79th of 2020 was a peep into the old testament of Bible. The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first part of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh), a collection of ancient religious Hebrew The books that compose the Old Testament canon, as well as their order and names, differ between Christian denominations. The Catholic canon comprises 46 books, the canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books, and the most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books. itings by the Israelites believed by most Christians and religious Jews to be the sacred Word of God.
Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: (1) the first five books or Pentateuch (Torah); (2) the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; (3) the poetic and "Wisdom books" dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and (4) the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.
My book had (1) The world of Genesis (2) The route of the Exodus (3) The Division of Canaan (4) The United Israelite Kingdom (5) Jerusalem in Old Testament Times (6) The Divided Israelite Kingdom
GENESIS (Origin)
The Beginning of Everything- Genesis - Origin
What was it like when there was no world? First God made matter arranging energy. Then he made light, space, water....plants, flowers, fish, birds and animals in 5 days. Then he made man and woman and rested on day 7.
Adam and Eve
To recount the tale of Adam and Eve, one can skim the pages of the biblical text found from Genesis 1:26 to Genesis 5:5. Genesis 1 reveals how God created humans (male and female) in His image, giving them the authority over all other living things. In his commands, he tells them to “be fruitful and multiply.”
The beginning of Genesis 2 depicts God creating man from dust and then blowing life into his nostrils. A garden is planted by God (the Garden of Eden) and man is placed there. He tells them that all the trees in the garden can be eaten from, but makes an exception with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. He states, “for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God goes on to create animals, and goes about locating a mate for man, but nothing he had created at the time would make due. After God causes the man to fall asleep, he creates a woman using his rib. She is named “woman” because she is the “one was taken from a man.” This is why it is said that a man leaves his mother and father to “cling” to a woman. At the end of Genesis 2, it is stated that both man and woman were naked and not ashamed of their appearance.
The Serpent makes an appearance in Genesis 3 and is described as “slier than every beast of the field.” The serpent wishes to lure the woman to eat from the tree of knowledge, filling her head with the notion that eating the fruit will not cause any death. However, she falls victim to the serpent’s ploy, not only eating the fruit but giving some to man. This causes “the eyes of the two of them were opened.”
It is now that they become aware of their naked bodies, using fig leaves for coverings in an attempt to hide from the sight of God, who quickly notices that man and woman have disobeyed His commands. The two become cursed with hard work and painful childbirths. They are also exiled from the Garden of Eden. In the closing verses of Genesis 3, the woman is named Eve because “she was the mother of all living,” while Adam is given to the man.
Throughout Genesis 4 and 5, the tale of the family of Adam and Eve is told, focusing on their lives after they departed the Garden of Eden.
They now have three children: Cain, Abel, and Seth. In coming years, other sons and daughters will emerge, as Adam lives for more than 900 years.
In Genesis 4 Cane kills Abel, is cursed by god and moves to the East of Eden and lives in a land called "Wandering" Seth replaced Abel and his wife was Enosh.
Noah and the flood
His descendant was Noah. Genesis 6 speaks of Noah and The wickedness of Mankind. He had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, whom he took on the boat. Noah was a man who found great favor in God's eyes. The entire population of mankind had become evil and wicked and God decided to bring a flood to the earth to destroy everyone but Noah and his family. God told Noah to prepare an ark big enough to hold one male and one female from every kind of animal and creature.The story in Genesis is repeated, with variations, in the Quran, where the Ark appears as Safina Nūḥ. Before the Flood, people ate only vegetables. After the Flood, God gave Noah and his family permission to eat meat from animals. (Genesis 9:3) The water of the Flood symbolized baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21).
The Tower of Babel (Hebrew: מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל, Migdal Bavel) narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race in the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar (שִׁנְעָר). There they agree to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven. God, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world.
God's call to Abram
Abraham is given a high position of respect in three major world faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the covenant, the special relationship between the Jewish people and God – leading to the belief that the Jews are the chosen people of God. In Christianity, the Apostle Paul taught that Abraham's faith in God – preceding the Mosaic law – made him the spiritual progenitor of all Christian believers. In Islam, the prophet Muhammad claimed Abraham, whose submission to God constituted Islam, was a "believer before the fact" and undercut Jewish claims to an exclusive relationship with God and the covenant.
