Why Should We Study the Old Testament?

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Savus Services. Good to see everyone here today. Welcome to our visitors. Also, say hello to everyone out there on Zoom, and certainly to our pastor who's there at home, hoping that he'll be feeling strong and back with us again next week.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable week. I think some of you had seen the announcement—hopefully all of you did—that came out a week or so ago about the new Bible reading program that the church is doing starting through in the book of Deuteronomy, and that was actually what spurred my thoughts for this message—the first message today to talk a little bit about—and that is the Old Testament.

Start with a question. Why is it that we should study and or read the Old Testament?

Might seem like a bit of an odd question to ask in some respects, seeing how it's a significant part of the Bible—probably about two-thirds of the Bible by volume, if not more.

But it wouldn't take too long, searching out on the internet, to look for articles and things, and get a whole bunch of different views on whether or not it's actually useful and profitable for a Christian to study the Old Testament. So I'd like to spend a few minutes on that in the message today and think about what it is that we can gain, what it is that we can learn, and how we can read the Old Testament. And I'll just offer a quick proviso before I start into the discussion. I'm not spending any time today on the Ten Commandments because I think we all understand the Ten Commandments are both a part of the Old Testament and an eternal expression of God's will for mankind. So I don't want to leave any questions out there about why I'm not talking about the Ten Commandments. I think I take it as stipulated that all of us believe in the Ten Commandments and understand that. So I will focus on different areas here in the message today. So the first area that I'd like to spend a few minutes thinking about together with you is how the Old Testament lays a foundation for the New Testament. It's how the Old Testament lays a foundation for the New Testament. Now, if you've been here very much at all, if you remember any of the different messages that a variety of the speakers here give, you'll see how we often look back and reflect on how the teachings, the events, the customs, and the culture that we see in the New Testament has its roots in things that were in the Old Testament because the children of Israel, the Jewish people, as they survived as an identity by the time the New Testament started, kept a lot of traditions that were rooted in the Old Testament. Clearly, there were additional things that came on as the Jews were captive in Babylon and added some additional traditions of their own, but the the Old Testament formed a major backdrop for that. How many quotes do you think there are?

In the New Testament to the Old Testament. You don't have to raise your hand, but how many think it's 250 or less? How about 500 or less? How about a thousand or less? Okay, so I'll give you the old dependable answer. It depends. So if you go with direct quotes, most sources that you'll see will tell you that direct quotes, where verbatim, there's a quote from the Old Testament, something like 200 to 300 that appear in the Old Testament. If you add on to that allusions to events and people and things that happen in the Old Testament, the total would be up to around 900 to a thousand. So roughly a thousand, give or take, references of some sort to Old Testament events in the New Testament and two to three hundred direct quotes. And those who were reading this week can sheet which book of the Bible do you think accounts for the majority of the direct quotes for an Old Testament book in the New Testament? The answer, of course, is Deuteronomy. And that would have been in the commentary that was linked if any of you went to that during the reading this week. So let's look at one example just to give some reality to this in terms of how the Old Testament sets a foundation as referred to in the New Testament. Let's turn to Matthew 4. We'll read verses 1 through 4 of Matthew 4. This is the well-known account of Jesus Christ when he was tempted in the wilderness by the devil. And in verse 1 of Matthew 4, we read that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness and he was there to be tempted by the devil. And when he was head-fasted 40 days and 40 nights afterward, he was hungry. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If you're the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. But Jesus answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. True words, things that Jesus Christ spoke, but does anyone know where that came from?

