**The audio for this article is in two parts, click here (or above) for part 1 and here for part 2.**

Values are essential to effective leadership. They are the uncompromisable, undebatable truths that drive and direct behavior. They are motivational, giving us the reason why we do things; and they are restrictive, placing boundaries around behavior. Values are those things that we deem important and that provide direction and guidance in spite of our emotions.

Authors writing on the subject of leadership are paying increased attention to the importance of consistent values to a leader’s effectiveness over the long haul.¹ Businesses, organizations, families and individuals all benefit from knowing and living by their core values. In business, core values are “the organization’s essential and enduring tenets – a small set of general guiding principles; not to be confused with specific cultural or operating practices; not to be compromised for financial gain or short-term expediency.”² Jim Collins observes that all enduring visionary companies have a set of core values that determine the behavior of the group.³

King David demonstrated value-driven behavior in Psalm 15:

Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

Notice that he said the person who enjoys the presence of God and lives a blameless life is the one who “speaks the truth from his heart” (vv. 1-2). Because this person values truth in his heart, his words express truth. Because he values kindness, he “does his neighbor no wrong” (v. 3). Because he values honesty, he “keeps his oath even when it hurts” (v. 4). Because he values justice, he “does not accept a bribe against the innocent” (v. 5).

Leaders who are driven by values reap a great benefit from the Lord. David said they “will never be shaken.” Regardless of what may happen around them, they can live with full confidence that the right principles have shaped their values and have guided their decisions. That confidence will give them emotional and spiritual stability. It will enable them to be leaders whom God can use for his glory.

Consider what values drove the psalmist’s behavior. As you examine your own life, what values do you see as driving your behavior? Many of us hold certain values, but our actions are not governed by the things we say we hold dear. Perhaps we should start by asking ourselves what values we want to have driving our behavior. Unless we become intentional about this, we will be shaped by the values of others. We cannot have a set of values for the office, another set for the home and a completely different set for church activities. Our goal should be to completely integrate godly values into all spheres of life.

God: The Source of All Values

God is accountable to no one, and there is no higher principle to which he must conform. He himself is the absolute of truth, beauty, goodness, love and justice. His perfect character is the essence of what the Bible calls “righteousness.” In a universe without God, what we call “good” would have no ultimate referent.

Habakkuk was a righteous prophet in the Old Testament. He struggled, as we all do from time to time, with the goodness of God in light of the fact that wicked people often prosper. Unlike many of us, however, Habakkuk was wise enough to know that when you have a question or a problem with God, the best thing to do is to go to God directly. So, he cried out, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” (Habakkuk 1:13).

Habakkuk’s first complaint to God questioned why the Lord was allowing the people of Judah to continue in their wickedness and injustice. When the Lord answered that he was preparing the Babylonians as his weapon of judgment on Judah’s unrighteousness (vv. 5-6), Habakkuk made a more strenuous objection. The Babylonians were even more wicked than the people of Judah; how could God allow such a people to judge his people? God’s response overcame the prophet’s objections, but notice that Habakkuk was confused by an apparent incompatibility between God’s character and God’s actions.

As we look at the progressive revelation of the person of God from Genesis to Revelation, we discover him to be the immutable foundation upon which moral concepts such as goodness, love and justice are based. As did Habakkuk, Abraham struggled briefly with God, saying, “Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). Paul added, “Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: ‘So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge’” (Romans 3:4; compare Psalm 51:4).

Habakkuk learned that God’s plan for the purification of his people went far beyond what he could understand. Although God’s actions seemed unjust and out of line with eternal values, this prophet realized that God’s actions were a small part of his larger, and perfectly sovereign, plan. In the end, Habakkuk says,

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

Essentially, the prophet is saying that even though he doesn’t understand, he trusts that God’s goodness is unchanging. Habakkuk trusts God, even when things don’t seem to make sense. Habakkuk wanted to understand the way things are; he ended up learning about the way God is.

We may never find a satisfactory answer to the problem of evil and suffering in our world. But when we have a fuller revelation of God, those questions seem to fade away. What we see is such a tiny piece of the puzzle. God is the only one who sees the whole picture.

We should be careful not to judge that which we don’t understand. Otherwise we’ll end up like the couple in the story about Rembrandt. It seems there was a special exhibition of the Dutch Master’s paintings, and a couple was speaking very critically of his work. Upon their leaving, a guard nearby whispered, “Here it is not the artist but the viewers who are being judged.” In other words, our failure to grasp God’s plan reveals more about us than it does about God’s plan. It is not the plan that is inferior; it is us.

God’s moral structures and values are built into the created order. The Bible affirms that even those who have not been exposed to God’s law have a conscience – a moral law – within them (Romans 2:14-16). God is not only revealed in nature, but also in the human heart. Our hearts and consciences reveal the fingerprints of a moral God. C.S. Lewis used the idea of an omnipresent, self-evident law as the starting point for his classic, Mere Christianity, what he calls the Law of Nature or the Moral Law. A few years later, in The Abolition of Man, he simply calls it the Tao that is in all cultures and societies. There is a surprisingly uniform moral absolute in most cultures – Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Chinese. None of these, for example, honor treachery or selfishness, cowardice or deceit. These standards are there because God has placed his natural law, his moral law in our hearts. Try as we might, we simply cannot deny it.

Lewis also said, “Unless we allow ultimate reality to be moral, we cannot morally condemn it.”⁴ By that, he means that unless there is some agreed upon standard for the true, the beautiful and the good, there can be no absolute standard by which we can condemn “evil” behavior. In other words, people who use the presence of evil and suffering to denounce God are really appealing to God to condemn God. In fact, when people talk about evil in this world they imply the existence of the God of the Bible, because if there is no God, then the idea of evil is arbitrary. One man’s meat is another man’s poison, so to speak. Even our notions of good and evil come to us because we bear the image of the one who initially determined the categories.

If our world continues to denounce the idea of moral absolutes, it cannot also continue to denounce the misappropriation of power and the misconduct of rich and powerful people. In a world that fails to acknowledge God as the final absolute, self-serving pragmatism will rule. The fact that people are seduced by power and wealth should not be surprising; what should surprise us is that it’s not more widespread than it already is. Christian counselor Larry Hall says:

As long as our morality continues to be based in our humanistic pride, moral consistency will elude us. We will go on being bundles of self-contradiction, wildly judging each other while vehemently demanding that no one judge us. We can forget about arriving at a consensus ethic. There is virtually no consensus in a society as pluralistic as ours. About the most we can hope for is some sense of political correctness, and who in their right mind would hope for that? Even if true consensus were possible, history has proven repeatedly that such a consensus can be very immoral. When ethics are based on self and pride, all objectivity is lost. Things are no longer right or wrong. Instead, they are feasible or impractical, desirable or unappealing, agreeable or nonnegotiable…. Indeed, the very concepts of virtue and vice become meaningless.⁵

Godly Values for Godly People

As human beings, the crown of God’s creation, God has “set eternity in the hearts of [people]” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). As such, godly leaders seek to live by God’s eternal values of truth, beauty, goodness, love and justice, set forth in the biblical record. If we look to the world for our moral values, we will be confused by self-interest, social conditioning and situational ethics. The values of our culture are shallow and subjective, but the moral standards of Scripture reflect God’s absolute and unchanging character. Exodus 20:1-17 shows us the clearest summary of God’s values for his people:

And God spoke all these words:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

“You shall not murder.

“You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal.

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

God’s moral law for his people is an expression of his own changeless perfection. In the Ten Commandments, God is actually calling his covenant people to be like him. “I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45).

The Ten Commandments begin with our demonstrated relationship with God and end with our relationships with others. In Scripture, righteousness is always realized within the context of relationships; it consistently relates to loving behavior toward God and others. “Love does no harm to its neighbor” (Romans 13:10). “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:4).

It is one thing to know the right things to do and another to consistently do them. Jesus called us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), but this is unattainable apart from the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Larry Hall asserts, “Indeed, achieving transcendent virtue while denying transcendence is as absurdly impossible as grabbing my own collar and lifting myself off the ground.”⁶ Only as we live by the Spirit are we empowered to “put skin on” biblical values and make them real in our own lives.

Moving From Theory to Practice

Values are interesting to discuss in the abstract, but sometimes “values” get in the way of valuable decisions. Maintaining one’s values can cost a leader dearly. So how do we decide what matters most when we’re weighing the bottom-line costs against our bottom-line convictions?

