Understanding the Historical Books of the Bible
“And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”
2 Samuel 7:16
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are all historical narratives that teach us about the political and spiritual temperature of the Israelites. More importantly, Israel’s royal rebellion points to a perfect King of Kings: Christ Jesus!
Because this period is historical, some newsworthy events are recorded throughout these books. Since we look at three main eras in Israelite history, we will divvy up these timelines between the era of judges and kings and the era of the divided kingdom and captivity.
JUDGES AND KINGS TIMELINE
In Deuteronomy, Moses reminded Israel of God’s covenants and commands in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. With his death, he passes the baton to his successor, Joshua, who would eventually lead God’s people to the land promised to them. Joshua is where the historical genre in the Bible begins.
Read through the following timeline to familiarize yourself with some of these highlights of Israel’s judges and kings!
1399 BC: Israel finally entered the Promised Land, conquering most of it. However, Joshua did not conquer land due to his old age (Josh. 13:1–7).
1374 BC: God instituted judges as a way to rule over Israel (Judg. 2:16–23).
1140 BC: Boaz redeemed Ruth after her husband died. They went on to become the great grandparents of David, and through their lineage, Christ would be born (Ruth 4:14, 18–22).
1043 BC: Israel wanted to be like other nations, and they pled for a political king. God made Saul Israel’s first king (1 Sam. 8–10).
1024 BC: After God renounced Saul’s kingship in 1 Samuel 15, He chose Samuel to anoint David as the new king of Israel (1 Sam. 16:1–13).
1024 BC: Unlike any other soldier, David fought and killed the giant Philistine, Goliath. He knew his God was much bigger than their enemy (1 Sam. 17).
1003 BC: After Saul’s death, David finally became king over Israel (2 Sam. 5:1–5 and 1 Chron. 11).
993 BC: David slept with Bathsheba, killed her husband Uriah, and found out she was pregnant (2 Sam. 11).
990 BC: Bathsheba gave birth to Solomon (2 Sam. 12:24).
970 BC: Solomon, David’s son, took over the throne (1 Kings 1:28–31).
967 BC: God gave Solomon great riches in addition to wisdom to lead Israel (1 Kings 4).
966 BC: Solomon started building the temple, God’s dwelling place (2 Chron. 2).
959 BC: Solomon brought the ark of the covenant to the temple, prayed a word of dedication over it, and then God’s glory filled it (2 Chron. 4–7).
939 BC: Though Solomon became the wisest and richest man ever to live, he married seven hundred wives and kept three hundred concubines. These women, from nations all around, turned his heart toward idolatry (1 Kings 11).
931 BC: Israel divided between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 12:16–24).
These historical accounts record the progression of Israel’s leadership from God-ordained judges to monarchies. Ultimately, Israel’s rejection of God as their king would show how the human heart always disobeys and forces us to live apart from a holy God.
DIVIDED KINGDOM AND PROPHETS
Once Solomon died, his son Rehoboam faced conflict with Jeroboam over the throne. Foolishly, Rehoboam denied Jeroboam’s plea for lighter taxes. This frustration led to the twelve tribes of Israel splitting in two. The ten northern tribes chose Jeroboam to rule over them, leaving Judah and Benjamin as the southern kingdom of Judah. (Read 1 Kings 12 for more information on this.)
Many evil kings ruled both nations throughout this split period, with a few God-fearing kings sprinkled in here and there. In both Judah and Israel, many prophets called men to turn back to the Lord. While some of their roles were apocalyptic, which means foretelling destruction, prophets primarily voiced specific visions and messages they received from the Lord. These prophecies ranged from calling out kingdoms’ sin, foreshadowing Christ’s coming, and directing people back to the Lord.
The Old Testament has two main categories of prophetic literature: the major and the minor prophets. These titles don’t describe their importance (no shade thrown) but instead reference the length of their writings. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are the major prophets. The minor prophets are Hosea through Malachi.
Though the prophetic books are nestled after 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, many of the chronological events are interspersed. To help you distinguish the time and locations of each event, we underlined the years of events that took place in Israel. Take a look at this timeline of the latter half of the Old Testament:
DIVIDED KINGDOM AND PROPHETS TIMELINE
913–853 BC: Kings Asa and Jehoshaphat sought God in between five different evil kings (1 Kings 15–22; 2 Chron. 14–17).
