When you read the Bible, it's easy for you to get lost in terms of where and when what you're reading is taking place. In particular, when you move from Malachi to Matthew, you cross a gap in which the Biblical world changes almost beyond recognition. How did Romans, Pharisees, Saduccees, Herods, and Caesars suddenly come to be? How is the time of Christ related to the times that came before it?

Here is a resource that will help you answer your questions. In a clear, but factual narrative, this book traces God's relationship with His people from the time of Abraham to the time of the apostles. You'll learn how the accounts of the Bible fit together with each other and with the history of great nations among which God's people lived and worked.

Particular emphasis is laid on the "gap" in Scripture — the period of four hundred years between when the prophet Malachi ended the canon of Hebrew Scripture and when Jesus, the Anointed One, began a new age of the world. During this period, exciting events — sometimes inspiring, sometimes tragic — led to the birth of the Child Who would shake history. Jesus did not come into a vacuum; He came to be part of our history, which is, at its root, God's story of love for humanity.