Isaiah is the first of what are called the major prophets, distinguished by the length of their work, not the quality. Literary critics love Isaiah for its poetry, its vocabulary (largest in the Old Testament), and its uplifting vision of a better future.Christians sometimes call it the “Fifth Gospel” because it’s referenced often by New testament writers.

There is an ongoing controversy over whether the book was written by one or more authors, but at least we can say Isaiah is associated with the period from 740-700 B.C. when Assyria was on the move across the lands of the Middle East. His warnings to Judah of impending disaster occupy the first half (chapter 1-39) while words of comfort take up the balance of the book.

One interesting note is that the prophets were often called to act out some aspect of God’s message. In Isaiah’s case he dressed as a slave for three years as a symbol of the fate of Egypt as it attempted to stand up to Assyria. He also gave his son a long name that tied in to the Assyrian invasion. You will see this real-life drama in the lives of other prophets who used this tool to visually demonstrate God’s messages to his people.

The prophets are such a big part of the Old Testament that I wanted to give one more overview of them before tackling individual prophets.

A hundred years later Assyria’s power waned, and Babylon rose to threaten the southern two tribes. Prophets spoke out to these people for the next fifty years as the threat increased. Zephaniah in 640 B.C. cried out against religious pluralism in Judah, Nahum exulted in the destruction of Assyria by Babylon, Jeremiah preached repentance, Habakkuk pondered why God used a heathen nation (Babylon) to invade Judah, and Obadiah in 590 B.C. condemned Edom for helping Babylon. After many people were removed and exiled to Babylon, Ezekiel became a prophet who spoke to them.

After the Persians replaced the Babylonians as the dominant power, they allowed many groups of people to return to their lands. Some Jews took advantage of this to go back to their promised land where Haggai and Zechariah encouraged them. Later Malachi and Joel judged the religious life of the Jews. As you read these prophets, keep the historical background in mind and notice the powerful use of poetry to deliver their messages to an erring, forgetful, and backsliding people.

Let’s look at key times and key prophets in the story of Israel. Moses was the first of many prophets throughout the history of the Jewish people. Later there was Samuel, followed by Elijah and Elisha. These individuals spoke God’s message as well as carried out God’s plans; they were actors in the history of the nation of Israel.

The last group of prophets that we find in the Old Testament came on the scene in the period from 750-450 B.C. when major upheavals occurred in the land. First, the rise of Assyria threatened the northern ten tribes. Those were terrifying people who swarmed across the Ancient Near East. Amos, who was a prophet to these ten tribes about 750 B.C., warned judgment was coming. Hosea followed shortly, preaching to the same people. The creation of the book of Jonah is hard to pin down historically, but his message deals with the Assyrians at about this time. By the way, read what happens in this book when Jonah shows up at Nineveh. It’s funny if you slow down and read it carefully. At the same time, Isaiah and Micah delivered God’s warnings to Judah in the south. The warnings were too late for Israel in the north; the Assyrians carried them off to captivity.

SONG OF SOLOMON

In the original Hebrew this book was titled “Solomon’s Song of Songs,” which means it could be by him, for him, or about him. No one knows for sure.

It’s another example of wisdom literature with a big difference from the others—it appears to be erotic poetry. Those uncomfortable with that idea have tried to approach the book as an allegory of Christ’s love for the church or God’s love for Israel. But it’s difficult to explain it as anything else besides love poems between two people. It revels in physical sensuality.

The Prophets

We have surveyed books dealing with two of the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible—Torah (the Law) and the Writings. The third section, the Prophets, needs a brief introduction for better understanding of what’s ahead.

The Hebrew word for prophet means “one who calls” or “is called.” These two terms explain the function of a prophet—he is someone who is called by God to proclaim His message. He was an Old Testament preacher, telling what God was going to do and exhorting people to respond with a holy lifestyle. The prophet railed against false religious practices and against social and political corruption.

The typical prophetic book had an announcement of judgment against others and/or the Jewish people, description of end-of-the-world judgment and a final Jewish kingdom, an argument as to how Israel broke its covenant with God, exhortations, and satire. We picture prophets as interested in predicting the future, but that wasn’t the case because the future depended on the present and how the people reacted to the message. They also were not caught up in strange, visionary dreams; they focused on the real world, emphasizing that God was an active worker in history.

PROVERBS

Like Psalms, this book is a collection, this time with many of its works attributed to Solomon rather than his father David. It is an example of wisdom literature as are Job and Ecclesiastes. What makes this section of the Bible so different from the portions that came before it, wisdom literature focuses on the practical and philosophic side of life rather than the religious aspect so prominent in past stories. The sayings here are based on observation and experimentation, not divine revelation.

All societies have proverbs, which are short, memorable truths about life and human behavior. What makes them memorable is the use of figurative language (for example, wisdom is described as a woman) and parallelism (one part of a sentence echoes the same structure as a second part of the sentence). It may be difficult to read through all the chapters at one sitting due to the lack of a plot and the need for meditation on the ideas presented, but since there are 31 chapters, many people enjoy reading one chapter a day for a month.

Keep in mind these proverbs are not a promise of how your life will go. They are generalizations that describe how life tends to go.

Take a look at chapter 31 in particular. Here the author describes the ideal wife. Note how modern this description appears–she can do so many things beyond raising children. Also note that this is an acrostic in which each verse starts with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The result is that the author is saying the woman can do all from A to Z.

However you read this book, be prepared to think about the truths contained in it.

