51: Summary: Doctrines of the Old Testament

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The Old (or “Former”) Testament is the book of the covenant God had with his chosen people, the descendants of Abraham known as the Jews. It sets out the relationship God wanted to have with his people and describes the actual history of that relationship over the course of more than a thousand years.

Before we explore what the Old Testament teaches about our faith, we should remind ourselves of a few things about these books:

• They were written by humans over a period of at least one thousand years. The writers lived in different times and different cultures and the books of the Old Testament reflect these differences.
• There are four broad categories of books in the Old Testament: the Torah (“teachings”) or law, the history of the development and demise of the nation of Israel, the writings (a collection of poetry, wisdom, and fiction), and the prophets – who spoke on God’s behalf to the Jewish people.
• The Old Testament was not a single, unified work. The various writers had different reasons for writing what they did – although every writer was inspired by God to write what they did.
• The canon (“official list”) of Old Testament books was not established until 90 CE, as “writings that may be read in the synagogue.”

Christians believe the new covenant established by and through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection has supplanted the former covenant God made through Moses. Paul called Christ, “the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes,” [Rom 10:4]. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s description of the new covenant: “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people,” and says the new covenant makes the former one “obsolete,” [Heb 8:10, 13 and Jer 31:31].

But the Old Testament teaches several important things about God and his creation.

The nature of God

God created the universe and all that is in it, including us.

• God is spirit: According to Jesus, God is spirit, [John 4:24]. He has no physical form or body.
• God is changeless: even though part of creation may change, God is the same, and your years will never end, [Heb 1:12]. God is complete; he is not different from one time to another or to one group or another.
• God is all Powerful: God created the universe out of nothing; for God all things are possible, [Mark 10:27].
• God is all knowing: if God created everything he knows everything about every thing. In fact he has put wisdom in the inward parts [and] given understanding to the mind, [Job 38:36].
• God is everywhere: in Psalms the poet asks where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? [139:7]. God is present throughout his creation.
• God is eternal: God does not exist in our time frame; he is present in all time: he is the one who is and who was and who is to come, [Rev 1:8].
• God is holy: Holy means “set apart” and God requires the people of his covenant to be holy as well: You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you . . . You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live, [Lev 18:3, 5]. The instruction covers being “clean” and “unclean,” as well as  food, marriage and family, sexual behavior, and relationships with others.
• God is righteous: the Hebrew word means “straight” or “upright.” God’s actions are morally correct and just – they are consistent with his character, which is love.

A note on God’s name: Old Testament writers used “YHWH” to represent God’s name [Exodus 3:14-15], but they felt it was too holy to actually pronounce. So they used “adonai” (“Lord”) as God’s personal name or “’elohim” as a general name. The NRSV uses “Lord” in the first case and “God” in the second. When Amos puts YHWH with adonai, the NRSV uses “Lord God.”

A note on God’s Providence: Just as we believe God created all things, Christians believe that God continues to be active and involved in his creation. We believe God is active in three complimentary ways:

• God preserves creation: God has been involved in creation from the beginning – he charged humans to care for the physical world and all creatures in it; he called Abraham to be a blessing to all nations; he protects and safeguards his people. Mary’s “Magnificat” is one of the best summaries of God’s providence [Luke 1:46-55].
• God acts consistently with creation: God’s actions in creation follow the “natural laws” that he built into the universe – which sometimes leads to events that harm parts of creation; God also respects human moral choice that is part of creation, which allows (but does not cause or sanction) “bad” actions to take place: All deeds are right in the sight of the doer, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice, [Phil 2:13].
• God manages or guides creation toward his purposes: he governs all aspects of creation to work together; he steers human decisions and actions to achieve his goals: For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life, [Eph 2:10].

The nature of humans

God created humans and wants a loving relationship with us.

• We are like God: Genesis teaches that God created us in his “image” and according to his “likeness,” [Gen 1:26].
• We are alive: In the second creation story (yes, there are two; and, yes, they are different), Genesis says God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the [human] became a living being, [Gen 2:7].
• We are created for a relationship with God: from the beginning God wants a relationship with us. Paul calls this a “mystery” for the fullness of time to gather up all things in him, [Eph 1:10].

The nature of sin

Humans are not capable of maintaining a relationship with God. Sin is both the situation we are in separated from God, and the “bad” actions we take because we are apart from God.

