Mini-Gospels in the First Testament – Introduction

Mini-Gospels in the First Testament – Introduction.

“The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.” (St. Augustine).

Actually, I don’t think I agree with that long-accepted claim. First of all, can’t we Christians start referring to the “Old Testament” as the First Testament (FT), or the Hebrew Bible, or the Earlier Testament, or the Jewish Scripture, or simply the Torah? “Old” implies something that is outdated, hobbled by age, past its usage date, irrelevant, antiquated, expired… none of which is true of the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament is the First Testament, Act One of a Two-Act Bible, and the New Testament is the Newer Testament, the Second Act of that Two-Act Drama. The First Testament anticipates and lays the foundation for the Newer Testament, which fulfills the earlier Scripture. If I were a Jewish believer, which in many ways I am since I follow the Messiah Jesus and am thus grafted onto the Jewish tree (Romans 11), I would be offended by those who assume that the Jewish Scriptures are unnecessary or past its prime. Of course, the Bible of the completely Jewish Jesus, the Scriptures read daily by Him and considered by Him to be the eternal Word of God, was the First Testament. We who follow Jesus don’t have the right to consider the FT as irrelevant or past its usage date.

The other reason I disagree with the claim that the NT is concealed in the OT is that that there are countless stories, teachings, and prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures that very clearly point directly to the gospel story. These mini-gospel vignettes are fascinating and inspiring, and they fertilize the ground for the Good News, preparing the way for us to welcome in a fresh way the story of salvation and deliverance. Many of these mini-gospels are not well-known, while many are quite famous. So some of the stories in this series might be vaguely familiar, while the reader might be tempted to skim over others because of their familiarity. Either way, the gospelettes in the Jewish Bible deserve to be unpacked. The criteria I try to use as I choose these FT stories include… the story has to include gospel themes such as sacrifice and death; resurrection and life; redemption and deliverance; punishment and hope; forgiveness and healing. And each gospel vignette in the Hebrew Scripture needs to be a preparation for Christ in some way, pointing to Jesus Messiah as the fulfillment of the story. In other words, if the FT story is the only story you know from the Bible, would it prepare your imagination and spirit for the story of Jesus? Would this vignette make the story of Christ less unexpected and more feasible? If you happen to hear the full gospel story after first hearing the FT story, would the gospel story in the NT remind you in some way of the FT story? Here are my choices so far of those mini-gospel stories in the First Testament that point us to Jesus, and so will demand my attention as I work through this series of articles:

1. The dreadful curse that included a Messianic hope (Genesis 3:15);
2. The story of the judge, accuser, high priest with filthy clothes, the branch and the stone (Zechariah 3);
3. The story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah (Genesis 22);
4. The sacrifice of the Red Heifer (Numbers 19);
5. The story of the threshing floor, Part One with Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 3);
6. The story of the threshing floor, Part Two with David and the Angel (1 Chronicles 21);
7. The marriage proposal of Yahweh (Ezekiel 16);
8. The story of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12);
9. The Sign of Jonah (Jonah);
10. The story of the Bronze Serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21);
11. The story of Aaron’s budding staff (Numbers 17);
12. The story of the Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37);
13. The story of the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4).

I have a strong suspicion that I will discover more mini-gospels in the Hebrew Scripture as time marches on.