Abraham's Many Daughters and Sons
Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!
Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. – Psalm 105:1-7, ESV
Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. -Galatians 3:7-9, NIV
“In the Old Testament the New is concealed, in the New the Old is revealed.” -Augustine
At present, it seems there is a great deal of ignorance and neglect of the Old Testament among Christians. So much so, that some popular pastors have advocated for an ‘unhitching’ from all of the Bible before Matthew 1:1. And while I doubt most of us are in danger of the Marcionism heresy, on some level, many of us are underdeveloped in our understanding of the Old Testament. And its understandable. For one thing, much of the Old Testament is harder for us to read and understand without careful study. There are confusing names and places. There are moments that simply don’t fit into our conception of Scripture. There are stories that are full of scandalous scenes and characters. Even so, I would lay the biggest share of the blame for our Old Testament neglect on pastors. We have (myself included) often focused our preaching and teaching efforts on the New Testament. And while there are some very valid reasons for this, I fear the biggest one is this: laziness. It is hard to preach out of Old Testament texts. It is hard work for both the preacher and the listener. It takes time and energy to dig deep into a prophetic book or a historical narrative and mine it for applicable and Christological truths. And so, by-in-large, the bulk of Scripture (in size and historical scope) is set aside or used only peripherally. The result: we miss the richness and depth of God’s redemptive story. He didn’t begin saving people by grace through faith in Acts 2. He began in Genesis. And while it does not necessarily follow that we can make perfect sense of all that is in the Old Testament, it ought give us great encouragement to study carefully what’s there. Jesus (and all the apostles and authors of the New Testament) saw the Old Testament as the primary way to understand and see Himself and His ministry (see Luke 24:25-27).
There is one thing more which might help you on the way to unlocking some of the Old Testament. It is understanding the redemptive story of God’s people on a macro (big picture) level as a model for what God does with us on a micro level. The fancy name for this interpretive lens is “The Redemptive Historical Approach”. Let me share one aspect of this approach so you can begin thinking it through. In the Old Testament, the people of God become slaves in Egypt. They are set free by the mighty acts of God, culminating in the death of the firstborn. Those who come to faith in Christ are slaves to sin. They are set free by His mighty saving acts (life, death, resurrection, ascension). This salvation was affected by the death of God’s Son, Jesus. If you’ve read Pilgrim’s Progress, you’ve been at least exposed to some of these ideas. For instance, how does Pilgrim enter the Celestial City (the new promised land)? By passing through the River Jordan. Here’s my overall point, the Old Testament is a rich fountain of truth and shouldn’t be neglected simply because it takes more work (maybe) than the New Testament. Dig deep and rare treasures are sure to emerge.
Blog Bonus:
Check out this fantastic article on the Old and New Testament