The Old Testament As Foundational Knowledge My kids had one of their friends over yesterday. They're about ten or eleven years old. Since their visit, I've been reflecting on a conversation that was had. One of the thoughts that I keep having is: Who and what is God? The reason that comes to mind is because we were briefly talking about God. The boy who was visiting was telling us that his family believes that God is a beam of light that exists inside of everyone. They believe that Jesus Christ was the light given a body. I have been reflecting on this for hours (well, it could only be hours because the conversation was only yesterday). I don't actually know this kid's parents. They live in another town. I've met his stepdad a couple of times. His biological dad, as far as I know, doesn't talk about God a whole lot, but in his mother's home with his stepdad, they do quite a bit. I asked him a question: "Well, what does it say about God in the book of Genesis? And what does it say about us?" He looked at me and said, "I don't really know anything about Genesis. We don't talk about it. We only look at Jesus and the New Testament." The Pattern of the Old Testament My mission here is not to criticize him or anyone else who takes that approach to the scriptures. My mission is to ask a question: What are we missing about who God is, and who we are, by not investing more of our time in the Old Testament? There is a lot of focus on the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant. But the Old Testament is not simply an old covenant; it also provides a bunch of foundational knowledge about who God is and why He does the things that He does. The Old Testament gives the New Testament a foundation on which to stand. Jesus Himself regularly quotes the Old Testament. As an example, I'm going to turn to the very beginning of the book of Genesis: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Genesis 1:26–28 God didn't say anything about being a beam of light. He says, "I have an image. I'm going to create man after my own image." I think that is really important. This is not a discussion about who and what God is; this is a discussion of foundational knowledge. When I read the New Testament, can I really say that I understand it in full if I don't understand the foundation? If I haven't spent time building my foundation? Ready-to-Go Foundations I know that when Jesus was talking to Peter, He says, "Upon this rock, if you build, you shall not fall." There are different discussions about what that rock is. Some believe the rock is literally Peter; some believe that the rock is a testimony of Jesus Christ; others believe that the rock is our ability to receive truth directly from God—because right before that, Jesus had asked, "Do you know who I am?" and Peter said, "Yes." That answer came through God's Spirit. I am inclined to believe it's a bit of the latter—that upon this rock of receiving witnesses through the Holy Ghost, we will build our foundations. But it's also upon the rock of Jesus Christ Himself. Part of that rock is looking at what God has already given us. Why would I start building my foundation completely from scratch when God has already given me most of the foundation to start building on? That's what the scriptures are. You hold them in your hands; they are a ready-to-go foundation. By "ready-to-go," I mean we have it in the Bible. It's written, it's recorded, it's history, it's certain, it's sure. We can hold it in our hands, read it, and put it in our minds and hearts. As we do, we build a foundation that God desires us to have. I don't doubt that Jesus Christ did this Himself in many ways. If you look at His life, you will see patterns where He was applying principles from the Old Testament as well, using them as His foundation for following His Father. We see this when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, and Jesus responds by quoting the Old Testament. He was intimately familiar with it; it was a foundation for Him, and it will also be a foundation for us. Aligning Our Creativity with God Most of what I focus on has to do with being creative. So, I want to ask this question: How does this idea of knowing about the foundation affect our ability to be creative? For me, as I know more about who God is and why He does the things that He does, I find it easier to align myself with Him. I believe that creativity, to the varying degrees that we have it, are invitations for us to become a little bit more like God. It's a little bit of Him that He has put into us. I have been going through Leviticus, working my way through right now after starting in Genesis. I've been thinking about all the sacrifices and how much effort must have gone into all of them. I just finished reading about leprosy, and then read chapter 18, which is about sexual purity, keeping your hands off of people that don't belong to you, and being faithful to your spouse. But I've been thinking about a lot of the differences. One of the big differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament is the spirit in which things are talked about. It's the same God from whom it all comes, but the Old Testament is so performative. Yet, it's not without intention, and it's not without design. You can see Jesus Christ in the Old Testament as you look for Him. There is so much focus on the blood when we are looking at Leviticus and talking about the burnt sacrifices and offerings. There is the very well-known verse: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." Leviticus 17:11 It's not just about the burning. The burning is like it raises the offering up to God so that He can smell it and is aware of it; it's very symbolic. And then the spilling of the blood is symbolic of the blood of Christ. But it would not have been an easy or fast process. It would take time to either catch the animals or find someone to purchase them from, gaining the funds or trading to do that. There was a process that went into acquiring the animals, then bringing them to the place of sacrifice at the Tabernacle. There was the killing of the animal, and the priests had to dismember it, rigorously remove fat, and separate sections. There was spreading the blood around the altar and putting it on the horns, and sometimes on the right ear, thumb, and big toe of a person. It was very involved. But it was designed to show us that we are covered by the blood of the sacrifice. The going around the altar and the sprinkling of the blood around the altar is an example—they were covering it with the blood, just as Christ covers us. The whole purpose of the Law of Moses was to point others to Jesus Christ so that He, being creative, could create better lives and better futures for the people that follow Him, choose to believe in Him, and seek after Him. The creativity that we carry inside of us, if you think about it, is meant to do the same thing—not to redeem us from sins, but to create better futures and better lives for ourselves and for others. That's why God put a little bit of Himself into us, so that we could experience the joy that comes from serving others, bringing them joy, and bringing ourselves joy in the process. Retaining Creative Control Not every ability that we are blessed with, not every creative attribute, is one that is made to serve others in the same ways. I love to draw and paint, but it's a lot harder in some ways to just give all my art away for free. Realistically, I don't like giving up creative control; I don't like to create commissions and freelance work. So the question becomes: How do I use this gift in the way God intended me to? Often, we want to say, "I'm putting my own will aside to do God's will," and so I could go start freelancing and creating. But did I stop to think that that might not be His will for me? What if this unwillingness to give up my creative control is the way that He intends for me to create? It sounds like selfishness at first to say, "I'm unwilling to give up my creative control." But what if it's more God saying, "You were not meant to give up your creative control. I need you to retain this so that you can use this creative gift in the way I intend for you"? There are a lot of fine artists who are gallery painters who create these wonderful works of art, and they don't give up their creative control to do it, and people still buy their art. They still reach people, share messages, and bring people closer to Christ. There is a Korean painter, Yongsung Kim, who is a wonderful painter of Jesus Christ. I don't know if he takes commissions, but I know that a lot of what he does are depictions of Jesus Christ that he comes up with himself, and people buy them anyway because he is walking in the mission that God gave him, using his creative abilities. The Old Testament gives us examples in which people were given performative things to do to follow God. As we study it, we start to see in our own lives places where we can implement some of these performative acts to follow God in the way that He needs us to. Yes, salvation is through Jesus Christ; that is a fact, that is true. We get nearer to Jesus Christ by reading the New Testament than we usually do the Old Testament because we have His words directly in the New Te
