Along
with 30 or so other members of my congregation, I’ve been participating in the
Bible Challenge to read through the Bible in a year. We read three chapters from
the Old Testament, one Psalm, and one chapter from the New Testament every day
except Sundays (so we can focus on the lessons assigned for worship).
This
has been a great exercise for lots of reasons, not least because it has sparked
lots of conversations. This is especially the case with the Old Testament in
which many are finding much that is puzzling and provocative. Even folk who
come from strong Bible backgrounds are unfamiliar with large chunks of the Old
Testament.
And
it has to be acknowledged that the Old Testament – along with much that is
beautiful, wonderful, evocative, and
edifying – contains material that is puzzling, disturbing, and even morally
offensive when measured against the life and teaching of Jesus.
One
of the big questions is how to make sense of all that. One way to at least
begin answering that question is Martin Luther’s double analogy in his
introduction to the Old Testament. First he suggests that the Old Testament is
like a rich and inexhaustible mine in which we find the wisdom of God. Then he
compares it to the manger and swaddling clothes in which Jesus lies.
Not everything in the Old Testament is the treasure. But it is the loftiest and
noblest of holy things because of the treasure it holds:
Therefore let your own thoughts and feelings
go, and think of the Scriptures as the loftiest and noblest of holy things, as
the richest of mines, which can never be worked out, so that you may find the
wisdom of God that He lays before you in such foolish and simple guise, in
order that He may quench all pride. Here you will find the swaddling-clothes
and the mangers in which Christ lies, and to which the angel points the
shepherds.
Simple and little are the swaddling-clothes,
but dear is the treasure, Christ, that lies in them.
More from Luther’s Introduction to the Old Testament:
Faith and love are always to be mistresses of the law
From Luther's Introduction to the New Testament:
Faith and love are always to be mistresses of the law
From Luther's Introduction to the New Testament:
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