The first step in effective leadership is defining core values. Until that is done, the ship the leader is trying to steer has no rudder. Vision, mission, strategy and outcomes are difficult – if not impossible – to define until values are clear. Jesus knew that. Early in the process of developing his team of disciples, he forced them to confront this foundational issue.

Matthew records Jesus’ primer on values in Matthew 6:1-34. Jesus focused his lesson in verses 19-21:

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus urged his disciples to focus their values on things that would bear an eternal return. But how, while making a living on earth, while responsibly leading an enterprise on earth, while providing jobs, product, service and profit on earth, do we build treasure in heaven? This passage presents the crux of the value question. Jesus begins this portion of the Sermon on the Mount by saying, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (6:1). That’s the idea: Who do you work for? Whose nod of approval matters most? Who defines what really matters?

Jesus told his disciples that the core value, the driving value, the eternal value is this: “Does what I am doing please God?” Every other value is second to that one. When that value is in place, all other values line up. Matthew 6 is among the most definitive chapters in the Bible for shaping a leader’s philosophy of life and leadership. Spending time meditating on Jesus’ words here will have inestimable value.

Case Study: The Apostle Paul

The temptation often is to rationalize our lives in such a way that no matter what we do, we tell ourselves it’s okay. It’s like the story about the FBI being called into a small town to investigate the work of what appeared to be a sharpshooter. They were amazed to find bull’s-eyes drawn all over town, with bullets that had penetrated the exact center of the targets. When they finally found the man who had been doing the shooting, they asked him how he had been able to shoot with such accuracy. His answer was simple: First he shot the bullet, then he drew the bull’s-eye around where it had hit.⁷ God is not honored by such a haphazard approach to living. He has called us to live our lives with precision and clarity of focus.

The Apostle Paul wrestled with two desires. When he traced these desires back to their core values, he found a resolution:

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know. I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Philippians 1:21-24

Interestingly, Paul had a proper philosophy of death, and this gave rise to his proper philosophy of life. He, like Jesus, knew where he was going (cf. John 13:1). Once he knew his ultimate destination, he was free to understand who and what he was living for. Our lives are only valuable in light of eternity. These brief and ephemeral years can be leveraged into eternity. So, Paul, writing from prison, understands that he can’t really lose in this situation. Whether he is executed or acquitted, he wins.

It is with this frame of mind that he writes, “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me” (Philippians 1:25-26). Once he was able to link his desires with his values, he possessed tremendous resolve.

Most leaders today also face the tension between competing value systems and structures. In the face of difficult daily decisions, sorting out primary from secondary values can be frustrating. Hackman and Johnson, in their book Leadership, give us some further definition that may help in this dilemma.

First they discuss what values are:

Values are at the core of individual, group or organizational identity. Values are relatively enduring conceptions or judgments about what we consider to be important. [Substantial research suggests] that a number of positive effects result from agreement between personal values and the values most prized in the organization at which we work. Agreement between personal and organizational values result in increased personal identification with the organization, higher levels of job satisfaction, greater team effectiveness and lower turnover rates.⁸

Then these two authors go on to identify two types of values: “terminal values” – those that deal with lifelong goals; and “instrumental values” – those that govern behaviors that achieve terminal values. Among their list of 18 terminal values are freedom, self-respect, mature love, family security, true friendship, wisdom, equality and salvation. Some of the 18 instrumental values they outline are being loving, independent, capable, broad-minded, honest, responsible, ambitious, forgiving, self-controlled and courageous.

Paul begins the passage above with a short vision statement: “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” We could all do with writing a short vision statement for our own lives. This can be accomplished fairly easily. Simply add your personal values to both of the lists above, then rank-order the values. The authors then suggest that you “carefully examine the list of your top-rated terminal and instrumental values. Look for similarities, patterns, and themes.” Finally, forge a short vision statement from what you find by clarifying your values in this manner.

Paul wrestled with his desires until he clarified what he valued. Hackman and Johnson support Paul’s decision-making process by telling us that people work better with clearly understood values. Leaders who want to be effective will find that clarifying and communicating values is an essential task. Rank-ordering your terminal and instrumental values and forming a short vision statement will help you avoid taking a scattershot approach to living.

Living in the Land of Our Sojourn

We are all mortal. None of us knows how many days we have on this earth. In fact, this is one of the most common themes in Scripture – that of the pilgrim, the stranger, the sojourner. The late singer-songwriter Rich Mullins understood this imagery. His lyrics frequently made mention of a “longing for home” that sometimes caused him to weep. In the song “Land of My Sojourn,” he writes:

Nobody tells you when you get born here

How much you’ll come to love it

And how you’ll never belong here.

So I call you my country,

And I’ll be lonely for my home.

I wish that I could take you there with me.⁹

We do not belong here on earth. This is merely a land to travel through on our way to our final destination. Our citizenship is in heaven. Thus our ultimate aspirations must transcend anything this world can provide. There are pleasant moments, to be sure, but there are also painful moments. We must change our thinking so that we can affirm, with the Apostle Paul, that neither our temporary pleasures nor our present sufferings are “worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). These things are merely preparing us for what is to come.

As we grow and mature in the things of God, we can come to the place where our longing for our true home governs the way we live here in our temporary home. It is possible to endure great hardships and trials when you know that they are only temporary and are leading you to something far greater. Also, it is in this way that we come to see how precious our time here is, and how foolish it is to waste our time here with our noses to the grindstone or endlessly channel-surfing! How terrible to come to the end of life and realize that we were too busy or preoccupied to actually live. While we are here we have opportunities to cultivate relationships and catalogue experiences and share the gospel and serve people in need. Our boredom surely reveals more about us than about the God who places so many wonderful opportunities in our paths.

The central issue of values is summed up in what Jesus called the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). That is the value to value. That is the prism through which all other values must shine, the filter through which all of life’s choices are made and solutions are drawn. Until we love God properly, the rest of what we’ve learned about values will remain an academic exercise.

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¹ For example, the following books have been released or are scheduled for release in the year 2003: Executive Values: A Christian Approach to Organizational Leadership by Kurt Senske (Augsburg Fortress Publishers); Transformational Leadership: Value Based Management for Indian Organizations by Shivganesh Bhargave (Sage Publications); And Dignity for All: Unlocking Greatness with Values-Based Leadership by James E. Despain, et al. (Financial Times Prentice Hall); Living Headship: Voices, Values and Vision by Helen M. Gunter, et al. (Paul Chapman Publications).

² James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last (New York: Harper Business, 1997), p. 73.

³ Ibid., p. 94.

⁴ C.S. Lewis, “De Futilitate,” in Christian Reflections (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), p. 69.

⁵ Larry E. Hall, No Longer I (Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 1998), p. 126.

⁶ Hall, No Longer I, p. 127.

⁷ Adapted from James Emery White, Rethinking the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 33.

⁸ Michael Hackman and Craig Johnson, Leadership: A communication Perspective, Second Edition (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1996), p. 89.

⁹ “Land of My Sojourn” by Rich Mullins, Kid Brothers of St. Frank Publishing, 1993.

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On a particular Sunday I was preaching a sermon that desperately needed a good example of a pathetic excuse. I had not come up with such an illustration before I stood to preach, so I took a chance and asked the audience, “What is the weakest, most pathetic, excuse you have ever heard?” One father (and a good friend) stood up and shared this story:

“My son was on a restricted diet, so he was forbidden to open the refrigerator in his own. Late one night I could see a dim light coming from the kitchen, and when I investigated, what I feared was happening. My son was standing there with the refrigerator door open, and his hand was reaching inside. ‘Son,’ I said, ‘What are you doing?’ Without hesitation he responded, ‘I was cooling my hand.’”

Quite frankly, the excuses I have heard for why Christians don’t read or study the Old Testament are almost as laughable. My goal is to persuade you to read, study, and even teach the Old Testament, but in order to accomplish this goal I must first deal with some of the most common excuses that are offered for ignoring this part of the Bible. So in this lesson (which is part 1), let me address some reasons people offer for setting the Old Testament aside. Later, we will discuss why we should read our Old Testament (part 2), and finally (part 3) how we should read the Old Testament.

1. The Old Testament Is Out Of Date And Obsolete Because We Are Now Under The New Covenant

Some wrongly conclude that because Jesus instituted the New Covenant by His death, burial, and resurrection,¹ the Old Testament is irrelevant to New Testament Christians. Paul is saying something quite different from this when he writes,

14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! (Romans 6:14-15, NET,² emphasis mine)

But just because we are not “under law” we not excused from reading and learning from the Old Testament Law (indeed, the whole Old Testament). If this were the case, Paul would not have spoken so favorably about the Law:

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet” (Romans 7:7, emphasis mine).