Not something that he sort of conjured up out of thin air, not even necessarily that the Holy Spirit uniquely inspired him to say, but rather words from the Old Testament. In fact, from the book of Deuteronomy that came to his mind as he was speaking with Satan and counteracting those temptations. And in fact, if you read through this whole account, verses 1 through 10 of Matthew 4, you'll find that there are three quotes from Deuteronomy that Jesus Christ repeats back or quotes back to the devil as Satan puts these different propositions before him. Three times, and you could look up the others if you'd like, but three times he quotes various passages within Deuteronomy. If you'll turn with me to Deuteronomy 8, you'll see this specific passage that Jesus Christ was referring to. Of course, we know that Deuteronomy is a book where Moses was reflecting back before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, and he was thinking about and speaking with them about to call back to their memory the things that had happened. And if we recall, those, the generation that had come out of Egypt, had to die off in the wilderness wanderings. And so, in some ways, he was rehearsing for people who hadn't experienced all these things themselves as adults and making sure that they knew and understood what happened. In Deuteronomy 8, starting in verse 1, we read, Every commandment that I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and possess the land. And remember that the Lord your God led you this way forty years in the wilderness to humble you, to test you and know what was in your heart and whether you would keep his commandments. So, giving that reminder to really the children and even grandchildren of those who actually came out of Egypt. And verse 3, So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. That he might make you know, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And so, when Jesus Christ was speaking with the devil, when he said those words, he was doing more than simply making a statement. He was referring back to a whole set of events that happened to the children of Israel that ended up being encompassed in this one reference to manna and that it signified something bigger than simply eating physical food.

Signifying the fact that God gives us the sustenance that we need and that's what we're supposed to rely on in every part of our lives. For the children of Israel, it was for their physical nourishment. For us as Christians, it's much more than that. This theme continues on and there are a whole lot more we'll focus for today just on this one theme. And we won't read it, but John 6 is a very famous chapter. It's sort of a turning point, really, in the ministry of Jesus Christ, where he tells the people a lot of hard things, a lot of things that they weren't ready to accept.

And we even read at the end of chapter 6 that many people stopped following Jesus Christ after the discourses of this chapter because they just couldn't deal with and grasp the things that he was saying. There are seven statements, and you've heard this referred to before by a pastor, seven I am statements that are made in John 6, where Jesus Christ says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world.

I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the true vine. What was it that Jesus was referring to back in the Old Testament when he made those statements? Can you remember when Moses came to the burning bush? And what was it that came to him as God appeared to him out of the burning bush?

He revealed himself to Moses as I am that I am. And so what Jesus Christ was saying in this passage in making these statements, and the people recognize it, which was why many thought he was a blasphemer, he was taking on to himself the very godhood of the God that was in the Old Testament. Interestingly, the first I am, I am the bread of life, was a direct reference back to what we read earlier, the feeding of the children of Israel with manna. Turn with me, if you will, to John 6 verses 30 through 33, and we'll see exactly, again, how Jesus Christ used this event and the way that the children of Israel were miraculously fed to make his point.

John 6 verse 30, therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? So after all the things that he'd done, and again that fulfilled what? Prophecies of the Old Testament, the people were saying, oh, do something else. Give me a magic trick or something.

Show me something that you really are Jesus Christ, because they weren't willing to believe the fulfillment of the prophecies that they knew from the Old Testament. And then in verse 31, they say, our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And so they're basically saying, look, if you're God, go do a miracle.

God did a miracle for our forefathers. He gave him manna. So why don't you do a miracle and prove to us that you really are the Son of God like you claim to be? And Jesus in verse 32 says, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So again, using a powerful example, and there's so much more in terms of the meaning of what manna and God's care for the children of Israel as they wandered through the desert meant to those people. He was bringing that all together with this one reference. So things that we see in the Old Testament really do set a foundation for many of the teachings in the New Testament for us to really understand what it is that's taking place. Let's just read one more scripture that says this really more specifically in words, and that's Ephesians 2, verse 19 through 22.

Ephesians 2 starting in verse 19. Here Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, Now therefore you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also you are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So we see clearly that even the Church of God, the very spiritual body of Christ, is built on the foundation of the prophets, that part of the Old Testament. And in fact, even what Jesus is saying here in terms of being the cornerstone is a quote from the Old Testament. You can turn there later, but Psalm 118, verse 22 is a passage that talks about the stone that was rejected by the builders that's become the chief cornerstone, exactly what Paul was referring to when he spoke of Jesus as the cornerstone.

