Resources to Help Your Understanding of the Old Testament

This past Sunday morning, I preached a sermon titled "Christ, the Christian, and the Old Testament" from Matthew 5:17-18. In that sermon, I encouraged our congregation to make a renewed commitment to a more regular reading of the Old Testament and to see all the ways it's fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

As a follow-up and as an effort to assist in that task, I thought I would recommend a few resources that I have found helpful for developing a better understanding of the Old Testament and for seeing its fulfillment in Christ. The first two books are great reference works that provide a book-by-book survey of the Old Testament. The Demptser volume is a theology of the Hebrew Bible. And the others are all brief paperbacks oriented toward helping us understand the Old Testament as ultimately fulfilled in and through Jesus.

• An Introduction to the Old Testament, Tremper Longman III and Raymond Dillard

• Old Testament Theology, Paul House

• Dominion and Dynasty, Stephen Dempster 

• Gospel and Kingdom, Graeme Goldsworthy 

• The Scriptures Testify About Me, D.A. Carson

• The Unfolding Mystery, Edmund Clowney 

• What Is Biblical Theology?, Jim Hamilton

• God's Big Picture, Vaughan Roberts 

The Morning Star of the Reformation

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of the era just prior to the Reformation. It is a portrait of John Wycliffe (known as "The Morning Star of the Reformation"), who laid the groundwork for folks like Luther and Tyndale. Notice Wycliffe resisting the Roman Catholic authorities and clinging ever so tightly to his English Bible - something for which he eventually would be martyred.

This portrait says a lot about the significance of the time period leading up to and including the Reformation, and it speaks volumes about the incredible treasure of having the Bible translated in your own language. Thanks be to God for raising up men like John Wycliffe!

Here is the plaque that accompanies the painting at St. James Clerkenwell.

DeYoung on "How to Be Better Bereans"

Kevin DeYoung has a three-part series of very helpful posts on ten ways to be better Bereans.

The Jews in Berea, it is said, were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). How telling–for them and for us–that nobility is measured not by titles, land, parentage, wealth, or degrees, but by how we handle the word of God. Our approach to the Scriptures sets us apart as riff-raff or royalty.

So how do we become better Bereans?

He posted three ways on Tuesday, four today, and will post the final three tomorrow.

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

Check back there on Thursday for the final three

The Precious Treasure of the Bible

"What a precious treasure God has committed into our hands in that he has given us the Bible. How little do most persons consider how much they enjoy in that they have the possession of that holy book....What an excellent book is this, and how far exceeding all human writings....He that has a Bible, and doesn't observe what is contained [in] it, is like a man that has a box full of silver and gold, and doesn't know it."

--Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Jonathan Edwards and the Ministry of the Word, Douglas Sweeney

"Love for a Bible Not Read: A Call for Biblical Literacy"

Al Mohler calls for the church to wake up to the danger of biblical illiteracy in this Southern Seminary Magazine article, "Love for a Bible Not Read: A Call for Biblical Literacy."  It's fairly brief, so I've posted the entire article below:

While America’s evangelical Christians are rightly concerned about the secular worldview’s rejection of biblical Christianity, we ought to give some urgent attention to a problem much closer to home: biblical illiteracy in the church. This scandalous problem is our own, and it’s up to us to fix it.

Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely: “Americans revere the Bible — but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.” Researchers tell us that it is worse than most could imagine.

Fewer than half of all adults can name the four Gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from one research group, 60 percent of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments. Americans may demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in the courthouse, but they seem unable to remember what exactly they are.

According to 82 percent of Americans, “God helps those who help themselves,” is a Bible verse. Those identified as born-again Christians did better — by one percent. A majority of adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one’s family.

One poll indicates that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors reveals that more than 50 percent thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. We are in big trouble.

How can a generation be biblically shaped in its understanding of human sexuality when it believes Sodom and Gomorrah to be a married couple? Many who identify themselves as Christians are similarly confused about the gospel itself. An individual who believes that “God helps those who help themselves” will find salvation by grace and justification by faith to be alien concepts.

Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge. Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation’s time and attention. The move to small group ministry has certainly increased opportunities for fellowship, but many of these groups never get beyond superficial Bible study.

This really is our problem, and recovery starts at home. Parents are to be the first and most important educators of their own children, teaching them the Word of God. Parents cannot franchise out their responsibility to the congregation, no matter how faithful it may be.

Churches must recover the centrality and urgency of biblical teaching and preaching.

We will not believe more than we know, and we will not live higher than our beliefs. The many fronts of Christian compromise in this generation can be directly traced to biblical illiteracy in the pews and the absence of biblical preaching and teaching in our homes and churches.

This generation must get deadly serious about the problem of biblical illiteracy, or a frighteningly large number of Americans — many church members included — will go on thinking that Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after.

And Still New Beauties May We See

Father of Mercies, In Thy Word
Anne Steele, 1716-1778

Father of mercies, in Thy Word
What endless glory shines!
Forever be Thy name adored
For these celestial lines.

Here may the wretched sons of want
Exhaustless riches find;
Riches above what earth can grant,
And lasting as the mind.

Here the fair tree of knowledge grows
And yields a free repast;
And richer fruits than nature shows
Invite the longing taste.

Amidst these gloomy wilds below,
When dark and sad we stray,
Here beams of Heaven relieve our woe,
And guide to endless day.

Here springs of consolation rise
To cheer the fainting mind,
And thirsty souls receive supplies,
And sweet refreshment find.

Here the Redeemer’s welcome voice
Spreads heavenly peace around
And life and everlasting joys
Attend the blissful sound.

Oh, may these hallowed pages be
Our joy by day and night,
And still new beauties may we see,
And still increasing light.

Divine Instructor, gracious Lord,
O grant our fervent prayer,
Teach us to love Thy sacred Word,
And view the Savior there.

Our Desperate Need for the Word of God

It has become all too common in our world today to hear well-meaning people say things like, "Look inside yourself" or "Listen to your heart" (and its twin, "Follow your heart").  The implied truth underneath such statements is that everything we need for guidance and governance in life can be found within.  We have no need for anything external to guide and govern our thoughts or our actions.

But the Word of God shatters such illusions, reminding us that our hearts are prone to lead us astray (and therefore should often not be listened to or followed).  We need to look outside ourselves to the Word of God in order to rightly find guidance and governance of our lives.  And sadly, we often need visible reminders to call our attention to the fact that we should not look within but without, to the external Word. 

Hear what the LORD told Moses to tell the Israelites in Numbers 15:37-39 (emphasis mine):

The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after."   

A Simple Yet Profound Statement about the Bible

In his new book, Taking God Seriously: Vital Things We Need to Know, J. I. Packer makes a simple yet profound statement about the Bible.  He says, "The Bible is both God-given and God-giving...."  God-given and God-giving.  That's not only a nice turn of phrase; it is vitally true and crucial for us to understand.  Because the Bible is God-given, it is authoritative, trustworthy, and accurate.  And because the Bible is God-giving, it is powerful, "living and active," and self-revealing.  This has enormous implications for how we read the Bible, for how we preach and teach the Bible, and for how we hear the Bible preached and taught.

So fellow preachers and teachers, remember this as you stand before God's people this Sunday to proclaim the Word.  Remember that the Bible is God-given and therefore authoritative and true.  But remember also that it is God-giving and therefore powerful and able.  You are not just giving people the Word of God; you are giving them God through his Word!          

The Bible Is a Humbling Book

Rich Mullins on why we were given the Scriptures (put in a way that only Rich could put it):

We were given the Scriptures not so that we could prove that we are right about everything, but we were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing...which is what makes the Bible so fun to read (especially if you're not a fundamentalist).

--Rich Mullins 

Parallels within the Pentateuch

There are a number of parallels that exist within the pages of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible). They go to show the consistency and unity of the Scriptures, and they also serve as a reminder to us that what happened at the beginning of human history serves as something of a pattern for the rest of human history.

