Hello, dear neglected blog.
I often wonder if anyone actually reads this, and wonder if it's selfish for me to write, thinking that anyone actually would be as wrapped up in me as I am to want to read my thoughts. At any rate, here I am writing, and I hope that what I have to say encourages you.
Previously...this blog has been filled with silly musings on different songs and about me's...maybe (if you read this frequently) you've gotten to know me through it. But I prefer that you know my Jesus.
For a good bit now, I've been working on reading through the entire Bible. Clearly, there is so much to learn in the small, but huge, varied, yet specific volume that relates to us the most magnificent story ever told, the story that continues to manifest itself today. There is so much truth, so much to learn, so much of His character. There is so much for me to gain, so much of myself to lose, and I am glorying and delighting in the fact that He is becoming greater and I am becoming less.
It's crazy, if you think about it. It's so against human flesh to submit to someone else making the decisions for your life, to willingly follow someone else, to submit to their wants and desires above your own. If you think about it, we serve a dictator (for all intents and purposes) who frees us from being who we are (sinners) and calls us to follow Him with no turning back. We are called to love Him and surrender to His lordship in a way that our relationships to all other things look like hate because we are so surrendered and enamored by who He is. Yet in that love for Him comes faith. And out of faith comes love, again; greater love for Him and greater love for what He loves - people - the lost, the brokenhearted, the widow, the orphan. In loving us He shows us His great grace - that while we were yet sinners, He died for us. And He calls us to show that love and grace to others. He calls us to give up everything - like He did - for the gospel and for the kingdom and glory of God.
Okay that was a bit of a tangent and not necessarily what I came here to write - but it's for free so take it while you can ;) What has really struck me as I've read through the Old and New Testament simultaneously is just how much the two connect. I think often, people in our day see "the God of the Old Testament" and "the God of the New Testament" as two different entities. I often thought that God "changed" when Jesus came on the scene, that God just changed His mind about what He'd said before and decided that all that was in the past was in the past and this is the new plan of how a relationship with Him would work.
But the more I have studied, the more I understand. God is the same - yesterday, today, and forever. John 1:1-2 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word with God. He was with God in the beginning." From the beginning was the "Word" - Jesus - and in the beginning was God. Both have existed (with the Holy Spirit) from the beginning (from before the beginning!). Thus, God, Christ, and Spirit have always been.
God is also sovereign. I feel like that's something that I "knew" but I didn't
know....if you know what I mean ;) I knew that God was above all things, that He knew what would happen before it happened, that He is in control of all things, but I didn't quite understand the implications of that. It means that before the world was created - before God ever spoke light into darkness, before morning was separated from night, before the seas and the land, before plants and vegetables and birds and bears, before the moon and stars, before God breathed life into Adam, and before Eve took the first bite of the apple - He knew that sin would enter His perfect creation. He knew that sin would happen, He knew that the fall of man would occur, He knew that His people would turn against Him (time after time), and He knew that the only way to reconcile His perfect holiness with the ugly sin of His world was to send His perfect Son to live, die, and rise - to show us what it really means to have faith, love, hope, and trust in Holy God.
He knew sin would enter, and He knew that the only way to reconcile His creation unto Himself was through the death and resurrection of Jesus. So then...why did He create the world? So that He could be glorified. Is He a jealous God? Yes, oh yes, yes He is! He is absolutely jealous for His glory. And rightly so - He is pure, holy, just, and righteous. His entire being is sheer perfection - perfect love, perfect justice, perfect holiness. He is the Creator of all things. He has the just power to condemn us to hell for our wicked sinfulness. Yet, He loves us. He loves us, so He sent His Son to die for us. He loves us, so He calls us unto Himself to surrender to His lordship. He loves us, so He allows us to praise Him and magnify His name on earth and bring Him glory. And that.....that is a humbling thought. That the Creator of the Universe would call us to Himself and allow us to serve Him? He has no need for us. But He allows us serve Him, to be His hands and feet in a crooked and depraved generation. He allows us to praise Him, and He allows us to bring Him glory. Those are the things that bring me to my knees, showing me that I am completely inadequate to do anything.....all is by the power of His loving grace.
