The Old Testament Review

This is part 6 of 6 of chapter 3 of my book, Biblical Glasses.

There were twenty kings of Israel, ruling until 722 B.C., when the nation of Assyria conquered and dispersed the people under the reign of Shalmaneser V. This notable Assyrian king can be found in both secular and Biblical history. Jeroboam was succeeded by Nadab, Baashah, Elah, Zimri, Tibni, Omni, Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and finally Hoshea. The majority of Israel’s kings were evil, practicing child sacrifice, idol worship, astrology, and prostitution. God sent prophets Ahijah, Elijah, Micaiah, Elisha, Jonah, Amos, and Hosea to preach messages of repentance to the leaders and people. These prophets did a magnificent job and occasionally turned things around within the kingdom for short periods of time. But in the end, temptation overwhelmed Israel as it strayed from God. Israel fell from existence in 722 B.C., not to officially return until 1948 A.D., 2670 years later. The people of Israel were scattered worldwide in bondage.

There were also twenty kings of Judah, ruling until 586 B.C., when Babylon conquered and dispersed the people under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is also present in secular history accounts with an abundance of evidence for his reign in Babylon. Rehoboam was succeeded by Abijah, Asa, Jehosaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Queen Athaliah, Joash, Amaziah, Azzariah (Uzziah), Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin (imprisoned by Nebuchadnezzar), and finally Zedekiah. While the majority of these kings were evil, there were several good kings who led Judah; Hezekiah and Josiah were perhaps the greatest among them. The good kings always turned around the people’s evil ways and led them back to God with hearts of repentance. The idol worship seemed to be the most difficult thing to stop; we see that in today’s culture as well.

We worship money, status, time, sex, and other pleasurable things, even ourselves. We neglect our God and only visit with Him for an hour on Sunday. We spend the rest of the week worshipping other gods and worrying about the things of this world. Jesus said: “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life” (Matthew 6:27; Luke 12:25)? God deserves to be worshipped alone; we need to avoid relying on anything else more heavily than Him. God will provide all we need in our lives on earth and for eternity.
God also gave the people of Judah many prophets to help guide them to Him. These prophets included: Micaiah, Jehu, Obadiah, Joel, Micah, Isaiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Huldah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Daniel, and Ezekiel. Isaiah is often considered to be the greatest of these prophets, because his Messianic prophecies were so detailed and exact regarding the first coming of the Messiah. He also included many prophecies about the second coming of Christ and end times events, some of which are coming true even now!

As I mentioned earlier, there were over 300 prophecies about the first coming of Jesus, such as His birthplace, His hometown, His miracles, His death method, His resurrection after three days, etc., and every one of them was fulfilled! For perspective, consider just eight of the prophecies being fulfilled by the same man with the following illustration: Fill the entire state of Texas knee-deep in silver dollars with one of the coins painted. Then send a blindfolded man out into the state and have him pick up one silver dollar. The probability of him selecting the one colored coin is the same probability of one man fulfilling just eight of the 108 prophecies Jesus Christ fulfilled at his first coming!

Regarding the second coming of Christ, there are over 500 prophecies concerning that event. While we cannot know the exact date of Christ’s return, we can know the season; we are in it now! Many of those prophecies could not have been imagined when they were made, but many have already come true. For example, both the existence of Israel (May 14, 1948) and Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem (June 7, 1967) were nothing short of miracles. Both were prophesied in the Old Testament. There is more to come on end times prophecy in chapter ten.

Back to our timeline, Babylon destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C. after two previous invasions in 605 B.C. and 597 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, exiled the remnant (those who were not killed in the battles) of Hebrew people to Babylon. He died in 562 B.C., and Jehoiachin, the former king of Judah, was released from Babylonian prison shortly thereafter.

Babylon began its downfall once Nebuchadnezzar died. From both secular and Biblical history, we know that Cyrus, king of Persia from 559–530 B.C., conquered Babylon in 538 B.C. The remnant of Jewish people was then told to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple of the Lord. Another amazing testimony to the truth of the Bible, the prophet Isaiah predicted in 686 B.C. that a man named Cyrus would free the Hebrew people from captivity. This prophecy was made nearly 150 years before the event took place, long before Babylon or Persia were world powers, and 100 years before Cyrus was even born!

