Apicontent

God initiates a covenant with Israel despite their rebellion and promises his presence.

At Mt. Sinai, God invites Israel into a covenant relationship. He desires to make them a nation of priests to be a blessing to the nations. But Israel immediately fails to trust God. 

Ascending the Mountain

The first eighteen chapters of the book of Exodus recount how God miraculously delivered Israel from Egypt. As they approach Mt. Sinai, God’s presence covers the mountain in a dark cloud. Moses climbs it as a representative for the people to receive God’s law and a plan for God’s own dwelling space, the Tabernacle.

Filled with symbolic garden of Eden imagery, the Tabernacle would become the place where God’s space overlapped with humanity’s space. Immediately after this, Israel breaks the covenant, and Moses intercedes for them by asking God to remember his promise to Abraham.

God relents and re-establishes the covenant. The Tabernacle is completed and God’s glory fills it. However, Moses is unable to enter this micro-Eden due to his own compromise. 

God graciously provides a way for people to live in his presence.

God desires to live with Israel, but even Moses is unable to enter the Tabernacle. How can Israel, with all their moral corruption, become God’s covenant partners to bless the nations? Leviticus answers this question in three surprising ways.

The Tabernacle

God made a covenant with Israel and brought his own presence to dwell with them. However, Israel cannot enter his presence because of their corruption. In response, God introduces a set of sacrifices, the priesthood, and purity laws in the book of Leviticus.

Through sacrifice, God made a way for both praise and forgiveness. The ritual sacrifices and feasts allowed Israel to remember and relate to God as his people. In order to represent the people to God and God to the people, God institutes the priesthood, a royal responsibility for Aaron and his sons (who learn the hard way to respect their calling!). God also introduces ritual and moral purity laws to help Israel see how God’s holiness affects every part of life.

The book of Leviticus concludes with a call to covenant faithfulness. Despite the sin and impurity of Israel, God made a way for sin to be covered, allowing Israel to live near God.

Israel’s repeated rebellion in the wilderness is met by God’s justice and mercy.

On their way to the promised land, Israel rebels against God again and again. God responds with short-term severity and long-term generosity that speaks to his covenant faithfulness.

Wilderness Wanderings

After centuries of living in foreign lands, the time comes for the Israelites to return to the land God promised to Abraham. But soon after they set out for Canaan, Israel perpetually complains, sins, and even incites rebellion against Moses and Aaron in God’s presence. Eleven days of travel in the wilderness become 40 years because of their unbelief, and only their children can enter the promised land. Tired and frustrated, even Moses rebels against God’s command and is forbidden from entering the promised land.

Each time Israel rebels, God displays his justice and mercy together. A pagan prophet is hired to curse Israel, but he only hears words of blessing from God. Even in their rebellion, God continues to show his incredible love and provision for them. The book of Numbers becomes a warning and encouragement for us to follow God and trust his good plan for his people. 

Moses gives Israel final words of warning and blessing.

At the end of his life, Moses delivers a final call to covenant faithfulness. He covers the story so far, a collection of laws, and a charge for Israel to listen and obey rather than rebel. He sees Israel’s dismal future as well as their promised hope.

Hear, O Israel

After 40 years of wilderness wandering, a new generation is ready to enter the promised land. Moses gathers them and delivers one final message.

He recounts Israel’s rebellion and God’s grace up to that point, and he calls them to covenant faithfulness. In this section we find the Shema (which Jesus later calls “the first and greatest commandment”). The heart of the Shema is a call to listen and obey by devoting your emotions and will to God alone. Moses then shares laws for Israel’s worship and leaders as well as for their civil and social life.

At the conclusion of his speech, Moses gives a warning and ultimatum. To listen and obey God will lead to blessing, but to disobey will lead to devastation and exile. Moses knows the people well enough to know they will eventually choose rebellion. Yet even then, Moses looked forward to a future day when God would give Israel a new heart so they could fully love God and live.

Joshua leads Israel to settle in the promised land.

The book of Joshua shows us God’s faithfulness to his covenant with the Israelites to bring them into the land he promised to Abraham. This book points to the importance of covenant obedience before, during, and after God fulfills his promises.

