The world is so indebted to the Jewish people. Through them came the Messiah in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
While it is true that the Old Testament is now ended through the fulfillment of the New Testament, the first 39 books of the Bible which are Jewish history are our Christian history.
Page after page of the accounts of the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants are so rich in meaning. Viewed through the filter of the Old, the New is so much brighter.
Jesus and the writers of the New Testament made countless references back to people like Jonah and David and Solomon. We are told that when we became Christians, we entered into the family of God which happens to be Jewish, actually we are grafted in as adopted sons and daughters according to Romans 11. The Old Testament is a beautiful black and white picture that finds the colorful completion in Christ.
That is what I discovered reading “Mysteries of the Messiah: Unveiling Divine Connections from Genesis to Today” by Rabbi Jason Sobel.
The following commentary is so true:
Most people—even people of faith—do not understand how the Bible fits together. Too many Christians accept half an inheritance, content to embrace merely the New Testament, while Jewish people may often experience the same by embracing only the Old Testament. But God has an intricate plan and purpose for both the Old and the New.
The entire Bible is our inheritance as believers. Make the old and new complete your picture of our Savior. Plan to read at least one but much better would be two or three chapters every day.
You’ll find that when you read the chapters in the Gospels and the 23 books that follow, the Holy Spirit will show you those “Connections” Rabbi Sobel wrote about.
Here is what one reviewer wrote about his experience:
In Mysteries of the Messiah Rabbi Jason Sobel takes us on a journey from the Garden to David, but it’s not a typical journey found in most teaching. Rabbi opens your eyes, as he says, “From standard definition to seeing the Bible in High Definition!” Mysteries of the Messiah will connect your mind and heart to finding Jesus in every word of the Bible. Using scholarship from both Jewish and Christian writers, plus his own extensive research, Rabbi Jason uncovers biblical Truth and connects the Old and New Testaments so we can clearly see, not only that every word (and number) matters, but Jesus Messiah.
I am so thankful that all of us who believe in Jesus are members of One Body. Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) alike are graciously offered the same Promise! In the book of Romans, Paul addresses the Gentiles in chapter 1 and the Jews in chapters 2 and 3. The same offer is extended to both in Romans 3:21-26!
This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
And here is the summation in verses 27-31
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Jesus was Jewish but He came for both Jew (circumcised) and Gentile (uncircumcised). Together, we are to love and accept one another as the Holy Spirit empowers us all. Our message to all who are not in a relationship to Christ is this: we all have fallen short and we all need a Savior. We all need the Messiah!