The holy chronicles which the Old and New Testaments of the Bible contain are given to man by God our creator. God revealed his plan of saving mankind in these records of His dealings with men, the world at large, and especially His chosen people.
We should read the Old Testament because the Bible contains the story of God's interaction with mankind and the world. The Old Testament records are the beginning of that story. God reveals His nature and His purpose throughout His written word. To ignore the Old Testament is to ignore a written account of the workings of God. God is the same in the Old Testament as He is in the New, and reading the Old Testament enables us to know His ways better and more fully understand our place in His plan.
Shortly after the account of creation, the Bible tells us of the incredible damage humans can inflict on themselves and the world as a result of sin. Having lost our relationship with God after Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden, mankind slid into continual sin and assured destruction.
In Genesis, believers in Christ find their identity: an anchor for our understanding of the beginning of all things. We find in Genesis our origins: that human life is not an accident but a purposeful creation, an act of God, and that we are all made in the image of God. We also learn from Genesis that our lives original purpose was to live in the presence of God our Heavenly Father as cherished children in the most perfect place we can imagine, the garden of Eden.
Finally, Genesis reveals that God declares sin and disobedience will not be the final fate of mankind and the serpent’s demise is a certainty. God’s initial intention for humanity will again be attained when we are saved by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ and again walk in unrestrained fellowship with Him.
To fully comprehend the arrival of Christ, we must read and understand the history of the Israelites, later to be known as Jews, in the Old Testament following up to the birth of Christ in the book of Matthew. The story of Christ begins with Abraham in Genesis and continues throughout the Old Testament to the rebuilding of the Temple in the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Habakkuk.
The prophets predicted the culmination of God's work in our history. First, the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6; Isaiah 53:3-7; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 9:9; Psalm 22:16-18), then the end times (Daniel 7-12). It is the Old Testament that gives us the context for Jesus' birth, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection.
While the New Testament is a record of approximately sixty years of history, plus prophecy of the end times. The Old Testament shows the character of God interacting with His people over millennia.
We urge the reader to not be satisfied with the commentary in this app only, but to also read and study the Old Testament and use the scripture references in the Bible stories of this app to point you in the right direction..
All the commentary in this work is non-denominational and according to the word as recorded in the Bible. The commentary contained in these bible stories was written by Jesse Lyman Hurlburt in his book "Mother's story of the Bible told for young and old" published in 1905.