Leviticus Full of Grace: Why I Love the OT

‘I’m glad I don’t have to worry about doing those anymore.’ Let me guess, if you could even get THROUGH the book of Leviticus that last sentence sums up most of what you learned from reading it. I mean, exempting a few bits here and there of narrative where some died, the book is an eye-lid closing 27 chapters of seemingly worthless, old, Eastern regulations for worship. You may second guess if you still WANT to know the God who would ‘inspire’ such writing!
Well, as seems the normal case, after reading the book over and over, consulting smarter people who can give historical, cultural, and Biblical context, and praying—often in confused frustration—I have come to appreciate and even . . . yes . . . genuinely ENJOY this ridiculous book.

We must first understand that Leviticus is part of a story: it is squished between Exodus—which ends with the glory of God descending on the tent of meeting, showing God’s presence with the people—and is succeeded by Numbers—which has more regulations and laws, some narrative of astounding things and people wildly and frequently complaining… and a huge census. So Leviticus is not a Maverick book sitting alone at the bar of the Bible smoking a cigarette with a half-empty pint in front of it; it is no rogue, but a thread in the fabric of, not only the first 5 books of the Bible (called the Pentateuch), nor the whole Bible, but a glimpse into the character of God Himself.

So we should conclude, then, that God is full of rules and is killer at making us bored? No. Prior to Leviticus God approached people, and not many of them it seems. He CAME to Noah, Abram, Jacob, Joseph, Moses; no mega-churches by this time in the Bible. Culturally at this juncture in history such lack of interaction between the common man and the divine was not abnormal. If you can remember some Egyptian history or maybe the movie Stargate, the ruler of a people either considered himself entirely or in part divine but he was the mouth, the between-man of the normal people and the divine entity. So when God, who created everything, decides to not only dwell among His people, but give direction on how the poor bum who’s always asking for change can worship Him, as well as everyone else in Israel, this would have blown everyone away; this is like Steve jobs saying, ‘But wait, there’s one more thing’ near the end of his keynote speech of new Apple products, when that ridiculously crazy thing comes out; this was beyond tweet worthy info, beyond really our understanding: it was brand new on the Earth and it was historically and culturally and socially and personally new and different and counter. Now the people, the everyman, can GO to God and worship Him.

Along this same thread, Leviticus is rigorous about social equality in worship; as the New Testament (NT) book of James points out, it is easy to say, ‘oh, that guy with lots of money gives more, he must be a better person.’ Leviticus says no; we see that if people are not able to give a bull, they can give a goat, if not that then something less expensive all the way down to some grain. We see this played out as Jesus’ parents in the NT were only able to give 2 birds for an offering—they did not have much money. So not only was worship not exclusive to the rich, but standing with and before God was not for the wealthy, it was for all who joined God. Interestingly enough too God did not order the people to go into debt, asking always for the most lavish of gifts from everyone. He wanted worship not things.

Leviticus also teaches that sin is costly. We find it very hard, but we must understand that for many people—and those who grew up on farms have a leg up here—giving their lamb or bull or any of their animals for sacrifice was almost equivalent to giving up your pet dog or cat. When you went to offer gifts to God, it would be sad and hard; this would be a reminder to the people of Israel that sin not only meant something, it took away life, it caused pain and made you uncomfortable; there is a price to sin, namely death. Making it even more clear—and as my generation would say, ‘real’-- In Leviticus God lays it out that the person who gives will himself participate in the act of worship, which was again, not normal for the time—it was always the priest who would perform the sacrificing. The farmer literally had a hand in worship.

It is easy to read the section where God says, ‘Be holy for I am holy’ as a negative and impossible claim; but again, it was not an impossible hoop to jump through to get to God, rather it is a GRACE that GOD HAS MADE A WAY TO HIMSELF WHERE PREVIOUSLY THERE WAS NO WAY. When He says be holy, we should hear: join in doing what I do, come along WITH me.

Leviticus gives a context for understanding what is going on in the NT. Without Leviticus and other regulations and laws we miss how significant and outlandish many of Jesus’ acts were, from the lady who was hemorrhaging, to Jesus’ interaction with unclean lepers, to, as mentioned already, Jesus’ parents. Without understanding Leviticus, much of the NT is a dark room which we can only get a vague sense of what is present in it.

