{"id":31809,"date":"2022-09-10T15:44:53","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-reasons-our-churches-need-the-old-testament\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:44:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:44:53","slug":"3-reasons-our-churches-need-the-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/3-reasons-our-churches-need-the-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons Our Churches Need the Old Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"
Christiane photo – Pexels <\/p>\n

By Russell L. Meek<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m just going to get this part out of the way\u2014I\u2019m not an unbiased observer here. I teach the Old Testament for a living.<\/p>\n

But if we can suspend all that for just a minute, I\u2019d like to offer up three reasons why the Old Testament matters for the church today, in the hopes they\u2019ll resonate with you too.<\/p>\n

1. It Expresses Our Darkest Moments<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I know I\u2019m not the only person who grew up in an abusive home. In fact, I\u2019ve learned recently that my experience, unfortunately, has been far from unique.<\/p>\n

My stepdad was a deacon in our church, and he had a penchant for manipulation, violent outbursts of rage, and distorting the Bible to make sure we all fell in line. As you can imagine, years of this was hard to process once I finally became a Christian just before shipping off to college (well, driving off).<\/p>\n

I found hope and solace in prayers like these: \u201cGod, knock the teeth out of their mouths . . . The righteous one will rejoice when he sees the retribution\u201d (Psalm 58:6, 10, CSB) and \u201cDaughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who pays you back what you have done to us. Happy is he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks\u201d (Psalm 137:8\u20139 CSB).<\/p>\n

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Maybe you\u2019re appalled that I prayed this type of stuff about my stepdad. Sometimes I\u2019m appalled too. But these Scriptures gave voice to the anger and rage within me. And they let me get it all out.<\/p>\n

All my dark thoughts and feelings found expression in this collection of poems and prayers by God\u2019s people for God\u2019s people. If there are people like me in your church\u2014and there probably are\u2014then they need the Old Testament like I did.<\/p>\n

They need ready access to voices of the saints who have suffered also. And they need to know it\u2019s okay to bring their darkest thoughts to our Father.<\/p>\n

2. It Exposes Our Darkest Parts<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Jonah\u2019s last words in the book that bears his name are, \u201cYes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die\u201d (Jonah 4:2 ESV).<\/p>\n

This is his last retort to God, who patiently tries to get Jonah to understand that people matter more than plants and that God extends His grace to whomever he wills\u2014including those Jonah would rather see die.<\/p>\n

I get Jonah on a deep, visceral level. I, too, have struggled to love my enemy, and by love my enemy.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not exactly where the story ends. Reading the book of Jonah one day it hit me like a ton of bricks. My mom called to tell me that my stepfather had repented. That he was doing better.<\/p>\n

I was livid. Angry enough to die, someone might say.<\/p>\n

It just didn\u2019t seem right to me that this guy\u2014out of all the guys in the world\u2014would get to repent instead of suffering God\u2019s just judgment that I\u2019d been praying for so long. And yet he did.<\/p>\n

God had forgiven my stepfather, and now it was time for me to do the same. Everyone\u2019s story with abuse differs, but mine involved coming to terms with the fact that God forgives people I wish He wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s God\u2019s prerogative, because he is, well, God.<\/p>\n

Whereas all manner of good preaching on loving enemies, turning the other cheek, and forgiveness couldn\u2019t move me to forgive, this short narrative in the Old Testament did.<\/p>\n

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The Psalms gave expression to my anger and pain, and Jonah held up a mirror to my unforgiveness. One expressed my darkest thoughts; the other exposed my darkest moments.<\/p>\n

A brief clarification: If you\u2019re an abuse survivor, I am not <\/em>saying or even implying that you must \u201cforgive and forget,\u201d as if forgetting were even possible. And I\u2019m certainly not saying or implying you should place yourself back in an abusive situation.<\/p>\n

Forgiveness? Yes, as God works it in your heart. Forgetting? No, I don\u2019t think so. It\u2019s good and wise to protect yourself, and in many cases your children, from the risk of being abused. I also don\u2019t mean your feelings of anger or rage are invalid or inappropriate.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m only saying that in my particular situation I was harboring unforgiveness that stalled my journey to healing and that was contrary to the gospel. This is a really short article, but if you want to hash all this out more, please reach out to me. I don\u2019t have many answers, but I can listen.<\/p>\n

3. It\u2019s Our Story<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve spent a lot of time thinking through how I want to teach the Bible to my children. I don\u2019t want them to think they have a relationship with God when they don\u2019t, so I avoid saying Jesus is their friend and things like that.<\/p>\n

But I do want them to know this God my wife and I serve, and I want them to know how He has been faithful in our lives and theirs. Here\u2019s where I\u2019ve landed.<\/p>\n

When Jewish people celebrate Passover today, they recount the story as if they were part of it.: \u201cGod brought us<\/em> out of Egypt. God rescued us <\/em>from Pharaoh. God led us<\/em> with a cloud by day and fire by night.\u201d<\/p>\n

God has grafted we Christians into His story. By faith, we are Abraham\u2019s children. And so the Old Testament isn\u2019t a story about them and those. It\u2019s our very own story.<\/p>\n

God delivered us<\/em> from the flood. He rescued us<\/em> from slavery in Egypt. He gave us <\/em>the temple and tabernacle. Through his prophets he called us<\/em> to live rightly.<\/p>\n

He cared for us <\/em>through the exile and captivity in Babylon. He reestablished us<\/em> in the promised land after seventy years in Babylon. He sent his very own son to rescue us<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Old Testament invites us to enter into the grand narrative of God\u2019s redemption that began in the garden, was inaugurated on the cross, and will be completed when Christ returns. It\u2019s our very own story, and oh the depth and wonder that is revealed in that story.<\/p>\n

So I teach my kids these stories, and I tell them that these are their stories too, in a sense. These are the stories of their parents\u2014and by faith in Christ they can become my children\u2019s own stories as well.<\/p>\n

RUSSELL L. MEEK <\/strong>(PhD Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a speaker, writer, and professor who specializes in the Old Testament and its intersection with the Christian life. You can visit him online at RussMeek.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n
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A Hebrew Word for the Day: Key Words from the Old Testament<\/h2>\n

J.D. Watson<\/p>\n

FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Related posts:<\/h3>\n
How to Instill a Passion for the Old Testament in Your Church What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times? What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christiane photo – Pexels By Russell L. Meek I\u2019m just going to get this part out of the way\u2014I\u2019m not an unbiased observer here. I teach the Old Testament for a living. But if we can suspend all that for just a minute, I\u2019d like to offer up three reasons why the Old Testament matters … Continue reading “3 Reasons Our Churches Need the Old Testament”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}