Book of Acts include abridgments of Old Testament history. But because Christ had now come, these disciples told their histories from their New Testament perspective, demonstrating how Old Testament history paved the way for Christ and His Gospel.
As I’ve read the Bible through the years I have deeply appreciated these historical summaries because they refresh our memories of the seminal events in salvation history and remind us of their importance to understanding the Bible and God’s will for us. These summaries were not designed just to inform and profit future readers of Scripture. They were also meant to remind the Israelites at the time what God had done for them and encourage them to turn back to Him. The biblical figures were telling their brethren, in essence, Don’t just take my word for it that God is great, that God is faithful. Remember what He has done for us unfailingly throughout history, a history with which you are all familiar, but which you must always keep at the forefront of your mind. God is great, God is faithful, and He has demonstrated that repeatedly since the time He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans.
So these historical summaries serve the dual purpose of reminding us of God’s faithful dealings with His people and of informing us of the great importance the biblical figures and writers attached to these histories in calling people back to God through every phase of biblical history. “Scripture does not and could not summarize its story from a standpoint outside the story, which is unfinished,” British theologian Richard Bauckham observes. “The summaries are themselves part of the story and even contribute to the story’s own development.”16
In my case, as I read and studied the Bible I wasn’t interested in learning biblical history to win Bible trivia contests. At some point I came to realize the importance of understanding the grand sweep of Old Testament history because the message is inseparable from the history from which it emanates. Grasping the unity of the biblical narrative enhances our understanding of the Bible’s overall message. As such, I now turn to Old Testament history with the goal of helping you get a handle on the main historical events in the Old Testament record. I will first provide a thumbnail sketch of each of the seventeen Old Testament historical books, then summarize the periods of Old Testament history and the major events covered in each.
SYNOPSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORICAL BOOKS
Genesis is a book of beginnings, the seed-plot of the whole Bible.17 It opens with God’s creation of the universe, its living creatures, and most important, man, whom He creates in His image. He places man in paradise and in peace, but man succumbs to the tempter’s wiles and sins, leading to the fall and man’s death. But as God pronounces punishment on mankind for his sin, He immediately provides a glimpse into His plan to redeem and reconcile man to Himself, restoring for him a pathway to life. Later, God sets apart the Hebrews as His chosen people and makes a nation out of them to bring His gift of salvation to all the people and nations of the world. The book closes with the Israelites in bondage to the Egyptians.
Exodus is about redemption. It teaches that God saves. It records God’s people beginning as a nation and incubating for centuries in Egypt. God frees the Israelites through a series of plagues He imposes on Egypt and cements His special relationship with them by giving them His Law and establishing the priesthood. Despite God’s graciousness and blessings, however, Israel continually disobeys and rebels, mostly through idolatrous practices.
Leviticus is a book of atonement and worship. It includes the detailed laws God gives to the people for their benefit in the wilderness, which form an instruction manual for holiness—a condition they must acquire and maintain to be in the presence of the Holy God and to serve as a nation of priests.
Numbers traces the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land, which is interrupted by their sin and leads to their wanderings in the wilderness. This period serves as a transition from the old generations that left Egypt to the new generation that is poised to enter Canaan.
Deuteronomy is a record of God’s restatement of the Law to His people, led by Moses, and of the renewal of His covenant with them. It signifies a new beginning for the Israelites as they prepare to conquer Canaan.
Joshua chronicles the Israelites’ conquest of Canaan under Joshua, Moses’ chosen successor, and the division of the land among the twelve tribes. God doesn’t free Israel from Egypt simply to wander forever without a home. He promised them the land, and this book records His initial fulfillment of that vow and the onset of a new historical era for the Israelites in that land.
Judges tells the story of the Israelites’ habitual degeneration into sin, the punishment that God enforces against them—usually through attacks by foreign nations—and the important leaders (called “judges”) whom God raises up to deliver the people from these invaders and to restore order in the land. In a sense the book is a microcosm of the entire span of Israel’s history in that it involves a recurring cycle whereby the people sin and turn away from God, later repent, and are finally restored. Aside from the intervening, remedial actions of God’s judges, this period is marked by apostasy, chaos, and lawlessness during which “there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
Ruth is a short book about a Moabite widow, living in the time of the judges, who leaves her own culture out of love for her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi. “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God,” she declares (Ruth 1:16). Ruth falls in love with Boaz, a prosperous Hebrew farmer, who takes care of her. This book is included in the biblical canon primarily because it shows God’s intention to accept Gentiles who seek Him and because Ruth, who would become the great-grandmother of David, was an ancestor of Christ.
1 Samuel describes Israel’s transition from theocracy to monarchy and Samuel’s leadership of the nation as a prophet, priest, and as the last of the judges. Samuel anoints Israel’s first king, Saul, whose trials and tribulations are recounted, including his conflict with David. The book also relates the loving friendship between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. The book ends with Saul’s death in battle.
2 Samuel covers David’s reign and God’s promise to him of an everlasting dynasty, David’s triumphs as a man after God’s heart, and the consequences of his terrible sins of adultery and murder.
1 Kings opens with King David’s death and Solomon’s succession to the throne. Solomon becomes the wisest and richest king on earth and has an auspicious beginning with the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, where God will dwell with His people. But Solomon’s story is ultimately tragic because he squanders all his God-given blessings and falls into unfaithfulness and sin, which leads to apostasy among the people and the division of the nation into northern and southern kingdoms. The book also recounts the ministry of the great prophet Elijah, who warns the people against idolatry.
2 Kings records the final part of Elijah’s ministry and the beginning of the ministry of his successor Elisha. It describes the ongoing idolatry of the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and their resulting conquest by the Assyrians, who take them into captivity. The Southern Kingdom of Judah lasts more than a century longer, but in the end its sins are no less severe, leading to its fall and the Babylonian captivity.
1 Chronicles deals with the history of Judah after the fall of Israel.
2 Chronicles continues with the history of Judah and its fall into apostasy, leading to the people’s exile in Babylon.
Ezra tells of the release of the Jewish people from their Babylonian captivity by Persian king Cyrus, who had conquered Babylon, and the people’s return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple despite strong opposition arising mostly from Judea’s non-Jewish inhabitants—those who had been living in the area since the fall of the Northern Kingdom.
Nehemiah follows up with the restoration of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, telling of their rebuilding of the city’s walls under the authority of Persian king Artaxerxes, again in the face of fierce opposition.
Esther, the last of the historical books, describes God’s preservation and deliverance of the Jewish people from the threat of extinction at the hands of the evil Persian official Haman. God thwarts Haman’s diabolical scheme through Esther, whom He has prepared “for such a time as this” (4:14) to save His people.18
I found that it was easier to understand the individual Old Testament books once I grasped the broad flow of the history they cover. Accordingly, in the next chapter we’ll take a closer look at the various periods of Old Testament history to illuminate the continuous unfolding of God’s redemptive plan.