MessageStudentCatalog v5 - Flipbook - Page 5
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SONG of SONGS
Return
of Israel
Z EC H A RI AH
E ST H E R
M AL AC H I
N E HE M I A H
Bible scholars disagree about the precise dating of some books in the Bible, so we have made assumptions based on predominant information.
Damascus
CI
A
Mount
Hermon
NI
Tyre
Dan
Mediterranean
ARA
( SYR M
IA
Kedesh
)
Hazor
Jesus Begins
His Work
Life of Christ
Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John tell the historical
life of Jesus from different
perspectives.
Sea of
Galilee
Ashtaroth
Edrei
Megiddo
Taanach
Ibleam
Shunem
Ramoth Gilead
Beth Shan
Tirzah
Samaria
ISRAEL
Aphek
Kingdom
Divided
MOSES
Kings begin ruling
ca. 1000 B.C.
Saul
David
Solomon
ABRAHAM
Beginning of
Kings’ Rule
NOAH
H AG GA I
page 1629
Sidon
Shiloh
Joppa
Gezer
Ashdod
Bethel
Jericho
Aijalon
Jerusalem
Zorah
Gerar
IL
Beersheba
Medeba
Mareshah
Hebron
DA
Dibon
Aroer
Dead
Sea
Carmel
JU
Raphia
AMMON
Rabbah
Heshbon
Bethlehem
Gath
Ashkelon
Gaza
ADAM & EVE
EZEKIEL
EZRA
14-15
PH
LAMENTATIONS
DAN I E L
Act III: Israel
Prophets After the Exile
God Chooses Abraham
ca. 2100 B.C.
Prophets During the Exile
O B A DI A H
H A B A KKUK
God spoke: “Lights! Come out!
Shine in Heaven’s sky!
Lachish
Flood Covers
the Earth
JE RE M I A H
Creation
Prophets Before the Exile
Act I: Creation
Prophetic Books
Z EP H A N I A H
A Visual Chronology
NAH UM
Israel
in Exile
THE DRAMA OF THE BIBLE
JONAH
MICAH
11-13
Jordan River
AMOS
HOSEA
God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.
Shechem
JOEL
I SAI A H
9-10
Acco
Act II: The Fall
ECCLESIASTES
God spoke: “Separate!
Water-beneath-Heaven, gather into one place;
Land, appear!”
And there it was.
God named the land Earth.
He named the pooled water Ocean.
God saw that it was good.
Moses Leads Israel
out of Slavery
P SA L M S
P R OV ER B S
6-8
OE
Beginning of
the Church
Jesus Dies ca. A.D. 30;
3 Days Later He Rises
from the Dead
Kingdoms
Exiled
1 CHRONICLES
2 KINGS
Israel 722 B.C.
Judah 586 B.C.
1 SA MU EL
2 SA MU EL
1 KI NG S
God spoke: “Sky! In the middle of the waters;
separate water from water!”
God made sky.
He separated the water under sky
from the water above sky.
And there it was:
he named sky the Heavens;
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Two.
Sea
RU T H
Monarchy
2 CHRONICLES
3-5
Last Book of
Old Testament
Written
JUDG E S
Judges
1-2
God spoke: “Light!”
And light appeared.
God saw that light was good
and separated light from dark.
God named the light Day,
he named the dark Night.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day One.
JESUS
JO S HUA
The Birth
of Jesus
Wisdom Books
DEUTERONOMY
Act IV: Jesus
Historical Books
N U M B ER S
LEVITICUS
• Rise of the Roman Empire 28 B.C.
EXO DUS
Israel in
Egypt and
Canaan
• China begins construction on The Great Wall 214 B.C.
The Pentateuch
• Alexander the Great begins rule 336 B.C.
JOB
G E N ES I S
World Events
Patriarchs
• Pyramids built 2500s B.C.
Organized by General Order of Events
• Buddism founded in India 500s B.C.
BOOKS OF THE OLD TE STAMENT
HEAVEN AND EARTH
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth—all you see, all you don’t see. Earth
was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God’s Spirit
brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.
1
Act V: The New People of God
The Church
Today
But Genesis presents none of this to
us as an abstract, bloodless truth or
principle. We are given a succession
of stories with named people—
people who loved and quarreled,
believed and doubted, had children
and married, experienced sin
and grace. If we pay attention, we
find that we ourselves are living
variations on these very stories:
Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah
and his sons, Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and
Rachel, Joseph and his brothers.
