This document provides an overview of the Old Testament, emphasizing God's unfolding plan of salvation through His covenants with Israel. It covers 12 major events, including the call of Abraham, Joseph in Egypt, the Exodus, Moses receiving the law, and Joshua conquering the promised land. It discusses how the people began to worship false gods after Joshua, leading to a cycle of sin, oppression, prayer, and deliverance by judges like Gideon and Samson. This laid the groundwork for the transition to a kingdom under the first 3 kings: Saul, David, and Solomon, before the kingdom split into Israel and Judah and both faced dispersion from their lands.

1. THE BIBLE FAST FORWARD
Putting the Pieces of the Bible Together
Week 4

2. OUR PURPOSE
To give a practical, historical overview of the Old
Testament emphasizing the unfolding plan of salvation
as God reveals it through His covenants with the nation
of Israel, and the fulfillment of those covenants in the
person of Jesus of Nazareth.

3. 12 MAJOR EVENTS
1. The Call of Abraham
2. The Birth of Isaac
3. Joseph in Egypt
4. The Exodus
5. Moses Gets the Law
6. Joshua Conquers
the land
7. The three kings of the United
Kingdom (Saul, David & Solomon)
8. The Kingdom Splits: Israel & Judah
9. The Assyrian Dispersion
(of Israel)
11. The Return to the Land
12. The Coming of Messiah
10. The Babylonian Captivity
(of Judah)

4. THE CALL
of Abraham

5. GOD’S 3-PHASE PLAN
For rescuing mankind
1. God sets apart one man.
2. God promises to make a nation
from that man.
3. God commissions that man, and nation to
be a blessing to the world.

6. THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from
your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will
show you.
And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make
your name great, and so you shall be a blessing.
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I
will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
GENESIS 12:1-3

7. GOD’S PROMISES
For Abraham’s Obedience
“I will make you a great nation”.
“I will bless you and make your
name great”
“I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.”
1. People
2. Land
3. Government
4. Prosperity
5. Protection

8. THE BIRTH
of Isaac

9. WHY ISAAC ONLY
and not the line of Ishmael?
1. Isaac’s birth was a supernatural sign from God.
2. God’s choice was based on election
instead of tradition.
3. Protection from syncretism (mixing with
other religions and their foreign gods).

10. Abraham
3 GENERATIONS IN…
and God’s people are already in serious trouble.
Isaac (and Ishmael)
Jacob

12. JOSEPH
in Egypt

13. JOSEPH, GOD’S WILLand the Sovereignty of God
God’s Moral Will God’s Sovereign Will
What God would
prefer
(this can be thwarted) (no way, buster)
What God will
accomplish

14. JOSEPH IN EGYPTand the Sovereignty of God
As for you, you meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good in order to
bring about this present result, to save
many people alive.
GENESIS
50:20

15. and the Sovereignty of God
God’s Moral Will God’s Sovereign Will
“As for you, you meant evil
against me”
(God used it to accomplish His
rulership and sovereignty)
God did not thwart their evil
desires against Joseph
but God meant it for good
in order to bring about
this present result, to save
many people alive.
JOSEPH, GOD’S WILL

16. THE EXODUS

17. SUPERNATURAL
PROTECTION
The Exodus is God’s
faithfulness to His
covenant by way of

18. WHY IS GOD
so faithful to the Abrahamic Covenant?
For this time I will send all My plagues on you
and your servants and your people, so that you
may know that there is no one like Me in all the
earth....But, indeed, for this reason I have
allowed you to remain, in order to show you
My power and in order to proclaim My name
through all the earth. EXODUS
9:14,16

19. MOSES
gets the Law

20. ABRAHAMIC
COVENANT
than the
VERY DIFFERENT
The Mosaic Covenant is

21. THE MOSAIC COVENANT
Is the outworking of the Abrahamic Covenant
Abrahamic Covenant The Mosaic Covenant
A man
A nation
A blessing to the world
Moral Conduct
Ceremonial Religious
Activities
Civil order and Government

22. THE BLESSINGS
of the two different covenants
Abrahamic Covenant The Mosaic Covenant
Unconditional (binding on
God alone)
Based on Grace
Conferred on individuals,
Israel and also for other
nations, dependent on faith
Conditional (binding on
Israel alone)
Based on Works
Meant the nation of Israel as
a whole, dependent on
obedience

23. IS THE
MOSAIC COVENANT
LOCAL
OR
UNIVERSAL?

24. 3 WAYS TO KNOW
Whether a Law was Local or is Universal?
Are we still obligated to keep it under the New Covenant?
Does it seem transcendent or just cultural?
How is this law treated in the Old Testament?

25. WANDERINGS AND IDOLS
God’s people begin to forget

26. COME APART
things begin to
THE EXODUS
Shortly after

27. AFTER THE EXODUS
things begin to come apart
Moses and Joshua go up to Mt Sinai for
40 days and the people get impatient.
The people ask Aaron to make a
golden idol that they can worship.
God’s anger burns toward them and
Moses intercedes for them.
EXODUS
32

28. AFTER THE EXODUS
things start to unravel
God still punished His people for their
rebellion and idolatry. EXODUS
32:14
“So the Lord changed His mind about the
harm which He said He would do to His
people.”

29. NUMBERS: 40 YEARS
of wandering as judgment for their rebellion
NUMBERS
Numbers records the census (“numbers”) and tribes
of Israel immediately after departing Mt Sinai.
It also describes their wanderings in
the wilderness for 40 years before
they were allowed to enter the
promised land of Caanan.

