'The Old Testament is made up of 39 books that can be
categorized as follows:
5 books
of the Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
12 books
of Old Testament History (Joshua through Esther)
5 books
of Wisdom (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs)
5 books
of Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel)
12 books
of Minor Prophets (Hosea through Malachi)
Throughout
these books God’s plan unfolds. First we have the covenants He made with Adam
and Noah and Abraham. We watch the Israelites follow God, turn to idols, turn
back to God, fall away again, over and over. The miracles and love are abundant
and yet they keep being “adulterous” so to speak. From the perspective of the
Jews there are two kinds of people: Jews and Gentiles. And I think that this is
also God’s perspective. It’s like you have two children, your firstborn and
your second born. The Jews are God’s firstborn, but the Gentiles are in the
family, too, and the promises and inheritance are for the Gentiles as well.
The first
5 books give us the history of man from Adam on and the formation of Israel as
God’s chosen people (and yes, Adam and Eve were real, not myths, and the Jews
recounted their genealogies and named names all the way back to them). These
books tell us of all of the laws for living and how to make offerings to God, peace
offerings, sin offerings, grain offerings, etc. We find the 10 commandments in
Exodus and Deuteronomy. God does get angry with man when he disobeys and
there are consequences. He is a firm and fair parent.
The 12
books of Old Testament History record the events after the Jews entered the
Promised Land. We find the rise and fall of David’s kingdom, the Babylonian
exile and the return.
The 5
books of Wisdom are meditative and prayerful and poetic. There are several
chapters in Psalms, Proverbs and Lamentations that were written as acrostics,
that is, each verse (or series of verses) begins with the next consecutive
letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters so it’s easy to see the
pattern when a chapter has 22 (or 66) verses. Of course the Bible wasn’t
written with the verse numbers, but you can see the poetry of verses in the
original. Smack dab in the middle of the Bible you will find Psalm 119, the
longest chapter of the Bible. There are 176 verses (8 x 22) so the first 8
verses each start with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the next 8 with
the second letter and so on. Some people think these are hidden codes. I think
they are not hidden at all, but quite obvious. God in his infinite intelligence
has woven his word together in an intricate pattern that is fascinating and
awesome. (For further amazement and inspiration see my book Crossing the Scriptures.)
The 5
books of the Major Prophets are filled with prophecies, naturally. Isaiah is
like a mini-bible in that it has 66 chapters divided in the same way as the
Bible: 39 chapters of idolatry and disobedience, then 27 chapters of hope and
redemption. The New Testament quotes Isaiah more than any other prophet, most
likely because it has the greatest OT revelations of Christ (read chapters 40
and 53 especially). Lamentations is not prophetical, but it is the eyewitness
account of the destruction of the Temple by Jeremiah who prophesied that it
would happen and that they would be exiled 70 years (exactly right on).
The 12
books of the Minor Prophets continue the old, old story: prophets say repent
but people turn away and God judges, people return to worship for a time, they
receive blessings then fall off again, time for another prophet . . .
There are
hundreds of prophecies throughout that tell of a coming Messiah. Most of the
Scriptural requirements for what he will do and what will happen during His
reign can be found in Isaiah. Hundreds of prophecies were fulfilled with Jesus’
first coming and the rest will be fulfilled at His second coming. Some
prophecies are so precise that they are impossible to ignore.
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