Old Testament Overview: Part 1

one of my favorite places to go is john rock how many of you know where john rock is you go to the pisgah national forest go to the fish hatchery and you start up the trail and you walk straight uphill for about 45 minutes to an hour you will finally get to john rock and when you walk out on the rock you can look out over the davidson river valley and you have a perspective about life, about living, and about where things are in the valley. Being up on that high rock, and I was there last week when we went backpacking, you can look from John Rock and you can look down and you can see where the fish hatchery is, you can see where the parking lot is, you can see where the road is, you can see where the river is, you can see all the significant mountain peaks. There's something about being up high like that that gives you a perspective about what is down below that you can't get when you're down in the weeds.

Well, today, we're going to John Rock, in a sense. We're going to go up on the mountaintop so that we can get a bird's-eye view of the Old Testament. And we're going to look down on the Old Testament and we're going to try to find the big milepost, the big events, so that when you get in that Old Testament, you won't be lost in the weeds. It was the summer after my freshman year at the Citadel, I was asked by a group called the Navigators to consider going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to live for the summer. Well, the call of the Lord was very clear.

I knew he was calling me to go live on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. And for a whole summer, I actually lived in an apartment where literally I would step out on the beach when I stepped out of my apartment. We worked all day at jobs that we had there in Fort Lauderdale. And then at night, the Navigators, college students from all over the nation, would gather for Bible study and scriptural learning. And it was in that summer that we did an overview of the whole of scripture.

And it was one of the most helpful things to me in my spiritual life. I don't think I had ever to that point had somebody step back and say, Let's step back, let's get out of the little bitty stories, and let's look at the big story. I want us to see the big story, folks. We're going to go back and we're going to look at our story, the story of our ancestors. These are our spiritual ancestors.

We need to know the story of our spiritual ancestors. You know your parents, you know your grandparents, you can tell me their stories, but so many of us can't tell the stories of our spiritual ancestors. So I want us to learn the big story, and in learning the big story, when we get into the little stories, the little parts of the big story, hopefully we'll have a better sense of where we are. Are you with me? You understand where we're going? Well, let's pray and get started.

Lord, help us today as we begin this two-week study, an overview of the great old story of the Old Testament. I pray that you will help us to see your working throughout human history. Help us to see how this old story is a story that affects us still to this day. Help us to learn about you as we go through this story. And I pray as we go through this story, we will have a more solid foundation in our Christian faith and that we will be more committed to serving you.

For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

it was written over a period of about a thousand years that is the 39 books of the old testament and if you read the story you see behind the whole story of that thousand years one central figure the one central figure is the lord god almighty the story of scripture is the story of god's sovereign reign over all. And it's to that story that we turn now. You need to remember one phrase. And folks, we're going to get a big screen for this wall. We're trying this screen today to see.

It's a little too small. We're going to try to get a bigger screen to put on that wall. Got a new projector for Christmas. Got a new computer coming, so we're upgrading some of our technology. But you need to remember one statement.

remember this sentence you will understand the whole of the old testament blessed people do kind feats regularly you know how you used to take those tests in school you try to do things to help you remember things the first letter of each of those words help us get an overview of the whole Old Testament. Can you say it with me? Blessed people do kind feats regularly. Here's the whole Old Testament right here. And in your handout you can begin to write this down. The Old Testament breaks down into five major sections. Section one, beginnings, blessed, beginnings, Genesis 1-11.

Section 2, the patriarchs.

That's the rest of Genesis, Genesis 12-50. Section 3, deliverance. Exodus to 1 Samuel 8. Section 4, kings. 1 Samuel to 2 Chronicles, plus the pre-exilic prophets.

And section 5, foreign rulers. Esther and the exilic and post-exilic prophets talk about these foreign rulers. Do you see? Whoops. Come back. Blessed people do kind feats regularly. Blessed people do kind feats regularly. Beginnings, patriarchs, deliverance kings, foreign rulers.

Okay? Well, here's the story. And we're going to start with the beginnings. There are four major events in section 1 of the Old Testament. Section 1 is the first 11 chapters of Genesis.