30. NUMBERS: 40 YEARS
of wandering as judgment for their rebellion
One year after the Exodus, God
sends 1 spy from each tribe to
spy out the promised land.
NUMBERS
12-13

40. NUMBERS: 40 YEARS
of wandering as judgment for their rebellion
What happens when the spies return from
scouting out the land?
2 spies give a good report, 10 give a
bad report about the land.
The good = land of milk and honey
The bad = land of many enemies
NUMBERS
12-13

41. NUMBERS: 40 YEARS
of wandering as judgment for their rebellion
Caleb and Joshua encourage the people that they
can take the land. The others spread fear.
The people do not believe God will
deliver them, and begin to turn on
Moses. Again, God’s anger burns and
Moses intercedes for the people.
NUMBERS
13-14

42. NUMBERS: 40 YEARS
of wandering as judgment for their rebellion
The Lord pardons their iniquity but
consigns them to wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years.
NUMBERS
13-14

43. Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “just as
you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely
do to you. Your corpses will fall in this
wilderness, even all your numbered men,
according to your complete number from twenty
years old and upward, who have grumbled
against Me.
NUMBERS
14:28-29

44. Surely you shall not come into the land in which
I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of
Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”
NUMBERS
14:30

45. “And to whom did He swear that they should not
enter His rest, but to those who were
disobedient? And so we see that they were not
able to enter because of unbelief.”
HEBREWS
3:18-19

46. BLESSING AND
CURSING
at work, giving both
MOSAIC COVENANT
Here we see the

47. DEUTERONOMY
“The second giving of the Law”
The transition from the wilderness
wanderings in Numbers to the
conquest recorded in Joshua.
NUMBERS
13-14

48. DEUTERONOMY
“The second giving of the Law”
It includes the final words of Moses and the
giving of the law again, to a new generation.
DEUTERONOMY
It was given in preparation for them to enter the land
God had promised them and marks a significant shift in
leadership from Moses to Joshua

49. JOSHUA
conquers the land

50. GOD’S PROMISES
Continue to come true for His people
God begins to fulfill his promise of making them
”a great nation” by giving them land.
Joshua sends out spies to Jericho, who stay
with Rahab the prostitute. They spare her
when they take the city and she joins God’s
people.
JOSHUA
1-3

51. JOSHUA’S CONQUEST
in the land of Caanan
Joshua subdues 6 nations and 31 kings in 6 years.
God shows his power at Jericho by
crumbling the walls on the seventh day as
Joshua leads the army around the city once
per day in faithfulness to God’s command. JOSHUA
1-3

55. JOSHUA’S CONQUEST
in the land of Caanan
Joshua launches a southern campaign
against a number of Canaanite cities. JOSHUA 10
Joshua launches a northern campaign
through a surprise attack. JOSHUA 11
JOSHUA 13-24
Joshua partitions the land amongst the
12 tribes of Israel.

56. TRIBES
OF
ISRAEL

57. JOSHUA’S LEGACY
with the people of Israel
Joshua’s exhortation, “As for me and
my house, we shall serve the Lord”
JOSHUA 24:31
JOSHUA 24:15
Joshua’s legacy: “And Israel served the
Lord all the days of Joshua and all the
days of the elders who survived Joshua,
and had known all the deeds of the Lord
which He had done for Israel”.

58. FROM JOSHUA TO JUDGES
The End of the Theocracy

59. NOW WHAT?
Israel’s cycle after the death of Joshua
1) Israel is expected to cleanse the land of the
Canaanites because of their wicked influence
over the Hebrews.

60. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to
serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be
kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you. But
thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars,
and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their
Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire.
DEUTERONOMY
7:4-5

61. NOW WHAT?
Israel’s cycle after the death of Joshua
2) The Hebrews do not drive the Canaanites out
as they were commanded to do, but enslaved
them instead.

62. NOW WHAT?
Israel’s cycle after the death of Joshua
3) The Canaanite influence eventually
permeated the Hebrew culture, causing
them to worship false gods (such as Baal).

63. DELIVERANCE
of sin, subjugation, prayer,
THE PATTERN
Thus begins
and rest

64. ISRAEL’S CYCLE
in the book of Judges
1) Sin — Israel falls into idol worship and forgets the Lord
JUDGES
3:7-9
2) Subjugation — God allows an oppresor to come
against Israel.
3) Prayer — God’s people cry out to Him for help.
4) Deliverance — God’s raises up a judge to
rescue them.
5) Rest — A period of quiet before sin returns.

65. NOTABLE JUDGES
in the book of Judges
Gideon — God commissions him to free Israel from the
Midianites, he doubts and asks for various confirmations.
Samson — God raised him up to free Israel from the
Philistines, though under Nazarite vow. God gives him
superhuman strength and kills thousands of Philistines
but ends up falling in love with a Philistine girl named…

67. NOTABLE JUDGES
in the book of Judges
Samuel — Samuel is Israel’s last great Judge and first
great prophet. God called him as a boy, and when the
people reject God as their king (because of their
jealousy of other nations), Samuel anoints Saul as the
first king of Israel, and later annoints David
to replace Saul as King.
1 SAMUEL
3

68. AND THUS BEGINS
and the period of the Judges,
THEOCRACY
Thus ends the
the reign of Kings.

69. NEXT WEEK:

70. THE THREE
KINGS
of the United Kingdom:
Saul, David & Solomon

71. THE
KINGDOM
SPLITS
Israel and Judah

72. THE
ASSYRIAN
DISPERSION
of Israel

73. THE
BABYLONIAN
CAPTIVITY
of Judah

74. SEE YOU THEN!