God's Good Word

I have been reading through the R.A. Torrey classic, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, and it is an illuminating resource with great benefit for all Christians.  One aspect I have enjoyed thoroughly is how Torrey illuminated the deity of the Holy Spirit by referencing Old Testament verses where God plainly spoke and the New Testament attributed the quote specifically to the Holy Spirit.  While the Old Testament is God's word, passages from the New Testament help us to understand more perfectly what was being said and to apply timeless truth personally.

For instance, Isaiah 6:8-9 related when the prophet heard God speak:  "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." ⁹ And He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'"  The Lord (Adonay) spoke to Isaiah, and Paul attributed these verses to the Person of the Holy Spirit in speaking to Jewish skeptics in Acts 28:25-26:  "So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, ²⁶ saying, 'Go to this people and say: "Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive...".  In this manner the New Testament often brings deeper understanding to what was said previously--and in this case which Person of the Godhead had spoken--and still speaks.

To think the Old Testament is somehow outdated or irrelevant is a foolish notion, for God is able to use the Old Testament Scriptures to give greater understanding of the New Testament, even for personal application.  In writing to believers who struggled with legalism, Paul explained how the Law of Moses that condemned them was nailed to the cross with Jesus.  Keeping the letter of the Law was no longer the way Christians ought relate to God because we have been born again by faith in Jesus who provided atonement for our sin.  We are now led by the Holy Spirit to do more than is required by Law--to not merely avoid murdering others but to love them!  Paul wrote in Colossians 2:16-17, "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, ¹⁷  which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."  The realisation feasts and sabbaths were shadows of what Christ is the substance, it was revolutionary in the lives of people who once lived as slaves to sabbaths.

For Gentiles such as myself who have never known the rigours of the sabbath according to Mosaic Law, reading Isaiah 58:11-14 konwing Jesus is our Sabbath is illuminating and personal--with promises Christians can take to heart:  "The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. ¹² Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. ¹³ "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honourable, and shall honour Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, ¹⁴ then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Being guided and strengthened by God is not reserved for the Sabbath Day but made available daily for all who are in Jesus Christ, filled with the Living Water of the Holy Spirit.  Observe in verse 13 how the prophet urged God's people to honour and delight in the Sabbath (who has been revealed in the New Testament as Jesus) by doing what He says, speaking His words and doing what pleases Him rather than seeking to please ourselves.  Every day by faith and obedience to Jesus we are called to delight ourselves in the LORD, He will exalt us with victory and triumph over trials (as in Habbakuk 3:17-19) and the Living Bread will feed us according to God's promise.  How great is our God, and how rich is His word!