By Tim
Vasby-Burny
A Short
Introduction to the Old Testament
Luke 24:25-27; John
5:39-40; John 5:45-47; Acts 2:30-31; Acts 3:18,24; Acts 10:43; Acts
17:11; Acts 26:22-23; Romans 10:6-17; 1 Corinthians 10:1-10; 1
Corinthians 15:3-4; Galatians 3:16,19; 2 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 4:2,6;
1 Peter 1:10-11; Jude 4-5.
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These verses from the
New Testament illustrate the deep respect that Jesus and His apostles had
for the Old Testament. They
considered the Old Testament, on its own, to be thoroughly
Christian. As far as the New
Testament is concerned, the plain message of the Old Testament is that
the Christ would come and suffer, then be raised to glory, and that
through faith in Him forgiveness of sins could be found. Jesus and the Apostles constantly
pointed people back to the Scriptures to see this simple message; they
never claimed to be revealing the meaning of the Old Testament.
This clear view of the
Old Testament seems to have been lost in many modern evangelical
circles. For example, one popular
author writes the following about the Old Testament:
“There
are numerous problems that Christians meet when reading the Old
Testament, but I shall mention only a few. First of all, we recognize that the Old Testament is
pre-Christian and never mentions any of the distinctives of the Christian
faith. The people of Israel are not
Christians and cannot be said to live ‘Christian’ lives.”[i]
Really? Doesn’t that contradict the verses we
have already looked at? Yes, the
OT is pre-incarnation, but Christ was present in Old Testament times
(e.g. 1 Corinthians 10; Jude 4; Hebrews 3; John 12:41). To say that the OT never mentions any
of the distinctives of the Christian faith is totally unbiblical. What about Abraham: justified by
faith? What about Hebrews
11? What about the Sermon on the
Mount (e.g. Matthew 5:11-12, 7:12)?
Doesn’t Paul base his argument that we are justified by grace
through faith on the Old Testament (see, for example, Romans 4 and
Galatians)? The nation of Israel
was established to be an evangelistic nation (Exodus 19:6)[ii]. Again, the Old Testament saints may not
be called ‘Christians’, but that their faith is in the person of Christ
is the clear testimony of the entire Bible. As the great Puritan John Owen said: That the faith of
all believers, from the foundation of the world, had a respect unto him,
I shall afterwards demonstrate; and to deny it, is to renounce both the
Old Testament and the New.
The same author goes
on to write:
“Third,
the prophetic view of the final saving work of God makes no specific reference
to Jesus Christ and is directed instead towards the national destiny of
Israel.”
Again, this is clearly
unbiblical. The very first book
of the Bible looks forward to the coming of the Promised Seed (Genesis
3:15; 15)[iii]. Abraham’s faith is focused on the Lamb
of God who would die as a sacrifice of atonement on Mount Moriah (Genesis
22). Jacob prophecies that “The
sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between
his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the
nations is his” (Genesis 49). It
is true that the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christ’ are not used next to each
other, but both the Old and New Testaments enjoy a much broader
vocabulary about the Eternal Son of God.
Finally, the modern
author writes:
“Furthermore,
the prophets do not really deal with the question of life after death or
with the problem of the faithful who have already died by the time the
kingdom of God arrives.”
Yet again, that
statement has no foundation.
Abraham had no problem with the idea of Resurrection: Genesis 22
(verse 5 “we will come back”, cf. Hebrews 11:17-19); he was also looking
forward to the New Creation and the city with foundations: Hebrews
11:9-10. Moses knew about life
after death: Exodus 3:6 (cf. Matthew 22:23-33); Job was looking forward
to his bodily resurrection: Job 19:26f; Psalm 49 says ‘God will redeem my
life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself’; Daniel knew
about The Resurrection: Daniel 12:1-4.
Luke
24:25-27 must be read at face value.
