3 Reasons the Old Testament is Still Relevant

[intro] Recently, The Bible Overview Project published a list of the top 10 least popular books of the Bible. Not surprisingly, 6 of the 10 were some of the minor prophets of the Old Testament.[/intro]

Between the random judgements passed down by God (like the plague of locusts in Joel), the random rules about sacrifices and cotton/poly blends, and the unending genealogies of people who show up only in genealogies, the Old Testament gets a bad rap. After all, why bother reading about the laws when Jesus came to fulfill them anyway? Hasn’t the New Testament made the Old Testament kind of useless?

Nope. Here are three reasons why.

1. It’s the inspired word of God.

2 Timothy 3:16 says that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Remember, all means all. In fact, when Paul was writing this to Timothy, what we now know as the Old Testament was Scripture. There were a few pastoral letters floating around and one or two Gospel accounts, but the canon Scripture was the Old Testament, Genesis to Malachi.

This is not to say that the New Testament, which was compiled a few hundred years later, is not also the inspired word of God. It is! You can read more about the canonization of Scripture here. Just remember, God put those prophecies and laws and geneologies in there for a reason. Even if that reason isn’t clear at first.

2. It reminds us that God keeps His promises.

You know how book sequels or multi-episode story arcs in TV shows will open with a summary of what happened last time? The New Testament begins with one of those, in the form of Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1. Seriously, go reread it (or listen to this song). Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ruth, David, Solomon, Zerubbabel…all of these were major players in the history and shape of Israel, and that one little genealogy is a handy recap.

But it’s more than a synopsis. It’s a geneology, a family tree full of horribly flawed men and women who were chosen by God to shape history–and chosen by God to give Jesus some legally inherited rights.  And Jesus fulfilled some pretty significant promises God made to these men and women:

• In Genesis 17:6, God promises to Abraham that kings will come from him. In Revelation 19:16, his descendent Jesus is called the King of Kings.
• In 2 Samuel 9:13, God promises David that his descendent would build the temple, and that the Davidic throne would be established forever. As we just saw, Jesus is that eternal king, establishing that Davidic throne…and as he hinted in John 2:19, in his death Jesus tore down the old temple, and in his resurrection he became the new one.
• In Haggai 2:23, God promises to make Zerubbabel (better known as the rebuilder of the temple) into His signet ring, turning Zerubbabel into a picture of God’s power and authority. As covered in this sermon on Haggai, Zerubbabel shows up on both sides of Jesus’ family tree. In fact, he’s one of the only men who appears in both Jesus’ adoptive dad’s lineage (Matthew 1) and his biological mom’s lineage (Luke 3). Jesus has the ultimate power and authority of God (because he is God), and God transferred that divine authority to Jesus’ human body via Zerubbabel’s DNA and his right to rule.

There’s one thing to notice about these promises. They have only been partially fulfilled. Specifically, Jesus is King of Kings, but he has not yet reigned on Earth. But by looking at the promises God made to these flawed but faithful people, we can see how Jesus began to fulfill them the first time he came to Earth, and we can know with certainty that one day he will come back and finish what he started.

3. It brings clarity to the New Testament.

Jesus says he came not to abolish the law, but fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). To answer, not to destroy. So if we actually want to get the details of what’s going on in Jesus’ life and ministry and the first years of the church, and what it means for his death, burial, and resurrection to be the fulfillment of the law, then it helps to know what went on in Israel’s history.

For example, in Exodus 12, God starts to lay out the plan for the Passover, part of the weeklong Feast of the Unleavened Bread. God was going to send his angel throughout Egypt to kill all the firstborns of the land, including Pharaoh’s own son. The Israelites were instructed to kill an unblemished lamb and smear some of its blood over the doorways of their homes so the angel would see the blood and spare those households. This feast is still celebrated by Jews today.

You don’t have to know that story to understand the basics of Jesus’ story–that he was sinless, but died for our sins. If you do know it, though, you can start to see the parallels: Jesus was God’s (and Mary’s, and Joseph’s) firstborn son. He was sinless–pure and spotless like a lamb–and is often called the Lamb of God (see Revelation 5). And Israel was celebrating the Passover when Jesus was crucified (Matthew 26:17). And it is Jesus’ blood that will tell God to pass over his followers during the final judgement.

That’s a pretty clear example of the Old Testament illuminating the New, but it’s only one example. There are tons of other random references, like Jesus’ reference to Moses and a bronze serpent (John 3:14), or Paul’s reference to the Israelites drinking water from a rock (1 Corinthians 10:4). And it’s arguably impossible to understand the New Testament book of Hebrews without a baseline familiarity with the Old Testament. So dive on in. Your appreciation for the New Testament and Jesus’ marvelous work will be much richer because of it.

 

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