New Testament References Old Testament

How many times does the New Testament quote, refer to, or allude to the Old Testament? For a quick look at some introductory answers to this question, click on any of the following links:

Quotations in New Testament Order

Table of Old Testament Quotes in the New Testament, in English

The Relationship of the Testaments: the NT View of the OT

Now, some questions: From looking at and thinking about such content (found at the above links), ...
1) What does this say of the modern views of the Old and New
... Testaments?
2) What does this say of the NT writers' views of the OT?
3) Most importantly, what does this say about knowing the Messiah?
... (Is He only to be found in the NT? Is He only occasionally found in
.... the OT?)
4) What then is the big difference between the OT and the NT?
5) How often does your pastor preach Christ from the OT?

The Name of God -- A Prayer

Psalm 34:3 – “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together.”

Dear Father in Heaven,
.......Hallowed be Your Name. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth!” (Ps. 8:1, 9) “Let them also that love Thy Name be joyful in Thee” (Ps. 5:11). May Your Name defend us (Ps. 21:1). As we “rejoice in Thy salvation and set up our banners in Your Name, fulfil all [our] petitions” (Ps. 20:5). While others trust in horses and chariots, may we always “remember the name of the LORD our God” (Ps. 20:7).
.......May we who have taken the name of Christ not take It in vain but live as faithful members of the respectful, submissive Bride of Christ. May we graciously “have love one to another” (Jn. 13:35), and may we “be made perfect in one” (Jn. 17:23); so “that the world may believe that You have sent” Jesus of Nazareth as our Lord and Savior and Christ (Jn. 17:21), so that all men shall know that we are Christ’s disciples (Jn. 13:35), and so “that all the earth may know that there is a God in” the Christian Church (I Sam. 17:46).
.......By these, may we even of this generation be privileged to see obvious and glorious manifestations of the coming, growth, and spreading of Your kingdom over all the earth and of Your will being “done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10). Then “all nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy Name,” as You have promised (Ps. 86:9).
.......So we pray with Your Son, in His Name, and with gratitude for Your subsequent promise to do just this: “Father, glorify Thy Name” (Jn. 12:28). Amen.

words

words –
air ascends, across the vocal strings, past the lips –
light
words again –
world
more words –
life

Word –
Breath descends, across the ages, past the chasm –
Light of the world
Word –
world consists in Him
Word –
Life eternal
“The Word became flesh”

2-26-08

Twist and Shout

“Twist and Shout!” There used to be a good bit of that in some of the churches with which I was familiar as a child – twistin’ the Scriptures and shoutin’ for 1-2 hours. There may not be quite as much shoutin’ nowadays, but some of ‘em are still “doin’ the twist.”

Ya know how it goes … yer standin’ at the edge of a cliff, prayin’, “Lord, Yer Word says that You’ll give Yer angels charge over me, to bear me up, lest I go dashin’ my foot against a stone, and if I’m abidin’ in Christ, then what applies to Him applies to me, right? So now I’m claimin’ Yer Word and trustin’ in them mighty angels to bear me up – all fer Yer glory! – as I throw myself down off this here rocky cliff. … And I, uh, … I …, I praise Ya now fer what Yer gonna’ do. And I …, I …, well, huh, I think I fergot to leave a tract for that waitress back at the donut shop. I’d better go take care o’ that first.” Y’all know how it is …; I’m sure y’all can relate ….

But now wait! That does sound just a mite bit familiar …. Oh, yes; now I remember: Jesus Christ was faced with a similar temptation, wasn’t He? But what was it He said? Oh, that’s right – “It is also written, …,” Matthew 4:7. He didn’t say, “Yeah, right, Satan, like I’m gonna fall for that.” He didn’t directly accuse the Accuser of taking the verse out of context. Christ didn’t even deny the verse’s application to Himself. He refused to apply one Scriptural passage in such a way that would require express disobedience to another passage.

Sadly, many church members’ perspective of balance is too much like that drunk, of which Martin Luther speaks, who, upon falling off the left side of a horse, climbs back atop the horse with the determination to achieve balance by, next time, falling off the right side of the horse.

Symbolism

May it not be said, especially of us ministers, “You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things? … I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” – John 3:10, 12

What’s more important: the symbol or the thing symbolized? the image or the real? the wedding ring or the marriage? the photograph or the wife? man or God? The answers are obvious.

Symbols are not unimportant, however. Disrespect for the symbol translates as disrespect for the thing symbolized. Spitting on my wife’s picture insults my wife’s person. Murder defaces the image of God and thus expresses disdain for God Himself. Disregard for your spouse, i.e. for your marriage, reflects your perspective of Christ’s relationship with His Church. To shun participation in water baptism and the Lord’s supper is to shun the Lord Himself.

