Last week I received a request that I’ve had many times before. It went like this: “Tell me why I should read the Old Testament.”
This wasn’t a challenging request; it was an honest question about the value of the Old Testament. Therefore, I want to use this opportunity to tell you the five things that quickly came to my mind about why we should read, study, and take seriously the Old Testament.
First, the Old Testament is God’s revelation to human beings. It shows us how God spoke to His people before the time of Jesus just as the New Testament tells us about God‘s revelation through Jesus.
Second, the Old Testament shows us why we need a savior. Man’s sin and rebellion shows that we need the presence and power of God in our lives.
Third, the Old Testament gives us important doctrines that are not found in the New Testament. Obviously, the most important of these is the doctrine of creation. In a sense, everything we believe depends on the fact that God is the creator.
Fourth, Jesus quoted and loved the Old Testament. It was His Bible. Jesus often used the Old Testament to pull out important teachings. For example, anytime Jesus was asked about the meaning and the importance of marriage He cited Genesis 2:24. For Jesus, that passage is foundational to life itself.
Fifth, the Old Testament gives us the background we need to understand the New Testament. For example, how would we understand Hebrews without Leviticus?
This is not an exhaustive list, but it gives us reasons to read and look seriously at the teachings of the entirety of God’s Word.
I hope that one of your “next steps” will be to learn more and more about God’s revelation to human beings.