Over ten years ago, I had the desire to take our small church through the Old Testament.  Not just parts of the Old Testament, but all of it, chapter by chapter.  I looked for curriculum to do that, and I came up empty.  Sure, there were Bible studies of many of the books, but typically the less “popular” books were missing.  And many of the Bible studies were more simplistic than I wanted.  There were curriculums that had book studies for every book of the Old Testament, but on their timetable, and often in rotation with the New Testament.  And using either the Bible studies or curriculums would take years to get through the entire Old Testament.  I wanted to do it in around 100 weeks, 7-8 chapters a week.  And so Bible Journey was born.

Bible Journey

Each week I encouraged everyone to read the chapters and answer five basic questions:

• For each chapter, what do you observe?
• What do you learn about God?
• What do you learn about people, sin, and our need of a Savior?
• How does this passage point to Jesus?
• How do you need to apply this passage to your life?

I also created one-page studies for each lesson with more text-specific questions which I handed out the week before so people could interact with them prior to our class.  Then we could all come together (ideally) and have a good discussion together.  I also had reflections for each week to help stir up some further thoughts or important applications I wanted to bring out. 

Those text-specific studies and reflections are available for your use here under “OT Studies” and “OT Reflections.”  While I used them in our Sunday School class, I imagine they could also be used in a Bible study, small group, one-on-one discipleship, or even on your own.  If leading a study, I would recommend reading and studying the chapters yourself, and then working through the questions on your own.  Depending on the lesson, you might ask some of the basic questions at the beginning or the end or weave them in with the other questions.

A few further thoughts:

• As I was studying the text, I made use of both the ESV Student Study Bible and the Gospel Transformation Bible to dig a little deeper.  I would encourage you to do the same.  If you wonder what answer I am looking for on a specific question, those study Bibles will likely help. 
• I took a roughly chronological approach to the study.  So the Psalms follow II Samuel, and Solomon’s wisdom literature follows I Kings 1-10.  The Kings and Chronicles are often studied together with the prophets in their appropriate places. 
• It should be said that the final study is Habakkuk 1-3, which is certainly not the end of the OT chronologically.  We finished the study, but tried some other approaches for those final studies.  Unfortunately that means that you are on your own for the last several books.  But maybe by that point, you can make up your own questions. 
• Finally, I reserve all rights to this material (which means you can’t pretend it is yours).  But please feel free to use the material.  If printing it for your group, please just add “Found at brianjmikul.com – used by permission” at the bottom of the page. 

O.T. Journey 2.0

After finishing our Bible Journey through the Old Testament, I wanted to do it again.  So I have been reworking the earlier material to form OT Journey 2.0.  There are three main differences:

• First, we are now doing 5-6 chapters a week instead of 7-8 chapters each week (which seemed a bit long).  The entire study will take 150 weeks instead of 100.  You might do the entire study in three years, but we are doing 30 studies a year for five years, with some other studies mixed in for variety.  
• Second, the earlier study consisted of numerous handouts, but this new study uses PowerPoint instead.  No copies to make each week.  And PowerPoint has the advantage that people can see as well as hear the questions as they are being asked.
• Third, the expectation of the earlier study was that each participant would study the questions ahead of time, which doesn’t always happen.  The new study still asks the participants to read the chapters ahead of time, but there are no questions to go over before the lesson. 

Each lesson begins with some opening questions, followed by the study, and then a summary/application section at the end.  The study itself has a lot more questions than the earlier version.  My goal is to use questions to help guide participants to think through the text rather than me just telling them what the texts says and means (which there is a place for).  All in all, it makes for a very interactive study. 

Once again, we are taking a roughly chronological approach to the study, but this time the Psalms are not included.

If leading the study, I would again encourage you to read through the chapters and go through the questions yourself prior to the study.  Using the notes in the ESV Student Study Bible and Gospel Transformation Bible will also be beneficial.  Questions with an asterisk at the end indicate that answers should be recorded on a whiteboard or chalk board, likely for further discussion later. 

One resource that I have found to be incredibly helpful is to use the OT book summaries found at Bible Project here.  Each video is an audio-visual introduction of a book of the Old Testament.  These videos are a great way to get an overview of an entire book before digging into the specific chapters.  You can stream them or download them for free (there is a way to donate if you are so led).  I typically use them at the start of each OT book without much comment, and the PowerPoint indicates where to show the video. 

To date, we are 80% of the way through our study.  I will start releasing the lessons book by book starting July 2025, so that you could start using the material Fall 2025, if you so choose.  There is no cost to use them.

As before, I reserve all rights to this material (which means you can’t pretend it is yours).  Copyright notice is found on each PowerPoint presentation.  But you have permission to use them for a Sunday School class, small group Bible study, or other discipleship opportunity. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.  And I would love to get your feedback or suggestions.

Studies:

Genesis (10 Studies)

Exodus (8 Studies)

Leviticus (5 Studies)

Numbers (Coming in November 2025)

Deuteronomy (Coming in January 2026)