There are four major events. The first major event is creation. The second major event is corruption. That's the fall. The third major event is calamity.

That's the flood. And the fourth major event is confusion. That's the Tower of Babel and the creation of nations. I worked hard to get all those C's in there. Creation, corruption, calamity, and confusion.

Now let me talk about each one of those briefly. The story of creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. all that exists god created and the story of the creation of the earth is a story of god preparing the earth to be inhabited to be inhabited by whom to be inhabited certainly by animals but then also to be inhabited by human beings and you recall he made the first human being adam but then god saw that there was a problem in the garden, not a problem that caused separation from God like sin would, but there was a problem in the garden after God created Adam. What was the problem?

He was alone. It is not good for man to be alone. So in that first creative act, the first part of the book of Genesis where he's creating, not only does he create man, God says it's not good for man to be alone. something about his aloneness his condition of aloneness we need to find someone who is a suitable helper to help him with his condition of aloneness and if you remember the story right at that point adam names all the animals why does adam name the animals if you read this text of scripture the reason he names the animals is he's conducting a search he's trying to find the suitable helper among the animals that exist but after he names the animals the text of scripture says no suitable helper was found

so what does god say i'm going to have to do a special creative act and this being this human being that i am going to create to help man with his aloneness i'm going to take out a man himself

and I'm going to create woman. Someone who is intelligent, who can communicate, who is like man, in a sense. Men and women are different, to be sure, but in the creation account, the emphasis is on the similarity between men and women. What does Adam say of Eve? She is flesh of my flesh.

She is bone of my bone.

here is someone who is like me who can communicate who is creative who can have relationship with me and so God creates woman and we have the first marriage Adam and Eve are married

and Moses puts in at that point this is the way it's supposed to be man will leave his parents and they will cleave the husband and wife will cleave to one another be joined together I take a minute to tell that story a story that's familiar to a lot of you to say we learn a lot of lessons in this first section this first major event under the section entitled beginnings there is a creator we learn his name is God any theory any idea that eliminates God from the equation of creation Wrong, false, and evil. Designed to take people away from the true God.

Secondly, all that God created was good.

The highest act of creation was people. Who is more important, people or animals? People. Are we to be good stewards in taking care of animals? Sure, but who's more important, people or animals?

people, people and people alone are made in the image of God. It's an important concept to keep in mind.

The pattern for our work lives, creation and rest. God created six days, took a day off. Some of you need to take a day off. God didn't create us to work every day.

to rest and to worship. It's a pattern for our lives. He gave us the pattern for marriage. The pattern is the two shall become one flesh. And it's a picture of two being super glued together.

God's plan was that husband and wife would be inseparably joined.

and in that image of one flesh, you get all sorts of great images of exclusivity. Two become one. They're not supposed to be any other fleshes. Just two that are one. You get the picture of intimacy.

You're so close, you're one. You get the picture of care and concern. You get intimate knowledge of one another. It's a great picture. That's what we want our marriages to be, that one flesh idea, Why are we here?

We are here to glorify God. The whole of the created order is here to glorify God.

Unfortunately, all that was created good is going to undergo corruption. It undergoes corruption because Adam and Eve are disobedient to God. God said you can have anything you want. He gave them everything they needed in the garden. but God put one tree in the garden and I call it the lordship tree it's the tree where God said you can't eat of this tree and by your not eating of it you show that you are submitting to me as your lord it was something they had to refrain from doing to show their allegiance to the lord but we're told that Eve was deceived and then Adam was just downright disobedient and they ate of the tree and a whole raft of problems arose when sin entered the world.

A whole raft of problems. Childbirth became painful.

The relationship between husband and wife became more difficult. Work became burdensome. The relationship with God was interrupted and affected by sin. And death entered the world. Physical, spiritual, and eternal death.

And in fact, the whole created order was affected. Thorns and thistles now began to grow. Things in the created order that could hurt and harm us.

