Rationale for Studying the Old Testament

Most churches and denominations seem to have a Bible which is 12 pages long; or, for some, a couple hundred pages long at best.  No matter what kind of a church you go to, it is highly unlikely that you offer up animal sacrifices during your Saturday services.  The services at your church, whether you belong to a church driven by covenant theology or dispensationalism, are probably less bloody and take place on Sundays (by the way, the fact that you do not offer up animal sacrifices and meet on Sunday makes you, to some extent, a dispensationalist).

God the Holy Spirit has given us the entire Bible.  He has seen to it that the Old Testament has been marvelously preserved by several different groups, groups who have been, at various times, at odds with one another.  Therefore, even though we do not have 26,000 ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament, we have the Old Testament preserved in Hebrew by the Masorites (Jews), in Greek by the one set of Christians (the Greek Orthodox church among other more independent groups), in Latin by the Catholic Church, and in Syriac and Arabic by other groups.  All of these preserved versions are available to us today, and, remarkably enough, the dissimilarities are minor and are of a non-doctrinal nature.  We are speaking of groups who, at various times, have been at odds with one another, and they all preserved the same Scriptures, the Scriptures used early on by the Apostles to the Church.  Therefore, if God the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve these Scriptures in such an incredible way, then we, as believers in Jesus Christ, ought to study them as well.  All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness (2Tim. 3:16).

The Old Testament is not designed for us to take a few verses from in order to support some cultic doctrine, e.g., the continued observation of the Sabbath (Saturday).  That is, the local churches doctrine should not reach back and quote the 4th Commandment, add in The Scripture cannot be broken along with and there remains a Sabbath for the people of God (Heb. 4:9), and, since God created the Sabbath observation even before the Jewish nation (Gen. 2:1–3), we should therefore observe the Sabbath.  It is a simple argument based upon what appear to be fairly straightforward verses; but the problem is, these verses are taken out of context, and the close association with the church and the first day of the week is completely ignored.

What I mean is, the Old Testament should be thoroughly studied, and taken in its historical and doctrinal context.  The Old Testament tells us about God’s workings with man; we find the Trinity in the first chapter of Genesis; we find the Angelic Conflict presented in greater detail in the Old Testament (e.g., Job 1–2); and we find so much material on God’s relationship to the Jews that we would be theologically remiss to think that the Church is the new Jew.

Obviously, Church Age-specific doctrines are going to come from the epistles; the 4 accounts of the life of Jesus will come from the gospels; and eschatology is going to be found in Revelation.  However, Psalm 22 and Isa. 53 provide us with more detailed information about the cross than we read in the gospels; there are passages in Daniel, Jeremiah and Isaiah which also tell us about the end times.  And, very importantly, when we study the Old Testament and see how clearly that Jesus Christ is presented, time and time again, it helps to bolster our faith in Him and our trust of Holy Writ.  I fully understand how believers can lose their way, or question their faith, or question God.  However, the more you know about the Old Testament, the more difficult it is for you to go astray from your faith, as it all fits together much too well to just to have happened.

Therefore, if you have a reasonable understanding of Dispensational theology (i.e., you understand that God worked through the Jews and through the nation Israel for many centuries before the Incarnation and now God is working through a new institution, the church), then it is not just reasonable, but imperative that you study the Old Testament as well as the New.  However, you must be careful to be under a teacher who is not going to try to subjugate you to the Law or to any doctrine or practice which is specifically for the Jew in the Age of Israel.

Personally, I have no idea why I got so interested in the Old Testament.  I’ve gone through a detailed exegetical study of almost every New Testament book and for ¾ths of the Old Testament.  However, when I went back to exegete the Bible for myself, beginning in Genesis (with the intention of jumping back and forth between the Old and New Testaments), I ended up staying in the Old Testament.  I would venture into the New Testament now and again, and obviously, the doctrine which guides my life is found primarily in the New Testament; still, I have found myself inexplicably drawn to the Old Testament.

What I can tell you is, in most studies I have seen of the Old Testament, there are three things which are too often missing: (1) details; (2) application; and (3) a clear relationship to the New Testament.

When it comes to details, my exegesis might even be somewhat over the top.  I spent 4000 pages exegeting the book of 1Samuel.  Every word found in the Masoretic text is covered and its morphology (this portion can easily be skipped over, by the way); almost every take on every passage is covered; I summarize and re-summarize the material; and my hope is, after going through a chapter in this or that book, that you clearly understand pretty much every detail in that book; and where there are disputations, that you understand what they are and why this or that side is chosen.  My intention is to have a one-stop commentary of the books of Judges and Samuel (and whatever else I can cover in my lifetime), so that, after reading my commentary, you will find no reason to explore other commentaries—you will feel as though you have learned all you can learn about that book.

I found a lot of devotional crap and tangents in the commentaries that I read, but very little application.  When we study David killing groups of Philistines, what should we get out of this?  How do we apply this to our own lives?  Every few verses, I’ll stop and directly tie what we are studying in the Old Testament to your life.

Finally, that the Old Testament is clearly the foundation for all that occurs in the New, I find to be amazing.  For instance, the parallels between the person of Samuel and the Lord Jesus Christ are incredible, and rarely exploited by any commentator.  The unique and most incredible aspect of Samuel’s life is ignored again and again by commentators, and yet is so closely tied to Jesus Christ that, when you see me present it, you will wonder, why didn’t anyone else see this?  My point is, God clearly recorded information in the Old Testament that we need for a number of different things; He designed the entire Holy Bible to fill up our entire lives.  He designed Scripture so that we can go back again and again and get more and more from each passage, no matter how deeply we dig into that passage.

I do not believe for an instant that all of the spiritual gifts distributed the Church Age believers are found listed in the New Testament.  James Strong put together Strong’s Concordance; even though the gifts he possessed in order to put this concordance together are not named specifically in the New Testament, it should be clear that this was the purpose of God the Holy Spirit for this man’s life.  I don’t know what else he did, but this is a defining work.  There are hundreds of men, if not thousands, who have written outstanding reference works which have have been directly and indirectly helpful to millions of believers.  To me, one of the great—and relatively recent—literary works is Josh McDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict (or, any of its many incarnations).  I know very little about McDowell and his relationship to Campus Crusade, but I do know that this is an outstanding book which serves to bolster the faith of any believer who reads it.  So, even though the New Testament does not mention authorship as a spiritual gift, I have no doubt that this is one of McDowell’s gifts, for which many believers today are quite thankful.  I mention this because I believe that my interest and production in the exegesis of the Old Testament is my gift.  This is my own driving purpose; this is what gets me up in the mornings.