Israel: Past, Present, and Future
Top View of the Christian Quarter, Jerusalem
7 Reasons to Study the Old Testament
By J. Carl Laney, ThD - Professor at Western Seminary for 40 Years
Each fall, I begin my annual teaching through the Bible. And each year, my students will typically spend 180 hours sitting in class and listening to lectures as we explore the themes, covenants and story line of the Bible. About 90 of those class hours are devoted to the study of the Old Testament or as I prefer to call it, the Hebrew Bible.
But some students have wondered why Christians should devote such time and effort in studying the Old Testament. We are New Covenant believers, so shouldn’t our focus be on the New Testament rather than the Hebrew Bible? I would like to offer seven reasons why Christians find great blessing and benefit in studying the Old Testament.
(1) The Bible is incomplete without the Old Testament.
Both the Old and New Testaments make up the Word of God. The New Testament was never given to replace the Old Testament but rather to complete its story. Genesis 3:14-19 records how a curse came upon humanity because of sin. Revelation 22:3 completes the story by recording how God, through the redemptive work of Jesus, has removed the curse. The theme of God’s redemptive work would be incomplete without both Testaments revealing the beginning and end of the curse.
(2) The Old Testament presents great truths about God and humanity.
In the first five books of the Bible (the Torah), God reaches out to humanity and introduces Himself. God introduces Himself as the Creator (Gen. 1-2), the Savior of His people (Exod. 13-14), the Holy One (Lev. 19:2), the God of wrath and judgment on sin (Num. 14), and a God of love (Deut. 7). It is in the Hebrew Bible that God reveals to Moses His attributes (Exod. 34:6-7). We would not know God as well as we do apart from the revelation of the Old Testament.
(3) The Old Testament provides the historical setting out of which Christianity and the New Testament emerged.
Christianity didn’t emerge from a vacuum. God was moving among the people of Israel to bring forth the Messiah who would provide redemption from the judgment that came on humanity because of sin. The early New Testament preachers like Stephen (Acts 7) and Paul (Acts 13:16-41) made frequent use of the Hebrew Bible to declare God’s plan for salvation. The story line of God’s work in salvation begins in the Hebrew Bible and then continues its flow through the New Testament.
(4) The Old Testament instructs believers concerning the person and work of Jesus, the promised Messiah.
His birth, His death, His resurrection, His return and His kingdom are all revealed in the Hebrew Bible (Luke 24:44-46). If you want to get to know Jesus, the Lamb of God, you cannot neglect the prophecies found in the Old Testament.
Mount of Olives
(5) The Old Testament presents spiritual truths and lessons that are applicable for Christians.
Paul illustrates this in 1 Corinthians 10:6-10, where he recounts for the church at Corinth a number of incidents that took place during Israel’s wilderness wanderings. Then he writes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Paul clearly intended for the Corinthians to learn from the lessons taught in the Hebrew Bible (see also Rom. 15:4).
(6) The Old Testament lays the foundation for biblical prophecy.
It is in the Hebrew Bible that we find the revelation about God’s covenant promises. In the Abrahamic Covenant God promises a land, a nation, and blessing that will extend from Israel to all the nations of the earth (Gen. 12:2-3). In the Davidic Covenant God promises that David will have a descendant who will sit on his throne and rule and reign forever (2 Sam. 7:12-16). The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel reveal how the blessing promised to Abraham and his descendants will be further developed and ultimately realized through the person and work of Jesus (Jer. 31:31-34, Ezek. 36:25-28).
(7) The Old Testament is “God-breathed and profitable.”
Paul declares that “all Scripture is “God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). When he wrote these words he was referring to the Hebrew Bible. If Christians neglect the study of the Old Testament they won’t be as proficient in the service of our Lord as they would otherwise be through a working knowledge and practical application of the Hebrew Bible.
Teaching by Gary Hamrick, May 19,2024
Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA
Scripture Referenced In the Teaching
Romans 9:1-5 . . . I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Romans 9:30-33 . . . What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Romans 10:1-4 . . . Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:9-13 . . . If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 11:1-6 . . . I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Romans 11:25-27 . . . For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”
Deuteronomy 7:6 . . . “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
Genesis 12:3 . . . “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Ezekiel 37:21-22 . . . “Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again.
Zechariah 13:6 . . . And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
Zechariah 13:8-9 . . . “And it shall come to pass in all the land”, Says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