• Sin is disobedience: Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s direct command to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, [Gen 2:17]. As a result, they broke their relationship with him, [Gen 3:23].
• Sin can be a thought, such as hate [1 John 3:15]; something we said, like an insult [Matt 5:22]; or an action, such as murder, theft, or lying about someone, [Matt 15:19].
• Sin is not scalable: there are no “little” sins or “medium-sized” sins (or “really big sins”). James says whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it, [2:10].

A note on God’s anger or wrath: These two words are used throughout the Bible to refer to God’s response to sin. However, it is important to remember these are human words attempting to describe the spiritual reality of separation from God and his love. Anger is a human emotional response to not getting our way – usually by being either harmed or ignored by another person. It is essentially a selfish response. When we are separated from God, we feel rejected — so we ascribe our emotions to his “anger” or “wrath.”

God’s plan for dealing with sin

God’s Basic Salvation Plan: God promises – we believe his promise – God counts our belief as righteousness. From the beginning of God’s relationship with Abraham: He believed the Lordand the Lordreckoned it to him as righteousness, [Gen 15:6]. Paul puts it: Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, [Rom 4:3, Gal 3:6].

The Ten Commandments: God begins the Ten Commandments by reminding the Israelites that he is the one, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, [Exodus 20:1]. God has already acted to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery – the context of the Ten Commandments is the relationship God has already established with his people: You have seen how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples, [19:4-5]. The Ten Commandments are a description of the relationship the people should have with God (1-4) and with each other (5-10); they are not a checklist to earn a divine reward.

A note on the last commandment: You shall not covet, [20:17]. This commandment makes it personal and internal: “coveting” is an attitude 

regarding the property and belongings (including spouse, children, reputation) of another person in which the coveter views himself or herself as more important than the other person.

Sacrifice: The Old Testament practice of giving or dedicating something to God acknowledges that he has given us everything we have, including life itself. Sacrifice also reminds us that we need to put God first in our lives, ahead of everything else, which we fail to do because of sin. Leviticus includes instruction on five types of sacrifice:

• Burnt offerings: cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, turtledoves or pigeons – male and “without blemish” – were burned by the priests to produce a “pleasing odor to the Lord.”
• Grain offerings: flour with oil and frankincense (a gum used as incense and perfume) in it, or unleavened bread that has been baked, griddled or fried – yeast was forbidden [check Exodus 12] – part was burned to produce a “pleasing odor to the Lord,” and the rest was for the priests.
• Peace offerings (also called “Offering of well-being”): cattle, oxen, sheep or goats – male or female without blemish – the fat around the organs was burned as a food offering.
• Sin offerings: cattle, oxen, goats, sheep, turtledoves or pigeons – male without blemish, the specific animal depended on the position of the person who sinned – the blood was poured out and the fat was burned “to make atonement.”
• Guilt offerings: a male sheep or goat without blemish – along with the restitution when appropriate (trespass, robbery, deception, fraud or false witness) “to make atonement.”

But the ritual had to be repeated every year because the ritual did not deal with the cause of sin.

Atonement: literally “at-one-ness” or reconciliation. Sin separates us from God and leads to disobedience which further divides us from our Creator. In the Old Testament God agreed to consider animal sacrifice as an adequate “payment” to maintain his covenant relationship with the Israelites – the animal’s blood in place of the human’s blood that was required: For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar, [Lev 17:11]. However, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the final and complete atonement for our sin.

God’s plan for the end time

The phrase “The Day of the Lord” appears throughout the Old Testament. In a few cases it refers to a specific historical event, but most of the uses point to the day of God’s judgment at the end of this present time.

Historical events include the Assyrian defeat of Israel [Amos 5], and Babylon’s victory over Judah and destruction of Jerusalem [Lam 2, Ezek 7]. Prophets also use the phrase in reference to the Medes’ defeat of Babylon [Isaiah 13:6] and Babylon’s defeat of Egypt [Jer 46].

In the future “The Day of the Lord” will involve extreme hardship and suffering for Israel: See, a day is coming for the Lord, when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle, [Zech 14:1-3].

But it will also be a day if purification and restoration when the people repent: to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion—to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory, [Isaiah 61:2]; and: See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts, [Mal 4:1-3].