The OT saints looked forward to the death and resurrection of the
Christ. It does not say, “How
foolish you are, and how slow of heart to understand that the events of
the last few days have finally provided the hermeneutical key to the Old
Testament that means you must re-read the OT in a completely new
way.”
The
modern confusion about the Old Testament has led some Evangelicals to
suggest that the Old Testament authors did not really understand what
they were writing. This has been
popularised under the slogan “They spoke or wrote better than they
knew.” There are at least three
problems with this:
·
Where is this
idea found in the Bible? There is
no indication in the Bible that people ‘write better than they know’,
except for Caiaphas the High Priest: but is an unbelieving Jew intent on
murdering Christ going to establish our Biblical Theology? 1 Peter 1:10-12 is often suggested for
this idea, but a closer look proves this not to be the case. The Holy Spirit was predicting the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow, and the prophets
were intently searching to find out the times and circumstances to which
the Spirit was pointing them. They
knew about Christ’s death and resurrection: they wanted to know when it
would happen.
·
The Bible assumes
the Old Testament characters fully understood the events they were part
of. We see this in an obvious way
in Hebrews 11:9-10, 13-16 where we are told that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
lived in tents in the promised land because they had their hope fixed on
the heavenly city of God. They
knew that they were living out a presentation of the new creation[iv]
hope of the gospel through the promise of the land.
·
What theory of
Biblical inspiration is going on?
I have heard it said that Isaiah is now in heaven saying “Ah! So that’s what I was writing about!”
or that when Moses wrote Genesis 19:24 he had no understanding of the
Trinity. If the Biblical authors
were not fully aware of what they were writing, then we are into a
strange from of inspiration not unlike dictation. See Acts 2:30-31.
The Old Testament is Trinitarian
John 1:18 is often
used to suggest that Christ’s incarnation is a revelatory act. But this is not the case: this verse
describes Christ’s role from the beginning of the world, a role that culminated
in the incarnation.
In the OT, God is
often seen. Genesis 3; 12; 16:11-14; 17; in
chapter 18 the LORD comes, has a meal and has His feet washed; 28; 32:30;
35:9-11; 48:3; Exodus 3; 24; 33.
In Numbers 14 Moses speaks of the Egyptians who have heard that
the LORD has been seen eye to eye. The Hebrew word for ‘eye’ does not allow this to be a
metaphor for intellectual ‘seeing’.
Colossians 1:15 explains: Christ is the image of the invisible God
from creation onwards.
It is worth following
through the references to The Angel of the LORD to see that He is Himself
divine. Genesis 16, 31:11-13 and
48:15; Exodus 3 and 14; Judges 2 and 13 are good places to start. The word ‘Angel’ is not a problem: it
simply means ‘messenger’ or ‘sent one’, so ‘Angel of God’ is ‘The One
Sent from God’, a title Jesus often uses for Himself in the gospels.
The fact that ‘The One
Sent from God’ is Himself God shows that the doctrine of the Trinity is
an Old Testament one. Exodus 33
cannot be understood without knowing this: there is a Person called
Yahweh who cannot be seen face to face, and another Person called Yahweh
who can be seen face to face.
When the LORD comes down on Mt Sinai the whole mountain is off
limits, yet we also read that Yahweh moves freely around the camp
(Deuteronomy 32:14) or stands on top of a rock (Exodus 17:6). This Person, the seen Yahweh, is the
Mediator. He is the One who led
Israel out of Egypt, just as He promised in Exodus 3. When we recognize this, we see that 1
Corinthians 10, Hebrews 11:26 and Jude 5 are simply basic comments drawn
straight from the Old Testament: they are not a re-reading of the Old
Testament. No-one EVER does that.
Genesis
19:24 is categorical proof that there are two Persons called Yahweh. The Hebrew text cannot be
re-interpreted to speak of one LORD, and besides, why would one want
to? The OT clearly expects us to
recognise that sometimes the LORD refers to the Father and sometimes to
the Son, and sometimes to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the way the NT handles the OT
(see Hebrews 1-5). Asking the
question “Who is speaking?” is a brilliant way to get into the heart of
the passage being studied. To
simply say ‘God’ all the time is to confuse the Persons – something the
Athanasius Creed condemns.
