Summary of the Old Testament

Toward the end of the forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites traveled to the land of Moab. When Balak, the king of Moab, heard about it, he was angry and afraid. So he tried to hire a local prophet named Balaam to curse the Israelites. Balaam begged God for permission to go, and finally obtained it; but God was very angry with Balaam. On the way, Balaam’s donkey saw a fearsome angel of God and the donkey spoke to warn Balaam. So Balaam did not curse the Israelites, but blessed them instead. However, Balaam still tried to earn the money from Balak by telling him how to weaken the Israelites by seducing them to worship an idol named Baal (Numbers 22:21-35; 25:1-3; 2 Peter 2:15-16; Revelation 2:14).

Before the Israelites entered Canaan, the promised land, Moses spoke one last time to the people. This speech is recorded in the book of Deuteronomy. Moses reviewed the Israelites’ history and the law, noting the blessings that would come if they followed the law, and the curses that would come if they did not (Deuteronomy 11:26-28). Then Moses died, and God buried him.

In the book of Joshua, we read how Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader of Israel. The Israelites conquered the city of Jericho, their first conquest, by means of God’s plan and God’s power. After they had marched around the city as the Lord had commanded, they blew their trumpets and shouted. The city walls fell down, and they marched in (Joshua 6:1-21). A harlot named Rahab had hidden two Israelite spies in the city earlier, and after the city fell she was rewarded by being spared (Joshua 2:1-21; 6:22-25; Hebrews 11:30-31). She became an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5). Joshua conquered the rest of the land of Canaan, and divided it among the twelve tribes of Israel.

The book of Judges tells about the judges who governed the nation of Israel after Joshua died. God remained their king. However, the people did not live in obedience to God. Many times they turned away to the gods and idols of their neighbors and thus sinned against God. So God sold them into the hands of their oppressors. Each time, when they cried out to God to save them from their enemies, God in His mercy raised up a deliverer to free them (Judges 2:10-19). The most famous deliverers, or judges, were Gideon, Barak, and Samson (Hebrews 11:32).

The book of Ruth tells the story of DAVID’S great-grandmother, who was not an Israelite, but a Moabite woman who believed in the true God. She married an Israelite and became an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).

1 Samuel tells the story of the last judge. Samuel’s mother had dedicated her son to God and sent him to work in the temple as a child. There God spoke to Samuel and he became a prophet as well as a judge. When he became old, the people demanded to have a king, as the other nations around them had. Samuel warned them of the problems with earthly kings, but the people persisted, and so God finally agreed to give them a king (1 Samuel 8:6-22). A man named Saul was chosen by God, and at first he ruled well. However, he did not repent after sinning on several occasions, and so God in the end rejected him.

God told Samuel to anoint a young shepherd boy, David, to be the next king of Israel, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day onward. One time, an enemy giant named Goliath challenged the Israelites, but no one dared to fight him. Finally David volunteered, and knocked the giant down with a stone from a slingshot (1 Samuel 17:32-51). David afterward became a great soldier, and Saul became jealous. Saul attempted to kill David several times, but David always escaped. Although David had the opportunity to kill Saul on two occasions, he refused to harm the man whom God had anointed to be king—even if God had later rejected him.

2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles both tell about how David became king after Saul died in battle. David reigned from 1010 to 970 B.C. Soon after becoming king, David recaptured the ark of the Lord that had been previously seized by the enemy Philistines, and brought it to Jerusalem, the Jewish capital, with great rejoicing (2 Samuel 6:12-15). David wanted to build a permanent temple for the Lord, but God told him to let his son build it. David won great victories in war and was blessed by God. God promised David that his throne would be established forever, and this promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, whose kingdom will never end. Jesus was descended from David (Matthew 1:1), and was called the “Root of David” and the “Lion of Judah” (Revelation 5:5). David was considered the ideal king by later prophets, but he did sin at times. However, he was different from Saul, because he always repented and renewed his relationship with God. He was also a musician and poet, and wrote many of the Psalms. Some of the Psalms prophesied about Jesus Christ and His death (Psalms 22, 69).

