Lesson 3 | Vocab
To See and Savor
The study of Greek is more extensive than the study of Hebrew in Christian colleges and seminaries. For example, at the small Canadian Bible college I attended, Greek was offered but not Hebrew. This may happen because it seems more difficult than Greek, or because the New Testament seems more important than the Old. (Certainly far more sermons focus on the New!)
It is true that the New Testament is like an oak tree, and the Old Testament like the acorn from which it grew.¹ And the New Testament is like the culmination of a mystery novel, making sense of all the mysterious events in the first part of the novel.²
But this doesn’t mean we should ignore the Old Testament; it is vital for Christian theology and preaching.
Dr. Jason DeRouchie writes,
The Bible’s last “chapter” (the NT) supplies us the necessary lens for reading the initial three-fourths the way God intends us to read it. Through Christ we can see and savor elements in the OT’s plotline, content, and structure that were there all along but that were not clear apart from him.
He quotes Darrell Bock, who wrote that
Later revelation can complete and fill meaning that was initially, but not comprehensively, revealed in the original setting, so that once the progress of revelation emerges, the earlier passage is better and more comprehensively understood.
So we must spend time in the Old Testament, reading it in light of the New, so that we can understand it in the light of the person of Christ. By learning Hebrew, you will be better able to “see and savor” Christ in the Old Testament, unearthing countless treasures of the glory of God’s Son!
