圣经研究3——他赐给我们圣经: 解释圣经的基础 HGB——第八课 现今应用
目录
一、介绍
二、时期划分
多样
大纲
影响
三、时期发展
角色
故事线索
作者
写过去的事
为目前写作
背景
典型
预示
四、结论
一、介绍
你有没有注意到，一些基督徒把旧约《圣经》经文应用到现今生活的时候会走极端？一个极端，就是一些信徒认为，我们需要做的事和上帝的百姓在旧约时期所做一模一样。另一个极端，则是一些信徒认为我们应该忘记上帝在旧约《圣经》时代对祂百姓的命令。实际上，正确的做法是处在这两种极端中间的某个位置。
就如何将旧约《圣经》应用在我们当今的人生而言，我们需要记得两个要点：「绝不能回到过去，又绝不能忘记过去。」
这是我们这个系列，《他赐给我们圣经：释经的基础》的第八课，我们给它定的标题是「现今应用与旧约时期」。我们在这一课要探索，旧约真理怎样贯穿历史各个伟大时期而发展，解释这些发展如何冲击我们自己对《圣经》的应用。
我们在上一课看了，至少在三方面，《圣经》原本受众与当代受众有所不同。原本的受众生活在和我们不一样的历史时期。他们的 文化和我们的不同。他们和我们是不完全一样的人们。虽然这三种不同以数不尽的方式彼此相连，我们在这一课却要关注旧约《圣经》时期，以及这些时期是怎样影响现今的应用。
我们要从两方面探索 现今应用和旧约时期之间的联系。首先，我们要看旧约历史的时期划分。第二，我们要看这些划分代表的时期发展。让我们首先来看旧约历史的 时期划分。
旧约《圣经》记载了贯穿历史发生的许多神学改变。每次上帝改变他对他子民观念、行为和情感的期待时，神学改变就随之发生。当改变变得足够显著，它们就成为辨认时期划分的基础。
基督徒用了许多方法来描述这些改变，不过有一种常用，并且对人有帮助的例证，就是把旧约《圣经》神学比作是一棵生长的树。一棵健康的树，从一粒小小种子到完全成熟，经历了许多的改变。但是，在世界大部分地方，树木生长是和每年的气候循环联系在一起的。树木在较为寒冷的季节一般改变较慢，在更加温暖的季节则改变迅速。
旧约《圣经》神学的成长也是季节性的。有时它相对改变得很少，但其他时候它的变化却是剧烈的，达到成熟的新阶段。成熟的这些阶段就对应这旧约的时期划分。每一个时期都是一个时间段，特征是旧约神学发生实质和持久性的改变。
我们要分三步来讨论旧约的时期划分。首先我们要认识到学者采用了多样方法来划分《圣经》记载的历史。第二，我们要来描述一下许多基督教传统使用的、对我们有帮助的时期大纲。第三，我们要指出这大纲对《圣经》在现今应用产生的一些 影响。
让我们先开始来看划分旧约《圣经》历史的多样方法。
我们看到神学家找了不同方法来划分旧约《圣经》记载的历史，这不应当让我们感到惊奇。一个原因是，时间不是按照分割得清清楚楚的部分流逝的。所以各个时期之间的过渡通常是逐渐发生，时期本身有重叠的地方。另一个原因就是，神学家根据他们使用的标准来划分时期。我们可以想一想在科学领域这类的做法。考古学家一般按照冶金方面的发展来划分历史。所以他们有早期、中期和晚期青铜时期，早期、中期和晚期铁器时期的说法。社会学家倾向强调政治发展。所以他们有部落时期，早期民族时期，君王时期，被掳时期和后被掳时期的说法。
类似地，神学家显然倾向使用神学标准来划分时期，但仍然不能每次对划分都有一致意见，因为旧约《圣经》神学在不同时候，是以不同方式发展。一棵树经历生长的阶段时，它的不同部分并不是在同一时候，或按同一进度成长。有时其他部分成长，但疾病实际会抑制某一枝的发展。树干上的树皮可能生长得较缓慢，不显眼，与之相比，这树的细枝和树叶生长则快得多。类似地，旧约《圣经》神学的一些部分进展缓慢，其他部分按中速推进，其他快速变化。这些部分很多是在不同时候发展。如果以色列信仰的每一方面在同时间都按相同速度改变，解经家就更容易对它的划分达成一致意见。但是正如实际的情况那样，神学家们是用不同方法划分旧约历史。
鉴于《圣经》是渐进性的启示，经过好长一段时间才写成，然后才临到我们，因此知道在上帝开展的计划里，我们所处的位置在哪里，是相当的重要。神学家常将上帝的计划分成不同的时期来讨论。我们看到在新约《圣经》里，它将旧约《圣经》分成不同的阶段，例如，马太福音的族谱，始于亚伯拉罕，到大卫，好像旧约历史是分段成亚伯拉罕到大卫，大卫到被掳，被掳到基督，这三个时期。那是《圣经》把旧约《圣经》历史分成不同时期的一个方式，每个时期都有其独特的重要性，以及如何临到我们。新约《圣经》对于旧约《圣经》还有其他的分段方式，例如，保罗在罗马书5章，哥林多前书15章，讲到亚当和基督，律法之前，律法之后。因此，新约《圣经》是显示了不同的方式来划分旧约的时期。每当我思想上帝的整个计划，永恒旨意，一个很重要的方式就是按着《圣经》圣约的方式来看上帝的计划。你可以从亚当（创造之约)）到挪亚，到亚伯拉罕（亚伯拉罕之约)），旧约（关乎以色列人和摩西的圣约），大卫之约，以及对于新约的期盼。这些圣约，从一个导向下一个，直到至终成就于耶稣基督，我们看到上帝的救赎历史是如何开展的。这个方式有效地帮助我们从创世记读到基督的故事，上帝的整个计划是如何连成一体。而新约《圣经》讲到旧约《圣经》或是救赎历史时，正是多次按着这个圣约的进展方式讲论的。司提反威乐姆博士在承认了对旧约历史的时期划分上存在多样划分，这也是合理之后，让我们来思想许多解经家已经采纳的一个对人有帮助的大纲。
