Understanding the Old Testament
By Emma Hildreth Adams
A FEW evenings since, during a most interesting conversation on the study of the Bible, held in the presence of the writer, there fell from the lips of an aged person present these words: "I know little about the Old Testament. I can not understand it." The candid utterance included the whole vast field of diverse, deeply stirring, highly instructive, and vastly important matters embraced in the older portion of the divine WORD. It revealed instantly that the individual could have made little effort to understand the wonderfully attractive book, since by far the greater part thereof—however varied and exalted its themes, however marvelous its portrayals of human life and action, however skilful and charming its paintings of scenic nature, however authoritative its proclamations of the decrees, statutes, and will of Him whose Word the unrivaled collection is—is expressed in terms clear, unaffected, and exact, yet full of force, power, and life. It is safe to assert that Christians who neglect, slight, or evade a careful, earnest, plentiful study of the Old Testament Scriptures, deprive themselves of a bountiful source of needed knowledge; shut the door to fountains of the most elevated wisdom; turn away from storehouses filled with food remarkably adapted to mental, moral, and spiritual unfolding; rob themselves of opportunity to know God in many striking, beautiful aspects of His character. The very variety of its component books, all written by master hands, adds to its charm, its broad usefulness. Some of them portray marvelous events which have transpired upon this, the most distinguished of all the planets of our system. Some of them furnish the world with poetry most uplifting, rich in finest imagery, replete with the spirit of ideal worship. Some of them sound out to all the earth—not human thoughts, not human words—but thoughts, messages, warnings, advice, from Him by whose incomprehensible might the wondrous universe is held safe, steadfast, in its amazing career. No sincere, reverent student of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy can think long and sensibly over the oftentimes highly dramatic scenes, the deeds of greatness, the words of might, the touching experiences, the equitable laws, which fill their pages, without himself gaining in moral stamina, in intellectual force, in closeness with God. He would understand, feel, and live out their truths and teachings. Indeed, the total fruit of study in the Pentateuch should be the straightening up of character, habits, life, in the reader. All the historical books of the Old Testament pay affluent interest for attentive reading and study. All through their faithful, powerful pages beams the sure lesson that "WHATSOEVER a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" that sowing to the flesh, he "shall of the flesh reap corruption;" but sowing to the Spirit, he "shall of the Spirit reap LIFE EVERLASTING." Especially do these books set forth great rewards for unpurchasable fidelity to public trusts, for rectitude, for marked uprightness in the discharge of all civic duties. On the other hand, they set forth in tremendous terms the ruin, disaster, punishment, ever due to inordinate greed, to corrupt scheming for official position, to lack of integrity in service either to the people or to the divine Ruler. Many such cases stand out in meridian sunlight, and any heedful reader may comprehend their full intent, their great value. Certainly it would result to the vast advantage of our nation if its thousands of public servants were to adopt as models in official life Moses, Joshua, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, and other highly tested servants of God and the people. The history, testing, example of these men are luminous, eloquent. He who runs may learn the lessons their lives teach, tho they be garnered in the Old Testament. Another thing: Students of the widely neglected book might acquire, from its respectful reading, fine orderliness of personal habits. They would learn that God delights in exquisite personal cleanliness. His often repeated charge to Aaron, the priests, the Levites, and the children of Israel, to "wash" and "make themselves clean," would work irresistibly for the excellent practise of self tidiness; would aid largely in the allied work of moral and spiritual refining. But suppose we journey forward to the books of Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. We shall find them all gemmed with Oriental imagery, full of antique symbolism, curious types, and quaint figures of human speech. Nevertheless their pages are heaped high with diamond wisdom, filled with radiant common sense—in words of God and words of men, crowded with lucid expressions of faith, love, devotion, and worship. Yet all are expressed in language so clear, so appropriate, that every simple, honest reader may readily grasp their deep teaching, their lofty meaning. With their deft brushes the beautiful words paint upon receptive, hungry hearts results for eternity, effects enduring "as the springs of the sea," established as the constant fruitage of trees, as the perpetual blooming of flowers. No mortal need fail to attain eternal life because none of these Scriptures point the way thereto definitely—namely, through strong faith in and loving obedience to God; for their pages glisten with vivid references to that supreme subject. Furthermore, completing the amazing literary stores of the Old Testament, we have the prophets—majors and minors—sixteen in number. Some of them wrote and prophesied before the long captivity in Babylon. Some of them held office during that period, others after its termination, sending their wonderful foretellings down through the centuries to the cutting off of time; uttering their clarion warnings against apostasy and sin; entreating God's people to practise uprightness of life; predicting a second radical punishment of the earth and of defiant men thereon; promising, picturing, sometimes in joyful language, sometimes in sad, plaintive words, the coming of the "Man of Sorrows;" cheering the faithful, the meek, with a pledge of new heavens and a new earth. Some of their predictions were curtained by language destined to conceal their real purport until their long distant fulfilment was due. And some of their messages and prophecies were so draped with figures of speech, that their full intent could be discerned, perhaps, only by devout study, and by persons versed in the tongue in which they were written or uttered. And yet, the far greater proportion of the pages of these prophetic books can be readily understood by a careful, heedful reader. God means His total Word shall be understood, and great blessing accrues to him who devotes time and effort to delving for its marvelous treasures. The Old Testament, scarcely less than the later volume, is a guide to an ideal life, and will prove a bright light, a strong help in any soul's ever-growing conflict with evil.