PSALMS

The Psalms, compiled and edited over a long period of time, is the Hebrew hymnbook.People for generations have turned to a psalm for comfort, peace, and encouragement.

Here is a variety of praises, prayers, and songs that serve several purposes: to remind Israel of its history (78, 105, 106), to offer blessings and curses (35, 69, 109, 137), to repent of sin (6, 32, 38, 51, 102), to encourage those on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (48, 120-134), to praise God (8, 19, 69, 95-100, 146-150), to cry for help in times of trouble (3, 5, 7, 9-10).

There are psalms that are arranged in such a clever fashion that each stanza starts with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet (25, 34, 111, 112, 119). Christians look to some psalms to see hints of Jesus (22, 110).

The Psalms are gathered into five sections, each of which ends with a doxology—1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150. As you read them, consider the Psalms to be literary prayers. The literary part can be seen in the use of poetry here  with an emphasis on parallelism, which uses pairs of lines with the second line either repeating the first or giving an opposite meaning. The emphasis on prayer is evident throughout the Psalms; as one person put it, “The rest of the Bible is God’s word to the world, and the Psalms are man’s word to God.”

ESTHER

Esther covers the same time period as Ezra, about 480 B.C. when Xerxes, here called Ahasuerus, ruled Persia and plotted his wars against Greece. Many Jews, despite being allowed to return to their native land, opted to stay in Persia, leaving them at risk because they were surrounded by foreigners. The story of how the Jews were saved from utter destruction led to the establishment of the Feast of Purim (the word comes from the plural form of “lot”) in which Esther is read in the synagogue; the people boo and shout every time the villain’s name is mentioned.

JOB

This book starts a series of poetical selections (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon) dealing with experiences of the heart rather than the history we have seen in previous books. Job, a famous book referred to often by other writers, deals with the essential problem of suffering and the nature of God—why do good people suffer? can God be understood? The difficult balance between the existence of evil and a world run by an omnipotent and just God is explored in this book through the use of some of the most powerful poetry ever written. Job can be divided into three sections—the prologue in which misfortunes strike Job (1-2),  cyclical debates on the ways of God (3:1-42:6), and the epilogue which reveals Job’s vindication (42:7-17).

1 and 2 CHRONICLES

Again these two books are really one that is continued in the stories of Ezra and Nehemiah. Chronicles covers genealogies (1 Chronicles 1-9), David as king (1 Chronicles 9-29), Solomon as king (2 Chronicles 1-9), and Judah to its destruction by Babylon and restoration under the Persian king Cyrus (2 Chronicles 10-36).

It was written for exiles who had returned to Israel after the Babylonian captivity to remind them of God’s faithfulness. Much of it echoes the information in 1 and 2 Samuel as well as 1 and 2 Kings, but it’s interesting to see what was emphasized here to reinforce the author’s themes.

EZRA, NEHEMIAH

Once more we encounter two books that were originally one in the Hebrew Bible. They cover a shift in world events—Assyria and Babylon have diminished while Persia has grown into a vast power that will rule the area for the next 200 years.

Because Persia had a different philosophy of ruling, the rulers were inclined to let conquered people who had been displaced by the previous powers go back to their native lands. So, in 537 B.C. Israelites under the leadership of Zerubbabel went back to the promised land to start rebuilding their temple (see Ezra 1-6).

Later, Ezra and Nehemiah led a group who returned to Israel in 458 B.C. to begin rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and restoring the city (see Ezra 7-10 and Nehemiah 1-13). One interesting aspect of this return to the land is the fate of the northern ten tribes which had been carried away by Assyria. They were so dispersed and so much time had gone by before the Persians came on the scene that they never came back as a group to their land. This story of the “lost tribes of Israel” fed a great deal of speculation as to their fate.

Meanwhile, the Jews who did return (mostly from the tribe of Judah) encountered difficulties back in their land, so the leaders pushed for Jewish exclusivism—no Gentile customs or Gentile people were to be accepted by the group. This helped keep a Jewish national and religious identity intact. The key question of the returned exiles was simple—were they still the chosen people of God who could rely on his promises and who could still depend on him as had past generations?

Like the previous two books of Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings were originally one book covering the nation of Israel from the death of David to the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity (970-587 B.C.). The basic story can be summed up as Solomon’s accession and reign (1 Kings 1-11), the story of the two separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel (1 Kings 12-2 Kings 17), and the story of Judah by itself (2 Kings 18-25).

It’s important for readers to understand what happens here regarding the name “Israel” because it can be very confusing. Originally it referred to all twelve tribes as they entered the promised land and conquered portions of it. During the time period of 1 and 2 Kings, however, it became the title of ten northern tribes who split away from the remaining two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

One other item that may cause confusion is the reference to the temple built by Solomon. There are three temples mentioned in the Bible. Solomon’s is the first. After its destruction at the hands of the Babylonians in 587 B.C., a second one was built by Zerubbabel (see Ezra 5:2, 6:15-18) when some Jews returned from their captivity. But it was a poor copy of the original, so Herod rebuilt and refurbished it in 20 B.C. It was this temple that Jesus was associated with. It too was destroyed, this time by the Romans in 70 A.D. The site is now occupied by the Dome of the Rock, a Moslem mosque.

These two books are tragic to read. At the beginning there is King David, a beautiful temple, and a wide-spread kingdom. At the end there is a foreign king, a destroyed temple, and a people led into captivity as their promised land falls into the hands of unbelievers.