There is SO much in this book that is admittedly hard to understand and can be boring. But it is the Christian’s book to know: it further substantiates and reveals the character of the Almighty to us. We cannot sell the book short by saying it is outdated and all we can glean is that Christ fulfills this stuff. LEVITICUS IS ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS, THE GOSPEL WHICH HAS BEEN AROUND FOR CENTURIES: God chooses to love and allows Himself to be worshipped by those who will follow Him and love Him with their all. He makes a way where there is no way, He tumbles the wall of previous impossibilities, so that we may know Him.

Much more can be helpfully said but hopefully this will draw you into curiosity for this great book, and will lead you further into understanding the character and heart of the God of the Bible.

I was greatly helped by John Milgrom’s commentary and Gordon Wenham’s commentary and Mark Dever’s manuscript found in this book, as well as by audio from Jay Sklar; but AS ALWAYS, nothing can trump constantly reading the book of focus and praying for understanding.

With every post I hope that if you have questions, concerns, complaints, caveats, or anything else that starts with a ‘c’ you can feel welcome to pose them.

Is There a Patented Technique to Study the OT?

Here's a blurb on studying the Old Testament and the sad state some seem to follow:


'I sometimes weary of all the “technique” we put into interpretation, as if working with OT narrative, for example, is some sort of high-priestly craft which only those who know the best buzz-words can carry off. Rather, I think simply a desire to get at the message of the text and an assumption that all OT texts are “preaching” texts will carry one a long way.'

-Dale Ralph Davis

To read the rest go here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/

What's Wrong with Ewe: Malachi and Us

I’ve been greatly helped in my study of Malachi by Mark Dever’s book The Message of The Old Testament and The Malachi Commentary in the New American Commentary series, the author of this particular book is E. Ray Clendenen; I was, however, most helped by reading Malachi over and over and over and over.

Malachi is a different book, it is categorized as a minor prophet but it is truly unlike any of the other’s in its category. Malachi is written almost like a dialogue: God asks questions and then the response of Israel is given; God says more stuff then Israel, etcetera. And Malachi is not full of kinda understandable words much like the other minor prophets, but it is clear—with the understanding of the historical context of what’s going on at the time—and it has some historical writing in it as well as prophesy. But let’s first look at the background.

Hundreds of year prior to the proclamation of Malachi the God of the Bible chose Abram out of all the people of the world and blessed him and his offspring, God stating that He would love Abram and his descendant’s. The LORD God did this because He wanted to. The Almighty brought Abram’s descendants out of slavery by astonishing and shocking—sometimes horrifying—acts which could be explained only by God’s intervention: God killed masses at times, brought plagues, changed the very reasoning of some, healed, changed the natural order of how the world goes mostly; why did God do these things? He loved Israel (Abram’s offspring). For very short and infrequent periods of time Israel was thankful and grateful for God’s love…but it was often and blatant that the people of Israel rejected God’s love.

God is no sovereign softie however, He warned Israel and when they continued in their mockery of Him God disciplined Him, the biggest way being that foreign nations literally enslaved and took Israel—and Judah, which for our sake here can be lumped into Israel—out of their native land (Canaan we’ll call it) and into the captors land to live. (God not only warned that the captivity would happen but also, in a comforting way, told them that there would be a certain number of years that they would be enslaved in the foreign land then God would return Israel to Canaan).

So Israel was enslaved for years until, by some cool happenings, some were allowed to go back to Canaan and rebuild Israel’s city walls as well as the Temple God had instructed them to build, which is where all those sacrifices of animals were made to God.

This is the background to Malachi, God, more times than is countable, forgave and loved Israel despite Israel’s rebellion and overall hatred and mockery of God. For literally hundreds of years this has been going on but God was faithful to do what He said He would.

So then, the city of Israel is being rebuilt, the Temple is, for all practical purposes, completed, everything in Israel seems to be going well! More people are returning from exile, the once eerily emptied streets are being filled with children running around, women carrying products to market, men talking of their days’ venture.
But then Malachi comes onto the scene, a no name guy—he actually is never before or after mentioned again. And he starts saying that Israel is, though looking good outwardly, filled with big problems. So lets see what is being addressed.



