How To Read The Old Testament

As a New Testament believer, you cannot make sense of the Jewish Scriptures without seeing them through the lens of the Jesus Scriptures. The whole point of the Old Testament was that it pointed to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law. All of the strange laws God gave to govern rebellious people were simply placeholders that pointed to the One who would be the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins; a sacrifice that would both now and forever establish us as holy in God’s sight.

The Journey// Focus: Leviticus 15:1-2,

And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.’ … ‘And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean: every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

I deliberately chose these verses from the King James Version because it was the only way to clean up what the Bible says about the uncleanness of a man or a woman. When you read it in your version of choice, at a visceral level, you probably thought, “ick!”

That is what my children would say to me when they were old enough to read the Bible through, beginning with the Old Testament. Several times when they were still in the books of Moses, they came to me with that “ew” expression on their face to get my take on uncomfortable stories, like Lot’s daughters’ inappropriate behavior in Genesis 19, or the story in Genesis 34 of Shechem’s violation of Dinah and her brother’s revenge on the sore Hivites. I was beginning to rethink having my kids read the Old Testament.

And then you come to a section like this in Leviticus 15. The editor’s heading of your translation, whatever version of the Bible you use, should be a clear give away that this is going to be an uncomfortable reading. As the English Standard Version labels it, “Laws About Bodily Discharges”, this chapter won’t be great as a mealtime devotional.

I won’t re-plow ground at this point on the Divine reason for restrictive regulations like this—and there are some insightful and important reasons that God had in giving them—but I would encourage you to go back and read any of my previous devotionals on Leviticus 11-15. God wanted his people to be holy and healthy, and he went to great lengths to provide a path for them to be his sanctified people, distinct from all others on Planet Earth. And rather than seeing these rules as restrictive, the Israelites considered them as reasons to rejoice in their Divine election.

But here is the over-arching point I want to make about this chapter, and in fact, the entire Old Testament: as a New Testament believer, you cannot make sense of the Jewish Scriptures without seeing them through the lens of the Jesus Scriptures. The whole point of the Old Testament was that it pointed to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of the law. From the moment that Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden, God began his reclamation project with the promise of a Redeemer:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

That was the first of scores of Old Testament messianic prophecies that pointed to and were perfectly fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. All of these strange laws God gave to govern rebellious people were simply placeholders that anticipated the One who would be the ultimate, once-and-for-all sacrifice for our sins; a sacrifice that would both now and forever establish us as holy in God’s sight. Whenever you read the Old Testament, you have to keep that in mind—and as you do, your appreciation for the grace and mercy, along with the sovereign wisdom of God, will soar in your heart and mind.

Now to come back to this particular story, bodily discharges and ceremonial defilement, let’s take a grateful look at how Jesus redeemed these very same situations. Here is an example in Mark 5:25-34,

There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.  And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

Now think of how many “violations” there were in this incident if we were to woodenly interpret Leviticus 15, or if we were to see it without Jesus in view! Here’s the deal: When you read Leviticus 15 through the lens of Jesus, you understand God’s desire to draw near to the unclean, whether a man with leprosy or a lady with issue of blood, to make them whole. And it took Jesus to reveal the Father’s heart that you don’t completely see in this Old Testament chapter.

And it took Jesus to reveal the Father’s heart in the real world of our icky lives. Thank God for Jesus!