Step by Step through the Old Testament
Carlton L. Arnold, Teacher
Week 2
8/18/02 : Introduction to Old Testament Geography and History
This will be the driest lesson that we'll have the whole year because we're going to be talking about geography, land, world empires, and a review of the whole Old Testament, itself. I don't apologize for it because the more I get into looking at secular history and comparing it to the world Biblical history, the more amazed that I am at the Bible. That's what I hope you gain out of this, also.
Expectations
These are the things that I expect you to get out of the Old Testament:
We'll see God revealed. That's going to be a pretty important point. What we'll see is that like you, yourself, when you're born and you grow up, how do you learn about God? How does your concept of God come about? Do you learn it through your parents, Sunday School, Church, or on the playground at school? How do you learn about your concept of God? We're going to see that in the Old Testament, starting with Abraham, how did Abraham learn about God? Who told him about God? We're going to see God revealed through the Old Testament.
All of you will be able to summarize it. I'm going to do it this morning, but all of you will be able to do it by the end of the year.
One of the things that always opens a lot of people's eyes is Christ in the Old Testament. A lot of Christians today, because they study the New Testament so much, don't realize that Christ always has been. He was with the Father at the beginning, He was with the Father during the Old Testament, He was with the Father during the New Testament (here on earth), and He will be in the future. So Christ has always been there and we're going to see Christ in the Old Testament. We're going to see Him appear.
God's plan of salvation is what is built as a foundation in the Old Testament and carried out in the New Testament.
There's going to be an excitement about God's Word in the Old Testament. You will actually be excited. I know some of you are going to get really excited about the Book of Job.
One thing is that, in terms of the application, we increase in our love for one another because that's how others know that we're His disciples. That means the sharing that we do with one another in here.
Those are my targets. Those are the things that I want all of us to get to during the year.
Old Testament Accuracy and Faith:
Let me get into the background of the Old Testament and like I said, this is going to be a little dry and boring, but I find it fascinating. Let me tease you a little bit on why it's fascinating. The image that we have on the Old Testament is that it's the Jewish Bible. It's what the Jews read. It's what the Jews had. It really is more than that. Up until the 1900s, there were a lot of towns, villages, kings, and names of places in the Bible that during the 1800s, cynics of the Bible said, "You can't believe the Bible because these people never existed" or "This place never existed." If you read anything in archaeology, National Geographic, or any background material on the Bible, you'll find that during the early 1800s, when the Bible criticism became intense, if you will, or en vogue to contradict or find errors in the Bible. What has happened since is that through archaeology, especially in the 1900s going through the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 and some other things, is that, lo and behold, they found these places and these kings: inscribed in stone and everything. That's why it's fascinating to look at the history that parallels the Bible history: what was going on in secular history at the same time we're going to read about the Biblical history, itself. It's an absolutely fascinating study to see how the Bible and the Old Testament continue to be proven accurate, as it is stated, even though you may look at it and say, "Well, wait a minute, this doesn't exist and that doesn't exist." We continue to find that this and that exist.
With all that said, with all that is presented to you, and with the formation of the Bible, there is one key element to take the Bible and read it as is. That element is Faith. You don't take it and say, "I'm going to prove this and I'm going to prove that." When we read Abraham, and all the way through the Bible, what was counted as righteousness for Abraham, what was counted as him going to Heaven to live with God, just like us, was his faith. It wasn't his works. It wasn't what he believed in terms of himself or anything. It was his faith in an unseen, unknown Creator, God. And that's the way it is for us, today. We have that same kind of faith as Christians. That was the basis of Abraham's relationship with God, and that's the basis with which we're going to look at everything: in terms of faith. So I'm going to present all the numbers and data that you can go and read in any world history book or any geography book, and behind that, though, will be the faith issue, and I'll keep bringing this up.
Geographical overview of the Old Testament:
Mediterranean Sea
Nile River / Egypt
Sea of Galilee / Jordan River / Dead Sea
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
Red Sea / Gulf of Aqaba
That's the land we're going to be looking at and studying.
There is a traditional place for the Garden of Eden (near Ur). When I say "traditional", in this class, it means that you can't find it in the Bible, it's not backed up by secular history; it's traditional. It's like, "That's the way it's always been. We just believe it's that way." It's like the mother and daughter story where the mother prepares the ham. She cuts off both ends. The daughter asks her, "Why did you cut off both ends?" The mother says, "I don't know. Your grandmother did. Let's go ask her why it's tradition." The grandmother says, "Well, I didn't have a pot big enough, so I just cut off both ends." It's tradition.
Mt. Ararat: The traditional site of the ark coming to rest on land.
I know we have a lot of things going on in the Middle East. When you look at Israel today, we have Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Kuwait.
Chronological overview of the Old Testament:
Back to the Garden of Eden. There was a period of time between Genesis 1 and Genesis 12 when God dealt with the whole world. Then there was a change in Genesis 12, after the fall of Adam and Eve and so forth. God started focusing in on one person and that was Abraham. It wasn't that He forgot about all of the rest of them. He said, "I need to reach man somehow. Man has just turned from me." He had the creation. He had Adam and Eve fall - the Fall of Man. Then He had the flood where He wiped out everybody except Noah. As soon as that was over with, here comes man along with the Tower of Babel, saying, "We're going to be like God. Let's build a tower up and be like God." This is all Genesis 1 through 11.
