Beginning with Moses

THE BEST OF BOOKS
Beginning with Moses and With All the Prophets: Luke 24:13:27

Introduction:

Last week I introduced the series that I’m currently preaching called the Best of Books. I alluded to this fact, but I want to point it out again: the Bible is composed of 66 books (774, 746 words) which are divided into two testaments- the Old, which contains 39 books; and the New Testament which contains 27 books. The Bible began to be written around 1450 BC and was completed sometime in the late 1st century by the Apostle John.[1]

It was a stroke of marketing genius for the Church Fathers when they decided to name our New Testament, the “New” Testament. After all, if you were to walk into a Christian book store, which you buy: an Old Testament or a New Testament? “New” appeals to our modern desire for everything innovative and next and hip and up to date. But don’t be fooled by the name, the scriptures of the Old Testament are just as relevant, just as powerful, just as able to lead us to Christ and sanctify us by its truth as are the scriptures of the New Testament.

Remember Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees: “you search the scriptures because in them you think you have life…” the scriptures he was talking of were the Old Testament, he went on to say, “it is those very scriptures which reveal me.” And on the road to Emmaus, in what must have been the most exciting bible study of all time, Jesus showed exactly where the Old Testament reveals him. (Read Luke 24:13-27).

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Wouldn’t you have liked to have sat in on that Bible study?

Have you ever gone to Ikea and walked around the showroom looking at all the beautiful furniture and you just imagine how nice that book shelf or bunk bed will look in your house so you write down the name of the furniture (it’s usually some gay Swedish guy like Bjorn) and then you go down to the warehouse and they hand you a box!!! So you take it home and pull out all the parts and the bolts and hardware that must have been invented in Europe and the only tool you need is this tiny little Alan key. And about half way through the assembly you decide to look at the instructions written in hieroglyphics and you realize that you’ve got to take the whole thing apart and get some little screw into a whole or else the whole thing will fall apart. It’s at the part that I usually have to step back and go for a walk to cool off.

I think that reading the Old Testament is that way for some people. In fact, Paul even says that when the Law is read in the Synagogues, there is a veil over their eyes so that they cannot understand what’s being read. God’s Word is spirit and it can only be discerned by spiritual minds when the Spirit of God opens our eyes to it. And when our eyes are unveiled, the Spirit reveals to us the supremacy of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the beauty of the Rose of Sharon, the divinity of David’s greater son.

What Jesus models to us in his study of the scriptures is not that the scriptures of the Old Testament are understood by reading from front to back, but that they must be understood by reading them from the back to the front. That is, the Old Testament is best understood when we read it from the standpoint of the Gospel. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The Bible is like a light shines brighter and brighter as God reveals more truth about Himself. It makes sense to go to the brightest spot, the clearest revelation, and then shine that light backwards towards the shadows.

We need the OT because, for one thing, how would we understand whte the NT writer’s mean when they talk about things like the Law, circumcision, King David, and the Kingdom of God (for example). The Nt unapologetically contains countless references, allusions, quotes and illustrations from the OT and assumes the readers knowledge of them. And the NT writers, in referring so much to the OT clearly interpreted it the light of Calvary and Pentecost. For example, look how Paul interprets Passover in light of the Cross in 1 Cor 5:7-8
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our [the Church’s] Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.[2]

And in another place Paul refers to the Church the temple of God in which the Spirit of God dwells (1 Cor 3:16). This has bearing on how we read the Old Testament and the meaning we place on Jewish religious practices.

But we must not make the mistake of over-spiritualizing the clear meaning of every text of the Old Testament scripture by allegorizing everything to make it fit into a nice Modern Western Christian Worldview where every saying, every event, every object becomes a type of some New Testament concept. We must not forget that the Old Testament was written originally for the people who first read it and handed it down to us. It was written so that they would understand it in a way that was relevant to their historical context and so that they could apply it appropriately to their lives within their historical context. For instance, the Levites, when they first read the prescription of for the seven sacrifices which they were to perform in Leviticus 1:ff did not sit down and say, “the male lamb without defect is a picture of Messiah’s sinlessness”; they likely said, “Let’s find a lamb without blemish so we can offer him as a sweet smelling savor to the Lord.”

Likewise, the OT history can’t be read just as shadows and allegories of Christ, it must be read as a literal account of history; a history of God’s unfolding plan to display His glory and power and providence by redeeming to Himself a people from every tribe and nation and tongue (the Jew first). For instance, Joshua’s invasion of Canaan is a picture of Jesus’ victory over sin; but Joshua’s invasion of Canaan is also a literal historical account that teaches us about the severity of God’s judgment against a wicked nation. One thing it is not, is a parable to show us how to rid ourselves of troubling emotions and besetting sins though it may encourage by showing that God is able to give us victory.

The Danger of allegorizing every text of Old Testament scripture is that everything now becomes up for grabs. Every story becomes no better then a moral fable. David’s victory over Goliath is not a story to teach us about how we can overcome the giants of financial debt, or depression or some other obstacle in life. And I’ve heard sermons like that (I’ve probably preached them too). The Old Testament is not your horoscope, so don’t read it that way.

So with that said, let’s consider what may been the content of Jesus OT exposition. John Macarthur writes,
In the inscrutable wisdom of divine providence, the substance of Christ’s exposition of the OT messianic prophecies was not recorded. But the gist of what He expounded would have undoubtedly included an explanation of the OT sacrificial system, which was full of types and symbols that spoke of His sufferings and death.[3]

For one thing, Jesus would have pointed them to texts like Genesis 3:15 where God predicts the future battle between the Son of God and Satan saying,
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”

We know that in John 3:14 Jesus saw allusions to the Cross in the judgment of the fiery serpents in Numbers 21:6 ff. He told Nicodemus, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the Wilderness, so shall the son of man be lifted up.” (Read Numbers 21:6-9).

Isn’t that a wonderful picture of the greater power of the cross not just to save our bodies, but to redeem our souls from the disease of the fiery serpent sin? Jesus would have also helped his disciples to understand the meaning of his resurrection by quoting this scripture from the Psalms, “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Ps 16:10). And no OT study of Christ would be complete without a look at Isaiah. Jesus would certainly have pointed out the 53rd chapter, written more then 700 years before Christ:
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

I am sure that as Jesus unfolded the scriptures to them, the light would have grown brighter and brighter and their eyes would have grown wider and wider and their hearts would have filled and filled to overflowing with joy.

Application:
We are running out of time. Next week I want to look a little closer at the Old Testament and focus on the five books of the Law. Let me conclude with this application. John Macarthur lists some errors to avoid in reading the OT:
1. …do not make the Bible say what you want it to say, but rather let it say what God intended when He wrote it.
2. Avoid superficial interpretation. You have heard people say, “To me, this passage means,” or “I feel it is saying. . . .”…
3. Do not spiritualize the passage. Interpret and understand the passage in its normal, literal, historical, grammatical sense, just like you would understand any other piece of literature you were reading today.[4]


NOTES:
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to [God’s] Word” (Ps. 119:9)
[1] Job may have been written in its original form long before Moses wrote Genesis.
[2]The New King James Version. 1982 (1 Co 5:7). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[3]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Lk 24:27). Nashville: Word Pub.
[4]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ge 1:1). Nashville:Word Pub.