划分旧约历史的其中一种最常见方法，就是把每个时期与上帝的一个圣约联系起来。上帝与他百姓所立的约，总是带来显著的神学改变，所以就提供了对划分时期有帮助的界限。
许多基督教传统看到旧约《圣经》中上帝所立六个主要的圣约：与亚当，挪亚，亚伯拉罕，摩西和大卫所立的约，还有旧约先知预言，在以色列被掳离开应许之地的末期要临到的新约。
关于亚当，我们应当留意到，创世记1到3章的记载，并没有使用我们通常翻译为「约」的那个希伯来文术语 בְּרִית（/brit/）。即使如此，创世记仍然强有力地暗示，上帝与亚当立约。只举一个例子，在创世记6章18节，上帝说他要与挪亚「立」约。翻译为「立」的希伯来文动词是 קוּם（/kum/），这个词是用来描写确认已经存在的某件事，而不是开始一样全新的事。所以，我们可以有把握地认为，创世记把上帝与亚当的关系描述为是立约性的。还有，在何西阿书6章7节，先知有可能是在讲上帝和亚当之间的约，或者上帝与亚当代表的全人类立的约。
上帝与挪亚的约，出现在创世记6章18节洪水之前，还有在9章9节到17节，洪水之后。上帝与亚伯拉罕立约，这在创世记15章18节，亚伯拉罕尝试通过他妻子的使女夏甲获得一位后嗣之前，以及在17章2节，他尝试通过夏甲得到后嗣之后提到。上帝与摩西带领下的以色列人立约，这是记载在出埃及记19到24章，在西乃山下的地方，以及民数记25章13节提到他与那位勇敢的利未人非尼哈亲密立约。上帝与大卫立约，这是在撒母耳记下7章和诗篇89篇和132篇提到的。最后，我们在耶利米书31章31节看到对一个新约的预言。以赛亚书54章10节和以西结书34章25节把这同一个约称为「平安的约」。 像路加福音22章20节和希伯来书8章6到12节的经文则向我们保证，这约已经在基督里临到。
这些约呈现的是上帝在历史上大能做工的时候，并且它们带入持续长久的神学重点。亚当与上帝的立约关系是发生在创造，以及上帝对人类堕落进入罪中的起初反应的这个背景中。它强调人类事奉上帝的基础，描写了罪是怎样把这服事变得复杂起来。它也包含了上帝的应许，就是人类最终要在这事奉上取得成功。
在挪亚的日子，人类可怕地败坏了世界，这导致上帝发出大洪水的审判。不会令人惊奇的是，挪亚之约强调上帝应许要建立持久的稳定自然界，为的是给罪人时间和机会约束他们的罪，实现他们起初对上帝的服事。
在亚伯拉罕的时候，上帝拣选以色列，要带领人类来事奉他。所以亚伯拉罕之约的方向是 拣选以色列。这个立约时期强调以色列需要相信上帝的应许，继续向他效忠。
上帝在拯救以色列脱离埃及的奴役，让他们踏上前往应许之地的道路之后，通过摩西与以色列立约。不会令人惊奇的就是，这约的方向是摩西把国民律法编制为法典，引导以色列去服事上帝。
在大卫的时候，上帝兴起大卫作以色列的王。他与大卫立约，建立大卫家室，成为要领导以色列王国扩展永久的至尊王朝。这扩展是以色列服事上帝的一个重要方面。
最后，旧约先知们预言，在以色列被掳结束，上帝成全一切历史的时候，一个新的约就要降临。弥赛亚要救赎上帝的百姓，在全世界扩展上帝的国度。
上帝的每一个约都确立了他与人类交往的不同方法，每一个圣约都为他忠心的百姓提供了服事他要遵循的新原则。
到目前为止，在我们对时期划分的讨论中，我们已经看了对《圣经》历史的多样划分，提供了对人有帮助的时期 大纲。到了这里我们就准备好了，来看这个大纲对于在现今应用《圣经》带来的一些影响。
对旧约《圣经》历史的时代划分，让我们清楚看到，上帝要他的百姓按照切合他们所处时期的方式，认识和应用神学主题。正如旧约信徒不应该按照先前时期的方式事奉上帝，同样，新约信徒绝不应该按照只是适合《圣经》历史先前时期的方法来应用《圣经》。
假设你是一个以色列人，生活在所罗门在耶路撒冷建造上帝圣殿之后不久的年代。你知道自己是生活在大卫之约的时期中。你知道在这之前的摩西时期，以色列在摩西的帐幕献祭。你也知道在你自己所处的时期，上帝已经命令你只在圣殿献祭。按照你所在的历史处境，在摩西的帐幕献祭，就是违反上帝的旨意。同样的，如果你生活在摩西之约下，你却走回头路，像亚伯拉罕和其他列祖做的那样，在不同的地方建祭坛和献祭，那么你也是违反了上帝的旨意。上帝一旦命令敬拜中使用一种新的献祭方式，他就期待他的百姓向前不再回头走老路。
同样，当我们思想旧约《圣经》在敬拜中献祭这个主题如何在现今应用时，我们就要知道自己是生活在新约时期。正如新约《圣经》反复解释的，基督只有一次献上的那完全的祭，已经代替了先前每一种形式的献祭。他在十字架上的死，改变了上帝忠心的百姓应该在敬拜上帝时献祭的方式。这就是新约《圣经》希伯来书作者如此强烈谴责那些基督徒因为他们要回到旧约的献祭敬拜。首先他论证，基督已经开启了耶利米在耶利米书31章预言的那新约。然后他说新约已经让旧的献祭制度过时了。请听他在希伯来书8章13节是怎样说的：
