The Old Testament Story in 5 Minutes

Confused by the Old Testament? Here is a quick guide! It can be helpful as you read each book to ask how it ties back to the big story (below). How does the strange story in Leviticus 10 of the offering of strange fire relate? God will be worshiped in his way as the holy King. Knowing the big story can help us understand the little pieces we read.

There are many themes that can be woven throughout the Old and New Testament—here we highlight God’s kingship and the resulting mission he gives to his people. Other themes include land, promise, Messiah, Servant, blessing, rest, etc.

Genesis 1-2: God created! Good! Blessing! This was what the world was supposed to be like—God the King dwelling with humankind, and humankind being representatives of God and his reign as his image bearers and children.

Genesis 3: The serpent, the usurper came and tempted Adam and Eve. Chaos! The King usurped! And all creation fell. Humans were separated from God, from others, from selves, and from creation. But in Genesis 3:15, God promises a redeemer! God will not give up!

Icon of St. Jeremiah, Russia

Genesis 4-11: Evil continues to grow so that God judges the world in a flood, but saves Noah through whom he will continue his promise to redeem all of creation. Yet, Noah (like Adam) failed. Genesis 11 closes with the world in a dismal state. Is there any hope?

Genesis 12-50: God calls Abraham and promises to make a great nation out of him in order to bless all the world. God steps in to save the world! Through the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, God is forming a nation of kings to represent him.

Exodus: God’s people enslaved by another king, and God delivers them to worship him.

Leviticus, Deuteronomy: God still wants to dwell with his people, but how? God gives them his law, so that they know how to live in his kingdom. They are to show him to the world.

Numbers: But, God’s people rebel and do not honor him as king. But God is faithful, he will not give up on his people because of his promise.

Joshua: God’s people take his land! God the King reigns in the promised land.

Judges: Chaos as God’s people reject his kingship and do what is right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).

Ruth: But there is a faithful family in which God’s kingdom will still come—the forefather of David, the forefather of Jesus.

Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs: The wisdom books that were compiled throughout the Old Testament history. Psalms gives expressions of praise and lament to praise the King. Job pictures a righteous sufferer, foreshadowing a greater righteous one. Proverbs gives wisdom to live in the way God the King ordered the world. Ecclesiastes speaks of the foolishness and futility of the world outside of God’s kingship. And Song of Songs pictures a love that God gave for man and woman in marriage, that foreshadows the marriage of God himself to his own people.

1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings: God gives his people kings, who are to lead his people in godliness, to be the nation that will show his character to the world. David is a godly king that foreshadows a greater king, but many of the kings led the nation to evil—thus the reason for the exile. The kings too fail, like Adam. Is there hope?

1 & 2 Chronicles: A look at the kings from a different perspective, emphasizing God’s faithfulness and that each generation has the chance to repent.

Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, & Jeremiah: The pre-exile prophets that warned in grace of God’s coming judgement. Repent! Repent! Instead of representing God as the holy King to the world, they lived like the world.

Daniel & Esther: God’s people go into exile for their sins. Yet, even in exile God protects a remnant (a small group of faithful people). God is King over all the nations, no matter what, and will protect his people!

Obadiah, Ezekiel: The exiled prophets that reminded the people God was still with them and promised a return.

Ezra & Nehemiah: God brings his people out of exile and back into their land. Once again, blessing! Once again, land! Once again, God’s people as his representatives in God’s land to show what it looks like to live in God’s kingdom to the entire world.

Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, Malachi, and Jonah: The post-exile prophets spoke God’s word, urging his people to live faithfully and build the temple, reminding them that God was still faithful to his people and his promises. Yet, there was a greater glory yet to come. God would be King over all the earth still!

The New Testament: And then on one quiet night in Bethlehem, all that the Old Testament foreshadowed came to pass!

Christ, the new and faithful Adam.

Christ, the Noah that saves his people.

Christ, the true Israel who truly honors God as King in all he does and says

and who shows God to the world.

Christ, who was the true King, the true David, the true godly leader that Israel never had.

Christ, the true prophet who faithfully spoke God’s word.

Christ, the true wisdom of God who lived out the principles of the Proverbs, who was the righteous sufferer that Job pointed forward to, who faithfully sang the worship songs of the Psalms.

Christ, the one who was truly exiled—separated from God—on the cross,

so that we would never know the exile.

Christ, our true Promised Land, who gives us all the blessings in God physically and spiritually.

Christ, the greater glory that all the Old Testament looked forward to.

Christ, the true King who has made for himself a kingdom of priests (that’s us, the church! Revelation 1:6), so that we live in his kingdom and show the world the character of the true King (loving, righteous, joy-giving, blessing-giving, just, etc.) so that they too fall in love with our King!