What comes to mind when you think of the Old Testament? I’m not talking about your Sunday school, church-y answer. What thoughts actually surface for you? Does it feel boring, like a history book no one really wants to read? Maybe it seems confusing, full of bizarre names and weird stories that feel worlds away. For many people, the Old Testament is actively disliked, packed with unfair rules, never-ending violence, and a whole lot of smiting by God. 

For me, I used to fall into that last group, and I’m a Christian! When I thought about the Old Testament, the adjectives that would pop into my head weren’t particularly positive. At best, it was uninteresting and out-of-touch. At worst, it was problematic and troubling. All I had were mental images of God getting angry, terrible stories of people mistreating each other, and miles and miles of genealogies. It felt so disconnected from my own reality that I almost wished it wasn’t there at all, like an unfortunate attachment to the half of my Bible I actually did like. In conversations with my atheist and agnostic friends, I treated it like something I had to apologize for. 

It’s funny. I didn’t come to these conclusions after careful study of the Old Testament. In fact, I had barely read it at all. Like all the other kids growing up in church, I knew the OT greatest hits, but the rest of it was uncharted territory for me. I think a lot of us are like this. The parts of God that we don’t understand tend to be the ones we judge the harshest. 

Thankfully, God humbled me in the most gracious way possible. Here’s what I came to learn: God actually wants to be understood and known by us. He wasn’t mad at me for so blatantly missing the point of the Old Testament. Instead, He wanted to show me just what I was missing out on. When He should’ve handed me a punishment for rejecting His Word and thinking I knew better than Him, He placed an invitation in my hand. 

In college, I decided to get serious about reading my Bible. If it had been up to me, I would’ve clutched onto the safety blanket of the New Testament and never let go, but God had other plans. Thankfully, He knew exactly what I needed even when I didn’t. Through some hilarious circumstances that only the Holy Spirit Himself could orchestrate, I found myself surrounded on all sides by the Old Testament. My unconventional Bible-in-a-year reading plan threw me right in the middle of it, in Joshua of all places. At the same time, my church started a series on the book of Exodus. I just couldn’t escape it. Even the podcasts I listened to started talking about it. 

When I stopped assuming what the Bible had to say and finally let it speak for itself, the Old Testament came alive before my eyes. Every single one of my misconceptions were turned upside down with each book I read. Joshua went from a simple account of Israel’s military history to a reassurance that God fights for His people and keeps every last one of His promises. In Exodus, the God I once thought was unfair revealed Himself to be just and compassionate, a Father who listened to the cries of His children and came to their rescue. 

Ecclesiastes took me on a thought-provoking journey to discover the meaning of life, and Ruth had me invested in a love story that happened so many lifetimes ago. The Psalms became tangible, something to hold me up and give me strength during times of suffering. Even the grittiest Old Testament books, like Genesis and Judges, showed me God’s ability to redeem our most hopeless situations. I had once thought that He was quick to anger, but I came to realize that our God’s patience is ocean-deep. 

Before I knew it, I was falling in love with the Old Testament. As if things couldn’t get any better, God introduced me to my new favorite book of the Bible: Isaiah. Isaiah is one of the major prophets of the Old Testament, and his book is full of warnings for Israel to turn away from their sin along with countless prophecies about the coming Messiah. When I read Isaiah, it was unlike any other book I’d read so far. Not only did I feel connected to the author, this book revealed a whole new side of God I had never seen before. He held nothing back. In the past, this might have scared me, but I felt like God wanted me to know exactly who He is. There was so much intimacy in that, getting up close and personal with Him. He became so real to me in Isaiah, like His very heart was beating on the page. The way judgment and redemption are so perfectly balanced in these prophecies spoke volumes about His character, and the coming promise of salvation through Jesus had me grinning ear-to-ear as I read. If you really want to get to know the Lord better, dive headfirst into the Word. Every page reveals a new, wonderful facet of the incredible God we serve.  

Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” Every last word in the Old Testament was written with intention, spoken by God to guide and encourage us. 

This week, take a stroll through the Old Testament, even if it feels weird! The book of Job taught me that there is no question or doubt too big for God to address. See what lessons and encouragements wait for you there. Discover which people you relate to. Be amazed at how God spoke into your exact situation thousands of years ago so that you could hear it today. Most of all, just connect with the Lord. Listen to His voice and follow Him, even if He leads you somewhere you’ve never been before. 

This may sound obvious, but the more you read the Bible, the more sense it makes. We often try to look at a single puzzle piece and assume we know what the final product looks like. How can we see the whole picture with so few pieces? Build that puzzle, friend. Once you have that valuable context, the picture of God you’ll end up with will be even more amazing than you ever thought possible.