既说新约，就以前约为旧了；但那渐旧渐衰的，就必快归无有了。（希伯来书8章13节）希伯来书的作者在此说，新约来到，这让旧有的方式旧了，他用的希腊文单词是παλαιόω (/palaiō/)，可以翻译为「变旧」，「过时」。
在这里我们要小心，因为许多好意的基督徒把这理解为是指，跟从基督的人完全可以抛弃旧约《圣经》，不再关注它的教训。但没有比这更偏离事实的了。希伯来书本身就把旧约《圣经》应用到基督徒身上。它的作者没有对基督徒说，旧约《圣经》不切合实际了。他而是说，我们生活在不同的时期，新约要求我们重新为献祭的做法定位。我们不是忽视旧有的方式，但我们绝不应该像还是生活在从前样式去服事上帝。
另外一个突出的例子，就是带领战争的主题。假设你是在大卫王朝之约的年代，你知道上帝已经命定以色列的君王率领他的百姓与邪恶争战。君王从上帝领受了指示，回过来指示你应该怎样参战。但想象一下，你自己不喜欢大卫王朝的君王，想要回到摩西国民律法的立约时期。你可能喜欢和你的祖先一样，跟从一位像基甸一样的地方士师，或者一位像约书亚一样的以法莲支派的人，或者像摩西本人一样的一个利未人。但是，如果你跟从这些人当中的任何一位，而不是跟从大卫家族，那就是犯罪了。你就是违反上帝为你所处时期颁布的命令。同样的，如果你生活在摩西的日子，但却像上帝百姓在亚伯拉罕之约的时期那样，选择跟从一位支派的列祖，你就是犯罪了。在每一个时期，我们都需要跟从上帝为那时期设立的军事领袖的带领。
这也包括了当代的基督徒。我们作为生活在新约之下的人，是跟从耶稣，大卫那位伟大的子孙。他是上帝为我们命定的君王。上帝已经给他独特的权柄，带领他的百姓出去与邪恶势力争战。然而，我们怎样做到这一点？我们目前的争战策略是什么？请听使徒保罗在以弗所书6章12节是怎样解释新约争战的：
我们并不是与属血气的争战，乃是与那些执政的，掌权的，管辖这幽暗世界的，以及天空属灵气的恶魔争战。（以弗所书6章12节）这是和先前时期很不一样的策略，那时像摩西和大卫的领袖，带领上帝的百姓展开身体性的血肉争战。那时也有属灵争战，但这些领袖不是带领上帝属灵的大军。与之对照的是，耶稣不是率领教会进行身体方面的争战，但他却是在属灵争战中带领我们。如果我们忽视了这种策略改变，这就是违反上帝的旨意了。
新约《圣经》看旧约《圣经》的争战主要是上帝和撒但之间，以及上帝的百姓和撒但之间的抗争，因为撒但企图摧毁上帝的计划。因此这样的争战也可应用于现今的基督徒，因为我们也是处于同样的争战里。例如，你读以弗所书第6章，你会知道你的争战是要抵挡撒但的邪恶势力，为此基督徒要穿戴上帝的全副军装，才能在这争战中站立得稳。P. J.百思博士新约《圣经》的作者将旧约《圣经》对于属灵或是国际间争战的叙述，以一种激进的手法转成不同的应用，是超乎现今人们通常所理解的。首先，基督是来打属灵的争战，祂是来征服黑暗的权势。如约翰福音1章所说，问题不在于黑暗的权势不认识祂，而是想要征服祂，所以基督的争战是与黑暗权势抗争。我们在约翰福音里特别看到这个真理，基督是以神圣勇士的身份来与世界的王，就是撒但对抗。事实上，约翰福音12章，耶稣说祂得荣耀的时候还没有到，那也就是祂被钉十字架的时候，而祂说，到那个时刻，这世界的统治者要被驱逐出去。因此，当保罗在以弗所书6章说道，我们争战的兵器就是上帝的话语，和祷告，加上信心等等，他的意思是，这不是地域上或是国际间的战争，基督徒不要以民族主义的立场来看待这战争。这战争里有刀剑和十字架，而我们身为人，很容易放下十字架，而拿起刀剑。但耶稣说除非我们能背起十字架跟从祂，否则就不是祂的门徒。因此，今天我们打属灵争战，乃是要借着自我牺牲，和舍己的爱，就是耶稣在十字架上，以及祂在地上的一生和服事时所彰显的。麦克尔葛罗道牧师上帝总是要求他的百姓按照与他们所处时期切合的方式来服事他。因此，正确把握旧约《圣经》历史的主要立约时期，对把《圣经》应用到我们现今是至关重要。我们不是把闹钟回拨，仿佛上帝没有把历史向前推动，我们必须要沿着各个立约时期直到基督里的新约，来追溯每一个神学主题的发展。
我们已经从旧约时期划分的角度，思想了现今应用和旧约时期这个问题，就让我们来探索时期发展应该怎样指引对《圣经》的现今应用。
要举例说明时期发展的概念，就让我们再次来想想一棵生长的树，这次设想你看到一张种子的照片，还有一张从那颗种子长成的树的照片。种子和树看起来如此不同，很难相信它们是在不同时候的同一样东西。但它们确实具有同样本质。它们正是在不同发展阶段的同一个有机体。它们的DNA甚至有相同的基因结构，证明它们是同样的事物。
同样，先前和之后的旧约时期之间存在着无数的神学差异。但如果我们了解了那就像它们的DNA一样，在它们背后的神学结构，我们就会发现这些神学变化实际上是反映了单一成长中的信仰有机发展。
