OT-101
Old Testament Survey I
Genesis through Kings: creation, covenant, and the rise and fall of Israel's kingdom.
Topics: Pentateuch, Covenant, Kings
Suggested resource: Read straight through with a free Blue Letter Bible reading plan alongside a used copy of Halley's Bible Handbook.
Week 1: In the Beginning
Reading: Genesis 1:1–3, 3:1–15, 6–9, 12, 22, 37, 45; Exodus 1–14, 19–20
Genesis opens with a single, world-defining claim: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (1:1) — one God, creating by His spoken word, not many gods shaping matter that already existed, as every surrounding ancient culture believed. Humanity is made distinct from the rest of creation, “in the image of God” (1:27), before sin enters through Adam and Eve's disobedience in Genesis 3. God's redemptive plan begins immediately, in the very sentence pronouncing judgment: speaking to the serpent, God says, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (3:15) — the first promise in Scripture of a coming deliverer who would be wounded defeating evil, a thread that runs unbroken from this verse to the cross.
The patriarchal narratives show God building a covenant people through ordinary, flawed men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, who trusted His promises despite their own repeated failures. Exodus then shows God keeping that promise on a national scale: He hears the cry of an enslaved people, raises up Moses, and delivers Israel through the blood of the Passover lamb, spread on the doorposts so the angel of death would “pass over” that house (Exodus 12:13), and through the parting of the Red Sea — imagery of deliverance through blood that becomes the New Testament's own primary lens for understanding salvation through Christ.
Key terms: Genesis 1:1's monotheistic creation claim, Genesis 3:15 (the first gospel promise), The Passover lamb's blood (Exodus 12:13), Image of God
Discussion Questions
- Where do you see God's character revealed through His actions rather than His words in these chapters?
- How does the Passover lamb's blood in Exodus 12:13 anticipate what you already teach about the Blood of Jesus?
Challenge: Write a one-paragraph summary of Genesis 1–3 in your own words, quoting Genesis 3:15 in full, as if explaining it to someone who has never read the Bible.
Week 2: A Nation Under Covenant
Reading: Exodus 20; Leviticus 11, 16, 19; Deuteronomy 6, 28; Joshua 1, 24; Judges 2, 6–7
At Sinai, God gives Israel the Law — not as a burden, but as the terms of an already-established covenant relationship. Leviticus shows a holy God making a way for sinful people to approach Him through sacrifice, foreshadowing the final sacrifice of Christ. Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema (“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD”), is the clearest Old Testament statement of the doctrine you'll study in depth in Term 2 — Israel's core confession of monotheism, and foundational to the Oneness position. Joshua and Judges then trace what happens when a covenant people either keep or abandon that confession: conquest under obedience, and a repeating cycle of apostasy, oppression, crying out, and deliverance.
Key terms: Law/Torah, Shema, Holiness, Cycle of Judges
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think Deuteronomy 6:4 became Israel's central confession?
- How does the judges' cycle (sin, oppression, cry, deliverance) show up in individual lives today?
Challenge: Memorize Deuteronomy 6:4–5 and be ready to explain, in your own words, why it matters for the Oneness position.
Week 3: The Kingdom Rises and Falls
Reading: 1 Samuel 8, 16–17; 2 Samuel 7:4–16; 1 Kings 3, 11–12; 2 Kings 17, 25
Israel demands a king “like the nations,” and God grants the request through Saul, then raises up David as a man after His own heart despite his failures. God's covenant with David is the hinge of everything that follows: “thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:16). This promise of an eternal throne, made to a man who would go on to sin gravely and never fully deserve it, becomes the key messianic promise of the entire Old Testament, ultimately fulfilled not in any of David's flawed physical descendants but in Christ, of whose kingdom the angel would later tell Mary, “he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:33).
Solomon's reign shows the height of the kingdom's glory and the beginning of its decline through compromise — multiplying wives and horses and wealth against the very warnings given for a king in Deuteronomy 17. The kingdom then splits into Israel in the north and Judah in the south, and both drift into idolatry despite repeated prophetic warning, ending in exile: Israel to Assyria in 2 Kings 17, and Judah to Babylon in 2 Kings 25, the temple itself burned to the ground. Yet even here, the Davidic promise does not fail; it goes underground, waiting, until Gabriel tells a young woman in Nazareth exactly whose throne her Son would inherit.
Key terms: 2 Samuel 7:16's eternal throne promise, Solomon's compromise, The divided kingdom's exile (2 Kings 17, 25), Luke 1:33's fulfillment in Christ
Discussion Questions
- What does David's story teach you about how God views the heart versus outward failure?
- How does 2 Samuel 7:16, read alongside Luke 1:33, show the Davidic covenant pointing forward to Jesus specifically?
Challenge: Read 2 Samuel 7:4–16 in full and write down every phrase you believe is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, then compare it to Luke 1:32–33.
Course Exam
Five questions for review or self-testing.
Q: What does the promise in Genesis 3:15 point forward to?
Reveal Answer
A coming deliverer (the 'seed' of the woman) who would ultimately defeat sin and Satan — the first messianic promise in Scripture.
Q: What does the Passover lamb in Exodus foreshadow?
Reveal Answer
Deliverance and salvation through blood, later fulfilled in the blood of Jesus Christ.
Q: What is the Shema, and why does it matter for this institute?
Reveal Answer
Deuteronomy 6:4, Israel's confession that 'the LORD our God is one LORD' — the Old Testament foundation for the Oneness of God.
Q: What promise does God make to David in 2 Samuel 7?
Reveal Answer
That David's house and throne would be established forever, a promise ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
Q: What eventually happened to Israel and Judah because of persistent idolatry?
Reveal Answer
Both kingdoms were conquered and exiled — Israel by Assyria, Judah by Babylon.