Old and New Testament: The Bible, the Book of the Covenant

Introduction

This Bible study from the Assemblée de Dieu de Montpellier Richter opens a series with a common thread: believing God even when the promise is slow in coming. The starting point is Psalm 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path."

The lamp and the light do the same job, shining, but not with the same intensity. The lamp lights your steps, your daily walk. The light lets you see the path ahead. Before speaking about promises that take time, the preacher therefore takes the time to look at the book that contains them: how the Bible is put together, what the word "testament" means, which books Jesus read, and why all Scripture is useful.

Message Outline

1. A Word Kept in Clay Jars

The Protestant Bible has 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.
In Jeremiah 32:14, God commands Jeremiah to take the deed of purchase, both the sealed one and the open one, and to put them "in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days."
The preacher sees more here than the literal meaning. Ancient texts have been found in caves, notably at Qumran, preserved in jars. "The Lord is the best apothecary": he knew these jars would keep his Word.
Even today, in some countries, Bibles are burned, or a person can be arrested and jailed for owning one. The church will soon welcome the Gideons, and then Action évangélique pentecôtiste, which works with persecuted churches.
We too are clay jars that have received salvation and the promises of the Lord. We are called to keep them and to move forward with them.
"What is your bedside book?" The Bible is the most widely read and most widely translated book in the world. Still, we have to read it, take the time to stop, and look in it for God's answers.
We should give it to children while they are young, so that when they are old they will not turn away from it (Proverbs 22:6). That very day, the church had given a Bible to a couple getting married: may this Word be the rock, the center of their home.

2. Testament Means Covenant

In French, a testament is a document drawn up before a notary before one's death. But God is not dead, and he did not leave us an inheritance by disappearing.
The Hebrew word is berith, the Greek word is diathèkè: they mean a covenant, a pact, a treaty, a commitment. The word "testament," from the Latin testamentum (contract), came into use starting at the end of the 2nd century.
So the Bible contains two contracts and two partners: God and humanity, God and you.
When a will is opened at the notary's office and all goes well, what was bequeathed is passed on without ambiguity. "How much more with God, who made a covenant with us and who is alive." God is not a man, that he should lie (Numbers 23:19). What he says, he does.
If the promise seems slow, Scripture says to wait for it, because it will surely come to pass (Habakkuk 2:3). God watches over his word to carry it out.

3. The New Covenant, a Covenant of Freedom

Jeremiah 31:31 announces: "Behold, the days come," says Yahweh, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." This new covenant was sealed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, in his blood.
In Galatians 4:22-26, Paul contrasts Abraham's two sons: the son of the slave woman, Hagar, born according to the flesh, and the son of the free woman, Sarah, born through the promise. The Jerusalem above is free, "which is our mother."
The new covenant is not built on slavery but on deliverance. "We are the people of the new covenant." You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:32).
Why is there still slavery in some lives? Because the new covenant must first be accepted in the heart, then lived out. Water baptism marks this turning point: "I commit myself with the Lord to the path of this new covenant."
The law was given as a tutor to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). But the freedom of a child of God does not mean doing whatever we like: it must not become an excuse to live according to the flesh (Galatians 5:13). Our freedom is to serve the Master.
A wedding ring is worn on the finger. God's covenant goes further: he has circumcised our hearts. Hence this confession: "I know him whom I have believed" (2 Timothy 1:12).

4. A Covenant Tested but Never Broken

The wind may rise, storms may roar, the enemy may mock: the one who made a covenant with you has promised to keep you to the end of the race.
This week the preacher meditated with his wife on Daniel. A faithful servant, Daniel still went into the lions' den. "God allowed him to enter the lions' den, but God did not allow the lions to devour him."
God may let you enter the trial, but he will not let the trial triumph over your life, because he is the God of the covenant.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego went into the furnace. There the king saw a fourth man (Daniel 3:25), a powerful picture of the Lord Jesus. "If you want the Lord to reveal himself, sometimes you have to go into the furnace."

5. The Bible Jesus Read

In Jesus' day, no book of the New Testament had been written. In Luke 24:44, Jesus speaks of what is written about him "in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms." These were the books the apostles relied on before the epistles were written.
Under the old covenant, forgiveness was not simple: an animal had to be offered, and the high priest entered the holy of holies alone, once a year. The law demanded restitution: eye for eye, but also wound for wound, burn for burn (Exodus 21:24-25).
Under the new covenant, you can pray in your room or in your car: no more barrier, no more go-between, no more other sacrifice, because the Lamb of God has been offered. All the more reason to ask forgiveness with a sincere heart and not to treat the blood of the covenant as unholy (Hebrews 10:29).
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, with a few fragments in Aramaic. The preacher invites us to pray for translators: a sister in Christ, who is still translating the Bible into local dialects, explained that sometimes "bread" has to be translated as "yam" where people do not eat bread.
Scribes copied out the law, the prophets and the psalms. One badly formed letter, one botched yod, and the whole line had to be discarded. "Bless God for having a Bible in your hands."
Jesus read the scroll of Isaiah, rolled it up and handed it back (Luke 4:17-20). The Ethiopian eunuch was also reading a scroll on his way home from Jerusalem (Acts 8:27-28).