我们要分四部分来探索旧约的 时期发展。第一，我们要看，在这些发展背后，有两个主要 角色 ，是贯穿《圣经》历史都不改变的。第二，我们看，每一个时期都是沿着一条统一的故事线索，与另外的时期联系起来的。第三，我们要看旧约《圣经》 作者他们自己常常把先前的时期应用在后期的受众身上。第四，我们要特别来看时期之间的一些联系 ，旧约《圣经》的作者依靠这些联系来作这些应用。让我们从《圣经》历史的主要角色开始。
贯穿《圣经》记载的历史，有相同的角色参与善恶势力之间的猛烈冲突。
从文学角度，我们可以说美善的势力是由故事的正面人物或英雄，就是上帝他自己带领。邪恶势力是由反面人物或反派，至高的邪恶受造物撒但带领，撒但企图拦阻上帝实现他的目的。撒但很有能力，也很聪明，但他仍是一个受造物，总是在创造主的主权控制之下。即使如此，上帝还是允许撒但在这场由上帝主导的戏剧发展过程中起来反对他自己。
上帝是至高的创造主和君王，从他天上的宝座上统管一切，用他光辉的荣耀充满他天上的宫殿。在天上服事他的受造物已经在尊崇他。但上帝总是定意要加增他的尊荣，在全地扩展他的荣耀。为实现这目的，上帝计划把他的国度扩展到地上，让这地如天一样。这目的实现的时候，天上、地上和地下每一个受造物，都要向他发出无尽的敬拜赞美。上帝使用众多的天使成就这目的。然而，他已经把遍满和治理全地的这尊荣，赐给了他在地上具有他形象样式的人类。贯穿《圣经》，我们都是上帝的代表，为他荣耀最终的彰显去预备这个世界。
在冲突的另一方，撒但企图拦阻人类为了上帝去遍满和治理全地，以此抵挡上帝荣耀的充满。为了抵抗上帝国度在地上的扩张，撒但带领许多鬼魔和人类悖逆 反对上帝，与身为上帝仆人的天使和人类争战 。他通过多种多样的手段，包括谎言、欺骗、虚假信仰，以及向堕落人有罪的欲望投其所好，争取人类做他的同盟，与他一道行事。
在每个伟大的故事里，都有一个英雄人物，还有一个与英雄对抗的反面人物。基本上故事里，都是有主角，就是故事的主要人物，也有和主角对抗的敌对者。《圣经》是所有故事中最伟大的故事，因此我们读旧约《圣经》时，并不意外的发现有这么一场战争，一边是上帝和祂所应许的弥赛亚，另一边则是魔鬼，他尽全力，企图拦阻弥赛亚的来到。早在伊甸园里，上帝已经应许，女人的后裔要征服魔鬼。从那时起，我们看到魔鬼处心积虑的与上帝敌对。即使只是一个小孩子，魔鬼也是多次要了结那个孩子的性命；或是当上帝的百姓昌盛了，他也会试着要掳掠他们，打击他们。你能看到这样的故事在旧约《圣经》里一遍一遍的重演。菲利普莱肯博士在旧约《圣经》历史的故事情节里，从一开始，上帝就是主角，而撒但是敌对者。从伊甸园开始，撒但化身为蛇来引诱亚当和夏娃，他诱惑他们，但其实是要与上帝对抗。当然在人堕落之后，这样的对抗一再的在旧约《圣经》里重复发生，一直到新约《圣经》，就是女人、夏娃的后裔与蛇的后裔彼此的对抗。这样的抗争达到最极点，就是应验于基督，祂使得魔鬼受到羞辱，将他一次性的绝对击败。因此，当你阅读旧约《圣经》时，你会看到蛇的后裔，就是上帝的仇敌，不断的抵挡上帝，抵挡上帝的百姓，与上帝的子民争战，压制他们，你可以看到这个主线贯穿始终。比方说，以色列人与非利士人的争战，被非利士人压制的情景，在这样争战的背后，其实是上帝与撒但之间的战争。布赖恩维克斯博士我们要承认，现今基督徒经常看不到《圣经》中上帝与撒但这场冲突的重要性。我们很多人读《圣经》时，几乎没有认识到现实世界是怎样受到上帝和服事他的天使，以及撒但和服事他的鬼魔的影响。但《圣经》原本的受众没有这个障碍。他们早已认识到灵界生命和经历认识的现实之间存在着动态的相互联系。实际上，这信念在古代世界如此普遍，以致《圣经》作者从来不觉得有需要为它做一个完全、明确的描述。如果现今的受众开始从这种属灵争战的教导看《圣经》呈现的这场历史戏剧，我们的发现必然会和《圣经》原本受众曾经认识到的一样：就是《圣经》所讲的一切，背后都是善恶势力之间的冲突。
认识了《圣经》主要的角色之后，让我们来看旧约时期发展的第二个方面：作为《圣经》基础的故事线索。
虽然圣约时期之间有数不尽的差别，但这一切的变化都是融合在一个统一、涵括一切，关于上帝和撒但之间冲突的叙述里。为了便利，我们要把《圣经》中的圣约时期看作是《圣经》故事中的主要章节，上帝在其中发出他的荣耀，得到无尽的颂赞。
这一出戏剧的第一幕，就是在亚当的时期拉开帷幕。在这一幕开始的时候，上帝把第一批人类放在一个地方，在地球上他可见的荣耀首先显明之处，这地方就是伊甸园，是他神圣的宫殿。按照上帝创造的目的，他赋予亚当和夏娃使命，遍满和制伏全地，以此扩展他神圣花园的边界。目标是把全地变成适合上帝显明他可见荣耀同在的地方。
当然，撒但抵挡这计划，他率领第一批人类悖逆上帝。作为回应，上帝咒诅他创造的世界，让人类的这任务变得艰难。他也宣告，从这一点开始，人类要分裂成对抗的派别：女人的后裔要由遵行上帝旨意的人组成，蛇的后裔要由加入撒但与他一道叛逆的人组成。与此同时，上帝应许女人的后裔要最终胜过撒但和他的后裔。
旧约余下的圣约时期构成了《圣经》故事线索的主体。
