Bible Jeopardy (Fall 2012) Lesson 2: The Old Testament Story The purpose of this lesson is to help students learn the following about eight major events in the Old Testament s story of Israel: Where to find each story in the Bible. How to link the eight stories in sequence (using dates where appropriate). What happens in each story (at a very basic level of detail). Why each individual story is important to the overall Old Testament story. This lesson draws extensively on Victor H. Matthews s book Old Testament Turning Points (Baker Academic, 2005), and is really an extremely short summary of that book. It s also basically a summary of Genesis through 2 Kings, which (excluding Ruth) forms a continuous narrative of Israel s story from its beginnings until the demise of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. (Event #8 comes in from elsewhere in the Bible.) 1. Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden. Where to find it: Genesis 2 3 Where to put it on a timeline: That s controversial, for very complicated reasons that require a lot of time and patience to explore. What happens: God creates a man and a woman, assigning them to take care of a special garden. The only recorded prohibition in this garden is that the man and woman must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, known to readers as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God tells them that if they break this rule, they will die. However, the man and woman succumb to temptation, break the rule, and eat from the forbidden tree. Instead of executing them as previously announced, God expels them from their easy life in the garden into a difficult life in the real world. Why it s important: The Garden of Eden story sets up some of the basic themes that will resonate in all divine- human relationships throughout the Old Testament story and, indeed, throughout time. Two key points are that (a) humans, although made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26 27), are not in fact gods, yet have a tendency to try to grasp for more and more godlike knowledge and power (contrast Philippians 2:6 8, reading Who, being in the image of God in v. 6), and (b) God is merciful, often reducing the punishments or consequences that people might expect or deserve for their sins. 2. God makes a covenant with Abraham. Where to find it: Genesis 12 25, especially Genesis 12; 15; 17 Where to put it on a timeline: Roughly around 2000 BC or 1750 BC, depending on when the exodus happened (see #3 below). What happens: Abraham s father Terah gathers up the family and starts to move to Canaan, but the trip stalls out in the city of Haran and the family settles down there. God appears to Abraham and tells him to keep going, promising to give Abraham many descendants and a land specifically,
2 Canaan for those descendants to live in. God formalizes this promise in two covenant- making ceremonies, one described in Genesis 15, the other in Genesis 17. At the end of Abraham s life, he has a big extended family (eight sons, probably a decent number of grandchildren) and a little bit of land (the family burial plot) in Canaan, but for the most part, God s promises to Abraham are not fulfilled during Abraham s lifetime, but hundreds of years later. Why it s important: God makes several covenants or special, formal agreements with different people and groups throughout the Old Testament (the word testament is actually Latin for covenant ). God s covenant with Abraham is crucial because it s really the basis for all the subsequent Old Testament covenants. Also, Abraham is a key example of faith of trusting God to keep his promises in the long run even if you can t see any short- term evidence of that. 3. Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt. Where to find it: Exodus 1 15 Where to put it on a timeline: Roughly around 1445 BC or 1250 BC, depending on which pieces of the available evidence you choose to emphasize. What happens: Abraham (see above) has a grandson named Jacob, whom God designates as the heir to the covenant that God made with Abraham. In Genesis 46 (after Joseph had already become a high government official in Egypt) Jacob and all of his descendants, as well as their spouses (but not their in- laws), moved to Egypt to escape a famine in Canaan. Later, the Egyptians press the Israelites into slavery and treat them harshly. At the burning bush, God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh, Let my people go. The ten plagues, the parting of the Sea, and journey out to Mt. Sinai ensue. Why it s important: (a) The Egyptians oppression of the Israelites tests, in a sense, God s commitment to the covenant God make with Abraham. God has fulfilled one of the two promises he made to Abraham: the Israelite population has indeed become numerous, but they are living far away from the land God promised to Abraham, with very little prospect of changing that situation. For the Israelites who remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the question is whether God will actually deliver the promised land or not. (He does, of course, although you have to read all the way down to the book of Judges to get there.) (b) In the wilderness, after God has rescued the Israelites from slavery, God reaffirms his covenant with Jacob s descendants, the Israelites. The giving of God s teaching ( laws ) for Israelite society, including the Ten Commandments, are associated with the post- exodus period. (c) The exodus story is the first time in the overall storyline of Genesis 2 Kings where the power of Israel s God is tested against the power of pagan gods. If you know the story of the ten plagues, you know who wins. 4. King David makes Jerusalem his capital. Where to find it: 2 Samuel 6 Where to put it on a timeline: Around 1000 BC What happens: Between Joshua s death and the anointing (coronation) of King Saul, the Israelites had no single leader and no central government. The judges (in the book of Judges, of course) were regional military leaders who stepped up when needed and then, mostly, faded in to the woodwork
