In Psalms we read we need to “be still and know that I am God,” (Psalm 46:10). That is the best way to listen to God. That’s what he wants from us: our ears, our attention, a relationship.
Our relationship with God starts when we listen to him.
Ask yourself: How do you listen to God? How does God speak to you?
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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Jesus does three things to complete what the Old Testament started
Jesus draws people to him. The words he speaks and the hope he communicates attract them. Some people assume he had come to replace the Old Testament Law and the work of the prophets. Instead, Jesus fulfills it.
Jesus doesn’t come to do away with what the Old Testament teaches. Instead his mission is to bring the Old Testament into fruition, according to God’s plan from the beginning.
Jesus makes this clear. He says, “I have not come to abolish the Law and the prophets but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). How does Jesus do this?
Jesus Becomes the Ultimate Sacrifice
The Old Testament is packed with instructions for making sacrificial offerings, commands that showed the people’s relationship with God. These sacrifices had various meanings, but one key sacrifice occurred to redress sin.
An animal had to die because the people had sinned. Because the people continued to sin, animal sacrifices continued to be required. These sin sacrifices happened over and over, year after year, century after century.
Jesus, in his sacrificial death on the cross, becomes the ultimate sacrifice for sin to end all sin sacrifices. In his once-and-for-all sacrifice, he dies to make us right with God, to reconcile us into right relationship with the Almighty.
Jesus Turns Law into Love
Despite Jesus’s fresh way of looking at the understandings of his people, most of his followers struggle to fully comprehend what he means. They wrestle to reconcile his teachings with their traditions.
One such person asks Jesus to identify the greatest commandment in the Old Testament. Jesus’s answer is love. He says to “love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.”
This stands as the greatest commandment, but then he adds one more. He says to “love others as much as we love ourselves” (Matthew 22:36-40). These two simple principles summarize all the Old Testament Law and the writings of the prophets.
Jesus removes a set of impossible-to-please laws and replaces them with one principle: love.
Jesus Changes Our Perspectives
Jesus likes to review what the Hebrew Bible says, and then he expands on it. He often makes this transition by saying “but I tell you…” Then he gives his enlightened explanation about what God meant.
We’ll do well to carefully study what Jesus says immediately after his words “but I tell you…” Read about what he says in this post.
What’s important to understand when we consider that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament law and the writings of the prophets is that we must put the Old Testament in proper perspective.
This doesn’t mean to ignore the Old Testament because Jesus fulfills it, but it does mean we need to consider the Old Testament in the context to which it was given. In addition to teaching people how to live back then, the Law and the prophets also points them to the coming Savior, Jesus.
As we read the Old Testament we see allusions to Jesus and the freedom he represents. And if we read the Old Testament with care, we will also see that this future revelation about Jesus applies to all people, not just God’s chosen nation of Israel.
Jesus Fulfills the Old Testament Law and Prophets
Yes, Jesus fulfills the Old Testament Law and the writings of the prophets. And we are the benefactor of that.
Thank you Jesus.
Read more about this in Peter’s thought-provoking book, Jesus’s Broken Church, available in e-book, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover.
Discover more about celebrating Jesus and his passion to save us in Peter’s new book, The Passion of Jesus. It is part of the Holiday Celebration Bible Study Series.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Balance Old Testament Commands with New Testament Freedom
Psalm 15 opens with one essential question, phrased in two ways, that most everyone asks, either out loud or to themselves. In this Psalm, David asks God, “What must I do to live with you?”
The next four verses give us the answer. Actually, it’s a series of answers, a list of twelve things we must do if we are to live with God. Here they are:
Walk Blamelessly: we should live a life above reproach.
Be Righteous: we should do what is right in all things.
Speak Truth: we must say what is true, not from a technical standpoint, but from our heart.
Don’t Slander: we shouldn’t tell lies about other people.
Don’t Do Wrong: we shouldn’t hurt others, not physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually.
Don’t Slur: our words should not insult or speak poorly of others.
Despise the Vile: we should oppose evil in every form.
Honor Those Who Fear God: we should respect God-fearing people and implicitly follow their example.
Keep Promises: regardless of the cost, we should do what we say we will do.
Don’t Change Our Mind: we shouldn’t waffle with our words or what we decide.
Lend to Those in Need: we should loan money to those in need and do so without interest.
Don’t Accept Bribes: we shouldn’t allow others to improperly influence us in how we treat innocent people.
These are the twelve things we must do to live with God. Is this, then, the answer? True, the list contains admirable traits that we should all pursue, but I hope God doesn’t hold us to this.
Why? Because we can’t. We’re going to fall short at one time or another. We could miss the mark every day. Each of us. You, me, everyone.
