Reading the Old Testament Story

(Note: This is another in a series of postings of material used in a Confirmation class)

Attempts to read through the Bible, beginning with the creation stories in Genesis and proceeding through the inspirational and perhaps comforting accounts of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Rachel, Joseph, and Moses often get bogged down in the book of Leviticus which immediately follows. Here is my suggestion: For the time being, skip Leviticus which is all about the Priesthood and seemingly mysterious religious laws, sometimes prescribing the death penalty, and proceed to Numbers which focuses on what happened to the people during their wilderness wanderings. Of course some of these events will seem very mysterious also, but, just remember, it was a long time ago. Two themes will ring true even today, and those are the theme of complaining by the people and the theme of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God.

I suggest skipping Deuteronomy, lots of review of the past and speech making by Moses. Just make a note to come back and read it later and proceed to Joshua which describes the crossing of the Jordan River into the “Promised Land,” the defeat of Jericho, and the struggles which followed. Then read the book of Judges, about the early years in the new land before the people demanded a king.

Skip Ruth for now and read through 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings for the stories of Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon, and the political upheaval and series of mostly infamous kings who followed Solomon. These books end in the defeat and occupation or exile of the Jews by Assyria and Babylon.

Skip 1st and 2nd Chronicles, a recap of the whole story written much later and with a different slant, and read Ezra and Nehemiah which tell the story of the release and return of the Jews to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple.

This chronological arrangement of the books Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah shows up at the bottom of the chart above, just above the arrow spanning the 1700 years from Abraham to Jesus. Other Old Testament books are positioned on the timeline to show the approximate setting, not necessarily the time during which they were written.

Maybe someday I will get around to positioning the Deuterocanonical books on the chart.

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Division, Civil War, Defeat, Exile, and Return

After the death of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel divided and engaged in civil war, Northern Israel against Southern Judah.  The warnings of Samuel about kingship were validated as both were led by a series of mostly bad kings.  But the Bible story depicts the continuing “steadfast love” of God throughout their trials and tribulations. 

The Northern Kingdom survived 201 years and 19 kings before being defeated by the Assyrians who infiltrated and settled among the people.  Thus originated the infamous Samaritans, a mixed race with dubious religious practices. 

The Southern Kingdom, Judah, including the dynasty of King David, survived 336 years and 20 kings before being defeated and exiled to Baghdad by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.  A remnant of Jews, the poorest people, were left in the homeland “to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.”  What a difference between the effects of infiltration and exile.

After 47 years in captivity, God “stirred up the spirit” of King Cyrus of Persia so that he released the Jewish captives to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple his predecessor had destroyed.

If you don’t read anything else in the lists below, be sure to check out the ancient stories of the theft of Naboth’s vineyard and the healing of Naaman’s leprosy.

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Note: This is another in a series of simple outlines of Old Testament history suitable for an introductory Bible course or for a Confirmation Class.  Others in the series are:

Primeval History in the Bible

Old Testament Timeline - Abraham to Jesus

Three Patriarchs, Three Matriarchs, and a Favorite Son

Moses, Miriam, Aaron, and Joshua

Israel's Judges

Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon

Kings, Kings, Kings - Turmoil in the Middle East

Prophets Prophets Prophets

Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon

Everybody who grew up going to Sunday School in a Christian church knows the stories of the boy Samuel being called by God three times but thinking the calls were from the priest Eli, of Saul being anointed by Samuel as the first king of Israel, of David slaying Goliath, and of Solomon solving a dispute over a child by ordering that the child be cut in half with each claimant getting a portion. But those offer just a glimpse of the richness that can be found in the Old Testament accounts of the lives and deaths of these important leaders.

Samuel was the last of the judges of Israel because his sons were not seen as suitable successors and the people were demanding a king. After all, everybody else had a king. Samuel’s warning to the people of what a king would do resonates today as we see kings still failing and falling in the Middle East. His words might even serve as an advance warning to us as we tend to look to presidential candidates as all-powerful solutions to all our problems. Are we looking for a king or a savior?

The mysterious encounter between Samuel and Saul whom he anoints as the first king and whom he helps find some missing donkeys, ending with Saul in a “prophetic frenzy,” is not typical Bible story material. The X rated encounter of David and Bathsheba, ending in the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, is as racy as modern TV shows and movies. And, we don’t spend a lot of time talking about God’s anger with Solomon, led astray by his seven hundred princesses and 300 concubines, and Solomon’s final failure as a King.

