Do I Have to Read the Old Testament?
Hello there, my fellow Christian Damsel!🌺🌸
Welcome back to another post 🙂!
In this one, I'll be discussing whether or not there is any value in reading and studying the Old Testament.
First of all...
Any reading or studying of the Scriptures requires the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Old Testament included! Otherwise, not only will our reading of the Bible be dull, but even worse, we can fall into doctrinal errors.
I find that without the Holy Spirit, a religious act meant to build us up can have the opposite effect.
For example, Jesus warned the disciples not to do certain spiritual activities with wrong motives as the Pharisees did (Matthew 6: 1-18). That's because the wrong reasons for doing religious activities would rob them of a reward from God.
Yikes!
So as we consider this topic of reading the Old Testament, let us bear this in mind. We don't want our time of interaction with the Old Testament to be in vain😔.
And Now, for the Benefits of Reading the Old Testament
Sheds Light on the New Testament
I remember having an awesome revelation/experience in reading about Elijah in 1 Kings 18 and James 5:17-18.Confirms Events and People as Real
Understand God more
What's the Point of all those Genealogies and Numbers?
Here are my reasons:
What Should I do if I find Words I Can't Pronounce?
(I don't know if this is just a Jamaican thing, but...)
We traditionally learned that when we see a word we can't pronounce in the Bible, we should say 'Jerusalem.' 🤣
Seriously though, what should we do about the many words we often come across in the Old Testament that are hard to pronounce?
Here are my suggestions:
1. Take your time and break it up into syllables
2. Use an online or audio Bible to listen to the pronunciation
3. Write it down and practise saying it throughout the day (or week)
4. Most importantly, don't stop reading when you meet up on a word you don't know. Keep reading and see if you can still understand the Scripture - sometimes, you can still get the gist of it based on other context clues.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it! That's my take on whether or not we should read the Old Testament.
How have you been blessed in reading the Old Testament?
Share your thoughts in the comments🤗 and share this post with a friend🌺🌸👍🏽!
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I love how you said, "When I see who begat whom, it makes me realize that God is involved in the details of our lives". Such a great point! God cares about the details in our lives.
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