Genesis 12 deals with this . The history of the early ancestors of the Israelites. The first is Abraham, who was notable for his faith and his obedience to God.
God's judgement on Sodom: The story of the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah is told in Genesis 18–19. When God revealed His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah due to the wickedness of those cities, Abraham asked God to spare the people. In fact, Abraham engaged in a lengthy conversation to mediate for the cities. First, Abraham wanted God to spare the righteous people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Battle of Siddim is described in Genesis 14:1–17. Lot is encamped within the borders of Sodom at a time when the men of Sodom are wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. Sodom and Gomorrah are ruled by Bera and Birsha, respectively, although their kingship is not sovereign because the Jordan plain has been under the rule of Chedorlaomer the Elamite for twelve years.
Abram Is Named Abraham 17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. 2 I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.”
Then follows the stories of his son Isaac name meaning " he will laugh", The story of Abraham and Isaac is one of profound faith and obedience to God. When Abraham was 99 years old, God promised him and his wife Rebekah, then 89, a son. A year later God's promise came true when 99 year old Rebekah bore their son Isaac! At some point in Isaac's youth, his father Abraham took him to Mount Moriah. At God's command, Abraham was to build a sacrificial altar and sacrifice his son Isaac upon it. After he had bound his son to the altar and drawn his knife to kill him, at the very last moment an angel of God prevented Abraham from proceeding.
Abraham had two recorded wives. Sarah, the Mother of Isaac, (the seed to Jesus Christ) and after the death of Sarah, Keturah the Mother of the Arab nations. Ishmael was born to Abraham and Sarah's Egyptian handmaiden Hagar. Ishmael meaning "God hears", he and his mother were banished to the desert after the birth of Isaac. Hagar's story could be that of the first surrogate mother.
Isaac's son i.e grandson of Abraham was Jacob who was also called Israel and he was the Father of a nation : Genesis 25 His 12 sons were the founder of 12 tribes of Israel.
Joseph and his brothers : Joseph, son of Israel (Jacob) and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with eleven brothers and one sister. He was Rachel's firstborn and Israel's eleventh son. Of all the sons, Joseph was loved by his father the most. Israel's favoritism toward Joseph caused his half brothers to hate him, and when Joseph was seventeen years old he had two dreams that made his brothers plot his demise. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain. Then, all of the grain bundles that had been prepared by the brothers gathered around Joseph's bundle and bowed down to it. In the second dream, the sun (father), the moon (mother) and eleven stars (brothers) bowed down to Joseph himself. When he told these two dreams to his brothers, they despised him for the implications that the family would be bowing down to Joseph. They became jealous that their father would even ponder over Joseph's words concerning these dreams. (Genesis 37:1–11) They saw their chance when they were feeding the flocks, the brothers saw Joseph from afar and plotted to kill him. They turned on him and stripped him of the coat his father made for him, and threw him into a pit. As they pondered what to do with Joseph, the brothers saw a camel caravan of Ishmaelites coming out of Gilead, carrying spices and perfumes to Egypt, for trade. Judah, the strongest, thought twice about killing Joseph and proposed that he be sold. The traders paid twenty pieces of silver for Joseph, and the brothers took Joseph's coat back to Jacob, who was lied to and told that Joseph had been killed by wild animals.