1 and 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles tell about the kingdom of Israel, beginning with the reign of David’s son Solomon. God told Solomon to ask from Him whatever he wanted and He would give it. Many would have asked for riches or honor, but Solomon asked for an understanding heart, for wisdom (1 Kings 3:59). God gave him the wisdom he asked for, and also great riches and honor as well (Matthew 12:42; Luke 12:27). Solomon wrote three books of wisdom in the Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. His great work was the building of the permanent temple, the house of the Lord, in Jerusalem.

After Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was divided. The northern ten tribes split away and this new kingdom was called the kingdom of Israel. The remaining two tribes formed the kingdom of Judah in the south. The kingdom of Judah was ruled by descendants of David, beginning with Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. The period of the divided kingdoms continued for 344 years. Some of the kings of Judah obeyed God and brought the people back from worshiping idols to the true God, but others did evil in God’s sight and encouraged the worship of idols. None of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel worshiped God. Their first king set up two golden calves, one at Bethel and the other at Dan, and the people (later called Samaritans) continued to worship those idols instead of worshiping the true God at the temple in Jerusalem. This was one of the reasons the Samaritans were despised by the Jews in Jesus’ day (John 4:9,19-24). One notorious king of Israel was Ahab, who was married to a foreigner named Jezebel. They both hated Elijah (1 Kings Chapters 17-18), a powerful prophet of God at the time. Elijah and his successor, Elisha (2 Kings Chapters 2-8), performed many miracles, by which they showed that God was the true Lord (Luke 4:24-27). Elijah did not die, but was taken directly up into heaven (2 Kings 2:11; Mark 9:4-5).

Many other prophets spoke to the people of Israel and Judah during those years. The prophets also warned the people of coming judgment if they continued in rebellion and sin. The prophets predicted that the Jews of the two kingdoms would be exiled in a foreign land if they did not repent. Sometimes the people listened to the warnings and repented, but usually they did not. Finally it came true as the prophets had said. God did exile them to other lands. The people of Israel were taken to Assyria (modern Syria) in 722 B.C., and the people of Judah were taken to Babylon (modern Iraq) in 586 B.C. The prophets who wrote during the period of the divided kingdom are as follows (in chronological order): Joel (Acts 2:16-21), Jonah (Matthew 12:38-41), Amos, Hosea, Isaiah (who is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other prophet), Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah, who also wrote Lamentations. Many of the prophets also prophesied about Jesus Christ, His birth, His death, and His second coming.

There were no historical writings during the period of the exile, but the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel wrote during this time. Possibly Obadiah also prophesied during this period. Toward the end of the exile, the kingdom of Persia (modern Iran) conquered Babylon.

In 538 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia, made a proclamation saying that anyone who wished to could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. We read about this in the historical book of Ezra. The first group returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel and began to rebuild the temple. There was opposition and the work stopped for a time. The people were encouraged by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and the temple was finally finished (Ezra 6:14-16). In 458 B.C. Ezra led the second group to Jerusalem. Ezra, a priest, taught the Jewish law again, and led some reforms that dealt with the sin of intermarriage with foreign women who enticed their Jewish husbands into worshiping false gods. During this same period the story of Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia, took place. She was used by God to save the Jewish people from a plot to destroy them.

Years later Nehemiah, the Persian king’s cupbearer, returned with a third group of Israelites to organize the rebuilding of the walls around the city of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 6:15-16). The prophet Malachi spoke during this time also. After about 400 B.C., no more prophets spoke to Israel until John the Baptist came to announce the arrival of the Savior Jesus Christ.

¹ For further discussion of several of the topics mentioned here, see many of the General Articles in The Applied Old Testament Commentary.

² Christians are expected to obey the “moral” law of the Old Testament, in particular the ten commandments (Exodus 20:1-17). But Jesus summarized the moral law in the two great commandments to love God and to love one’s neighbor (Mark 12:30-31). If we follow these two great commandments, we shall also be fulfilling the ten commandments (Matthew 22:40; Romans 13:9). For further discussion, see General Article: The Purpose of the Mosaic Law, in The Applied Old Testament Commentary.