Quick Outline of the Old Testament

10 Keys of the Old Testament

Creation – Creation, Cain and Abel, Job and the population of the earth up until the post-deluge era after Noah ¹

Kin – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel) -12 sons and all their wives and families. (Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Rachel) ²

Coat – Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of the coat given to him by his father who then was promoted by God to second in control of Egypt and brought his family to the land of Goshen where they prospered and grew in numbers for 300 years. ³

Caravan – 300 years later Moses leads the people out of slavery, across the Red Sea and they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, not entering the Promised land because of their disobedience^{. 4}

Conquered – Joshua leads the people across the Jordan River into the promised land and conquered the land and divided up the land according to the tribes. ⁵

Court – God raises up Judges, who ruled the land of Israel and kept the land in obedience. Whenever the Judges died the nation fell into sin and God punished them until they cried out in repentance, then God would send them another Judge who would free them from oppression and bring them back to the Lord ⁶

Kings – The people want a King like the other nations. God calls Samuel to anoint Saul, who sins and then comes David and his son Solomon who is entrusted in building the Temple (966 B.C.) ⁷

Quarrel -After Solomon’s death his son Rehoboam decides to tax the people hard and they revolt and make a rebel named Jeroboam their leader. The kingdom divides into two nations; The Northern Kingdom lead by Jeroboam, whose capital is the city of Samaria, and the Southern Kingdom (two tribes Judah and Benjamin) under the leadership of Rehoboam, with the capitol as Jerusalem ⁸

Captives -Because of the ungodly acts of the nations and how they mistreated and killed the prophets, God brought invading armies into the land who took them captive. The Northern Kingdom (Israel) was taken captive by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. by King Tiglath-Pileser III. The Southern Kingdom which was barely any better was to be taken captive by the Babylonians for 70 as foretold by Jeremiah ⁹ They were attacked in 606 B.C., 597 B.C. and finally in 586 B.C. when the temple was desecrated and destroyed under King Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁰

Construction – After the 70 years, King Darius of Persia conquered the Babylonians and sent the captives home under Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the temple again. ¹¹