SURVEY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT INTRODUCTION AND INDEX
Arranged from Genesis to Revelation by S. Ridout
(God developing His great plan of salvation)
"Great are your acts of
salvation on the earth, O Jehovah"
THE PENTATEUCH OF PROPHETICAL
BOOKS
We should not be surprised when we see the world mocking at the
Bible. The Bible can only be understood by those who are indwelt by God's Holy
Spirit. See 1 Cor.2:14
Three Main Subjects of the Bible are:
CREATION - The world and man which God created, now seen under the effect of
sin THE LAW - A rule given to fallen man in the midst of this creation to see
if he could live there according to God's command and thus be blessed THE SON
OF GOD - Manifestation of the grace and love of God, express image of God in
whom the Father was seen Who accomplished all the counsels of God and through
whom man can now obtain blessing
WHY A SURVEY
Properly done, Bible
study is an adventure-packed experience. It is a voyage of discovery for, as
often as not, we find ourselves sooner or later in unknown ports. Like all
explorers, the wise student of Scripture will climb the heights now and then to
survey the lay of the land. This week we intend to get a panoramic view of the
Old Testament, so that you may see the details of an appreciation for the
beauty, harmony and content of the O.T. and get a general idea of the purposes
of God as unfolded therein.
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT
Our Bible is
divided into two main parts ... Old and New Testaments. The former takes us
from creation to the last of the prophets, Malachi, some 400 years before the
coming of Christ into the world. The New Testament begins with the fore- runner
of Christ, John the Baptist, and then the birth of Christ, and takes us on in
the spirit of prophecy to the end of time and into the eternal state of the New
Heaven and the New Earth.
For the N.T., you multiply the three letters
by the nine letters and you have 27 books. Adding the totals of 39 and 27, you
have the entire number of books in the Bible, 66.
MANY WRITERS - ALL
INSPIRED OF GOD
The Bible was written book by book over a period of some
1600 years. Some 35 or more human instruments were used of God to write it.
Peter tells us, "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
(2 Peter 1:21).They were men of great diversity and of different stations in
life; they lived during a long period of changing times. Moses probably
commenced writing the first five books around 1500 B.C. and it was around 96
A.D. when the Apostle John wrote the last book, the Revelation. Yet we shall
see that there is a wonderful harmony and a divine unity of purpose and design
in all the books written by them. There is no contradiction in all they wrote.
This is because God is the author of the whole Bible and of each part and book.
The marvelous harmony of the Bible under such composition is in itself a mark
of divine inspiration and Holy Spirit authorship. "All scripture is given by
inspiration of God" (2 Tim.3:16). This we must ever bear in mind and hold fast
to.
There are many extra biblical indications found in History,
Archeology and fulfilled prophecy which very strongly support the divine
authorship of the Bible. However, the greatest proof of its authenticity will
always be the effect it has on the sinner and in the life of the believer.
This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this
book.
75% of the Bible is devoted to the O.T. and 25% to the New. The
O.T. Covers a period of about 4000 years, while the New covers about 100 years.
Of this 4000 year period of the O.T., we are given a very brief sketch of the
first 2000 (Gen.1-11) which is devoted to the human race; where as the other
2000 is devoted to the story of the chosen race, and occupies from Genesis 12
the end of Malachi.
The O.T. falls into four great divisions:
THE
LAW - Pentateuch - Genesis - Deuteronomy
HISTORY - Joshua - Esther
POETRY - Job - Song of Solomon
PROPHECY - Isaiah - Malachi
The Law
and History books give the story of Israel from Abraham to the Restoration
after the Captivity. The Poetical and Prophetical books are contemporaneous
with these
The Lord Jesus refers to the Old Testament in three
divisions (Luke 24:44) shown below. This corresponds to the Hebrew
divisions:
| THE LORD'S | THE HEBREW |
| Law of Moses | Torah |
Former Latter Prophets |
Prophets |
| Psalms | The Writings |
Two chapters (Gen.1 & 2) give us the history of
unfallen man, and the rest of Scripture - fallen man! That is what we have made
our Bible; we have compelled God, as it were, in writing His book, to divide it
into two such unequal parts, that a single leaf tells of what man was when he
came from God's hand, and the whole volume tells us of God's remedy, when the
ruin and the sin had come in.
The great bulk of the O.T. is occupied with
the descendants of Abraham; i.e. Israel. Up to Gen.12 Bible history has been
that of the whole Adamic race. There has been neither Jew nor Gentile, all have
been one in the 'first man Adam.' Henceforth, in the Scripture record, humanity
must be thought of as a vast stream from which God, in the call of Abram and
the creation of the nation of Israel, has but drawn off a slender rill, through
which He may at last purify the great river itself." (Schofield)
Israel's
function was at least a three-fold one:
TO PROCLAIM JEHOVAH'S NAME
(Isa.43:10)
TO PRODUCE THE MESSIAN (Rom.1:3, 9:5) 3
TO PRESERVE THE
SCRIPTURES (Rom.3:1-2)
The great burden of the O.T. is, of course, the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He could truly say, "In the volume of the book
it is written of me." Here we have:
1 The Sufferings of Christ
2 The
Glories that should follow
The N.T. declares that this was the two-fold
theme of "the Spirit of Christ was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of
Christ and the glories to follow. (1 Pet.1:10-12, 5:1, Luke 24:26)
There
are seven great predictions contained in the O.T. concerning Him. He was to be
of:
The Human Race - Seed of the Woman - Gen.3:15
A Branch of that Race
- Shem - Gen.9:26
A Nation of that Branch - Abraham - Gen.12:3
A Tribe
of that Nation - Judah - Gen.49:10
A Family of that Tribe - David - 2 Sam.
7:16
An Individual of that Family - The Virgin - Isa.7:14
The Town of
that Individual - Bethlehem - Mic.5:2
The Old and New Testaments are in
full harmony with each other and intimately linked together. "The New is in the
Old concealed - he Old is in the New revealed."
Pentateuch
GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS,
DEUTERONOMY
Historical Books
JOSHUA, JUDGES AND RUTH, BOOKS OF
SAMUEL AND KINGS, EZRA, NEHEMIAH AND ESTHER, CHRONICLES
Pentateuch of
Prophetical Books
ISAIAH, JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS, EZEKIEL, DANIEL
MINOR PROPHETS
-- 12 in number: HOSEA, JOEL, AMOS, OBADIAH, JONAH, MACIAH,
NAHUM, HABAKKUK, ZEPHANIAH, HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, and MALACHI
Pentateuch of
Poetical Books
PSALMS, JOB, SONG OF SOLOMON, ECCLESIASTES, PROVERBS