Old Testament Texting Class

--This class is intended to last for 6 weeks; Monday-Saturday, no class on Sunday.
--You can always feel free to email me at marknickens@gmail.com
--This is a free class.
--I only have two requests: (1) If you use this class please let me know, and (2) Let me know any comments people make about this class (since I try to improve the class).
--Feel free to share this with other leaders in your church or other churches.
--Each text (except for the first and last days) is set up like this:

• Answer from previous day's question
• Lesson for that day
• Question, with answer given the next texting day

Back to Contents

1.  M
Welcome to an Old Testament texting class!  I am Dr. Mark Nickens and I have taught Bible classes at many schools over the last 18 years.  Your youth leader will send this to you and so ask him any questions you have.  It will run for 6 weeks.  This first week will discuss how the Old Testament is arranged. / Q:  How many books does the OT have?

2.  Tu
Answer (or A):  39 books. / Lesson (or L): The 39 books of the OT are divided into 4 sections:  the history books (from Genesis to Esther), the wisdom books (from Job to Song of Songs or Song of Solomon, I have seen both names used), one apocalypse (Daniel), and the prophet books (Isaiah to Malachi).  One book does not fit in those 4 categories:  Lamentations (written by the prophet Jeremiah).  I will explain why later. / Q:  Two history books focus on women.  What are they?

3.  W
A: Ruth and Esther. / L: The OT begins with the story of God creating everything and ends around 450 BC, or about 450 years before Jesus. This is because most of the OT books were written by prophets, and the last prophet was Malachi, who lived around 450 BC. Some books were not written by prophets, but they were written before 450 BC and described God’s actions and so were included, such as Ruth and Esther. / Q: Which of these two women were included in Jesus' family tree? Go to Matthew 1:1-16 to find out.

4.  Th
A: Ruth./ L: The OT has 39 books and the NT has 27 books, but the OT is almost 3 times as long as the NT. / Q: What is the longest book in the Bible?

5.  F
A:  Psalms has 150 chapters, but it is not the longest book if you count words, that would be Jeremiah.  The longest book in the NT has 28 chapters (There are really 2 of them, Matthew and Acts both have 28 chapters) / The wisdom books are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Song or Solomon, and Ecclesiastes and tell how to act and speak to each other and to God. These books contain insights into our daily lives and try to answer questions such as why do people suffer and what is really important. / Q:  What is the shortest Wisdom book?

6.  Sa
A: Song of Songs or Solomon/ L:  Prophets are found throughout the OT, just like Apostles are found throughout the NT. There were two different types of prophets in the OT: those who wrote books (or their followers wrote books) and those who didn’t.  There are 15 “writing” prophets, and so there are 15 prophet books in the OT.  Some are very long and some are very short.  The long books are called Major Prophets and the shorter ones are called Minor Prophets. / Q:  How many of each?

7. Mon
A: 3 Major & 12 Minor / L: The next 2 weeks cover OT history. A very, very, very brief summary of the OT (we will discuss everything during the class): Creation, Adam & Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Egypt, Moses, Joshua, Judges, Saul, David, Solomon, Temple, divided kingdom, north kingdom destroyed & most Jews taken away, south kingdom & Temple destroyed & most Jews taken away, Jews return & rebuild Temple and then wall around Jerusalem. / Q: How long did God take to create everything?

8. Tues [Creation, Adam & Eve, Noah]
A: 6 days (He rested on the 7th day) / L: God created the universe. He also created Adam & Eve “in His image.” This means we have souls & can communicate with God, but animals cannot. A&E disobeyed God & had to leave the Garden of Eden, although they still communicated with God. Many years later no one was following God but Noah & his family. God sent a flood to kill the disobedient people & Noah’s family went on an ark (or boat). / Q:  How many people went on Noah’s ark?

