The Beginning of The Big Picture

 “The Old Testament intimidates me.”  This is a statement one person in the church sent me last week.  I heard several people say something like that in the past two weeks, and I can relate.  When you count all the words of the Bible, the Old Testament accounts for 75% of them!  The fact that it is not arranged chronologically confuses many people as well.  When some of you read the Old Testament you feel a bit like you showed up for a final exam in a history course, but you never attended class all semester.  It feels like there are so many names and places that are foreign to us because unlike the original audience, we don’t live in the Promised Land.

Children in the traditional Jewish culture would start attending synagogue school at age 6, and by age 10 they would have memorized the first five books of the Bible!  That really would have helped them have a solid grasp on where the entire Bible was headed.   

Since many of us aren’t from Jewish families and didn’t memorize the first five books (The Torah), we are all a little bit behind on understanding God’s Word right out of the gate.  That’s a big reason we are teaching through this series, “The Big Picture: Experiencing the Whole Story of the Bible.”   

Let’s recap, to help our memory.  

Two weeks ago we covered the first genre/set of five books called:  The Torah or The Law.   

• Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy 
  
  
• Genesis 1-11:   Creation, man’s fall into sin, the flood, and the scattering of nations at the tower of Babel.
  
• Genesis 12-50:  Abraham  
  
  
• God starts over with one man, Abraham.  His plan is to grow a great nation through Him, through which God will bless all nations.  
• 3 Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
  
• Jacob has 12 sons
• The nation ends up in slavery for 400 years in Egypt 
• Exodus – Deuteronomy: Moses 

• Moses leads God’s people “exiting” Egypt
• They receive the Law at Mt. Sinai
• They establish the tabernacle (tent) where God’s presence will dwell

Last week we talked about the first half of the history genre.

• The books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles 

We subdivided this section as follows:   

 Here are our summary slides for this section:   

So, at this point, the nation of Israel (all 12 tribes) are being led by King David, who sits on the throne in Jerusalem.  The nation is faithful to God and so God blesses the kingdom with wealth, military strength and abundance.  

We end this section, feeling a bit like Jerusalem is Camelot, an idyllic kingdom with a King Arthur leading and their enemies have been vanquished.  Hold onto this good feeling as long as you can, because when we talk about the second part of the history genre on Sunday, it’s all going to go south in the time period of one generation!  

If you missed last Sunday's message, click here. 

I look forward to seeing you next Sunday at our Worship Service in the Dome at 10:00 a.m.

You can also live stream our service on Facebook and YouTube at 10:00 a.m.