Why Christians Can't Reject the Old Testament

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).

John 1:40-41

Have you ever heard someone say that the God of the Old Testament isn’t the same God we find in the New Testament? Or maybe you've come across someone who rejects the Old Testament but is happy to accept the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus? A single word in the passage above, along with many other New Testament passages, reveals the error in that thinking. 

Sometimes we get confused and start to think of "Christ" as Jesus’ last name. But it wasn’t part of His name at all. His name was Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the son of Joseph the carpenter. ‌‌"Christ" is simply the Greek word for "Messiah." And what both words mean is “anointed one.”

‌The great Jewish hope was for a Messiah or a Christ- an anointed king to come. And the Old Testament promises over and over again that He would come from the line of King David and would restore and repair David’s fallen tent. This Messiah would be a king. He would sit on David’s throne, and his kingdom would even surpass David's kingdom in glory. The Messiah would destroy the enemies of God's people and He would bring about a new order of justice and peace and prosperity for them.*

‌‌So, when we as Christians say that we believe in Jesus Christ, we are connecting our faith to the Old Testament and to the promises that God made to the Jewish people there. We are claiming a continuity with the Old Testament. We are claiming that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, that He is the promised Messiah.

T‌his rules out the idea that we can somehow reject the God of the Old Testament while we embrace the God of the New Testament. Jesus' very identity binds the two testaments together. Remove either testament and the life and ministry of Jesus Christ makes no sense. It was the God of the Old Testament that sent Jesus, and it was the God of the Old Testament that Jesus submitted to and obeyed all His earthly life. Christians can’t reject the Old Testament or the God that we find there, precisely because Jesus flows out of its pages. So, we as Christians must be a people of the book, all of the book. You cannot write-off the Old Testament and follow Jesus Christ.

‌*Gonzalez, Justo L. The Apostle’s Creed for Today. (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY) 2007, p30.

Daniel Prayed All the More

In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

Daniel 9:1–3

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D‌aniel had been carried into exile in babylon from Judah as a young man. He had spent his whole life living in a strange land among a strange people. And perhaps more than anything what Daniel wanted was to see was for his people to return from exile to their own land. 

In the verses aboive Daniel has apparently been ‌reading part of the book of Jeremiah. And he has found where God promised Jeremiah that the Babylonian exile would only last 70 years and that after that He will restore His people to their land. (Daniel might have read this in Jeremiah 29:10). Upon reading this Daniel realizes that the 70 years of exile  are almost up. And that prompts him to pray. 

Think about that for a moment. Daniel prays for God to do what God has already promised He will do. ‌‌As the fulfillment of God’s promise approached, Daniel didn't fall silent and wait for it to come. No! He’s like a spectator at a race who has seen his runner top the hill and start down the home stretch. Daniel cheers all the louder and prays all the more as God’s fulfillment approaches.

Here’s a lesson on prayer for us. God’s promises don’t make prayer a pointless endeavor. They encourage us to pray all the more. They give us the confidence to pray. And you don’t quit praying when God begins to answer your prayer. You pray all the harder until you have what you ask for!*

* I'm indebted to the great Puritan Pastor Matthew Henry for this insight. Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Da 9:1.

Take Your Problems to the Lord

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

2 Kings 19:14

The King of Assyria had declared war on King Hezekiah's people. He had conquered all of Hezekiah's fortified cities. He had sent a large army right up to the gates of Hezekiah's capital city of Jerusalem. Now, he has sent a threatening letter to King Hezekiah trying to convince him to surrender instead of fight.

Put yourself in King Hezekiah’s shoes. How would you respond? Your life, the lives of your family, your soldiers, and your people all hang in the balance. They're all relying on you. If you don’t get this right, many will suffer and die. What would you do?

The eyes of every man, woman and child in Jerusalem were turned to Hezekiah to see what he would do, but Hezekiah’s eyes were turned to the Lord. Hezekiah didn’t say anything to the messengers who delivered the letter. He didn’t convene his war council. He didn’t seek the advice of the wise men. He didn’t even go up to the prophet Isaiah to ask him what he should do. Hezekiah took his problem to the Lord. 

Hezekiah went straight to the temple and spread out the scroll the King of Assyria had sent to him. He laid it's threatening and blasphemous message out before the Lord...and he prayed

This is such a beautiful picture of prayer. So often we take our problems to our friends or spouses or anywhere else but to God. But we must to learn to be like Hezekiah. We must learn to lay our problems out before the Lord in prayer. This is what prayer is. Getting on your knees before God, spreading your problems out before Him, and asking for His help. That is how you ought to pray.

Take Your Sorrows to the Lord

In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.

1 Samuel 1:10

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Hannah lived in a culture that measured a woman's worth by the number of her children, and Hannah had no children. To make matters worse, Hannah’s husband had two wives. His other wife had many children, and she used this fact to humiliate and torture Hannah until Hannah was so upset she “wept and would not eat.” (1 Samuel 1:7)

Hannah could have taken her sorrows to the local bar to try and drink her problems away, but she didn’t do that. ‌‌Hannah could have even taken her sorrows to her husband. She could have tried to turn his heart against his other wife to get revenge. But Hannah didn’t do that either. Hannah took her sorrows to the Lord. In her distress, in her pain, in her anguish, Hannah went up to the tabernacle to pray. 

‌‌Where do you take your sorrows, your anguish, your bitterness of soul? If you turn to alcohol it won’t help you, nor will turning to drugs. They only pour gasoline on the fire. Trying to get revenge only turns you into what you hate.

‌‌Have you tried turning to God in prayer? Have you tried taking your sorrows to the Lord? That’s the example of not only Hannah but of so many heroes of the faith. Even Jesus did this on the night of his crucifixion. In His anguish, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and He prayed.

‌‌Take your sorrows to God in prayer. He alone truly knows your pain. He alone can help you. So, when you are hurting, when you are suffering, when you are in pain, take it to the Lord in prayer.

Responding to Risk

Whoever watches the wind will not plant;

whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind,

or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,

so you cannot understand the work of God,

the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning,

and at evening let your hands not be idle,

for you do not know which will succeed,

whether this or that,

or whether both will do equally well.

Ecclesiastes 11:4–6

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Solomon speaks to us in these verses of how we should respond to the threat of chance disasters and misfortunes in life. Are you a risk taker? Or are you more prone to sit on the sidelines waiting for ideal circumstances, for the sure thing?

If you are looking for a path through life that comes with zero risk, you won’t find it. And if you are waiting for ideal conditions, they won't come. All you will accomplish in the end is preventing yourself from ever doing anything.

Yes, life is full of misfortune and disaster and unpredictability, but behind it all is a God we trust who is in control…even when we don’t understand what He is doing. And the best thing for us is not to shout at the heavens, nor is it to sit on the sidelines of life doing nothing. No! The right response to uncertainty and unpredictability and potential disasters is found in verse 6. 

We should “Sow our seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, [i.e. take on some other skill to bring in money] for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.” In other words, don’t let the difficulties of life paralyze you. On the contrary, let them motivate you to action!

This is a good reminder for me. I'm not much of a risk taker. In fact, I'm very risk averse. But what people like me forget is that there's inherent risk in doing nothing. We think, "If I don't play, then I can't lose." But the reverse is just as true. "If I don't play, then I can't win!" It is much better to invest your money and your life liberally and diversely and take the risk of loss along with the risk of profit than it is to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. At least you will have lived and done what you could.

‌‌You have a limited amount of time, money and resources in this life. Use them wisely. Don't bury your talent. Do something for the Lord. Try multiple and varied things. You never know what might pay off in the end.