Book of Hebrews in NT
The letter to the Hebrews is interesting, but it is more interesting after reading Leviticus.
God never really wanted the sacrifice, but sacrifice brought by our sincere hearts. It is the sincere hearts of repentance and genuine love to approach God that He really wants. One commentary on Leviticus (Jewish) said that God accepted the sacrifice with the repentant heart. So it is clear to the Jewish point of view, too. The fact that God wants our sincere heart is not just for Christians.
There have been many incidents like this that surprised me. Surprised because the things I thought were "for Christians who was in the New Covenant, thus different from the Old Testament, thus away from the Jewishness" were actually very similar to some Jewish teachings ( if the teaching is from the Bible itself).... So what is this 'legalism' that we associate with the OT that has developed among us - both Jews and Gentiles? Two people can do the same work and one can be 'legalistic' and the other can be doing it out of his/her genuine love, don't you think?
I am not sure where I am going with this blog today but those were my thoughts.
Of courser Jesus as the Messiah is the key between OT and NT. But if both Jews and Christians claim that our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the image of God from the OT may be due to the "culture" the Jewish people developed beyond the Scriptures and it may be due to the way it is translated. We need to read the OT, too. After all, when Paul said to read the Scripture, he must have meant OT because he wrote the NT.
God never really wanted the sacrifice, but sacrifice brought by our sincere hearts. It is the sincere hearts of repentance and genuine love to approach God that He really wants. One commentary on Leviticus (Jewish) said that God accepted the sacrifice with the repentant heart. So it is clear to the Jewish point of view, too. The fact that God wants our sincere heart is not just for Christians.
There have been many incidents like this that surprised me. Surprised because the things I thought were "for Christians who was in the New Covenant, thus different from the Old Testament, thus away from the Jewishness" were actually very similar to some Jewish teachings ( if the teaching is from the Bible itself).... So what is this 'legalism' that we associate with the OT that has developed among us - both Jews and Gentiles? Two people can do the same work and one can be 'legalistic' and the other can be doing it out of his/her genuine love, don't you think?
I am not sure where I am going with this blog today but those were my thoughts.
Of courser Jesus as the Messiah is the key between OT and NT. But if both Jews and Christians claim that our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the image of God from the OT may be due to the "culture" the Jewish people developed beyond the Scriptures and it may be due to the way it is translated. We need to read the OT, too. After all, when Paul said to read the Scripture, he must have meant OT because he wrote the NT.
