Reading of the Old Testament:

If you ask the majority of Christians of which Testament of the Bible they prefer out of the Old and New Testament, I would not be surprised if most declared the New Testament.   I would even say I enjoy reading through the New Testament more than the Old Testament.  It holds the story of Jesus from His Birth, to His ministry, and to His death and resurrection.  Plus it goes through the beginning of the church and spreading of the ministry.  However, this is not to say that the Old Testament doesn’t matter.  The Old Testament holds great truths, and great insight to the way we can live even in post New Testament time.  There are still great examples of faith, of love, of bravery, and of commitment to the Lord.  

I have been continuing my study of the book of Hebrews.  As I have mentioned before, this book is incredibly insightful and has really good knowledge on who Christ is and what he has all done for us. Through the reading of the Hebrews, I have found it makes a lot of references to the Old Testament. I have read through the book of Hebrews in the past, but I wasn’t aware of just how much information and quotation it had from pieces of the Old Testament. 

The book of Hebrews has focused on how Jesus is the better Moses, the best and final priests, the final sacrifice, the perfect covenant, and the perfect tabernacle. However, to better understand what all these items are and how important they are to the foundation of the Gospel, we had to first go back to the Old Testament and read about them.  

The priests were essential because these were the people who were chosen to make the sacrifices, so the people would be forgiven for their current sins.  It couldn’t forgive them forever, but it could put the people in better standing with God for the time being.  The reason Jesus was the better priest is because he was able to offer His sacrifice of His perfect body that had never known sin.  Then because of that, we were given the opportunity to be forgiven forever and have a chance at eternity with God.   

Jesus was also the better and perfect covenant.  He was the only human who was completely perfect and never sinned.  He followed the Covenant of the Old Testament completely and wholly.  He also fulfilled all the prophesies.  He also would also be the better tabernacle.  The Tabernacle served as God’s dwelling place on earth.  Now after Christ’s sacrifice, we have the opportunity to have the Holy Spirit which is the dwelling place of God now in all of us.  This is only through Christ and his sacrifice.  We now have direct access to God through our faith in Jesus and Him serving as our advocate and mediator.  

The book of Hebrews also follows a lot of the main leaders of the faith throughout the Old Testament.  These leaders were very foundational of the beginning of the faith in God.  This goes through Abraham, Jacob, Abel, Enoch, and Moses, as well as many others.  These leaders are honored for their belief in God.  These leaders are meant to be used as an example for the believers in the New Testament to today.  

One book of the Bible in the New Testament, Luke, also reiterates the importance of the Old Testament.  This is in Luke 24:44 which says, “Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”   The Old Testament wrote a lot about Jesus through the prophecies.  Because of this, the Old Testament really focuses on Jesus and how important He is to be saved for eternity.    We wouldn’t know Jesus’ importance and how long the people had been promised him if we didn’t first read their perspectives and thoughts on the people in the past.  

There are two challenges for this week.  The first challenge is to spend some time reading the Old Testament.  This could be finding a study on the Old Testament and reading through what this study teaches you.  This could be picking a book from the Bible and reading through it in its entirety, taking notes and highlighting important sections or making note of the things you want to better understand.  This could be spending time listening to the Old Testament chapters on an audio book or in a Bible app.  This could be meeting up with someone to discuss a book about the Old Testament.  

The second challenge is to find a character or person from the Bible who you admire when it comes to their faith.  This character and person doesn’t have to be perfect.  No one is, except for the Lord.  However, there are, again, many believers who were big Bible heroes for the Old Testament, and they can give us better ways for how we can live and how we can have faith in the Lord.