The Old Testament

Some of the books in the Old Testament are history books, such as Exodus or the Books of the Kings.  Others are books of speeches or sermons, as for example those of the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah.  Then there are the Books of the Law, which contain rules for God’s People to keep.  There is a book containing 150 hymns, called the Psalms, and another of wise sayings known as the Proverbs.

These books were written at different times by different people and were then all collected together.  We call them all the Old Testament, but the Jews called them “The Law, the Prophets and the Writings”.  They all teach us, in different ways, how God prepared the Jewish people for the time when he came into the world himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.