3 after the crisis was past. Saul is proclaimed king of Israel in 1 Samuel 10, but he s still mainly commander- in- chief rather than a governor or administrator. After Saul died, there was a rift between the tribe of Judah and the other tribes, known collectively as Israel. The tribe of Judah proclaimed David their king, but the other tribes followed Saul s son Ishbaal. After a few years of civil war, Ishbaal was assassinated by two of his own officials who hoped David would reward them for killing his enemy. Actually, he had them executed as murderers. Having lost their king, the Israelites now accepted David as their king. Up to this time, the city of Jerusalem was still controlled by Canaanites. David took it over and made it his capital a good political move, since Jerusalem was neither Judean nor Israelite at that point. Why it s important: When David made Jerusalem his capital, he also brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. The Israelites and Judeans often imagined God as a king seated on a throne, with the ark of the covenant as his footstool. The ark of the covenant was, therefore, a visible reminder of that God, although not visible to human eyes, was present in their worship. The Israelites and Judeans of David s day perceived all this as a sign that God had chosen Jerusalem as focal point for his worship on Earth even though they realized that God is really much bigger than any one building or city (see 1 Kings 8:27 30, part of the prayer that David s son Solomon prayed when dedicating the temple he built in Jerusalem to house the ark of the covenant). 5. Jeroboam leads the secession of northern (Israelite) tribes. Where to find it: 1 Kings 11 Where to put it on a timeline: Around 930 BC What happens: King Solomon had a lot of practical wisdom for things like administering law courts and the government, and he built the temple in Jerusalem to house the ark of the covenant, which makes him a biblical hero. But he also made some very unwise decisions. He levied harsh taxes, and practically enslaved a large portion of the Israelite (non- Judean) population of his kingdom. He also married many women from nearby countries, built temples for their gods in and around Jerusalem, and went to church with them, worshiping their gods in addition to the God of Israel. Before Solomon died, the prophet Ahijah announced that God would punish Solomon for his idolatry by tearing part of the kingdom away from Solomon s son. When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became king. The Israelites begged him to lighten the load of the labor Solomon had forced on them, but Rehoboam refused, and actually said he was going to make it worse. Jeroboam, who had been the foreman of the Israelites who had been forced to work for Solomon, led the Israelites to secede from Judah and form their own kingdom, which they called Israel. All of this was in agreement with Ahijah s prophecy, and his instructions to Jeroboam. However, Jeroboam was afraid that the Israelites wouldn t stay loyal to this new kingdom if they kept going to Jerusalem to worship, so he set up his own temples, his own priesthood, and his own schedule of sacrifices and, most offensively to the biblical writers, he molded golden calf statues to serve as substitutes for the ark of the covenant, which of course was still in the temple in Jerusalem. Why it s important: (a) From 1 Kings 11 through 2 Kings 25, and in the historical contexts of all of the major and minor prophets (except for Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who come later), Israel and Judah are separate kingdoms. Knowing about Jeroboam s secession helps you understand why. (b) For the Israelite tribes, their secession from Judah was like a second exodus. For Judah, it was a punishment for Solomon s dramatic, public idolatry. God had decreed this split between Israel and
4 Judah. However, King Jeroboam tried to ensure the Israelites political loyalties to the new kingdom by changing Israel s religious practices for which God s prophets condemned him. (c) This event is a great illustration of how the biblical writers often tell the story of Israel and Judah at two levels : they explain big political events as normal history (the Israelites seceded from Judah because Solomon mistreated them and Rehoboam threatened to mistreat them still more), but they also pull back heaven s curtain, so to speak, to perceive God s hand behind political events (God took the Israelite tribes away from the house of David because of Solomon s idolatry). 