In the last post on Biblical literacy, we looked at how the books of the Bible are organized by theme. But it is much easier to see how the Bible tells His Story — that is, the story of the Captain of Jehovah's Armies (aka, Angel of the Lord/Jesus Christ)—when we arrange the books chronologically. Seeing the Bible as His story also helps shape a Biblical worldview.
Old Testament Books arranged Chronologically by Action
(The larger font represents historical events / action scenes, whereas the smaller font represents letters or laments or poems or oracles.)
Job — Satan wages war against a man loyal to Jehovah.
Exodus — Satan enslaves the lineage of humans through whom the promised Deliverer will come, but the Captain wages war on him and his minions and rescues His people from slavery.
Numbers — The Captain leads his people through the wilderness to the land he promised them.
(While in the Wilderness: Leviticus (priest's handbook) and Deuteronomy (summary of everything that's happened thus far since the Exodus)
Joshua — The Captain of Jehovah's Armies leads the people to victory against the child-sacrificing inhabitants living in the land He promised to give them.
Judges — The Captain repeatedly rescues his people from oppression despite their rejection of Him. He also defeats the demon lord of Philistia by executing the idol who represents him, terrifying his priests.
Ruth — events leading up to the birth of David
1 & 2 Samuel (Saul and David) — The demon lord of Philistia constantly seeks war with the Captain's people, but He defeats him once and for all.
1 & 2 Kings (Solomon and the Divided Kingdom through the Exile) — The Captain's people allow Satan' minions to infiltrate His territory. The Captain repeatedly warns them that if they continue to do so, He will kick them out of the land in order to purify it.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah: Prophets who warned the kings to follow God or they would be sent into exile / Lamentations — A lament written because the people went into exile
1 & 2 Chronicles (a post-exile summary of the kings of Judah, written from a 2nd Temple perspective)
Ezekiel & Daniel (prophets who wrote during the exile) — The Captain of the Armies is temporarily estranged from his people while the land is purified.
Ezra & Nehemiah — The Captain releases his people form Exile and now fiercely loyal to him, they return to the land He promised them.
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi — prophets who wrote after the release from Exile
Esther — Satan realizes he is running out of time, and that the promised Deliver who will reclaim the world as His own kingdom will soon come. Thus, he seeks to annihilate the Captain's people, but his plan fails. Events that occurred long after the return to the land of Israel
Bonus: 1 Maccabees* (events that happened between the Old and New Testament, also recorded by Josephus, a Jewish historian), which led to Hanukah, a holiday observed by Jesus in John 10:22) — Not one to give up, Satan tries again and again to annihilate the Captain's people, but each time He leads them to victory. At long last, they are victorious and set up synagogues all over the Roman Empire where they worship Jehovah side by side with Gentiles.
The story of the Captain continues in the next post
when we'll look at the New Testament books chronologically.
1 Maccabees is a Jewish book now found only in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, but which had been in both Catholic and Protestant Bibles up until the 1800's when they were removed.