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Do we Christians really need to know much about the Old Testament? About, say, the history of the patriarchs or the kings of ancient Israel? After all, isn’t "the good news" found only in the New Testament? Isn’t it enough to know that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, declares us forgiven, and promises us a home in heaven? And if so, then why bother to read 2 Samuel or Amos or Ezekiel?
Well, for one thing, one out of every three New Testament verses refers to, or quotes, the Old Testament scriptures, thereby pointing readers back to the historical events and religious traditions recorded in them. The Gospel writers explained who Jesus was and what His ministry meant against the backdrop of Judaism. If we fail to see what the Gospel writers were doing, we miss some important messages about the real Jesus.
To illustrate, let’s probe Matthew 15:21-28. Jesus is in the region of Tyre and Sidon—Gentile territory to the northwest of Galilee. He is approached by “a Canaanite woman from that region,” who begs Jesus for mercy on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter. (Note that Mark 7:24-30 refers to the woman as a “Syrophoenician woman”–which would have been the appropriate term in First Century Palestine.) To call the woman a “Canaanite” in Jesus’ day would have been an anachronism. Today, it would be like calling a person from Iran a “Persian" or an Irishman a "Hibernian." Why then did Matthew say "Canaanite" instead of "Syrophoenician?" To get the answer, we need to know the contents of Deuteronomy 7:1-2.
When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and He clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you— and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.
So the Law of Moses states that the Canaanites are to be shown no mercy—the very thing the “Canaanite” woman asked of Jesus! What does Jesus do? When His disciples tell Him to send her away, He ignores them. When the woman persists with her plea for mercy, Jesus says that He “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Again, the woman persists, kneels before Him, and begs, “Lord, help me.” Jesus answers, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (a derogatory term used by Jews to refer to Gentiles!). She replies, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” Jesus then addresses the woman directly, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter is healed instantly.
We can imagine Jesus’ face beaming as He grants the woman’s request. He showed her mercy! But in granting her mercy, He did what the ancient Israelites were told not to do! And throughout His ministry, Jesus repeatedly violated Judaic laws regarding Sabbath observance and ritual purity (and numerous other things)—always in order to show mercy and compassion. When we understand the nature of Jesus’ ministry, the more we understand the meaning of His words recorded in Matthew 5:17,18. He did not come to do away with the message of Law and the prophets, but to teach and show His Father’s true will for humanity. Jesus is the final authority on all Scripture, and the way He radically reinterprets it shows us how we are to understand it.
So keep digging into the Scriptures—all of them. Dare to be a “biblical bloodhound!” We at Crossways International are ready to do everything we can to help you—and to share Jesus’ grand and glorious truths with those near and far! Read on to see what materials, resources, and training events we make available to help people see the amazing story that runs through the whole of the Bible.
Harry Wendt, President
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