The Book Jesus Read

For most of his life my father was not a deeply religious man, but a few years before his death he developed a spiritual hunger. When he began his faith journey, I presented him a Bible for his birthday. From that day until his death he would rise in the pre-dawn hours, sip coffee, and read his Bible, marking passages that spoke to him. After he passed away, the Bible was given to me by my mother.

The Bible sits on a shelf in my study, and I glance through it from time to time. The New Testament has many underlined passages but the Old Testament has scarcely a mark. Apparently, my dad didn’t read the Old Testament or if he did, he didn’t leave many traces of it. My father’s biblical reading habits are not unusual among Christians.

The Old Testament has been relegated to minor status in many Christian churches. Sermons from the Old Testament are seldom heard, although from time to time a pastor may select an Old Testament passage but invariably hurries on to the New Testament. By skipping over the older testament, the church, unfortunately, has thinned out its theological foundation and lost a significant part of its faith story.

After all, the Old Testament comprises two-thirds of the Bible, covers a span of 1,000 years, and establishes the historical and theological foundation for the New Testament. Marginalizing the Old Testament severs the church from its ancestral heritage and diminishes our understanding of the New.

There are a variety of reasons, I suppose, why Christians overlook the Old Testament writings. It is thought by some people that the Hebrew Bible is irrelevant for Christians. The ancient laws and customs picture a world that no longer exists, so why bother with an outdated book? Other people think that the Old Testament’s description of God reveals a cruel, vindictive, and angry deity, while the New Testament’s image of God, as reflected by the person of Jesus, displays grace and love.

I understand why people may feel that the Old Testament offers little to people of faith, yet I have found within its pages a source of profound spiritual guidance. We often forget that the Old Testament was the Bible Jesus read and the one that guided and shaped his understanding of God, affirming what the writer Luke tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom (Lk. 2:52). How did Jesus acquire his wisdom? Like all Jewish children Jesus’s spiritual growth was formed by reading and studying the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians call the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is divided into three parts: the Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), the Prophets (Isaiah, Micah, Amos and others), and the Writings (such books as Psalms, Proverbs and Job). Within these scriptures glimpses of God’s character can be fleshed-out through human analogous terms, such as Redeemer, Father, Shepherd, and Lover. Unknown to many, even feminine qualities of God can be seen in these ancient writings. A look at a few of these images may help us to better grasp the significance and relevancy of the Old Testament.

God as Redeemer. Passages such as Psalm 69:18, Proverbs 23:10-11, Leviticus 25:25, as well as many others, tell of God’s watch care over the poor, the weak and the marginalized. God defends those without power in this world and compassionately comes to their rescue. God’s deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt is one example.

God as Father. It is noteworthy that both the Old Testament as well as Jesus refer to God as Father. God is shown to be strict but also fair and compassionate in the older testament. If children are abandoned by their parents, God will take them under his wing (Psalm 27:10). God’s compassion and mercy are without limits.

Although the world of the Old Testament was patriarchal, a strong place is reserved for women in these ancient works. The use of the term “Father” in the Old Testament should not be viewed as misogynistic but merely an expression reflecting the Ancient Near Eastern culture. In fact, Israel was far ahead of other cultures in respecting the role of women (see Proverbs 31:10-31, for example). Women play important roles in the Old Testament, such as Miriam, the sister of Moses, Deborah, one of the judges, Huldah, a prophetess and Ruth.

God as Shepherd. Perhaps the most well-known Bible passage is Psalm 23. The Psalm, attributed to King David, portrays God as a shepherd who guides and protects his children. Few verses in either Old or New Testament evoke such feelings of security and love as does the 23rd Psalm. In Isaiah 41, God gently shepherds his children back to their homeland after years of captivity in Babylon. Long before Jesus people of faith thought of God as the Good Shepherd.

God as Lover. The Hebrew word hesed (love) is one of the key words in the lexicon of Old Testament faith. There is no English equivalent. The word implies, steadfastness, loyalty, commitment, and love. Even the New Testament word, agape, has no greater theological weight than hesed. Hosea reminds us that God takes the initiative in hesed love, even when we do not deserve it. God’s love refuses to give his children up, regardless of how far they fall away. Such love is the ultimate source of hope.

Feminine Characteristics of God. Genesis 1:27 provides the key understanding of how both male and female in some mysterious way co-exist in God’s being. The verse tells us that God created both male and female in God’s image. The word “image” (tselem) conveys the idea that male and female reflect the nature of divine being. Furthermore, Hosea 11:9 reminds us that God is not a man (nor is God neuter)—God, as Genesis tells us, bears within God’s being the qualities of both genders.

Jeremiah 31:20 in the Hebrew language describes feminine characteristics of God’s tender and motherly concern for God’s children. Deuteronomy 32:18 even pictures God as giving birth to Israel.

There are, of course, verses in the Old Testament that show God in a different light. When Israel entered the land of Canaan, for instance, the Old Testament tells us that God commanded the inhabitants to be slaughtered, both women and children. These passages are not easy to stomach and have caused people to look at the God of the Old Testament with suspicion, if not disgust, or assume the biblical writers were bloodthirsty lunatics.

The Torah

Frankly, I don’t know what to make of these dark passages. I’m certainly not going to skip these barbaric stories nor am I going to give them greater weight than they warrant. They are part of Israel’s history and need to be read. Perhaps the stories were preserved to remind us that zealous faith, uncoupled from thoughtful and prayerful devotion, is capable of the most horrific acts.

What I do know, however, is that these disturbing scriptures are overwhelmed by other narratives, stories that tell of a compassionate and loving God, a God who desires justice and fairness for all.

The prophets, especially, have insight into God’s loving nature. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God abhors those who play at religion, pretending to be pious while exploiting the poor, the sick, and the needy (see Isaiah 1). Micah reveals the heart of God by claiming that God’s demands are simple: to act with justice, to be filled with love (hesed), and to walk humbly in matters of faith (Micah 6:8).

What often goes unnoticed in this passage is that the word justice has strong economic overtones. In the Old Testament justice signifies benevolent treatment toward those on the edges of life. To be filled with love means to have empathy for those who suffer, to walk in their shoes, so to speak. Amos 5:24 echoes the theme of justice as demonstrable concern for the lowly and downtrodden—that is, tangible acts of love for the poor.

The Old Testament is a remarkable work of inspiration. It rises to incredible spiritual peaks, seldom matched even in the New Testament, and, in a few places, plunges to a number of head scratching valleys that give us pause. Yet, without the Old Testament our understanding of the God of Jesus and the New Testament would be greatly impoverished, and we would be left with blank pages in two-thirds of our album of faith.