Okay. So if God is the same from the beginning till now and is sovereign over all creation, what are the implications for the Old Testament and the New Testament? The same God is Lord over both.
In the Old Testament, we find creation, Adam & Eve, the Fall of Man, Abraham, Moses and the 10 Commandments and the Law, a group of Jewish people who never seem to be able to get it right and keep it right, and a whole, whole bunch more!
The people of the Old Testament were given the 10 Commandments, the Law, and faith in God. The Commandments and the Law were given to the people so that they could know and understand right from wrong. We often take the law and commandments for granted, because we've always heard of them. Yet, the Jewish people had no clear direction of what was right and what was wrong before God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. These things were good; they showed the people of Israel what pleased God and what didn't. But ultimately, their obedience of God's law had to come from a sincere heart with a faith in Him and His promises. In Hebrews, the author testifies that
by faith the Jews of the Old Testament were counted as righteous before God. The Jews were held to the same standard we are - faith that manifests itself in love and obedience to God. Their faith was just contingent on who
was to come, while our faith is on He who
has come and He who
will return again!
I think one of the biggest things that studying the Old Testament has taught me is the importance of knowing it when studying the NT. Sure, we can read the stories in the NT and glean valuable applications to our lives without taking the OT into account, but by knowing and understanding the OT, we can understand better where the Pharisees and Jews are coming from. We can understand better
why they have such a hard time believing in Jesus - because they had constructed a false idea of who their Savior would be based on worldly interpretations of God's promises. We can understand better why the Jewish people become so indignant about things Jesus says (pertaining to things like blood, see below). In knowing those things and the implications the OT has on the NT, we can better grasp what is happening in the NT, better know the character of Christ, and better carry that on in our lives. It is a truly beautiful thing!
Studying the OT has also really helped me to understand the Jews more. Not that I condone the fact that they continually struggle with serving God or serving the flesh, but the more I study them, the less and less I can condemn them as I see the plank in my own eye! Yes, the Jews strayed from God - but so do we. The Jews had Baal.....I have Facebook. Both are idols that take the place of God and we must be careful not to worship them. God is our delight and glory alone!
I have learned so much through this but I just have so many questions! Something I'm really interested in studying is how Jesus fulfills the law. There are so many questions I have that I hope to learn more about. Some of my favorites that I'd like to learn more about are:
- Prior to the coming of Jesus, only the priest could enter behind the veil into the Holy of Holies and speak directly with God. When Christ was crucified, the veil was torn - from top to bottom - showing that anyone could now enter into and speak directly with God. The crucifixion of Christ conferred upon Him the death that comes with our sin, yet He overcame that death and rose again, conferring upon those whom He calls unto Himself righteousness and the ability to confer with God.
- Blood. In the Old Testament, Jews were prohibited from eating the blood of an animal. Deuteronomy 12:23 says, "But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat." The Jews were also called to make blood sacrifices of animals (Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.") The blood - the lifeline for humans/animals - was not to be eaten or drunk by the Jews; it was to be poured off in cooking and was also to be offered to the Lord as an atonement for sins. The blood of Jesus became the lifeline for humans as He was poured out as an offering for us. Now....think for a minute about what it must have been like to be a Jew (even a disciple) when Jesus was on earth and commanded things like, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:53-54). For their entire lives, Jews have been commanded to not drink/eat the blood - the lifeline - of an animal. Yet here is this Man - this Jesus - who, if you're a Pharisee, has already been causing you problems, and here He is saying 'drink my blood'? Thinking about it in those terms, it's easier to understand why the Pharisees and, often even the disciples, would become confused about the things Jesus said. They did not understand that He came to take the place of their sacrifices and the blood that they were not allowed to drink (the lifeline of other animals). They did not understand that through His death, believers would metaphorically drink His blood and come into His perfect lifeline. ....I hope that I can learn more about this and the implications of blood to Jews and believers! It's so cool to me!
Okay well....this has probably become long enough for now. I apologize for the length, and I thank you if you cared enough to read through the whole thing. I hope that you might've learned something or been encouraged by what I've been learning. God is so good and faithful to teach us!