Symbols are important. However, it is possible to idolize a symbol while still scorning the thing symbolized, which is why Hezekiah destroyed the brass serpent. It is also possible to overreact to such idolatry with a total disregard for the symbol while claiming an emphasis on “what’s really important.” But both extremes are likely the result from failing to appropriately connect the type with the antitype.

A fuller understanding of the greater real often results in a deeper appreciation for and participation with the symbol. Those who deeply love God are more inclined to evidently love their neighbor, the image of God.

They appreciate the symbol, but they also remember its place. The sewer guy who lost his wedding ring at work will not assume that, when he gets home, his wife will be missing. Solomon spent 7 years building a temple for the LORD that was likely the grandest of his day, yet he recognized its inadequacy. I Kings 8:12-13, 27 – “Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. … But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built?”

Though not insignificant, symbols can eventually become unnecessary; but until the reality becomes full and complete, the symbol remains important and appropriate. Symbols abound in the Holy Scriptures and in our lives. Symbols speak. – Indeed, they cannot be silent. – What are they saying about God? What are we saying about God? -- Read, observe, study, learn, grow, explore, and discover.

I Corinthians 9:9-10a – “For it is written in the Law of Moses: ‘Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.’ Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely He says this for us, doesn’t He? Yes, this was written for us, ….” (See also reference from Deut. 25:4)

My Absent Son

2005, May 7th, Saturday evening, around 8:24 pm: The heart that took my son's life also claimed a part of mine. For our family, it seemed that a part of the sun had become darkened; but it was only an eclipse – it soon shall pass! “What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” “... The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” – Job 2:10, 1:21

Such an event has drained me of many tears, but it has not erased my memories nor destroyed my affection. So please, ask me about my absent son. I love him.

If you were to ask me right now about my Dad, I might say, “Well, I suppose he’s doing well. You see, he’s not with us now.”

Then you might say, “Oh, … huh …. How long has he been gone?”

“Well, the last time I saw him alive was October 1st of last year.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” you say.

“Why are you sorry? I didn’t say he was dead. He lives somewhere in south-central Ohio. But what he’s doing right now, I don’t really know. He’s just absent from our presence right now. I certainly expect to see him again. I’m not sure when, but I plan to spend time with him again. I expect he will be doing well.”

And I expect the same of my son, Elisha Malachi Rauch. Actually, I expect it of the Lord, because I “judge Him faithful Who promised” (Heb. 11:11) that “to be absent from the body” is “to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8).

So ask me about my son. I am very fond of him, and I like to talk about the people and things about which I am fond. Don’t you? He lives with the Lord. But what he’s doing right now, I don’t really know. He may be absent from our presence right now, but I certainly expect to see him again. I’m not sure when, but I plan to spend time with him again. I expect he will be doing well.

If it were up to you, he’d be “gone and forgotten.” But I do not want to forget him. In truth, he is not “gone and forgotten;” he is only gone and for-a-little-while. “But now he is dead,” as King David said, “wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (II Samuel 12:23).

The Psalmist also wrote, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). So wherefore should I mourn? Wherefore should we avoid discussion about those who have “fallen asleep in Christ”?

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. … The dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain …: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” – I Thessalonians 4:13-18

Foreknowledge of God

Have you ever heard this from a believing Christian? “I believe God has foreknowledge, but I think He may choose to not tap into it all the time.” What is that all about? What motivates such a statement? I think that it likely stems from the great difficulty in our minds to accept the fact that God has always known the depths to which evil would sink and still does not do anything to stop it within the timeframe that we think He should.

To help you understand this struggle, let me just ask you a few, potentially disturbing questions.
– Before He created the world and Adam, was God thinking about all the terrible abductions, physical abuses, torturous murders, cannibalistic mutilations, and ridiculous wars that would occur after the Fall?
– Before God said, “Let there be light,” did He realize all that His Son would have to experience at the time of His crucifixion?
– How far in advance did God know that I would have a son who would have a big hole in his heart, scores of needles poked in his body, a ventilator tube shoved down his throat several times, medicines and blood transfusions pumped into his body, a feeding tube inserted through his nostrils and then through his belly, and a surgeon’s knife across his chest, only to die 102 days after his birth?
He is supposed to be a God of love, right? What kind of love is it that allows all this, especially if He knows about it long before it ever occurs? So it seems that some have concluded that God apparently doesn’t think about it unless He wants to.

But have we not read the Holy Bible, the very Word of God? Or have we forgotten what God says of Himself in the writings of Isaiah? “I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isaiah 45:6-7). “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9-10). “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Have we not read the first couple chapters of Job, where God initiates the discussion with Satan that would lead to Job’s great trials? Have we not read of the Holy Spirit’s prophecy concerning Judas hundreds of years before Christ (Psalms 69:25, 109:8; Acts 1:15-26), and that “Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him” (John 6:64)? Have we not noticed that the Lord says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8)? Have we not read? Have we forgotten? Or do we just refuse to believe?

