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Apologies to the Old Testament


My Bible reading plan sometimes has me read 5 or more chapters of the Old Testament in one sitting. Ugh. Jeremiah 32-37, Exodus 16-21, Leviticus 5-9...

Some days, I skip the OT reading and skip ahead to the NT.

(Fess up we've all done this.) The NT is just way more applicable. The New Testament has Jesus! I get to learn about what He did for me and how to worship Him better! Full of evangelism tips and comfort, it's the obvious favorite.

For a long time I knew that the Old Testament was important; we all "know" that. We know that it gives prophesies that Jesus fulfilled, it tells stories of men and women with faith which seems unreachable today, and it has a lot of rules. And honestly, reading the Old Testament often used to make me feel like I was reading about a God who used to be much more involved in the world. He would speak directly to His people, answer prayers to stop the sun in its tracks, and literally drop food from the sky to the hungry. "God, people today still want to hear Your voice. Why don't You speak?" "God, people today still need more time in their day. Can't You stop the sun for them too?" "God, people today are still literally starving. Where is their mana?" In the past, reading the Old Testament basically tempted me to think that today maybe God is taking a really long rest from interacting with humanity so vividly for so many years. Like He's tired. Combined with all the rules and random slaughters, the Old Testament was pretty discouraging to me. But one day I actually followed my reading plan and started in on Exodus. The story of how God delivered the Israelites from Pharoah completely changed my view of the OT. Along with this realization: No where in the Bible does it say that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are two different Gods. Today, I serve the same God as Moses did. As Abraham did. As Esther did. As David and Solomon did.

Whoa. The magnificence of the Lord overwhelmed me as I continued to read more stories from the Old Testament. Maybe the Old Testament can reveal who we serve just as well as the New Testament. And let's be real here, no one wants to know how to serve a master without knowing what the master is like. The New Testament is only half the story. An important half, but just half.

My goal here is just to nudge us...or hurl us...towards the Old Testament in a new way because it still holds truths and, honestly,

I think stirs something in us about how epic and adventurous our worlds can be as we follow Yaweh.

So, I offer some tips for how to go about reading through geneologies and genocides: 1. Read the Old Testament to be filled with awe at who You serve. Reverence will flow, praises will ring, and awe will ensue when we stop asking "How do we serve God?" and start wondering "Who is this God?" for awhile. Sometimes the learning can cease and we just need to sit and be with Him.

2. Pay attention to the reckless faith of the characters. Let them make you feel bad about your faith for awhile, but then do something about it. You're allowed to have the same vigor in life because God hasn't changed. You're allowed to dream and actually follow the Spirit's tug into greatness.

3. Actually take the stories as fact. Goliath was 9 feet tall. Literally. The three mighty men killed hundreds on their own. People witnessed Sampson slaughtering Philistines with a donkey's jawbone (super weird). Hosea really bought his whore-ish wife back. There was really a time when sin didn't exist in Eden. Pharoah got to see the ocean floor in daylight in his last moments on earth. How does this affect how you think about the world and live in it. (Hint: the world is completely epic)

4. Ask for the Spirit's help to understand and grow closer to God through the OT. Let's just quell all the weirdness that somehow surrounds praying to the Spirit and acknowledging His help and presence. He has the ability to life the veil of our minds and hearts when the Bible seems flat and time consuming. Don't understand the countless God-ordained murders? Can't accept creation literally? Please use the OT and the Spirit as a time to wrestle with God.

5. Understand the OT's purpose:

~ prophesy of Jesus

~ display our desperate need for Him ~ reveal God's character

~ evoke our awe of God's power, patience, and promises

~ provide us with understanding of cosmic origin, cosmic purpose, and patterns of human nature

There's little "life application" in the OT compared to the NT. But we can still learn how to trust, worship, and view our God and the world through it which is essential before we get into the details of life...and ya I guess we can actually call that life application.

Thanks for being awesome Old Testament.

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