In fact, Jesus uses that analogy himself in that quote from Psalm. Psalm gives the parable of the wicked vine dressers in Matthew 21. Again, you can read that yourselves in Matthew 21, verse 42, and he refers to himself clearly in that passage as the cornerstone. Again, connecting back to ideas that were in the Old Testament. So as we wrap up this first point, one reason to study the Old Testament is to be well versed in the teachings, events, and customs and culture that lie at the center of the teachings and events in the New Testament.

If you're interested in doing some more reading on this by yourself, consider in your study in the upcoming weeks looking at the connecting points between the two.

If you still use a hard copy Bible, and for that matter, if you've got an electronic Bible, you'll often see these little footnote letters that are in the passages, and they refer to scriptures where different types of quotes came from. Spend a little time, look at those references, and you'll be struck by how often, especially in the Gospels, but also in the writings of Paul and other places, you see references back to Old Testament scriptures. They're right there in the margin of your Bible, or if you use an electronic Bible, they're right there with the footnotes. Second reason to spend time studying and reading in the Old Testament is that's where the prophetic framework of God's plan is laid out. The prophetic framework of God's plan is laid out there. Now, I don't know how much you've thought about that, but if we operated from the New Testament only, a lot of the framework of God's plan is not something that's as explicitly stated in the New Testament as it is in the Old Testament. Again, those two halves fit together very clearly, and they help us out in that direction. Daniel 7 is a great example, and any Bible-believing theologian will tell you that this chapter in Daniel 7, which is where there's the vision of the four beasts, is a place where a whole motif of world history is laid out. It's not a belief that's unique to us as a church. In fact, it's laid out so strongly and so explicitly that those who don't have a faith in the veracity of the Bible will often say Daniel 7 had to have been written centuries later because the detail is so clear in terms of what it refers to that someone could not have written that ahead of time before these world events took place. We certainly believe that this is prophetic inspiration that was given to Daniel along with the other things that are written there, and in Daniel 7, for those who don't recall, again, you can go there later, it lays out four beasts, the first a lion with eagle's wings, the second a bear, the third a leopard, and then the fourth a terrible beast with iron teeth and with ten horns. And again, it's not a unique understanding to us that that imagery refers to that march of human empires from Babylon through Persia to the Macedonian Empire, which split after Alexander the Great and then the Roman Empire, which had a variety of different resurrections over the course of time.

The most inspiring part to me is the end of the image of Daniel 2. As we start to think about the fall Holy Days coming, let's read that briefly as we think about the prophetic background that the Old Testament gives us. We'll read verses 34 through 36 of Daniel 2. And this is Nebuchadnezzar's dream that Daniel is interpreting. And if you recall, he wouldn't tell the wise men what his dream was. He was testing who really was inspired by God. And so he said, hey, I had a dream. You go figure out not only the interpretation of it, but tell me what the dream was. Then I'll know you really are inspired by God. And Daniel, of course, was able to do that. Verse 34, that's why he says, you watched, is talking back to him and saying, here's what you dreamed. And God revealed not only what the interpretation was, but what the dream was. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. And again, this was an image that portrayed those different world-ruling empires that came over the course of time and would come. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, so no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And of course, we understand prophetically that what's happening here is this stone, just as, and here's another allusion to another part of the Old Testament in this case, how was it that altars were supposed to be built and even the temple itself?

It was supposed to be made without using iron tools. It wasn't supposed to be all this clanging and this chipping of rocks. And here we talk about a stone that was cut out without hands, something divine coming down, striking the image and becoming a great mountain. It talks about the fact that God's kingdom is going to come and it's going to obliterate any shadow, any element of human rule and establish God's rule as the great mountain that will fill the whole earth. So again, the prophetic motif, the understanding of what was going to happen coming out of the Old Testament. I'm going to look at one more example here and this is one that Jesus Christ himself brings out.

