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Five Important Old Testament Promises

Old Testament, bible study, prophecy No Responses »

Jul 292010

The Light Came On

I remember this so clearly from my Old Testament History and Geography class taught by the late Phil Roberts. I aced the class because I had such solid Bible teaching growing up in Mount Olive, AL. But my freshman year of college was the first time I realized the whole Old Testament was one big story – imagine that! I had known this to a certain extent, but my mind had never fully wrapped around the story. I walked away from that class more excited about the Bible than I had ever been – because it was all making sense.

I want to share with you the five main Scriptures we picked up along the course of the semester. Obviously, Phil Roberts did his job well because I still remember these references with no trouble at all.

1. God’s covenant with Eve – a descendant of hers would strike Satan a death blow.

Genesis 3:15 - “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

2. God’s covenant with Abraham – in him all nations would be blessed.

Genesis 12:1-3
1 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.”

3. God’s covenant with Israel – a temporary solution to sin.

Exodus 24:7-8
7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”
8 So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

God's Promises

4. God’s covenant with David - a descendant of his would sit on the throne forever.

2 Samuel 7:12-16
12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men,
15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”‘”

5. God’s promise of a new covenant – one which would grant FULL remission of sin.

Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Those are good verses to have memorized (at least memorize their locations in your Bible).

What are your favorite OT prophecies?

God bless,
Nathan

Jesus in the Old Testament

Jesus, Law of Moses, bible reading, bible study, prophecy, scripture 2 Responses »

Jul 292010

“The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ.” – Galatians 3:24

Searching the Scriptures

The Old Testament is full of references to Jesus. Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me“ (John 5:39); and then “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46-47). As Jesus was about to leave this earth, He spoke with His disciples:

Luke 24:44-47
44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Don’t you know those writings are still available to us today? We, too, can read everything that was written about our Lord in the Old Testament. In fact, we SHOULD spend time studying to understand those prophecies.

A great study drill when you read the Old Testament is to ask yourself this question: “Where is Jesus in this text?” Take, for instance, the book of Judges. Where is Jesus in the text? In some places we see glimpses of the coming Lord’s kingdom. In some cases we see direct prophecies related to Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection. In some places, the Scriptures are quite specific (i.e. Psalm 22 & Isaiah 53). In other cases, we understand pictures like the Passover Lamb and the Temple to be shadows of the reality to come.

The Old Testament is a masterpiece like no other. God wrote down His plan in great detail! He revealed Himself, His character, and His intent for men of all nations to have opportunity to believe in His Son, Jesus, and to obtain salvation. We need to spend time finding Jesus in the pages of the Old Testament. “Increase our faith, Lord!”

Comments? Questions?

God bless,
Nathan

The Old Testament Story

Old Testament, bible reading, bible study, prophecy, reading the bible No Responses »

Jul 282010

My Blueprint

As you pick up your Bible, you discover it is not just a single book. The Old Testament itself comprises 39 separate pieces of literature! As you look closer, you find the Old Testament is divided into five different sections. Men through the centuries grouped these books into logical categories.

1. Books of Moses (Law). There are five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

2. Books of the History of the Jews. There are twelve books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, two books of Samuel, two books of Kings, two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.

3. Books of Poetry / Widsom. There are five books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs).

4. Books of Major Prophets. There are five books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations (also written by Jeremiah), Ezekiel, and Daniel. These are called “major” because they are longer books.

5. Books of Minor Prophets. There are twelve books: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These are called “minor” because they are shorter books.

In each of the categories above, the books have been placed in chronological order (as close as possible). The books of Moses contain a lot of history as well as the law and Joshua picks up where Deuteronomy leaves off.

Most of the Poetry and Wisdom literature was written by kings David and Solomon and by others during their time period.

The books of the Prophets all fit back into the history somewhere. These extra writings aren’t exactly history but were written by characters in the history. For instance, the prophets Isaiah and Hosea both prophesied during the reign of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah (read about them in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles). The prophet Amos also prophesied during the reign of king Uzziah, but he prophesied to the kingdom of Israel to the north of Judah.