No Revelation outside Christ
Matthew
11:25-27, John 1:18 and Colossians 1:15 (see also 1 Timothy 6:16) all
show that God is not known outside of Christ. Christ, the Eternal Son, is the only
Mediator; He is God’s Word to mankind. Let’s hear Calvin on this:
“No
one sees the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to
reveal Him” [Matt. 11:27] – surely they who would attain the knowledge of
God should always be directed by that eternal Wisdom. For how could they either have
comprehended God’s mysteries with the mind, or have uttered them, except
by the teaching of Him to whom alone the secrets of the Father are
revealed? Therefore, holy men
of old knew God only by beholding Him in His Son as in a mirror. When I say this, I mean that God has never
manifested Himself to men in any other way than through the Son, that
is, His sole wisdom, light and truth.
From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others
drank all that they had of heavenly teaching. From the same fountain, all the prophets have also drawn
every heavenly oracle that they have given forth.
Even
creation proclaims Christ, the Glory of God (see Psalm 19 and how Paul
uses it in Romans 10). Colossians
1:23 and Revelation 5:13 show that the creation proclaims the gospel,
God’s eternal power (Romans 1:16,20).
In
so much evangelical thinking, Christ is sometimes relegated (albeit
unconsciously) to the One who came to do the dying bit. But the Bible’s view of Christ, shown
from Genesis to Revelation, reveals that God never does anything outside
of Christ. The Bible is God
preaching Christ the Light of the World (Genesis 1:1-3). All our thoughts about God must
begin with Christ (Colossians 2:3,8).
Faith in Christ
It
is clear then that Christ has always been the object of faith from the
beginning of history[v]. Calvin gets quite worked up when
people talk about ‘faith in God’:
“In
fact, when faith is discussed in the schools, they call God simply the
object of faith, and by fleeting speculations… lead miserable souls astray
rather than direct them to a definite goal. For, since ‘God dwells in inaccessible light’ [1 Timothy
6:16], Christ must become our intermediary.”
Neither
does the Bible see ‘God’s promises’ as being a basic definition of the
object of faith. Acts 10:43 –
“All
the prophets testify about HIM that everyone who believes in HIM receives
forgiveness of sins through HIS name.”
Some
try to explain away the natural meaning of this verse by suggesting that God
treats faith in His earthly promises as equivalent to a New Testament
faith in Christ: but such an idea would need to be fully and carefully
explained. Whoever espoused such
a view would also need to be made aware that they are standing in
opposition to the Early Church Father, the Reformers and the
Puritans. These great saints are
fallible, but worth paying attention to as perhaps the greatest Bible
teachers that God has given the Church after the Apostles[vi].
The
fact that ‘Christ’ or ‘Messiah’ is not an over-abundant term should not
bother us. The Eternal Son has
many titles. “Abraham knew Christ
as the Word of the LORD, the Promised Seed and the Lamb of God; Moses
knew Christ as the Angel of the LORD and the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob; David knew Christ as his Lord and the LORD’s Anointed; Mark knew
Christ as the Suffering Servant; John knew Christ as the Word of
God. The saints have always known
and understood Christ in different ways, with their own personalities and
experiences giving the specific colour to their picture of Christ. Yet, however Christ was described and
experienced by the saints of every age, He is the One who they knew and
loved.”
Other
common titles for Christ are Rock, LORD enthroned between the Cherubim,
Holy One of Israel and, of course, LORD.
This
paper is, of necessity, only an introduction to the Biblical view of the
Bible. It has not covered some
areas relevant to our view of the OT.
But I hope it has started to show you that we must make sure our
framework for the Old Testament is that which the Bible gives us.
Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday and today and for ever.
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