在第二幕，挪亚之约的时期，上帝清洗因跟从撒但的人以可怕暴力污染了的地球。他也同时拯救了女人后裔的余剩子民，就是挪亚和他一家，建立起一个稳定的世界，他告诉人类，在这世界上做遍满全地和治理万物的工作时，要对抗那进一步的败坏。
在第三幕，亚伯拉罕之约的时期，上帝拣选亚伯拉罕一家作为女人后裔的部分，带领人类与撒但和跟从他的人争战。上帝应许倍增亚伯拉罕的后裔，把迦南地赐给他们。从这地理出发点，他们要最终战胜所有对抗上帝和他计划的反对势力。他们要继承全地，把上帝的祝福扩展到人类的千家万户。
在第四幕，摩西之约的时期，上帝让以色列大胜埃及人和他们属撒但的诸神。他也使以色列立国，接受他律法的治理，命令他们把迦南人驱逐出圣地。以色列人进入迦南时，上帝使他们战胜迦南人及其他们服事的属撒但的灵。他在那地建立以色列人，使他们兴盛，带领他们走向在全地扩展上帝国度的终极目标。
在第五幕，大卫之约的时期，上帝设立大卫家治理上帝的子民，带领他们与服事撒但的各国争战。大卫的王朝给迦南带来平安，继续扩张以色列的边界，服务于上帝为世界制订的计划。让人难过的是，一段时间之后，以色列的诸王公然悖逆上帝到一个地步，导致上帝毁灭他们的王国，使他们被掳。在被掳期间，他们在外邦人帝国的暴政及他们的神祗手下受苦。最终，上帝结束了被掳，让一小群余剩子民回归应许之地，使他们能尝试恢复在迦南地的王国。但是，就连那余剩子民也未能继续保持忠心，所以在邪恶的暴政下，被掳的光景仍旧继续。
旧约《圣经》提到的最后一幕，就是上帝说，他要建立高潮性的新约，就是当以色列的余剩子民悔改，大卫的伟大子孙，弥赛亚，或那称为基督的，要为他们全然赎罪。弥赛亚要带领以色列最终战胜撒但、邪灵，那些服事他们的各种各样的人。他要践踏撒但，审判所有跟从他的人。最后，弥赛亚要使万物更新，与上帝的百姓一道统治全地。上帝的荣耀要充满受造界，每一样受造之物都要颂赞他，直到永远。
这对《圣经》故事的概括，让我们看到虽然旧约各个圣约时期之间有所不同，但这些时期是建立在彼此之上，就像一部长篇故事的章节一样。这些历史阶段并不是互相矛盾或取代，甚至彼此抵消，而是每一个历史阶段都累积起来，为不断发展、统一的《圣经》故事作出各自贡献。
到目前为止，我们已经看了在旧约时期发展背后的主要角色，表明了每一个时期都彼此联系，构成一个统一的故事线索。现在我们准备来看，旧约《圣经》 作者 经常把先前的时期应用到后来的受众身上。
你还记得，在这一课开头的地方，我们是这样概括对旧约《圣经》的应用：「绝不能回到过去，又绝不能忘记过去。」我们不是生活在过去，因此，我们绝不应该像我们是生活在之前时期那样去思想、行事或感受。但我们是这个故事的一部分，此故事包含着过去。而旧约《圣经》作者对此非常清楚。他们认识到，一位真实的上帝，贯穿时间通过一个真实的信仰，在不断启示他自己。这意味着上帝在过去说过、做过的事，要在整个时间中继续引导他的百姓。鉴于这个因素，旧约《圣经》作者经常把他们自己民族过去的故事拿过来，应用在他们自己的时期。我们可以这样想：旧约《圣经》提到有六个主要的圣约时期，但我们对三个最早的时期，亚当、挪亚和亚伯拉罕时期的所有认识，都是来自在后来的摩西、大卫和新约时期写成的《圣经》书卷。
我们要来看包括在旧约《圣经》作者作品内，让人看到他们对时期发展认识的两个共同元素。第一，我们要看旧约《圣经》作者写有关过去的事。第二，我们要看他们为着目前写作。就是说，他们为生活在他们自己时期，在他们自己眼前的受众写作。让我们首先看旧约《圣经》作者写过去的事的这个事实。
所有旧约《圣经》书卷都毫不隐晦地主要讲述过去的事。我们来看摩西五经 创世记、出埃及记、利未记、民数记和申命记。摩西在他所处的圣约时期写了这几卷书。但是，他在创世记记载的是发生在遥远过去的事，在亚当、挪亚和亚伯拉罕之约期间发生的事件。在出埃及记、利未记、民数记和申命记，他没有回到如此遥远的历史，但即使在其中，他关注的仍就是发生在这些书卷写成先前已经发生的事件。
旧约《圣经》其余的书卷是在大卫之约期间写成的，也是把它们的受众带回过去。例如，约伯记最有可能是在大卫时期的君王时期写成，但它记载的却是发生在亚伯拉罕时期，比君王时期更早之前的事件。约书亚记、士师记和路得记是在大卫之约时期写成，但记载的却是发生在摩西时期即将结束，大卫成为君王之前发生的事件。撒母耳记上下、列王纪上下、历代志上下、以斯拉记、尼希米记和以斯帖记主要是把它们的受众指回过去发生的近期事件。所有旧约《圣经》的预言书，从以赛亚书到玛拉基书也是如此。先知首先是通过先知性的讲论和行动来服事，然后才为了他们当代不断扩展的受众，在后来把他们的事奉记载下来。因此，他们的书卷主要是对已经发出的先知性讲论与行动作出书面记录。同样，箴言，雅歌和传道书也是对过去发生的近期之事进行神学反思。
现在我们已经认识到，旧约《圣经》 作者 写有关 过去的事，就让我们来看这个事实，就是他们为着目前写作，就是，为与他们同时期的受众写作。
