What role does the Old Testament play for a New Testament Christian?
After reading “Freedom of Religion Doesn’t Mean What Some
Want It to Mean,” (Msg-2-Mar-2012) a Tennessee subscriber wrote and asked:
“A difficult
question to answer is how we should treat Hebrew Scripture. I'd appreciate
your thoughts on that.”
It is a very relevant question in today’s virulent political/religious
atmosphere, where biblical literalists believe they can quote any verse from
anywhere in the Bible without any reference to its context and original
audience.
As a Christian, the Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) teaches me
two primary things:
1) God and History: The importance of the role of history in
comprehending the continual presence of God in my life, and the comprehension
of the tension created when my Ego desires to formalize the process of knowing
the Spirit of the Lord.
2) An Appreciation for Understanding the Clarion Message of
Jesus the Christ: “John [the Baptist],
who was in prison, heard what Christ was doing, and sent his own disciples to
him with this message: ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect
some other?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go, and tell John what your hear and see: the
blind recover their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf
hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor are hearing the good news – and
happy is the man who does not find me a stumbling block.’” [Matthew 11:
2-6].
God and
History
The Old Testament teaches me to view God in history, just like
the Israelites who could not separate their God from their history. As I stated
in Chapter 5 of my book (How the Bible
became the Bible, ISBN 978-0-7414-2993-3):
“The
Hebrews could not conceive of their history without thinking of their God.
Neither could they conceive of their God without thinking of their history. The
history that revealed God was the religion of Israel. From this collection of
tribal roots came a loose cultic confederation of related tribes. During the
Exodus they were forged into an idea of one people under one common God. God’s
name was YHWH. That is their history. That is their religion.
In
that gray area between the reporting of the history and the interpreting of
that history the Israelites came to define (and redefine) God, as well as
define (and redefine) themselves. The Old Testament account concerns the
revelation of God—but it is in the concrete affairs and relationships of people
that God makes himself known. God is not an abstract idea, some primeval “first
cause” consisting of abstract ideas about him. The faith of the Old Testament
is fundamentally historical in nature. Old Testament doctrines are events and
historical realities—not abstract values and ideas existing in some sort of
timeless realm. God’s revelation did not come like a bolt out of the blue. It
came through the crises and affairs of human life, interactions with other
cultures, and the persons who perceived the divine dimension in those events.
For example, no external historical study can demonstrate that the Exodus was
an act of God. But to Israel, the “political” event was the medium through
which God’s presence and purpose were disclosed” [pp 97-98]
What does this mean for me? To see God at work today I read the
newspaper and look for incidences where the lame are healed, the blind see, the
deaf hear, the infirmed are made whole – in general 21st Century
terms – where the weak are cared for and protected, whuch is how Jesus
described Himself. Why would I believe that has changed?
I’m also aware of the importance of the constant tension between
the whispers of the Spirit of the Lord and my desire to formalize the
occurrence of my version of these whispers. This is the tension between the
Prophets and the Priesthood that I also discussed in Chapter 5 under the headings
of Ritualized Righteousness and Religious Exclusivity.
I discussed (pp. 99-100) how there was a
“…repeated
desire to ‘go back’ to a
more familiar, more ‘cut-and-dried’ form of religion—the certainty of a simple
reward-and-punishment approach in dealing with Yahweh. But the prophets kept
telling us: Righteousness or faithfulness is not a question of saying the
correct prayer or offering the correct sacrifice at the correct time while
wearing the correct clothes. Again, in twenty-first-century terms: It’s not a
question of supporting the perceived
“correct” things—America, free enterprise, prayer in school, constitutional
amendments for the definition of a marriage—in order to defend God’s honor.
It’s not a question of condemning the
perceived “correct” things—gays, nudity, abortion, stem cell research,
communism, right-to-die advocates. God doesn’t care about your causes. He wants
your heart and mind and attitude, the prophets told us. All along, the prophets
kept telling Israel: God doesn’t want ritual. He wants in your heart His sense
of justice for the little guy….”
[There was also
the danger of exclusivity espoused by the formal Priesthood – the …” desire to
build cultural and spiritual walls around themselves—designed to keep outsiders
“out” and to keep the “favored” people “in.” That way Yahweh couldn’t miss
where he was to impart his blessings. He would always know where to find his
people: Look for those that are circumcised; look for those that honor me with
their tithes and first fruits; look for those that can invoke the Torah; look
for those that wouldn’t miss a festival at the temple if their lives depended
on it. Of course, the prophets were telling the Hebrews that Yahweh wasn’t
looking for those things. He was looking for those that … do justly, and love
mercy, and walk humbly with him”.
For me, in these two aspects of
the Old Testament the Christian’s heritage within the roots of Judaism is
strong, respected and clear.
The Clarion Message of Jesus the Christ
However, knowledge and respect
for the Old Testament’s focus on the little guy also enables me to fully
appreciate Jesus’ statement when He said, “I am the fulfillment of the Law and
the Prophets.” (Note: He did not
say He was the fulfillment of the formal Jewish Priesthood customs,
rites, and rituals). We believe
Jesus was sinless in the eyes of God – not so He could to save us from His
Father’s legal wrath – but to put Him in a position to alter the existing
Hebrew Law and its significance. He did just that, giving us His three great
commandments:
(1) Love the Lord with all your
heart, strength, soul, and mind, and (2) Love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev.
19: 16-18, 33-34; Mark 12: 28-34)
(3) Love each other as I have
loved and served you (John 13: 12-17; I John 3: 21-23 He also said, in John
14:15, “…if you love me you will obey my commandments.”
The Old Testament scriptures describe
a society that was very patriarchal, cut and dried, ritualistic, and not
un-similar to existing Semitic forms of Islam and Old Testament-bound Christian
fundamentalist groups. There are certainly times in my life today when I am
drawn to adopt a straightforward ritualized approach to morality or my sense of
righteousness. Whenever that occurs, e.g., “so-and-so
deserved what s/he got, after all it’s an eye for an eye,” I know that my
Ego is trying to get me to ignore the commandments the Lord gave me. I know my
Ego is trying to get me back to a simple reward-and-punishment approach to deal
with my perception of God.
Love the Lord with all my being,
Love all as myself, and Love and serve others as He did. After all, these are
His commandments for me. For me to concentrate or venerate Old Testament
approaches to living my life, e.g., using the Ten Commandments, diminishes much
of Jesus’ life and message.
Thanks for listening and feel
free to share this message with family, friends or acquaintances.
Don
#1 April, 2012
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