A Better Way to Live with God
The Old Testament commands weigh us down, begging for a better solution. The New Testament offers us a better way. His name is Jesus. He is the light of the world that gives life (John 8:12). All we need to do is follow him (Matthew 9:9), and then we can live with God.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
The Bible talks a lot about covenants. In a generic sense a covenant is
an agreement or compact. But in the Bible, it takes on an elevated meaning. In
Scripture a covenant is a promise from God to his people.
There are two types of covenants. One is conditional. This means that to receive God’s promised blessing, we need to do something first—or avoid doing something.
If we don’t do our part, God has no obligation to do his part. If we break our portion of the covenant, the whole thing is void.
The other type of covenant is unconditional. In these covenants, God promises to do something for us and doesn’t require anything in return.
For example, his love for us is unconditional. There’s nothing we can do to earn it, and there’s nothing we can do to lose it. It’s always there, unconditionally so.
The word covenant appears in over half of the books in the Bible, showing
up over 330 times. Exodus and Deuteronomy lead the Bible with mentions of
covenant. In the New Testament, Hebrews talks the most about covenants.
Though scholars differ on the details, there are six major covenants in
the Bible. These align with some of the biblical
eras we talked about last week.
Some of these six major covenants are conditional and others are
unconditional.
1. Covenant with Adam and Eve
We start in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They may eat anything
they want except for fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, known as
the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
If they obey these two instructions, they can live in the Garden of Eden and hang out with God each evening.
But when they eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they must leave. God’s covenant with them is conditional, and they fall short.
2. Covenant through Noah
Next, we have Noah and his family. Team Noah builds an arc to escape a
flood of destruction. Afterword, God promises to never again destroy people with
a flood. This covenant is unconditional.
3. Covenant with Abraham
Moving forward several centuries we come to Abraham. God calls Abraham to go to a new place and into a new relationship. God promises that he will grow Abraham into a great nation. Through him, God will bless all nations.
This is another unconditional covenant. However, as Abraham demonstrates his faithfulness to God, God continues to expand the scope of his promises to Abraham.
4. Covenant through Moses
About 500 years later, Moses comes on the scene. God gives Moses rules of what to do and what not to do. We call this the Law. If people obey God’s Law, he will bless them. If they don’t follow God’s expectations, he will withhold blessings.
This is a conditional covenant, one that the people repeatedly fall short of over the centuries.
5. Covenant with David
Later, we have King David, a man after God’s own heart—despite David having a few major failures in his life. God’s covenant to David is that his descendants will always sit on the throne forever. And for twenty generations this is what happens.
However, the physical rule of David’s line ends. This doesn’t mean God failed in his covenant.
It means we looked at it wrong. Jesus, a direct descendent of King David, arises as the ultimate King who will rule forever. This brings us to the sixth major covenant.
6. Covenant through Jesus
In the New Testament we have Jesus. He comes to fulfill the Old Testament, both the law and the covenants. Anyone who believes in Jesus, follows him, and trusts him will receive this ultimate of covenants to end all covenants.
The outcome is living with him forever.
Though we might want to call this major covenant a conditional one because we first must receive it, it’s unconditional. This is because once we receive it it’s ours. Today we fall under the new covenant with Jesus.
To receive the promises of this covenant, all we need to do is receive him. It’s that simple.
Yet some people still act as though they fall under Moses’s covenant. They think there’s a bunch of rules they must follow and activities to avoid before they can receive God’s life-changing covenant. Not so. Jesus did away with that.
We don’t need to follow Moses’s Old Testament covenant of following a bunch of rules and regulations to earn our salvation. Instead we claim God’s new covenant when we believe in Jesus and follow him.
The Most Important of the Major Covenants
Of the six major covenants in the Bible, the one that comes to us through Jesus is the most important. All we do is receive what he promises to give to us.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
God Doesn’t Give Empty Threats; He Will Do What He Says He Will Do
God has expectations for his people. The Old Testament of the Bible covers this. The first five books of the Bible, often called the Law of Moses, details God’s expectations.
He tells the people what to do and what not to do. If they obey, they’ll receive rewards and favor. If they disobey, they’ll face judgment and punishment.
Then we witness a recurring cycle in the Bible. The people turn from God and face difficulties. Then they turn back to him, and he embraces them.
We first see this cycle repeated in the book of Judges, and it carries forward throughout the rest of the Old Testament.
The prophets continue to address
this. They call God’s people to turn toward him. If they don’t, judgment and
punishment will follow. But the people don’t listen. Eventually God has had
enough.
