One story of salvation · 9 periods · 42 lives · every one pointing to Christ
The LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”Gen 3:9
God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and made a woman from a rib taken from the man. The two listened to the serpent, ate the fruit God had told them not to eat, and hid from God among the trees. Yet God came looking for them first, and promised the serpent that the woman’s offspring “will bruise your head”.
Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.Gen 6:22
The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, but Noah found favor in the LORD’s eyes. He built the ark as God commanded, and when the flood came, his family of eight entered the ark and were saved. After the flood, God made a covenant with him and set the rainbow in the cloud as its sign.
He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness.Gen 15:6
God called him to leave his country, his relatives, and his father’s house, and promised, “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you”. He believed the LORD, and the LORD credited it to him for righteousness. When God tested him and told him to offer his son Isaac, he set out to obey, and God provided a ram on the mountain in Isaac’s place.
By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.Heb 11:11
Abraham’s wife, first called Sarai, was barren and had no child. When God promised her a son, she laughed to herself. At the time God had spoken of, she bore Isaac and said, “God has made me laugh”.
She called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”Gen 16:13
Sarai’s Egyptian servant. When Sarai treated her harshly, she fled into the wilderness, and the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water. She said of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”. Later, sent away with her son, she ran out of water; God heard the boy’s voice and opened her eyes to see a well.
He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”Gen 32:28
Isaac’s son, born holding his brother Esau’s heel. He traded stew for his brother’s birthright, took his father’s blessing by deceit, and had to flee to Haran. On the way home he wrestled with a man until daybreak; his hip was put out of joint, and the man renamed him Israel. Jacob said, “I have seen God face to face”.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to save many people alive, as is happening today.Gen 50:20
Jacob’s favorite son. His brothers hated him and sold him into Egypt. Falsely accused, he was put in prison, but the LORD was with him. Later Pharaoh set him over all the land of Egypt, and in the famine he kept his father’s family alive.
Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name.Job 1:21
A man of Uz, blameless and upright, who feared God and turned away from evil. In a single day he lost his possessions and his children, and then he was struck with painful sores from head to foot. He and his friends argued at length about why he suffered, until at last the LORD answered him out of the whirlwind. Scripture does not say when Job lived; he is traditionally placed among the patriarchs.
Since then, there has not arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face…Deut 34:10
He was born while Israel served as slaves in Egypt, and was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter. God called him from a burning bush, but he answered, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh…?”. Through him God brought Israel out of Egypt, and the law was given through him.
Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has thrown the horse and his rider into the sea.Exod 15:21
Sister of Aaron and Moses, called a prophetess. After Israel crossed the sea, she took a tambourine in her hand and led the women in praising the LORD. Later she and Aaron spoke against Moses; she became leprous, and Moses cried out to the LORD for her.
…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.Josh 24:15
Of the twelve men Moses sent to spy out Canaan, only these two told the people, “If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into this land…”. Of that generation, twenty years old and upward, only they entered the promised land. Joshua succeeded Moses and led the people across the Jordan; at eighty-five, Caleb still asked, “Now therefore give me this hill country…”.
The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel.Judg 5:7
Israel did evil and was oppressed by Jabin king of Canaan for twenty years. Then Deborah, a prophetess, was judging Israel; she sat under a palm tree, and the people came up to her for judgment. She summoned Barak to battle and went with him; after the victory, she and Barak sang together.
The LORD’s angel appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”Judg 6:12
While Midian oppressed Israel, Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Yet the angel of the LORD called him “you mighty man of valor”. Twice he asked God for a sign with a fleece; then God had him take only three hundred men, and they defeated Midian.
Lord GOD, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, God…Judg 16:28
He was set apart to God as a Nazirite from birth; the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on him, and with nothing in his hand he tore a young lion apart. Yet again and again he went after what pleased him, until Delilah betrayed him and the Philistines put out his eyes. Before he died he called to the LORD, and he died together with the Philistines.
