The Old Testament

The Old Testament

1. 1) Creation

   • God creates the world in 7 days
   • Genesis= a poem
     • the number of words in each consecutive verse increase by multiples of 7
       • "it was so" and "it was good" was also said 7 times
     • all of the words of Genesis may not be literal
   • God creates ,Adam, the first man
   • Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden
     • God tells them that they may eat from any tree they want
       • except the from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
         • or they will "surely die"
   • God creates the 1st woman, Eve
   • the first thing God says is "not good" is loneliness
     • God created the world , everything from the soil on the ground to stars in the sky

2. 2) The Fall

   • Eve is tempted by the serpent and eats from the forbidden tree
     • Eve also gives some of the forbidden fruit from the tree to Adam
   • God curses mankind because of Adam and Eve's sin
   • Adam and Eve realize they are naked and hide in shame
     • God comes to the Garden and ask Adam and Eve why they are ashamed
       • God kills animals in the Garden to make them clothes
   • Adam and Eve leave Garden, travelling East, or "away from God"
     • Eve gives birth to their son Cain then their second son Abel
       • Cain and Abel give sacrifices to God
         • God only accepts Abel's and out of jealously Cain kills him
           • Cain is cursed by God : he is "marked" and forced to wander forever
             • Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree, introducing sin into the world
   • God curses Eve to have pain in childbirth
   • God curses Adam to work for the rest of his life

3. 5) Jacob and his Family

   • Jacob, by way four women, has 12 sons
   • his favorite son is Joseph who was bore by his favorite wife
     • Joseph's brothers were jealous of him being their dad's favorite
       • they plot to kill him but end up selling him into slavery
         • Joseph is a slave, goes to jail, and correctly interprets the dreams of Pharoah
           • these events lead him to the position of second in power to Pharoah
             • Jacob saved many lives and turned out to be second in power in Egypt despite his harsh past
   • God, within the course of Jacob's life, changed Jacob's name to Israel or "wrestles with God"
   • Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah by his uncle when he really wanted to wed Rachel
   • Joseph interpreted the dream of Pharaoh to correctly predict a future 7 year famine
   • Joseph's brothers made him struggle but God intended it for good by allowing him to save people from the famine

4. 6) The Exodus

   • Pharaoh ordered all baby Jewish males be killed
     • However, Moses was saved because he was put in a basket on the Nile by his mother and found and raised by Pharaoh's daughter
       • Moses grew up as a prince in Pharaoh's household
         • one day,as an adult, Moses saw an Egpytian beating a Jewish slave and susequently killed the Egyptian for doing so
   • the Jews were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt
   • Moses was exiled by Pharoah for killing an Egyptian
   • God sent 10 plagues to Egypt to try to sway Pharaoh to let the Jewish slaves go
     • the Jews were slaves but were freed by God and later taught God's law by Moses
   • after the last plague, Pharoah allowed the Jews to go free
   • after Pharoah set the Jews free, Moses took them into the wilderness to worship God

5. 3) The Flood

   • People of the world do evil and are wicked in the eyes of God
   • Noah is appointed by God to build an ark
     • God tells Noah that he is going to flood the earth, killing every human being
       • God tells Noah to fill the arc with a pair of male and female of every type of animal
         • Noah loads his family onto the arc as well and God sends rain that continues to fall for 40 days and forty nights
   • the Nephlium ihabited the earth before the Flood
     • they are believed to be the offspring of the sons of God (angels) and the daughters of humans
   • every ancient culture in history has an account of a flood
   • the ark landed on a mountaintop on the 17th of Nisan , where Noah sent out a dove to search for land
     • Noah listens to God, for he was a man of great faith
   • after the Flood, God shown a rainbow on the earth as his promise to never flood the world again

6. 4) the Blessing of Abraham

   • Abraham is the first one called on by God after the Flood
   • God makes three promises to Abraham
     • * he will father many nations with decendants as numerous as the stars
       • *his nations will be a blessing to the world
         • *he will get to the Promised Land
           • Abraham was to be granted "descendants as numerous as the stars" even though it seemed impossible
   • Abraham has a wife named Sarah, who is barren
   • Sarah takes matters into her own hands and has their slave, Hagar bare a son to Abraham named Ismael
   • in her old age, Sarah bares Abraham a son named Isaac
   • God tests Abraham and tells him to take Isaac and sacrifice him, but then God tells him to kill a ram instead

7. 7) Judges

   • God appointed 12 judges to help bring His people back to Him
   • Deborah was the only woman judge
   • after each judge died, the Jews went back to their wicked ways
   • Samson was a judge who God gave great strength
     • however if he ever cut his hair, he would lose his great strength
       • after his first and second marriages failed, Samson met a woman who turned out to be his lover, named Delilah
         • Delilah betrayed Samson and cut off all of his hair, causing him to lose all of his strength
           • Delilah's evil plan resulted in Samson being imprisoned and later killed
             • the Judges spoke to the people of God trying to lead them back to Him
   • Samuel was the last judge before the annointing of Israel's first king

8. 8) The Kings

   • the people begged God for a king because they wanted to be like other nations
     • God gave in and the first king of Israel was Saul
       • the people were pleased as he was the perfect image of a king, tall and handsome
         • however, as time went on, he proved to not be worthy of his status for he was corrupt and envious. He was eventually killed by God as a result.
   • David, was chosen to be of Israel
   • David proved to be a better king than Saul at first
     • the lives of the only three kings of Israel
   • however, David became adulterous and had two sons to another man's wife
   • the first son died, but the second son, Solomon, was the third and last king of the united Israel
   • God said that David's throne would "endure forever"

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