In many films, the opening sequence is important not just for understanding the movie, but also to appreciate the twists and turns the narrative and character arcs may take. This is why I hate missing the start of movies, and why I will wait for my wife to sit down before pressing play on a movie we are watching. Not so much because she cares, but because I do. I want her to enjoy it as much as I do. When we want to recommend a movie to someone, we wouldn't suggest that they start watching at the 1:10:00 mark. When it comes to a saga like Lord of the Rings, or Back to the Future, we wouldn't just start them at film 3. Or if there was a TV series with an ongoing narrative like Mad Men, we don't get people to jump in at season 4. And while a viewer can pick things up and make some sense of the text, I don't think they can fully understand or appreciate the story the director is trying to tell. But what is interesting is that when it comes to Christianity and the church, when believers are introduced to the scriptures, they are told to jump over half way (40/66) into God's narrative by starting in "The New Testament." And by starting in Matthew's Gospel, they're introduced to this genealogy of people they've never heard of before being told about the miraculous birth of someone called Jesus who will save people from sin. Without the Old Testament, those names mean nothing, the arrival of the saviour has no significance, and there's no way to know what sin is or why people need saving from 'it.' The Old Testament is important because it sets up and frames the New Testament. It gives it meaning. And if we ignore the 'front of the book', we're going to misunderstand the 'back of the book' and fail to appreciate the faithfulness of God's character. That the New depends on the Old is evident in how often the Apostolic scriptures (my preferred name for the New Testament) quote from the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, or in Hebrew the Tanakh (my preferred name for the Old Testament). The church needs to recapture the importance of the Tanakh and understand that it exists for more than character studies and sermon illustrations; it is an important part of God's redemptive story.
As I outlined in a recent article in Berean Baptists, over the next year I am going to be following the traditional divisions of the annual reading cycle of the first five books of the Bible, and highlighting key themes and ideas from them. You can find a calendar and reading plan here. Known in the Greek as the Pentateuch (5 books), these books are also known as the Law, or Torah. However, this title is misleading, and as a result many disregard the importance of 'the Law' because of the misplaced negative connotations surrounding it. But, as I explained and quoted in an article here:
"To interpret the Hebrew word torah as law is about the same as interpreting the word father as disciplinarian. While the father is a disciplinarian he is much more and in the same way torah is much more than law.”Rather, Torah is best understood as 'instruction', or 'teaching.' Instruction on who God is, His will for humanity, and how we are to respond to these truths. It is my hope to highlight these truths, and in the process help us to understand more deeply the 'back of the book'. Because, as Paul wrote to Timothy, ALL SCRIPTURE is God breathed and therefore of benefit to all His people (2Tim 3:16-17). The Torah is just as important for the church, or Ekklesia in the Greek as used throughout the Apostolic scriptures, as it was to Israel when Moses wrote it, when Josiah rediscovered it, and when Jesus read from it. The first five books are God's Torah for His Ekklesia.
I'd love for you to participate in this by reading along with me, subscribing to this blog, and engaging in the comments.
For this week's comments, let me know what part of the first 5 books are you most curious about?
Next week we will be starting with Genesis 1:1-6:8.
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