404 – Preview of the Historical Books

BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE

COURSE: BIBLE SURVEY I LESSON # 4

PREVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

INTRODUCTION:

1. Why then the preview of the historical books?
2. I want you to have a progressive overview of the chronology of the Old Testament.
3. Therefore, having taken you through the first 2488 years covered by the Pentateuch, I will bring you on down to about 445 B.C. in the historical books, thus showing their placement chronologically, and their interrelationship with each other.

I. JOSHUA

1. Joshua rightly follows the books of Moses for he followed Moses.
2. He was Moses’s; faithful minister, 46 years old at Kadesh, 86 at Jordan, 110 at death, led Israel 24 years.
3. The name is equivalent to Jesus. (Acts 7

)
4. Moses (law) could only show the need, only Jesus can give rest. (Wherefore then serveth the law?)
5. The effect of Joshua’s life was a good one.
6. The work of Joshua was the conquering, dividing and settling of the land.

II. JUDGES

1. The book is thus named because it basically relates the period of the Judges over Israel.
2. Coupled with I Samuel, it reveals all the Judges.
3. It reveals a time of perpetual backsliding, restoration and backsliding.
4. The period covers 330 years (from Othniel to Saul).

III. RUTH

1. A small book relating a series of events that occurred during the days of the Judges.
2. It shows God’s preservation of the land and its family ties.
3. It issues in the lineage of Christ, Ruth, the great-grandmother of David.

IV. I SAMUEL

1. Is the account of Samuel, the last of the Judges and God’s priest of his day.
2. He is judge, prophet and priest
3. He wept for Israel when they rejected God for a king, and anointed Saul.
4. He, in I Samuel, relates the fall of Saul and anoints David.
5. It closes with the rise of David, his loyalty to Saul and Saul’s death.

V. II SAMUEL

1. Is basically the book of David.
2. It reveals his victories, exploits and Israel’s rise under him.
3. The time element of David’s reign is 101

B.C. to 971 B.C.
4. We have in this book David’s sin and the destruction of his family.

VI. I AND II KINGS AND I AND II CHRONICLES

1. Start with the death of David and the reign of Solomon.
2. They relate the most victorious and prosperous time of Israel’s history.
3. But Solomon became idolatrous, thus the kingdom was split.
4. The Northern Kingdom retained the name Israel.
5. The Southern Kingdom became known as Judah (tribes of Judah and Benjamin).
6. Israel went into Assyrian captivity about 209 years after Solomon’s death. This took place about 722 B.C., approximately 730 years after they came out of Egypt.
7. About 586 B.C., 136 years after Israel’s captivity, Judah’s captivity was complete.
8. Thus, end the books of the Kings and Chronicles of the Kings.

VII. EZRA

1. Relates Cyrus’s; decree to restore Jerusalem 538 B.C. (Ezra was not involved with this.) He went up 458 B.C.
2. The stumbling of the people of God in doing it.
3. The re-establishing of the family tree through which Christ was to come.

Berean Baptist Church