So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good (Romans 7:12, emphasis mine).

For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope (Romans 15:4, emphasis mine).

This should indicate that in order to understand the Bible we must understand the difference between the Law and legalism. Legalism is a system of rules and rule-keeping to earn salvation. Legalism seeks to provide a specific instruction for every circumstance we encounter in life. Where it does not find one in the Law of Moses, it creates one and then attaches this “tradition” to the Law of Moses. Indeed, Jesus accused His Jewish adversaries of giving their traditions a higher place than the Law, so that in keeping their traditions one might actually be encouraged to break God’s commandments.³

Legalism abuses the Law of Moses by seeking to make it the means by which men can be saved (Acts 15:1), rather than the means by which God shows men to be sinners, in need of the salvation He graciously provides by faith in Jesus Christ.⁴

We should not be surprised when Paul has some very strong words to say against legalism:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel– 7 not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell! 9 As we have said before, and now I say again, if any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be condemned to hell! (Galatians 1:6-9)

Paul emphatically declares that the Old Testament saints were not saved by law-keeping, but by faith, just as New Testament Christians are saved:

What then shall we say that Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh, has discovered regarding this matter? 2 For if Abraham was declared righteous by the works of the law, he has something to boast about– but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited due to grace but due to obligation. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 So even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin” (Romans 4:1-8).

These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. 14 For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son. 18 God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,” 19 and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there. 20 By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future. 21 By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped as he leaned on his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave instructions about his burial. 23 By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. 24 By faith, when he grew up, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure. 26 He regarded abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt without fearing the king’s anger, for he persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. 29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people marched around them for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute escaped the destruction of the disobedient, because she welcomed the spies in peace (Hebrews 11:13-31, emphasis mine).

There are not two ways of salvation in the Bible: salvation by law-keeping in the Old Testament, and salvation by faith in the New Testament. In the Bible, from beginning to end, salvation in the Bible is by faith.

2. The Old Testament Is Too Bloody And Violent

Let’s be honest, the Old Testament is bloody. It depicts a great deal of violence and blood shedding. All of this, we must recognize, is the result of sin. It started with Cain shedding the blood of his brother Abel.⁵ God took the shedding of animal blood seriously, and the shedding of human blood (murder) even more seriously.⁶

God required the shedding of blood as a sacrifice for sin.

“. . . without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

The magnitude of the blood shedding that we find in the Old Testament serves to indicate the magnitude of man’s sin, and of its consequences, as well as its cure. But do not suppose that while the Old Testament is bloody, the New Testament is not. The death of our Lord Jesus was, of necessity, bloody.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body.” 27 And after taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).

And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. 18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed– not by perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ (1 Peter 1:17-19).

They were singing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were killed, and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Revelation 5:9).

So, too, the final conflict and the defeat of Satan and his intervention in the affairs of this world will also be bloody.⁷

3. The Old Testament Should Be Set Aside Because It Appears To Tolerate Things Which Our Culture Finds Unacceptable.

Let’s start out by agreeing with those who find offensive attitudes and actions in the Old Testament. Some Christians seek to handle these by putting on rose colored glasses, with lenses that gloss over the ugliness of the sin that is disclosed. Over the years I have referred to this as the “pious bias,” the desire and the effort to make things (and people) look better than they are – pious even. We look for excuses for Jonah’s desire to see his enemies (even their children and cattle) burned up at the hand of God. Esther is portrayed as a heroine,⁸ and Naomi is somehow not seen as the bitter old woman she is. Lot’s actions in offering his daughters to the wicked men of Sodom are glossed over by some as quickly as possible, as is Abram’s efforts to save himself by passing his wife off as his sister. The truth is, the Old Testament saints were not as saintly as we would like to think.⁹ Just look at some of those listed in Hebrews chapter 11, in the hall of faith.¹⁰ Some of the folks listed there I would never have expected to see in heaven.

But why didn’t God condemn these Old Testament evils, and rid the world of them? Why did He seemingly look the other way? I believe that there are several answers to this question. The first is that the Old Testament’s honest portrayal of man’s flaws and the fact that “things are not as they should be” is yet another way in which the Law set a standard that men could not meet, thus showing his need of salvation some other way than by law-keeping. In Romans 3:9-26 and 9:30-33 Paul clearly states that no one can be saved by doing good works (including keeping the Law), but only by faith in the Lord Jesus, who died for their sins and rose from the dead. The way to make the world right again would not be fulfilled in the Old Testament, but only with the coming of Christ, His sacrificial death and resurrection, and His subsequent (and still future) return to earth All of these matters are dealt with in much greater detail in the New Testament.

              I am reminded of what we read in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1:

So he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. But he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 Then Jesus got up early in the morning when it was still very dark, departed, and went out to a deserted place, and there he spent time in prayer. 36 Simon and his companions searched for him. 37 When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 He replied, “Let us go elsewhere, into the surrounding villages, so that I can preach there too. For that is what I came out here to do” (Mark 1:34-38).

After Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, crowds of sick people (and other onlookers) began to gather in the hope of a healing, or at least for seeing a healing take place. Many had been healed the previous evening. But when morning came, Jesus was gone, and his disciples went to find Him. A crowd was gathered, waiting for more healings. Was this not an opportune time to launch His ministry by granting such healing? But Jesus made it clear that healing the sick (as good as that was) was not His primary mission. Rather He came to proclaim the gospel as His priority. This is why He moved on, without going back to heal the crowds who were expectantly waiting for Him.

So, too, God’s primary purpose in the Old Testament was not to correct every evil, but to reveal man’s sin and inability to earn salvation by good works, and to prepare the way for Jesus and the Gospel. The unjust and inappropriate things we find in the Old Testament underscore man’s sin and the need for God’s grace. Beyond this, we need to be careful what we ask for when it comes to God dealing with sin. We could be asking for God to come in judgment on the sinful world we live in, as Jonah sought it for Nineveh. God’s not dealing with man’s sin as we think He should, was really God’s grace:

But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire, by being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. 9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare (2 Peter 3:7-10).

With these things in mind, let us move on to consider several specific evils which God might appear to be ignoring:

There are things we read in the Old Testament that should rightly trouble Christians. Why does God permit men to have multiple wives, and even concubines?¹¹ How can we justify Abram’s foreign policy of having Sarah pass herself off as his sister,¹² thereby appearing to make herself available for a foreigner to marry? How could Lot offer his virgin daughters to the wicked men of Sodom?¹³ How can we possibly justify a Levite thrusting his concubine outside, to be abused by wicked men, and then cutting her body into twelve pieces and sending these throughout Israel?¹⁴

As to the issue of multiple wives I would say this. Polygamy was not strictly forbidden in the Old Testament, in the way we see it in the New (1 Timothy 3:2, 12; 5:9; Titus 1:6). What we do see (and should learn) from the Old Testament examples of multiple wives is that it didn’t work well. But of all the problems God set out to deal with, monogamous marriage was not at the top of His list. It is not until the coming of Christ and the birth of the church that we are given the model for marriage in Christ and His bride, the church.¹⁵

There Are A Number Of Things Found In The Old Testament Which Our Culture Finds Totally Unacceptable, So Much So That They Reject The Old Testament Altogether.

Let’s consider three such unacceptable (politically incorrect) matters.

The Old Testament’s Definition Of Male And Female Gender Distinctions And The Prohibition Of Certain Kinds Of Sexual Behavior.¹⁶

The Bible declares that God created all mankind as either male or female, and it is as such that they are created in His image.¹⁷ He distinguishes male and female roles, and defines appropriate relationships. He distinguishes between Adam and Eve’s responsibility in the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden, and also in the consequences which fall upon all men and women because of their sin.¹⁸

God declares acts of homosexuality and bestiality to be not only sinful, but contrary to nature. Granted, our government has now ruled such behavior to be legal, and many wish it to be considered normal, but the Bible declares it to be both unnatural and sinful. It also declares it to be a manifestation of divine judgment.¹⁹ Before long, Christians may have to pay a high price for calling such behavior sin (along with many other sins, like pride and greed).²⁰ My friend, Fred Smith, used to say this:

“You need to distinguish between sin and crime.
There are some sins that are not crimes.
And there are some crimes that are not sins.”

