Reading in the Old Testament....really!

Ok, the O.T. is the first part of the book that gets passed over a lot.  I mean, come on, that was all before Jesus and has all the laws and such we don't follow any more.  So why would I need to read how to make an ark or properly prepare and alter for sacrifice.  That and all of the names that are hard to pronounce and keep straight with who did what, when, and where.  Give me John by the river Jordan.  Those are some names and places I can keep my head around.

BUT, I have been listening to Dr. Chuck Missler's Learn the Bible in 24 Hours MP3 series.

Not to turn this into a promotion for Dr. Chuck Missler, but there is some great stuff at his website, www.Khouse.org.  [Disclaimer: Dr. Missler is very scientific and heady and not everyone's cup of tea, and not everyone agrees with his interpretations.  He does tend to be respectful of other people's positions on issues.]

That being said, there are a lot of things that I didn't understand, perhaps because I wasn't raised in a Jewish or Messianic household, that is in the Old Testament.  Now to be fair, I have read most of the historical books of the O.T. (Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, and different Psalms...OH!  And the good parts of the Song of Solomon).  And I have had some survey courses on the O.T.  But there are a lot of really geeky neat, science and hidden stuff in the O.T. in addition to prophecies and other evidences for the authorship of God.

So I started reading Isaiah.  I have read Isaiah 53 before because of the suffering servant prophecies, but never really read about the rest of the book.  I started, it's a nail biter, with chapter 1.  I know I really shouldn't be too surprised, but I was really moved.  It is sad how in our society with all of our advancements, advantages, conveniences, and access to information, we really haven't progressed very far from the people of Judah at the time.  In our comfort, our pride, our own sense of accomplishment and self-sufficiency, we have also forsaken God.  We turned from Him and delight in temporary pleasures of this earth that cannot hope to come close to what God offers those who love and follow Him.  Instead, through our actions, we afflict ourselves.  We treat God like a genie who is their to do our biding instead of remembering that we are hear for God and His work and glory.  Spiritually and emotionally, God sees what physically we may try to cover up with out facades.  We are full of wounds, welts, and open sores.  We can feel it when we are not trying to medicate ourselves with food, alcohol, drugs, pleasure, addictions, and busy-ness.  We can feel it somewhere in our souls when we are trying to escape our anxieties, worries, fears, despair, and hopelessness.  We know God is faithful, but we have turned so far from Him, that it just might be possible that like the people in Judah, God might be covering His face from the hideous sight we have become in His eyes.

But God, our loving Father, still calls to us to wash ourselves and make ourselves clean (v.16).  He calls us to repent, or more plainly put: STOP!  "Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!" (v. 16b - 17a).  He has put into us the capacity and capability to do right, seek justice, and encourage the oppressed.  We have been endowed by our Creator with the capacity to reason with Him (v. 18).  God has given us the choice to follow and submit to Him, to be willing and obedient (v. 19), or to resist and rebel.  One brings the pleasures of God and being at His table in His pleasure, or being devoured by the sword (v. 20).  Ultimately, our choice to live apart from God leads us to become like timber where we will burn with no one to quench the fire (v.30).

*** So here we have it.  God wouldn't tell us these things if we were incapable of doing these things.  Also, here is an O.T. reference to an eternity apart from God in a unquenchable fire. ***