The 39 Old Testament books were written over 1,000 years and by many authors. The purpose of this Old Testament Survey is to help us enjoy and appreciate the recorded Old Testament action and drama.
If you need a refresher course on the Old Testament Stephen gave a great verbal summary of the Old Testament in his defense before the Council in Acts 7.
To mark in your Bible I recommend a fine line Zebra ball point pen with black ink. This is the only pen that I know of that will not bleed through the thin Bible pages. There must be other pens, but none that I know of.
Genesis
The book of Genesis starts before our wildest concept of existence, “In the beginning God …” Whenever and wherever your mind starts with the word ‘beginning' God was already there.
The first 11 chapters of Genesis records the events from the 'beginning' to Abraham.
Genesis 12-50 cover 361 years, from Abraham's call out of Ur, their life in Israel, up to Joseph’s call for the family (75 people) to come and live in Egypt. The family lived in Egypt for 400 years and grew into a body of 500,000 to a 1,000,000 people.
Four hundred years pass between the last sentence in Genesis and the first sentence in Exodus
Exodus – Deuteronomy … 40 years
It took the children of Israel 40 years to make a 3 month trip from Egypt to the Promise Land. They wandered in the wilderness eating God’s provisions while all but three of the adults died (85-100 people die per day) because they decided to accept God’s guiding by majority vote. They didn’t believe that God is the majority!
In 40 years God remade a people that took 400 years to create.
Joshua to I Samuel – 400 years
The books of Joshua – I Samuel cover the next 400 years of Israel’s history. These books tell us about charging Joshua, judicial (and some not so judicial) Judges, romantic Ruth, and serious Samuel.
The time of the judges include Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson; and the First Book of Samuel mentions Eli and Samuel, as well as Joel and Abiah.
At the end of I Samuel David becomes King – the period of the judges has ended.
The Kings allow Israel to become captives in 472 years
The Old Testament Kings did damage to the 12 tribes of Israel. During this period the 10 northern tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel by splitting from the two southern tribes. The 10 were taken captive by the Assyrians and never returned. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin formed the Kingdom of Judah and by the end of II Chronicles, they are taken captive to Babylon. So much for the kings!
Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
Seventy years passed from the end of II Chronicles and the book of Ezra. Ezra and Nehemiah are the men that led some of the captives from the Babylon area back to Jerusalem after the 70 years of captivity.
Esther appears in the Table of Contents after Nehemiah but the events in Esther happened before Ezra. Esther is the only book in the Bible that does not contain a name for God.
Esther is the last book of history in the Old Testament. Four hundred pass from Esther to the New Testament.
Review
If you are copping the Old Testament Survey to your Bible table of contents, then you Bible should look something like this:
Five books of poetry
The next five books in the table of contents contain all the poetry books in the Old Testament.
The events in Job cover about one year and it happened about the same time as the events in the book of Genesis.
David and his son Solomon wrote most of the other four books of poetry. Their writings happened during II Samuel and I Kings and cover about 73 years.
The Old Testament preachers
The remaining books of the Old Testament contain the writings of the prophets, the preachers of the Old Testament.
The books of Isaiah through Zephaniah were written during II Kings and I & II Chronicles and they cover about 140 years. Typically they are divided between the major and the minor prophets based on the length of their writings (not on the importance of their message.) in this survey the longer and shorter books are not identified.
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
The last three prophets (preachers) cover a period of about 90 years and they are written about the same time as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
Four hundred years pass between the end of Esther and Malachi to the beginning of the New Testament.
Summary
The Old Testament Table of Contents Survey is designed to put some character and topography into and otherwise one-dimensional list of titles and page numbers.
If you transfer the survey into your Bible then from one page (the table of contents) you can breathe in the sweeping vision of God’s interaction with his people – from the beginning of time through 1,000 years of loving care, right up to the end of the Old Testament.
Devotions from the Old Testament table of contents are rewarding, enlightening, humbling, and inspiring – all at the same time!
Enjoy!
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