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What are some reasons one should study the Old Testament?
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We need to know the history and prophecies leading up to Christ. There’s the geneology of Jesus that Matthew and Luke reference and stories demonstrating God’s love for sinners like us.
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To understand why we need Jesus. We need to understand our history and why some current events are going on because of the Old Testament.
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To understand and learn about something you have to learn about the whole topic. If you read a story, you don’t jump into the middle and try to understand what is going on. The Old Testament is the foundation or base for our spiritual story. I want to know where we came from, what events took place, and who shaped our faith. I want to know everything from the first light until He takes me home.
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Although the Bible is the living word of God I also feel that it is told as a story, a story of God, but also a story of Life and everything in between, and as a story being told we wouldn’t be able to understand or grasp the full story if we were to read it from the middle or near the end of the story. Starting the story at the New Testament we get but a fraction of who God really is and also a fraction of the life lessons absolutely essential to making through this life with our head held high. Reading about others just like us today thousands of years ago who might have went through similar battles and how they came out the other side stronger or how they might not have made the best choices and is so doing teaching us what we should not do to keep us on track for God. This life although short can and will be tough at times and God cares so much for us that He gave us absolutely everything we need to know to make it through in His precious amazing Word.
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The Old Testament gives us so much insight into who God is and about our own nature. It shows how God has had a plan for us from the beginning, that He wants to live in a relationship with us, but that we pulled away from God by choosing ourselves over Him. It then shows that we are incapable of restoring that relationship ourselves and are in need of a Savior – Jesus. The more we understand these things, the closer we are able to get to that right relationship with God. The whole Old Testament points to Jesus as the Way back to this full relationship. We cannot fully appreciate the sacrifice He made and the way He fulfills the promise and prophesy without knowing the Old Testament.