Old Testament

The Old Testament Scripture: Leviticus 18:6; Isaiah 53:3, 5–6, 8–9, 11; Galatians 4:4–5 Introduction of Part 3:

While most know some...Bible stories Most people don’t know...The story of the Bible

Understanding how we got the Bible is almost as important as knowing what’s in it.

If you don’t know the story of the Bible, it’s easy to discount the stories in the Bible.

The story of the Bible begins when Jesus’ tomb was found empty. After he was seen alive:

1 Corinthians 15:1–10 (NIV)

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

The church launched. The events surrounding Jesus’ life were then documented.

Suddenly, there was interest in documenting the life, the words, and the works of Jesus. Because if Jesus had stayed dead, we probably would have never heard of Jesus. There would have been no church and no Christianity, and, consequently, there would have been no Bible. And that's why I say the story of the Bible actually begins with the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, Luke, a doctor in the first century, tells us that many, many people got together. And he said that many people tried to document or sat down or attempted to document the life of Jesus.

Documents documenting the life of Jesus Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

Apostle Paul and others evangelized gentile cities. - They went outside Jerusalem to share the Gospel with as many.

Prayer

Here is the big idea for today: The Old Testament chronicles God’s redemptive story - preparing the world for a Savior.

Now, this is where the story picks up from last time. When Gentiles, non-Jewish people, became enamored with a particular Jew, Jesus, they immediately became enamored with the sacred text of the Jews: what we'll call the Hebrew Bible

Jewish texts predicted the coming of the Messiah, Jesus. Now, early on, Gentile Christians in the late first century––especially in the second century––embraced these texts as Scripture. But here's where the story line gets complicated. They did not embrace the Hebrew Bible or the Jewish Bible as Jewish Scripture. They embraced the Scripture as Christian Scripture, because while Gentiles were certainly interested in the Jewish Scripture, they were not in the least bit interested in the Jewish religion.

Christological

Their interest was not historical or cultural. Gentiles' interest in this book was Christological, a brand-new word for some of you. They went into the Hebrew Bible not looking for the Hebrews. They went into the Hebrew Bible looking for Christ, looking for Jesus, and then they found him everywhere. They found all kinds of texts that they decided were about Jesus.

The Jewish scholars and leaders were just appalled that these non-Jewish people who couldn't even read Hebrew would do such damage to their text in the way that they interpret the text. But the Gentiles actually rejected Jewish interpretation of the Jewish text.

So, what happened is, essentially, the early Christian church took the Hebrew text and interpreted through Christ. And unfortunately, for the most part, they downplayed or completely ignored––the fabulous, gritty, epic history of the Hebrew people. Because the Old Testament––they call it "the Law and the Prophets" but we call it the Old Testament––the Old Testament chronicles God's redemptive sequential activity in history, in the world.

When the church began, the Jews and Christians had the same Scriptures; the Hebrew Scriptures. However, this same Scripture did not unify them; rather it divided them. This is due to the fact that the Christians saw the Hebrew Scriptures - read through the Septuagint as referring to Jesus Christ while the Jews did not. Believers, following the example of Jesus, interpreted the Scriptures as being all about Him.

In fact, it could not be correctly interpreted apart from Him. In one sense, the Old Testament became an entirely different Bible with the coming of Christ. It is now a book that has to be interpreted in light of Jesus.

The Jews reacted to this by accusing the Christians of misinterpreting the Scripture while the Christians accused the Jews of spiritual blindness. Therefore, the same sacred book became a point of division. As time went by, these divisions became deeper.

The best way to summarize the Old Testament and New Testament is through an acronym called: Casket Empty. This is a teaching is used by scholars and teachers in seminary and is extremely helpful in understanding God’s overarching story of redemption.

Casket

C - Creation

A - Abraham

S - Sinai

K - Kings

E - Exile

T - Temple

Empty

E - Expectations

M - Messiah

P - Pentecost

T - Teaching

Y - Yet-to-come

I am going to you very quickly through the Old Testament overview.

God Creator - In the beginning

Moves very quickly from creator to founder of a nation.

He began with a man with no children, called Abraham.