6. How the Old Testament Is Organized

In the traditional Jewish order, there is the Torah (the Pentateuch, five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the Former Prophets (Nevi'im Rishonim: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings), the Latter Prophets (Nevi'im Aharonim: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets), then the Writings (Ketouvim: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles).
The initials of Torah, Nevi'im and Ketouvim form the word Tanakh. In the Ketouvim, five scrolls, the Hamesh Megillot, are read at certain Jewish festivals.
The preacher reminds us that the Bible invites us to pray for Israel. On the clock of end-times events, Israel is a "metronome" announcing the return of Jesus.
Our Protestant Bible arranges the same 39 books differently: 5 books of the Pentateuch, 12 historical books, 5 poetic and wisdom books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs), then 17 prophetic books.
The Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have 46 books in the Old Testament. As in the Vulgate translation, they include books that the preacher calls apocryphal: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, Baruch, and Greek additions to Daniel and Esther. This gives 16 historical books, 7 wisdom books and 18 prophetic books.
The thread of history runs from creation to the fall, the flood and Babel, then to the patriarchs, the twelve tribes, the Exodus, the law in the wilderness, the promised land, the kings and the split after Solomon. God had promised not to divide the kingdom during Solomon's lifetime, for David's sake (1 Kings 11:12): "God is the God of the covenant, and he honors his covenant."
With Jesus the new covenant begins: birth, baptism, teaching, miracles, death and resurrection, told by four witnesses, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then come Pentecost, the proclamation of the Gospel, and the wait for his return.

7. All Scripture Is God-Breathed: Let the Word Speak

"Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). The author of the Bible is God himself, who inspired nearly 40 authors over nearly 1,600 years.
Teaching: God gives us knowledge and understanding to set us free from whatever holds us back.
Reproof: "we can be so stubborn at times," shut up in our own reasoning. There is a kind of inner debate between us and the Word, and the one who wins the case is the Lord.
Correction: the Word also says "what you are doing there is not right." To correct is not to do harm; it is to put straight what was out of place.
Instruction: forming good habits and good reflexes in line with God's righteousness.
The minor prophets are no less important: they are called that because of the size of their books. Torah means "instruction"; in Greek, nomos, the law. Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17).
"You cannot make God say what he has not said." But when God says something, he watches over it to bring it about. So we can trust him and wait for him.
What the preacher took away from his first Bible studies: the Word of God explains itself. What you read in one text, you find again in another. You must not invent anything, but look in the Word for the answer to the Word.
He even encourages us to take an interest in the original texts, which shed a different light.
Referring to Samuel, the preacher urges us not to let any of the words that come from God's mouth fall to the ground (see 1 Samuel 3:19). Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
The closing prayer asks forgiveness for neglect and lack of time, and asks for a thirst, a zeal, to read, understand and meditate on the Word.

Key Takeaways

Old and New Testament mean old and new covenant: a commitment between God and you.
God is not a man, that he should lie. If the promise is slow, wait for it: he watches over his word.
The new covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus, is a covenant of freedom, to be received in the heart and lived out every day.
God may let you enter the trial, but he will not let the trial triumph over your life.
All Scripture is inspired by God for teaching, reproof, correction and instruction. It explains itself.

Personal Application

What is your bedside book? What place does the Bible really have in your days?
Which of God's promises seems slow in coming right now, and how can you wait for it, remembering that he is the God of the covenant?
Is there an area of your life where you still live as though under slavery, even though Christ has set you free?
Do you let the Word convince and correct you, or do you try to make it say what suits you?
How can you pass on the Word of God to your children, or to those around you, this week?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the word "testament" mean in Old and New Testament?

The Hebrew word berith and the Greek word diathèkè mean covenant, pact, treaty, commitment. The word testament, from the Latin testamentum (contract), came into common use starting at the end of the 2nd century. To speak of the Old and New Testament is to speak of the old and new covenant between God and humanity.

Which books did Jesus read?

In Jesus' day, no book of the New Testament had yet been written. Jesus read what he calls in Luke 24:44 the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms, that is, the books we call the Old Testament and that the Jews call the Tanakh.

Why does the Catholic Bible have more books than the Protestant Bible?

The Protestant Bible has 39 books in the Old Testament. The Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have 46, because they include, like the Vulgate, books that the preacher calls apocryphal: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, Baruch, and Greek additions to Daniel and Esther.