Sometimes it feels hard enough to persuade people to read the Bible at all. Why bother with the Old Testament?
Isn’t it irredeemably, well, old, out of date, out of touch, not to mention violent, aggressive, misogynistic, and just plain nasty to boot?
Here are five reasons why you should read the Old Testament.
1. It Was the First Christian Bible
Usually, when the New Testament mentions the scriptures, it is referring specifically to what we now call “the Old Testament.” The first Christians read the Old Testament as a Christian text, meaning they believed it spoke of Christ, the Messiah.
They were taught this by Jesus himself. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).
Therefore, if we are Christians, we are to read the Old Testament as that which speaks of Christ — just like the first followers of Jesus did.
2. It Is Inspired by the Holy Spirit
The doctrine (as scholars call it) of the “plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures,” applies just as much to the Old Testament as it does to the New Testament.
When Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” he was certainly referring to the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
Therefore, we are to prize, treasure, and certainly thereby of course at the very least read, the Old Testament as the very Word of God.
3. It Paints the Full Picture of Who Jesus Is
One of the reasons why some people today have such a sentimental, superficial, trivial, view of Jesus is because they don’t read him against the backdrop of the Old Testament.
The commercialized, dumbed-down, Jesus-junk, fast-track-to-Jesus, culture bombing, the nadir of vacuous long-haired-hippy-Jesus would be impossible if people read (or heard preached) Isaiah 40, the “little Bible” of Genesis 3:15, Zechariah 9:9, and more.
Therefore, read the Old Testament to see a full picture of who Jesus is.
4. Without it, You Cannot Have the New Testament
I think it was C.S. Lewis who said that the New Testament is little more than a tissue paper of quotations from the Old Testament. If you ignore, much more so if you reject, the Old Testament, the only logical conclusion is also to ignore, and in time reject the New Testament.
Again and again, there are references, inferences, reflections, as well as direct quotations, of the Old Testament in the New Testament. Therefore, if we want the New Testament, we must also read the Old Testament.
5. It Is a Deeply Moral Book
The reputation of the Old Testament as immoral has grown in direct proportion to the ignorance that people have of it.
Sure, you can cherry-pick events, stories, and scandals, and set them up as a series of straw men that will give you a good excuse to avoid the Bible (and even maybe, if you feed your human hubris enough, think you are avoiding God).
But a person who comes to the Old Testament first to learn will soon realize that the ethical instructions of the center point of the Old Testament (according to Jesus) to love God and to love neighbor is the very highest moral calling (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Leviticus 19:18; Mark 12:29-31).
Well, is it said in that great Old Testament Psalm of the Word, Psalm 119, that, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Therefore, if you want to be a man or woman of God, deeply ethical, moral, and godly, read the Old Testament.
Josh Moody
Senior Pastor, College Church in Wheaton, www.college-church.org
President and Founder, The God Centered Life, www.godcenteredlife.org
For further reading:
5 Ways to Survive and Thrive at College This Year
5 Ways to Bounce Back from Failure
3 Ways to Remember That God Loves You
3 Ways Christians Can Respond to the Problem of Homelessness Today
Why Is Valuing God's Word So Important?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/JerryGrugin