Their list of failures is long:
they worshiped other gods
they secretly did what they weren’t supposed to
do
they built places of worship to other gods and
burned incense to them
they made and worshiped idols
they didn’t trust God
they rejected God’s commands and covenant
they worshiped stars
they worshiped Baal
they sacrificed their children
they practiced divination
they sought omens (enchantments or magic spells)
Judgment and Punishment
After centuries of disobeying God and rejecting him, judgment and punishment finally falls on them. The Assyrians invade Israel and plunder the land. They exile most of the people.
The nation of Israel is no more. Only the tribe of Judah remains.
You’d think the people of Judah
would see this and learn what will happen if they don’t give God their all. His
warnings of judgment and punishment are for real. The prophets’ warnings aren’t
empty words.
And for a while, the people of
Judah do avoid God’s judgment and punishment. Yet they continue in the same
cycle of turning from God and facing difficulties. Then repenting and embracing
him—for a while.
Just as the prophets warned, judgment and punishment will come upon the people of Judah too. Babylon will conquer them and disperse them.
They’ll get a seventy-year timeout, scattered throughout the nation of Babylon. But then a remnant of the people will return, and they’ll get another chance.
Thank God for second chances. Thank
God for delaying judgment and punishment to give us every opportunity to turn
to him and put him first.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
I
listen to a lot of podcasts. And I started a podcast over a decade ago. It was
a lot of fun and a lot of work. After a dozen or so episodes I ran out of time.
Yet my interest in the medium never waned.
For me, the ideal solution is to make guest appearances on other people’s podcasts!
I’m honored to be a guest on the inaugural episode (episode 1) of the We Are Saved podcast, with my new friend Lyle Perez. Listen to it on iTunes or Podomatic. The whole episode is great, but if you’re short on time, my part starts about 34 minutes in.
2. Was Moses wrong in his teaching, since Jesus came and made a
lot of changes to “the Law?”
These are great questions.
Yep, I was nervous, but I had a blast!
I pray that this podcast will help many people in their walk with Jesus or their journey to him.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
God Promises Rewards for Obedience and Punishment for Disobedience
As we read through the book of Leviticus, which is a struggle for most of us, we read instruction after instruction of what God expects from his people.
With precise detail, his commands come forth one after another. Then, in chapter 26, the book begins to wrap up.
Here we see the prior chapters put into perspective. The key concept here is that we must listen to God and follow him.
The chapter opens with a detailed list of rewards for those who listen to God, follow his decrees, and obey his commands. He promises favor, peace, and fruitfulness. Isn’t this a life we all want to experience?
But then the tone of the chapter changes. The word “but” signals a transition.
For those who refuse to listen to God, don’t carry out his commands, and reject his decrees, he adds a list of threats (Leviticus 26:14-16) that contrast to the comforting promises in the first half of the chapter.
He talks about terror, disease, and enemy oppression. We all want to avoid these things.
However, these aren’t to punish us but to get our attention.
After a few verses he says, “If after all this…” It’s like he’s taking a breath and giving his people—and us—a second chance.
We must grab this opportunity. Because if we don’t, more punishment will follow, with dire repercussions.
What follows in the rest of the chapter is a series of chances: a third chance, a fourth chance, a fifth chance, and so on.
God doesn’t want to punish us. He wants us to turn to him, follow him, and obey him. His message is clear. We must listen to God and do what he says. Then we will receive the rewards he wants to give us.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
The book of Psalms gives us glimpses into God’s character and his love for us. Though some people view God, as portrayed in the Old Testament, as angry and vengeful, a more careful read gives us a different perspective.
We see his love and his patience; he is slow to anger. We realize his desire to enjoy community with us.
One such example of God’s character comes through with poetic elegance in Psalm 30:5. Here we read that God’s “anger lasts only for a moment.” Even better is what comes next, that God’s “favor lasts a lifetime.”
And now for the poetry part: “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5, NIV).
Yes, we may suffer through some dark times (nighttime), but light will always follow (daytime), just as surely as morning follows evening. And though each day is made up of half night and half light, God’s anger is not in equal proportion to his favor.
Remember that we sleep through most of the darkness and therefore experience mostly light. In this way, nighttime seems brief—at least most of the time.
Just as we experience mostly the light of each day, we will also mostly bask in God’s favor.
Nine times the Old Testament reminds us that God is “slow to anger.” This occurs three times in Psalms and twice in the Law of Moses, along with Nehemiah, Joel, Jonah, and Nahum.
That’s a lot of people reminding us that God is slow to anger.
If we view God as a good parent (recall that God is our father, and we are his children), we realize that there will be times of needed correction. But if we respond appropriately, our time of discipline will be short.
Then we emerge from it and return to right relationship with God, experiencing his favor and his love, just as every good parent wants for their children. So, too, God wants this for us.
God is slow to anger, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Praise God!
