Like many Christians, my whole life I’ve been more or less confused as to how the Old Testament connects with the New Testament. Seeing as that I never found an explicit answer, I neatly packed the Old Testament into a box that I rarely took back out to look through. However, I have, more recently than I’d like to admit, been hit with the truth that the Bible’s many smaller stories together make up one epic story that points to Jesus and his fulfillment of the gospel. So I started reading the Bible again as anyone would read a book, from the very beginning. Only this time, I read with the big picture in mind as I turned every single page. It helped me begin to learn that Genesis and the first five books of the Bible, known as “the Torah,” are actually uniquely essential for understanding the hope we have today in the gospel.
If you break down the gospel narrative of the Bible, you will find four basic parts: creation of all things, fall of all creation, reconciliation of sin through Jesus’ death and resurrection, and final redemption of all things upon Christ’s return. Interestingly enough, two of the four parts take place within the first few pages of the Bible. It’s here you have God show how the Garden of Eden represents all of creation in it’s unblemished version of God’s good order and design.
Unfortunately in chapter three, we are also introduced to this good creation’s perversion through the theme of sin. Like Romans 3:23 explains, since this first act of sin, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” However, God in his mercy doesn’t wait another page to introduce the hope that the gospel brings mankind for restoring what had fallen.
God explains in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” This verse is often known as the “Protoevangelium,” or “the first gospel.” It is a promise so short in length that many people miss it, but it is the first of many promises where God reveals his master plan to bring ultimate restoration. They will never be different promises though, just expansions of this first one.
God continues to fulfill his promise of the gospel as he makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. Again, he reveals his plan of ultimate restoration as he promises foremost that he will bless all the nations through Abraham’s family line. God will continually use the concept of covenants like this one throughout the Bible to explain how he relates to his chosen people. Genesis’ themes already foreshadow how the rest of these covenants will go about. God establishes a covenant with undeserving people, remaining faithful to his promises in spite of their continued rebellion and distrust.
The Torah, which means “the law” in Hebrew, is named such because it shares the story of the covenant and law given to the nation of Israel through the man, Moses (who is also assumed to be the author of all five books). While Genesis tells of Moses and Israel’s lineage, the rest of the four books center on his life- in which God uses him as a savior who leads the growing nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and through the wilderness to where they end up just outside of the land that was promised to Abraham. What’s more, it is at Mt. Sinai in the wilderness where God uses Moses to give the people a covenant which is made up of the Law, including the tabernacle blueprints, a sacrificial system and 613 commands. God uses these thing to reveal a way for him to dwell among mankind as he once did in the Garden of Eden. The whole Torah is centered around this covenant results in God’s dwelling once again in the presence of his people. It is this story and Moses himself that foreshadow Jesus Christ as our ultimate savior and teacher; a man who will lead us out of the consequences of sin through his fulfillment of the Law and victory over death that will once again restore God’s right relationship with his creation.
Although it will take the rest of the Bible to reveal exactly how God will bring reconciliation and final restoration through Jesus Christ, it is remarkable that God’s people didn’t have to wait to know that restoration would indeed come! Instead, God gave his people hope, even from the very beginning of time. Therefore, the Torah isn’t just important because it tells us the origin story of the Bible, but because it proclaims the ever-expanding story of the gospel in which Jesus is restoring every single consequence of sin and death.
So as we look around at the brokenness and pain in the world today, we can cling to the hope that God promised his people over and over from the beginning. We can cling to the hope that ALL God’s promises throughout the entire Bible find their “Yes” in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). And we can cling to hope that no matter how much we mess up, God’s enduring promises have ultimate power over sin and death.
To dive into the Torah yourself, start Week 1 of the Torah Reading Plan here!