The consequences of sin

was this separation from God relationships were affected it was just part of the judgment it was just something that happened once sin that entered the world it was God's judgment on the world for sin but in the midst of all that we have the first hint of a coming savior in Genesis 3 15 God says that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent remember Satan came in the guise of a serpent seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent not the seed of the man and the woman just the seed of the woman i think there's a hint of the virgin birth here the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent the seed of the woman will be who jesus christ how will he crush the head of the serpent he will crush it at the cross where he wins the victory the final crushing will come at the end judgment so the promise of the savior comes right at the time of sin after the corruption comes calamity the flood human beings are so sinful and god so hates sin that ultimately he issues judgment on the sinful and sends a worldwide flood that destroys all but a small segment of humanity and a small segment of the animals. And we see in this flood that God really hates sin, folks. He does not take sin lightly like our culture does. He takes it very seriously. And as the sovereign Lord, he had the right and the authority to judge sinful humanity, and he did it.

But he made a promise. He said it'll never happen again. That type of flood will never happen again. And he gave us the rainbow. And we see God being a God of covenants.

He comes to humanity and he makes agreements with humanity. And one of his promises or covenants is nothing like this will ever happen again. The last event in this first section called Beginnings is confusion. Where the nations come together and in an effort out of their pride and their desire to have significance apart from God, They try to build this huge, massive tower to show how great they are. And it's really a defiance of God to show that they can reach up to God in their own strength.

Would humanity ever think they could defy God? Doesn't this seem silly? I was watching the movie The Titanic.

The unsinkable ship. Humanity. We've built the unsinkable ship. and there's a line in the modern day movie of the Titanic that says not even God can sink this ship. Oh yeah.

I'm going to step back. I wonder if the destruction at the Titanic is not a warning. Again, like the Tower of Babel, don't be so prideful and arrogant human beings. God is God. We are not.

but this is how languages enter the world and nations come. God confuses languages, and in that confusion, we have all these languages erupt around the world, and that's where languages and nations begin. So that's all section one beginning, some very important things. Section two, the patriarchs. There are four key people among the patriarchs.

You remember these four names, you've got the key patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. they're called patriarchs that's a word that means fathers these are the major ancestors of the jewish people

abraham has a son named isaac who has a son named jacob who has a son named joseph and from genesis 12 to 50 their stories are told and i've given you approximate dates for when these people lived there are three key events that happened during the time of the patriarchs there are other events but there are three key ones i want you to remember the first key event is god calls and covenants with abraham in genesis 12 this is a major event god goes to a pagan who is not worshiping him and chooses abraham and says to abraham i'm going to do something through you And God makes him several promises. He says, through you, Abraham, a great nation will come. Through you, Abraham, all nations on earth will be blessed. And I'm going to promise you, Abraham, that your descendants will inherit the land of Canaan.

Do you see the beginning of God beginning to work his plan toward a messiah the messiah will be descendant of abraham it will be through abraham that all nations will be blessed when jesus christ comes through his seed but there's also the promise about the land if you read the story of the old testament it's an interesting story um abraham we're always wondering if god's going to be able to fulfill the promise he made to Abraham about giving the land to his descendants. Remember the story of Lot? Lot was Abraham's nephew, and he got into, Lot's people got into dispute with Abraham's people, and Abraham finally says, well, you just choose the land you want, and I'll take whatever's left. And you're going, if you know behind the scenes, God has already said, Abraham, your descendants are going to get the land of Canaan. You're saying, Abraham, don't let Lot choose which land he takes, because he might choose the land that God was supposed that you're supposed to get from God and you're going oh no what will happen well then Lot chooses and does he choose the land of Canaan nah he made a he chose whatever he wanted to do but God's behind the scenes working his plan and you see that kind of thing with Isaac Abraham's about to sacrifice Isaac oh no how can we have heirs from Abraham if Isaac is killed.

And then we see God stopping Abraham's hand at the last moment. But a very key event. Abraham calls and covenants with Abraham. Jacob has 12 sons. And I've given you a list there.

Jacob had sons by four different women. One of the key sons is Judah.

Because Jacob before his death says, the scepter will not depart from the tribe of Judah. The scepter was what the king held. From which tribe would the Messiah, Jesus, come? From the tribe of Judah. You hear in Genesis, this coming Messiah is already pictured.

