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What are some reasons one should study the Old Testament?
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Studying the Old Testament helps us understand who God is and how He interacts with the world. It also shows how God’s promises and plans unfolded over time, laying the groundwork for everything in the New Testament.
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To understand God better and to understand how the Old Testament points to Jesus and the New Testament.
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The Old Testament provides a framework and setup of how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit created the world and cultivated a path of redemption after the fall. Likewise, it provides a myriad of the traits of God, cultural contexts, themes that are echoed into the New Testament, and an overall story of God’s mercy and grace upon His people and His redemption plan for us.
Likewise, the Old Testament sets up the New Testament in such a way that provides full, multi-faceted context that reveals the heart and mission of God through Jesus Christ. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to see the consistency of the character and heart of God, and the continual themes repeated that all lead up to the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.
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The Old Testament is very relevant to us today. First of all, it’s the truths of GOD, by GOD. I feel that the word “story” in the minds of some, relate to fiction, fables, and myths. The occurrences, as told in the Bible, as a whole are TRUTHS .
The Old Testament tells of GOD’S Sovereignty, Mercy, Grace and Love for His people, His children. It’s full of truths, lessons, wisdoms and rich history, for us to learn from. Although it tells of things that happened thousands of years ago, it’s about our ancestors. People who lived in very different places than us, at a very different time as we do. It’s still relatable, because as different as the cultures, times, and places were, the experiences are still the same. We experience the same inner and outer struggles, battles and emotions, physically, mentally, and spiritually, as they did. We also experience the same Mercy, Grace and Love of the Father as they did.
They say that history repeats itself. Sometimes, repetition is not all it’s cracked up to be. I believe this book is a book of history with great warnings, lessons and messages on how not to repeat the negative, unholy occurrences, but how to live in relationship with GOD, therefore getting a glimpse of His Will, and not leaning on our own thoughts and “wisdoms”, to handle a situation.
There is so much meat in the Old Testament. I feel that if we read it a thousand times over, we would find new knowledge, truth, or wisdom, sometimes small and seemingly insignificant tidbits, and sometimes major revelation, each and every time.
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We should study Old Testament to gain understanding of God’s character. Old Testament provides foundation of how God operates. We learn that from the stories about people who trust God, so we see the way God works through them.