Session 0: A quick walk through the Old Testament

The New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament. Let's do a quick review of salvation history in the Old Testament before we embark on the journey with Jesus and his disciples in the New Testament.

Here's a quick video summary:

Source: Created by River Glen Christian Church, on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I400jhY2DF0

Let's recall! Now that we've gone through 26 sessions of the Old Testament, do you remember what are the key events leading up to the New Testament?

Creation - The bible begins with the book of Genesis, with two stories of Creation. God created everything, the sun, moon, stars, animals. He created Man in his image and likeness, who were meant to be together with God in a beautiful garden called Eden. However, Adam and Eve, tempted by the serpent (Satan) disobeyed God and had to leave the garden. Sin and death entered the world. But God had a loving plan to help people once again be able to live in his presence - he promised that one day, one of Adam and Eve's descendants (Jesus!) would defeat the Serpent, Satan.

Adam and Eve had many kids, such as Cain and Abel, as well as Seth. Seth loved God and eventually one of his descendants Lamech, had a son named Noah.

Noah and the flood - During this time, there was a lot of evil and violence in the world. Only Noah and his family loved God and were good. God asked Noah to build an ark, for them to live in while rains flooded the earth. After the flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky as a sign of a covenant, or a promise, that he would never again flood the whole earth. Noah and his sons had many children and grandchildren. One of Noah's sons, Shem, was the great (X7 greats!) grandfather of a man named Abram.

God makes a covenant with Abraham - Abram loved God and was obedient. He left his homeland and moved to Canaan as God commanded. God made a covenant with Abram promising the following:

(1) Land which his descendants would dwell;

(2) He would have many descendants and be the father of many nations and kings

(3) Through his descendants all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

God also changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning 'father of many nations'. This 3- part blessing sets the stage for the rest of the bible. True enough, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael (who later became the father of the Arab nations) and Isaac, through whom God would fulfill his Covenant.

Jacob, the father of Israel - Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob. Although Esau was the first born, Jacob tricks Esau into giving up his birthright as the first born to Jacob. God renews with Jacob the covenant promise he made with Abraham, and names him Israel. Israel has twelve sons - Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin. The descendants of these sons would form the 12 tribes of Israel.

Joseph is sold to Egypt - Due to the jealousy of Jacob's sons, they sold Joseph, Jacob's favorite son, to traders. They took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to a man named Potiphar, who worked for the pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Pharaoh, impressed by Joseph, made him the second most senior official in Egypt. When famine struck Canaan, Joseph helped his family, who eventually moved to Egypt and settled there for 400 years.

Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt - When the new pharaoh came to power, he made all the Israelites work as slaves. God chose Moses to be the one to lead them out of slavery. When Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave, God sent ten plagues upon Egypt. During the tenth plague, God asked the Israelites to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and use the blood to mark their doorposts. That evening, the Israelites were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and be ready to leave Egypt. The Egyptians' first born sons all died that night, but the Israelites were saved by the lamb's blood - the plague passed over all the households marked with the blood. This was the first Passover, which the Israelites would continue to commemorate henceforth. With this last plague, Pharaoh finally agreed to let them go.

The Israelites enter the promised land - When Moses led Israelites out of Egypt, God provided for them. He gave them manna to eat, water to drink, and gave them laws (10 commandments) to teach them how to worship him and live with each other. He led them to the promised land, Canaan. However, the Israelites did not trust him, and were afraid to enter the promised land. To teach the Israelites to trust him, God had them remain in the desert where they wandered for 40 years. When the younger generation of Israelites grew up, Joshua, who was now the leader of the Israelites, led them into the promised land, fulfilling the first covenant promise made to Abraham.

The Judges - Before Joshua passed away, he reminded the Israelites to be faithful to God and keep his covenant. However, when the Israelites settled into the promised land, they started to stray from God - many worshiped the false gods of the Canaanites. Seven times, they were oppressed or attacked by their enemies and each time, God sent leaders called Judges to lead them into battle and rescue them. Examples of Judges included Deborah, Gideon, and Samson. After they were rescued, the Israelites would praise and worship God, but they would stray again after a while. The final Judge of Israel was Samuel, who was a holy man that loved God. The Israelites wanted to be just like the other nations and have a king. Samuel did not want to appoint a king, for their king should be God alone. However God told Samuel to give the people what they wanted.

