Thoughts on the Old Testament

Well, after much deliberation and begging from my wife, I am finally going to write something in this blog, since technically it is both of ours.

I was deciding what to write about and thought maybe writing about a sermon I listened to about Jacob and Esau would be good. Then my old roommate wrote about that and caused quite a ruckus, so I will not write about that quite yet. Instead I want to write about a common theme I noticed this past 7 months while reading a "Bible in a year" guide. As any guide such as this would, I began reading through the Old Testament on January 1st, and will be done with the whole Bible by December 31st. I will not even get to the New Testament until October 12th. My whole hope in reading this would be to understand the character of God more (since the OT speaks much more about his character than the NT does), know the story of God’s redemption of his people throughout history (an idea that Calvin spoke a bit about), and get a firmer grasp on the joy that is Christ. I figured that without understanding the Old Covenant better, I could not truly appreciate the New Covenant. Anyway, I am currently reading Isaiah, and enjoying myself thoroughly. One common thread I noticed throughout the OT is how God cares so much that people know him. His glory and name are extremely important. Isaiah 46:6-7 says (this is talking about the Babylonians who make idols): "Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship! They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from trouble." After reading this I instantly thought of the Golden Calf incident with the Israelites when they were in the desert with Moses. One thing that is not usually well-known is that the Israelites believed they were making that calf to the LORD. Exodus 32:5 says, "When Aaron saw this [the golden calf], he built an alter before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD." Now what do these two Bible passages have to do with each other? God cares immensely that we know Him for who He is. He does not want us to create what we like best about Him. We cannot pick and choose what He is like. Humans must submit, bow down and worship God, regardless of if we agree or disagree that he hates sin. Regardless of whether or not we think God is close minded because he finds homosexuality to be an abomination. God is God; we are not. This is why it is so important to use the Bible to know God. Christians believe that God made Himself known to humans by using words. Since the Holy Spirit was within the men who wrote the Bible, it can be trusted as inerrant truth. To know God rightly we must test everything through the Bible. And once we do that, we can see His glory, know His truth, and worship Him rightly. Not make an idol, which we can call to, and it will not answer us. But know a real God, who is dangerous and dreadful at times, but whose power is used to show us grace, mercy and unfailing love.

-Jeremy