HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT by Dan Warne for Core Christianity
Have you ever had a package delivered to your door, opened it up, and thought, “Wait, I didn’t order this. I have no idea what this is!” Sometimes it can seem like that when we read parts of the Bible. We struggle to see how it has anything to do with us. Sometimes it seems like parts of Scripture made it in that surely got the wrong address.
This sense of disorientation is especially acute when we read the Old Testament. There are three stories to remember that help us make sense of the Old Testament and understand how it has everything to do with us.
Remember the Then-and-There Story
Now is your chance to support Gospel News Network.
We love helping others and believe that’s one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve God’s children. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force.
The Bible didn’t just drop into our laps one day. It was written over thousands of years to real people in real life circumstances. As you read the Old Testament, you should first look at the then-and-there story of the people who first received the portion of Scripture you’re reading.
For example, when reading Israel’s story of suffering in the book of Exodus, understand that this isn’t just the story of the nation of Israel under oppression in Egypt. It was written for Israel as a record of God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promises to them.
It’s tempting to jump straight to personal application from principles gleaned reading their story. But this is not just a story about how God hears your cries when you are suffering—as true as that is! It’s first the story of Israel’s faithful God who made promises he intended to keep. The Exodus from Egypt is the story of God fulfilling his promise to the patriarch Jacob: “I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again” (Gen. 46:4).
This means that all of God’s promises will be fulfilled, including the covenant promise he remembered as he heard their groaning pleas for deliverance: “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exod 2:24). This is where the story begins to connect with us. That covenant promised that God’s blessing to his people would extend beyond them. It would bring blessing to the whole world (Gen. 22:18).
Observing God’s faithfulness in the context of his promises leads us beyond simple truths to learn and apply to our lives. It leads us into the redemption story of Scripture.
Remember the Redemption Story
Every twist and turn of the biblical story leads to redemption in Jesus Christ. Even in the things revealed for the sake of the original readers with application to their own story, every part of Scripture contributes to this grand redemption story of grace in Jesus. It’s a story you have to remember in order to make sense of the Old Testament.
