I stumbled across this little teaching aid in my files which I had developed years ago when I was pastoring. The goal was to give an overview of the Old Testament in a single evening service. It ain’t profound, but I enjoyed the memory! I hope you enjoy it, too. It is essentially a 50 step “chronology” of Old Testament history alliterated entirely with “C” words (i.e., the OT in the key of C)! I offer it to you in the spirit of Advent, knowing that the whole of the Old Testament is an anticipation of the One who is to come.
- Creator (Gen 1:1)
- Creation (Gen 1, 2)
- Creatures (Gen 1:27)
- Communion (Gen 3:8)
- Catastrophe (Gen 3:14-19)
- Castaways (Gen 3:23)
- Children (Gen 4:1-2)
- Crime (Gen 4:8) – Murder of Abel
- Cataclysm (Gen 6-9) – The Flood
- Confusion (Gen 11:1-9) – Babel
- Call (Gen 12:1) – Abram’s call
- Covenant (Gen 12:2-3)
- Circumcision (Gen 17)
- Confirmation (Gen 21) – Birth of Isaac as confirmation of covenant
- Cheater (Gen 27) – Jacob’s deception
- Conspiracy (Gen 37:12ff) – Joseph’s brothers sell him as a slave
- Congregation (Gen 47:27ff) – Jacob and sons gather in Egypt
- Commissioning (Ex 3) – Moses call
- Calamity (Ex 7-11) – Plagues
- Celebration (Ex 12) – Passover
- Chase (Ex 14:8) – Pursuit of Israel by Egyptians
- Crossing (Ex 14:21-22) – Of Red Sea
- Complaining (Ex. 16:2) – Israel grumbles
- Commandments (Ex. 19ff) – The Decalogue
- Calf (Ex 32)
- Chest and Ceremony (Ex 35ff, Leviticus) – Ark and the Levitical requirements
- Cloud, Circuit, Camp (Israel’s wanderings in the desert)
- Catharsis (Num 14:21-23) – Israel purified for reentry to Land
- Combat (Joshua)
- Conquest (Joshua 1:3)
- Colonization (Joshua 13ff)
- Corruption (Judges 17:6) – “Everyone did as he saw fit”
- Champions (Judges) – Deborah, Gideon, Samson, etc.
- Confederation (1 Sam 8 ) – People ask for a king; get Saul
- Coronation (1 Sam 15-16) – God selects his own king David
- Capital (2 Sam 5:9-10) – Jerusalem established as Israel’s capital
- Comfortable (2 Sam 8:15) – Blessing of Israel under David
- Climax – (1 Kings 8 ) – Solomon builds temple of YHWH
- Civil War (1 Kings 12) – Kingdoms clash
- Collapse – Kingdom is divided
- Carnality (1 & 2 Kings) – prophetic call to repentance by prophets
- Cursed (2 Kings 17:7, 25:1) – Nations are judged
- Captivity (Exile of North in 722 BC, and South in 586 BC)
- Carte Blanche (Ezra 1) – God gives Israel permission to return home – [Ok…I was running out of English words!]
- Construction – Ezra 3:7ff – rebuilding of temple
- Celebration (Ezra 6:19ff) – Passover once again celebrated
- Confession (Ezra 10) – Israel repents and confesses sin
- Completion (Nehemiah) – rebuilding of the walls
- Complacency (Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi) – People fall into old routines
- Cessation – End of OT history
I loved this David! (can I use it some time?) Only thing: point 50 didn’t end on either of the two “C” words I was expecting: “Christ” and/or “Completion.” A little latent dispensationalism there? 🙂 Anyways, I found it very moving and powerful to read through.
Yeah, I’m not thrilled with the word “cessation” either. Oh, and its been a long time since I’ve been called a dispensationalist! 😉
Christ or completion is theologically to what the OT points, but technically, the OT doesn’t end either with Christ or is it Complete. “Silence” is a better word, but it doesn’t start with C. Hmmm…Any other suggestions?
How about collection–as in a collection of scriptural texts? For a variety of reasons, I share Dale’s discomfort with cessation.
How about “Cool beans”?
how about “cliff-hanger”? 🙂
“Come back for more”?
“To be continued”?
“Quiet?” — Hmm no c.
Some great suggestions here!
Merle, a music colleague of mine suggested:
“Caesura–God is silent for 400 years at the end of OT history.
In meter, caesura (alternative spellings are cæsura or cesura) is a term to denote an audible pause that breaks up a line of verse. In most cases, caesura is indicated by punctuation marks which cause a pause in speech: a comma, a semicolon, a full stop, a dash, etc. Punctuation, however, is not necessary for a caesura to occur.”
I really like this one; the only problem is that I’d never heard of it, and I suspect the majority of people in the pew haven’t either.
Maybe it is just “Comma.” The OT “ends” with a comma.
Wish I’d thought of it. Can I steal it?