The stories show clearly that we
are never outsiders or spectators to
anything in Heaven and Earth. God
doesn’t work impersonally from
space; he works with us where we
are, as he finds us. No matter what
we do, whether good or bad, we
continue to be part of everything that
God is doing. Nobody can drop out;
there’s no place to drop out to. So we
may as well get started and take our
place in the story—at the beginning.
page 1626
• Hinduism gains influence in India 1100s B.C.
page 1624
God spoke: “Let us make human
beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for . . .
Earth itself. . . .”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and
female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth!
Take charge!” [Genesis 1:26-28]
People
Scattered
An enormous authority and dignity have, through the centuries, developed around the
first five books of the Bible, commonly known as the Books of Moses. Over the course of
many centuries, they have prompted a truly astonishing amount of reading and writing,
study and prayer, teaching and preaching.
God is the primary concern of these books. That accounts for the authority and the
dignity. But it is not only God; we also get included. That accounts for the widespread and
intense human interest. We want to know what’s going on. We want to know how we fit
into things. We don’t want to miss out.
The Books of Moses are made up mostly of stories and signposts. The stories show us
God working with and speaking to men and women in a rich variety of circumstances. God
is presented to us not in ideas and arguments but in events and actions that involve each
of us personally. The signposts provide immediate and practical directions to guide us
into behavior that is appropriate to our humanity and honoring to God.
The simplicity of the storytelling and signposting in these books makes what is written
here as accessible to children as to adults. But the simplicity (as in so many simple
things) is also profound, inviting us into a lifetime of growing participation in God’s saving
ways with us.
The image of human growth suggests a reason for the powerful pull of these stories
and signposts on so many millions of men, women, and children to live as God’s people.
We can sketch the five books as five stages of growth in which God creates first a cosmos
and then a people for his glory.
GENESIS IS CONCEPTION. After establishing the basic elements by which he will do his
work of creation and salvation and judgment in the midst of human sin and rebellion
(chapters 1–11), God conceives a people. He will reveal himself to them—and through
them, over time, to everyone on earth—as a God of salvation. God begins small, with one
man: Abraham. The embryonic People of God grow in the womb. Gradually details and
then more details become evident as the embryo takes shape: Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah,
Jacob and Esau, Rachel, Joseph and his brothers. The pregnancy develops. Life is
obviously developing in that womb, but there is also much that is not clear and visible.
The background history is vague, the surrounding nations and customs veiled in a kind of
mist. But the presence of life, God-conceived life, is kicking and robust.
EXODUS IS BIRTH AND INFANCY. The gestation of the People of God lasts a long time, but
finally the birth pangs start. Egyptian slavery gives the first intimations of the contractions
to come. When Moses arrives on the scene to preside over the birth itself, ten fierce
plagues on Egypt accompany the contractions that bring the travail to completion: At the
that rock: God’s creative acts, God’s
intervening and gracious judgments,
God’s call to a life of faith, God’s
making a covenant with us.
The Fall
into Sin
THE BOOKS OF MOSES
GENESIS
PH
GENESIS
FIRST, GOD. God is the subject of
life. God is foundational for living. If
we don’t have a sense of the primacy
of God, we will never get it right, get
life right, get our lives right. Not God
at the margins; not God as an option;
not God on the weekends. God at
center and circumference; God first
and last; God, God, God.
Genesis gets us off on the right
foot. “First this: God” (Genesis
1:1). Genesis pulls us into a sense
of reality that is God-shaped and
God-filled. It gives us a vocabulary
for speaking accurately and
comprehensively about our lives—
where we come from and where we
are going, what we think and what
we do, the people we live with and
how to get along with them, the
troubles we find ourselves in and
the blessings that keep arriving.
Genesis uses words to make a
foundation that is solid and true.
Everything we think and do and feel
is material in a building operation in
which we are engaged all our lives
long. There is immense significance
in everything that we do. Our speech
and actions and prayers are all, every
detail of them, involved in this vast
building operation comprehensively
known as the kingdom of God. But
we don’t build the foundation. The
foundation is given. The foundation is
firmly in place.
Jesus concluded his most famous
teaching by telling us that there are
two ways to go about our lives—we
can build on sand or we can build on
rock. No matter how wonderfully we
build, if we build on sand it will all fall
to pieces like a house of cards. We
build on what is already there, on the
rock. Genesis is a verbal witness to
G E N E S I S 1 d page 8
H
MOAB
Kir Hareseth
IS
TIA
The Divided Kingdom
Israel and Judah
0
0
Kadesh Barnea
10
10
20
20
30
30 mi.
40
km