9. Weds [Abraham]
A:  8. Noah, his wife, his three sons, & their three wives./ L:  Noah’s family obeyed God, but as time went on fewer people believed in God.  Eventually no one followed God but one person: Abraham. Instead of sending another flood, God & Abraham agreed to a covenant (like a contract): God guarded & worked with Abraham’s family as they continued to obey God & God promised to give them the land of Israel. Anyone who wished to follow God joined Abraham’s family (like joining a church).  / Q: What were Abraham’s descendants called? 

10. Thurs [Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Egypt]
A: Jews or Israelites / L: Abraham’s son’s name was Isaac, and Isaac had twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob became the leader of the Jews. His name was changed to Israel. He had 12 sons, but 10 of the sons hated 1 of the sons, Joseph. They sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt but he, with God’s help, became the 2nd most powerful man in Egypt. A famine came and Jacob’s family (the Jews) moved to Egypt where there was plenty of food. / Q: What was the title of the ruler of Egypt?

11. Fri [Moses]
A: Pharaoh / L: The Egyptians welcomed the Jews at first but then made them slaves. 400 years later the Pharaoh was afraid Jews would help Egypt’s enemies defeat Egypt in a war. He ordered all male Jewish babies be killed. Moses’ mother hid him in a basket & floated it on the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket & the baby & adopted Moses. Moses was raised as an Egyptian prince but did not forget he was a Jew. / Q: Which OT book tells about Moses as a young man? 

12. Sat [Moses as leader]
A: Exodus / L: Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Jew & he fled to the desert. Later God told Moses to bring the Jews out of slavery. Pharaoh said no & God sent 10 Plagues (disasters). The last Plague = God killed the oldest sons of the Egyptians & Pharaoh changed his mind & let the Jews go free. Jews celebrate that in a holiday called Passover. Moses led the Jews to the desert where they were free. / Christians do not celebrate Passover, but instead replaced it with another celebration, what is that celebration called? 

13. Mon [Law and Tabernacle]
A: Communion or the Lord’s Supper. At the Last Supper, Jesus replaced Passover with Communion. / L: After the Jews left Egypt & were in the desert, God gave them rules known as the Law or the Law of Moses around 1450 BC.  Part of the Law was the 10 Commandments, but the Law had 613 total rules on how to live.  God gave instructions for them to build a tent where Jews worshipped him, called a Tabernacle.  The Jews carried it everywhere. / Q: Who led the Jews after Moses died?

14. Tues [Joshua, Judges]
A: Joshua led the Jews after Moses died. / L: He led them back into Israel and they conquered most of it.  Since Jacob had 12 sons, the Jews had 12 tribes. Once they conquered Israel, they gave each tribe some land. One of the tribes did not get any land because they were priests, and so they had to scatter and live amongst all the tribes. Then Joshua died, and God picked judges to lead the Jews.  Eventually the Jews got tired of having judges and wanted a king. / Q: What was the name of the first Jewish king?

15. Weds [Saul, David, Solomon, Temple]
A: Saul / L: God chose Saul, but he frequently disobeyed God. After Saul died, God chose David to be king (David was not Saul’s son).  He was the greatest of all the Jewish kings and, except for a few times, completely obey God. He moved the capital to Jerusalem. After he died, his son Solomon became king. Solomon replaced the Tabernacle with a building called the Temple around the year 950 BC.  Solomon was wise, but he started worshipping false gods. / Q: What did God do to punish Solomon?

16. Thurs [North Kingdom]
A: God split the kingdom of the Jews into 2 parts. / L: The northern part was called Israel & the southern part was called Judah. The Temple was in Jerusalem and Jerusalem was in Judah. Israel created their own capital. Israel had 10 tribes and Judah had 2 tribes. None of the kings in the northern kingdom obeyed God, and after 200 years God allowed a larger kingdom to destroy Israel as punishment. That larger kingdom took most of the Jews away as prisoners. / Q: What was the name of that kingdom?