The truth of that statement is becoming more and more clear in our country and beyond.

Slavery Is Viewed As An “Unpardonable Sin” In Our Society, And Because It Is Seemingly Accepted In The Old Testament Some Dismiss The Entire Old Testament As Morally Deficient And Offensive.

Let’s think about this for just a second. It is true that God permitted the Israelites to have slaves. It is also true that having slaves was almost universally accepted throughout Old Testament times (and even today, in some parts of the world). It is also true that the Old Testament assumes that slavery (and many good things, such as marriage) could and would be abused, even badly abused. In such cases, we see yet another manifestation of the fallenness (sinfulness) of mankind.

But God is not entirely permissive or passive in the face of such evils. Consider what God does say in the Old Testament about slavery:

When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 19:33-34).

Aliens (foreigners, immigrants) are relatively powerless and vulnerable, and thus they may suffer abuse, even slavery. God required the Israelites to deal kindly with such folks, reminding them that they had once experienced the injustices and cruelty of an oppressive nation (Egypt).

You must not return an escaped slave to his master when he has run away to you. 16 Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages he prefers; you must not oppress him (Deuteronomy 23:15-16, emphasis mine).

Here is an interesting command. It would seem that this instruction applies to those who were slaves in some other country, and have fled to Israel as a sanctuary. This certainly implies that runaway slaves knew that slaves fared far better in Israel than elsewhere. Runaway slaves were to be embraced by Israelites, allowed to settle where they wished, and were to be treated kindly. They were not to be given back to their (oppressive) masters.

But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ 6 then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever (Exodus 21:5-6).

Consider this: during their great time of famine, the Egyptians willingly offered to become slaves to Pharaoh (and, secondarily, to Joseph), and were grateful for being allowed to do so.²¹ Exodus 21:5-6 took into account the fact that some slaves, for love of family, and even their master, would choose a lifetime of slavery over freedom. All I can say is that whatever slavery might have been in other places (and that could have been desperately evil), slavery in Israel was intended to be a vastly better thing, so that some would voluntarily choose to remain slaves, while slaves from other countries could flee to Israel to gain freedom.

In The Old Testament God Commands The Annihilation Of Certain Condemned Peoples, And Our Culture Views This As An “Unpardonable Sin.”

When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you– Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you– 2 and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy! 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you. 5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, cut down their sacred Asherah poles, and burn up their idols. 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth (Deuteronomy 7:1-6, emphasis mine).

We must take such texts as these within the broader context of Old and New Testament revelation, and thus we must consider these additional factors:

First of all, God’s covenant with Abraham included, and indeed facilitated, His purpose of blessing Gentiles (non-Jews):

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3, NAU; emphasis mine).

While some Jews, like Jonah,²² and like the people of Jesus’ home town of Nazareth,²³ wanted nothing to do with the salvation of Gentiles,²⁴ this was God’s intention from the beginning. The annihilation which God ordered was that of a highly corrupt people (the Canaanites), whose presence contaminated the land, and threatened the Jews near them. Annihilation was to take place when Canaanite culture became a cancer on society, and thus posed a great danger for Israelites.

Second, God’s essential desire and predisposition is to graciously forgive sinners, rather than to destroy them:

6 The LORD passed by before him and proclaimed: “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).

For I take no delight in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign LORD. Repent and live! (Ezekiel 18:32).

“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! Why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezekiel 33:11)

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise [of judgment], as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Jonah’s attempted escape (from God, and from his divinely appointed mission) was due to the prophet’s assurance that God was gracious, and that He would forgive these Gentile sinners (who were worthy of judgment):

This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD and said, “Oh, LORD, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish!– because I knew that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. 3 So now, LORD, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” (Jonah 4:1-3, emphasis mine).

Third, we should note that God was not quick to bring judgment on the Canaanites, nor did He do so without any warning:

12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit” (Genesis 15:12-16, emphasis mine).

“Go immediately to Nineveh, that large capital city, and announce judgment against its people because their wickedness has come to my attention” (Jonah 1:2).

Fourth, let us never forget that Jesus Christ bore the eternal punishment for man’s sin.

The judgment which came upon the Canaanites (and other wretched peoples) is nothing compared to the judgement our Lord bore in order to deliver sinners from the condemnation the deserve. The cross of Christ is the remedy for sin, and the only means by which God delivers sinners from eternal punishment:

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him (John 3:16-17).

Fifth, Christians are commanded to take the good news of the saving work of Jesus (the Gospel) to the unsaved, so that they can be delivered from God’s wrath:

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), 9 because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. 11 For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news” (Romans 10:8-15).

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

4. The Real Reason Why So Many Christians Neglect And Avoid The Old Testament: “The Old Testament Is Boring.”

First, this can’t be true because the Old Testament has some of the most exciting stories in the Bible, in fact, in all of literature.

Who can honestly say that these stories are boring:

• The fall of man (Genesis 3)
• The flood (Genesis 3-6)
• The patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (Genesis 12-50)
• The exodus of Israel from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 1-15)
• The military victories of Joshua
• The bizarre characters and actions depicted in the Book of Judges
• The story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz
• The intrigue of the Book of Esther
• Stories of Samuel, David (and Goliath), Jonathan, and Solomon
• Jonah and the great fish

Our kids grew up hearing us read these and many other stories of the Bible, most of which came from the Old Testament. Besides this, our grandchildren and the children of our friends still use our Mrs. G Bible stories.²⁵ Our grandchildren still ask us to play these stories when they go to bed at our house.

Second, the most important reading we do is not likely to be exciting and entertaining.

Someone may enjoy a comic book, or a suspenseful novel, but these are seldom life-changing activities. Supreme Court Justices might not read the Constitution for entertainment at bedtime, but they would be quick to tell you how important it is to understand the Constitution. The same is true for the Declaration of Independence. If a wealthy relative of yours was to die, and you knew you were mentioned in the will, I believe you would give careful attention to its reading, and would give little thought to its entertainment value.

Third, our culture (and our flesh) has predisposed us to want instant gratification, even in our Bible reading.

As I have recently been reading through the Gospel of John, I have been impressed with how many times we are told that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying at the time. Jesus repeatedly told His disciples that they would not understand His words at the moment, but that they would understand them later on.²⁶ Why is it we think that we must have instant understanding and immediate application for our Bible reading? It may well be that we are storing up vital truth, the meaning and application of which may very well become evident later.

Fourth, if we conclude that something is boring it may tell us something about ourselves that is not flattering.

I want to be careful not to be judgmental here, but I am reminded of how the Book of Proverbs looks on what gives us pleasure. What we find pleasurable will tell us much about who we are.

Carrying out a wicked scheme is enjoyable to a fool,
and so is wisdom for the one who has discernment (Proverbs 10:23).

Folly is a joy to one who lacks sense,
but one who has understanding follows an upright course (Proverbs 15:21).

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding
but only in disclosing what is on his mind (Proverbs 18:2).

She obtains wool and flax,
and she is pleased to work with her hands (Proverbs 31:13).

In a moment we will talk about why the Old Testament should give us pleasure, but it seems to me that some who are bored with the Old Testament are unwilling to do the work which is required to discern wisdom:

3 Indeed, if you call out for discernment–
raise your voice for understanding–
4 if you seek it like silver,
and search for it like hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand how to fear the LORD,
and you will discover knowledge about God (Proverbs 2:3-5).

We are inclined to pursue instant gratification, even when it comes to reading and studying the Bible. We are preoccupied with discovering “what’s in it for me.” All too many “Bible studies” are guided by the question, “What does this text mean to you?” I believe that we should begin, rather, with the question, “What did this text mean to the ones to whom it was first written?”
We need to read Old Testament texts from the recipient’s point of view, and only later seek to apply it to our own lives.

Some Old Testament saints actually had oxen (or sheep, or goats), and so they understood these texts differently than you or I (city folks) would:

You must not muzzle your ox when it is treading grain (Deuteronomy 25:4).

Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is clean,
but an abundant harvest is produced by strong oxen (Proverbs 14:4).

“The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk” (Exodus 34:26).

The principles behind these words apply to us, but we should first consider how these words applied to the Old Testament farmers who first received them.

Conclusion

All of this is to say that we really do not have good reason to ignore (or reject) the Old Testament Scriptures. We might do well to read and meditate upon Psalm 119, to remind ourselves of how godly Old Testament saints looked upon the Law. We might do well to consider how Jesus and the New Testament saints looked at the Old Testament. This we will seek to do in the next lesson.