…where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.Ruth 1:16
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine, and in Moab Naomi lost her husband and both her sons. Coming home, she said, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara”. Ruth the Moabite would not leave her; she went with her to Bethlehem, later married Boaz, and became the great-grandmother of David.
I prayed for this child, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of him.1 Sam 1:27
Elkanah’s wife. She had no children, and Peninnah provoked her severely. At Shiloh, in bitterness of soul, she wept and prayed, and vowed that if the LORD gave her a son, she would give him to the LORD. The LORD answered her; she bore Samuel and gave him to the LORD as she had vowed.
The LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak; for your servant hears.”1 Sam 3:10
As a boy he served the LORD before Eli, and one night he heard the LORD call his name. All Israel knew he was established as a prophet of the LORD, and he judged Israel all the days of his life. He anointed Saul king, and later, at God’s word, anointed David.
…to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.1 Sam 15:22
Israel’s first king, taller than any of the people by a head. He would not wait for Samuel and offered the burnt offering himself; later he did not destroy Amalek as God commanded. The LORD rejected him as king; again and again he tried to kill David, and at last, defeated on Mount Gilboa, he fell on his own sword.
…I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.Acts 13:22
Jesse’s youngest son, called in from keeping the sheep and anointed by Samuel. He defeated Goliath and later became king of Israel; God promised him, “Your throne will be established forever”. He committed adultery and murder; when the prophet Nathan confronted him, he confessed, “I have sinned against the LORD”.
Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.1 Sam 25:33
Nabal’s wife. Scripture says she “was intelligent and had a beautiful face,” but Nabal “was surly and evil in his doings”. Nabal insulted the men David sent, and David set out to take revenge. Abigail met him with gifts and kept him from shedding blood with his own hand; after Nabal died, she became David’s wife.
Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil…1 Kgs 3:9
David’s son. After he took the throne, he asked God in a dream for wisdom to judge God’s people. God gave him wisdom, and also the riches and honor he had not asked for. He built the house of the LORD, but when he was old his wives turned his heart after other gods.
After the earthquake a fire passed; but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice.1 Kgs 19:12
When King Ahab served Baal, Elijah declared that there would be neither dew nor rain. On Mount Carmel he called on the LORD, and the fire of the LORD fell. Later, fleeing Jezebel, he sat under a juniper tree and asked to die; God sent an angel with food and spoke to him in a still small voice, and at last Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me.2 Kgs 2:9
He followed Elijah and served him; before Elijah was taken up, he asked, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be on me”. He did many wonders: a widow’s jar of oil filled every borrowed vessel, a Shunammite woman’s son was raised to life, and Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Syria, was cleansed of leprosy. Jesus mentioned Naaman when he preached in Nazareth.
Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?Jonah 4:11
He prophesied in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. God sent him to cry out against the great city of Nineveh, but he fled by ship toward Tarshish; thrown into the sea, he was swallowed by a great fish God had prepared, and after three days and three nights it vomited him onto dry land. Nineveh repented and God did not send the disaster, and Jonah was greatly displeased.
How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?…Hos 11:8
God told him to take a wife of prostitution, and he married Gomer. God told him again, “Go again, love a woman loved by another,” and he bought her back with silver and barley. Through his marriage God spoke to Israel: “even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods”.
I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”Isa 6:8
In the year King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. He confessed, “I am a man of unclean lips,” was cleansed, and answered God’s call. The book of Isaiah foretells that a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and speaks of a servant who “was pierced for our transgressions”; the New Testament says these were fulfilled in Jesus.
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!Jer 9:1
God said that before he was born, he had sanctified him and appointed him a prophet to the nations. He was beaten and imprisoned, let down into a dungeon with only mud in it, and lived to see Jerusalem broken into. He also proclaimed God’s promise: “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel”.
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank…Dan 1:8
Taken to Babylon as a youth, he resolved not to defile himself with the king’s food and wine. God gave him wisdom to interpret dreams, and he held high office under several kings. When the king decreed that for thirty days no one might petition anyone but the king, he still prayed to God three times a day as before; he was thrown into the lions’ den, but God shut the lions’ mouths.
