I was in a sharing with a group of friends, we were sharing the fact that the books of the Old testaments were not listed according to chronological order. In fact they were divided into their categories.
1. Pentateuch is the first 5 books of the Old Testament, written by Moses
2. Historical Books are historical records of the Judges, Kings and the rebuilding of temples
3. Wisdom Books are the poetry and saying of the wise
4. Major and Minor prophets are not base on ranks, but base on the length of their books.
So I asked my friends how acquainted they are with old testament history and they told me that their are not too acquainted with it.
So I decided to use my skills as a Ex project manager to use MS Visio to create the following diagram.
The purpose of the diagram is to
1. Teach the 5 categories of Old testament books used by Christians. The Jews uses 3 categories (Lk 24:44), namely “The Law (Torah)” , “The Prophets (Nevim)” and “The Writings (Ketuvim)”. Which is very different from how Christians does it.
2. The provide the time line of the major time period of the Old testament until the birth of Christ
3. Link the old testament bible to the time period on the time line. Which will help readers to understand what the prophets are referring to in their prophecies.
At the same time, I have decided to put in a verse from that period that roughly summarise the entire period.
Pre-Flood Period
This is the period where Adam and Eve sinned, Cain killed Abel. Finally, sin has gotten a huge hold on the people, such that God decided not to strive with man anymore (Gen 6:3).
Sometimes when our world is filled with evilness, we asked ourselves why is God silent? Perhaps this chapter in Genesis that marks the start of the flood should serve as a warning to us.
God is often grieve when man sin, God is so grieve to the stage that he will have to judge that generation for their sins (Gen 6:5-7) That is when he saved Noah, and we moved to Patriarchal period.
Patriarchs Period
The Patriarchal period is mention in Stephens last sermon before he died (Acts 7:1-16). This is the time where God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans to move to the promise land. He allowed the chosen people to enter Egypt where they will became a great nation.
Slavery / Wilderness Period
The forefathers were living a good life in Egypt until a new king rose who did not know Joseph (Ex 1: 8-9). He started to enslave the population, where they called up to God and God raise Moses to deliver them. They travelled in the wilderness for 40 years before reaching Canaan. Ps 78 is a poetic version of this story complete with teachings for us.
Conquest of Canaan
After Moses died, Joshua became the leader of Israel, he helped them with the first conquest Canaan. A lot of their battles were fought with faith, as the tribes in Canaan are technologically more advance than the Israelites. When Joshua was about to die, he said a phrase that is often arched in my mind.
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua (Jos 24:15)
Period of Judges
The period of Judges is the time where the people are not really with a leader. The people started to be contented with their lives and they did not chase the Canaanites from the land. They started to be influenced by that more advance and pagan culture.
When God started to punish the people, they begged God for help and God raises many judges, Gideon, Samson, Deborah, the last of these judges was prophet Samuel, when they wanted a king for themselves
It is a period of lawlessness, as the bible often use this phrase to describe that period.
“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25
The Kingdom Years
The kingdom years started with the first 3 kings of a united Israel, Saul, David and Solomon. When Solomon son Rehoboam answered the people with cruelty, the nations are broken into 2 Kingdom, the kingdom of Israel (10.5 tribes) lead by Jeroboam and the Kingdom of Judah (1.5 tribes) lead by Rehoboam
Jeroboam did not follow Gods instruction to lead the people in his law, and hence the entire Kingdom of Israel is full of idolatries and immorality. They were destroyed by the Assyrians.
The tribe of Judah did not fare any better, the last few kings were very evil, so much so that God has to judge the people by destroying his temple and bringing the good Jews into captivity.
God actually did not want a king to rule over his country. But yet he gave the king to them (Hosea 13:10-11)
I guess God was equally grieved by the peoples request and he decided not to contend with the people for that.
Babylonian Captivity
The Jews spent 70 years in captivity, God prophesied through Jeremiah that he will one day bring them back. (Jer 32:26-44)
Rebuilding Of Temple
When the Babylonian empire ended, King Cyrus of Persia was given Isaiah 45 to read, and he was moved to release the Jewish captives back to Israel. Where they rebuild the temple and the city. Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther all belongs to that period.
God also said that the new temple build by them is more glorious than the previous temple of Solomon, (Hag 2:9)
Alright, heres the diagram for a summary.
The Hesitant Prize Fighter 