---

¹ Luke 22:20.

² Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible citations are the from NET Bible.

³ Mark 7:1-13.

⁴ Romans 3:19-26.

⁵ Genesis 4:3-15.

⁶ Genesis 9:3-7.

⁷ See Revelation 8:7-8; 11:6; 14:20; 16:3-6.

⁸ Worse yet, Mordecai is portrayed as a hero.

⁹ I was pleased to see that J. I. Packer agrees on this point. He writes this about Abraham: “Plainly, then, Abraham was not by nature a man of strong principle, and his sense of responsibility was somewhat deficient. But God in wisdom dealt with this easygoing, unheroic figure to such good effect that not merely did he faithfully fulfill his appointed role on the stage of church history, . . . he also became a new man.” J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 93.

¹⁰ See especially Hebrews 11:31-32.

¹¹ See 2 Samuel 12:7-8.

¹² See Genesis 20, especially verses 11-13.

¹³ See Genesis 19:1-8.

¹⁴ See Judges 19:22-30. When I was preaching this passage, I had to ask three men to read this Scripture before one would agree to do it. And this one man said something like this when he stood up to read the passage: “I know that we normally read the passage and then pray, but today I would like to pray first, before I read the passage.”

¹⁵ See Ephesians 5:22ff.

¹⁶ The mere use of the word “perversion” (found in Leviticus 18:23) is regarded as inappropriate and unacceptable.

¹⁷ See Genesis 1:26-27; Leviticus 18:23; Romans 1:26-27.

¹⁸ Genesis 3.

¹⁹ See Romans 1:24-27.

²⁰ See Romans 1:22-32.

²¹ See Genesis 47:19-25.

²² See Jonah chapters 1-4.

²³ See Luke 4:16-30, especially verses 24-29.

²⁴ See also Acts 10-11, 15:1ff.; 22:21-22.

²⁵ https://www.biblestoriesalive.org/

²⁶ This is especially true in John 13-16. See 13:7; 15:29; 16:4, 16-33.

Introduction

We really should spend more time in the Old Testament, but how we do this has a great deal to do with how much we get from it. And so this lesson will focus on “How to Read the Old Testament.” Having said this, it should not come as a surprise that most of the suggestions given below equally apply to our reading and study of the New Testament. Thus, we begin with a more general heading: “How to Read the Bible.”

How To Read The Bible

We Should Begin Our Bible Reading And Study With Prayer, Asking The Holy Spirit To Open Our Eyes To The Truth Of His Word.

Those of us who utilize the internet have a device called a modem. This converts the signal sent to our house into one that can be utilized by our computer or by our television. The signal is worthless apart from the converting device. So, too, with the Scriptures. Spiritual truths cannot be grasped by the human mind apart from the divine enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.¹ Thus, we must look to the Holy Spirit to make the Scriptures and their meaning clear to us:

Open my eyes so I can truly see the marvelous things in your law! (Psalm 119:18, NET)²

25 “I have spoken these things while staying with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you (John 14:25-26).

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you what is to come” (John 16:12-13).

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:14-16, NAU).

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:18-20, NAS).

But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him (James 1:5).

Embrace The Bible As Your Primary Text, And Regard All Other Resources As Secondary.

The Bible, in and of itself, is sufficient revelation for all our spiritual needs.

16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

2 May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord! 3 I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. 4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire (2 Peter 1:2-4).

According to Paul, the greatest danger is not sticking to the Scriptures, but going beyond them:

28 Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. 29 I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. 32 And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:28-32).

I have applied these things to myself and Apollos because of you, brothers and sisters, so that through us you may learn “not to go beyond what is written,” so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of the one against the other (1 Corinthians 4:6).

No wonder Paul is so careful to point to that which is clearly spoken or written by him, and is not the interpretation and adaptation of others:

2 not to be easily shaken from your composure or disturbed by any kind of spirit or message or letter allegedly from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. 4 He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, and as a result he takes his seat in God’s temple, displaying himself as God. 5 Surely you recall that I used to tell you these things while I was still with you (2 Thessalonians 2:2-5, emphasis mine).

Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions that we taught you, whether by speech or by letter (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write (2 Thessalonians 3:17, ESV).

In my opinion, too many people (including preachers and teachers) start their study by reading the commentaries. Commentaries can be helpful, when we use them rightly, but as I’ve grown older I find myself spending a greater percentage of my time in the Bible itself, and less time in the secondary materials. Personally, I do not read commentaries first, because they tend to predispose and limit my thinking, before I have given careful enough thought to the text itself. Once I have reached some tentative conclusions, I look at a few good commentaries that may point out some things that I might have overlooked, or which may challenge some of my initial conclusions.

When consulting the works of others, we also need to be careful that we do not assume that the number of letters following one’s name (indicating theological or scholarly degrees) is necessarily indicative of the truthfulness or accuracy of that person’s biblical interpretations. We should remember that it was the intellectual elite who opposed the Lord Jesus, while His “uneducated and untrained” disciples were disdained by them.³

Observing a person’s doctrine and character over a period of time is one of the ways we can discern the trustworthiness of one’s teaching:⁴

Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith (Hebrews 13:7).

No wonder the Book of Proverbs, as well as the New Testament qualifications for church leaders⁵ puts so much emphasis on character.

Another way is to test the accuracy of any interpretation is to listen well to other trusted leaders, who evaluate any teaching in the light of the Scriptures:

Two or three prophets should speak and the others should evaluate what is said (1 Corinthians 14:29).

Bear in mind that the truthfulness and accuracy of what one teaches is not proportionate to the skill and cleverness of their presentation, or the degree of confidence with which they speak:

19 For since you are so wise, you put up with fools gladly. 20 For you put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly toward you, if someone strikes you in the face. 21 (To my disgrace I must say that we were too weak for that!) But whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing (2 Corinthians 11:19-21).

Some have strayed from these and turned away to empty discussion. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently (1 Timothy 1:6-7).

These men are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness have been reserved. 18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error (2 Peter 2:17-18).

1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come with superior eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God. 2 For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling (1 Corinthians 2:1-3).

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God (2 Corinthians 2:17).

But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God (2 Corinthians 4:2).

Read The Scriptures In Larger Portions.

Years ago, a company placed signs at intervals along the highway, ending with the name Burma Shave. One of the slogans they used was this: “A little dab will do ya.” That is not true for Bible study. Jesus rebuked the scholars of His day for “straining gnats and swallowing camels” (Matthew 23:24). A part of the “camel” element is the broader context in which a statement is made. Don’t be satisfied with “a little dab” of Scripture.

Be Wary Of Any Explanation Or Interpretation Of Scripture That Is “New,” And Departs From What Has Historically Been Held By Godly Saints.

Novelty may have a certain attraction, but the fact is that we are not called to come up with a message that is new; we are called to proclaim something old, something that Jesus and the apostles taught:

(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or listening to something new.) (Acts 17:21)

1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. 2 I praise you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I passed them on to you (1 Corinthians 11:1-2).

Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions that we taught you, whether by speech or by letter (2 Thessalonians 2:15; see also 2 Peter 1:13-21).

28 Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. 29 I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. 32 And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified (Acts 20:28-32).

When You Are Studying A Particular Passage, Ask “Where Am I?” In Terms Of The Unfolding Revelation Of God’s Word.

I’m reminded of those maps your find in a shopping mall which you consult (don’t you?) when you are looking for the location of a particular store. There is usually a map that is strategically located, which lays out the entire shopping mall. Usually there is a large dot or arrow with the attached words, “You are here!” Now that you know where you are, you can figure out how to get where you wish to go.

The same thing is needed when we are reading the Bible. The New Testament covers a period of time less than 100 years. But the Old Testament covers several thousand years. Thus, it becomes very important to know where you are in terms of the history and geography of the Old Testament. In Genesis you will find that those you encounter at the beginning of the book are found in the Garden of Eden, while at the end of the book Joseph and his family are in Egypt, soon to become slaves. In Exodus you first find yourself in Egyptian bondage, and later the people of God are camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, soon to set out on their journey to the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy the Israelites are camped east of the Jordan, poised to attack the city of Jericho, on their way to possess the Promised Land. The Book of Judges takes place throughout the land of Canaan, when the nation is ruled by judges. But in 1 and 2 Samuel Israel will be in the Promised Land, led by kings (Saul and David), who rule over a united Israel. In 1 Kings chapter 12 the nation of Israel is divided, with the northern kingdom (now called Israel) ruled by Jeroboam, and the southern kingdom (Judah) ruled by Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. From this point on, the kings of both Israel and Judah will change over time. Then comes the captivity and exile of the northern kingdom of Israel, at the hand of the Assyrians. Later will come the exile of the Jews of Judah in Babylon. Then, still later, the exiled people of God are allowed to return to the Promised Land. It is important for the Bible reader to know when and where the words he or she is reading take place.