863 BC: The prophet Elijah entered the scene during the reign of King Ahab and remained until the reign of King Ahaziah (1 Kings 17–2 Kings 2).
851 BC: The prophet Elisha took over Elijah’s prophetic office (2 Kings 2) after being called in 858 BC (1 Kings 19).
835 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Joel (Joel 1–3).
790 BC: King Uzziah began to reign in Judah (2 Chron. 26).
766 BC: The word of God for Israel came to the minor prophet Amos (Book of Amos).
760 BC: Jonah refused God’s call to Nineveh and got swallowed by a fish, remaining in its belly for three days. When it spit him out, he finally answered God’s call (Jon. 1–4).
753 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Hosea (Hosea 1–13).
739 BC: The word of God came to the major prophet Isaiah, who reminded Judah of God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness. Isaiah’s prophetic ministry started when King Uzziah died and continued until the prophet’s own death (Book of Isaiah).
735 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Micah, who delivered the message of Judah’s injustice along with the hope for deliverance to a remnant of God’s people (Mic. 1–7).
722 BC: The first northern exile occurred when the Assyrians captured the Israelites from Samaria because of their idolatry (2 Kings 17:6–13).
697 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Nahum (Nah. 1–3).
638 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Zephaniah (Zeph. 1–3).
627 BC: The word of God came to the major prophet Jeremiah, who declared all the ways Judah had forsaken the Lord (Book of Jeremiah).
625 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Habakkuk (Hab. 1–3).
605 BC: The first southern exile occurred when Nebuchadnezzar moved Daniel’s generation to Babylon. There, Daniel interpreted the king’s dreams, faced the lion’s den, and followed the Lord (Dan. 1–12).
593 BC: The word of God came to the major prophet Ezekiel to prophesy against Judah and their sins (Ezek. 1–48).
586 BC: The second southern exile occurred when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, captured Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1–7).
570 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Obadiah (Obad. 1).[i]
535 BC: King Cyrus of Persia allowed Ezra to rebuild the demolished temple (Ezra 1).
520 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Haggai to call His people to complete the rebuilding of His temple (Hag. 1–3). The word of God also came to the minor prophet Zechariah to give hope to His people about the foretold Messiah (Zech. 1–14).
515 BC: The new temple was finished and dedicated (Ezra 6:13–18).
478–472 BC: Esther became queen of Persia and Media (Esther 1). When her cousin Mordecai learned of Haman’s plot to kill the Jews and shared it with Esther, she intervened on behalf of her people, saving them from destruction (Esther 3–10).
444 BC: Nehemiah mourned before King Artaxerxes, who eventually sent his cupbearer to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 1–13).
430 BC: The word of God came to the minor prophet Malachi, who confronted Israel about their sins (Mal. 1–4).
Every prophet references destruction, decay, and disobedience. Super fun topics, huh? As you can guess, prophets were not very popular! All the while, they explicitly warned God’s people about the consequences of disobedience and the blessings for obeying the Lord.
CAPTIVITY AND RETURN ERA
Lastly, before we close, we must look at a crucial part of the prophetic period: the captivity era.
Technically, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther are historical narrative books. After Zerubbabel led a group of pilgrims to Jerusalem to build the altar and foundations, Ezra led the second group of Jews from Persia. This book hones in on the importance of Scripture, calling believers to study God’s Word, live it out, and teach it to others. After Ezra returned to Jerusalem, Nehemiah received permission from Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. As a result of the swift building plan, Israel’s enemies were afraid because they knew God was on Israel’s side! Lastly, Queen Esther used her position to save the Jews from extermination by Haman’s evil plot. This narrative reminded Israel and believers today that God is sovereign, reigning on His throne at all times!
I know, I know! These timelines are a lot of content. However, this part of Scripture is the least read throughout, probably because this portion doesn’t always go in chronological order as lined up in Scripture. But you are a champ and got through today with flying colors!
Ultimately, these books point to the truth found in 2 Samuel 7:16. God promised to establish His throne through the line of David, which occurs throughout the historical books. Praise be to Him for being faithful to His Word and for being our King forever!
[i]. “Introduction to Obadiah,” ESV Global Study Bible, Crossway, accessed November 23, 2021, https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/introduction-to-obadiah/
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