The Bible study group I’m leading right now is in its third week. We’ve answered these two questions over the past two meetings:
- What is the Bible? The inspired, infallible, complete, word of God.
- What is the Bible about? Jesus, from start to finish.
The first question we answered by looking at our denomination’s statement of faith on the Bible.
The second question we answered by exploring some of the promises in the Old Testament that were later fulfilled by Christ in the New. We also took a look at how the stories of the Old Testament show us different facets of Christ. And we watched this video:
The second question we answered by exploring some of the promises in the Old Testament that were later fulfilled by Christ in the New. We also took a look at how the stories of the Old Testament show us different facets of Christ. And we watched this video:
Portion of a sermon from Tim Keller, Redeemer Church NYC
Tonight we’ll look at a third question: “What is in the Old Testament?” We’ll discuss geography, storyline, and characters. But first we’ll talk a little about some typical views of God and compare that to what the Old Testament teaches. For example, here are three common “boxes” people put God in:
- God is a benevolent, grandfatherly gentleman, always ready to pat us on the back and say, “Don’t worry, dear one. It doesn’t matter what you do, I will forgive you.” A German poet and journalist, Heinriche Heine (1797-1856), said this on his deathbed when asked by a priest if he thought God would forgive him of his sin, “Of course God will forgive me; that's his job.” The Russian Empress, Catherine the Great (1762-1796) actually beat him to the punch line, though, when she said, “I shall be an autocrat, that's my trade; and the good Lord will forgive me, that's his.” Is God a forgiving God? Absolutely! But the Old Testament shows us a God who is also Holy (Isaiah 6:1-10) and Just (Psalm 89:14).
- God created everything and now He’s just sitting back watching from a distance, if He watches at all. He doesn’t care about my day-to-day life, my decisions, my sufferings, my sin. This would be called a deist view of God. But in the Old Testament, we see a God who is intimately involved with His people, directing them, loving them, disciplining them…. He is a God who speaks, who writes, who commands. He is most definitely a personal God. He intervenes in history and nature to bring His purposes about. The stories that show this in the Old Testament are myriad and way to many to list here. But you could start with the story of Abraham’s call in Genesis 12 and just keep reading!
- God is a tit-for-tat God. If I do this for Him, He’ll do that for me. If I pray, follow the rules, read my Bible, have my quiet time, God will make sure I don’t lose my job, that my children don’t rebel, and that my marriage doesn’t fail. Definitely in the Old Testament we see God telling His people if you will obey Me, I will bless you. But we see in Genesis 15, where God “cuts a covenant” with Himself, declaring it is up to Him alone to fulfill the promises to Abraham of land, off-spring, and a people through whom He would eventually bless all the nations. In the same way, we are shown in the New Testament that our salvation is not up to us, not up to the “works” we might perform to please God, but it is completely, from start to finish, from God. Even the faith we need to believe in Christ is a gift. (Ephesians 2:8).
What’s your view?
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1 comment:
Well, you can't bargain with God by saying if I do what He wants, He'll give me what I want. We can look at Job and see the trials he went through, God did bless him in the end and he multiplied those blessings, but Job lost so much before he received those blessings. We have to realize that we need to be faithful through the bad times as well as the good always praising His Name and thanking Him for all things.
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