This is why, for instance, there are numerous parallels between the Garden of Eden and the Land of Promise. Canaan was seen as a new Eden (and Israel was something of a new Adam). So it shouldn't surprise us to see that just as Adam was given a clear command by God in Eden, along with a reminder that disobedience to that command would bring about certain death, Israel also was given clear commands as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, as well as a reminder that certain death would be the result of their disobedience.

Notice the parallels, then, between Genesis 2:15-17 and Deuteronomy 30:15-18.

1) The presence of the LORD God - the covenant God
2) Clear command(s) - forbidden tree/the Mosaic law
3) A specific place or land - Eden/Canaan
4) A gracious warning - certain death is the result of disobedience

I have highlighted these parallels in italics below:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17)

"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess." (Deuteronomy 30:15-18)

The Parallels between Israel's Indwelling Enemies and Believers' Indwelling Sin

In the Old Testament, Israel was commanded to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan once they conquered the land. In the New Testament, believers are commanded to drive out the sin that still dwells within. Neither of these commands were (or are) fully obeyed. And sadly, our disobedience brings about the same consequences.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. (Numbers 33:55)

Lord, by your grace and through your Spirit, drive out the sins that act as barbs in my eyes, thorns in my side, and trouble to my soul.

A Guide to Christ-Focused Reading of Scripture

For those of you who preach or teach the Bible (or anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the Bible), Michael Williams' new book, How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens: A Guide to Christ-Focused Reading of Scripture, looks to be a very helpful resource.

If you want to read a sample chapter, the one on Genesis is available here.

There is a brief chapter for every book of the Bible, and each chapter contains the following:

• a succinct statement of the theme of that book
• an explanation of how that theme finds its focus in Christ
• a brief discussion of how the New Testament treats that theme as fulfilled in Christ
• suggestions for contemporary implications

Loving God, Loving His Word

"You can measure a person's opinion of God by his or her opinion of God's Word. That's why a person who loves God loves His Word, and the person who hates God rejects what God has spoken."

--Jonathan Leeman, Reverberation

You Can't Trust the Bible, Can You?

See Vaughan Roberts' answer to that question in this brief video.

While you're there, check out the entire Christianity Explored site and consider making use of CE at your church.

And for a helpful overview of the storyline of the Bible, check out Vaughan Robert's book, God's Big Picture.

The Era of the Ear, Not the Eye

"People say this is a visual age. Every age is a visual age. We are made to crave the immediacy of sight. We naturally desire to see God immediately, but that blessing was taken from us at the fall. We live in salvation history in the era, not of the eye, but of the ear. One day that glorious immediacy of seeing God will be restored to us - that is the climax of the Bible! That is the consummation we find in Revelation 22:4 - we shall see God!"

--Mark Dever

Our God, the Poet

What beautifully comforting and vividly poetic words the Lord uses in this promise of his Word:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.

--Isaiah 35:1-2a

The Infiniteness of the Inner Relationships of the Bible

"As a whole the Scriptures are God's revealing Word. Only in the infiniteness of its inner relationships, in the connection of Old and New Testaments, of promise and fulfillment, sacrifice and law, law and gospel, cross and resurrection, faith and obedience, having and hoping, will the full witness to Jesus Christ the Lord be perceived."

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

The Great Spoil to be Found in Scripture

"I rejoice at your word
like one who finds great spoil."
(Psalm 119:162)

I wonder if our all too often joyless reading of the Scriptures is due to the fact that we don't approach them with the wide-eyed wonder and excitement of discovering a great treasure. There is spoil to be found and joy to be had for those who will hunt it!

Unfolding the Word of God

"The unfolding of your words gives light..." (Psalm 119:130).

This is not just a promise for preachers and teachers (though it certainly has profound implications for us). But it is also a promise for everyone who will open the Bible, ask the Spirit to unfold the truth of what is there, and then bask in the warm glow of the light of the gospel.

The Consoling, Heart-Cheering Word of God

"When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul." (Psalm 94:19)