Why You Should Cherish the Neglected Old Testament
It’s January 1st. With renewed vigor and enthusiasm, you approach the monumental task of reading the Old Testament in its entirety in one year. This will be the year; or so you think! While the narratives of Genesis and Exodus are more exciting than ever before, the Tabernacle instructions of Exodus, the sacrificial ordinances of Leviticus, and the genealogies of Numbers all add up to a complete loss of interest. And sadly, you didn’t even make it to the theologically rich book of Deuteronomy. Well, maybe next year! And the discouraging cycle of “Bible reading” continues.
“To avoid the Old Testament is to forsake a rich feast of satisfying food in a famine.”
Why do so many Christians stay in the dark about the contents of the Old Testament? Are we too intimidated, are we lost, or are we just lazy? The English Standard Version contains 757,439 words. Of these, 602,585 of them are in the Old Testament, and only 154,854 words make up the New Testament. That’s nearly an 80-20% split! To avoid the Old Testament is to forsake a rich feast of satisfying food in a famine! In fact, when Jesus suffered without food in the wilderness, agonizing over Satanic temptation, he declared, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deut. 8:3). The Bible of Jesus’s day is our Old Testament. Remember the same part of our modern Bibles that is too hard for us to read and understand?
Some progressive Christians take the matter further, claiming that “Peter, James, and Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish Scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”1 Out of an embarrassment with the Old Testament’s presentation of the creation account, the national history of Israel, or the divinely ordained sexual ethic, many modern Christians are purposely distancing themselves from the Old Testament as an apologetic strategy in an attempt to win unbelievers to faith in Christ! “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25).
In that oft neglected front part of your Bible is contained all the covenant promises, the messianic hopes, and the theological backbone for everything Christians believe and teach today. Consider five New Testament reasons why Christians should always study, believe, and cherish Old Testament revelation.
The Old Testament is Reaffirmed by Jesus Christ
“Jesus claims that the Old Testament is true and unchangeable, down to the letter and to the smallest Hebrew dash mark that distinguishes one letter from another.”
After Jesus was betrayed, crucified, and buried, the broader group of followers of Jesus were in low spirits. Even amongst the twelve key disciples, one sold Jesus out and died and the others abandoned Jesus at his lowest moment. The movement started by Jesus seemed to be in shambles! But on Sunday afternoon, two disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus discussing the tragic events of the last week. The resurrected Jesus joined the conversation and questioned these half-blinded disciples about their expectations for the Messiah. He rebukes them for not understanding what the Old Testament prophets spoke about this Messiah. They made it clear that the mysterious figure must suffer first and then enter his glory, and he pointed them to multiple scriptures from Moses and all the prophets of the Old Testament (Luke 24:13-27). When they arrived at their destination and broke bread together, the disciples recognized it was the risen Lord Jesus! And they asked each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). Apparently, there are many Messianic passages all throughout the Old Testament that Jesus explained to the disciples when he opened their minds to understand it (Luke 24:44-45). I think we can clue into which passages Jesus emphasized through reading the apostles sermons in the book of Acts (Ps. 69, 16, 110, and 2). This is no irrelevant section of our Bibles!
It is possible to argue that Jesus was only affirming those portions of the Old Testament which directly spoke about his redemptive mission. Yet earlier in his ministry as he preached the famous Sermon on the Mount, he stated, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:17-18). Jesus does not simply claim that some parts of the Old Testament are true, such as the moral law or Ten Commandments, while the truthfulness of the narratives and prophecies are open to new interpretations by skeptical doubters. He claims that the Old Testament is true and unchangeable, down to the letter and to the smallest Hebrew dash mark that distinguishes one letter from another.
The Old Testament is the Basis of the Gospel Message
If there is no Old Testament, there is no gospel message! That is what Paul claims in two places: Romans 1:1-3 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
“If there is no Old Testament, there is no gospel message.”
Introducing himself and his message to the Roman Christians, Paul explains that God’s message of good news was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:2-3). Then, he proceeds to quote the Old Testament over 60 times as he explains the depths of our sinfulness, Christ’s atonement for sin on the cross, and the glories of our exalted Christ! Why should anyone believe in Christ for salvation if there is no powerful creator God against whom we have sinned? Why should anyone repent of sins if they are naturally good people whose hearts incline them to the right way? Why would any modern person pattern their personal life and sexual ethic according to a book written centuries before electricity and the internet? It must be this way because there is a God, he has spoken, and “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21).
Our relationship with God as Christians is based on the verifiable historical facts about Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul explains that the good news that has saved them is in accordance with the Old Testament Scriptures. When Christ died for our sins, it is because the Old Testament said he would (Ps. 22; Isa. 53:4-9). When Christ was raised, it is because the Old Testament showed us that he would (Ps. 16:9-10; Is. 53:10-12). Modern Christians must humbly acknowledge that the foundation of the gospel is in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is Trustworthy Scripture from God
In one of the most famous exhortations from pastor to pastor, Paul tells Timothy to continue studying the ancient Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:14-17). From the time Timothy was an unconverted child, he was taught the dramatic story of the Patriarchs, the legal theology of Moses, and the kingdom promises of Isaiah. These are the writings that “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). In other words, you could evangelize someone exclusively through Old Testament revelation, insofar as the punchline was personal faith in Christ for salvation. In fact, many modern Christians forget that this was the method of evangelization that the apostles utilized with those who were familiar with the Scriptures in the book of Acts. Think about Peter in Jerusalem (Acts 2-5) as well as Paul in Antioch (Acts 13) and Berea (Acts 17:10-15).
“If any passage is understood correctly in the context of its book, it can be trusted as God’s unchanging and eternal truth (see Ps. 119:89). That means the narratives of Genesis and Ezra are equally true and trustworthy. The worship of Psalms and Isaiah are both consistent in their adoration of the only worthy one!”
