Lessons We Can Learn From The Old Testament

For many, the Old Testament is the “boring” part of the Bible. Their reasoning is that it contains little in the way of instruction for the Christian, certainly not like the more practical epistles in the New Testament. But in one of those epistles, the apostle Paul says, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Thus, the Old Testament is filled with examples by which we might learn, both about how to serve God (and how not to), and about the character of God Himself. To neglect the Old Testament would be to rob ourselves of much of what we can know about the Creator and Sustainer of this world. For example, one of the most maligned books in all of scripture is Leviticus. Perceived as boring because of its detailing of many of the laws by which the Israelites were governed, most people would be happy if it were simply skipped over in our studies. But doing so would deprive us of great lessons on the importance of serving God.

There is the vital lesson on the authority of God’s “silence” in Leviticus 10 (the story of Nadab and Abihu). There are the details of the rituals involved in the sacrifices for sin, which point to the serious nature of sin in the eyes of God. Leviticus 20 teaches us of God’s displeasure with those who would commit spiritual adultery, particularly those who participated in the barbaric offering of their own children as sacrifices to the idol god Molech (Leviticus 20:1-5). But God is also displeased with other forms of irreligion, such as the practice of witchcraft and the attempts to contact the dead (Leviticus 20:6-8). God expected worship of Him alone, and He made serious provision for the punishment of those who would “play the harlot” with other gods. He will not tolerate such from us, either.

Those who would commit such spiritual adultery in the Old Testament would find that such worship was vain, because in time of true need, these gods could not help them (see the contest on Mt. Carmel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal — (1 Kings 18:20-40). In addition, the worship of other gods proved to be costly, for the punishment was death by stoning.

What is the cost of following other gods today (be they money, fame, lust, etc.)? While it is true that the followers of idolatry will not be stoned, they do not escape. Still, the gods of men cannot help in time of trouble. In fact, like the character of many men, these false gods are said to laugh at their followers problems. And the punishment for service to these gods is still death, albeit a spiritual one, for it is separation from God for eternity.

The Old Testament is filled with such important teachings, and we would be well served to pay better heed to the examples of old.

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets