Genesis

• Creation
• Adam and Eve
• The Fall, and the first promise of a Messiah/Redeemer to fix things (chapter 3 verse 15)
• Cain and Abel
• Noah
• Abraham – The first date we know, about 1700 BC
• son Isaac
• grandsons Jacob and Esau
• great-grandson Joseph (of the “coat of many colors”)
• Relocating from Canaan to Egypt (1600 BC)

Exodus

• Slavery in Egypt
• Moses (“burning bush”) (1200 BC)
• Ten plagues until Pharaoh lets them go
• Crossing the Red Sea
• The Ten Commandments
• Wandering in the wilderness because they didn’t trust to go into the Promised Land
• Reaching the Promised Land (back to Canaan!) 40 years later

Leviticus/Numbers/Deuteronomy

• God’s laws for the new nation
• Instructions on how His people were to approach their holy God

Joshua/Judges

• Getting started in their new land
• Separated into 12 tribes named for Jacob and Joseph’s sons

Ruth

• Story of faithfulness and redemption
• Great-grandmother of King David

1  & 2 Samuel/1 & 2 Kings/1 & 2 Chronicles

• The kings of Israel, first anointed by the prophet Samuel
  • Saul – First king, started good but turned bad when jealous of David
  • David – Greatest king, planned the temple but not allowed to build it, wrote many of the Psalms (1000 BC)
  • Solomon – Wisest king, built the temple from David’s plans
  • 200-300 years of other kings
• At one point split with 10 of the tribes becoming “Israel” and the other two becoming “Judah”
• Pattern of evil/judgment/repentance/forgiveness
• Finally, no more patience and complete judgment: exile to Babylon for 70 years in about 600 BC

Ezra/Nehemiah

• Returning to the land and rebuilding the temple after the exile to Babylon, about 500 BC

Esther

• Story of obedience and deliverance

Job

• Story of trust in God

Psalms/Proverbs/Ecclesiastes/Song of Solomon

• Poems, songs, and poetic wisdom literature
• Psalms has prophecies of the Messiah, especially Psalm 22
• Other favorite Psalms:
  • 8 “When I consider the heavens, the work of your hands…what is man that you are mindful of him?”
  • 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God”  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight.”
  • 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd.  I shall not want.”
  • 91 “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Lord will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”
  • 100 “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth”

Isaiah

• Major prophet, lots of predictions of Messiah, especially chapters 9, 52-53, and 60-61

Jeremiah/Lamentations

• Major prophet, predictions of the exile to Babylon

Ezekiel

• Major prophet predicting and during the exile

Daniel

• During the exile to Babylon
• “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”
• “Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace”
• Lots of predictions of the end times, especially chapter 7

Minor Prophets (“minor” as in shorter than Isaiah or Jeremiah, not minor in importance):

• Hosea – Was told to marry a prostitute who kept being unfaithful to him, as a symbol of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God
• Joel
• Amos
• Obadiah
• Jonah – Tried to avoid God’s call to preach to the enemy town of Nineveh, ended up going there in the belly of a fish!
• Micah
• Nahum
• Habakkuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi – Last of the Old Testament, written in 400 BC