The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG09

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T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. [9] We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, [10] nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. [11] 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. What is the purpose of all of the material in the OT, and precisely how does it relate to our lives today? This question is constantly being asked in churches and by pastors across the country. Relatively few people seem to be literate as Christians in the voluminous materials of the OT, and even fewer seem able to gain a handle on the unity of the material for our lives. While many will give a kind of respectful lip-service to the OT, it is not easy to find many who are dedicated to studying the text with an obedience spoken of in Joshua 1.8: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Even the categorical promises of Yahweh to the one who dedicates himself to the meditation on the Law of the Lord does not seem to get a rise frommany believers in their determination to master the OT. What is the source of this halting difficulty to grasp the Hebrew Bible? Perhaps many could be given. “The OT is too large a library to master.” “The OT is so filled with metaphors, symbols, allegories, parables, and unusual imagery that only an expert can grasp it.” “I don’t see how I would ever have the time to do it. How on earth would anyone find a way to read let alone master all of the things contained in our OT?” Regardless of the reasons given, it is plain that there remains a kind of strange silence and eery ignorance of much of the OT in our churches today. It can be argued, though, that our OT was the Bible of Jesus and the apostles, the beloved Word of God which could not be broken to Jesus (John 10.35), the word that lives and abides forever for Peter (1 Pet. 1.25), and the God-breathed Word that equips the man or woman of God for every good work for Paul (2 Tim. 3.17). Indeed, the Word that comforted the hearts of Jesus and the apostles was our Old Testament! Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians is instructive about our study and application of the OT. Paul recited the incidents of God’s deliverance of Israel in the Exodus, and alluded to Moses’ “baptism” the people of Israel were placed into in the Red Sea, and the spiritual drink they received from God “from the spiritual Rock that

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