…Who knows if you haven’t come to the kingdom for such a time as this?Esth 4:14
A Jewish orphan raised by her cousin Mordecai, she was made queen to Ahasuerus king of Persia. Haman plotted to destroy all the Jews, and Mordecai urged her to go to the king. She asked the people to fast for her, went in to the king against the law, and said, “If I perish, I perish”; she saved her people.
Then the king said to me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.Neh 2:4
Cupbearer to Artaxerxes king of Persia. When he heard that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down, he sat down and wept, fasted, and prayed. When the king asked what he wanted, he first prayed to God, then made his request, and was allowed to go back. He led the people as they worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other, and the wall was finished in fifty-two days.
Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word…Luke 1:38
A virgin of Nazareth, engaged to Joseph. When the angel told her she would bear a son and name him Jesus, she answered, “Let it be done to me according to your word”. When Jesus was crucified, she stood by the cross; after he ascended, she continued in prayer with the disciples.
He must increase, but I must decrease.John 3:30
Son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, born when they were well advanced in years. In the wilderness he preached a baptism of repentance, preparing the way of the Lord. He pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” and later Herod had him beheaded in prison.
Come, see a man who told me everything that I have done. Can this be the Christ?John 4:29
Scripture does not record her name. At about the sixth hour she came to Jacob’s well near Sychar to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. Jesus told her about her past and revealed that he was the Christ; she left her water pot, went into the city, and said, “Come, see a man who told me everything…”.
Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.Luke 10:41-42
Sisters in Bethany; Lazarus was their brother. Martha welcomed Jesus and was distracted with much serving, while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word. After Lazarus died, Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and called Lazarus out of the tomb.
Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord…John 20:18
Jesus had cast seven demons out of her; she followed him and provided for him and his disciples from her own possessions. When Jesus was crucified, she stood by the cross. On the morning of the resurrection, the Lord appeared to her and sent her to tell the disciples.
…Lord, you know everything. You know that I have affection for you…John 21:17
Simon, a fisherman by the Sea of Galilee, whom Jesus named Cephas, which means Peter. He confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” yet on the night Jesus was tried, he denied him three times. After rising from the dead, Jesus asked him three times, “Do you have affection for me?” and entrusted him with feeding his sheep.
Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God…1 John 4:7
Son of Zebedee and brother of James; Jesus called the two “Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder”. Once, when a Samaritan village would not receive Jesus, he and James wanted to call fire down from heaven on it. Traditionally he is identified as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” in John’s Gospel; the Gospel of John, the letters of John, and Revelation are also traditionally attributed to him.
For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and many people were added to the Lord.Acts 11:24
Originally named Joses, he was called Barnabas by the apostles, which is “being interpreted, Son of Encouragement”. He sold a field and gave the money to the apostles. When the disciples were afraid of the newly converted Saul, Barnabas brought him to the apostles; later he went to Tarsus to find him and brought him to Antioch to teach.
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…Gal 2:20
Also called Saul, a Pharisee who once zealously persecuted the church. On the road to Damascus he met the risen Lord, and later became “an apostle to Gentiles,” traveling far to preach the gospel and plant churches. Thirteen letters in the New Testament bear his name.
…The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.Acts 16:14
From the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple, who worshiped God. By the river outside Philippi she listened to Paul, and the Lord opened her heart. She and her household were baptized, and she urged Paul and his companions to stay at her house.
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus…Rom 16:3
Priscilla (also called Prisca) and Aquila, a Jewish couple who came to Corinth because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome; like Paul, they were tentmakers. When they heard Apollos preach, they took him aside and “explained to him the way of God more accurately”. A church met in their house, and Paul says they “risked their own necks for my life”.
For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.2 Tim 1:7
His father was a Greek and his mother a Jewish believer. From childhood he knew the Scriptures, and his faith lived first in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. He worked alongside Paul, who wrote to him, “Let no man despise your youth,” and cared about his frequent illnesses.
Walking with two disciples, the risen Jesus explained the Scriptures to them:
“Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”Luke 24:27
Scripture: World English Bible.