So we know that many of the prophecies, yes, they're prophecies of the end time within the Old Testament, but many of the prophecies, likely more I haven't bothered to count or check it, but likely more are prophecies of Jesus Christ and his coming as the Messiah and the salvation that he would bring. One of those is in Isaiah 61 and this is a famous passage that we see happening in Luke 4 starting in verse 16 and it happens right after the temptation of Jesus Christ. Luke's account immediately precedes what happened here where Jesus Christ went back to the hometown where he was from. He went back to Nazareth, went back into the temple or the synagogue there on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and he was handed the scroll of Isaiah and he chose Isaiah in order to reveal to those people who he was and in verse 18 he begins to read and you'll see here in your Bible likely it's in quotation marks and perhaps it's written sort of in a poetic type of sentence structure so you see it's being quoted from the Old Testament.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

At that point in time he closed the scroll and he gave it back to the attendant and if you were going to disregard the Old Testament you would miss a very important point of what Jesus Christ did here when he did that and that is if you read Isaiah 61 you'll see following this our accounts that talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ where the mission will be very different and he wrote read a section here of the Old Testament that described what his mission was in his first coming making it very clear what he was going to do then and what it was that he would do at another point in time again without understanding the Old Testament without going back and looking at those things we would miss those elements of it so the Old Testament serves us by laying out a prophetic framework of God's plan for mankind mankind and if you're looking for additional things to look at in this vein over the course of the week consider how much of the vision of the millennium results from the Old Testament prophets go back and look whether you want to look at old sermon notes whether you want to go back and perhaps look at some of the booklets that the church has published or simply browse places like the book of Isaiah and consider how much of our vision of what the millennium will be like actually comes from the pages of the Old Testament Thirdly, in terms of reading the Old Testament, why it's useful and helpful to study it, it helps us to understand the mind of God. Now for people not real well versed in the scriptures of the Old Testament that that might sound like an odd thing at first because what is it that most people will say about the God of the Old Testament? They'll say he's harsh, he's punitive, he's impatient, he likes to kill people, right, he likes to put people to death, but actually there's a lot more that's there. Now just as a bit of background, we understand from John 1-1, if you want to turn there later, that Jesus was the God of creation. Didn't write it in my notes, but it does talk about John talking about Jesus Christ being the Word, the Word was God, the Word was with God, there was nothing that was made that was made without him. Clearly stating that Jesus Christ was the God of creation. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 4 tells us that Jesus was the rock of Israel, where it specifically says, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. It's in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 4. So we know that Jesus Christ was active and seen as the God that Israel worshipped in the Old Testament.

And there's no doubt that in the Old Testament, like in the New, there is a need for respect for the holiness and the power of God. In fact, in the New Testament, we see some pretty amazing things in terms of God using his power when there is disrespect towards him, where there's a lack of understanding and reverence for his holiness. Read Matthew 23 sometime and consider how it is that Jesus Christ spoke with the scribes and the Pharisees. People who were teaching people things contrary to God's law or that stopped them from recognizing the fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus Christ embodied. Consider Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, who were struck down for lying to the Holy Spirit as it's accounted in Acts. Likewise, just like we see that requirement for holiness, reverence, and understanding of God's power in the New Testament, we see God's mercy and his forgiveness on display in the Old Testament. There are three verses that came very quickly to my mind in this vein. It's interesting, you know, we hear these verses. They're probably things that you'd see on memes here and there. We don't always think about the fact that these things actually come from the Old Testament, where the caricature would be one of a harsh God that doesn't really care much about human life and just likes sending lightning bolts from heaven. Second Chronicles 714, passage when Solomon is dedicating the temple that he built, the first temple as it's usually referred to. Here we see in Second Chronicles 714 the famous passage, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven. I'll forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

How wonderful that would be. Words of the Old Testament. Isaiah 66 verses 1 and 2 also should be very familiar verses to any who've spent much time reading the Bible. Thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you'll build me and where is the place of my rest? For all these things my hand is made and all those things exist, says the Lord, but to this one will I look on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. See the consistency here in the outlook of God that's shown even in the Old Testament. Something we're not often led to think about, but that's right there before our eyes when we look at those scriptures. I'll turn just to one more which again personifies Christianity and what it is that God is trying to build in our hearts. Micah 6 will read verse 8.