Then God starts talking to a guy named Abram. Abram was from the city of Ur. This is where the Old Testament history starts in Genesis 12. This is where Iraq is today. This is where it all started in Genesis 12. God tells Abraham to leave Ur and go to a Promised Land that He's going to talk to him about. The Promised Land, Canaan - that's the name of the people in this area. Go to this land and He will make a covenant with him, in other words a testament. We call it the Old Testament - it's the old covenant, meaning an agreement. It's like if I have an agreement with someone, we have a covenant. God had an agreement with Abram that, "If you'll obey me and do this by faith, I'll bless you." Abram leaves and goes up to Haran first. There's a Fertile Crescent: a lot of trees, water, and so forth. The rest was the Arabian Desert. Abram goes to Haran and finally down to Israel. When we get into Genesis 12, and we look at Abram and the start of Biblical history, this is the kind of travel that we're talking about. Once he gets to Canaan/Israel/Promised Land, there are people already living there. He goes to Egypt but comes back because of famine. He settles in the land and has Isaac. Isaac has Jacob. Out of Jacob come the twelve tribes that we hear about. The twelve tribes are twelve families or clans. One of the descendants of Jacob is Joseph. Joseph is sold into slavery, goes to Egypt, and becomes second in command to Pharaoh. That is where Genesis ends. That is the book of Genesis: the travels and what goes on and what happens and everything. We're going to study all of those details over the next couple of months.
After Joseph gets to Egypt, we start with the book of Exodus, the second book of the Old Testament. We find that all of the people multiply. Has anyone seen the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston or the animated Prince of Egypt? That's where you find all of the people in Egypt. God sets them free and they go over to the Sinai Peninsula and Mount Sinai. This is where God gives them the Ten Commandments. God says, "I want to give you this Promised Land. Obey me. Have faith in me. And I will give you this land. I'll take care of everybody. I'll give you the land." They come up to a place called Kadesh-Barnea. They send out spies. Ten come back and say, "Aw, it's terrible. It's a great land, but there are big giants over there. We'll never get it." Two spies say, "No, let's go on and take it. God said it." Because of their unbelief, their lack of faith, God says, "Sorry, but you're going to go around and wander in the wilderness for 40 years until everybody dies off."
So here is the nation of Israel and this is what we have now. We started with a man. We developed a nation. The nation is now running around or wandering around the wilderness of Sinai because of their unbelief. I hope somewhere along in the Old Testament, you identify with this nation - where your spiritual journey, your spiritual understanding of God, your spiritual relationship with God is just like this nation. Have you ever gotten to a point where you had a moment of decision where God says, "This is what I want you to do, but you chose that. And because you chose that, I'm going to let you wander around in the wilderness for a while."
The older generation of Israel dies off. They cross over the Jordan River. They get into the Promised Land. This is Joshua. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy all happen in the wilderness. The book of Joshua is a book of war. Fifth and Sixth grade boys love Joshua: the walls of Jericho come down, etc. They attack people and take over most of the area. They don't take over everything that they're due. They settle in the land. When God tells them to go in and destroy everything (men, women, children, pregnant women, etc.) we Christians sometimes have a problem with, "How can God allow that to happen." There is a very spiritual reason for that to happen. They take over the land, but they don't defeat everybody and they don't do what God told them to do. They start to inter-marry. The 300-year period of Judges begins, a down time for the nation. They are being impacted by the other, pagan gods that other people worship. There is inter-marriage going on. There is a cycle that they go through. They go back to God and then they forget God. God judges them through other nations. They ask forgiveness. God cleanses them. They start all over again. This is the cycle they go through in Judges.
Ruth is a very interesting book in the Old Testament. Without the book of Ruth, we wouldn't have the descendants of Christ, the Messiah. If you're the Jews, who read the Old Testament as much as they do, how can you justify your non-belief in Jesus as the Messiah with the book of Ruth in mind?
1st & 2nd Samuel and 1st & 2nd Kings involve all of the things that are happening next. The people want a king. They care about all of the other nations or empires who have kings. "We know that we've been a theistic-led nation, but we want a king now." God says, "OK. I'll give you a king. You really don't want a king, but I'll give you one." The first king is Saul. He doesn't do too well. The next king is David. David He gives a promise to. In 2nd Samuel we'll read about that. That's one of the key promises in the Old Testament. The next one is Solomon. As Solomon reigned, he married some Pagan wives, he worshipped Pagan gods, he gets people wrapped up in Paganism and idolatry - Not the one God to be worshipped. Solomon has a son and the nation splits.
The nation splits into a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom is called Judah. The Northern Kingdom is called Israel. It is confusing, but the Bible is very clear on which king and which nation we're looking at. This is where we find the nations. Ten of the twelve tribes are in the Northern Kingdom and two are in the Southern Kingdom. We're going to study some things about the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom and what they do and you're going to shake your head and say, "Why?" But, again, I want to ask you to identify yourself with this nation on what they're doing. You're going to read some things in the Bible that will make you ask, "How can they possibly have done that, knowing this other stuff?"
