Can OT Promises Apply to Christians?
This is a good question. And I haven't said that for all the questions. They're all good questions. So, you know, the bulk of them are coming from our church.
Again, I was trying to find a bit of solace. Well, you know, Mike's church, Nod, Wim said, they're pretty much all our people. So I do want to communicate to our dear brethren, these are great questions. It is good stuff to think through.
But this one in particular, I know it comes up quite a bit. Can I apply Old Testament promises to my life? Sometimes a verse is meaningful to me, although it seems that I took it out of context. And then there's a particular example, Jeremiah 29, 11 to 13.
That's probably a text that's been used at every Christian school graduation. I know the plans I have for you. That's right. You're going to be a success, Junior.
And it was a letter to the exiles in Babylon. So I think that's a really very good question. He said it was for you. Well,
Promises vs. Threats: Covenantal Distinctions
there's a really broad and universal statement in 2 Corinthians 1, all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. So I think that we have to distinguish promises because you wouldn't want to do the same thing with threats under the Old Covenant. Can I personalize this threat, you know, make it my own threat? No, it was a historical event under a unique covenantal epoch with temporary purposes that served its purpose.
But even from those, if you read the Confession carefully, and I think Scripture, you can gain you know, principles from that. And Paul does that from Deuteronomy 25 and 1 Corinthians 9 and 1 Timothy 5, muzzling the ox and stuff. He draws a principle that you need to pay your pastor from that. So there are ways to do it.
Some of the texts are, would be, you know, like that one. It does have, it was the people of God in exile. But somebody's going to say, well, we're in exile, too, in one sense. So is there a principle there?
Yeah. What is it? Probably not what we usually make it, you know. You probably aren't going to be an astronaut.
Yeah. We over-inflate the promise and ourselves in light of the promise. So, I don't know if I have a really good answer for it, but some of these, that's a good question. I mean, how do you take what are promises to ancient Israel and apply them to Christians now?
Old Covenant Blessings and Curses
I think it's a good emphasis, though, to remember covenant. You know, if Israel is being, you know, Deuteronomy 28, I don't think a young guy who may be struggling with a couple of sins or, you know, things that are common can read Deuteronomy 28 and conclude he's going to be exiled and he's going to get, you know, reap disease and all those consequences. I mean, again, generally you do bad things. God is a just judge, but we need to be cautious not just in the application of those curses, but in the blessings as well.
To take an Old Covenant promise unique to Israel, and this seems to happen a lot, apply them to America. Whatever God said to Israel in the Old Covenant is true of America today. What you just did is you distinguished covenantal epochs or eras, and you distinguished between moral and positive laws. So some of these threats and promises are very positive, very anchored, very connected to the time in which they were done.
Their tenure in the land. Do you have anything else you want to add to that? No. Okay.
There's not one text that you muse on often in the Old Testament that you take for yourself. Can I just say one more thing? Sure, please.
Extracting Moral Principles from Civil Laws
The 1 Timothy and 1 Corinthians use of Deuteronomy 25.4 is paradigmatic, I think. So you have these weird civil laws about animals, and Paul extracts a principle from that and says, therefore, I think he's saying this, thou shalt not steal. Pay the man what he's worth. And so even in the positive laws that are fulfilled, if you dig deep enough, you can get a principle, a moral principle behind that that's being applied in a specific redemptive historical context that doesn't entail to this day, but the principle does.
And that's the hard work of... Yeah, I think that's where strategies like, well, whatever is true in judicial law in the Old Testament must be applicable to the U.S. of A. That's an easier tactic on one level. I think it's a very difficult thing on another level, but the going through, because there is a connection between the Decalogue and chapter 20 of Exodus and then 21 to 23.
These things were concrete applications in terms of their civil life. And there's a lot of things there, like our confession says, the general equity, whatever that means, there's something there for us to use, but it's not a one-for-one transference, moving from Old Covenant to New Covenant, therefore. And it's the therefores that I think get us into a lot of trouble, and it does not take into consideration those redemptive movements in history. Yes, very excellent.
Scripture: Organic, Progressive, and Climactic
Something I share with students sometimes, I'm sure I've shared it from the pulpit as well. The nature, what is scripture? It's a written word of God. Scripture is organic because it's from God.
It's all connected somehow, some way. It's progressive, and this helps hopefully with answering this question. And it's climactic. And the climax is not you and me.
It's not our problems. It's the incarnation, sufferings, and glory of Christ. That's the big boom, the crescendo, the drum roll, please, and the cymbals are going. Galatians 4.4.
