Back • Return Home

Parallels Between The "Old Testament" and Our Lives

I have placed the term "Old Testament" in quotations because a more helpful modern translation might be "Old Covenant". The "Old Covenant" is about following God's commandments, whereas The "New Covenant" (i.e.: The "New Testament") is about God literally showing us how to embody them fully through Christ. This is why Jesus says:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

- from Matthew 5:17 (KJV), underlining by me
It is also why others have said things like:
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the onlybegotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

- from John 1:14 (KJV), underlining by me
We might think of The Old Testament as directly related to our lives in the following way:

The Pentateuch
(The Five Books of Moses)
The Life of a Believer
and Follower of Christ
Genesis
The beginning of All things
Creation
We are born into this world
Exodus
God freeing His people from bondage and guiding them towards the promised land
Salvation
Jesus freeing us from sin and guiding us towards The Kingdom of God
Leviticus
God showing his people how to be holy by following His commandments
Sanctification
Humbly serving God by following Christ’s example, manifesting The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Numbers
God's people get lost in the desert before reaching the promised land
Wandering
Dealing with the challenges of this world
Deuteronomy
God making promises with His people
Covenant
Ultimately, being faithful to God is what determines our destiny

There are various terms within the study of Theology that elaborate upon aspects of Salvation. For example:

• "Expiation" - the negative effects of sin being removed by the grace and mercy of God
• "Redemption" - being freed from the whims of the flesh because we are guided by The Holy Spirit
...and so on.

However, they essentially boil down to what is in the the right-half of the above table.

Let's take a moment to look at The Ten Commandments:

The Ten Commandments*
In Brief
Mnemonic Device
(a tool to aid our memory)
1. You shall have no other gods but me.
These two are strict NO's.
Do NOT put God second
and do NOT worship idols.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of God in vain.
These three are about honor.
Honor God's name,
honor the Sabbath,
and honor your parents.
4. You shall remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.
5. Honor your mother and father.
6. You shall not murder.
These five are about avoiding sins,
starting with the one that people would probably find the worst
(i.e.: killing, taking another's life).

So, to recall all Ten Commandments in order,
just remember the numbers 2, 3, and 5!
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness.
10. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.

[* The Ten Commandments appear in their full form within both Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.]

In Deuteronomy 11:13 (KJV) we read [underlining by me]:
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul...
The translation of the underlined portion comes from the Biblical Hebrew word, עַמְׁש (pronounced "shmah"). It is often translated as "to hear and obey". In other words, we are being called to listen, to understand, and to consistently act upon The Ten Commandments.

Note the similarity to The Great Commandments given by Christ:
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?"

Jesus said unto him, "'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

- from Matthew 22:35-40 (KJV), underlining by me
Therefore, the two sets of commandments are related:

1. Christ's First Great Commandment corresponds to the first four commandments of The Ten Commandments. They are about Loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind.

2. Christ's Second Great Commandment corresponds to the last six commandments of The Ten Commandments. They are about Loving our neighbors as ourselves.

The Fruit of the Spirit are the characteristics that appear when we live out the law dynamically, when we listen to the promptings of The Holy Spirit out of our Love for God and for everyone else as children of that same Heavenly Father. To quote:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

- from Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV), underlining by me
The Fruit of the Spirit
(Modern Translation)
Mnemonic Device
(a tool to aid our memory)
1. Love
All of these words have one syllable.
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Pa-tience
All of these words have two syllables.
5. Kind-ness
6. Good-ness
7. Faith-ful-ness
All of these words have three syllables.

So, we can think of it as a "trinity of trinities,"
where each group of three increases
in the number of syllables.
8. Gen-tle-ness
9. Self-Con-trol

"Love" (also sometimes translated as "Charity") comes from the Koine Greek word, ἀγάπη (pronounced "ah-gah-pay"). It is a transcendent sense of caring that embraces All.
If a man say, "I love God," and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

And this commandment have we from him, "That he who loveth God love his brother also."

- from 1 John 4:20-21 (KJV)


References:

• The five-fold pattern within The Pentateuch is adapted from the video, What each book of the Bible is about by Redeemed Zoomer.

• The Ten Commandments mnemonic is from the Grace Evangelical Society blog.

• The Fruit of the Spirit mnemonic is from The Christian Intellect blog.