He has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. What better way to summarize what our Christian walk should be about. Clearly, the Holy Spirit was leading people in the Old Testament to write these things. They wrote down all kinds of things, not only prophetic utterances, but these types of passages about the very mercy and willingness to forgive that's part of God's nature and what it is that he wills from us, from our hearts. So truly, the Old Testament is an expression of the mind of God and reading it can help us to better understand him. And again, if you're looking for some additional things to do during the week, I encourage you to note other passages, especially in the prophets, that lay out the mercy and the forgiveness of God. It's pretty amazing some of the stories that are out there. In fact, read back into the book of the kings and the chronicles and some of the kings of Israel who did horrific things, offering sacrifices, even offering child sacrifices, who ultimately repented and were granted forgiveness by God and restored as a result of that. And if you read in the prophets, you'll see as well that an ongoing refrain, whether it's the major prophets, whether the minor prophets, continues to be that no matter how far you go, Israel, if you turn back to me, I will forgive you. And you'll see all kinds of very interesting expressions of that, especially if you look through some of the minor prophets and what some of them were asked to do to display that. Lastly, a final point of context, and one that I think we have to understand and make sure that we call out as we're reading through the Old Testament, and that is the simple but also very complex point that we are called to a different agreement than the people who were called in the Old Testament before Jesus Christ came. We were called to a different agreement. Now, some people will call that agreement or contract a covenant, that people of Israel were under what's referred to in the Bible as the Old Covenant.

And as we know, with the coming of Jesus Christ was the coming of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ's blood. We see that when the Passover is celebrated, and we see it in many other passages, some of which we'll read here in a moment. So if we think back to where all this started, it started with the covenant that God made with Abraham. Abraham was a friend of God.

He's shown in Hebrews 11 as being one of the faithful people he's talked about as the father of the faithful. And what is the promise that God made to Abraham? If you go back and read those promises, it was actually twofold. He said, your children will be as the sand of the sea, as the stars of heaven. So he promised a physical lineage that was going to be vast and incredible.

But then he also promised that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. We're not going to turn there, but Paul points out in Galatians very clearly that this is a reference to Jesus Christ. So there are two things that came through Abraham, a promise to a physical set of people and a promise of a single physical person who would come by whom salvation could be opened up to everyone. And that really embodies the Old Covenant and the New Covenant together in the promises that were made to Abraham. And we have to keep that in mind because there are obviously things that are written in the Old Testament that are very specifically written to the children of Israel as a part of the agreement physically that they had with God.

Let's reflect a little bit more on that and read in Hebrews 8 verses 1 through 6.

The Bible clearly points this out to us and it's something that we have to be mindful of as we're reading through these passages in the Old Testament as well so that we understand things in the proper context. Hebrews 8 starting in verse 1. Now this is the main point of the things we're saying.

We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.

So what it's telling us is that Jesus Christ when he came and this is what Hebrews is all about, he brought something that was greater than the physical promises, the physical temple, the physical mediation of the high priest. Every high priest in verse 3 is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it's necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law who serve the copy and shadow of heavenly things as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For God said, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain. So it's referring here to the instructions that God gave to Moses on how to build a physical tabernacle, the types of sacrifices that were given there and a physical priesthood that was supposed to make those sacrifices. But in verse 6 is where the writer of Hebrews brings it all home talking about Jesus Christ, talking about what's different embodied in the new covenant.

Verse 6, Now he has obtained a more excellent ministry talking about Jesus Christ, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises.

