Introduction to the OId Testament

Watch the Insight Video on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/kh5V6GGqB1g

Watch the Teaching Activities Video on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/O5S18_sEz-0

INSIGHTS

The first thing I like to do at the beginning of any new year of scripture study is to help my students get excited about studying that particular standard work. So this year, what do we have to look forward to in studying the Old Testament? In short? A lot. I LOVE teaching the Old Testament. In fact, if you pressed me to narrow down which of the four years of scripture study that I enjoy teaching the most, as difficult a decision as that is, I would probably have to say the Old Testament. Now, I enjoy teaching every year of scripture. As my dad always says, “God never wrote a bad book.” But for some reason, the Old Testament holds a special place in my heart. And maybe that’s because the majority of members of the church don’t know as much about it. The Old Testament is probably the most neglected book of scripture in the church. And why is that? Well, it’s kind of intimidating. First of all, it’s so big! People take one look at the sheer bulk of that volume and already they’re put off. Second, the language is a bit tougher to comprehend. It’s the most archaic in its syntax. Third, the history is confusing and the culture foreign. You have all these kings and prophets, and tribes, and civilizations. Assyria, Babylon, Samaria, Egypt, Persia, Canaanites, Philistines, Edomites, Moabites. It’s all a little overwhelming. Plus, I will admit that some of the books we find in the Old Testament are a bit more tedious to get through. Numbers, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Chronicles. Although I will say that each of those books have powerful and worthwhile lessons in them. But they’re definitely a tougher read than say 1st Nephi, or Alma, or Matthew, or the Doctrine and Covenants. Plus you’ve got Isaiah in there, which we know a lot of people struggle with. On top of that, we have all those minor prophets that some have never even heard of, and they think you’re making them up. Who the heck is Habakkuk, or Nahum, or Zephaniah? Well we’re going to get to know these people this year, because they all have incredibly relevant and significant things to teach us. So, in terms of length, language, culture, and complexity, the Old Testament can be an intimidating study prospect. And maybe that’s part of the reason I enjoy teaching it so much. Students are expecting it to be hard or boring or obsolete, and then they’re surprised to see, though difficult, how relevant, and exciting it is. It’s fun to introduce people to something new. Now I love teaching the Book of Mormon and the New Testament and Church History, but most members are fairly familiar with those stories. They have been since primary. When I teach seminary, almost all my students already know that Nephi is going to make it to the promised land on their boat. They already know that Ammon is going to defend the kings flocks by cutting of the arms of the robbers. They know that the stripling warriors are all going to survive. They know that Jesus is going to walk on the water and rescue his apostles from the storm and that Lazarus is going to be raised from the dead. But when you start to teach them the story of Gideon and his 300 men, or Jonathan and his armorbearer, or Elijah and the priests of Baal, or Hezekiah, or Naaman, or Nehemiah, they’re on the edges of their seat wondering, what’s going to happen next? And you get to experience that with them. Even the stories they think they know; most have never actually read from the Old Testament itself. They’re surprised to see how things actually play out. They’ve seen the movie, but they haven’t read the book. They think they know the story of Noah and the ark, or David and Goliath, or Jonah and the whale, but are surprised to see how the scriptures actually portray those accounts. Many are surprised to find out that Esau is not as bad a character as they expected him to be, and that Samson is not as good a character as they thought he was. On top of all that, a lot of the stories in the Old Testament are just really kind of fun. I mean, who can’t help but smile at the story of Balaam and his talking donkey, Elijah, and his showdown with the priests of Baal, Micaiah and his sarcastic confrontation with King Ahab, or Daniel playing with ferocious lions as if they were kittens. Fantastic, miraculous, and fascinating stories. I can’t wait to experience them with you. And women, the Old Testament is your book! No other standard work has more female role models than the Old Testament. I mean, this book of the Patriarchs is actually the least patriarchal. You have the wisdom of Eve in the Garden of Eden. The faith of Sarah as she bears a child at age 90. Deborah, who inspires an army to fight for God. Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, who is the only one citizen of Jericho that repents, and then later became an Israelite princess. You’ve got the loyalty and charity of Ruth, and the courage of Esther. The widow of Zaraphath, Hannah, the daughters of Onitah and the daughters of Zelophehad, Rebekah, Rachel, Abigail, Miriam. As a daughter of Zion, Old Testament year may be your most inspiring as far as female heroes go. 