A good understand of how the Old Testament is compiled is extremely helpful in our studies. I always like to start from the high-level look and then work down to the details. And remember these stories were not recorded as a comprehensive history, but these sections of Scripture were selected by the Holy Spirit to be recorded and preserved for our sakes today! Every writing in the Old and New Testaments are for our learning (1 Corinthians 10:6: “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved”).

God bless,
Nathan

The Value of Moses and the Prophets

bible reading, bible study 1 Response »

Jun 302010

You Need to Read

How often do you read the Old Testament?

How often does your church study the Old Testament? There are a lot of churches which seem to have the habit of only doing topical studies, which leave the members dry when it comes to looking at complete texts. Other churches which DO have textual studies may focus on the New Testament most of the time, leaving the members with the picture that the Old Testament is still useful today, but certainly not necessary – and not as important.

Did you know that Paul ONLY had the Old Testament to work from when he presented Scripture? When Paul wrote Timothy, he said:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The Scripture of which he spoke certainly included whatever apostolic writings Timothy may have had at the time, but it DEFINITELY included the Law of Moses and the Prophets (their Scriptures). Notice that ALL of those Scriptures are profitable and can be used to train up a person in righteousness, to fully equip him for every good work. Paul said that before the New Testament was written, much less compiled into what we now understand to be the New Testament!

Study Time

Paul was impressed that Agrippa was “an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews” (Acts 26:3). As he made his defense before Agrippa, Paul said, “I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place” (Acts 26:22). Is that right? Paul preached from the Old Testament in order to testify about Christ? Absolutely! Jesus Christ did not suddenly appear without warning. Never before has there been so MUCH warning, so much preparation, for the coming of a man. Just about everything Jesus did, and every purpose for which He came, can be found in the pages of Moses and the Prophets.

We ought to study these Scriptures. If they were good for Timothy, they are good for us today! If Paul and Philip (Acts 8:32-35) could preach Jesus from the Old Testament, so can we. And so we should. Perhaps we need to change our opinion of the Old Scriptures. We were meant to have them today. Someone told me he thought the Old was a commentary on the New. That’s right. But it also works in the reverse – the New is a clarification of the Old! You can’t have a good understanding of one without the other.

God bless you in your studies,
Nathan

Do You Want to Teach Like Paul?

Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Feb 192010

Preaching Jesus

Once Paul realized that Christ IS the Son of God, he wasted no time obeying the gospel and then teaching others about it. He was saved, and he was happy about it!

1. He PROCLAIMED Jesus as the Son of God (Acts 9:20). We don’t have teach our neighbors what’s wrong with the many shades of premillenialism. We don’t have to explain John’s Revelation. We don’t have to know everything about all the Old Testament prophecies. Understanding those things certainly helps, but we just need to know Jesus is the Son of God! Tell others. Confess Him as King – the Christ – the anointed One.

2. He PROVED Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:22). How would you prove Jesus is the Christ? Could you do it with your neighbor right now? All Paul had available to him was what we call the Old Testament. He probably called it the Law and the Prophets. He used the Old Testament to show how God clearly explained His Son’s appearance on earth. Paul showed how Jesus had fulfilled all the prophecies of Scripture. And these Jews couldn’t argue – it was plain! Can we teach like Paul?

3. He spoke out BOLDLY in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 9:27). The Jews were antagonistic; in fact, they wanted to kill Paul almost everywhere he went to preach the gospel. I wonder sometimes if we are not speaking out boldly because we are not getting much negative feedback from the community. Are we speaking out at all? With whom should I start? Do I have to get on TV or the Radio to speak to my community? No – I just need to teach the next person. My next-door neighbor would be a great start. The folks in our homeschooling group would be good. I have some contacts…have I mentioned Jesus to them?

Do we want to teach like Paul? I love his passion. I love his purpose. I love his heart. I do want to teach like Paul. He’s a great example.

God bless,
Nathan

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Five Important Old Testament Promises

Jesus in the Old Testament

The Old Testament Story

The Value of Moses and the Prophets

Do You Want to Teach Like Paul?

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