| Scared of the Old Testament? |
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3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
When was the last time you heard a verse-by-verse sermon series from Haggai? Obadiah? Zephaniah? Since I got into ministry in 2001, I have preached exactly ONE series from an Old Testament Book, and that was Joshua (and I skipped chapters 15-23 there!).
After taking OT Survey in seminary, I was reminded that the Old Testament doesn't have to be scary! The main difficulty with preaching OT Scripture is that the books of prophecy are linked closely to the historical books, but in a different order than our Bibles list them. We have to understand the history before the prohecy makes sense. For example, Haggai is set historically with Ezra and Nehemiah, and fits with the prophetic books of Zechariah and Malachi.
I truly believe one reason why so many prophecy "experts" come up with such weird conclusions is that they are treating the prophetic works as stand alone books, and ignoring the socio-historical contexts into which they were written.
If I could give all Christians a piece of advice, it would be to spend a great deal of time on the historical books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah). Read them in order, and remember that Kings and Chronicles cover a lot of the same material. Once you feel good with the basic outline of OT history, then go back and read the prophets. Try to match them up with their historcial periods. When you finish, I promise you that the OT will not be as scary.
Let me recommend A Popular Survey of the Old Testament, by Norman Geisler, to you. It is an excellent overview of each OT book. It is worth your $10!
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