Old Testament Summary
The Bible is not an anthology of books any more than it is merely a collection of stories. The Bible as a whole is the one story of God and man, and God’s plan to redeem man from sin so that we can enjoy fellowship together.
As New Testament believers, we are often tempted to devalue the Old Testament. While it is true that most of the Old Testament commands do not apply to our lives today, the truths and principles found in it clearly do, for above all else they tell us about our God and how we should relate to Him.
This post is a summary of the entire Bible with a focus on the Old Testament. It is intended as a tool to help believers better grasp the overall story of Scripture so that they can better understand their place in the plot of God’s working with humanity and how they ought to live as a result. I have tried to be comprehensive, so it is a longer post (but a lot shorter than whole Old Testament).
The Old Testament contains the history of God’s working with humanity, from His creation of humans as the culmination of His creation of the world, to His promises at the end of the Old Testament to provide salvation through a coming Messiah. It can be divided into four major sections:
Unfortunately, paradise did not last; Adam and Eve – the first people – chose to reject God’s authority and break the one rule He had established for them. Sin – willful rejection of God and His authority – entered the picture. God’s justice required atonement, and His mercy led Him to provide it. He promised Adam and Eve that one of Eve’s descendants would come to solve the problem of sin and restore fellowship between God and humanity.
Adam and Eve’s descendants chose (like their progenitors) to reject God and His authority, starting with the first murder, when Cain killed his brother Abel. This rejection continued until God proclaimed that humans were so wicked that He decided to exact judgment and destroy humanity. But there was one man – Noah – who was righteous, and so God spared him and his family from the destruction of the Flood. After the Flood, God promised to never again destroy the earth with a flood (Noahic Covenant). Noah’s descendants also chose to reject God, and instead of spreading over creation and filling the Earth as God had commanded, they rallied together and built a civilization to glorify humanity. God, however, confused their languages so that they would spread out and do His will anyway.
After several generations, God called a man named Abram, who was an idolater, rejecting God as the rest of Noah’s descendants had done. But God chose him, brought him out of his pagan lifestyle, and promised to bless him and his descendants, multiplying them into a nation and giving them a relationship with God and a land to call their own (Abrahamic Covenant). Abram believed God, and so became His follower, and God renamed him Abraham. His son and grandson (Isaac and Jacob) inherited this promise from God, and Jacob (whom God renamed Israel) passed it on to his twelve sons. During a great famine, God preserved the descendants of Israel and brought them to Egypt for its duration. After that famine, the Israelites stayed in Egypt instead of returning to the land God promised them.
After they left Egypt, God led Israel to Mount Sinai. There He established them as a nation with God at its head: a theocracy. This nation was based upon a covenant (Mosaic Covenant), in which God decreed that, if they served, loved, and obeyed Him, He would bless them and establish them in the Promised Land. If, however, they rejected God and His authority as all of their ancestors had, He would send curses upon them – like He had on Egypt – and send oppressive nations to remove them from the Land – like He would do to the wicked nations already occupying it.
God also outlined a worship system at Sinai, in which He established a means for forgiveness of sins – sacrifices – which pictured the coming seed of Eve who would solve the problem of sin forever. In the meantime, God dwelt among the nation of Israel in the Tabernacle, showing that although God and man were not yet fully reunited (only the priests could approach Him, and only the High Priest could enter the room where He dwelt in the Temple, and then only once a year), God was taking steps to restore fellowship with humanity.
The Israelites agreed to this covenant, but very quickly went aside from God’s plan by creating and worshiping an idol. Furthermore, when God brought them to the Promised Land, they did not believe that He could empower them to conquer it, and as judgment God caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years until the unbelieving generation died off.
After Moses’ death, God established Joshua as the next leader of the nation, and he led the people in conquering the Promised Land. During his life, Israel sought God. After he died, however, they quickly went astray, and the next several hundred years were a dark time in which this chosen nation rejected God’s authority and sinned increasingly. Ever faithful to His covenant, when Israel rejected Him, God sent pagan nations to oppress them until they cried out in repentance. Then He would raise up a deliverer – the judges – to free them. However, once they were free, the Israelites quickly rejected God again, and the cycle repeated itself many times.
During the reign of David’s son, King Solomon, God commissioned Israel to build a permanent temple for God to indwell, and He lived among them until the exile. However, Solomon walked away from God, and so brought judgment on the nation. After he died and his son took over, the unified nation of Israel split into two rival kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
The northern kingdom rejected God and was very soon judged when God sent the nation of Assyria to destroy them and scatter them among the nations. Judah in the south lasted over a hundred years longer than Israel, but it too eventually walked away from God, and so God sent the nation of Babylon to remove them from the Promised Land and take them into exile.