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
The Old Testament Law Gets Us Started and Points Us to Jesus
Why is the Old Testament Law in the Bible? How is it relevant for us today? Many followers of Jesus ignore the Law they read in the Old Testament, and a few people pick which parts of it they want to follow and dismiss the rest.
As for me, I’m searching for a way to connect the Old Testament Law with my faith and make sense of it without being weighed down by it.
Courtesy of Matthew, we know that Jesus came to fulfill the Law but not eliminate it (Matthew 5:17). In addition, Paul writes that the Law of the Old Testament served as our “guardian” until Jesus came (Galatians 3:24). Does this mean we can get rid of the Old Testament Law? Not so fast.
The word guardian is interesting. Let’s dig into it. In considering some fifty translations of the Bible for this verse, Guardian occurs in 17 of them. Here are some of the words used in other versions:
tutor (12 times),
schoolmaster (7),
disciplinarian (7),
custodian (4),
“in charge of us” (4),
teacher (3),
guide (3),
governess (2),
trainer (1),
chaperone (1),
babysitter (1),
child-conductor (1),
master (1), and
gateway (1).
And just to be thorough, we have:
pedagogue (1),
under-master (1), and
“watching over us” (1).
Finally, the Message says, “we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law,” that is, the Old Testament Law.
Education and the Old Testament Law
Let’s consider the theme of education (tutor, schoolmaster, teacher, guide, trainer, and more). In elementary school I learned the basics from my teachers. In junior high and high school, we built upon our basic education to more fully understand our lessons.
In college we expanded our understanding further. Then later still, our life lessons built upon all our formal education.
What my elementary school teachers taught me wasn’t wrong, but it was incomplete. The same goes for high school and college. Even now, I continue to build upon my initial levels of education as I grasp for a deeper understanding of the basics I once learned.
This same concept applies to most of the other words that the various translations use for this verse.
In the same token, we shouldn’t view the Old Testament Law as wrong or irrelevant, but it is incomplete. We must build upon it. The Law moves us forward in our faith in Jesus. Then, as we mature, our understanding transcends into something more, something much more.
It’s as if the Old Testament Law gets us started and points us in the right direction. Then Jesus furthers our education by building upon it. The Law isn’t something we should ignore, nor is it the goal. The Law is the beginning, and Jesus is the end.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Though the Bible has many commands, love is the greatest command of them all. Check it out:
The Old Testament Law
In the first five books of the Bible, sometimes called the Torah or Pentateuch, God gives instructions to Moses. The people refer to this as the law. These rules, or guidelines, are numerous.
In fact, there are 613. Though I once considered counting them myself, I decided not to. Plenty of Jewish scholars already have, and they come up with 613. I’m fine with that.
Bible students divide these 613 instructions into two categories: things we should do and things we shouldn’t do. Some people call these positive commands and negative commands. In case you’re wondering, yes, there are more things we shouldn’t do than things we should do.
Furthermore, some Bible academics group these 613 commands by topic, such as worshiping God, making vows, offering sacrifices, and so forth. Even with these divisions and categorizations, the number of instructions is still unwieldy.
Besides there’s not too many people I know—okay there’s no one I know—who follows all 613 rules.
The Ten Commandments
In the middle of the 613 instructions, we find the Ten Commandments. Ten is much more manageable than 613. Most people I know affirm the Ten Commandments—even if they can’t list all ten.
(Though I can come close, I can’t either. But this doesn’t trouble me because different faith traditions can’t agree on what the ten are anyway.)
Again, scholars divide this list. The first four commandments relate to our relationship with God, and the last six relate to our relationship with others.
Also, if you’re keeping track, the majority of the Ten Commandments tell us what not to do, only a few tell us what we should do.
Jesus Summarizes the Law
Someone asks Jesus to identify the greatest commandment. But he doesn’t give one answer. He gives two. The first is to love God fully and completely. The second is similar, to love others as much as we love ourselves.
Then Jesus adds that the Law and writings of the prophets all hinge on these two commandments (Matthew 22:36–40).
Though Jesus gives two answers, they have a common theme. The theme is love. Love is the greatest command.
Paul Writes about Love
In the first letter Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he devotes a whole section to love. He tells them how important love is and gives them a description of how love behaves.
Then he says that love never ends, even though prophecies—and other things people think are important—will cease. He concludes this famous passage with a succinct phrase, “The greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13).
Love Is the Greatest
So, we start with 613 instructions, focus on the ten big ones, and then Jesus narrows it down to two, which have a common theme of love. Paul confirms that love trumps everything.
Instead of focusing on what we should and shouldn’t do—following a list of requirements with religious fervor—we should instead turn our attention to the greatest commandment: love.
Love God, and love others.
If we do this everything else should fall into place.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