The beginning of Malachi is laid out with a comparison: Israel vs. Edom, Edom being Esau’s—brother of Jacob, kids of Isaac--descendant. Israel is complaining that Edom’s land and people are being blessed more than they are. If you can get a 3-year-old with a wrinkled, wet face in your mind, use that picture for Israel at this moment. Israel is sincerely saying, ‘God does not love us, if He did we would be like Edom.’ So obviously, in the first couple of lines, we see that this rebellious and not-understanding-God attitude has prevailed through the exile. God, in response to this particular complaint says if Israel would but entrust themselves to God He would bless Israel’s land--because according to chapter 3 verse 11 there was a ‘devourer’ in the land of Israel, which probably was some kind of creature like a locust eating all the food Israel was trying to grow, God said He would stop it though! The Creator not only is willing to bless Israel’s land now but reminds Israel of His might—He can easily make Edom an inhabitable and deplorable place (found in verse 4)—but of His purpose—displaying His glory and goodness beyond the borders of Israel (found in verse 5); the latter God did because I, the writer of this here post, am not a Jew though I do follow God; I am not from the land of Israel near the Mediterranean but am half the world away geographically.

The next issue God takes up is the way Israel’s sacrificial system is going down: the people of Israel were offering blemished or lame lambs for their sacrifice AND the priests were accepting them as good sacrifices. This may seem odd and maybe trivial to us but to God it said a lot. As is outlined in the Old Testament books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus there was a certain type of lamb that was to be offered in worship to God: the first born without blemish. You have to understand that sometimes this was hard to give up! It could be the prime and best of a herd AND it was never known how many other lambs would be born to the herd. However this is what God asked of the people to sacrifice. But, and this was a clear caveat, if the first born had blemishes of any kind, being blind, or lame or not good in anyway that person was to take the second-born, or the next that had no blemish.

Who is responsible for this particular offense of unacceptable sacrifices being accepted? Both the people of Israel and the priests. The people are responsible because they are the ones saying they will obey, ‘Sure I’ll give the first-born unblemished sacrifice,’ but come sacrifice time they bring in a lousy creature to be offered to God (verse 14). So the people were deceiving one another and God. God calls out their foolishness by saying if they tried to offer such a creature to one of their governor’s the political or geographical leader would not even accept such a pathetic gift, why would the God of the universe (verse 8)?

But a greater responsibility and rebuke was laid on the priests, the leaders of the whole nation. They were the ones who were supposed to be teaching Israel what was good and acceptable but instead they were guiding the people into sin and not correcting Israel but were blessing their sin and saying it was good (chapter 2.9). God lamented in chapter 1 that there was not even ONE priest who cared for God’s honor enough to close the Temple doors so that the very alter of God, where God’s presence was, would remain unpolluted (verse 10). The very ones given the responsibility to teach the nation what was good and who God was were doing the very opposite.

Maybe the intent of Israel was not bad though, you know, you can be sincere in intent but it just is done in a poor way. In our culture today this is huge, ‘Oh but he meant well; God does not care how He is worshipped as long as it is from the heart.’ I can see where we get this, David himself in a Psalm says that God was not concerned with the sacrifices David made, no matter how many they were, God cared for the heart only. But here in Malachi God cared greatly that Israel and the priests sacrificed the way God had clearly instructed. Obviously you can be sincere but wrong about something. Mark Dever says, ‘Sincerity is necessary, but it is not sufficient.’ That is because there is more to the sacrifices. The sacrifices, as we know from the New Testament book of Hebrews, were in no way able to save Israel from their sins--it is an animal for goodness sake!—but it was to point directly to Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ who was to come who was going to be PERFECT and WITHOUT BLEMISH AND DEFECT. If the Christ was imperfect as a sacrifice His atonement, His blood WOULD, indeed, be worthless to all humanity, unable to save anyone from their plight. So you can see why this was a big deal, the unblemished first-born, it was to remind Israel of the coming Messiah and to the nations of the world looking in that God is who He said He was. God says that Israel, in offering lame animals, has despised Him. Those are some strong words. ‘Okay God, aren’t you being a little too picky here? I mean, it is hard sometimes and it is not like Israel was offering nothing.’ These words are the sentiment of chapter 1 verse 13. But God seemed to care a lot about this issue and the consequences were great too: cursed land, the priests lineage would, metaphorically, have poop smudged on their faces (chapter 2 verse 3)—huge insult at the time by the way, especially whenever you speak of future generations.