Why do we have a Bible? To present the mediator of salvation for the glory of God. And if you take that with you, reading some of those things, You don't read them as personal. You're looking for something bigger, you know?
That's right. I think we all need a dose of looking for something bigger than yourself in the overall trajectory of what Scripture is revealing to us.
The Old Testament as a Christian Book
Not wanting in any way to deny what we've just said, because I wholeheartedly affirm it. But I think we also have to be careful that we Don't phrase ourselves in such a way that we remove the Old Testament from the Christian believer. Amen. 100%. It was the only Bible of the Apostolic Age as the New Testament was being written.
When Paul writes his famous words about Scripture in 2 Timothy 3, First he's referring to the Old Testament, and then to the new, added to the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is a Christian book, and it needs to be understood as a Christian book, but with a careful understanding of the progress of... revelation and the progress of the covenants and the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant and how we understand those laws. So, you know, what put this into my mind is you asked me the question, is there an Old Testament text that you muse on? The answer actually would be yes.
Yeah, I hope so.
Reading the Psalms Christologically
When I sign my autograph in books, I have an Old Testament text that I always put there. It's because the Psalms have become so important in my life. Oh, yeah, that's right. And I see Christ there, and I want those Psalms not just to be nice religious poetry that can soothe my heart, but I want to be able to see in them how they do relate to, first, Christ Church, and then to me as a member of Christ Church.
Yeah, that's right. Jeremiah 29.11 is the example. I've used it in lectures. I point that out to guys that we have to be really cautious in the way that we relate the Testaments to each other.
Let me go back to Mark 1.1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a change that comes with the appearance of John the Baptist, but still, the Old Testament is our book, and we need to see it as our book, use it, be strengthened in our lives and in our churches. I believe that as preachers, we ought to be preaching regularly from the Old Testament. So on the Lord's Day morning, when I'm in Surrey, I'm going to preach on Psalm 15.
And maybe I'll preach from a Psalm. Yeah, you've heard that one. Yeah. That's a good sermon.
Maybe I'll preach a Psalm for you guys on Sunday night, you know, because I want God's people to lay hold of the Old Testament. And with the Jeremiah 29 passage,
Jeremiah 29 Read in Context
Appreciating it in its context yields a wonderful view of our God. These people have been in captivity. You're going to be freed from captivity. You're going back.
For their sin. For your sin, you're there. But I have plans for you. This isn't the end of the story.
And just seeing it from that vantage point gives us hope. So, everything ought to lead us back to an appreciation of God. Right, yeah. And I always think that's a good practical application.
This, be a better you, or be a better this, or be a better that. Can't I just see my God and want to worship him more? That to me is a good application of text. It's like the end of the book of Habakkuk.
I think the same idea is there. Though everything falls apart, God is God and we can trust in him. So I have plans for you. I can look at that and I can say that I know that the Lord has plans for me.
It's not the specific promise that's given to Israel, but I know that he will glorify himself and he will bring me safely to the end, whatever trials I face in this life. Absolutely. That's the consistency that we hold on to. Jim said we should treat the Old Testament as Christian scripture.
You know what Augustine believed the first book of the New Testament was? Genesis. The Old Testament. No, I agree 100%.
Psalm 73: A Doxological Conclusion
I'm not an autograph collector, so if I did ask you to autograph a book, what is the text? Psalm 73, 25, and 26. Oh, good. Which says...
Who do I have in heaven but you? Right, yeah. Who do I have in heaven but you? I think the NAS actually translates that beautifully.
Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Which I think is so wonderful in Psalm 73 itself, because Asaph had almost, that's right, a leader among God's people. Until he went into the house of God.
It's such a great psalm. Oh, it's wonderful. And the conclusion. He's had his eyes down on earth, on other people, and when he finally looks up, he says, oh, it makes sense.
What have I done with my life? Exactly. And who do I have? I'm not going to preach to you right now.
Yeah, you can preach that on Sunday night. Great, great, great. Oh, there's so much more. Keep going.
It's the first in the third book of the Psalms, right? Book three, Psalm 73 begins. Book three is the book, Palmer Robertson calls it devastation because it consistently reflects the trouble that has come upon Israel and the failure of the Davidic and Solomonic kingships. Preparing the way for the fourth book.
What's the first book, first Psalm and the fourth book? It's Psalm 90. a psalm of Moses, the man of God, which speaks about God's eternity. The kings have failed. Israel is falling apart.
All of this is true, but God is still God. And so the fourth book turns our eyes upwards. But this is not a discussion about the structure of the psalms. It could be.
It's fantastic. Psalms are fantastic. Oh, yes. It's just a gift from our God to the people of God.