And another key son is Joseph. You remember Joseph was sold into slavery? And the third major event is that Jacob's family moves to Egypt but because there's a famine and Egypt has food and guess who is already in Egypt and guess who is prepared for the famine and guess who is the one that's going to provide food to keep Jacob and his children alive? It's Joseph who has been sold into slavery by his brothers.

Let me say a word before I go from that. You see God in this story of Joseph bringing good out of evil. And over and over in the scriptures, you will see what looks like an evil event. Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery. But then God will turn what looks like a bad event into a good event.

And have somebody at the right place at the right time to accomplish his purposes. It's a lesson for us folks. Sometimes events that happen in our lives at first blush seem like evil events or bad events. Step back. Trust God.

If you are his child, he will work that somehow. for good.

Somehow for good.

Let's go to the next section. Deliverance. There are five key events here. The Passover and the Exodus.

The descendants of Jacob multiply. They are a huge crowd of folks and the Egyptians enslave them. But God raises up one man that goes to the Pharaoh Pharaoh, let my people go. That guy's Moses. And when the Pharaoh refuses, God sends a series of plagues. And the last and most terrible plague is the plague that is the taking of the life of the firstborn son of every family that does not have the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. And even it's the firstborn animals.

Firstborn male animals die too. But all those who put the blood of the lamb over the doorpost are protected when God strikes down the firstborn in the land of Egypt. Does that sound like a picture of something to come? The blood of the lamb is that which protects and delivers from death. The blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ, will do the same.

Moses that lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, and he will take them to Mount Sinai, where God delivers the law to them. The law is given on two tablets. I wonder why it was on two tablets. I always thought there were five commandments on one tablet and five commandments on the other. But after some study, I don't think that's the case.

I think there were ten commandments on each tablet. because back in Moses' day, when kings entered into treaties, say one king conquered another nation and they would enter into a treaty, they would draw up a treaty and each nation, each king, would get a copy of the treaty. And each king would put that treaty in his most holy place to be preserved.

I think that pattern was probably followed at Mount Sinai where God the king has one copy of the treaty Moses the leader of the children of Israel has another copy and both copies are put in the most holy place

in the Ark of the Covenant or in the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies so that's probably why there were probably two copies that was typical in Moses day but the law will set the standard for how God's people will live and it will be the law that will show people how they fall short of God's standards and will show them their need for Messiah you remember the story the children of Israel get to the promised land God says it's all for you go take it. Moses sends in 12 spies. The spies come back and all of the spies except for two say we can't do it. The people are too big. They are too strong. We are like grasshoppers in their sight. And two men along with Moses stand firm. Joshua and Caleb. Great names for sons. Great names.

great names because these two stood firm for the Lord they did not yield even though the people almost stoned them to death when they continued to press that they should go in and take the land but because of the disobedience of God's people God says okay you don't want to go in you're going to be punished 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and everyone 20 and older is going to die in the wilderness and will not enter my promised land in the wilderness but even in the wilderness wanderings God delivers them he gives them manna to eat and food and meat to eat he gives them water he takes care of them and finally in the reign of Joshua the children of Israel get to the promised land and they take the land God delivers it into their hands and then comes the period of the judges let me say a word about the judges because people don't know as much about them. The judges were not just judges in the sense that we think of judges. They may have decided disputes between people, but these judges were more of military leaders who would lead the children of Israel at times when they were being attacked. There's a repeated refrain in the book of Judges that says, Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And there's a repeated cycle of events in Judges.

The people rebel against God. God punishes or sends retribution. Usually the punishment comes in the form of a foreign army attacking the children of Israel. The people then see how sinful they've been. They repent.

restored and then they rest and then they rebel again and then God sends retribution and then God they repent and God restores them God uses people to help restore the children of Israel each time he sends these judges to lead the people against these foreign enemies he sends people like Samson he sends people like Gideon he sends a woman named Deborah to lead the people They need leadership to fight off these enemies and to return to God. But right, the last judge is a guy named Samuel.