The Northern Kingdom has a bunch of kings that are all bad. Around 700 BC, there is a country or empire called Assyria. Assyria comes over and wipes out the Northern Kingdom and disperses them throughout the whole world. If anyone has ever heard of the "lost tribes," this is where it comes from. These are the types of things that are lost forever because Assyria came over and beat them up, took them captive, and deported them. They attacked the Southern Kingdom, but God protected them. God protected the Southern Kingdom because the Southern Kingdom had some good kings who obeyed God and worshipped God. After about 100-120 years, the Southern Kingdom fell into idolatry also. Assyria is now off the board and Babylon is now the World Empire. Babylon comes over and wipes out the Southern Kingdom and destroys the Temple. We're going to trace the Temple throughout the whole Old Testament. The temple is destroyed and the people are taken into captivity and deported to Babylon. When we get to Babylon, we're in 1st & 2nd Kings. 1st & 2nd Chronicles are the same thing as 1st & 2nd Kings.
Ezra is the return to rebuild the Temple and the walls in Jerusalem. That's what Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are about. And at the return, they are back in the Promised Land. When we get to the New Testament, the Jews/Israelites are in Israel. That's where Jesus was born. So they are back in Israel and that's how it happens in the Old Testament. Esther, by the way, takes place at a place called Susa.
Daniel's book (Daniel, the prophet) was written in Babylon. It wasn't written in Israel. We're going to discover that these books were written all over the place.
When you get to Esther, you can draw a line under Esther. That is the end of the Old Testament. That is the chronological end of the Old Testament. It doesn't go any further than that. The rest of the books, starting with Job, all occur during the other books. They were written during the other books, not after. So the chronological end of the Old Testament is Esther. Esther ends around 400 BC. Job is actually the oldest book written. It goes back to the time of Genesis. Psalms was written during the time of David & Solomon. Proverbs, during the time of David & Solomon. A lot of those books and a lot of those prophets were written during the time of the sieges of Assyria and Babylon. The prophets were coming to the people and saying, "Don't you see what God is doing?" God is judging them. "Let's get right. Let's throw out all of the gods and worship God, alone." That's what you'll read in the prophets.
The Major and Minor Prophets are organized by size. The rest is chronological.
World overview of the Old Testament:
The first World Empire is Egypt. We're going to see them be an influence on Israel until 1200 BC. They're an influence because they're rich. They've got everything going for them. When the famine occurs, Abraham goes to Egypt because that is where the land of plenty was.
The second one was Assyria. Assyria had an impact on the Northern Kingdom. They took the ten tribes into captivity.
The third empire was Babylon and they took over the Southern Kingdom.
If you were to read a world history book, this is what you'll read. You'll read about Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon and their cultures and wars.
The fourth was Persia. When Babylon took the Southern Kingdom into captivity, Babylon didn't last very long until Persia defeated them. Persia became the World Empire. The king of Persia, Darius, authorized Ezra to go over to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple and the walls in Jerusalem.
Greece is the fifth World Empire. Greece came into power around 300-250 BC. This is Alexander the Great. This is not during the Old Testament times. This is during the time between 400 BC and 0 BC (the New Testament). There is a silent period, but we'll talk about what happened during this time. Why didn't God speak? What was going on with the Jews?
After Greece comes the big one, the Roman Empire. It's the Roman Empire that we get to in the New Testament with Rome now having control over Judea and we know the Jews are in subjection to them.
Those are the six World Empires. We'll see them interact with Bible history. What I want you to see is that when God told Abraham to go over and get the Promised Land, it is significant where He sent him. If there's any movement between Europe, Asia, and Africa, they have to go through the little territory of Israel. The most convenient land route is to go through Israel. If God wanted to tell people about Himself and He wanted a people to be able to share that with others, where would He put them? Right in the smack middle of everything. Controversy, warfare, and so forth. This was by design that God said, "Go to Israel." Any trade, anything moving, has got to go through Israel; not through the desert, but through Israel. That's where He wanted His people and that's where He wanted them to tell others about who He is. We're going to see that all throughout the Old Testament: God asking people to share who He is with other people.
Israel is about the size of Vermont. It is about 145 miles from North to South. It is about 20 miles across at its narrowest place in the North and about 90 miles across in the South. Israel is not a very big place. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the West, the Jordan River on the East, the Mountains of Lebanon on the North, and the Negeb Desert on the South. Jerusalem is on a mountaintop, off the trade route. The workbook has a lot more details.
Prayer:
Father, God, thank you for this morning. I ask you to be with us as we continue to study your Word. We're chomping at the bit for Genesis and Creation, Father, and we'll be patient and wait on you to show us what you need for us to have in terms of background, Father, that we can more appreciate and gain a complete understanding of how remarkable and wonderful your Word is. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Teacher's Email: carltonlcv@gmail.com
Web page / Transcriptioning email: agapeeric@aim.com
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®.
Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.