13 OT Biographies Plus Proverbs

All my school life, history had been one of my least favorite subjects with all its dates to memorize. Then a prof taught me history from a BIOGRAPHICAL perspective, focusing on one key figure in each time period. History came alive for me! I want the OT history of God's people to come alive for you, too, like perhaps it never has before. So, my approach focuses on thirteen key figures in the OT, and only on OT Scripture that moves the story of God's adventure with His people forward in time. For instance, we will not read the Prophets or 1 and 2 Chronicles (fascinating contrasts yet duplicates much of Kings). This study provides a framework or scaffolding to return later and read the rest of the OT from the perspective of thirteen key historical characters. Proverbs has been included as a bonus study. How appropriate to couple these thirteen biographies of OT saints with proverbial wisdom that helped form their lives. Every language has pithy sayings or maxims that express a truth crisply and forcefully. The Book of Proverbs is the best representative of the so-called Wisdom Literature of ancient Israel. I imagine that all those after Solomon soaked in Proverbs, like we do, often reading one chapter per month. Many of these proverbs impacted lives even before Solomon, since Solomon compiled some proverbial expressions in common use for centuries before the Spirit of God guided Solomon to write Proverbs as a divinely inspired book.