So whether you’re teaching or studying the Old Testament this year, I hope you’re excited. I know I am. Plus, with the scheduling changes in the seminary curriculum over the past few years, it’s actually been six years since I’ve been able to teach the Old Testament and I’ve been longing to have this experience again for quite some time now. 

ICEBREAKER

So, an activity that I do with my students at the beginning of the year is this trivia activity that will hopefully help pique their curiosity and whet their appetite for their study of the Old Testament. And I’ll have to admit, that this focuses more on some of the more entertaining and amusing aspects and stories of the Old Testament. At least with teenagers, it seems to get them interested and excited to study it. It has a few different sections to it, and you could do it either as a handout, and have them go through all the questions on their own on paper and then correct it together and see who gets the highest score. Or you could do it with them with the questions up on the screen it just has them guess what they think the answers are. Or you could make it a game and divide them up into teams and see which team gets them most correct.  Either way, I think they’ll have fun with it.

So the first section of questions we’ll call “Who Said it?” 

·      Which great law giver gave us all great health advice by specifically instructing that we should not eat bats, pelicans, weasels, chameleons, eagles, camels, ferrets, storks, or tortoises.  However, if you ever get the craving for a nice beetle, roebuck, or grasshopper, bon appetit, it’s all right with God.

o   Moses

·      Who is quoted as saying the following to his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man”?

o   Jacob

·      This wisest of all men in the Old Testament made this comment. “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.”

o   Solomon

Next, a simple Multiple-Choice section. Which item is correct?

·      Which of the following is not something Ezekiel did to teach the people of Jerusalem?

o   Made bread, baked it with cow dung, and then ate it in front of everyone.

o   Jumped up and down in the central square of the city like a frog for hours.

o   Lied down on his left side for 390 days, then on his right side for 40.

o   Didn’t cry or mourn when his wife died.

·      What happened when the Philistines captured the ark from the Israelites?

o   They tried to open it and they melted.

o   Their pagan temples crumbled to the ground.

o   They got hemorrhoids.

o   They fell into a deep sleep until the Israelites could recover the ark.

·      What special test did the Israelites give to those wishing to enter its borders to verify they were of the house of Israel.

o   They had them say the word “Shibboleth” because only an Israelite could pronounce it correctly.

o   They asked them to demonstrate the “Shalom Beth la Haim” dance. A Hebrew dance performed at weddings.

o   They had to recite their genealogy all the way back to Abraham.

o   They had to quote the entire book of Leviticus.

·      When Saul prayed to the Lord, and the Lord didn’t answer because of Saul’s wickedness, he resorted to asking a witch from this place.

o   Tatooine

o   Endor

o   Dagobah

o   Naboo

Our next section. Now the Old Testament is also a bit more of an intense book when it comes to war and conflict. So, the next challenge is entitled: How did they die? Choose the scenario you think describes the actual demise of these wicked people.

·      Absalom

o   His long flowing hair got tangled on a low branch, hanging him there until his enemies found him and dispatched him.

o   He fell backwards off a cliff while fighting with the Philistines

o   He was crushed by his own idol while carving it.

·      Jezebel

o   Fire from heaven came down and consumed her.

o   A crack in the earth opened up and swallowed her whole.

o   She was thrown out of a window by her own servants and eaten by dogs.

·      Abimelech

o   He was trampled by a herd of stampeding camels.

o   He was hit in the head by a piece of falling kitchenware.

o   He was thrown into a vat of boiling hot olive oil.

