The Old Testament

Jesus Loved the Old Testament! Do you wonder why?

Contemporary readers of the Old Testament find it hard to get past the constant bloodshed and violence that fill many of the stories of God’s people Israel over a period of 1500 years. When I led a group of people through the Disciple course which meant reading the whole Bible over a year and picking up its major themes one woman came every week for several months saying “more bloodshed! When is it going to stop?”

The tragedy of the Bible is that Israel’s war scarred history is not any different to any other nation of the last 300 years. Take Australia for instance. The only time in the last 200 years that Australians were not shedding blood was between the two world wars. Prior to the Boer war there were endless slaughters of Aboriginal people across every part of our nation.

But that merely shows we have a blind spot to our own warlike habits in Australia. It does not explain why Jesus truly loved the Old Testament.

I believe it is because Jesus saw God entering history in a very different way. A way that would bring about peace between God and people and between people themselves. The beginnings are in these Old Testament stories. Jesus loved to highlight them in his own ministry.

In fact Jesus loved the Old Testament so much that he defined everything he did by reference to them.

Take today’s reading from Exodus 14 of “manna” given to the starving Israelites in the wilderness after their hasty salvation and exodus from Egypt.

11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.’”
13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.

God himself fed them. God gave the community enough to keep them healthy but he only provided enough for each day. In this way they were taught to rely on God, to not be greedy, to not be materialistic, and to make sure everyone’s needs were attended to.

Jesus loved this so much he made sure his disciples would never forget this lesson of justice and God’s ever reliable love. So he included it in a prayer he taught his disciples:

“Give us this day our daily bread”

God provides it. Enough one day. Trust in his love.

But Jesus is not finished with this story yet!

After feeding 5000 with bread and fish, Jesus was approached by people thinking to get a regular food supply out of Jesus for their revolutionary army to overthrow the Romans:

30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6

Jesus sees the parallel between our hunger for food that needs satisfying and our hunger for a relationship with a loving God that needs satisfying. Jesus declares that he is able to satisfy that hunger.

If you believe in Jesus you will always be satiated. Your deeper need will be met on a daily basis by a God who is full of love for you- yes, you!

Jesus, “Give us this day our daily bread”.

Gotta love what Jesus finds in the Old Testament and delivers to you.

Graeme