Lessons

Old Testament Study – Part 12. The study of history can be dry at times especially when you go back 6000 years to Adam. But this history is important for our learning and spiritual growth. All scripture is for our learning in that we find doctrine, reproof, corrections, and instructions in righteousness in the history found in scripture. This lesson comes to the old testament prophets (major and minor). First, there is a recap from what has transpired up to this point, from Abraham to the exile of Israel which is at the end of the Kings from 500-490 BC. This is when the Babylonian empire deports the southern kingdom. There are three periods that are identified when you study the prophets: 1) Pre-exile prophets which were during the time of the Kings (before the time Israel goes into Babylonian captivity). 2) Exile prophets which covered the time during the captivity of Israel. Finally, the 3) Post-exile prophets. There are 16 prophets that have written books in the Bible (there are more prophets but these 16 were chosen to be in the Bible). A prophet is a spokesman for God. Sometimes this does involve the foretelling of the future when the spirit of God had shared the future with them. The prophets are divided into Major and Minor whereas the Hebrew divisions called them the Former and the Later which is different than how the King James handled it. Ten prophets (10) wrote during the Pre-exile time. Three (3) prophets wrote during the exile timeframe and three prophets (3) wrote during the Post-exile period. There are over 2000 prophecies from the old testament that have been fulfilled which shows us the veracity of the scriptures (apart from the 26 other world religions that have their own scriptures). The lesson on May 21, 2006 continues the series on the Old Testament