6. Samaria falls to the Assyrians. Where to find it: 2 Kings 17 Where to put it on a timeline: 721 BC What happens: For about 200 years, the kingdom of Israel had a relatively poor track record of staying loyal to God. Many of the Israelite kings preferred to worship the Canaanite/Phoenician god Baal instead of, or alongside of, the true God of Israel. Even those kings who rejected Baal still used Jeroboam s temples and his golden calves to worship the God of Israel, instead of reconciling with Judah and sacrificing at the temple in Jerusalem, where the ark of the covenant was. In the world of politics, when the Israelites found themselves threatened by foreign armies, the Israelite kings often turned to bigger foreign armies for help instead of depending on God for help. Because of this, the Israelite kings were forced to sign treaties where they promised to loyally serve the king of Assyria as their overlord. But just as the Israelites violated their covenant with God, they also violated their treaties with Assyria so God used the Assyrians anger over Israel s political disloyalty to them as a way to punish Israel for its religious disloyalty to him. Eventually this resulted in the complete destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Why it s important: This story explains why the kingdom of Israel ceased to exist. As mentioned above, the story explains Israel s downfall both as normal history (the Israelites violated their treaties with Assyria, and when the empire struck back in response, the tiny kingdom of Israel was destroyed) and as the work of God (the Israelites violated their covenant with God, and God sent the Assyrian army against them as punishment). Even before the written record of these events became part of scripture, the events themselves had the potential to serve as a cautionary tale for Judah but see below for the sad results. 7. Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem and deports many Judeans to Babylon. Where to find it: 2 Kings 25 Where to put it on a timeline: 587 586 BC What happens: Although the kingdom of Judah had more kings who remained loyal to the true God of Israel than the kingdom of Israel did, Judah also had a fair number of kings who rejected God and chose to worship Canaanite/Phoenician gods instead. Repeated warnings by the prophets had relatively little effect on the unfaithful kings. Eventually one king, Manasseh, topped all of them in evil. He wasn t just idolatrous, but also cruel to his own people. By the end of Manasseh s reign, God was so fed up with Judah that he d decided to wipe them out. King Josiah tried to oversee a kind of wholesale national repentance, and for a while it seemed like things might turn around, but after King
5 Josiah died, the next few kings didn t follow his example. Meanwhile, Judah had been forced to sign treaties affirming Assyria as their overlord, and after Babylon defeated Assyria, Judah had to accept Babylon as their new overlord. But just as the kings immediately before and after Josiah frequently violated their covenant with God, they also violated their treaties with Babylon so God used the Babylonians anger over Judah s political disloyalty to them as a way to punish Judah for its religious disloyalty to him. Eventually this resulted in the destruction of the kingdom of Judah, the demolition of Jerusalem and its temple, and the deportation of many Judeans to Babylon. Why it s important: This story explains why the kingdom of Judah ceased to exist. As mentioned above, the story explains Judah s downfall both as normal history (the Judeans violated their treaties with Babylon, and when the empire struck back in response, the tiny kingdom of Judah was destroyed) and as the work of God (the Judeans violated their covenant with God, and God sent the Babylonian army against them as punishment). This paragraph is not a cut- and- paste error accidentally reproducing item #6; rather, the Judeans exhibited the same unfaithful behaviors as the Israelites unfaithful both to their human commitments and to God. 8. Cyrus captures Babylon and sends the Judean exiles home. Where to find it: Predicted in Isaiah 44 45; narrated in Ezra 1 Where to put it on a timeline: 539 538 BC What happens: The Babylonian Empire flourished for about 70 years, and then it was overthrown by the Persian Empire. After King Cyrus took control of Babylonia (the region that included the city of Babylon), he allowed the Judeans living in exile in Babylon (as well as other groups who had been treated similarly) to migrate back to their ancestral homelands and create new lives for themselves there no longer as independent kingdoms, but now as provinces of the Persian Empire. Why it s important: With the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, an observer might have thought that all was lost for the people of Judah. Yet even in their exile, they managed to retain their ethnic and religious identity. When the opportunity came decades later for a generation born in exile to migrate to Jerusalem and rebuild its temple, some of the exiles took up that challenge. Others remained wherever they were within the Persian Empire. All of this had two remarkable results: Jerusalem was revived as a center for worshiping the God of Heaven (as he was commonly called during this period), and the worship of this God grew from a regional religion closely tied to political units (the kingdoms of Israel and Judah) into a worldwide (as they would have seen it then) religion. The ancient Judean religion had started to become Judaism as Jesus and his apostles would know it 500 years later. Going Deeper Here are some ways you can go deeper into Lesson 2: Quiz your family on where to find these eight stories in the Bible and on a timeline. Choose one of these eight events and read the biblical story about it every day for one week, each time in a different translation (use YouVersion.com if you don t own seven different translations). Try an alternate history exercise with your family. Imagine what the history of God s people would be like if one of these events had happened differently. What if the kings of Israel had remained loyal to God instead of worshiping Baal? What if Rehoboam had canceled the Israelites forced labor? What if Moses had refused to go to Egypt, or Abraham hadn t moved to Canaan?