Our next section will give you three different stories. Two of them I made up. You have to determine which one is the true story from the Old Testament.  Here we go:

o   One day as Elisha the prophet was walking through the land of Israel, a group of teenagers came by and started making fun of him for being bald. They taunted calling him a “bald head”. Elisha responded by turning around and shaking his head at the youths. Suddenly, from out of nowhere a huge bear came running out of the woods, attacking the young men, and devouring them. Apparently, they had all learned a painful lesson. Never mock a prophet.

o   Malachias was a prophet during the Babylonian empire. One day while walking down the streets of Susa, he heard a voice calling his name from an alleyway. As Malachias entered the alley he was startled to find that the voice was not coming from a person, but from a sheep. The sheep told him that his calling was to prophesy to the people of Japhek by telling them that they were as sheep without a shepherd and needed to turn again to the God of Israel. It just goes to show that in the Old Testament, the Lord often uses unconventional means to teach his people.

o   Ahaziah was a powerful but wicked Judean King.  The Lord called on his prophet Oded to confront the king. Oded was a very short, old, and frail man while Ahaziah was strong, young, and mighty. The Lord commanded Oded to approach the king with a sword and demand that he repent or perish. The kings guards did nothing, not expecting this frail, old man to be a threat. The King simply laughed and drew his own sword, challenging Oded to a fight to the death. As the King approached, Oded unexpectedly sprang forward and fought with such incredible speed, and power, and skill that he swiftly killed the wicked king to everyone’s great surprise.

o   Which of those stories is true? The answer is the first one about Elisha. That really did happen. We’ll cover that story in more detail later in the year. 

Finally, the Old Testament is most known for what I would call the “AND” stories. See if you can fill in the blanks of these “AND” stories. 

·      Adam AND___________ (Eve)

·      Noah AND ____________ (The Ark)

·      Jonah AND ___________ (The Whale)

·      David AND ___________ (Goliath)

·      Samson AND __________ (Delilah)

·      Joseph AND ___________ (The Coat of Many Colors)

·      Daniel AND ___________ (The Lion’s Den)

·      Cain AND ____________ (Abel)

And then I usually like to add that this year, they’ll be introduced to a lot of other “AND” that they may not be as familiar with. We’ll talk about Jacob AND Esau, Elijah AND the widow of Zarephath, Hezekiah AND Rabshakeh, Gideon AND the Midianites, Nehemiah AND the walls of Jerusalem, Balaam and the talking donkey. AND many, many more.   

TRUTH

So, the truth that I like to emphasize with this introduction is. The Old Testament will teach you, inspire you, warn you, and fascinate you IF you are willing to dig deep into its contents. 

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

What is your study goal this year in the Old Testament?

Some suggestions: Maybe your goal will be to read all the suggested readings from the manual. (There’s a note about the reading schedule at the beginning of the Come, Follow Me manual that tells you that this year’s study does not include every book and chapter of the Old Testament, only selected portions. This makes the reading schedule a bit more manageable for someone who is trying to study the whole thing in just one year) Or, you may decide to read the entire text of the Old Testament-a worthy goal in my mind and something I think everybody should do at least once in their life. Maybe your goal will be to mark something in your scriptures every time you study, or to keep a study journal, or to really dig deep every time you study. Whatever you do, have a goal in mind that you know will keep you motivated and challenged throughout the year. 

CONCLUSION

Well, as I’ve said, there is so much to look forward to in this year’s study. The poetic symbolism of Isaiah, the profoundly deep visions of Moses, and Abraham, and Enoch, the fantastic miracles of the Exodus.  We’ll see seas part, giants fall to shepherds, and the faithful walk through fiery furnaces unsinged. We’ll study both dramatic stories of faith and simple stories of faith. We’ll learn from kings, and prophets, and priests, and shepherds, and harlots, and the old and the young. We’ll learn lessons from both the righteous and the wicked. If you’ve never read the Old Testament before, I want to invite you to do that this year. To give this course of study your due attention and diligence. If you’ve read the Book of Mormon 20 times, and you’ve studied the life of Christ, and you’ve been deeply through the Doctrine and Covenants this past year, but you’ve never given much attention to the Old Testament, I hope you’ll reconsider your opinion of its value.  Keep the following in mind. When Nephi and his brothers were sent back to Jerusalem for the plates of brass, a record so important that it was worth traveling all the way back to Jerusalem for, and giving away, all their worldly possessions, and a risking of their lives to get. And what record was on the plates of brass? The Old Testament. Or at least portions of it. When they arrive back at camp with the plates, Nephi makes the following comment about them:

21 And we had obtained the records which the Lord had commanded us and searched them and found that they were desirable; yea, even of great worth unto us, insomuch that we could preserve the commandments of the Lord unto our children.