Through Abraham he birthed a nation with an international, multi-generational purpose. A nation that would be enslaved by a superpower to whom he sent his servant. Moses to help free people through the supernatural power of God.

Yahweh spoke in the only terms an ancient pharaoh could understand—those of power and violence. He freed his people and established a covenant.

Sinai Covenant

God delivers the Israelites out of Egypt in the Exodus and brings them to a place called Mount Sinai. Having been redeemed by God from slavery, the descendants of Israel will become a great nation and a holy people. The LORD God calls his redeemed people to worship and serve him alone.

God gives Moses the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai and makes a covenant with the Israelites called the Mosaic covenant. The Israelites agree to keep God's laws, which are the stipulations of the covenant, and so they declare:

When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. (Exod. 24:3)

God on his part agrees to bless his people if they obey his laws, but curse them if they disobey them. In this period God also instructs Moses to build a tabernacle so that he might dwell with his people.

God gave Moses to write down 613 commandments.

Maybe perhaps you heard as a young person, in your Christian home, or by a pastor "The have to do everything the BIBLE says. I have to do everything that the 66 books are asking of me.” Maybe the reason that you lost faith is because you had a version of Christianity that said this. And maybe somebody came along, and they showed you some of the verses in the Old Testament, specifically as it related to the Jewish law. And you said, "Wait a minute. What kind of God would say those kinds of things or ask those kinds of things?" And the reason, perhaps, you lost faith is because you embraced Richard Dawkins' view or other people's view of this extraordinary, extraordinary covenant that God created with his people.

Critics are unrelenting in their criticisms of the terms and conditions, laws, and restrictions connected to the Sinai Covenant.

Richard Dawkins writes...

“Judaism: originally a tribal cult of a single fiercely unpleasant God, morbidly obsessed with sexual restrictions, with the smell of charred flesh... —Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

He’s wrong. For example... Leviticus 18

It contains approximately 19 sexual prohibitions. All of these behaviors were practiced in Egypt and Canaan.]

In all developed nations in the world… 17 of the 19 behaviors prohibited in Leviticus are illegal or frowned upon today.

The Hebrews were way ahead of their time.

Leviticus 18:6 (NIV)

“No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.”

This seems reasonable. When Jesus showed up 1,500 years later, the Egyptian monarchy was still marrying their siblings.

Sinai Covenant:

A moral and civil code that when understood in its ancient context was brilliant! It may strike us as unsophisticated or barbaric. It was superior in every way to civil and religious law of the surrounding nations.

The point being this. You can't just fly over the Sinai covenant and go, "Oh, it's so antiquated. Oh, those people. How in the world could God be so old-fashioned and narrow-minded?" It's not that way. The proof is in the pudding. When you get down into the details, it's like, "Oh, it's not as simple. It's just casting Yahweh, the God of the Jews, aside." And in fact, the Mount Sinai covenant that God established with the ancient Israel is a moral and civil code that when understood in its ancient context––I'm telling you––it was brilliant. And every scholar knows, and every historian knows that you never ever, ever pull something out of its ancient context and compare it to things going on in a modern world. Nobody does that.

In fact, specifically, the protections afforded to the most vulnerable were nothing short of revolutionary. Women were better protected and had more rights. Servants, foreigners, and children, they all fared better under the Sinai covenant than their counterparts did in the surrounding nations. And why? Because of what we said last week. Because the Hebrews, from the very beginning, believed that there was a single God, not a multitude of gods, a single God who created mankind and womankind in his image. They believed that everyone was born with dignity. The Hebrew people did not worship creation; they were the pinnacle of creation. And this set them apart from the very beginning.

Then, against God’s better wishes, the nation got herself a king—several in fact.

Creator

God the Founder

Abraham / Moses

Sinai Covenant

Kings

All the cool kids had kings.

1 Samuel 8:1–5 (NIV)

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

Most were disasters, such was the nature of kings. They raised taxes, formed armies, and had multiple wives. With Israel’s third king, Israel built a temple.

Temple

1 Kings 6:1 (NIV)

In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.

