Why Should I Read the Old Testament Today?

Perhaps you have tried to read the Bible in a year, and then something happens to your good intentions. You hit Leviticus, Proverbs, maybe you make it to the prophets. But you just run out of steam. You like the Old Testament in places, but in other places it is just too hard to understand. Which is true, it can be hard to understand. The Westminster Confession notes (1.7): 

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. 

It’s alright to admit that something is hard to understand. Theologians think it’s hard to understand at times. My goal here is to show the worth of regular reading from the Old Testament. 

The Old Testament Bolsters our faith in God’s promises 

Sometimes the Old Testament is used for its prophecies. Christmas comes around and we dust off our favorite Old Testament passages like Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 9, 11, 53; and Micah 5. The summary story of the Bible is told from Old to New, and our faith is strengthened. And this is a great way and reason to read the Old Testament. But there are a few less obvious reasons too. 

The First Century Bible and Songbook 

Perhaps the most underrated reason to read the Old Testament is that it was the Bible for Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church. To see this, you only need to look at cross references from the New Testament back to the Old. Let’s take a closer look at two passages from the New Testament. 

In Luke 4, we get the fullest account of Jesus teaching in his hometown synagogue, where he read the selection from the prophet Isaiah. In this passage we note that going into the synagogue on the Sabbath was his custom (v. 16). It may be that Jesus’ custom was to read in the service. But we know it was his custom to hear the Old Testament and sing the Psalms on Saturday. 

In fact, Jesus’ teaching ministry is often presented to us as shaped by the Old Testament. The vineyard parables remind one of passages like Isaiah 5; the Sermon on the Mount has parallels to Mount Sinai; in Luke 4, Jesus describes his ministry using the Old Testament. Perhaps most startling to us is from Luke 24:27, “[Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

We see this in the apostolic preaching as well. Like in Peter’s Pentecost Sermon in Acts 2 where he weaves together many passages. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 relies on the “Scriptures.” Paul is teaching about the resurrection. He begins, 

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve… 

Twice Paul here refers to the work of Christ as “according to the Scriptures.” He does not mean the New Testament here, which is at best in its infancy. Instead, Paul is directing the Corinthian church to the Old Testament. The church in a Greek speaking Roman colony is told that the Jewish Scriptures pointed to the work of their own Messiah. 

The Old Testament deepens your understanding of Christ 

Paul does this because the Old Testament provides the concepts and vocabulary of the New. What does it mean that Jesus is the “Christ”? What does it mean that he is the “Son of man”? What are prophets, priests, and kings supposed to do and be? All of these questions are answered in the Old Testament. 

Take briefly the title “Christ.” It was employed as a translation of “messiah” by the Greek translations of the Old Testament. Not knowing this, Greek people likely mistook it for the name Chrēstus. The Roman historian Seutonius seems to do so in his Life of Claudius: 

Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrēstus, he [Claudius] expelled them from Rome.

Many scholars believe this is a reference to Christ. Apart from the religious significance in Israel, the adjective “Christ” meant something to be smeared on like a salve, it wasn’t a title or name. 

To understand “Christ” we need to understand our Old Testament’s teaching on anointing. That is just one aspect where to understand Jesus, we must turn to the Old Testament. The Epistle to the Hebrews is another instance where much of its central chapters examine the Priesthood fulfilled in Christ. 

Conclusion

When we open our New Testament, Jesus and the apostles consistently point us back to the Scriptures of Israel. Studying the temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and everything else helps us to understand more fully the work of Christ.