The next big theme is in chapter 2: infidelity. Verse 14 tells why another reason God seems not to care for the sacrifices of Israel, against what He asked of them Israel is marrying foreign women and divorcing their wives. God says that Israel’s infidelity is an affront to God Himself and it is destructive for the culture and society of Israel. This is interesting since we usually see divorce or unfaithfulness as something between 2 or 3 people, not something having to deal with God and an entire culture of people. Also, there is disdain here IN the divorce; the Israelites were divorcing because they hated the wife of their youth—their Israel woman they married first (16). It is not necessarily the divorce itself—God had some guidelines about when it was acceptable to divorce—but the motive for divorce: someone else was more appealing and ‘the old’ was boring and became someone who was disdained.

Also, Israel was being unfaithful to God. This seems to be all-encompassing because there are so many ways Israel is following other god’s other than YHWH, who is the God of the Bible. But the link with the previous subject is that the way Israel acted socially manifested their worship of God, which, at this time, was poor: divorce was a God issue not just something of preference, at least that is how God sees it here.

The final major concern that is pointed out is that Israel sees injustice going on in the world and concludes that God, unlike what He said, is not just and cares not for executing and bringing about justice (2.17). Beginning in chapter 3 an interesting thing is done, God helps Israel see that many times the justice that will be brought about is the ULTIMATE or ETERNAL justice. We too can look at the world around us today and see clearly that there are acts of injustice going on everyday in every area of life in every country in the whole world. But in verse 4 and 5 God points out that for those who have followed and entrusted themselves to His love in the Final Judgment of all the inhabitants that have ever been found on the face of the Earth, God’s followers will be refined and made pure but those who have not will be destroyed finally and eternally. God’s justice is ultimate and will not ultimately suffer injustice. This means that one who lives a life doing injustice may die and the world living during that individual’s lifetime will never see justice happen to that person. But there will be a time in the future when that person will be given life for a short time only to recount what he did in life and then rightly sentenced to eternal justice; so justice, when all is said and done, will be rightly served to all. This is not only astounding but astonishing and is meant to help Israel see that God IS in control and that He IS a God of justice, Israel—and we—at times, might have to wait a while to see it.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY GOD KEEPS CRYING OUT TO ISRAEL, God speaks to Israel because they do not know they are rebelling; He lets them see their rebellion but says, I know your sin but turn to me and I will bless you (3.7). This should shock us! For hundreds of years Israel has in compliance or ignorance turned its back on God YET HE CONTINUES TO LOVE THEM AND PROSPER THEM. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament says that love is patient and has forbearance, well do we see God displaying and being love in that exact way here.

In chapter 3 verse 16 we see a few in Israel who respond to God and God takes note. Chapter 4 goes on to speak of future things which, thankfully, we can see fulfilled directly in the New Testament Gospels, though some of which we will not see until that Final Judgment.

Israel, like me, in retaliation to God’s love, whined and sinned instead of loving God. But God’s relentless love will win, it has in me and can in you too.

To close, Malachi is not about following a bunch of rules to the ‘T,’ but it is about true worship of God. The worship of God is not about what goes on inside the church building walls but everything it is, as Dever points out was true in John the Baptist and others, ‘living as if we believe [God], by running with joyous abandon toward him, and by trusting that he will love us as his own through Christ Jesus.’


Please note that this is in no way exhaustive. I’ve purposely left out some big stuff but, in ignorance, left out more stuff. I hope you will, if anything else, be intrigued enough to read Malachi on your own. If you have questions, concerns, qualms or caveats please let me know, I’d enjoy a dialogue.

Prostitutes, Gangs, and Investing: Wisdom: some have it and some do not

For further inquiries ask me or be helped by the commentary on Proverbs by Duane A Garrett in the commentary series The New American Commentary. My words are an over-view of how to look at and study the book of Proverbs

‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge’ goes the proverb in the beginning of the book by the same name. Seems simple enough. Then why are most other verses in this book quip sayings or caveats about day-to-day living? Exactly.