Their temple was without the one thing all great temples had—an image. There was no image of God for whom it was built. Their god vault was without a god.

When kings misbehaved, God would send prophets to warn and correct.

Prophets Occasionally prophets would speak beyond their historical context to a future day when God would do something through nation for all nations. It goes back to Abraham and God’s unconditional covenant - an eternal covenant. The Sinai covenant was conditional - you obey, I bless. You disobey, I curse. The Sinai covent was just between God and Israel. However, through the Abrahamic covenant - comes God’s seed of blessing and righteousness.

Genesis 17:1–7 (NIV)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

A fascinating illustration of this is found in Isaiah. He wrote 600 years before the time of Jesus. He foresaw a mysterious suffering servant whose suffering would benefit the nation and world.

Isaiah 53:3–11 (NIV)

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

Over and over, Israel was reminded they were a divine means in bringing about the fulfillment of Christ. The story arc of the ancient Hebrews is magnificent. God wades through the messiness of this world and at the right time ushers in a kingdom not of this world.

To sand off the rough edges of God’s Old Testament behavior is to miss the mess God waded into in order to see the story of redemption played out to the bitter and bloody, “Crucify him, crucify him!” end. Our Old Testament is a saga of an ancient people struggling to survive in a world where food was scarce, enemies were real, and death was just a minor infection away. In spite of that, they clung to Yahweh, and he in turn clung to his nation, careful not to override their freedom with his presence.

It’s a gritty and powerful ancient history with a divine purpose. The purpose was announced by God to Abraham and fulfilled 2,200 years later when a Jewish carpenter discovered his fiancée was pregnant. The apostle Paul said it best in his letter to Christians in Galatia...

Galatians 4:4–5 But when the set time had fully come,

The “set time” was when everything had happened that needed to happen. When the man, Abraham, had a family that grew into a nation.

God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

The law played the role of tutor until the new law-giver had come.

to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Conclusion

The storyline of the Old Testament should cause all of us to drop to our knees in gratitude. There’s no need to tidy it up. It’s the story of God preparing the world for a Savior.

“The Old Testament spans over two thousand years and includes thirty-nine books written by a variety of authors. As the story unfolds, there are times of great rejoicing as God's people celebrate the goodness and faithfulness of their God and marvel at his wondrous works. Yet there are also periods of profound despair and unimaginable loss and tragedy when his people suffer under his judgment for their rebellion and sin. Reading the Old Testament you will discover that there are many high and low points in this redemptive narrative, but when the Old Testament draws to its conclusion, there is strangely no climactic ending to this story. There is no king reigning on the throne in Jerusalem.

There is no glorious restoration as depicted by the prophets. There is no establishment of a new covenant. There is no final defeat of Israel's enemies.

Instead, the storyline of the Old Testament ends with God's people waiting for their God to act decisively in history and on their behalf. They are waiting for God to restore his people. They are waiting for God to raise up a son of David who will establish an everlasting kingdom. They are waiting for God to deliver them and fulfill his promises of old. God's people are longing for the coming Messiah, who will bring the redemptive plan of God to its glorious fulfillment. This means that the Old Testament ends with the story yet to be finished. This is the storyline that is taken up in the New Testament as God acts on behalf of his people, according to his promises made to their forefathers. The story comes to a climax in the person of Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection bring to fulfillment the promises of old. The empty tomb of the Messiah, therefore, lies at the center of God's plan of redemption.”

Dr. Carol M. Kaminski, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

By the second century, the church had incorporated the Hebrew Bible into Christian worship. They gave it a new name...

They begin calling it the Old Covenant––the entire volume, everything involved––they would call it the Old Covenant. And then later, the Latin term would be used: testament. It became the Old Testament. And why "old"? Because Gentile Christians recognized that God, through Christ, had done something new. They recognized that God had fulfilled his Old Covenant promises to his nation and to his people and had established a brand-new covenant with the nation and with all the nations of the world.

Still, there was no Bible—just Hebrew texts, various accounts of Jesus’ life, and some correspondence between a famous church planter and his gentile congregations. Don’t miss next week and the conclusion of…How the Bible Came to Us.