What Does the Old Testament Teach Us About God?

The Old Testament covers a significant amount of time and describes essential events for us to understand. From Creation to the Fall, from the Flood to the Tower of Babel, from the Exodus to the Conquest, from the Monarchy to the Divided Kingdom, from the Exile to the Return from Exile, the Old Testament travels a lot of ground. It is easy to get lost in the details and miss what the Old Testament is teaching us about God. Here is an excerpt from an article in the Jesus Bible that gives us a glimpse of seven truths we can know about God from the Old Testament.

1. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into God’s glory.

God is not like mankind. Though he created us in his image, God alone is holy. He is other. He is altogether on an entirely different plane than humans—not just a little bigger. Mankind does not look at God eye-to-eye. God stoops from the heights of heaven to make himself known to humanity. And when he reaches down to show us who he is, he leads with his glory.

The Hebrew word for glory in much of the Old Testament can be translated as weight. To put it mildly and a bit figuratively, God is heavy. His righteousness, perfection, brilliance and radiant beauty span galaxies and cause the earth to shudder. Lightning and thunder proceed from his throne. To see him in full would be the end of any mortal.

Thus, God reveals glimpses of himself to fallen mankind. Knowing sinful people could never find God on their own, God initiates a relationship and reveals himself to his created ones. And when God shows up to engage mankind, his glory follows. Whether a burning bush through which he spoke to Moses, a cloud by day and a fiery pillar at night to lead them, or a cloud that descended from heaven to envelop the place where Moses encountered God on behalf of the people, God displayed his glory to the Israelites.

God’s glory is no small thing. It is not something to be taken lightly. The people failed to grasp the weight, but God could not disregard his glory. He dwells in unapproachable light (1Ti 6:16). And, he fiercely defends his glory—his name (Isa 42:8).

2. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into God’s mercy.

God would have been without fault if he had simply said “goodbye and good luck” to Adam and Eve when he expelled them from the garden. Instead, he watched over his people and later came to Abram with a blessing and a promise.

God’s call of Abram was a decisive juncture in the story (Ge 12:1–3). Were it not for God’s initiative, humans would have been lost in sin forever and doomed to destruction. Yet God made a covenant with Abram in which he promised that his children would be the recipients of God’s gracious salvation. Establishing covenants was a common practice in the ancient Near East, a means by which a king would establish a relationship between himself and his subjects. In these agreements, the parties would initiate the terms of the relationship, the responsibilities of both parties, the blessings that would come to those who kept the covenant, and the curses that would result from disobedience. God, in a breathtaking act of love, entered into this kind of relationship with his sin-stained people.

From Abraham onward, God began gathering his people. Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, were the recipients of a multitude of blessings from God. God delivered them from slavery in Egypt in a miraculous demonstration of his power. And God made an extraordinary offer to them: You will be my people and I will be your God. Through you I will show all the inhabitants of the earth that I am the One true God (Ge 17:7–8; Ex 6:7).

3. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into God’s provision.

Once God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage, he led them by an arduous route toward the promised land. He did this to protect and lead them through salvation’s waters at the Red Sea and into a desert land that would teach them that God provides no matter what circumstances his people face.

In the desert he showed them his provision by giving them manna to eat (Ex 16:31); he showed his protecting presence by giving them a cloud by day and fire by night to guide their way (Ex 13:21); and he showed them his faithfulness as a promise-keeping God by never leaving or forsaking them (Ex 13–17).

4. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into the fact that religion is not enough.

In the wilderness, God gave the people of Israel his law, which was never intended to institute a means by which people could merit their own salvation. Rather, God gave them the law to expose their sinful nature.

The sacrificial system God established made it clear that sin required punishment (Ge 3:21). The people brought a sacrificial substitute—an animal that bore the sin of the people in their place. The wrath of God for sin was ceremonially placed on the substitute; in turn, the people were able to avoid God’s wrath for their rebellion and sin. The ongoing practice of sacrifice ensured that the people would never forget that the only way to placate God’s fury over sin was through the blood sacrifice of a substitute.

This system pointed the way to a promised hope—a Messiah—who would fulfill the intent of the sacrificial system once and for all (Mt 5:17).

5. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into God’s eternal plan.

God ultimately led his people to the promised land. Like the garden of old, the promised land was a place of God’s choosing where the people were to live while they enjoyed God’s bountiful provision.

God used forty years in the wilderness to humble his people and teach them to depend on him. He then allowed them to conquer the pagan inhabitants of the land, and he set them there to reflect his glory to the world once more. More astounding, God lived among his people in the tabernacle. There his presence would reside, and his people could continually worship him through their sacrifices. Yet this land of promise was only a preview of forever—the final act in God’s story—in which his people will permanently live with him and enjoy eternal freedom from sin, death and shame in heaven.

6. The Old Testament gives us a glimpse into the dreadful state of humanity apart from God.

God’s people had so much going for them. Not only did they have a relationship with God (though partial), they also had the law, which told them how to obey God; the sacrificial system that allowed them to worship God; the tabernacle where they could experience the presence of God; and the land where they could enjoy the provision of God. These gifts of grace should have allowed them to fill the earth with the knowledge of God’s glory. His fame was not meant to be limited to the nation of Israel; through them, all nations would hear about the One true God and see his glory reflected in his people.

The people, however, proved to be utter failures in this mission. They embraced the idolatrous practices of the surrounding nations rather than living a distinctive, holy life as God had required. They looked toward human leaders—like Saul, David and Solomon—to usher in God’s promised blessings while they turned away from God himself. As a result, God’s people began to unravel at the seams, splintering into two separate nations and facing continual threats of war.

For centuries Israel’s defiance led to collapse, and collapse led to contrition. Contrition always birthed a cry for mercy, and that cry was always heard by a merciful God. Enemies, whom God used as instruments of judgment for his people, were dispatched and defeated in one heavenly gesture. Even when his rebellious people were helpless, God would seek them out and draw them to himself.

7. Ultimately, we get a glimpse into God’s invitation to know him as sons and daughters.

Where people proved to be faithless, God was faithful, never once denying his own character. So while it might be tempting to skim over the Old Testament account and get to the good news of the New Testament, we find in the Old Testament a helpful mirror for ourselves. We are challenged to take seriously our inclination towards the deceptive but deadly spiral of sin’s cycle. It is a picture of our depravity that keeps us humbly dependent on his Spirit’s leading every step of the way, and it contains the promise of heaven’s beauty and our true home. We also find a constant reminder of God’s mercy, mercies that are new every day (La 3:22–23). While the Old Testament serves as a reminder that our effort will never be enough to make us acceptable to God, it still invites us to draw near to God.

In the end, through a relationship made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we not only become God’s people but are actually born again as God’s adopted sons and daughters, made alive by faith to become all that he always dreamed we would be. His Spirit dwells within us, affording us a fellowship with God that the people living in the time of the Old Testament could only dream of. In Christ, the Almighty God becomes our perfect Father, and we humbly walk with him forever.

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