All throughout the time from the division of the kingdom to the exile of both kingdoms, God sent His messengers – the prophets – to warn His people of the coming judgment for sin. The prophets reminded Israel of God’s covenant with them; they plead with the people to change their ways so that God could bless them and have fellowship with them, but they rejected God, as had their ancestors.
As a result of Israel’s response to the prophets, God explained what would happen in the future:
The Restoration is a time of hope, yet also of disappointment. The people return to the land, but they continue to reject God; they rebuild the temple, but God does not dwell among them; they are a nation, but ruled by outsiders. This era is one of longing, where the Israelites constantly look forward to those promises God made through the prophets: Messiah, His Kingdom, and the New Covenant.
At the end of Scripture (which speaks of a still future time) God has restored humanity as well as all creation through the death of Christ so that God and humans can live in harmony once again for eternity.
As New Testament believers, we are often tempted to devalue the Old Testament. While it is true that most of the Old Testament commands do not apply to our lives today, the truths and principles found in it clearly do, for above all else they tell us about our God and how we should relate to Him.
This post is a summary of the entire Bible with a focus on the Old Testament. It is intended as a tool to help believers better grasp the overall story of Scripture so that they can better understand their place in the plot of God’s working with humanity and how they ought to live as a result. I have tried to be comprehensive, so it is a longer post (but a lot shorter than whole Old Testament).
The Old Testament contains the history of God’s working with humanity, from His creation of humans as the culmination of His creation of the world, to His promises at the end of the Old Testament to provide salvation through a coming Messiah. It can be divided into four major sections:
- Patriarchal history – from creation to the Exodus
- Theocratic history – from the Exodus to the reign of King Saul
- Monarchical History – from the reign of Saul to the Exile
- Restoration History – from the Exile to the end
Patriarchal History – The Beginning
The story begins with creation; before anything else existed, God did, and He decided to create existence and everything in it. In six, literal, 24-hour days, He created the universe, the planet Earth, and all creatures that live upon it. As the crowning glory of this creation, God formed human beings in His own image in order to serve and worship Him. As God Himself declared, everything was perfect, and God and humans enjoyed harmonious fellowship.Unfortunately, paradise did not last; Adam and Eve – the first people – chose to reject God’s authority and break the one rule He had established for them. Sin – willful rejection of God and His authority – entered the picture. God’s justice required atonement, and His mercy led Him to provide it. He promised Adam and Eve that one of Eve’s descendants would come to solve the problem of sin and restore fellowship between God and humanity.
Adam and Eve’s descendants chose (like their progenitors) to reject God and His authority, starting with the first murder, when Cain killed his brother Abel. This rejection continued until God proclaimed that humans were so wicked that He decided to exact judgment and destroy humanity. But there was one man – Noah – who was righteous, and so God spared him and his family from the destruction of the Flood. After the Flood, God promised to never again destroy the earth with a flood (Noahic Covenant). Noah’s descendants also chose to reject God, and instead of spreading over creation and filling the Earth as God had commanded, they rallied together and built a civilization to glorify humanity. God, however, confused their languages so that they would spread out and do His will anyway.
After several generations, God called a man named Abram, who was an idolater, rejecting God as the rest of Noah’s descendants had done. But God chose him, brought him out of his pagan lifestyle, and promised to bless him and his descendants, multiplying them into a nation and giving them a relationship with God and a land to call their own (Abrahamic Covenant). Abram believed God, and so became His follower, and God renamed him Abraham. His son and grandson (Isaac and Jacob) inherited this promise from God, and Jacob (whom God renamed Israel) passed it on to his twelve sons. During a great famine, God preserved the descendants of Israel and brought them to Egypt for its duration. After that famine, the Israelites stayed in Egypt instead of returning to the land God promised them.
Theocratic History – The Nation
After a time, the Israelites were enslaved by the kings of Egypt, who feared that they were a threat because of their numbers. After several hundred years of slavery, God raised up the first and greatest of the prophets – Moses – to lead them out of Egypt and into the land God had promised them. God showed His might to Egypt and the Israelites by sending devastating plagues on that oppressive nation so that it would allow His people to go free, and finally the king of Egypt relented.After they left Egypt, God led Israel to Mount Sinai. There He established them as a nation with God at its head: a theocracy. This nation was based upon a covenant (Mosaic Covenant), in which God decreed that, if they served, loved, and obeyed Him, He would bless them and establish them in the Promised Land. If, however, they rejected God and His authority as all of their ancestors had, He would send curses upon them – like He had on Egypt – and send oppressive nations to remove them from the Land – like He would do to the wicked nations already occupying it.
