Why read the Old Testament when you have the New?

II Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting

and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped

for every good work.

As a little girl, I thought the Old Testament (OT) portion of the Bible was, well, OLD! It was all trials and tribulations and battles and slimy pits.  UGH! Who wants to “live” there? 

Conversely, I thought the New Testament (NT) portion was the fresh, rockin’ NEW place to be, for it was filled with miracles and Jesus-stories and HOPE!  After all, Jesus came to make all things new, so didn’t that mean that the OT was outdated, even obsolete?  No one in my life would probably admit to thinking such thoughts, but it certainly was implied.  Or maybe, it was just assumed by me - young, righteous whipper-snapper that I was!

Then life happened.

Bad life. 

Suddenly my life was ALL “trials and tribulations and battles and slimy pits.”  Suddenly, the OT was screaming to me as valid, alive and very applicable to my life. The people in the OT “got me.” 

The life-line I want to throw your way today is this:  do not neglect the reading of the Old Testament, for

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting

and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped

for every good work.

II Timothy 3:16-17

ALL of scripture! In the OT I have found solace and, truly – ironically – all I sought in the New:   “miracles and Jesus-stories and HOPE!”  (Yep, before-He-became-a-man Jesus is in the Old Testament!)  The OT shines hope into the bleakest of circumstances: crumbled cities, valleys of dry bones, years-upon-years of destruction by locusts, rejected and sin-filled lives and hearts. 

Some samples of stories that have sustained me:

·      The Story of Joseph (Genesis 37 and following), with its beautiful, echoing refrain:  “And the Lord was with Joseph.”
·      Psalm, after psalm  . . . Notably: 32-34, 51, 62.
·      The writings of the prophets, notably Isaiah 61 and Jeremiah 29.
·      Even Job – the hardest story of all in the OT has become my friend and brought me hope.

In the Old Testament I have encountered very REAL people with very REAL agonies; I have learned that my very REAL God not only wants me to be real, but He can HANDLE IT.   Embracing the “ugh” of the Old Testament has helped me wrestle with the “ugh” of my own life . . . and led me to a deeper, more intimate walk with the Lord.

Perhaps you are longing for a way to new life, too? 

May I suggest that you might just find the pathway to the New winding through the OLD?