17. Fri [South Kingdom, Temple destroyed]
A: The Assyrians (that was a hard question!) / L: Some kings in the southern kingdom (Judah) did obey God, but many did not. Since some of the kings were good, the southern kingdom lasted longer than the northern kingdom of Israel, but eventually so many southern kings disobeyed God that He sent a larger kingdom to defeat them as punishment. This other kingdom conquered Judah and even destroyed the Temple. They also took most of the southern Jews away as prisoners. / Q: What was the name of this kingdom? (Another hard question)

18. Sat [Jews return, Temple rebuilt, Wall rebuilt around Jerusalem, OT story ends]
A: The Babylonians. / L: After several decades, Cyrus, king of Persia, defeated the Babylonians. He liked the Jews & said they could return & rebuild the Temple (See the last verse in II Chronicles). Many Jews did go back to Jerusalem in the southern kingdom & they did rebuild the Temple where they could worship God. They then rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem. And the Old Testament ends there, about the year 450 BC. / Review Q: This completes the history of the OT. How many history books are in the OT?

Wisdom
19: Mon [Wisdom]
A:  17 books (Genesis – Esther) / L:  The next section in the OT is Wisdom Literature: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, & Song of Songs (or of Solomon). These books explore big questions of life: Where is God when people suffer? How are we supposed to talk to God? How are we supposed to act toward other people? What is really important? What does true love look like?  Job covers the first question, and the other 4 books cover the other 4 questions / Review Q: How many sections does the OT have?

20: Tues [Job]
A: 4: History, wisdom, apocalyptic, & prophets / L: The central idea in Job is suffering: does God care? Job was wealthy & loved & obeyed God. God & Satan disagreed over why Job obeyed God. God said Job loved him & Satan said Job loved God because God made Job wealthy. God allowed Satan to make Job a very poor & sick man & Job stayed true to God. Job loved God while suffering because he knew God loved him. God was happy with Job. We find out God is with us when we suffer even if it seems like he is not. / Q: Does “Job” rhyme with “top” or “globe”?

21:  Weds [Psalms]
A: “Job” rhymes with “globe” / L: The second wisdom book is called Psalms & is the longest book in the Bible with 150 chapters (1 chapter = 1 psalm). It gives examples of how to talk with God & each psalm is a song to God. (We do not have the music to any of the psalms.) The psalms tell God about many things: thanking God, asking God to help in a difficult time, happy Psalms, angry psalms, etc. There is a Psalm for every mood that you have & it is a great book to help us learn to talk with God. / Q: Which is the longest Psalm?

22:  Thursday [Proverbs]
A:  Psalm 119 has 176 verses. Fun fact that most people don't know: Psalms has the most chapters, but the Bible book with the most words is Jeremiah; technically Jeremiah is the longest book. / L: Psalms & Proverbs were mainly written by 1 person each (David = Psalms & Solomon = Proverbs) but other people wrote smaller parts of each book.  Proverbs tells how to live your life with honor & how to treat other people.  Proverbs chapters 1-9 is the introduction, & the individual sayings or proverbs start with chapter 10. / Q: First part of Proverbs 9:10: “The fear (or respect) of the Lord is the beginning of __________.” (This could be the central idea in Proverbs.)

23:  Fri [Ecclesiastes]
A: Wisdom / L: The last 2 Wisdom books are short: While Job has 42 chapters, Psalms has 150, & Proverbs has 31, Ecclesiastes only has12, & Song of Songs or Solomon only has 8. Solomon wondered what was really important in life and so wrote Ecclesiastes. He was very wealthy: he was paid 17 tons of gold a year & had everything he wanted but was not happy. Solomon finally says this: (Ecclesiastes 12:13) “Here is the conclusion: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of people.” / Q: Review from earlier text: After Moses died, who led the Jews?

