I just finished going through The Faith-Shaped Life and was looking for another book to study every week. My eye fell upon “Learning out the Old Testament” by Allan Harman. It’s a book that my hubby received while at The Banner of Truth pastor’s conference that he attended yearly. An excellent conference that churches should send their pastor’s too!
Anyways, with 19 chapters it shouldn’t take me as long to get through as the Faith-Shaped life did, hopefully we’ll learn alot together eh?
Pivotal Details
Harman starts off this first chapter reminding us some pivotal details
- The Old Testament is just not an old manuscript. It is the very word of God written down for us.
- As such we need to approach it obediently with reverence and devotion
- There are 39 books in the Old Testament that we should be intimately familiar with.
- It has been translated many times since it was written in Hebrew. Different versions from the original king james serve people in a variety of languages and times.
- We need to keep in mind the “distinction between translation and interpretation” (p.3) It is an ancient document and care needs to be taken by teachers and preachers to convey it’s message to modern audiences.
- The Old Testament is part of a unified bible. Together with the New Testament it provides the whole written revelation of God.
- The New Testament helps us to understand the Old. Giving the end game so to speak. Shows us what the Old Testament was leading up too.
- The Old Testament gives depth to the New. Understanding the flow of history, helps to understand the framework of the New Testament authors.
I haven’t spoken to everything Harman wrote, after all.. you should go get it yourself. I love how he points out the the more we learn about God, the more we engage in bible study, the more we should want others to know God. Isn’t that the way it should be?
Using scripture to talk about scripture so that in the end, we just want more people to know this magnificent God who put it all together.
So far, sounds very interesting. I love the final statement you have about using scripture to talk about scripture. Should be no other way. I will be enjoying following your series on this book.
I think it will be an interesting book. I hope I learn a thing or two along the way.