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

Deeper Than Deep

Rich Mullins once recorded a song entitled “If I Stand” (on his album entitled Stuff of Earth), which included these words:
“There’s more that dances on the prairie than the wind
And more that pulses in the oceans than the tide.
There’s a love that is fiercer than the love between friends,
More gentle than a mother’s, when a baby’s at her side.
There’s a loyalty that’s deeper than mere sentiment
And a music higher than the songs that I can sing.
The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance
That I owe only to the Giver of all good things.”

We work and sweat to get lots of money; but what we really want is security. We pursue pleasures; but what we really want is joy. We become activists; but what we really want is purpose. We pop in a CD, sit cross-legged on the floor in a room surrounded by large windows, close our eyes, inhale deeply, and find ourselves in some enchanted sunny, flowery meadow where birds sing sweetly and butterflies smile at us; but what we really want is peace. We strategize and entice for intimacy; but what we really want is love.

Thus, we begin to understand the love and grace of the Holy Spirit when He teaches us in Philippians 4:6-7 to “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Notice that when you “let your requests be made known unto God,” He does not promise here to grant your every request; but He does promise a peace, “which passes all understanding.”

“Be not ye therefore like unto [the heathen]: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8); and “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). So take comfort, because “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Exercise Faith, & You Won't Believe Your Eyes!

The Holy Spirit tells us, in Hebrews 11:27, that “by faith, [Moses] … endured, as seeing Him Who is invisible.” Now how do you see Someone Who is invisible?

The preceding verses imply that Moses could have had “pleasures” and “treasures” – those things which appeal to the lust of the eyes and flesh – but instead he chose affliction and reproach. He chose rather to exercise faith in Someone Whom he could not see Who promised to lead him to a land he had not seen.

Could Abraham not see his wrinkled, gray-haired wife? Did Moses not understand the strength of Pharaoh’s horses and chariots? Did Joshua not see that big wall surrounding Jericho? Didn’t David hear King Saul say that that 9.5-foot tall giant out there, who’s carrying over 140 pounds of armor and weapons, has been “a man of war from his youth” (I Samuel 17:33)? Didn’t the 3 Hebrew boys realize that King Nebuchadnezzar could demand the fire be made much hotter? Did Daniel not know how big and hungry the lions were? Of course, they saw the challenge before them. But they also saw “Him Who is invisible,” with His mighty hand and outstretched arm (Deut. 26:8) poised to crush any who would dare to touch His anointed.

Yet the enemy, from the beginning, tempts us to trust our physical eyes. He wants us to put our faith in that which we can observe, handle, and experience. He showed Eve “that the tree [of the knowledge of good and evil] was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Genesis 3:6). He showed Christ the stones which could “be made bread” and then showed “Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them” (Matthew 4:3, 8). Then Satan shows us the harlot (as mentioned in Revelation). – Our eyes see the “gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, … and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble;” our skin feels the “fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet;” our noses smell the “cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense;” our tongues taste the “wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep;” and our ears hear “the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, … and the sound of a millstone … and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride ….” – He tempts us through all of our senses toward “the fruits that [our] soul[s] lusted after …, and all things which were dainty and goodly …” (Revelation 18:12-14, 22-23).

But “faith is … the evidence of things not seen,” without which “it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:1, 6). Therefore, exercise faith in God and His Word, and you will not believe your eyes!

Attack Lust with the Sword of the Spirit

Before I present today’s challenge, let me first remind you that one of the primary goals to which God’s people are always being called is to believe God and His Word. Adam and Eve were presented with this test, and they failed. The people of Israel failed it many times as well. Finally, the Second Adam, the True Israel, our Example passed the test, showing us the power of the written Word of God, our “Sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17).

Men, are you greatly tempted and perhaps even often defeated by the lust of the eyes? Then I would like to encourage you to pick up your Sword, and accept this challenge with me:

“As of this ____ day of the ____ month in the year of our Lord ____, by the grace of God and the power of His Holy Spirit, I hereby declare that,
– since I am not my own, but I have been bought with a price and therefore must glorify God in my body and in my spirit which belong to God (I Cor. 6:20), I will henceforth love God with all of my being, including my mind (Mark 12:30), and
– since my body also belongs to my wife (I Cor. 7:4), I will love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it (Eph. 5:25), and
– since I am not to lust after a woman’s beauty in my heart (Prov. 6:25) but rather to abstain from fornication (I Thess. 4:3), I will mortify my members on the earth, including lust and fornication (Col. 3:5), and
– since Christ has set me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2), I will walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) and in step with the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), and
– since I have made a covenant with my eyes (Job 31:1), I will henceforth set no wicked thing before my eyes (Psalm 101:3). Amen.”