The outline below highlights key points of the stories of these four leading characters in Jewish and Christian history. Read and enjoy. Pay special attention to the story of Samuel’s mother, Hannah, and Samuel’s birth and upbringing. There are interesting parallels between Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2 and the prayer of Mary the mother of Jesus in Luke 1.  Click on it for a high-resolution view.

Note: This is another in a series of Old Testament story outlines that were developed for and used in a confirmation class for middle school students. Earlier outlines posted are these:

Primeval History in the Bible

Three Patriarchs, Three Matriarchs, and a Favorite Son

Moses, Miriam, Aaron, and Joshua

Israel's Judges

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Israel's Judges

There is that old Bible trivia question: Who in the Bible (besides Adam and Eve, of course) had no parents?  Why, Joshua, the son of Nun, of course.  Joshua took over from Moses and led the people in some degree of conquest of the Promised Land. Then Joshua died, and things got pretty messy with no powerful leader in charge. According to the book of Judges, The LORD raised up Judges who seem to have been tribal and military leaders. Twelve are mentioned, but the best known are Deborah, Gideon, and Samson. Their's are provocative and interesting stories including an incident of a tent peg driven through somebody's head, an army thinned down to only a few good men, and the first known suicide pillar puller. This period of the judges last about 200 years and was a time when "all the people did what was right in their own eyes." You'd think that would have made them happy.  You can click on this chart for a high resolution view.

Moses, Miriam, Aaron, and Joshua

Moses, his prophetess sister Miriam, his spokesman Aaron, and his successor Joshua are the dominant characters of the Old Testament books of Exodus through Joshua. Abraham had just gotten up and gone when God told him to do so, but Moses started a new tradition by explaining why God had made a bad choice and why His plan might not work. Finally he was persuaded and rose to the occasion by leading the people out of Egyptian slavery and dealing with their complaints in the wilderness for forty years.

The name of Moses, an important character in Christian tradition, shows up 79 times in the New Testament, and he appears with Jesus and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He did a lot of preaching near the end, advising the people to “choose life,” and died at age 120, “his eye undimmed, his vigour unimpaired.” Not a bad way to go.

Miriam is famous for leading all the women in a song of praise to God after their escape from Egypt and for angering God by criticizing Moses, “the humblest man on earth,” over his choice of a mate. Aaron was an able staff assistant to Moses but set a new standard for blame dodging with his statement that he had collected gold from the people and thrown it in the fire “and out came this calf!”

Joshua started as an assistant to Moses, did some spying in the Promised Land, and then took over leadership when Moses was denied the joy of leading the people across the Jordan River. He is best known for that battle at Jericho. A famous and oft-quoted phrase from Joshua is, “…for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

The stories of these people are entertaining, sobering, and inspiring. The exhibit below outlines the major events and tells where to find them in the Bible.  Click on it for a high resolution view

Three Patriarchs, Three Matriarchs, and a Favorite Son

Once Abraham shows up at the end of Genesis 11, the rest of the 50 chapters cover his life and the lives of the other patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people including his wife Sarah, their son Isaac and his wife Rebecca, and their troublesome twins, Jacob and Esau. Jacob, with minimal and non-exclusive, help from his wife Rachel, fathers the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel including Joseph whose story occupies the last 16 chapters. It’s a great story, recounted briefly by Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in Acts 7 just before being killed by stoning.

The exhibit below is a guide to reading and remembering the stories with references given for major events in the lives of all these chosen people. They are worth remembering because six times in the New Testament, God is described as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we are told by Jesus in Matthew 8:11 that “…many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of Heaven.”

This story ends with favorite son Joseph in a position of prominence and authority in Egypt when “there came to power in Egypt a new king who had never heard of Joseph.” (Exodus 1:8)  That is a preface to drama.

Click on the exhibit for a high resolution view.

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Primeval History in the Bible

Here is a brief and possibly helpful outline of the four major Biblical events in primeval or ancient or prehistorical times covered in the first eleven chapters of Genesis. Whether these stories are taken as literal truth as some fundamentalist Christians do or as revelation of eternal truths told and eventually written in the genre of myth, the focus must be on what they teach about God and humankind.  

An interesting feature is the first mention of "forty days" as a significant period of time.That is how long the flooding rain lasted in Genesis, it is how long Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, and the tradition survives in the Church today in the forty days of Lent. Some other examples are listed on the exhibit below. There is an interesting summary of Biblical uses and significance of that time period at American Catholic website.

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