OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY - 1

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

OLD TESTAMENT SURVEY - 1

Psalm 119:48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.

49 Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

50 This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.

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The apostle Peter made an interesting observation in his second epistle to the disciples of Yahushua.

2 Pet 3:15   And account that the longsuffering of our Master is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you;
16  as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unsteadfast wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Peter, in effect, equated the epistles of Paul with the Old Testament Scriptures; and in so doing; he validated the continued usefulness of the "Old Testament" Scriptures.

When Paul ministered in Berea, he said that the disciples there were "more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)  Paul appreciated these Bereans for their discipline of not accepting his words as the basis of the Truth of the Good News of Yahushua.  He praised them for searching DAILY to determine if his words were founded upon the Truth of “the Scriptures,” specifically, what we refer to as the "Old Testament" Scriptures.  How, then, can we neglect to be as familiar with them as we are with the New Testament Scriptures?  How many of us, today, could validate the doctrines of our discipleship using only the Old Testament?  Paul did.  The Bereans did.  Peter did.  All of the "New Testament" disciples did.

The vast majority of “believers” today, have no working knowledge of the Old Testament at all.  The sheer size of the Old Testament is enough to keep most from a serious study.  Our new course for this blog is intended to provide the disciple with a working knowledge of the structure, the chronology and the content of the 39 books of the Old Testament.  In so doing, the disciple will have a confidence in working with and in studying the Old Testament Scriptures.

To start, let’s get a graphical image of how the books of the Old Testament fit together chronologically.  For this we have two charts.  This first chart reflects the historical books in their chronological order.  Books found on the same row contain history that shares the same timeline.

HISTORICAL BOOKS:

Genesis
Job
Exodus	Leviticus	Numbers	Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges	Ruth
I Samuel
II Samuel	I Chronicles
I Kings - II Kings	2 Chronicles
Esther
Ezra
Nehemiah

This second chart places the non-history books in their chronological placement with the history books.  In other words, it shows when the prophets (major and minor) ministered within the timeline of the Old Testament.  It might surprise most to realize that all of the Old Testament prophets fit into a 400-450 year time frame.

BOOKS OF POETRY & PROPHECY:

II Samuel/I Chronicles	Psalms
I Kings/II Chronicles	Proverbs	Song of Solomon	Ecclesiastes
II Kings/II Chronicles	Obadiah	Joel
	Jonah	Amos	Hosea
	Isaiah	Micah
	Zephaniah	Nahum
	Jeremiah (Lamentations)	Ezekiel	Daniel
	Habakkuk
Ezra	Haggai	Zechariah
Nehemiah	Malachi

Our survey of the Old Testament Scriptures will provide the disciple of Yahushua with only the most basic presentation of the history contained therein.  The command of IAUE is that we study these Scriptures, read them, meditate upon them, discuss them with each other, never let them depart from our lives.  I encourage each reader to include, along with their other daily reading of the New Testament Scriptures, some methodical reading of the books of the Old Testament; and to do so for the rest of your lives.

The truths presented in the entirety of the New Testament Scriptures are all contained in the Old Testament.  When the apostle Paul preached the good news to the men and women of Berea, they searched the Old Testament Scriptures to verify if Paul was preaching the Truth (Acts 17:10-12).  Nothing in the New Testament Scriptures can stand without the foundation of the Old Testament Scriptures.  Consequently, we will never be able to properly understand the New Testament without a reasonable understanding of the Old Testament.  If a disciple of Yahushua claims to be a "New Testament" believer, and thereby shuns the study of the Old Testament; he is only deceiving himself.

One of the first problems the Body of Messiah experienced is recorded in Acts 6.

Acts 6:1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

Why was this a problem?  It was because it provided an administrative distraction to the apostles' ministry.

Acts 6:2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of Elohim, and serve tables.

What "word of Elohim" did they not want to leave?  It was what we call the Old Testament.  They were the ONLY Scriptures for the first 30 years of church history.  If the apostles could not afford an administrative distraction to pull them away from the Old Testament Scriptures, then what is so important in our lives, today, that it should keep us from studying them?

[Our objective in this study has absolutely nothing to do with the current misdirection of the Body of Messiah today into “Torah-keeping.”  If you were a Gentile when you bowed the knee to Messiah Yahushua, you were never under the Torah; and were not brought into Messiah to come under the Torah (the Law of Moses). If you were a Jew when you came to Messiah, you were delivered from the law of Moses.  The Scriptures are quite clear that our Messiah is a High Priest of the Tribe of Judah; and that the law of Moses was administered by the tribe of Levi. Therefore, since there is a change in the priesthood, there is of necessity, a change in the law (Hebrews 7:12).  We are now under “the law of the Spirit of Life in Messiah Yahushua” (Rom 8:2).]

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Kingdom heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.

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