Unlocking The Old Testament

Overview of the Old Testament

The Old Testament is actually a library of 39 books written over a period of 1000 years with most of it covering 2000 years of history before Christ. David Pawson shows how they fit together. With teaching on any one topic scattered all over the Bible, every text is in the context of the book, and every book is in the context of history. God speaks into particular situations, so the time and place give the text its meaning. It features the struggle between the two world powers in the ancient Middle East. The first 5 books are on God’s law and are the most important books in the Old Testament as they are the foundation of the Bible and help us to understand the rest of it. Next are the prophets - prophetic history through which God speaks to us today. Prophetic history is different from other history. All history books are based on 2 principles, selection and connection. When writing a history book, writers first select what to put in and what to leave out. They then show the connection between these events, i.e. what led to what. Prophetic history however, selects only what is important to God. Lastly are the writings, which are stories, poetry and songs.

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Genesis 1

David Pawson says, the first book in the bible, Genesis, is the foundational book for the whole Bible - the key that unlocks the rest of the Bible. Jesus was constantly endorsing it. Genesis tells us exactly what has gone wrong with our world and the rest of the Bible tells us how God is going to put it right. Only God could solve a problem the size of our world. Genesis is about the Creator, not creation. It shows us that God is personal, powerful, uncreated, creative, 3-in-1, good, loving, living, speaking, like us - but unlike us. Most of Genesis is made up of hero stories and family trees so it is obviously a compilation of memories that Moses picked up from the slaves in Egypt that had been passed down through the generations in spoken form. Genesis 1v1 - 2v3 must have been dictated to Moses by God. The style is very different and has all the hallmarks of having come directly from God. The word Genesis means origin and the book contains the origin of the universe and everything in it. It also deals with many ultimate questions that can’t be answered by any human being as no one was there to either observe or record how it happened. Is Genesis the result of human imagination or divine inspiration? A series of guesses from human speculation - or the answer from the Person who was there and indeed was responsible for it?

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