In Egypt, Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard "bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there" (Genesis 39:1). While serving in Potiphar's household, Yahweh was with Joseph so that he prospered in everything he did. Joseph found favor in the sight of Potiphar and so he became his personal servant. Then Joseph was promoted to oversee Potiphar's entire household as a superintendent. After some time, Potiphar's wife began to desire Joseph and sought to have an affair with him. Despite her persistence, he refused to have sexual intercourse with her for fear of sinning against God. After some days of begging for him, she grabbed him by his cloak, but he escaped from her leaving his garment behind. Angered by his running away from her, she took his garment and made a false claim against him by charging that he tried have sexual intercourse with her. This resulted in Joseph being thrown into prison (Genesis 39:1–20).[3]
The warden put Joseph in charge of the other prisoners, and soon afterward Pharaoh's chief cup bearer and chief baker, who had offended the Pharaoh, were thrown into the prison. They both had dreams, and they asked Joseph to help interpret them. The chief cup bearer had held a vine in his hand, with three branches that brought forth grapes; he took them to Pharaoh and put them in his cup. The chief baker had three baskets of bread on his head, intended for Pharaoh, but some birds came along and ate the bread. Joseph told them that within three days the chief cup bearer would be reinstated but the chief baker would be hanged. Joseph requested the cup bearer to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release from prison, but the cup bearer, reinstalled in office, forgot Joseph. After Joseph was in prison for two more years, Pharaoh had two dreams which disturbed him. He dreamt of seven lean cows which rose out of the river and devoured seven fat cows; and, of seven withered ears of grain which devoured seven fat ears. Pharaoh's wise men were unable to interpret these dreams, but the chief cup bearer remembered Joseph and spoke of his skill to Pharaoh. Joseph was called for, and interpreted the dreams as foretelling that seven years of abundance would be followed by seven years of famine, and advised Pharaoh to store surplus grain during the years of abundance. When the famine came, it was so severe that people from surrounding nations "from all over the earth" came to Egypt to buy bread as this nation was the only Kingdom prepared for the seven-year drought.
In the second year of famine, Joseph's half brothers were sent to Egypt, by their father Israel, to buy goods. When they came to Egypt, they stood before the Vizier but did not recognize him to be their brother Joseph. However, Joseph did recognize them and did not receive them kindly, rather he disguised himself and spoke to them in the Egyptian language using an interpreter. He did not speak at all to them in his native tongue, Hebrew. After questioning them as to where they came from, he accused them of being spies. They pleaded with him that their only purpose was to buy grain for their family in the land of Canaan. After they mentioned that they had left a younger brother at home, the Vizier (Joseph) demanded that he be brought to Egypt as a demonstration of their veracity. This brother was Joseph's blood brother, Benjamin. He placed his brothers in prison for three days. The brothers conferred amongst themselves speaking in Hebrew, reflecting on the wrong they had done to Joseph. Joseph understood what they were saying and removed himself from their presence because he was caught in emotion. Joseph sent the brothers back with food but kept one brother, and the remaining brothers returned to their father in Canaan, and told him all that had transpired in Egypt. They also discovered that all of their money sacks still had money in them, and they were dismayed. Then they informed their father that the Vizier demanded that Benjamin be brought before him to demonstrate that they were honest men. After they had consumed all of the grain that they brought back from Egypt, Israel told his sons to go back to Egypt for more grain. With Reuben and Judah's persistence, they persuaded their father to let Benjamin join them for fear of Egyptian retribution. Upon their return to Egypt, the brothers were afraid because of the returned money in their money sacks. Then when they get there Joseph reveals to them that he is in fact their brother, Joseph. Then he has their father Jacob brought so they are all reunited in Egypt.
EXODUS (Departure)
Departure of people of Israel from Egypt where they had been slaves. The Central character in this book is Moses, the man whom God chose to lead his people form Egypt. His successor was Joshua.
He is the lawgiver who met God face-to-face on Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments after leading his people, the Hebrews, out of bondage in Egypt and to the "promised land" of Canaan. This is mentioned both in Bible and Quran
The Ten Commandments
The most common form of the Ten Commandments is given in Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5.
- Thou shalt have no other gods before me
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
- Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy
- Honour thy father and thy mother
- Thou shalt not kill
- Thou shalt not commit adultery
- Thou shalt not steal
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
- Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbour's
Samuel Man of god : Samuel plays a key role in the transition from the period of the biblical judges to the institution of a kingdom under Saul, and again in the transition from Saul to David. He is venerated as a prophet by Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In addition to his role in the Hebrew Scriptures, Samuel is mentioned in the New Testament, in rabbinical literature, and in the second chapter of the Qur'an (although here not by name).
