Why Read the Old Testament?

Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself. - Luke 24:27

The coming of the Messiah cancelled the need for ritualistic sacrifices. We no longer have to be concerned about sacrificing lambs, goats and doves. And of course, since we are Gentiles, we do not have to worry about the laws designed to identify the Jews and keep them separate as a people. But is there not yet much to learn from the Old Testament (OT)?

Apparently Jesus thought so. Luke 24:44-46 quotes Jesus as saying, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me by Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must all come true.” Then he opened their minds to understand these many Scriptures. And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again from the dead on the third day.

Jesus used the Old Testament to demonstrate that He was the Messiah and that He had fulfilled all the prophecies. In fact, the use of the OT was so important that He said, “But if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me because he wrote about me. And since you don’t believe what he (Moses) wrote, how will you believe what I say?” (John 5:46-47)

Jesus’ lesson took root among the apostles. Paul made it his custom to visit the synagogues and “interpret the Scriptures” to the people (Acts 17:2-3). If you know your history, you realize that Paul was using the OT to lead people to Christ.

As we read the New Testament, we see that the New Testament (NT) writers constantly appealed to fulfilled prophecy to substantiate the claims of Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior, and the Messiah. In fact, there are so many OT quotations in the NT that it would be impossible to be a serious NT scholar and not have a profound knowledge of the OT. I have been trying to find all the direct quotations of the OT in the NT and have found 266 so far. They can be found in 18 of the 27 books of the NT. There are literally thousands of allusions. Therefore more than 10 per cent of the New Testament text is made up of citations or direct allusions to the Old Testament.

It is true that the Law of Moses cannot save us but the Master Himself said, “So if you break the smallest commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:19) Based on that advice I plan on gleaning as much as I can out of the first two-thirds of the Bible.