The facts...
The story...
Mankind has a problem → God promises a solution → that promise comes through Abraham and his descendants, Israel → the promised Saviour is Jesus Christ. But you have to wait until the New Testament for the Jesus bit.
[When we speak of man like this, we are talking about mankind, people, male and female.]
Key Events...
Creation → Fall → Flood → Promise → Abraham → Exodus → Law → Kings → Exile → Return → Waiting.
[The Fall — is the name given to Mankind's first rebellion against God.]
[The Exile is when the people of Israel and Judah were conquered and many were taken away to live in foreign lands.]
The first two-thirds of the Bible (39 books) records God's working in the world before the birth of Jesus. In fact, the whole history of the world revolves around BC and AD, Before Christ and Anno Domini, Latin for "in the year of the Lord"
[Secularists have worked hard to replace BC and AD with BCE = Before Common Era, equivalent to BC and CE = Common Era, with no explanation about why the birth of Christ brought in a common Era]
Written by many different men, from Moses and King David to farmers and prophets, over roughly 3,000+ years — beginning with Adam's own record, which forms the early chapters of Genesis.
It sets the stage for the New Testament: it establishes the problem of sin, God's promises, the covenant, the need for men to be saved, and the expectation of the coming Christ. [Christ or in Hebrew, Messiah, means 'Anointed One', the promised King, but came to be associated with the coming saviour.]
The original manuscripts were written in Hebrew (and a little Aramaic).
It tells the story of God and the people He chose to talk to the world through Israel — and of His plan to rescue the whole world.
The Old Testament story moves in stages.
Creation. In the beginning God made all things — time, space, and matter — the Sun and stars, the Earth, the plants, animals and man, and made them good. Men and women were made in His image, to know Him and to manage His world.
The Fall. Our first parents disobeyed God. Sin entered, and with it death and separation. [Sin means rejecting God and going our own way. Sin is not only the things we do wrong, but the reason we do wrong things.] Yet even in the first judgment for sin, God spoke a promise: the seed of the woman [that is, a male child] would one day defeat the serpent (Genesis 3:15). The whole of the rest of the Old Testament is that promise growing.
The Flood. The world grew so wicked that God judged it with the flood, and preserved Noah and his family. In fact, there was likely fallen angel-human inbreeding [Sons of God with daughters of men]. This polluted the gene pool, so mankind, the human race, was so corrupted that God had to act.
"That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." Gen 6:2 KJV
The worldwide flood was not God just having a bad day; this was a big problem that needed an urgent fix. [This is not universally accepted as the meaning of Genesis 6, but best fits the narrative and is supported by extra-biblical accounts. If the Bible was a graphic novel or a movie, it would look like a Marvel-like franchise. "There were giants in the earth in those days... the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Gen 6:4 KJV: The world of the Old Testament is full of giants and 'men of renown '- bad men of renown and the superheroes who took them on in God's name.]
The Call. Then He called one man, Abraham, and promised him a family, a land, and a blessing that would reach every nation on earth.
Exodus and the Law. Abraham's family moved into Egypt as a large family, but came out as a nation. They moved in as honoured guests, but as their numbers grew, they were enslaved and were brought out by God through Moses. At Sinai, God gave them His law — not to earn His favour by keeping the law; no one is able to keep God's law, but to show them how much they needed His mercy — His willingness to forgive rather than give us the punishment us as we deserve. And the Law gives them, us, a moral framework for how to live. The right way to live, even if we can not live up to it.
The Kings. God gave Israel kings — first Saul, then David, a man after God's own heart, and then David's descendants. God promised David that one of his line would reign forever. Many of the kings failed, but the promise stood.
The Exile and the Return. Israel split into two nations, then they collapsed — the northern kingdom to Assyria, the southern to Babylon. Yet God did not abandon them. He brought them back, rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, and then... the Old Testament ends. Four hundred years of silence follow, with the promise still waiting.
To feel how long that is: 400 years is back to Dickens and then another 200 years, or back to the first car and then twice as far back again, back to the founding of America and then about double it. Back to Shakespeare!
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the language of Israel; a few passages (parts of Daniel and Ezra) are in Aramaic, the common language of the region.
Its books are arranged into groups: the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy), the History (Joshua to Esther), the Poetry and Wisdom (Job to Song of Solomon), and the Prophets (Isaiah to Malachi).
The law — God's instructions for His people, showing His holiness and their need.
The covenant — God's binding promise; again and again God makes and keeps His covenants, even when His people break theirs.
The prophet — not primarily a foreteller but God's spokesman, calling the people back to Him, and looking forward to the coming King.
The tabernacle and temple — the place where God dwelt among His people, with its sacrifices pointing to a greater sacrifice to come.
[The tabernacle was an ornate tent, a place to meet with God and pray and sacrifice, much like the temple, but transportable]
And all of this points forward to one coming person, the one who would save mankind.
So what is the Old Testament really about?
It is often read as a set of ancient laws, a history of an ancient people, or a collection of religious poetry. It is all of these — but it is more. The Old Testament is the record of God's patient, faithful plan to rescue a fallen world. It shows us the depth of sin, but it never leaves us there; over and over it holds out the promise of a coming Redeemer. [Redeemer - one who rescues or buys back what has been lost]
Kings foreshadowed it. The sacrifices whispered it. The prophets announced it. The Old Testament is the promise; the New Testament is the fulfilment.
What does the Bible say about the Old Testament message...
Jesus says that the Old Testament speaks about him
"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." John 5:39 KJV [Jesus is speaking about the Scriptures they already have—the Old Testament.]
The Old Testament teaches about a coming Saviour
"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." — Genesis 3:15 KJV
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." — Micah 5:2 KJV
"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." — Isaiah 53:5 KJV
The Old Testament repeatedly points forward to Christ. Its sacrifices, its Passover lamb, its tabernacle, its kings, its prophets — all of them point towards one who was to come.
The Old Testament contains a great many specific prophecies and promises that appear to be fulfilled only in Jesus — from His birth and ancestry to His ministry, suffering, death and resurrection.
Thirty-three direct prophetic fulfillments in Jesus life
Here are thirty-three of them to begin with — OT Prophesys fulfiled by Jesus
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he [Jesis] expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Luke 24:27 KJV: Moses refers to the first five books of the Old Testament. The Prophets was a common way of referring to the prophetic writings and, more broadly, could be used alongside "Moses" as a way of speaking about the Scriptures of the Old Testament. See also Luke 24:44
The Old Testament reveals God as:
The God of the Old Testament is not a different God from the New. He is the same God — holy and just, yet slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Old Testament is not an obsolete book, left behind when the New Testament arrived.
"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Psalm 119:9). The Old Testament is not history to be skimmed; it is Scripture given to teach, to warn, and to encourage us.
Clue: The same person is the answer to both questions.