Israel becomes a Royal Kingdom - Saul was anointed as the first king of Israel. While he led the kingdom well in the early years, he started to disobey God and stopped listening to Samuel after a while. Because of this, God took the kingship away from his family and he asked Samuel to anoint David as the next king.

When Saul passed away, David became the next king at 30 years old. He made Jerusalem the capital of Israel and he brought the Ark of the Covenant into the city. Even though David also made mistakes during his reign, he loved God dearly and was faithful to him. Because of David's faithfulness, God made a covenant with him, that the House of David would rule forever. One of David's descendants would be God's own son, Jesus, who would rule in the kingdom of God forever and bring salvation to the world, just as God had promised Abraham.

After David died, his son Solomon took over as king. Solomon asked for the gift of wisdom, and God blessed him with the wisdom to tell between right and wrong. Solomon built a beautiful temple for God in Jerusalem. God renewed the Covenant with Solomon, which he had made earlier with his father David, and told Solomon that his kingdom would last forever, if Solomon and the Israelites were faithful and kept his commandments. Unfortunately, this was not to be - Solomon start amassing wealth and married many foreign wives, and he started worshiping the false gods of his wives. Because Solomon broke the covenant, God would take away a big part of the kingdom from Solomon's son.

Israel splits into 2 kingdoms - When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king. Rehoboam made a bad decision to increase the taxes of his people. This made the Israelites angry - 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel refused Rehoboam as king, and chose a man named Jereboam to lead them. This formed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with its capital in Samaria. The Southern Kingdom, comprising of 2 tribes of Judah and Benjamin, continued to be ruled by Rehoboam, with its capital in Jerusalem.

During this time of the divided kingdom, a succession of kings would rule in both Judah and Israel. 20 kings from 9 different tribes would rule Israel for around 200 years - the kings were all bad - they did not keep the covenant with God, and worshiped false idols. God sent many prophets to warn them and remind them to repent and return to God - these included Elijah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea. However, the people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel continued to turn away from God. Finally, God allowed Assyria to conquer them in 722 BC, and the people in the northern kingdom were scattered, and foreigners settled into Samaria.

The Southern Kingdom of Judah were all ruled by David's descendants, from the tribe of Judah, for about 350 years. Many of the kings in the southern kingdom were also bad and did not keep the covenant, but there were some good kings who loved God and obeyed him - such as Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah. God saved the southern kingdom from Assyria (who had conquered the North) during Hezekiah's rule. He also sent prophets to remind them of his love, and remind them to turn back to God - such as Isaiah, Micah, Joel and Jeremiah. However, despite their warnings, the people refused to turn away from their false idols. The Babylonians conquered Judah and destroyed the temple of in Jerusalem in 587 BC. They captured the Jews and brought them to Babylon.

Exile in Babylon - The Jews were exiled in Babylon for 70 years. During this time, God did not abandon them and continued to be with them. Daniel and his friends stayed faithful to God - God watched over them gave Daniel the ability to interpret dreams and prophesy. King Nebuchadnezzar, impressed with Daniel, appointed him as a senior officer in his court. God also continued to give his people hope through his prophets, who had prophesied that God would restore his people.

Return to Jerusalem - The Persian Kingdom conquered Babylon in 539 BC, and King Cyrus of Persia ruled Babylon. King Cyrus released the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and even gave them resources to rebuild the temple. Over time, the Jews returned and rebuilt the temple as well as the walls of Jerusalem. The prophet Ezra restored God's laws and taught the people God's Word.

The Maccabean revolt - In 336 BC, Alexander the Great conquered Persia, and the Greeks came into power. The Greek leaders were very cruel and persecuted the Jews. The Jews were not allowed to keep God's laws and were expected to pray to the Greek idols. Some Jews refused and chose to die rather than disobey God. A holy priest named Mattathias together with his sons Judah Maccabee, Jonathan and Simon, led a rebellion and eventually recaptured Jerusalem, driving out the Greeks. His sons established the Hasmonean dynasty, which was short lived.

In 63 BC, the Roman Empire conquered Jerusalem, and the Romans installed King Herod the Great as a ruler of Judea. The Jews continued to wait and hope for the Messiah, whom the prophets such as Isaiah and Malachi had promised would restore Israel to its fullest. The stage was set for Jesus, the King of Kings, to come into the world.