22 Wherefore, it was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry them with us, as we journeyed in the wilderness towards the land of promise.

What did we just learn about the Old Testament? It is desirable. It is of great worth. It preserves the commandments of the Lord. It is wisdom that we should carry the Old Testament with as we make OUR journey towards OUR promised land.  

When Nephi encourages us to liken the scriptures, when he says, “feast upon the words of Christ”, when he speaks of holding fast to the iron rod of God’s word, what book of scripture was he referring to and thinking of? The Old Testament. No wonder he quotes Isaiah so much. Nephi loved the Old Testament. 

Also, when Jesus speaks of the scriptures. When he defends himself against temptation by saying the words “it is written”. When he prophesies about himself in the synagogue. When he says, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39) What “scriptures” was Jesus referring to? The Old Testament.  He quoted it frequently and found inspiration and strength in it. And remember, after the resurrection when he appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, it says that he opened up the scriptures and taught them about his mission and purpose. What book of scripture must he have been teaching from? The Old Testament. 

So, although we don’t find the name “Jesus Christ” anywhere in the Old Testament, who does it testify of, and teach us about, and lead us to? Jesus Christ. We just get to know Him by a different name: Jehovah. If the New Testament is the testament of the actual life and mortal teachings of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER testament of Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine and Covenants is OUR testament of Jesus Christ, then the Old Testament is the FIRST testament of Jesus Christ. 

If you know your Old Testament, your comprehension and appreciation of the Book of Mormon will increase. You’re understanding of the teachings of Christ in the New Testament will be illuminated.  Your grasp of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History will be amplified. 

So together, let’s dig deep into this phenomenal book of scripture this year. Something that may surprise you as you begin to deeply study the Old Testament is just how relevant it is to our day.  Though these stories come from thousands of years ago, they are as applicable to the year 2022 AD as they were to the year 2022 BC. The people of the Old Testament will teach you things if you’re just willing to listen to them.

·      Have any of you ever felt like even though you were doing everything you could to do what was right, only wrong things happened to you? Even though you remained faithful to your beliefs, only negative consequences came. Well, Joseph of Egypt and Job have something to teach you this year.

·      Have you ever felt like the world around you was just getting worse and worse and you needed a refuge from it all? Something to help you rise above the flood of evil around you? Noah has something to teach you.

·      Have you ever had trouble in your family, or you felt that it was dysfunctional? Jacob has something to teach you.

·      Have you ever felt God was testing you? That he was asking you to do something or give something that seemed almost impossible to give? Moses, and Gideon, and Abraham and Isaac have something to teach you.

·      Have you ever felt surrounded on all sides by temptation, or your enemies, or your trials and you didn’t know how on earth you were ever going to escape? Well Hezekiah has something to teach you.

·      Have you ever had a calling you just didn’t want to accept? Jonah has something to teach you.

·      Have you ever had to stand up for what’s right when everybody else around you seemed to be bowing down to the worldly wrong? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and Daniel have something to teach you.

·      You want to know how to be a more loyal friend? Jonathan has something to teach you.

·      Do you want to come to know Christ on a more deeply personal level? Give Isaiah a chance.

Listen to them! Their voices whisper to us from the dust, showing us that God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. If he can do these marvelous things for them, he will most certainly do the same for us.

I’d like to end with something that Joseph Smith said about the Old Testament. He said:

 “God’s own handwriting” is in this “sacred volume” and “he who reads it oftenest will like it best”.  

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 56.)

I believe that those who do read the Old Testament often and deeply, will like it best. And I hope that you not only come to like it, but love it as well. 

MARKING ACTIVITY

One final activity that you might want to walk your students through at the beginning of your study of the Old Testament is a quick marking activity with the table of contents. It may help your students to understand the organization of the Old Testament because it’s not necessarily in chronological order. It’s arranged into different sections. So here’s how you break it down. I have my students mark and label these sections in different colors. 

