Reading With the People of God - #6 LOVESample

Memorization Challenge: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Reading Primer: Same God?

Is God of the Old & New Testaments the same? One big thing to understand the difference between the Old & New Testament is a theological concept used to describe how God's truth & purposes have been gradually revealed to humanity through the Bible. We see this in our three passages today. We will take a few examples of this in the chronological order of our readings today:

Deuteronomy 20 talks about how to conduct war, which is not a topic seen in the New Testament. Even in this passage, there are ideas that God teaches that are radically different from those of the surrounding world. For example, not every male must fight. They are exempted if they have a new house, wife, or vineyard. If they are faint-hearted, they’re sent home (Deuteronomy 20:5-8). Also, God wants His people to offer peace first, nor was the forced labor humiliating slavery. Even in victory, there is a price exacted against the males, but brutalizing the other citizens was not allowed (Deuteronomy 10:10-14). God’s ways are a lot better than war practices in the ancient time of Deuteronomy.

In Psalm 16, we see references to God's blessing tied to land (Psalm 16:3 & 6) and to sacrifices (Psalm 16:4)—improper sacrifices in this case. The New Testament refers to the one sacrifice alone, Jesus on the cross. This eliminates the need for animal sacrifice, which was an Old Testament worship for atonement, pointing to Jesus' ultimate sacrifice.

In 1 Corinthians, we see God's ultimate revelation to His people that Jesus' resurrection is necessary for our salvation and resurrection through His power and faith in Jesus. So, you can see the progression of revelation even in today’s reading.

The last part of progressive revelation in the Bible is that the Old Testament is not made void by later revelation. Jesus fulfilled the Law in the Old Testament. Yet, the Old Testament is the revelation we need to understand who Jesus is & what He did. We see foreshadowings of this in our reading today. Psalm 16:10 says, “For you will not...let your holy one see corruption,” which points to Jesus! In 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, we see “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” quoted from Isaiah & Hosea in the Old Testament, which points to the victory of Jesus over death.

As you read these passages, ask yourself, how is God revealing Himself in this revelation in light of the times & understanding of the readers of that era?

- Doug Drainville, Care Pastor.