Put Yourself In The Sandals Of The Person(S) Of That Place, Time, And Culture.

A fellow-elder and friend used to say: “Submission is the willingness to see things from the other person’s point of view.” All too often we tend to look at things only from our own (often distorted or inadequate) perspective, rather than from the point of view of one who is living at that point in time that is depicted in the biblical text. One of the reasons why we often struggle with the Biblical text (Old Testament or New) is that we fail to read the Scriptures from the perspective of those to whom the book was first written. The Scriptures themselves are our primary source of background information here, but other works can be helpful (unless they contradict what is said in Scripture).

Focus On What Is Clearly Stated In The Text Of Scripture, Rather Than On What Is Not There (Or What Is Unclear, And Thus Is Specualtive).

This is something that I am passionate about. More often than I would wish, a “scholar” finds some new piece of information from some source outside the Bible, which prompts them to modify or set aside the clear teaching of the Bible. Extra-biblical material may be of some use, but it is not to be accepted with the same level of confidence that we have in what is clearly stated in Scripture. To state it differently, some folks resort to extra-biblical content in order to prove that what the Bible clearly says it does not clearly mean. The more important the biblical truth is, the more clearly and frequently we should expect it to be stated.

Some years ago an unbelieving friend was telling me about a book he had been reading, which he found very helpful. He said something like this as he recommended the book to me: “I love this book because it fills in so much that the Bible has left out.” Beware! Listen to what God said:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29, NAU).

8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I said, “Sir, what will happen after these things?” 9 He said, “Go, Daniel. For these matters are closed and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made clean, and refined, but the wicked will go on being wicked. None of the wicked will understand, though the wise will understand. 11 From the time that the daily sacrifice is removed and the abomination that causes desolation is set in place, there are 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits and attains to the 1,335 days. 13 But you should go your way until the end. You will rest and then at the end of the days you will arise to receive what you have been allotted” (Daniel 12:8-13).

A pastor friend, now with the Lord, greatly impacted my life. I still remember him saying, “All cults and false teaching are either the Bible plus, or the Bible minus.” God said it first:

“Keep in mind all the words I am solemnly proclaiming to you today; you must command your children to observe carefully all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 32:46b, emphasis mine).

“You must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it!” (Deuteronomy 12:32).

18 I testify to the one who hears the words of the prophecy contained in this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book (Revelation 22:18-19).

We can be assured that God’s Word contains all that we need to know in order to live a life pleasing to Him:

“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you what is to come” (John 16:13, emphasis mine).

2 May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord! 3 I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. 4 Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire (2 Peter 1:2-4, emphasis mine).

20 You know that I did not hold back from proclaiming to you anything that would be helpful, and from teaching you publicly and from house to house, . . . 27 For I did not hold back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:20, 27).⁶

16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Christians need to learn to live with a certain measure of mystery. After all, do we really think that we are able to comprehend everything the an infinitely wise God is doing? Peter reminds us that the Old Testament prophets scratched their heads at what they themselves wrote:

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who predicted the grace that would come to you searched and investigated carefully. 11 They probed into what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent glory. 12 They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven– things angels long to catch a glimpse of (1 Peter 1:10-12).

Think of the mysteries that Old Testament saints could ponder. The Messiah would be both God and man. The Messiah would suffer greatly at the hands of sinful men, and yet somehow He would triumph over His enemies. Then there was those promises about the Gentiles being included in God’s blessings. These things were all mysteries, until the coming of our Lord and His saving work on the cross of Calvary. Now we understand, but the saints of old did not. We, like them, need to be willing to live with mysteries, knowing that someday God will reveal what the mystery was about. Sadly, there are Christians who focus on the mysteries of the Bible, spending a great deal of time and effort trying to explain them. This is not a profitable venture.

Ask Yourself, “What Don’t I Like About What I Am Reading?’

I got this question from Francis Chan, and I love it! It comes from a chapel message Chan recently delivered to Azusa Pacific University students:

Chan went on to say that, over the past 20 years, he has noticed a change at APU [Azusa Pacific University] and in Christian culture in general. While he was clear that he knows he is generalizing, he said he has noticed a trend of people elevating their own thoughts and feelings over the authority of God’s Word. He challenged his audience to evaluate whether there is anything they believe from the Bible that they actually don’t want to believe. Or are they comfortable with all their beliefs, meaning they are probably interpreting the Bible to suit their feelings? ⁷

The Bible is not written “the way we like to hear it.” The Bible will often speak that which we don’t want to hear. Many were those who did not wish to hear what the Old Testament prophets had to say, just as they rejected the words of Jesus and His apostles. But if our interpretation of Scripture is always what we want to hear, we will probably end up with a hearing problem. When we do disagree (or at least dislike) what we read in the Old Testament, or the New, we should pause to reflect on where our culture stands on this matter. If we are simply reflecting our culture when we disagree with Scripture, then we are on the wrong side.

5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6 For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:5-8).

Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God– what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (Romans 12:2).

17 So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn about Christ like this (Ephesians 4:17-20).

In Situations Where We Encounter Something Offensive In Scripture, Consider It In The Light Of The Primary Purpose Of The Text.

For example, let’s consider the offenses we find in the final three chapters (19-21) of the Book of Judges. The Levite throws his concubine out to the wicked men of Gibeah, men who wanted to “sodomize” (not a bad choice of words here) the Levite. They abuse his concubine all night, and then she crawls back to the threshold of the house where she dies. In the morning, the Levite comes to the door and harshly commands her to get up so they can be on their way, but she is dead. So he cuts her body into twelve pieces and sends a piece to each tribe of Israel. This leads to a war with the Benjamites (who supported the wicked deeds of their brethren, the men of Gibeah). In the end, the other tribes conjure up a plan to replenish what is left of the Benjamites by creating a situation in which the Benjamites can steal Israelite women from other tribes to be their brides.

We should begin by recognizing that this is honest, forthright, reporting. The events are ugly, but the account, while offensive, is true. We are meant to be offended by what took place. And then we should realize that this event, carried out by Israelites (not the Canaanites!) was worse than the events of Genesis 19, where the men of Sodom wished to commit a similar sin. Now we see the truth of what Paul tells us in Romans chapter 3, that all men – whether Jews or Gentiles – are sinners, rightly deserving God’s eternal judgment. Judges merely underscores the need of the Jews, as well as the Gentiles, for God’s salvation, and then puts an exclamation point behind it. The Old Testament is not a “happily ever after” account, but a real-life account of man’s great sin and his need for a Savior.

Identify The Unique Contribution Of Each Book Of The Bible To The Message Of The Scriptures As A Whole.

This is a very important point. Like snowflakes and fingerprints and DNA, no two books of the Bible are exactly alike, and the differences are important to note. Each book has its own unique contribution to make to the message of the Bible as a whole, which God intends for us to grasp. Each of the four gospel accounts is unique. Granted, the so-called synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) have certain things in common, but each is written by a different author, and perhaps to a different audience. But each gospel has something unique to contribute that the others do not. These differences may very well be instructive and profitable. For example, Matthew’s account tells us of two demonized men, whose demons were cast into a herd of pigs (8:28-34). Mark (5:1-20) and Luke (8:26-39) focus on only one of these men. Perhaps even more significantly, Mark’s gospel contains this man’s words (or rather one of the demons who possessed him) as he pled with Jesus:

He begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of the region (Mark 5:10, emphasis mine).

Luke, on the other hand, gives us a slightly different account of the demons’ request:

And they began to beg him not to order them to depart into the abyss (Luke 8:31).

From this distinction in the two accounts I infer that demons are restricted to a certain geographical territory, and that once they are cast out of this territory they are sent to the abyss,⁸ where they are confined and no longer can go about the things they did when loosed.

In the Old Testament, the Book of Esther is unique because it portrays Israel outside of the Promised Land, even though God has granted them freedom (and even encouragement) to return to the land. The Book of Esther portrays Israel in unbelief, which becomes a key to the interpretation of what we will read in the book.

