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Help! I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Old Testament

Help! I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Old Testament
by: Jason S. DeRouchie
This article is part of the Help! series.

Nuturing Delight

The Old Testament (OT) is big and can feel daunting, especially because it is filled with perspectives, powers, and practices that seem so removed from Christians today. While we know that the psalmist found in it a perfect law that revives the soul, right precepts that rejoice the heart, and true rules that are altogether righteous (Ps. 19:7–9), we can struggle to really see how spending time in the initial three-fourths of the Christian Scriptures is really “sweeter than honey and dripping of the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:10). How can we nurture delight in the OT?

1. Remember that the Old Testament is Christian Scripture.

What we call the OT was the only Scripture Jesus had, and the apostles stressed that the prophets wrote God’s word to instruct Christians. Paul says, for example, that God’s guidance of Israel through the wilderness was “written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). Indeed, “whatever was written down in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).Peter emphasized that “it was revealed to them [i.e., the OT prophets] that they were serving not themselves but you”—the church (1 Peter 1:12). This means that Moses and the prophets recognized that they were writing for a future community that would be able to know, see, and hear in ways most of Israel could not (Deut. 29:4; Deut. 30:8; Isa. 29:18; Isa. 30:8; Jer. 30:1–2, 24; Jer. 31:33; Daniel 12:5–10). In short, the OT is Christian Scripture that God wrote to instruct us. As Paul tells Timothy, these “sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus,” and it is this “Scripture” that is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). Old in OT does not mean unimportant or insignificant, and we should approach the text accordingly.Jason S. DeRouchie is the author of Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and for Christ.Need a prayer? Prayer RequestsPlease subscribe to our main Ministries daily scripture study – Koa Sinag MinistriesHave a Testimony of how God has changed or intervened in your life? Tell us your story! Give God Praise!Need some inspiration? Check out others Testimonies!Have you checked out our online store? We have a tonne of fascinating and colourful PDF books, toys, kids’ apparel, and much more, including complimentary PDFs for home schoolers!
Jason S. DeRouchie (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College. He is also a content developer and global trainer for Hands to the Plow Ministries.
Read More – Go to Source Author: Jason S. DeRouchieThe post Help! I Don’t Enjoy Reading the Old Testament first appeared on Koa Sinag.

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