《圣经》的作者明白，过去代表的是《圣经》信仰有机发展的早期阶段。但他们首要和最主要的是蒙上帝呼召，来服事生活在他们自己那个年代的受众。所以，他们写过去事情的方式在于建立桥梁，使之与他们原本受众的生活联系起来。他们凸显历史人物，行动，言语，制度和类似的事情，为的是把这些历史性的主题和他们受众的生活联系起来。在大部分情况下，旧约《圣经》书卷原初的受众是熟悉《圣经》作者用来建造这些桥梁的文学工具。所以一般来说，《圣经》作者并不会花特别功夫去解释这些联系。其他时候，《圣经》作者提供小小的线索，指向过去和现在之间的联系。还有，在其他的经文里，《圣经》作者提供了相当直接的解释，帮助当时受众明白发生在过去的是怎样应用在他们身上。
正如旧约《圣经》作者找办法把过去和他们当时的受众联系起来，现今的基督徒需要把这些写过去事情的书卷和我们自己联系起来。是的，现今应用是与我们今天正在发生的事情联系起来的，但这总是建基在过去发生的事情之上。
作为生活在现今世界的上帝子民，我们的信仰是与上帝在很久之前启示的内容密切联系在一起的。我们要重视把讲述过去事情的旧约《圣经》书卷应用在现今。就算我们在应用新约《圣经》书卷时，我们仍是在回望过去。当然，一些书卷，比如启示录，是相当关注将来的。但是，就连启示录也是对异象的记载，它的作者约翰把这些异象应用到从前他原本受众的身上。《圣经》每一卷书都是用这样或那样的方法，集中关注上帝在过去的作为。所以，为了把这些书卷应用在现今世界，我们也需要关注过去。
到目前为止，我们对时期发展的讨论已经涵盖了旧约时期发展背后的主要 角色，《圣经》统一的故事线索，还有旧约《圣经》作者把先前的时期应用在与他们当时受众身上的这个事实。现在我们准备来关注《圣经》作者在过去和现在之间建立的不同类型的 联系。
我们要讲旧约《圣经》作者在过去和现在之间建立的三种 联系。第一，他们向受众提供了关于他们信仰不同层面的历史 背景。第二，他们为受众呈现应当效法或弃绝的 典型。第三，他们提供了对受众经历的预示。让我们首先来看《圣经》作者是怎样为他们的受众提供历史背景。
旧约《圣经》作者最经常通过解释他们受众目前经历的背景或来源，以此表明过去的事情与目前的实际相关。例如，摩西在描述亚当和夏娃的婚姻之后，他暂停叙述，把这件事直接与他的受众联系起来。让我们来听听摩西在创世记2章24节讲了什么：
因此，人要离开父母，与妻子连合，二人成为一体。（创世记2章24节）摩西在这节经文解释了亚当之约时期的一个特点，是怎样与摩西时期的受众有实际关系。具体来说，亚当和夏娃的婚姻，建立了持久的婚姻制度，是延续到摩西的时候。
我们一旦看到了摩西使用这个事件作为给他原本受众的背景，就能同样把它和我们自己联系在一起。亚当和夏娃的婚姻是古代以色列婚姻的背景，也是我们今天婚姻的背景。
其他时候《圣经》作者使用背景来启示上帝对历史人物的赞许或责备。例如，路得记不仅没有挑路得、拿俄米或波阿斯的毛病，并且还表明他们是得到上帝完全的赞许。我们在路得记结束的地方发现其中的缘由。请看路得记结束时4章21和22节时的家谱：
撒门生波阿斯；波阿斯生俄备得；俄备得生耶西；耶西生大卫。（路得记4章21-22节）这家谱表明波阿斯是大卫王的直系祖先。这结尾把摩西时期的事件与那些生活在大卫之约时原本受众的时期联系起来。
很有可能有人质疑大卫作王的合法性，因为他是出于摩押女人路得的后代。但是，路得的故事证明，她被接纳进入以色列，这在每一个方面都是好典型，上帝完全赞许她。就这样，路得记提供了加强拣选大卫作以色列君王合法性的背景。
再一次，我们在现今应用中有机会，把路得记作者为他原本受众搭建的那座桥梁进一步延伸。正如上帝赞许路得，这表明大卫在他那时候建立王朝的合法性，同时，它也提供背景，证明大卫最伟大的后裔耶稣在我们今天作王的合法性。
《圣经》作者除了提供过去与现在联系的背景 ，也表明了典型，让他们原本的受众效法或弃绝。
让我们来看约书亚记里典型的两个例子。约书亚记载了摩西时期的事件，为的是生活在大卫时期的原本受众。约书亚记的作者用2章到6章耶利哥之战以色列的表现，提供了一个正面典型，用约书亚记7章他们艾城之战的表现，提供了一个反面典型。
对耶利哥之战的详细叙述，没有一点暗示表明约书亚，他的探子或以色列的军队做了任何违背上帝旨意的事。他们在吉甲，离耶利哥几里外的地方顺服命令接受割礼，他们听从上帝的命令，跟从利未人和祭司，围绕耶利哥城行军，歌唱，欢呼和吹号。就这样，约书亚记的作者用约书亚记6章27节正面的话结束耶利哥的故事：
耶和华与约书亚同在，约书亚的声名传扬遍地。（约书亚记6章27节）但是，请听约书亚记7章1节是怎样开始描写艾城之战的：
以色列人在当灭的物上犯了罪。（约书亚记7章1节）这节经文把耶利哥之战以色列正面的典型和艾城之战以色列负面的典型作了对比。
以色列第一次进攻艾城这座小城时，因为以色列人亚干违抗上帝要把所有战利品献给他的命令，偷窃了耶利哥城的财物，以色列的大军就遭遇挫败。约书亚和以色列人首先受到上帝面斥，为他们的罪悔改，对亚干和他一家发出严厉审判，然后，才在争战中击败艾城。
耶利哥之战和艾城之战的对比，为约书亚记的读者提供了一个效法的正面典型，一个要弃绝的负面典型。大卫时期的读者通过观察这些典型，应该认识到怎样跟从他们自己的君王去争战。