The Book of Joshua portrays Israel in obedience to God’s commands, and thus we see God’s people enjoying the blessings which He promised in the Book of Deuteronomy (28:1-14). The Book of Judges describes the next generation of Israelites, who disregarded and disobeyed God’s commands. Here we see the consequences of sin which God foretold in Deuteronomy 28:15ff. The Book of Ruth is likewise written in the days of the judges, but here both Ruth and Boaz are part of the righteous remnant (Romans 9:27), on whom God pours forth His blessings (on both a Jew and a Gentile).

Look For The Pearls In Each Book.

Every book of the Bible has its own gems, but we must look for them. Genesis contains the account of man’s fall, and of God’s first promise of a Savior (3:15). It also contains the Abrahamic Covenant, God’s promise to bless all nations through Abram/Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3, etc.). The Book of Exodus describes the plagues on Egypt and God’s deliverance of His people. It also introduces us to the Passover, and to the crossing of the Red Sea. And then, of course, there is the first revelation of the Law of Moses. Most important in Exodus, however, is the revelation of God’s glory in God’s self-revelation of Himself (34:6-7). This is a theme which runs all through the Old Testament, and the New. Leviticus has much to teach us, but chapter 16 and the Day of Atonement is probably the most prominent “gem” in the book. The Book of Numbers contains the rebellion of the Israelites at Kadesh Barnea (chapter 14), resulting in Israel’s wilderness wanderings (chapters 15ff.). Beyond this there is the bronze serpent (Numbers 21:8-9), to which our Lord refers in John 3:14-15. Deuteronomy (chapters 28-30) has the fullest prophetic outline of Israel’s history, the result of God’s blessing for obeying His commands (28:1-14), or God’s cursing for sin and disobedience to His law 28:15-68).

Ask, “What Do I Learn About God, And About Man, From This Text?

Neither God nor man (human nature) changes, and thus as we read the Old Testament we must constantly be aware of what we are being taught about God, and about man. Ask yourself, “How am I like this Old Testament character, and what does God say I should do about that?

Be Very Careful To Avoid The “Pious Bias.”

For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope (Romans 15:4).

Just what is it that gives us hope from the Old Testament? Certainly, we find hope when we consider the promises and the character of God. He promises to grant salvation to those who have faith in Him (see Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:13-16; Romans 4, etc). God knows all, and is all powerful. He is also faithful and full of mercy. Thus, we can count on His promises.

But there is another element to consider here, which gives me hope, and it is this: The Old Testament saints are jerks, and so are the New Testament saints. Just look at those who are in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews chapter 11. Abraham (in effect) offers his wife to those who might kill him, to spare his own life. And this in spite of the fact that Sarah is to be the mother of the messianic line. Lot offers his daughters to the pagan men of Sodom, so that two perfect strangers will not be harmed. Jephthah makes a foolish vow. Samson is a womanizer most of his life. Jonah is so hard-hearted he wants to see innocent children and cattle burned up by God. If God can save folks like this, then there is hope for me! But for goodness sakes, quit trying to make heroes out of jerks. Their salvation says a lot about God, and very little about men (other than the fact that they don’t deserve saving). See people in the Old Testament as they really are – as the author meant you to see them. Put away the “rose colored glasses” when you read your Bible.

Find The Triangulating Truths Which Clarify The Teaching Of Any One Text.

Whether it is the Old Testament or the New, there is a temptation to seize upon one text, or one promise as the end all of revelation on that subject:

Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).

Parents should be encouraged by this instruction to faithfully teach their children in the ways of the Lord. But it is clear in Proverbs that the child, also, has the obligation to honor and obey his or her parents and their teaching (Proverbs 1:10, 15; 2:1; 3:1, 11, 21; 4:10, 20). When you look at the kings of Israel or Judah, there is no direct correlation between godly parents and godly children. Neither is there a direct correlation between ungodly parents and ungodly children. Thus, even though godly parents faithfully carry out Proverbs 22:6, the faithfulness of their child is not necessarily guaranteed by their so doing.

Here is a promise God gave to the nation Israel,

14 “and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, NAU)

We should be careful not to simplistically apply this promise to America, for instance. But beyond this, we need to be careful in applying this promise to Israel. In Psalm 73 we learn that God’s blessing comes to us in various ways, and it is not always in the form of health and wealth. There is blessing in obedience to God, but it is not always a material and physical blessing. It is the nearness to God which is a blessing,⁹ and this may come about through suffering.

Jesus answered them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive” (Matthew 21:21-22).

Here is yet another promise that needs triangulation:

Again, I tell you the truth, if two of you on earth agree about whatever you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you (Matthew 18:19).

Does this text mean that whenever two Christians agree on what they are asking for, they are certain to receive it? No! There are other factors involved, factors that help to triangulate the truth. When we pray, we should ask in faith (James 1:5-6), but we must also be aware of the fact that God will not answer our misguided prayers:

You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions (James 4:3).

There is not just one verse which is somehow the key to assure God’s affirmative answer to our every prayer.

I find instruction in the accounts of the temptation of our Lord. Satan takes one verse from the Scriptures and then misapplies it in his vain attempt to divert Jesus from His earthly mission:

9 Then the devil brought him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the highest point of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ 11 and ‘with their hands they will lift you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’” (Luke 4:9-11).

Our Lord responds by citing another text of Scripture which proves Satan’s temptation to be erroneous:

Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You are not to put the Lord your God to the test’” (Luke 4:12).

Any Scripture must be interpreted and applied in the light of the rest of Scripture. I call this “the triangulation of truth.”

How To Read And Study The Old Testament

Look For Jesus And Those Things Which Point Us To (And Prepare Us For) The Gospel.

A number of years ago John R. Cross wrote a book entitled, The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus.¹⁰ It basically presents the story of Jesus as our Lord might have given it to the two men on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35. As I recall, this approach was taken by missionaries, who wisely determined that the gospel should not be given to lost natives by starting in the New Testament, but rather by beginning where the gospel does -- in the Old Testament. It has been some time since I have ministered in Asia, but as I recall the account given to me, the natives were enthralled by the story of salvation as it was progressively told to them. They were eager to hear how it ended, but the missionaries kept on in the Old Testament until the story reached the point of the New Testament Gospels.

The point I am seeking to make is that the gospel doesn’t begin with the New Testament Gospels, but rather it starts in Genesis chapter 1, and then is progressively revealed throughout the Old Testament. The God who brought salvation to men is the same God who created the universe (see John 1:1-3). To present the gospel only from the New Testament is not the complete story. The Old Testament is not only foundational to the gospel, it is the introduction to the gospel (see Genesis 3:15). Thus, we must continually look for gospel clues as we read through the Old Testament. These are the very things to which our Lord Jesus referred on the road to Emmaus.

So let’s hear about this from our Lord Jesus:

“You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39).

So he said to them, “You foolish people– how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the [Old Testament] scriptures (Luke 24:25-27; see also 24:44-45).¹¹

In some cases, you will discover gospel truth in the Old Testament by reading the New Testament. For example, who would have seen this gospel connection:

14 Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt. 15 He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt” (Matthew 2:14-15, citing Hosea 11:1).

Who would have thought that the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:9) would have been used by our Lord as a prototype of the salvation He came to accomplish?

Ask: “Does The New Testament Ratify, Modify, Or Abrogate This Command?”

I confess, this (like most everything I say) is not an original thought. I got this from my Hebrew professor in seminary. He said that when we read the Old Testament we should ask this question: Does the New Testament ratify (accept without modification), modify (the original instruction), or abrogate (a five dollar word for reject / set aside) this Old Testament instruction.

How did Jesus teach us to ratify, modify, or abrogate the Law? I believe Jesus ratified the two great commandments, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:28-34). Jesus appears to have modified the Law in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus taught, “You have heard it said, . . . but I say to you. . .” (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-32, 33-37, 38-42, 43-48). One can read these verses in one of two ways. First, you can read them as Jesus “raising the bar,” and thus modifying the Old Testament commands. Or, secondly, you may read these texts as Jesus simply teaching what these laws required, but which was modified by men who sought to minimize God’s standards. I believe you can say that Jesus (by His resurrection on the first day of the week) modified the practice of Sabbath keeping, so that one could observe a Sabbath rest on some other day (Matthew 28:1; Acts 20:7; Romans 14:5-6). Jesus did not allow Sabbath regulations (at least those penned by legalists) to hinder His ministry on the Sabbath (see Matthew 12:1-14).