24:  Sat [Song of Solomon:  question about when Solomon wrote each book]
A: Joshua led the Jews & they conquered most of present-day Israel by 1200 BC, or 1200 years before Jesus. / L: The last Wisdom book is Song of Songs, also called Song of Solomon (SofS). To review: Job = Suffering; Psalms = How to talk with God; Proverbs = How to live with other people; Ecclesiastes = What is really important. SofS describes a man who is in love with a woman. Solomon wrote this & he tells how desires to be with the woman he loves. / Q: Solomon wrote the last 3 Wisdom books at different times in his life. Which book did he write when he was an old man? (Hint: think about the theme of each one.)

Prophets
25: Mon [Major Prophets]
A: Solomon probably wrote Song of Songs as a young man in love, Proverbs as a middle-age man giving advice to his children, and Ecclesiastes as an old man when he wondered what was really important. / L: God told his message to a prophet (or prophetess; the OT mentions 4 prophetesses & there were certainly others) and he/she told the message to the king or the people.  The message usually said to obey God or be punished. So, a prophet was one who delivered the message from God. / Q:  In the OT, prophets were the main spokespeople from God; who did this in the NT?

26:  Tues [Major Prophets]
A: Apostles / L: The OT has 15 prophet books. This week covers the 3 major prophet books & next week the 12 minor prophet books. This does not mean the OT only had 15 prophets, but only 15 prophets wrote books. The books Joshua through II Kings mentions many prophets, but most did not write a book. The major prophets are called “major” only because their books are longer.  The average length of a major prophet book is about 55 chapters and the average length of a minor prophet book is about 5 ½ chapters long. / Q: One book in the OT does not fit any category but is located among the major prophet books.  Which book is that?

27: Weds [Isaiah]
A: Lamentations. Not Daniel: its category is Apocalyptic or looking to the future / L: The prophets who wrote books were either from the northern (Israel) or southern (Judah) kingdoms & God told them to speak to the Jews in Israel, Judah or, in a few cases such as Jonah, to other people.  The first major prophet book is Isaiah. He warned the people of Judah to obey God or their kingdom would be destroyed.  Isaiah also predicts Jesus in many verses, such as 52:13 – 53:12. / Q: 53:5 states that he (meaning Jesus) will be punished for us, and what will that bring us (in the verse)?

28: Thurs [Jeremiah/Lamentations]
A: Peace / L: The next two books have the same author: Jeremiah wrote both Jeremiah and Lamentations. He preached to the southern kingdom of Judah & told them over & over to obey God or they would be destroyed by the Babylonians.  Most of the people did not listen & the Babylonians destroyed the southern kingdom in 586 BC. That is in the book of Jeremiah. They also captured the capital city of Jerusalem. That is described in the book of Lamentations.  (To “lament” is to tell a sad story.) / Q: What did the Babylonians do to the Temple?

29: Fri [Ezekiel]
A: Destroyed the Temple / L: To understand Ezekiel, we have to review some OT history. After Solomon died, the kingdom split in 2: Israel (north) & Judah (south). Assyria defeated Israel & took Jews away in 732 BC. Babylonia defeated Judah, destroyed the Temple & took Jews away in 586 BC. Ezekiel was one of the southern Jews taken to Babylonia. While there, he became a prophet of God. His spoke against nations who were against the Jews & prophesied that the Temple would be rebuilt. / Q: The OT has one apocalyptic book, or book that looks to the future, which book is that?

30: Sat [Daniel]
A: Daniel, the book we cover now. / L: Daniel was like Ezekiel = he was taken from Judah to Babylonia after Judah was defeated. The Babylonians wanted him to become Babylonian by eating their food & living their way. He refused but instead lived a life pleasing to God & most people accepted him since they knew God was happy with him.  One person tried to trick the king by having Daniel thrown in a lion’s den, but God would not allow the lions to attack Daniel / Q: Daniel had three friends who also followed God & who also got into trouble.  What happened to them?