What does it mean to ‘fear the LORD’? Should we cower in a corner as God emulates a drunken Father who walks about not knowing if He may or may not beat us to death? Is it that kind of crippling, disabling fear that is spoken of here? Should we be constantly looking over our shoulder wondering when the Almighty Creator of all things will, on a lark, decide to come down and be mean? Fortunately this does NOT entail what it means to ‘fear the LORD.’

To fear God is to take into account all that He is and is capable of and what He wills and with all that in mind soberly live in a way that honors Him. Fear can be healthy and good. When you are swimming in the ocean it is good to fear the power of the waves and the depths and darkness of its area, and even sometimes the creatures that live inside it; but you are still enjoying the swim. You have knowledge of the ocean, you know there are creatures that can eat you, you know there can be undertows that drag you out to places where you’d rather not be but you still swim in it. You still can enjoy it; you fear it but you respect it and are wise when you enter it. This is all that fearing God is; it is not living on eggshells but it is living with a knowledge of God and His good boundaries which He has given to us.

Then why are there so many sayings? You’ll notice in proverbs that many times there seems to be confusing as well as contradicting words: ‘answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes’ in Proverbs 26 immediately follows the verse that says, ‘answer NOT a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.’ Soooooo, what to do: verse 4 or 5? You decide! That’s right; walking according to the fear of the Lord means having discernment and wisdom--of people, the situation, the words spoken, etc.. God gives people the freedom and responsibility to use their brains to decide what is best in any particular instance.

If you just jump to all the ‘practical’ sayings in proverbs as many businessmen have done over the centuries without taking into account the first seven verses of the book you miss entirely the benefit and point of the book. Proverbs is not about having the best portfolio at the end of your life nor is it about having a Fu-Manchu, being bald, wearing a robe, and spouting off one-liners as you sit on a mat with your legs crossed; Proverbs is about God and about living a life that honors him, EVEN in the seemingly insignificant day-to-day decisions and parts of life. It offers wisdom on how to quell a hot-tempered person; how to think for the future; what it means to carry a good name; how to honor the poor; how to act in a king’s presence; how a king or ruler should act; how to look for a spouse; how to raise children; the responsibility of families to educate their children—not the State; it gives us active wisdom.

Proverbs are wise even in their makeup as they are short and fairly easy to remember—this being so you WILL remember and follow them. Some give advice; some make us reflect; some are more intense than others and some are specific and others grander. The Proverbs seem all muddled together, but this is how life is—different things come up at random times. A thousand things can be coming at once but a Proverbs-trained mind will be ready for such life-chaos. Unlike other parts of Scripture many of the sayings can be taken out if its context, because there rarely is context. When studying, though, you will notice some proverbs are intentionally grouped together so be mindful and be smart.

As a rule Proverbs are wise generalizations. There are exceptions to everything but on the whole, Proverbs says, this is how life goes. Proverbs are not ambiguous like other passages in the Bible often are—this is why they are attractive to many; instead, these are straight-forward easily applicable words. Don’t think, yea I get it that I should not be one to take bribes but what does it REALLY mean; it REALLY means what it actually says, so take the wisdom as it plainly is; the Bible is not a huge puzzle: God putting you through a strainer for no reason.

As far as authors go, for our purposes it does not really matter. Some are entitled in the Proverbs themselves. They are collected and compiled works. Many other cultured had similar saying—for example the Egyptians—so the style is not unique.

When studying Proverbs it is helpful to know some of the intended sections of the book:
Chapter 1 verse 8 – 9.18 is targeted mainly to young men. You see in the beginning, ‘Listen, my son . . . ‘ and the father goes on listing out things and teaching for the next few chapters. It is interesting to note the things that are talked about. Essentially the young man is taught to steer clear of gangs—companions who are out for self-fish gain, quick to shed blood and violence, those who are always devising evil; and also to stay away from women who lack moral integrity—prostitutes, sluts, and adulterous women. For a young man learning what it means to be a wise, godly man these issues hit the heart. As I have been able to work with some kids I know these tendencies, especially in the urban setting, are real and the instruction Proverbs yields is incredibly insightful. Also in this section the father figure tells how both wisdom and folly are present if sought; both are calling out from the street corners saying and promising the very same things. So WISDOM is needed to discern that right way.