Jesus clearly abrogated the Old Testament food laws, thereby facilitating fellowship between Jews and Gentiles (see Mark 7:14-19; Acts 10-11; Romans 14:1-4; Galatians 2:11-21).

Finally, Identify The Guiding Principles Underlying And Undergirding Any Biblical Declaration Or Command.

This has application to New Testament teaching as well, but I am thinking here primarily of the Old Testament law and its commands.

Jesus makes a point of distinguishing the particulars of the Law from the principles underlying them:

23 “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law– justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You should have done these things without neglecting the others. 24 Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24)

The Pharisees were obsessed with the particulars, to the degree that they disregarded the governing principles:

And a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten herself up completely. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” 13 Then he placed his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. 14 But the president of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the crowd, “There are six days on which work should be done! So come and be healed on those days, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from its stall, and lead it to water? 16 Then shouldn’t this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be released from this imprisonment on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13:11-16, emphasis mine; see also Matthew 12:1-13)

The allegation here was that Jesus had violated the Sabbath. We learn from Jesus that there are actually several guiding principles which impact one’s application of the Sabbath regulations. For example, a priest is expected to “violate” the Sabbath in carrying out his duties on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:5-6). Anyone can violate the Sabbath when their animal is in the ditch (Matthew 12:11-12). In Luke’s text (above) one was expected to violate the Sabbath, not just in an emergency situation, but on a regular basis, in order to water his animals. David could violate the rules regarding sacred bread, because his life was in danger, the need was great, and he was to be the next king of Israel (Matthew 12:3-8). Jesus could work on the Sabbath because He is Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8) and because His Father was at work on the Sabbath as well (John 5:17). And so we see that the Law anticipated a number of exceptions to the fourth (Sabbath) commandment.

Many specific commands may not be directly applicable to men today, but the principles behind them may be. Consider how Paul ascertains the principle from the particular:

5 Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6 Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right not to work? 7 Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk? 8 Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” God is not concerned here about oxen, is he? 10 Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest. 11 If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you? 12 If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving? But we have not made use of this right. Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ. 13 Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar receive a part of the offerings? In the same way the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel to receive their living by the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:5-14, emphasis mine).

Paul is asserting his right to be financially supported (along with Barnabas, and all the other apostles), which he voluntarily chooses to forego, for the sake of the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:15ff.). Paul buttresses his right to be financially supported by appealing to the Old Testament, both regarding rewarding the ox and the priests who labor. He goes so far as to say, “Does God really care about the ox? Is that what this command is all about – the care and feeding of oxen?” No, he insists, that is not the primary purpose of this law. It was to teach a much broader principle: the laborer is worthy of his wages (see Luke 10:7).

We may be city folks, and we may not have an ox, or a goat, but we can learn and be guided by the principle as it was to be applied to the ox. The problem with Jesus’ adversaries is that they were so caught up in the particulars they disregarded the guiding principles.

Consider yet another example of how we can be instructed by considering the principle underlying a particular rule or commandment:

If you build a new house, you must construct a guard rail around your roof to avoid being culpable in the event someone should fall from it (Deuteronomy 22:8).

A guard rail (or parapet) was required on a roof top, because someone might fall and be hurt. The principle is this: As much as possible we should seek to eliminate potential sources of injury or harm to others. It was on the basis of this principle that we installed a glass barrier on our balcony, so that no one would fall from there to the bottom floor. When we are aware of the potential to harm others, we should make every reasonable effort to prevent it.

Here is my last example, and I confess, I love the challenge it presents.

The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the LORD your God. “You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19; 34:26).

How can this twice stated statute possibly apply to us today? We will only know if we discern the principle that is being taught here. Think about it for a moment. A mother goat gives birth to her offspring, and her body is designed to produce milk to facilitate and sustain its life. A goat’s milk is God’s provision for sustaining the life of her offspring. How inappropriate it would be to take something designed to sustain life, and use it to destroy it.

Let’s think about this in more contemporary terms. A woman’s womb is given to her to be a safe place for her offspring to survive and thrive until the time of birth arrives. To introduce chemicals or to use medical procedures (which should be used to promote healing and to prolong life) to invade the womb and destroy the child is just as inappropriate as boiling a kid in its mother’s milk.

Conclusion

Many things have been said in an effort to stimulate your interest and diligence in reading and studying the Old Testament. If Jesus and the apostles loved it, so should we. If they diligently studied it, so should we. It does not hinder our study of the New Testament; rather it enhances and facilitates it. It is here that we are first introduced to God, and to man. It is in the Old Testament that we observe the incredible mercy and grace of God in dealing with sinful men and women. It is here that we receive the promise of salvation, and indications of the means by which it will be provided. It is here that we become painfully aware of our need for a Savior, and that we receive an increasingly growing revelation of what He will be like. And then, when we come to the New Testament and the Gospels we can declare, “There He is.”

This is exactly the method Paul used in proclaiming the gospel to his Jewish audiences. He took the Scriptures they knew so well, and focused on those which pointed ahead to Israel’s promised Messiah. And then he proclaimed Jesus as the perfect fulfillment of all the prophecies which spoke of Messiah. This is precisely what we find in Acts chapter 7, where Stephen linked his preaching to the Old Testament Scriptures, and so also with Paul in Acts 13:13-41.

It is this message which we still proclaim today: Jesus is the Promised Messiah of the Old Testament, who has come to save lost sinners from the condemnation they deserve. If you have not come to trust in Jesus yet, read the Bible, starting in Genesis and ending in Revelation. If you have come to trust in Jesus, read this old, old, story over and over again. I guarantee that every time you read through the Bible you will see more and more about your need for salvation, and about the marvelous salvation God has provided in Jesus.

And may I give this admonition to those who profess to be a Christian and yet write off the riches of the Old Testament Scriptures. As I have been preparing this message the thought occurred to me that I am already seeing some Christians begin to write off the New Testament in exactly the same way (and for the same reasons) that they reject the Old. The epistles were also written long ago, and to a people far away, with a culture and circumstances quite different from ours. Does this make the New Testament irrelevant to us today? It does not! It must not! Read your Bible as though God is speaking to you through it, because He is.

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¹ See 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.

² Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible citations are the from NET Bible.

³ See also Acts 4:13-14; Luke 10:21-22; John 7:45-53.

⁴ It would be a very fruitful exercise to consider Paul’s words to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, as they indicate the things which accredited him and his ministry.

⁵ See 1 Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1.

⁶ I believe Paul stressed the fact that he had proclaimed the whole purpose of God – all that they needed to know – because there would always be those who came with some “new” revelation, which somehow turned men from right doctrine and practice.  We all can be like the Athenians, who were always seeking something new (Acts 17:19-21).

⁷ https://churchleaders.com/news/365513-francis-chan-missionaries-asia.html

⁸ Jude 6.

⁹ Psalm 73:28.

¹⁰ https://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Road-Emmaus-What-Message/dp/1927429943/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2O6H1FTOZK06B&keywords=john+r+cross&qid=1582303509&s=books&sprefix=John+R+Cross%2Caps%2C181&sr=1-4

¹¹ See also Genesis 3:15; 12:1-3; Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 52:13—53:12; Micah 5:2.

Answer

Dear *****,

I love questions like this. It is the way we should approach Scripture.

The answer to your question comes primarily from Genesis 17:15-22 and Genesis 21:9-21.

The first thing I would say is that Abraham seems to have been very affectionate and attached to Ishmael. After all, he was Abraham’s first-born child. As such, he would have been first in line to be Abraham’s heir, and this could not be because the Messiah was to come from the line of Isaac. Abraham apparently would have been content to have Ishmael as his heir (see Genesis 17:18; 21:11). It was necessary for Ishmael to be completely out of the picture, or there would have been problems. Thus we have Sarah’s strong insistence that he be sent away. Otherwise it seems unlikely that Abraham would have done so.

Although it would seem that sending Ishmael away with very little food was putting his life at risk, God had promised Abraham that he would make Ishmael a great nation (Genesis 21:13). The end result was that Ishmael would learn to live in wilderness places, which only served to make him strong.

Thus, when the great test of Abraham’s faith (the sacrifice of Isaac) came, Isaac was Abraham’s only hope of having an heir, and thus he must trust God to raise him to life (see Romans 4:13-25; Hebrews 11:17-19).

I hope this helps,

Bob