The Old Testament

Place yourself in this picture; you are in an unfamiliar land where you have no idea what to expect, where to go, or what your role is. All you know is that your forefathers were promised to inherit a land all their own, and now after years of living in a foreign country as an unpaid labourer, it is time for that promise to be realised in your life. You are scared and at the same time excited to be finally going to a place you can call home…

A critical moment in the story of God in the Old Testament is when Abram at around 2081BC1 (well after the flood) is told by God in Genesis 12 to, "Go to the land that I will show you".(v1) And, "I will make you a great nation" (v2). This is where it begins for the nation which becomes known as Israel; Abram is promised that His children will inherit the foreign land of Canaan (v6, 7)2. It was about another 430 years before the promise was fulfilled! Have you ever been promised something which you had to wait to receive...maybe for Christmas or your birthday...you had to wait a couple of months? Imagine 430 years! Your great, great, great (and more greats) grandchildren would finally see the promise made to you become reality! So 430 years after the promise was given, a reluctant guy called Moses was called by God to confront Pharaoh the leader of Egypt about letting Israel leave; (the land where Israel had become slaves) and after a series of miracles performed by God, Pharaoh finally consented. So the Exodus finally began. Fee and Stuart in their book How to Read the Bible Book by Book, write, "Exodus narrates the crucial matters that define Israel as a people in their relationship to their God, Yahweh"3. It was during this exodus that God wrote His Law on two stone tab...

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...se grace by leaving a remnant! Grey writes of how through this remnant the hope of the entire world would come - Jesus Christ! 10

Israel 's history is full of ups and downs...consequences of wrong actions, detours and loss. Ultimately however, it is a story of the saving grace of God which overcomes everything! There is nothing we can do which will separate us from God. Fee and Stuart on the Old Testament prophet Isaiah who prophesied about the Messiah at about 711BC11: ..."Isaiah stands...as a reminder that Yahweh is the living God"...12. So in the middle of all of the pain and suffering, Yahweh is held high as God and Saviour! This is as true now as it was then! Looking into the Old Testament, this is what I see: As they were broken, we are broken, and I am broken...we live in a broken world and we need saving...Thank God He came to our rescue!!