After 9.18 Proverbs goes to what we are most familiar with as little sections providing wisdom in seemingly every area of life. The exception to note is a grouping from 22.17 – 24.22 and this section is simply called The Thirty Sayings and that is exactly what it is.

Perhaps the most famous section is the Sayings of Lemuel (31.1 – 31.31). The first of its two sections tells how a king should rule and what he should be doing. The second section (10 – 31) is the picture of the mid-aged exceptional wife: one that all women should aspire and men should imitate.

There is so much good from this book of sayings that it can easily be disregarded as ‘not the gospel’ and ‘not spiritual enough.’ But those who would ignore the book of Proverbs ignore the blessings of the Lord and know not what it means to be in awe and reverence. We cannot ignore that life is full of complexities and baffling situations. The lazy and ignorant and foolish will have a price to pay if wisdom is not sought. God is graciously helping us be who He designed us to be. He speaks to us, telling us how we can best honor Him even in the smallest of life’s places. He loves His children and THAT is why He teaches us.

‘Where is Jesus?’ some might ask. I would answer that he is coming—some books to the right—but here we are to be guided by the Word of God—which Jesus is—and by guided by Gods great gift to His followers, the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 19.2: ‘Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.’ Don’t be found lacking. God says in the book of James if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask God for it. Be the wise son or daughter and listen to the instruction of Proverbs.

I leave you with a quote from the afore mentioned commentator: ‘Wisdom is not some hidden treasure that has to be dug from the depths of the earth . . . wisdom is not abstract, secular, or academic but personal and theological. To reject wisdom is to reject God. The wise are at ease because they have genuine security; the foolish are at ease out of carelessness.’

Patience, You Must Have: Jesus in the OT

There are multiple trucks literally filled with people who are laughably more qualified than myself to speak on the subject of Jesus in the OT . . . but I think that was understood long ago. Some I have been most helped by: The Ancient Love Song, The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament, The Meaning of the Pentateuch.

Are we supposed to play hide and go seek with Jesus as we read the OT? Is He everywhere and we just have to find Him? After all it is HE who said the Law and prophets spoke of Himself. In thinking about this we will look at some other general OT issues in passing.

Is our sequence of OT books the best? Most have never thought about the question and with good reason, its order has been the way it currently is for quite some time. What if there was a way to read the OT that might benefit us a little more, might give just a smidge more clarity or aide to our understanding. Currently we break the OT into the Law, History, Poetry, Major then Minor Prophets and, for the most part, they are lumped together categorically. This is very minor but in one way the OT is organized (Tanakh) Chronicles does not come right after Samuel and Kings--as we noted last time it was written well after the two; the love story of Ruth, making a more logical and manifested form, follows the intimate love of Song of Songs; Ecclesiastes, the existential, candid look at the sadness and core of life precedes the book of Lamentations which woefully recalls terrifying historical events with little hope, save for chapter 3—what’s the purpose of life; and this way ends with Ezra, Nehemiah, and then Chronicles, the point at which Israel is gathered back together and growing again. The final books build anticipation, desire, longing for a good king who will finally right the Nation. What does this have to do with our topic: the OT, by presenting human failure and incompleteness time after time over hundreds of years builds a groaning for the Messiah, for Christ Jesus to tear on the scene and make all things right. *