God also outlined a worship system at Sinai, in which He established a means for forgiveness of sins – sacrifices – which pictured the coming seed of Eve who would solve the problem of sin forever. In the meantime, God dwelt among the nation of Israel in the Tabernacle, showing that although God and man were not yet fully reunited (only the priests could approach Him, and only the High Priest could enter the room where He dwelt in the Temple, and then only once a year), God was taking steps to restore fellowship with humanity.
The Israelites agreed to this covenant, but very quickly went aside from God’s plan by creating and worshiping an idol. Furthermore, when God brought them to the Promised Land, they did not believe that He could empower them to conquer it, and as judgment God caused them to wander in the wilderness for forty years until the unbelieving generation died off.
After Moses’ death, God established Joshua as the next leader of the nation, and he led the people in conquering the Promised Land. During his life, Israel sought God. After he died, however, they quickly went astray, and the next several hundred years were a dark time in which this chosen nation rejected God’s authority and sinned increasingly. Ever faithful to His covenant, when Israel rejected Him, God sent pagan nations to oppress them until they cried out in repentance. Then He would raise up a deliverer – the judges – to free them. However, once they were free, the Israelites quickly rejected God again, and the cycle repeated itself many times.
Monarchical History – The Kings
Finally, after rejecting God's rule for hundreds of years, Israel demanded a king so that they could be like the pagan nations around them. God complied, giving them what they asked for as judgment: King Saul. The first king, was a wicked, ungodly man, and God quickly replaced him with David, a man who loved God. God made a covenant with King David (Davidic Covenant), promising that his descendants would rule in Israel eternally.During the reign of David’s son, King Solomon, God commissioned Israel to build a permanent temple for God to indwell, and He lived among them until the exile. However, Solomon walked away from God, and so brought judgment on the nation. After he died and his son took over, the unified nation of Israel split into two rival kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
The northern kingdom rejected God and was very soon judged when God sent the nation of Assyria to destroy them and scatter them among the nations. Judah in the south lasted over a hundred years longer than Israel, but it too eventually walked away from God, and so God sent the nation of Babylon to remove them from the Promised Land and take them into exile.
All throughout the time from the division of the kingdom to the exile of both kingdoms, God sent His messengers – the prophets – to warn His people of the coming judgment for sin. The prophets reminded Israel of God’s covenant with them; they plead with the people to change their ways so that God could bless them and have fellowship with them, but they rejected God, as had their ancestors.
As a result of Israel’s response to the prophets, God explained what would happen in the future:
- First, Israel would enter a seventy-year-long exile from the Promised Land as punishment for rejecting God.
- Second, He promised a future covenant with Israel to replace the one made at Sinai (New Covenant), which would be impossible for them to break since God would change their hearts; they would desire Him and not sin.
- Third, God would finally send the one who would solve the sin problem – the Messiah – and revealed that Messiah would appear about 500 years after the exile ended.
- Fourth, Israel would be a nation again in the future and would rule over all others with Messiah as its king, but for the present time it would be ruled by pagan nations.
Restoration History – The Return
After seventy years of exile, God allowed the Israelites to return to the Promised Land and rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. However, as God revealed through Daniel, Gentile nations would rule the world for a time; Israel was never again an autonomous kingdom, but always ruled by foreign powers. God did not indwell the second temple as He did the first, and the people of Israel still refused to obey and follow Him, and so they suffered difficulties and hardships for their sin.The Restoration is a time of hope, yet also of disappointment. The people return to the land, but they continue to reject God; they rebuild the temple, but God does not dwell among them; they are a nation, but ruled by outsiders. This era is one of longing, where the Israelites constantly look forward to those promises God made through the prophets: Messiah, His Kingdom, and the New Covenant.
The New Testament – The End
The Old Testament ends on a negative note, with many great promises still hanging unfulfilled. But the New Testament presents Jesus Christ and the kingdom which He will establish as the ultimate fulfillment of those promises.- Messiah who deals with the problem of sin
- Makes possible the New Covenant
- Descendant of David who will rule for eternity
- Will restore the physical Kingdom of Israel
- Brings salvation to the Gentiles
- Restores the relationship between God and man
At the end of Scripture (which speaks of a still future time) God has restored humanity as well as all creation through the death of Christ so that God and humans can live in harmony once again for eternity.
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