The Bible is divided into two sections: the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New. I’ve long been convinced that the New Testament cannot be understood without knowing the story of the Old Testament.
One of the distinctive marks of the Jewish People is their sense of history. They have always been a scattered and diverse people—in culture and ethnicity—but they are a People held together by a common history, a story told and retold from generation to generation.
Christians also have this historical sense—or at least ought to have it. The Christian faith is culturally, socially, and theologically diverse, but it is a distinctive community with a memory that reaches back to the events to which the Old Testament gives witness.
The Old Covenant is a record of the unique historical and God-experiences of a particular people, Israel, from about 2000 B.C to 150 B.C. This historical drama tells us a story of the beginning, about Abraham, the Exodus, and the Prophets of Israel, all of which are the heritage of the Christian faith. Without knowing the Old, we cannot even begin to understand the New Covenant. The early Christians knew this and included the Old with the New as one book and called it the Bible.
Advent is a time to open ourselves to the new things about to happen, but we cannot adequately do this if we do not know the old, old story. No one cares about ancient tribal laws or genealogies, but we ought to know how God has acted in the past, how God spoke in days of yore, so we can have some idea of how God might act and speak in the here and now.
“Though He led them through the desert places they suffered no thirst, for them He made water run from the rock and streams gushed forth.” If God did this in the old story, what might God do in the new story, which is still unfolding in this Advent time?
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