Making Sense of the Old Testament (Three Crucial Questions): Three Crucial Questions

By Tremper Longman III

A noted biblical scholar explores three questions Christians often ask about the Old Testament and provides answers that are both satisfying and understandable.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 1, 1999
• ISBN: 9781585586103

Tremper Longman III

Tremper Longman III (PhD, Yale University) is a distinguished scholar and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is on the advisory council of the BioLogos Foundation, and is the Old Testament editor for the revised Expositor's Bible Commentary and general editor for the Story of God Bible Commentary Old Testament, and has authored many articles and books on the Psalms and other Old Testament books.

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Editors’ Preface

he books in the 3 Crucial Questions series are the published form of the 3 Crucial Questions Seminars, which are sponsored by Bridge Ministries of Detroit, Michigan. The seminars and books are designed to greatly enhance your Christian walk. The following comments will help you appreciate the unique features of the book series.

The 3 Crucial Questions series is based on two fundamental observations. First, there are crucial questions related to the Christian faith for which imperfect Christians seem to have no final answers. Christians living in eternal glory may know fully even as they are known by God, but now we know only in part (1 Cor. 13:12). Therefore, we must ever return to such questions with the prayer that God the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us nearer to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. While recognizing their own frailty, the authors contributing to this series pray that they are thus led.

Second, each Christian generation partly affirms its solidarity with the Christian past by reaffirming the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3 KJV). Such an affirmation is usually attempted by religious scholars who are notorious for talking only to themselves or by nonexperts whose grasp of the faith lacks depth of insight. Both situations are unfortunate, but we feel that our team of contributing authors is well prepared to avoid them. Each author is a competent Christian scholar able to share tremendous learning in down-to-earth language both laity and experts can appreciate. In a word, you have in hand a book that is part of a rare series, one that is neither pedantic nor pediatric.

The topics addressed in the series have been chosen for their timelessness, interest level, and importance to Christians everywhere. And the contributing authors are committed to discussing them in a manner that promotes Christian unity. Thus, they discuss not only areas of disagreement among Christians but significant areas of agreement as well. Seeking peace and pursuing it as the Bible commands (1 Peter 3:11), they stress common ground on which Christians with different views may meet for wholesome dialogue and reconciliation.

The books in the series consist not merely of printed words; they consist of words to live by. Their pages are filled not only with good information but with sound instruction in successful Christian living. For study is truly Christian only when, in addition to helping us understand our faith, it helps us to live our faith. We pray therefore that you will allow God to use the 3 Crucial Questions series to augment your growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grant R. Osborne

Richard J. Jones, Jr.

Author’s Preface

he Old Testament, the Word of God written before the coming of Christ, constitutes over three-quarters of the Bible. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we spend far less time reading and studying the Old Testament than we do the New. Indeed, many Christians spend no time in the Old Testament.

Even as an Old Testament professor, I can appreciate the attraction of the New Testament. After all, the New Testament is the fulfilment of the Old. Why spend an inordinate amount of time with the shadow when the reality has already come? The New Testament speaks more directly to us because its authors tell us about Jesus Christ.

Not only is the Old Testament difficult to appreciate, it is also difficult to understand. We are distanced from the Old Testament not only by its position in redemptive history (we live in the period after Christ; the Old Testament comes from the time before Christ), but also by time and culture. It is simply a hard book for us to interpret and appropriate to our daily lives.

My argument in this volume is that it is vitally important for us to work at our appreciation and understanding of the Old Testament. Jesus himself told us that the Old Testament remained crucial even after his fulfilment of it (Matt. 5:17–20). Indeed, many passages and images of the New Testament are virtually impossible to understand without recourse to their Old Testament background. This is particularly true of books like Matthew, Hebrews, and Revelation, but to a lesser extent it is also true of the whole New Testament.

As we study the Old Testament, we will also be surprised by a fundamental insight into its radical importance for all Christians: at the center of the Old Testament stands Jesus Christ. Augustine was right when he wrote his famous words: The New Testament is in the Old concealed; the Old Testament is in the New revealed.

It is my great hope that this book will help revive in the reader a sense of the importance of the Old Testament for Christian faith and practice. I also pray that my words will give help to those who struggle with the proper interpretation of the oldest portions of God’s written revelation to his human creatures.

Finally, I would like to thank Grant Osborne and Richard Jones for the opportunity to contribute this volume to the 3 Crucial Questions series. I appreciate their editorial guidance. I would also like to thank the staff at Baker Book House for their willingness to put my book in print.

What Are the Keys to Understanding the Old Testament?

An Overview of Old Testament Study: Attractions and Obstacles

The Attractions of the Old Testament

1. GRIPPING STORIES

In my travels and correspondence, I see that Christians have an increasing interest in the Old Testament. While, in my opinion, we still don’t spend enough time studying and reflecting on God’s revelation before the coming of Jesus, I am extremely excited to observe that people are turning to the Hebrew Bible to learn more about God and more about a godly life.

A variety of factors have been attracting Christians to the Old Testament lately. Prominent among them are its gripping stories. We love stories. A good story can hold our attention for hours. We will stay rooted in a chair as we listen to someone tell a story or as we read a good book.[1]

The Old Testament is a repository of varied stories about the most fascinating people. As we begin in Genesis, we encounter the story of Abraham’s physical journey from Ur of the Chaldees to the Promised Land and of his developing relationship with God. We read about Joseph, cast into a pit by his brothers, rising to a position of great prominence in Egypt, and saving his family, the people of God, from death by starvation. Next comes Exodus with its tales of Moses and the burning bush, the ten plagues, and the crossing of the Red Sea. The list goes on and on: Joshua and Jericho; Samson and Delilah; David and Goliath; Elijah and Elisha; Ezra and Nehemiah. These stories stimulate our imaginations and evoke deep emotions.