当然，作为跟从基督的人，我们不再像约书亚那样进行有形的战争，因为新约《圣经》只呼吁我们来进行属灵争战。但我们在进行现今应用时，仍延伸这些同样的正反面典型的桥梁，为的是学习如何正确进行属灵争战。简单讲，我们要像在耶利哥的约书亚一样向上帝委身，我们要避免像艾城之战的亚干那样疏忽上帝的命令。当然，与这些总体性的现今应用相关的，还有数不尽的细节，但约书亚记作者让他原本受众留意的联系，都可以扩展来帮助我们，按自己的处境来决定如何应用这些细节。
《圣经》以不同方式告诉我们什么是敬虔的生活，什么又是罪恶的生活。有时是以很直接的字句，例如：你应当，或是你不应当或是你应该，你不应该，这样的话语；但也有经文是以历史方式呈现，叙述当时的人每天是如何生活的。我们阅读的时候，就会知道他们的生活样式，哪些是正面，我们应该学习，哪些是负面的，我们要避免。例如，罗马书这么写着：『从前所写的《圣经》，都是为教训我们写的。叫我们因《圣经》所生的忍耐和安慰，可以得着盼望。』因此我们有正面的例子是要效法的，也有负面的例子要避免。比如，大卫与拔示巴犯奸淫，我们即能从十诫中得知它是错的，也能从拿单指责大卫的罪中得到教训。是什么让我们知道其中的不同？就是上帝的律法，明显的教导和律令，然后是实行的例证，让我们从两者中得到教训。安德烈戴维斯博士当然，你读《圣经》的时候，有时你看着其中所描述的，很难断定某个人物或他的生活，是否值得效法。我们一定要记住，唯一一个我们可以全然效法的人就是耶稣，他是我们无法批评的，至于其他的人物，我们就需要仔细分辨审查。他们之所以出现在《圣经》中的原因，通常不主要是为了让我们效法；因此若是要找出哪些道德教训值得摹仿，哪些不可以，你就要看上下文，到底这整段经文是说到那些行为，那些行为的后果如何，是否让上帝的国度扩张；但最主要的是其中的伦理教训，然后以此来判断，除了耶稣之外，其他人物都差不多如此。我们知道凡是耶稣所说、所做的，都是真实美善的。其他人物则是要以《圣经》的道德伦理来检视。桑德斯威尔森博士最后，旧约《圣经》作者除了提供 背景和 典型，也通过把对他们原本受众亲身经历的预示或期待结合起来，以此得出过去和现在之间的联系。
《圣经》作者写过去的事情时，经常用的方法是指出过去的事件如何与他们受众面对的处境类似。这种桥梁与一种称为影射的文学工具类似。影射，就是一位作者展现一个故事先前的细节，以此预见后来的细节。《圣经》作者有时用类似的意图写过去的事。他们写过去的事件，预示出他们读者的经历。
一个很多人都知道的预示，发生在摩西所写的亚伯拉罕在埃及寄居的故事里，记载于创世记12章10到20节，。当然摩西讲了亚伯拉罕时期发生的这件事的实情，但他解释这故事的方式，帮助了他原本的受众看到亚伯拉罕和他们自己之间有许多对应的地方。例如，亚伯拉罕因为饥荒下埃及，正如摩西原本的读者因为饥荒流落埃及。法老把撒拉收入他的后宫，行不义把亚伯拉罕拘留在埃及，类似像在摩西的时候，法老不义拘禁以色列人为奴。上帝向法老全家降灾，以此拯救亚伯拉罕，他在摩西的时候向埃及和法老全家降灾，拯救以色列。法老用大笔财富打发亚伯拉罕离开，在摩西的日子，出埃及的时候，法老和埃及人用埃及的财富打发以色列人离开。
摩西指出这些对应之处，表明亚伯拉罕的经历预示了他们自己的经历。摩西要鼓励他原本的读者，不再理想化地看待他们在埃及的时光，并要看他们的得救，是上帝为他们施行的大能作为。
再一次，现今进行应用时，我们的任务就是看待摩西建造，把亚伯拉罕的生活与他原本受众联系起来的桥梁，并把这桥梁延伸到我们现今的生活中。例如，新约《圣经》教导，基督救我们脱离邪恶的暴政辖制，正如上帝先前救亚伯拉罕，后来救以色列一样。通过像这样的类似之处，亚伯拉罕在埃及的寄居也预示出现今基督徒应当如何认识我们的信仰，我们对上帝的服事。
我们每次读《圣经》的时候，都需要思想在《圣经》的年代和我们今天之间已经发生的时期发展。旧约《圣经》作者通过背景、典型和预示得出的联系，为我们提供了模式，帮助我们填补这些历史时期之间的差距。
在关于现今应用和旧约时期的这一课，我们从旧约时期划分的多样，各时期的共同大纲，以及这些划分带来影响这些角度，看了时期划分这个问题。我们从这些划分当中一贯的角色，统一的故事线索，《圣经》作者对先前时期的应用，以及帮助我们作应用的时期间的联系来思想了时期发展。
正如我们所看到的那样，上帝的圣约把《圣经》历史分成几个主要时期，每个时期都有不同的神学取向。所以我们绝不可尝试用过去的方式，在我们今天服事上帝。但是，我们永远不能忘记上帝在过去的启示。当我们考量这些神学主题从一个时期到另一个时期的有机发展时，我们发现上帝在早期圣约时期所启示的一切，仍能教导我们很多关于在现今如何事奉主的功课，包括在基督里的新约时期。He Gave Us Scripture: Modern Application and Old Testament Epochs