And what we know that is the old covenant was based on physical promises, and we'll see that in a moment, that were made to the children of Israel for obedience. The new covenant is the opportunity for us to have eternal life as members of God's family, and that door is opened up to us through Jesus Christ and through his sacrifice. So while we can learn a lot about the mind of God from the Old Testament and the way that God dealt with physical Israel, we also have to remember that we're called to a different agreement or a different covenant than Israel was. Let's look at just one example of that, and you can reflect further as you read on if you're interested in this during the week. We'll turn to Deuteronomy 28. Again, if you're doing the Bible reading program, we'll encounter this in a few weeks. Deuteronomy 28 is a pretty famous passage within Deuteronomy. It's the blessings and cursings. We're getting near the end of the chapter of Deuteronomy. Moses is beginning to give his parting words in terms of really telling the children of Israel to be aware of and careful of what it is that they do. And it's for a physical people that are entering the Promised Land. We're not going to read through all the blessings and cursings. I'll let you do that yourself. But it goes through and it talks about if you obey God, here are all the things that will happen for you. The land will be fruitful. You'll live in peace. You'll have your homes you'll be able to multiply. And if you're cursed, you'll become servants to those who would come in and rule over you. You'll lose the land. You'll have other calamities that fall upon you. There were physical blessings and physical cursings to people with whom God had a national agreement to do certain things. Now, while God hates sin, we recognize that we're called to a different promise. We inherit eternity, not physical blessings. And part of the New Covenant agreement, as much as we don't like to understand it sometimes, is trials and suffering to be made mature and complete spiritual creations. I think sometimes that's what can shipwreck people's faith if they don't fully understand this in the right way. It's easy to go to Deuteronomy 28 and say, I've done these five things. God promised in Deuteronomy 28, if I did these five things, I would be multiplied. I would have more land. I would have more things. I would be happy. And then to look at our lives and say, look at all the things that I've done, I'm still dealing with suffering and difficulty. What we have to recognize is we're called to a different agreement and a different promise, which is much greater than a physical promise that was given to the children of Israel.

Let's turn to one passage that I think lays this out very clearly. We don't have time to go deeper, but would encourage you to study and think about this more as well. 1 Peter 1, and we'll read verses 3 through 9. And just reflect as you read through this passage the difference between what we read here and the physical blessings and cursings, the A plus B equals C, if you will, that we see in Deuteronomy 28. 1 Peter 1, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

That's really a statement that talks about the entry into the new covenant, isn't it? As we're baptized, we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in addition to having the hands laid on us, and our sins are removed. Verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Not physical, but in heaven. Not to be reaped in this life, but at the last time. Verse 6, In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, might be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. And though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Not land, not a bountiful harvest, something much greater than that, the actual salvation of us as individuals. A different promise. And again, in verse 6, talks about the fact that we will be grieved by various trials. And in verse 7, that we will be tested. And so we have to be sure that we understand the things that we read in the proper context, understanding what agreement we've been called to with God, what we accepted through baptism, and what it is that comes along with that journey. Knowing, of course, that the end is greater than anything we could even imagine, despite the suffering, the trials that we go through in the meantime. So we're called to a new covenant, an agreement with the same God who entered the old covenant with physical Israel, but containing different terms and different promises. Much of the approach is the same. It's the same God on the other side of the agreement. A God who loves righteousness, a God who's holy, a God who hates sin, a God who wants to give people hope, and something to move towards.

So if you want to spend more time on this topic, I would offer that you could consider more carefully the promises of the old covenant and take some time to compare and contrast those with the promises that are made to us as part of the new covenant. So in conclusion, as God's word, the Bible forms a coherent whole. You know, we might see things that are out there that try to draw a wedge between the Old Testament and the New, the God of the Old Testament and the New, the approach. But as Paul indicates in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16 and 17, the Bible and the only written Bible when he wrote those verses was the Old Testament is sufficient for all of our spiritual needs. It's able to make us full, complete, and mature. So as we've seen briefly today, the Old Testament lays an important foundation for the New Testament. Teachings, events, customs, culture, all that background that we can better understand. Secondly, it provides a prophetic outline of God's plan, the course of human history as well as God's ultimate plan for mankind through Jesus Christ. Thirdly, it gives us great insight into the mind of God and how he approaches things, though through a somewhat different lens. And that's the fourth point that we read it with the understanding that what that we're called to a new covenant, a new agreement, if you will, that's foretold in the Old Testament, but not made fully evident until the appearing of Jesus Christ. So let's continue to devote ourselves to the study of God's Word and continue to find great riches in the depth of all of the Bible.