31:  Mon [12 Minor prophets, Hosea]
A: They refused to bow down before the king’s statue (for worship) & were thrown into a large fire. God did not let them be burned / L: Only 12 books left in the OT & they are minor prophet books. They were written after Solomon died & the kingdom of Israel split around 950 BC into the northern kingdom of Israel & the southern kingdom of Judah. Hosea has 14 chapters & is one of the longest minor prophet books.  He lived in the northern kingdom (Israel).  Hosea warned them to obey God or they would be destroyed. / Q: Do you think the northern Jews changed?

32:  Tues [Joel, Amos]
A: No, every N. king disobeyed God, all 20 of them. / L: The next 2 minor prophet books in the OT are Joel & Amos. Joel has 3 chapters & Amos has 9.  Joel spoke to Judah. Since they still disobeyed God, He would send a locust swarm to eat their crops as punishment.  After being punished, God would take care of them again. Amos grew up in Judah but God sent him to Israel. His message: the rich were becoming richer & the poor were suffering & that was wrong. He warned the rich to help the poor or be punished. / Q: Out of the 3 minor prophet books so far, how many went to Israel and how many went to Judah? 

33:  Weds [Obadiah, Jonah, Micah]
A: 1 to Israel & 2 to Judah / L: Obadiah has 1 chapter & is the shortest book in the OT, Jonah has 4 & Micah has 7. Obadiah was sent to Edom & not to the Jews.  They were happy when the Jews were in trouble & did not help & so God punished them.  God told Jonah to preach in Nineveh in Assyria (and not to Jews).  But Jonah left on a boat. God caused a storm to come & Jonah was thrown overboard & swallowed by a large fish, who threw him up on shore.  Jonah went to Ninevah & preached & they accepted God. The message of Micah was the same as Amos. / Q: What was the message of Amos?

34:  Thurs [Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah]
A: The rich should stop abusing the poor or God will punish the rich. / L: Congratulations, you are halfway through the minor prophets! 3 for today: Nahum, Habakkuk, & Zephaniah; each has 3 chapters. Yesterday I said that Jonah preached to the city of Ninevah & they turned to God. Later they rejected God.  Nahum warned them to follow God again or be punished.  Habakkuk lived at the same time as Jeremiah & had the same message for Judah as Jeremiah. Zephaniah lived a little before Jeremiah & had the same message for Judah as Jeremiah. / Q: What was Jeremiah’s message for Judah?

35:  Fri [Haggai, Zechariah]
A: Follow God or be punished. But later God would rebuild them / L: Just 3 books left in the OT: Today is Haggai with 2 chapters & Zechariah with 14. A reminder of the history: After Solomon, the kingdom split in 2: Israel & Judah. The Assyrians defeated Israel then the Babylonians defeated Judah. 70 years later the Persian king Cyrus defeated Babylonians & let the Jews return to Judah and rebuild the Temple. That is when Haggai and Zechariah lived. The Jews had stopped rebuilding the Temple & God (through these two prophets) told them to continue. / Q:  Hard question: How many minor prophet books were written to people who weren’t Jews?

36:  Sat [Malachi]
A: 3: Obadiah, Jonah, & Nahum / L: Finally, the last book in the OT! Malachi has 4 chapters. Malachi (450 BC) was the very last prophet before Jesus. That is why his book is the last in the OT. Plus, the last two verses in Malachi (4:5,6) says that Elijah will come before the Lord comes. Elijah was the greatest prophet in the OT, and in Matthew 11:14 Jesus said the John the Baptist (JtheB) was someone like Elijah. So the last 2 verses in Malachi predicted that Elijah, meaning JtheB, would come before the Lord, meaning Jesus, & that is what happened. The last two verses in the OT predict JtheB and Jesus. / Q:  Review question: How many books are in the OT?

As you finish this class, please do email me and let me know how it went. I am interested in comments studnets made, your observations, and the number who started and who finished the class. Thanks! Mark @ marknickens@gmail.com

© 2018 Mark Nickens