The Book of Ruth is a beautiful example of how God can take a hopeless situation and turn it into something glorious. The story begins in tragedy – with famine, and the death of Ruth and Naomi’s husbands. But because Ruth is loyal and faithful, God rewards her. Not only is Ruth redeemed by Boaz, but she also becomes an ancestor to the future king of Israel. What is particularly important to note in this story is Ruth’s heritage: she was a Moabite, a detail that is reiterated frequently in the book. In Ruth and Naomi’s lifetimes, the Israelites looked down upon the Moabites, considering them to be an inferior people. In selecting Ruth, God chose one of the “least of these” as the basis for the lineage of not only the future king of Israel, but for the Messiah who would save the world.
David Slays the Giant :The Biblical story of David and Goliath is a well-known parable. David's precise throw hit Goliath in the head and knocked him out, allowing David to move in for the kill and win the war for the Israelites. David and Goliath is often referenced as a moral lesson of how underdogs can overcome the odds and be successful.
David - Chosen to be king: David was chosen by God to be the King of Israel. We know him as the boy who kills Goliath and the mighty man of God who destroys the enemies of God. He is the chosen King of Israel, the man after God’s own heart. Yet, his own family had a very different view of him. David was the overlooked son of the family. He is the runt of the litter who does not get much respect from his own family. Yet, God chose him to be His man. Why did God choose him? When push came to shove, David would always do what God said to do. Obedience to God is what moves mountains. God does not call the qualified He qualifies the called. God works miracles with the simplest of people who are willing to listen to Him.
Daniel and his three Friends: Daniel and his friends—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—have to navigate between the demands Nebuchadnezzar is putting on them and their own religious principles. They remain loyal to god After seeing God save Shadrach and Company, Nebuchadnezzar forgets the moral lesson he's just learned and keeps thinking that he's the center of the universe. Daniel sees various visions, all of them symbolizing future events that are going to take place.
Easter - she saved her people - The story begins with the Persian ruler Ahasuerus, a figure often associated with the Persian monarch known by his Greek name, Xerxes. The king was so proud of his beautiful queen, Vashti, that he ordered her to appear unveiled before the country's princes at a feast. Since appearing unveiled was the social equivalent of being physically naked, Vashti refused. The king was enraged, and his counselors urged him to make an example of Vashti so that other wives wouldn't become disobedient like the queen. Thus poor Vashti was executed for defending her modesty. Then Ahasuerus ordered the comely virgins of the land to be brought to court, to undergo a year of preparation in the harem (talk about extreme makeovers!). Each woman was brought before the king for examination and returned to the harem to await his second summons. From this array of lovelies, the king chose Esther to be his next queen. Then there were many events unfolding, By law, no one could come into the king's presence without his permission, even his wife. Esther and her Jewish compatriots fasted for three days in order for her to get up her courage. Then she put on all her best finery and approached the king without a summons. Ahasuerus extended his royal scepter to her, indicating that he accepted her visit. When the king asked Esther want she wanted, she said she came to invite Ahasuerus and Haman to feast.On the second day of banquets, Ahasuerus offered Esther anything she wanted, even half his kingdom. Instead, the queen begged for her life and that of all the Jews in Persia, revealing to the king Haman's plots against them, especially Mordecai. Haman was executed in the same manner planned for Mordecai. With the king's agreement, the Jews rose up and slaughtered Haman's henchmen on the 13th day of Adar, the day originally planned for the Jews' annihilation, and plundered their goods. Then they feasted for two days, the 14th and 15th of Adar, to celebrate their rescue.King Ahasuerus remained delighted with Queen Esther and named her guardian Mordecai to be his prime minister in the villain Haman's place.
Job is presented as a good and prosperous family man who is beset by Satan with God's permission with horrendous disasters that take away all that he holds dear, including his children, his health, and his property. He struggles to understand his situation and begins a search for the answers to his difficulties.
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