You have the first five books of the Bible. These books are referred to as THE LAW. They were written by Moses and contain an account of the earth’s history from the time of the creation down to the death of Moses. They also contain what we call the law of Moses, which was the Lord’s religious instructions for his people that God wanted them to live from the time of Moses down to the mortal ministry of Christ. These five books are also sometimes referred to as the Pentateuch or the Torah.

Then we have the historical books. These extend from Joshua to Esther and are basically chronological in their retelling of ancient Hebrew history.

Then you have the poetic books. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. These are written in more of a poetic style and contain some of the wisdom and musical texts of Old Testament peoples.

Finally, you have the prophets. Each book contains the writings of the prophet whose name the book bears. You have the writings and prophesies of prophets from both the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel. 

That should give your students a good overview of the makeup of the Old Testament. 

And, it’s also important that you note that the Pearl of Great Price has some additional books of scripture that coincide with our study of the Old Testament. There you’ll find the books of Moses and Abraham as well.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Introduction to the Old Testament

IDEAS FOR INTRODUCING THE OLD TESTAMENT

TRUTH:

The Old Testament is a powerful, relevant, Christ-centered book that will teach, inspire, and strengthen me if I’m willing to dig deep into its pages.

FIRE IN THE BONES:

I want you to realize that this is your golden opportunity as a teacher to get your students ready and energized for the studying the Old Testament. Here, we’re opening a door that many of your students have never meaningfully walked through. For a lot of people, the Old Testament feels distant, intimidating, or irrelevant. Well, our task is to replace that fear with curiosity, with connection, with confidence. The Old Testament is THE foundation for all scripture. Nephi loved and studied the Old Testament, Jesus loved and studied the Old Testament, Joseph loved and studied the Old Testament. So should we. It’s the FIRST testament of Jesus Christ. And though old, it is ALIVE with faith, struggle, courage, repentance, and redemption—and most of all, relevance. This isn’t hyperbole. I believe that a serious study of these sacred pages can change their lives. It’s changed mine.

OBJECT:

My suggestion for this lesson, two pairs of objects. For the first, you’ll just need a Bible and a Triple Combination that are separate. So not a quad. And then also, a mini or fun-size candy bar, and a large or giant candy bar, think Costco size. 

ICEBREAKER #1:

Then for an icebreaker, the first question you can ask is “When you hear ‘Old Testament,’ what’s your first reaction? Then give them a minute to share their first impressions, assumptions, or feelings about studying the Old Testament this year and list them on the board. And you’ll usually hear things like “confusing,” “long,” “weird stories,” “hard to understand,” or “kind of exciting.” That should create a space for honest expectations and it gives you a natural platform to validate their feelings before attempting to reframe them with hope and enthusiasm. Then as a way of capturing the interest and attention of your students, you can  display the Bible and set it right next to a triple combination and invite your students to visually compare their size. And if you just isolate the pages of the Old Testament itself, (so open it up and pinch just the pages of the Old Testament and show them its length, and then do the same with the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price combined), what do they notice. It’s longer than all three of those combined. That visual immediately communicates why many people find the Old Testament so intimidating—its sheer bulk hints at why it’s often neglected. That’s when you pull out the two sizes of candy bar. And you ask, which of these two candy bars would you rather eat? More than likely they’re going to laugh and say they would choose the big one. Then make the connection: the Old Testament may feel intimidating because it’s huge, but just like the bigger candy bar, its size is actually a blessing. A larger book means more stories, more doctrine, more heroes, more miracles, and more revelation to enjoy. So, instead of being overwhelmed, hopefully we can view its size with gratitude. With thankfulness over the fact that there’s simply more to feast on. And that visual comparison sets a positive tone and reframes the OT’s length as something exciting rather than something to fear. Like Nephi once rhetorically asked:

Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? . . .

