God's Story in the Old Testament
Many of us have stepped out in boldness to share our testimony of Jesus in our lives. Some of us have had a difficult time deciding what to share. I remember many things from my time in Afghanistan with the Army, but there are some details of my time there that I am not interested in providing. There must be a reason for the information you share when telling your story. It helps to give some context when sharing our stories with others. In the first century, the apostles and disciples were no different when telling others about Jesus in their own lives.
The apostles’ testimony involved drawing upon their lifelong knowledge of the OT and used it among the Jewish population to show that the Messiah had come. Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, found in Acts 2, was to inform his listeners that not only had the Messiah come but that God has saved sinners through Jesus and given His Spirit to live in them. Peter gave OT context to demonstrate that Jesus is the focus of God’s message.
While I was in Seminary, I had a short class during the winter break, and my professor, Jim Howard, Ph.D., mentioned something in passing as a kind of side note regarding the narrative flow of the OT and the Bible in general. It got my attention, and I decided to see if what I heard was accurate. My professor said that there is a biblical paradigm through the OT and the rest of Scripture. Look at this table, which you will become familiar with as this unfolds:
The biblical paradigm that runs from the opening pages of Genesis to the book of Joshua is common to human experience. Examine your life, and you will see these themes over the years. Talk to anyone long enough, and you will be able to hear these themes in their story. It is such a great way to tell a story that Paul the apostle copied this storytelling template. The pattern consists of a bit more than Creation – Fall – Redemption:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The pinnacle of creation was humankind, made in His likeness and the image of the Creator. God concluded that everything was good. Note that God did say that it is not good for man to be alone, prompting the creation of a human woman. God concludes that creation is very good. The creation is a beautiful, endless exploration opportunity for curious humans. Also, note the command to be fruitful and multiply and rule over the creation. The command was given in the context of a relationship with the Creator and His image-bearers.
Humankind messed things up at the prompting of that sneaky serpent. In rebellion, humankind attempted to become like God by their efforts. Pride! God is so patient and merciful. Rather than wipe us out with no memory of us ever existing, He chose to make His purpose known to us through a narrative form of storytelling focused on the seed of the woman. Would you have eaten the forbidden fruit? You would have! Every single one of us would have done the same thing. It would be prideful or plain foolish to believe otherwise.
Things go from bad to worse quickly when humankind attempts to do things their way without God’s involvement. We read about the first murder, then see that humanity is continually evil in every thought. What should God do? The God of all Creation in Genesis shows mercy time and again. He also humbles humankind through global catastrophe, rewiring the communication centers of our brains and scattering us across the planet. Can you imagine a world without law and men protecting women? Some reading this might think that is already the case, but you would be humbled if tomorrow any man decided to do whatever he wanted without consequence – Terrible evil.
Divine intervention by God gives some hope despite humankind seeking their way. Now, the focus is on one man, Abraham, and his future offspring. God chooses this man to be a father in the faithfulness required to be in right standing with God. Abraham believed God at His word, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Do you remember that promise made to the serpent in the Garden to raise the woman’s seed to crush its head? Through the seed of Abraham – his offspring – the nations of the world would later be blessed.
Four hundred years later, the offspring of the one man, Abraham, were brought out of slavery, just as God said they would. God’s promises are true. He used another man whom He had chosen, Moses, for this task. Now the reader learns more detail about this Creator through instructions on being in a relationship with Him. The wilderness wanderings reveal many things about the human heart, as well as the heart of God. He desires covenant loyalty, not sacrifice, as the student of Scripture learns over time.
The giving of the Law to the offspring of Abraham through Moses provides an awareness of sin in new ways. God is a holy God and cannot be approached by sinful humankind unless it is on God’s terms. The details of the Law reveal that God is serious about the problem of sin. He is willing to provide a way for humankind despite His righteous hatred of it.
God’s promises to Abraham for his offspring to inherit the land is where we land as we read the first few pages of Joshua. The offspring of this one man and his wife have multiplied into millions of people. God is a Promise Keeper. However, humankind is continually unfaithful in keeping their word, as His people turn to their ways consistently. We have lessons of unfaithfulness on every page of the OT.
Conversely, we see God’s faithfulness throughout. It is a pattern that repeats from beginning to end in the OT and the entire NT. As far as the OT is concerned, the tension for God to relieve His people of their unfaithfulness is never resolved. The offspring of Abraham, the Hebrew people, give us a rich history in this paradigm as unfaithful people to God and unable to fulfill their covenant promise from Mt. Sinai. However, God proves faithful, and that is something to remember.
As discussed in the Creation – Fall – Redemption biblical narrative, this pattern continues throughout the Old Testament narrative history of the offspring of Abraham. The paradigm of Creation to Promise is not the focus of the Bible; Jesus is. This pattern happens to be significant enough that it is utilized in the New Testament as well.