When 50,000 Hebrew people made the journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem, they were led by Zerubbabel, a priest and direct descendant of King David. They realized God had been at work to allow them to return to Jerusalem, so they were sure to follow the law of God, recognizing Him as their Sovereign Lord. In 536 B.C., they started working on the Temple, but they were stopped by threatening government officials after finishing the foundation in 530 B.C. Over the next ten years, the Hebrew people feared continuing the project and wrote letters to the Persian government making sure they were in the right. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah persuaded them to continue the project, so they resumed building in 520 B.C. The Temple was finished in 516 B.C., seventy years after its destruction, as prophesied by both Jeremiah and Daniel many years earlier (see Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10; Daniel 9:2).

Nothing is revealed regarding the next thirty-three years of Jewish history (516–483 B.C.). What was going on in the rest of the world? Well, the Middle East was dominated by Darius and the Persian Empire. The Greeks were around but just beginning to get organized with the founding of democracy. The Roman Republic was also founded at this time. China was growing; Buddha died in 483 B.C. never to be resurrected, and Confucius had just retired to begin teaching morality as he traveled around the country. Northern Europe was dominated by small tribes of people living nomadic lives. Most of Africa was the same, dominated by small tribal civilizations. People may have been making their way into North and South America around this time in history. The Maya, Inca, and Aztec civilizations are not as old as many people think. The major American civilizations hit their primes around the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries (1200–1400s), ended by the arrival of European explorers into the Americas.

Now King Xerxes succeeded Darius on the Persian throne in 486 B.C. His wife, Queen Vashti, was disobedient, so he banished her and searched for a new wife. Why was Xerxes looking for a wife? The idea of faithful marriage given to Adam and Eve by God in the beginning, had been passed down through the generations and remained in effect! Hey, marriage exists throughout the world today even in mostly secular societies. Hmm … How did that happen? Can evolution explain marriage? No!

Anyway, Xerxes had a harem full of beautiful virgins, and he was checking them out, looking for a suitable wife. One of those young ladies was Esther, a Jewish girl raised by her uncle, Mordecai. One day, Mordecai uncovered a conspiracy to kill Xerxes. He told Esther about the plot, and she relayed the message to him. When it was discovered to be true, Xerxes rewarded Mordecai with a government position and made Esther his queen in 479 B.C.! Later, Xerxes gave Haman, a well-known noble, the highest position a nobleman could hold. Haman requested that all the government employees bow and honor him, but Mordecai refused out of reverence for God.

When Mordecai would honor no one over God, Haman was outraged! Haman pleaded with Xerxes to rid his land of Jewish people because of their foolish doctrines involving their God. Xerxes nonchalantly allowed Haman to do with the Jewish people as he pleased. Haman organized a slaughter of the Jewish people, which, according to Persian law, was to take place nine months from the day he made the decree. Now the people of Susa, the capital city of Persia, liked Mordecai and the other Jewish people in the land, so they were bewildered by the decree. Mordecai told Esther to have Xerxes do something about it.

Xerxes did not know about Haman’s intentions, but Esther was afraid to confront her husband, the king of Persia. Esther requested all the Jewish people in the land to fast and pray for three days about the confrontation she was about to make. When she finally confronted Xerxes about the absurd decree, he had Haman hanged on the gallows reserved for Mordecai. The Jews were saved from annihilation as Xerxes issued a decree for them to fight against anyone attempting to slaughter them. When the enemies of the Jews attacked, the Jews held their ground and killed many adversaries. Still today, usually in the month of March, the Jews recall this event by celebrating the Feast of Purim.

Esther was gone without a trace by 465 B.C., and in 458 B.C., Ezra led a second group of Jews back to Jerusalem from captivity. Ezra, a well-organized leader, was appalled to find the Jews in spiritual disorder. Only eighty years after the first journey, the people had reverted to idol worship, intermarriage with non-Jews, and other pagan practices. Ezra spent his time preaching and getting the Jews to repent and return to God, Who provided their existence. Also during this time, as mentioned earlier, Ezra compiled the Scriptures into one text, the Old Testament of the Bible.

In 445 B.C., Nehemiah led a third group of Jewish people back to Jerusalem from captivity; he found the wall around Jerusalem in extremely poor condition. He rebuilt the wall by organizing a building schedule to include all the Jewish people. Nehemiah served as governor and worked with Ezra to make other reforms over the next several years. God had a people again!

Why is it significant?

From a chronological viewpoint, we have just gone through the entire Old Testament. It was undoubtedly a brief overview, but we covered about 3650 years of history! What does it all mean?

We see the world’s history and our ancestors struggling to exist and live righteously in a flawed world full of sin. We see the seriousness of sin in the eyes of God. We can sympathize with the people of the Old Testament, because we experience the world in a similar way today. The next chapter examines some of the prophets in Old Testament, and we will see the overall message of the Old Testament of God’s Word through them.