The apostle Paul clinches his argument with the well-known words, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Tim 3:16). The “God-breathed” (θεοπνευστος) nature of these books means that God is the source of what is written. If any passage is understood correctly in the context of its book, it can be trusted as God’s unchanging and eternal truth (see Ps. 119:89). That means the narratives of Genesis and Ezra are equally true and trustworthy. The worship of Psalms and Isaiah are both consistent in their adoration of the only worthy one! The nineteenth century German scholars Keil and Delitzch show us that lack of appreciation for the Old Testament is not a new phenomenon for twenty-first century Christians as they wrote over one hundred years ago:
“It was reserved for the Deism, Naturalism, and Rationalism which became so prevalent in the closing quarter of the eighteenth century, to be the first to undermine the belief in the inspiration of the first covenant, and more and more to choke up this well of saving truth; so that at the present day depreciation of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament is as widely spread as ignorance of what they really contain.”2
Further, all of our Old Testament writings are powerful and profitable to teach, reprove, correct, and train the man of God to be righteous (2 Tim. 3:16b-17). Why would we ever neglect, ignore, or downplay such a dynamic work of God? Modern Christians can trust God to grow their spiritual life through their study and meditation on the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Old Testament Was Written for Christian Instruction
It is not surprising that the apostles, who regularly quote the Old Testament as authoritative support for their teaching, occasionally explain how we should read those Scriptures. After a citation of Psalm 69:9, Paul writes, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). We should be learning how to think, speak, and act in our families, communities, and churches from the principles in the Old Testament. Modern Christians need endurance to live for Christ in an increasingly hostile culture. And because there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9), God’s people today need to learn the hard lessons of failure from the past. Paul makes this point to the Corinthians regarding the moral failings and judgments of the wilderness generation. He tells them, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11).
We should learn how to take God at his word and live by faith through the book of Genesis. We should learn how to obey God from the heart through the book of Deuteronomy. We should learn how to pray and praise through the book of Psalms. We should learn how to act in wisdom at work and in our families through the book of Proverbs. We should be warned of God’s rejection and judgment on a corrupt religious establishment through the book of Ezekiel. We should learn what the Messiah is going to do to the evil kingdoms of the world through the book of Daniel. God has given us this book, but will we study and obey it?
The Old Testament Promises are Not Done Being Fulfilled
Some Christians wrongly assume that all the promises made in the Old Testament have already been fulfilled in the first advent of Christ. While Jesus did fulfill many prophecies through his incarnation, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, there are a whole host of predictions that Jesus has not yet brought to completion. Consider that the promises about the Messiah’s virgin conception, birth in Bethlehem, Davidic lineage, rejection by his people, and humiliating death were fulfilled in a literal fashion. Alva McClain explains that the exact fulfillment of Messianic prophecies in the days of Jesus, “provided a pattern of literal fulfilment to guard the reader against any misinterpretation of unfulfilled prophecy.”3 Think about the time that Jesus stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth and proclaimed the prophecies of Isaiah 61:1–2a had been fulfilled (Luke 4:16–21)! After reading that he had come to “proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” he did not continue to read about “the day of vengeance of our God.” Why is it that the rest of the verse is not quoted? Because Jesus could not rightly say that the second half of verse 2 had been fulfilled! That is coming later in his second advent!
If you think that reading the Old Testament is simply reading about the past, you might be surprised to hear that many things in the Old Testament are referring to events in our future!
Is it true that Jesus has already taken the government upon his shoulder and started ruling Israel on David’s throne (Isa. 9:6-7)? Has the mountain of the house of the Lord been established as the highest of the mountains, that all people would flow to it where God will judge between nations and end all warfare (Isa. 2:2-4, Mic. 4:1-3)? Does the wolf dwell with the lamb in harmony and the child safely play over the hole of the cobra (Isa. 11:6-8)? Has the nation of Israel tearfully looked upon the one whom they have pierced to receive mercy (Zech. 12:10)? Does that nation dwell in safety on the mountain heights of Israel with no fear of threat or war (Ezek. 34:13-14)? Is the whole earth full of the knowledge of the Lord (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14)? Has Jesus already come in the clouds of heaven to establish his everlasting kingdom where all peoples, nations, and languages serve him (Dan. 7:13-14)? Not yet in this broken world! Jesus recognized this did not happen in his first advent, but boldly proclaimed that this was coming in the future (Matt. 24:30, 26:64; Mark 13:26; Luke 21:27). After the resurrection, the apostles asked Jesus, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). This was a perfect opportunity for Jesus to correct any misunderstandings about a literal and future kingdom, yet instead, he tells them “it is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). Christians today should eagerly anticipate the day when Jesus will return in the clouds and place his feet upon the Earth once again (Zech. 14:4)!
Until that day, let us zealously read and cherish our Old Testaments, trusting God to satisfy our souls through his word!
1 Andy Stanley, “Aftermath: Not Difficult (Part 3),” sermon, YouTube video, 39:44, posted by “Andy Stanley,” April 30, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShxFTNRCWI&t=2270s. ↩︎
2 Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 1 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), xii. ↩︎
3 Alva J. McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1974), 261. ↩︎
Professor John Fabarez
Professor of Biblical Studies, Compass Bible Institute
Professor Fabarez was born and raised in Southern California, attending Compass Bible Church since its founding in 2005. Professor Fabarez is a graduate of The Master’s University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Bible exposition, and of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. He is a staff pastor at Compass Bible Church, Aliso Viejo.
Professor Fabarez is married to Alexandra, and they have three children: Eden, Jordan and Ruth.
