Genesis 33:18, 20 reads: “Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. . . Then he erected an altar there and called it El-Elohe-Israel.”Translated, the name of Jacob’s altar is “God, the God of Israel.” When Jacob chooses this name for his new altar, he probably doesn’t intend to make a statement of huge Scriptural significance. His new name is Israel, God is his God, and he’s quite happy about that. However, the name that Jacob applies to his altar can be applied equally well to the entire Old Testament. Those thirty-nine books of the Bible are about God and how He is defined by His relationship with His chosen people. God is the hero of the story.Often, when we study the Old Law, we do so on a small scale as we become entranced by the stories of godly men ranging from Abraham to Nehemiah. Although these stories are instructive and important, sometimes they distract us from understanding God. This textbook aims to correct that mistaken focus. It divides the history of God’s ancient dealings with mankind into twelve segments and describes each segment in terms of the aspect of God’s cha