(2 Nephi 29:8)

ICEBREAKER #2/HANDOUT/GAME:

Another icebreaker that I love to use to introduce the Old Testament is this Old Testament Trivia Challenge that I put together. This works really well and I think that your students, young and old alike, can have a great experience with this. This is the activity where you challenge your students with a number of different questions regarding stories and characters from the Old Testament, many of which are lesser known, and invite them to guess at the answers. It's fun! You could also approach this as a handout activity that they fill out before you go over the answers, and they see what kind of score they get. OR, you could even do this as a game, where you divide your class into teams of 4 or 5, have them collectively settle on an answer to the question on the screen, and if they get it right, their team is awarded a point. Then, the team with the most points at the end wins.

TEACHER INSIGHT

But, a caution here, you don’t really want that activity to fill the entirety of your lesson. If it does, I’m afraid that you may be doing your class a bit of a disservice. We not only want to pique their interest in the Old Testament, but we also want them to feel spiritually drawn to it—to feel an excitement to dig deep into it because of its relevance, its power, and its ability to bring them closer to God and Jesus Christ.  So here are some points that I would want to include in that introductory lesson. Some insight that I would want to share with them as the teacher. The insight video does go into these ideas more deeply, so I’m just going to briefly cover them here.

1.    I would be sure to tell them that when Nephi and his brothers go back to Jerusalem to get the plates of brass, and then bring them back to their family, in 1 Nephi 5:21-22 Nephi expresses just how valuable and important he felt they were. Well, what scripture was on the brass plates? The Old Testament.

2.    If you have women in your class, I would be sure to tell them that the Old Testament is probably the best standard work when it comes to female role models and heroes. It features women like Eve, Sarah, Deborah, Ruth, Esther, and many, many more.

3.    A very important point that I would want to make at the beginning of the year would be to remind them that when Jesus referred to the scriptures, and quoted them, and found strength in them in temptation, and encouraged others to search them, what scriptures was HE referring to. The Old Testament. And with that thought, take them to John 5:39 where Jesus says that the scriptures are “they which testify of me”.  You could also take them to Luke 24 and summarize the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus who meet the resurrected Lord and he teaches them about HIMSELF from the Old Testament, and their hearts burn within them. Hopefully, that’s the experience we have this year because, no doubt about it, The Old Testament is a book about Christ. He may go by a different name there, “Jehovah,” but it’s Jesus. The Old Testament will teach us about and bring us closer to Christ.

4.    And then, at the beginning of the year, I always like to emphasize just how relevant the the scriptures are to our day. Some students may wonder how a book written thousands of years ago could have anything of worth in it for someone that is living in 2026. Be sure to testify—with genuine enthusiasm—that it absolutely does. The Old Testament speaks powerfully to modern questions and struggles. Then think of a few of your favorite Old Testament stories and share how they’ve been relevant to you. Here are some examples of how I like to express that idea. I ask:

·      Have any of you ever felt like you were doing everything you could to do what was right, yet everything still seemed to go wrong? Well, I say,  Joseph of Egypt and Job have something to teach you this year.

·      Have you ever felt surrounded on all sides—by temptation, by pressure, by problems—and wondered how you would ever make it through? King Hezekiah has something to teach you this year.

·      Have you ever had to stand alone for what was right when everyone else around you seemed to be bowing down to the wrong? Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, and Daniel have something to teach you.

And you just use that same simple pattern to share as many examples as you’d like. This format—“Have you ever…? Then ___ has something to teach you”—is a powerful way to help students feel the relevance of the Old Testament and see themselves in its stories.

QUOTE:

“God’s own handwriting” is in this “sacred volume” and “he who reads it oftenest will like it best”.

(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith (1976), 56.)

VIDEO:

Here are a few possible video options to consider showing with your lesson if you like to add that element.

About the Old Testament 

This is a brief animated video that gives a very simple introduction to the Old Testament and helps explain why it matters and how it points us towards God’s plan. This one is more geared towards young people but would still be appropriate in an adult class.

Children of Israel

Similarly, this video is also geared towards young people but would totally go over well in an adult class. It features young children being asked questions about the Old Testament and Old Testament stories. It’s absolutely hilarious,  but also sweet. Some of the things the kids say are really quite profound. That could be a fun addition to a lesson introducing this year’s study.