The Promised Land

At the start of the book of Joshua, Joshua is appointed as Israel’s new leader, a new Moses. He commands obedience to the covenant, sends spies into the land, and brings the people of Israel through the waters of the Jordan River. There Joshua runs into a heavenly commander who makes it clear that the battles that will unfold in this book are not about Israel versus other nations but about God fulfilling his promise to the family of Abraham.

In the battles that follow, Israel learns the hard way to walk in covenant faithfulness. As they do, some of the Canaanites surrender, while most try to extinguish the Israelites. The justice that God brings on human evil finds unique expression in Joshua as God drives out the Canaanites. Having defeated their enemies, the people of Israel divide the land by tribe and receive final words of challenge from Joshua to remain faithful to the covenant.

Israel abandons God and becomes completely corrupt in the land.

What happens when Israel forgets their God? The book of Judges shows Israel’s tragic downward spiral. It’s a sobering examination of the human condition that highlights the need for a deliverer.

Descent into Madness

After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel begin a downward spiral. Israel begins to adopt the corrupt practices of the Canaanites they failed to drive out of the land. This leads to a repeated cycle of sin, oppression, repentance, deliverance, and peace, which only eventually leads back into sin.

The book of Judges highlights six judges during this time and shows their increasing corruption. These judges start off fairly well (Othniel, Ehud, Deborah) but become increasingly worse (Gideon, Jephthah, Samson). The book ends with two very disturbing stories that show how incredibly lawless the people have become. The central verse that summarizes this says, “In those days Israel had no king, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

God raises up two kings, one proud and the other humble.

The book of 1 Samuel is an exciting book split into two parts due to its large size. The first part is a contrasting character study of Saul and David, showing the importance of humility in God’s people.

The Rise and Fall of Saul

The book of 1 Samuel focuses on three characters: Samuel, Saul, and David. A poem near the start of the book reveals the book’s key themes: God’s opposition to the proud, exultation of the humble, faithfulness in spite of evil, and the promise of a messianic king.

These themes are played out through the rest of the book as we see Saul rise to power, only to have his character flaws exposed as he disobeys God’s command. In contrast, God raises up David, a humble shepherd who trusts God. As the story progresses, we see these two characters in increasingly stark contrast. Saul slips into madness as David resolutely trusts in God’s timing and purposes.

David’s reign is marked by incredible success, terrible failure, and God’s promise.

The book of 2 Samuel continues to show us the virtue of humility, the destructiveness of pride, and the faithfulness of God’s promise. We see David succeed and fail, and we see God’s promise for a future king at the beginning and end of the story.

The Rise and Fall of David

After the death of Saul, David unifies the twelve tribes as their king. In his new capital of Jerusalem, David desires to build God a house. Instead, God promises to build David an eternal house through a king from his lineage. This is a key moment in the book of 2 Samuel and in the Hebrew Scriptures that point us toward a messianic king who will come to fulfill the promise given to David and Abraham to bless all nations.

However, we soon discover that David is not that king. After failing spectacularly, the kingdom slowly unravels. The final chapters of 2 Samuel highlight moments of David’s weakness, showing us his own failure as similar to Saul’s, while promising another king who will come to fulfill God’s good purposes.

David’s son Solomon leads Israel to greatness, only to fail and lead Israel to a civil war and ultimately towards destruction and exile.

After centuries of sojourning, struggles, and conquest, God’s promise to Abraham appears to finally be tangible – David and Solomon unite the Israelites into a single kingdom with descendants as “numerous as the stars.”

The rise and fall of a kingdom

Known as Kings 1 and 2 in English Bibles, The Book of Kings is originally a single book that recounts the rule of Israel’s kings from David’s son Solomon up until the time of Israel’s exile, the final result of Israel’s disobedience.

Will God’s promised Messiah come to pass in spite of Israel’s failures? Read more to find out! Note how the book’s perspective gives the reader a bird’s-eye view of the nation as a whole compared to the interpersonal focus of key individuals in the Book of Samuel. Some notable people in Kings, like Elijah and Jezebel, will also become symbolic representatives for certain themes in the New Testament. Watch closely.

Isaiah announces that God’s judgment will purify Israel and prepare his people to the coming messianic king and new Jerusalem.

Like Elijah, Jeremiah, and the other Prophets, Isaiah was called by God to deliver His messages to Israel for its welfare in the Book of Isaiah. But along with warnings against Israel’s sin and rebellious ways came a message of hope in a new depth that would carry on for centuries after Isaiah’s passing.