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