MARKING ACTIVITY:

Have your students open their scriptures to the Table of Contents page. There you can explain the organization of the Old Testament and have your students mark the different sections and categories of books in different colors. That will help them to understand the structure of the Old Testament. Because it’s not necessarily in Chronological order.

OLD TESTAMENT TIMELINE:

Another possible activity that you might want to consider is to do an overview of the basic timeline of the book—to help give them the basic structure of the chronological flow of the Old Testament. To do this, I like to use visuals and then give them a handout that they can refer to throughout the year. Now, in the Come Follow Me manual, I noticed that they do provide a timeline chart that you could also use. But I’m a visual learner, and I like to use pictures to do this. So, here’s my take on the basic Old Testament outline, as simple as I could get it.

·       We’re going to call the initial period of time in the Old Testament the time of the Patriarchs.

• And we’ll begin that period with the creation. God creates the world and places Adam and Eve on the earth. Enoch builds Zion while the rest of the world turns increasingly wicked.

• The Lord sends a flood to cleanse the earth. Noah builds the ark, and his family is preserved.

• The Tower of Babel is built. At this time, the Jaredites are led to the Americas.

• The Lord establishes His covenant with Abraham.

• The covenant passes from Abraham to Isaac, and then to Jacob, who is renamed Israel.

• Israel has twelve sons.

• One of them, Joseph, is sold into Egypt by his brothers. Joseph rises to power in Egypt and saves his family from famine. They all settle in Egypt where their descendants live for many generations.

• Eventually, the Israelites are placed into bondage by the Egyptians.

• The Lord calls Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage.

• Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt toward the promised land.

• Because of their lack of faith, the Israelites wander in the wilderness for forty years.

• Joshua leads a new generation of Israelites into the promised land, where they begin to settle and govern the land.

• The period of the Judges begins. Israel cycles through righteousness and wickedness; when they repent, the Lord raises up judges to deliver them.

• The story of Ruth takes place during the reign of the Judges

• Samuel is called as a prophet and judge over Israel, but the people demand a king, rejecting the Lord’s counsel. This begins the time period of the United Kingdom of Israel.

• Israel is ruled by its first three kings: Saul, David, and Solomon.

• But alas, that unity doesn’t last. Now we enter the period of the Divided Kingdoms. After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam becomes king but ten of the tribes rebel against him and make Jeroboam their king, dividing the kingdom into two nations:

  • The Northern Kingdom of Israel

  • The Southern Kingdom of Judah

• For many generations, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is ruled entirely by wicked kings. The Lord sends prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, and Jonah to call the people to repentance. But Israel is eventually conquered by Assyria in 721 B.C., and the ten tribes are scattered. This is how they come to be known as the lost ten tribes.

• The Southern Kingdom of Judah is ruled by a mixture of wicked and righteous kings. The Lord sends prophets such as Isaiah and Jeremiah to them. Judah is eventually conquered by Babylon in 587 B.C.

• But before the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem, a man named Lehi and his family leave Jerusalem around 600 B.C for the Americas.

• This period becomes known as the Exile.

• During the exile, prophets such as Daniel and Ezekiel minister among the people.

• Later, the Persian Empire conquers Babylon and now they’re in charge. The story of Esther takes place during this time.

• The Persians allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple under the leadership of men like Ezra and Nehemiah. After the return, the Lord sends prophets to the people such as Zechariah and Malachi.

TAKE IT TO HEART QUESTIONS:

What excites you about studying the Old Testament this year?

How have you already been blessed by a character, story, or scripture from the Old Testament?

I WILL GO AND DO QUESTION:

What is one personal goal you will act on to make your Old Testament study meaningful this year?

Suggestions:

Read all the selected readings for the year.

Read the entire Old Testament this year.

Mark at least one thing every time you study.

Keep a scripture study journal with your thoughts and reflections on what you’re learning.

TAKEAWAY:

Remind them of what we learned at the beginning of the lesson: “The bigger the book, the bigger the blessings”. Then testify of the power and the importance the relevance of the Old Testament. Encourage them to make it a priority this year in their scripture study and assure them that it will be worth the effort.