The Old Testament

By the grace of God, I have recently finished reading the Old Testament, as part of a 90-day Bible reading program some of us at our church are participating in. Yesterday, someone at my church asked me if I "understood" it—if I understood the Old Testament. Do I understand it all? Absolutely not! But thanks be to the Lord our God that the Holy Spirit has given me enough to have a general idea. There seem to be three tracks to the Hebrew Scriptures:

(1) The holiness, righteousness, and justice of God, made manifest in His covenants, His laws, His precepts, and above all His sovereign will, working itself out even at the level of using nations and kings to work out His will (Isaiah, Habakkuk). This is the God we fear (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14), and with good reason, for he alone is perfect, holy, and righteous; and we, quite simply, are none of those! This is the God who gave us the Law, and who judges our conduct in the Prophets. This is the thrice holy God (Isaiah 6:3) from whose throne pours a river of fire (Daniel 7:10).

(2) The flawedness, sinfulness, imperfection, and open hostility towards—and rebellion against—God by man. This manifests itself on almost every page of Scripture and in every sinful act, and every demonstration of lack of faith or trust in God (even in the likes of Moses at Meribah, or Gideon and his fleece). It expresses itself most poignantly in the book of Judges, in the endless cycle of falling away, repentance, and restoration. It even pops up in Nehemiah 13, when even the faithful remnant that voluntarily came out of exile to restore the Temple begins to fall away, while Nehemiah is out of town for a couple of years to attend to business. It is because of our human tendency to sinful rebellion against God that the Promised Land fell to Assyria and Babylon.

(3) The grace, mercy, and lovingkindness of God. This is the God of Samuel (1 Sam 15:22), David (Psalm 51:16-17), Hosea (6:6), and Micah (6:6-8), the God who does not delight in sacrifices or burnt offerings, but in repentance and a broken and contrite heart. This is the God of Rahab (Joshua 2) and Ruth. This is the God of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33), who has the power to save and redeem through His grace alone (Ezekiel 37:5-6; Hosea 13:14; Jonah 2:6, 2:9; Joel 2:32). This is the God who preserves a Holy remnant to himself and calls the faithful out of every nation to worship at His Holy Mountain, as promised through practically every prophet. This is the God out of whose holy city flows the water of life (Ezekiel 47), and who breathes life into man (Genesis 2:7; Ezekiel 37:10).

And now, as I begin to read the New Testament, I read of the promised Messiah, who it would turn out, is the Son of God. He is the thrice anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, in the line of (and greater than) Moses and Elijah; Melchizedek; and David. He is the fulfilment of the Prophets (especially Isaiah, Daniel, Micah, and Zechariah), but he also speaks as one with prophetic authority, embodying both the kindness of God: the call to repentance, and the offer of mercy to sinners (the third track mentioned above), and in his pronouncements against "whitewashed tombs" and prophesying the destruction of the Temple and the last days, the severity of God (the first track). And He is not merely God incarnate, fully God and fully man in one moment on earth, but he is the eternal, living Christ, sitting at the right hand of God.

And as if all that were not enough, Jesus Christ is also—as I will soon read—the only perfect fulfiller of the Law, and it was through his sacrificial atonement, his suffering, death, and resurrection, that the Lord God Almighty imputes His Son's righteousness to us, and covers our sins—and not only of those who were personally saved by Jesus Christ during His ministry on earth, or of those who were born after Him, but even of those to whom God extended His grace, who died before His Son came into the world.

Having finished the Old Testament is not a source of pride for me, but one of humility, astonishment, joy, and thanksgiving. I am humbled by the piercing, convicting Word of God, and by His grace and mercy—by His power to save sinners. I am astonished that I finished it at all, but it's because it wasn't by the power of my flesh that I accomplished this, but solely by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And I am joyful that I have now done this, and thankful to God for giving me the determination, perseverance, and daily grace to finish this. All praise be to the Lord our God.