Burning Bush Blogs
Equipping Men with Biblical Knowledge and Leadership Skills
Category: Personal Study
Thread: New to the Bible – Bible Structure
Post Topic: Old Testament Overview
Post in Thread: #1
Next: OT Books of the Law
Scripture: Old Testament
Who should read this?
If you already have a good handle on the structure of the Bible, and how the books are organized, you can skip this thread. The intended audience is newer believers who haven’t studied the Bible, or those who just aren’t that familiar with why there’s so many books in the Bible.
Not the same as other Burning Bush Blogs
Burning Bush Blogs are designed to be consumed in 10-15 minutes, or even less if you’re in a hurry. Also, the blogs are segmented into four sections: Observations, Interpretations, Correlations, and Applications.
This post, however, is different. It is more of a primer about the organization of the Bible and can be used as a reference rather than a devotional.
Books of the Bible – Overview
Imagine two bookshelves – one with 39 books, and one with 27 books. The shelves have dividers between groups of books. Each group belongs to its own genre. There’s a group of historical fiction, a group of thrillers, a group of how-to books, biographies, etc.
Now imagine that the top shelf is the Old Testament and the bottom shelf is the New Testament. The genres, or categories, of each testament, is what we’re going to discuss. This post will deal with the Old Testament.
This Blog – Old Testament Structure
This post provides a breakdown of the organization of the 39 Old Testament books. More details about each genre of writing will be covered in separate posts.
Law and History
The first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy, are sometimes separated into their own genre called the Books of the Law. The books are written in narrative fashion, providing the history of the world and the Jewish people. But they also contain the laws given to Moses by God, including the ten commandments. Therefore, they are often broken out into their own category.
The remaining books of history, Joshua through Esther, contain the stories of the nation of Israel following the death of Moses. It is a history with mixed results: a history of following God and disobeying God; a history of successes and failures; a history of mighty leaders and prophets and abysmal failures; a history of kings and kingdom splits and exiles in foreign lands.
Do not feel overwhelmed at this point in your journey. It takes a lifetime to absorb all the stories. The most important question to ask yourself as you read the Old Testament is: How does this point me forward to the coming of Jesus?
Poetry
The books Job through Song of Solomon are books of poetry.
Be aware that these books contain more than poetry. The book of Job contains a historical account of an ancient man facing indescribable hardships, but much of it is written in poetic form. Psalms contains beautiful prophecies of Christ embedded in its lyrics even though it was written centuries before Jesus. Proverbs is more a collection of wise sayings and instructions for godly living.
Feeling down? Open to any random chapter in these books, read a verse or more, and you’re likely to find some nugget of wisdom for your daily walk.
Major Prophets
The books of the Major Prophets, Isaiah through Daniel, contain stories and prophecies by some of the most important messengers of God prior to the coming of Christ. The Burning Bush blogs will delve into some of these, but many of these writings require deep dives to comprehend.
Minor Prophets
Hosea through Malachi comprise the Minor Prophets. They are so-named not because they are less important, but because they are much shorter in length.