A big question when looking at the OT and Jesus must boil down to, what were the intentions of the people writing the OT at the time they were writing it? Thousands of years ago the stories of God’s interaction with people were told orally, by mouth. These were written down at some point. This means that these things are very old and the audience, then, was just as old. When we tell a story to a child we should emphasize certain things because stories convey, stories teach. Just the same with stories way back in days prior to almost everything we would recognize as culture: they told stories to relay history and ideas in a certain way, with intention.
For one, they were not a scientific based society; what I mean by this is that precision was not such a big deal as it is nowadays. So when you read Numbers or stories about how one army came out to fight another and it was like 10,000 million on one side and 1,000,000 on another we should not go, ah, someone was there counting, rather we should think, man, one army had a huge personnel advantage over the other army. It is simply saying there was a definite underdog. So we cannot get hung up on the numbers, take yourself out of the Western Scientific precision mode and throw a bone; different cultures speak in differing ways, they convey ideas differently from how we do and that is okay. It is not dishonesty, just different. (though some numbers obviously have symbolic meaning, we’re not talking about those here)
Secondly, as was mentioned last time, they and we write with certain bents and emphases (remember how Samuel and Chronicles differed?). Galileo is quoted as saying, “The Bible shows the way to get to Heaven, not the way the heavens go.” What he is saying is precisely my point: we should not look at Genesis, the first book in the OT, as some kind of proof or in depth description of what all took place at creation, instead we should draw that God spoke it all into existence and made it good. So we have to be careful in how we read the Bible because it is easy to interject our ideas based on our conclusions and understandings literally thousands of years after things were written. It is arrogant to conclude so and so must have been saying this BECAUSE we now know x and y. We must be careful because we know the OT was inspired by God but it does not mean it has to be neat and nice and always conform nicely to our present way of understanding.
Third, for the most part, the audience of the OT writers were people living at the time it was spoken. Peter Enns makes an intriguing point that in Deuteronomy 5.7 it reads “You shall have no other god’s before me.” He compares this to later writings such as Isaiah 45.5 that says, “I am the LORD, and there are no other, besides me there is no God . . .” Did you catch that? In the first part God seems to be acknowledging there are other gods and in Isaiah He does not. Dr. Enns suggests that in a way of speaking to the people so they understand he changes over time, not the reality of what He is saying to Israel but in the way they’ll best understand. He argues that at the time of Deuteronomy the wandering Israelites were very much poly-theistic—they believed in many gods—so god spoke to them in that way: “there are others but I’m supreme.” But over time, through circumstance God showed them that there were no other gods besides Him and thus He spoke more candidly to Israel in Isaiah about His supremacy: “categorically I am alone, none even comes close!” We see then that we cannot wear, entirely, our same thinking caps when reading the OT, it is very different.
Fourth, the Bible is incarnational, just like Jesus. I often forget that God did not have to do all this. He could have made the world and observed like the Greek gods, interjecting into events on a whim. God did not have to speak to us. Get a good image of a snooty person in your mind, this individual is high-browed, wears only the finest of cloths, is a billionaire who speaks to no one but his butler. Sadly the limo had a flat tire and for some reason this person decided to get out of the car, a smelly, dingy, and maybe dying hobo comes up asking for money. Nothing. Our nose-upper does not even acknowledge our hobo’s existence. In a sense, God could do that and it would be okay. But thankfully He decided to interject and speak to His people and not in some heavenly language but our own, our own full of bad grammar like this blog bountifully contains, language that could and would be twisted, language that is ordinary, not pompous but understandable; God spoke so that we could begin to understand who He is and who we are. This is amazing! So in this way we can compare the OT to Jesus and find the similarities: God interjected into the mess to bring mercy and grace.

Okay, so what about Jesus? Jesus is not playing hide-and-go-seek in the OT. And we should not stretch ideas and similarities and think we have found Him. He is spoken of prophetically—in the Psalms and Isaiah most abundantly but in many other books—or, as many believe, in the form of the Angel of the Lord—Jacob wrestled with him, he stood with the 3 in the furnace, he stood in the way of Balaam’s donkey, etc. So in this way we should not look to find Jesus because He is not there, He will not be until hundreds of years later.
But did Jesus not say that the Law and Prophets spoke of Him? I can tell a story about the attribute of courage without mentioning the word courage; we do not need to see Jesus to long for him. We can think simply but never simplistically about the things Jesus says. What some think of when they say that Jesus is in the OT is that there are people and events push us towards the expected Jesus, the Messiah to come. As Jesus Himself does at numerous points, he takes something from the past and compares it to Himself: Like Jonah descending for three days then being raised up so I will be buried and rise. Also, Jesus is called the second Adam, this compares Jesus to Adam in Genesis and it conveys that humanity, in Jesus Christ, has a second chance for fellowship with God. But even with the comparisons or types—those who have some attribute or action which Jesus will perfect in His existence—we can get too wrapped up in the Jesus part and fast-forward too quickly so that we lose what the point of the passage in the OT is getting at. The OT is doing a lot of things but a big thing it is doing is making us itch more and more for Jesus, it is creating the desire for the perfect One. Charles Drew, author of the helpful book The Ancient Love Song: Finding Jesus in the Old Testament, says, “Jesus Christ has to have context if he is to mean anything . . . Our God has [convinced us that we need His love] for us in the Old Testament. To be ignorant of those Scriptures is to be like the complacent husband, bored with his wife because he has never realized what life would be like without her.”

