2 Corinthians 3:14

OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES

‘But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ.’

2 Corinthians 3:14

The Bible is best and most reasonably regarded, according to the express statement of the English Church, as ‘containing the Word of God’; in other words, that it is a record of the inspired people of God. Priceless as the Old Testament is, as a witness to the ancient history of the world, to us it is rather available in three great and principal lights:—

I. It is the authentic history of the Covenant between God and the race to whom He had revealed Himself.

II. It is the picture of the dealings of God with men, when they were under His direct government, and personal consecration to His service.

III. It is the presentation of the expectation of the Redeemer of the world.—First, a King after the manner of David, ruling over a chosen people, ideally united under Him. Then, born in David’s city, combining the peaceful qualities of Solomon with the triumphant victories of his father. And at last there is a climax of delineation. He becomes the pure, Divine, virgin Lord, Who founds a reign of righteousness for the whole world, for Gentiles as well as Jews; and Who, though He triumphs, triumphs in the last and spiritual sense through suffering and humiliation.

Wonderfully accurate as the Old Testament is shown to be by comparison with the monuments, histories, and writings of the different nations contemporary with its various epochs, it is not of secular history that we desire to learn from it, nor geology, nor astronomy, nor botany, nor physiology, nor political economy, nor of other sciences nor branches of knowledge whatever, which merely concern this earth and our present creation. To it we look for the dealings of God with men; for instruction and warning in conduct; for the intercourse of devout minds with God; for the progressive development of the moral and religious ideas; for the gradual unfolding of the attributes and nature of the Almighty Being Who created the heavens and the earth, yet Who dwelleth with him that is of humble and contrite spirit.

Archdeacon William Sinclair.

Illustration

‘The temper which most befits Old Testament workers is that of explorers conscious of obscurities all around them which they have not penetrated, and of mysteries which they have not yet fathomed; unwilling to press even what they may think the balance of opinion at any particular moment, knowing as they must that at the very most it is—even without taking account of the medium through which it passes—it still is only a balance of opinion which fluctuates from day to day. If the balance had been struck with the New Testament thirty or forty years ago, how many positions would it have included which are now known to be impossible?’