As we read Old Testament stories, we encounter not only spellbinding plots, but vivid characters. We do not get modern-style biographies in the Bible, but we do find character portraits. We have an intuitive understanding that these character portraits are given to us to help us navigate life. Paul in fact explicitly tells us that that is their purpose. In 1 Corinthians 10:1–11 he recalls to mind some significant events from Old Testament history and then offers a generalization: These events happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as [our ancestors] did or worship idols as some of them did (vv. 6–7). Among the more potent warnings is the account of the disastrous consequences of Solomon’s marriages to foreign wives (1 Kings). His transformation from the wisest of all kings to a fool who brings down the kingdom is a solemn caution against godless entanglements.

In addition to warnings, the Old Testament narratives present us with ideals to emulate. Daniel and his three friends serve as an extraordinary example of faith during persecution. When cast into the furnace, the three friends trusted God even though they knew they might be roasted alive. Listen to their testimony to Nebuchadnezzar: We do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, Your Majesty can be sure that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up (Dan. 3:16–18). These Old Testament stories have additional punch because they are true. We can learn much from fiction, but our attention is riveted by historical characters and events that actually happened.

2. HEART-WRENCHING POEMS

But there is more to the Old Testament than stories. A good portion of the Old Testament is poetic.[2] Poetry in ancient Hebrew, as in most other literary traditions, is compressed language, saying a lot in only a few words. Poetry is particularly appealing because it so obviously addresses us as whole people. It is not interested just in informing our intellects, but in evoking our emotions, stimulating our imaginations, and influencing our wills.

The Psalms have been a perpetual favorite among Christians. Throughout church history the Psalms have been used as sources for hymns, as encouragements to prayer life, and as corporate responsive readings. These poems, the expressions of their authors’ intense emotions, never make concrete (except perhaps in their titles) the particular situation that gave rise to their joy or sorrow. The historical nonspecificity of the Psalms renders them an appropriate vehicle for community worship. In other words, later worshipers can appropriate the Psalms for their own prayers and mold the words to fit their own situation. We in effect become the I of the psalm.

John Calvin observed that as we pray or sing a psalm, that psalm serves as a mirror of our soul: What various and resplendent riches are contained in this treasure, it were difficult to find words to describe. . . . I have been wont to call this book, not inappropriately, an anatomy of all parts of the soul; for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.[3] Just as a physical mirror reflects our physical appearance, the Psalms afford us a look into our soul. If we feel at one with the psalmist as he expresses his love for God, then we know that our relationship with God is strong. On the other hand, we may find that Psalm 130, which begins, From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help, better expresses what we feel. The latter is typical of the lament psalms, which reflect disorientation in relationship with the Lord. Such psalms, with only one exception (Ps. 88), point us back to God by concluding with either an expression of confidence in him or a hymn of praise.

3. IMAGES OF GOD

Christians are also drawn to the Old Testament because we encounter God in its pages. God reveals himself not only to his Old Testament people, but to us who read these accounts millennia later. The first two chapters of the Bible describe God as Creator of the cosmos and the source of human life. After the fall in Genesis 3, God appears in various forms to his chosen people to rescue them from distress, protect them from danger, and inform them of his will. To Abraham he appears as a flaming torch in a smoking pot (Gen. 15:17); to Moses he shows his back (Exod. 33:12–23); to the Israelites in the wilderness God makes his presence known through a pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke. These and many other appearances (theophanies) confront the reader with a God of mystery who reveals himself only partially (though truly) to his people.[4]

God also chooses to reveal himself in the Old Testament through metaphor, which serves the same purpose of preserving the mystery of God. Through imagery God shows himself to his people, while also veiling himself. It is of the nature of metaphor to communicate truly but not precisely. In what way is God like a father? a warrior? a shepherd? a husband?

Note that most of the metaphors for God that we encounter in the Old Testament are relationship metaphors. God’s fatherhood presupposes our sonship. God as a warrior implies that we are soldiers in his army. Since relationship is so crucial to our human experience, we find ourselves drawn to these Old Testament metaphors to understand ourselves.

4. GUIDANCE FOR LIFE

Along the same line, Christians find themselves attracted to the Old Testament in the hope that we might there gain insight into how to navigate life. This expectation accounts for the rise of interest in the law and wisdom literature, particularly the Book of Proverbs, among Christians. We hope to find principles for living that transcend the ancient world to shape our attitudes and behavior today. Some even feel that the Old Testament goes beyond individual guidance to provide a blueprint for society, the basis for a contemporary legal code for a nation that wants to please God.

5. BACKGROUND TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

The more time one spends in the New Testament, the more one realizes how much of it flows from the Old. That one cannot really understand the New Testament without being steeped in the Old is an inescapable conclusion.

Why did Jesus have to die? What does Paul mean when he says that Jesus was the second Adam (Rom. 5:12–21)? What is the significance of Jesus’ dying just before the Jewish festival of Passover? Why is there so much warfare imagery in the Book of Revelation? Finding the answers to such questions depends in large measure on a thoroughgoing acquaintance with the Old Testament.

Obstacles to Understanding the Old Testament

For a host of reasons, then, Christians find themselves reading and studying the Old Testament with eagerness. Both the narratives and the poetry of the Old Testament not