We want to get what is to be gotten from the OT but nothing more. If we can learn to approach the OT in a humble way in which we want to be informed by God’s word, patiently seeing what it is trying to do we will gain much. Is it hard? Yes. Is it boring at times? Yes. But it is also a gracious gift granted to us and there is a wonderful, joy-filled purpose in it. We see more and more WHAT Jesus’ reign would mean and imply on a sick and decadently destructive people as all humans are. In many parts of the OT it is Jesus’ absence that is to be felt, not His presence.

The Apostle Paul wanting to encourage his fellow believers in the city of Rome told them the following of the OT: “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Bible, the Christian life is an ongoing wrestling match, it is a struggle; but as the Christian struggles he hopes.





* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Bible

Why I Love The Bible's Old Testament

Do you ever contemplate why the Old Testament exists? Do you find it not only boring at times, but also confusing? Where is the resolve; is what these people do right or wrong, are they models to follow or to steer clear of? Why are all the numbers rounded, can’t they count? Is this God the same one that seems so patient and kind in the New Testament? Do contradictions mean the Old Testament is not trust-worthy? Why is called so many different names? Can’t we just skip to Jesus and the Apostles? Is Ezekiel or Song of Solomon saying what I think it might be? Does God really call the murderer and adulterer and bad-parent and guy who ended is life as a cold, weak man one after His own heart?

I hope to start a small series of blogs on how to study and look at the Old Testament and hopefully it addresses the why as well. But here I want to give a few sweeping, general, and broad reasons why I love and am thankful for the Old Testament.

It is different. The Old Testament is crazy. The Old Testament is wonderful. The Old Testament is exciting. The Old Testament is not the scientific-based Western thought. The Old Testament (OT) is a gathering of books like no other. It’s aim and way of getting at its target is like no other book. It has reasons for all it does but does not always disclose them (‘the secret things belong to the LORD’ and ‘wisdom conceals knowledge’).

It’s genres. There is history: of the Earth’s formation, destruction, and renewal. Of man, his purpose, failures and struggles. Of nations—Israel, Egypt, Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, and a lot of smaller Canaanite peoples. It can look at the life of one man or one nation. It is introspective and, at times, painfully ambiguous. There is poetry: The first being in Genesis from Adam’s lips, to the entire love-struck book of Song of Solomon, to the singing in the Psalms of people being murdered and lands being destroyed, and in myriads of other places. Much of what is written is done in the form of story, oral tradition written down. There are legal documents: of how to treat one another, how to tend flocks, take care of the land, how to treat outsiders, how to perform justice, how to clean, how to celebrate, how to worship, etc.

The way the OT is written is a way of theology—this word simply means the study of God, who, what, how He is. If it is kept in mind that the entire reason the book was written is to inform us about God, and to know God and to discover the human and his nature, then we can understand the Bible as a whole much better.

It’s way of making us think. There are ambiguities, there are unresolved matters, there are deep insights all to make us ponder God and ponder how the world works.

It’s breadth and depth. There are prophesies and prostitutes. There is Ruth the Moabite and Ruben the son of Israel. There are grotesque acts of rape, genocide, envy, pride, and injustice. There are spectacular manifestations of the power of sin and God.

It’s ability to create in us a substantial longing for a good ruler and a right world. In reading the OT we are to grow in our desire for something better, Someone better. We see hope that is often frail and then quickly broken only to be built back and crushed again. The OT is meant to bring us to the point almost of despair crying, ‘who will make things genuinely right?!’

It’s way of displaying God’s desire to have us love Him—He gave us language and His revelation. God decided to speak to us, the creatures who He knew would desert Him, forget Him, try to bring shame and dishonor on Him, continually disobey and rebel against Him. He knew all this yet He still decided to speak graciously to us.

These are only tips of the iceberg of why I love and am thankful for the OT but I hope it serves as a perking of your curiosity to join me in looking at some ways of how to rightly study the OT.