The Old Testament: Essential to Faith
When we become Christians the Old Testament becomes our personal history and the history of our people. Children raised in the church learn to sing, “Father Abraham has many sons, and I am one of them.” Girls as well as boys sing in celebration of their heritage because the word son in Christian faith does not exclude the full participation of all, just as being Gentile and not Jewish is no barrier to our identification with Abraham. Jesus was generous with those who did not qualify to walk with him by the usual standards (Mark 7:26; 9:40). Paul, following Jesus, made it clear that the Gospel excluded no one (Gal. 3:28). So, Christians embrace the Old Testament as their story, too. They, along with the Jews, are God’s chosen people.
The Old Testament history shows us how God the Creator of the universe has shaped us into his people. We learn that we are more than individual believers—we are certainly that, individual believers, but we are more—because we belong to one another as the body of Christ, and through the body of Christ we are made part of God’s chosen people. Paul used the metaphor of a wild shoot being grafted onto an olive tree. Gentiles have been grafted into the covenant people. Along with the Jews, all of us, have been called to believe and to receive a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31). It is God’s grace that all people are called to join the covenant. Christians are not to take this gift for granted and are not to boast over their acceptance into the covenant (Romans 11:18). With gratitude and humility we accept our place as members of God’s chosen people.
We live in the wonder of our history, recounted in the Old Testament. We live with knowledge of its twists and turns, its glorious moments and its times of abysmal failure. With the prophets we acknowledge that we are a stubborn people; we acknowledge God’s righteousness and our sinful failure to keep covenant. The Old Testament teaches us that our personal relationship to God has a corporate, familial, national dimension that stretches back to Abraham and even further because all people are created in the image of God, and all people are called to live before their Creator, to be accountable for the life entrusted to them as individuals and the life they live in relationship to others.
The Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, is God’s word. Through these ancient writings God continues to speak to us, his people. We read. We listen. We respond. Although we can never exhaust the wonder and mystery of God’s revelation, with reverence and with joy we read the Bible and wait upon moments of divine guidance. Like Samuel we pray, “Speak, Lord, for your servant listens” (1 Samuel 3:10)
