The Old Testament sets the stage for the New Testament

Don’t you just hate it when you are watching a movie and about half-way through someone comes in and starts watching it too.  Then they start asking all kinds of questions.  “Who is that guy? Why is she running from the police?  Is that the bad guy?  How did they end up in Paris?  Did her husband die?”  You just want to scream, “If you wanted to know all this stuff, you should have been watching from the beginning!”

The same is true of reading the New Testament.  If you don’t know anything about the Old Testament, it is like starting a book on page 1823.  There is so much that you don’t know!  How can you possible understand what’s going on?  If you just begin reading in Matthew, you are missing out on 2/3 of the plot, characters, and doctrines of the Bible. 

I am a huge Star Wars fan.  When the original Star Wars movie came out in 1977 (which I saw on my 8th birthday!), the story started with Episode IV.  There were all kinds of reference to the back story that you just simply had to guess about.  What were the Clone Wars?  What happened to Anakin Skywalker?  Why is Obi-Wan living in the freakin’ desert?

Just imagine the questions you have if you don’t know the Old Testament?  Why is Jesus important?  Who is this David guy?  What is the Law?  Where is Judea?  Stuff like that.

Reading the Old Testament is like getting to see the prequel–only it starts from the very beginning.