And it is with this last judge that the people, the children of Israel, come to Samuel and say, Hey, Sammy, we want to be like the other nations. We're tired of just having these people called judges. We want to be like the other nations. We want a king. Give us a king.

The other nations have kings. We want a king. Well, what was wrong with that?

They had a king. The best of kings. But they refused to acknowledge him. And Samuel goes to God and says, God, they want a king. God says, they want it.

warn them the king's going to tax them, going to take their sons off to fight wars. But Samuel, they haven't rejected you as judge. They have rejected me as God. You give them a king.

And he does. And then we move to the next, let me say a word. You see throughout this whole thing, God's grace, mercy, and patience. He delivers at Passover. He takes care of them in the wilderness.

I had been God, we'd have gotten so tired of these people, there wouldn't have been any of them left. But God is patient. And He even gives them what He knows is not the best course for them, but He gives them kings. And that's the next section of the Old Testament. There are three eras under this era of the kings, and we're just going to talk about the first one today.

The kingdom united. The nation of Israel for a period of time is one nation. But then they have a civil war. We know about civil wars, don't we? And it divides into a northern and southern kingdom. And then the kingdoms are defeated.

The northern and southern kingdoms both suffer defeat.

And I'm going to say a word about the kingdoms united and then we'll take up next week. The first human king of Israel is a guy named Saul. Saul is disobedient to God in three ways as kings. He disobeys instructions that Samuel gives him about how to offer sacrifices, and Saul as king offers a sacrifice as if he's a priest, disobeying God's clear instructions that only the priest Samuel was to offer sacrifices. Secondly, Saul is told in a battle to destroy all of the army of the Amalekites.

all, everybody, and every animal. Why does God do that? That sounds pretty harsh. I think the reason is that the Amalekites had repeatedly sought to destroy the nation of Israel, and God finally said, enough.

Saul, obliterate them, everyone and every animal. That's my judgment on them as the sovereign Lord. And what does Saul do? He goes and does most of what God wants, except he keeps the king alive, King Agag, and he keeps the best sheep and the best lambs. And then here comes Samuel right after the battle.

And Saul comes marching out. Oh, Samuel, we've done exactly what the Lord wanted us to do. And Samuel says, what are those sheep out here? Those cattle out here mooing. Oh, the army, they kept some of the...

me it was the army they kept some of the best but we're going to sacrifice it to the lord we kept it for the lord samuel says god didn't say to keep it for him he said to destroy it god does not want your sacrifices he wants your obedience and finally saul says you're right this is the i'm sorry i got caught repentance you're right i have sinned against the lord Lord, bless me now, forgive me, Samuel. Samuel says, too late, Saul. You're no longer going to be king.

And Saul also disobeys God by consulting a medium.

He goes and sees the witch of Endor, which he was not supposed to do. 1 Samuel ends with Saul's death. God deposes him as king. And then we have a good king named David. good but still disobedient you remember the story of Bathsheba David commits adultery with Bathsheba

and then God punishes him what was the punishment the child that Bathsheba conceived dies as a punishment but David unlike Saul recognizes his sin And is genuinely repentant. And in fact after the child dies. He goes and worships the Lord. For two reasons. One he knows the Lord would take care of the child.

That the passing from this life. Is but a passing to the next life. And secondly. He worships the Lord. Because he knows the Lord was just.

In his judgment. And he is the almighty. God makes a covenant with David. And the covenant is. David your kingdom will endure.

from which descent from what person will jesus descend from abraham through the tribe of judah david is of the tribe of judah and he will come out of david's family and then comes solomon david had given a final charge to solomon his son before he became king solomon obey the lord do all he says solomon gets the honor of building the temple because david had been a man of let you build the temple, David. I'll let your son. But Solomon turns out to be disobedient. He disobeys God in several ways. He takes foreign wives, which was specifically prohibited.

He offers sacrifices to pagan gods, which was specifically prohibited. And God, as a result of Solomon's sin, tells him, your kingdom is going to be torn in two by civil war. But out of respect for David. I won't do it during your reign, Solomon. I will do it during the reign of your son.

Next week, we start with the Civil War and we go to the end of the Old Testament.