What’s standing out to me right now

The Bible is separated into different books and each of these books falls into a different category. This not only makes it easier to understand their content, but it also proves God’s ordained plan for order; nothing is by accident.

The four main categories are books of law, history, poetry and prophecy.

If you want to be more specific, you can break it into eleven even smaller categories: law, history, poetry, major prophets, minor prophets, gospels, church history, letters and prophecy. 

I won’t list all sixty-six books of the Bible here, but I would like to share with you each of my favorite books in these categories and why they are among my favorite books.

Disclaimer: there is no book of the Bible that is better than any other. I love the entire Bible, and I do not hold any book in higher regard to any other. These just happen to be books that I relate to the most at this time in my life and, while I strive to read every book equally and learn from the entire Bible, these books are ones that I’m currently loving.

Books of Law: Genesis

This is the first book of the Bible, and by far one of the most interesting. God creates the world and everything in it. We see the first sin and its fallout, the first promise of a Savior to redeem the sin, and we see the beginning of a long line of promises and prophecies that point to the Jesus who is coming in the New Testament. It’s amazing to see God’s faithfulness to promises He made in this book as they unfold in the rest of the Bible. 

There is a LOT of action, a lot to unpack within every passage and full of God’s faithfulness to generations, from Adam to all his descendants. 

Books of History: Chronicles

These are technically two books – First and Second Chronicles – but I rolled them into one for the purposes of this article. These are the same stories from the books of First and Second Kings, only from God’s point of view.

These are the stories of the kings of Israel before the nation went into captivity. Again, we see God’s providence to a people who defy Him, his faithfulness to those who love Him and overall, I really like seeing the character of God in these books. He is the King of all these kings, and we get a clearer picture of how God rules His kingdom.

Books of Poetry: Psalms

This is an easy pick for me, since Psalms is my number-one favorite book of the entire Bible.

The books of poetry include songs and poems written mostly by King David and his son, King Solomon, but there are other writers included on the author’s list.

Psalms is a beautiful song that visits every range of human emotion: praise, joy, despair, grief, anger, hopelessness, peace. No matter the story behind the words, the truth remains: that God is with us at every point in life, and we can sing His praise, because He is still faithful.

Major Prophets: Isaiah

When choosing my favorite of these prophets, it came down between Ezekiel and Isaiah, but ultimately, I’ll have to give it to Isaiah.

Isaiah is a prophet of God who is sent to warn the people of Israel of the coming judgement of God if they don’t change their sinful ways. While there are warnings (that go unheeded) and some heavy-hitting messages about sin, Isaiah also writes of the promise of a Redeemer. The prophets are still talking about the coming of Jesus who will save His people from their sin.

The outcome would be the same if they turned back to God or not: Jesus would still be born and He would still die and rise again. This book shows there are consequences to our actions, but even our biggest screw-ups can’t stop God’s plan. 

Minor Prophets: Micah

Don’t let the label fool you! The “minor” in “minor prophet” does NOT discredit these books as any less than any other books. It just means they are much, much shorter than the major prophets. These books are less than fifteen chapters and most of them are much shorter than that.

Nevertheless, they serve much of the same purpose as the major prophets, only more condensed. 

I love the book of Micah. It’s precise and condense, and while it does prophesy the fall of Israel, it also gives the promise of safety in Jesus. 

Gospels: John

We have reached the New Testament where we see the Jesus promised in the Old Testament revealed and alive on earth. We hear His teachings, see how He lives, and mostly, see Him die and rise again for the salvation of all who believe on Him.

There are four gospels depicting Jesus’s walk on earth and John is the last one. This is my favorite of the four currently. We see the “I AM” statements of Jesus, His midnight conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus (where we find the famous John 3:16) and details of His early ministry.

Church History: Acts

This is an easy choice, since Acts is the only book of church history included in the Bible, but it’s a good pick, regardless.

Here, Jesus’s followers live out their faith after He ascended into heaven following His resurrection and the start of the church ministry. We see the first appearance of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of the apostle Paul, as well as other important details of how the first churches began.

Letters: Hebrews

There are more letters in the Bible than any other category, with a whopping twenty books, most of them written by Paul.

Lots of these books are just as short (or shorter) than the minor prophets, but still hold just as much impact.

These letters are written to the early churches, most of them named for the place they were sent to. Hebrews was written to Jews who were facing persecution in their churches (although who actually wrote it is up for debate). 

In this book, we see the hall of faith, where the great names of the Old Testament are commended for holding onto their faith no matter what they were facing. 

Prophecy: Revelation

Just like Acts, Revelation is the only book in this category, and in my humble opinion, this is one of the deepest and heaviest books, content-wise. It was actually one of the last books I read on my journey to read every book in the Bible, and that has nothing to do with the fact it actually is the very last of the sixty-six books.

In Revelation, we read the prophecies of the return of Jesus to earth and what will happen before and after these events. We learn a bit more about heaven and get a better idea of the greatness and glory of God.
There is no better book of the Bible over any other one. Some might seem more interesting or exciting, and some might speak louder to you depending on what point you’re at in life, but all are equally important and all serve a purpose: pointing us to who God is and His eternal plan of redemption.