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever noticed that Christians tend to go to extremes when they think about applying the Old Testament to modern life? On one extreme, some believers think that we need to do precisely what God's people in the days of the Old Testament did. On the other extreme, some believers think that we should simply forget what God commanded his people to do in Old Testament days. But in reality, the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes.
When it comes to applying the Old Testament to our day, we need to remember two things: we should never return to the past, but we should never forget the past.
This is the eighth lesson in our series He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation, and we've entitled it "Modern Application and Old Testament Epochs." In this lesson, we'll explore the ways Old Testament faith developed through the great ages or epochs of history, and explain how these developments impact our own application of Scripture.
In a prior lesson, we saw that the original audiences of Scripture differed from contemporary audiences in at least three ways. The original audiences lived in different historical epochs than we do. Their cultures were different from ours. And they were different kinds of people than we are. Although these three differences interconnect in countless ways, in this lesson we'll focus our attention on the epochs of the Old Testament and how they affect modern application.
We'll explore the association between modern application and Old Testament epochs in two ways. First, we'll look at the epochal divisions of Old Testament history. And second, we'll consider the epochal developments that these divisions represent. Let's begin with the epochal divisions of Old Testament history.
EPOCHAL DIVISIONS
The Old Testament reports many theological changes that took place throughout history. Theological changes occurred every time God altered his expectations regarding the concepts, behaviors and emotions of his people. And when the changes were significant enough, they became the basis for identifying epochal divisions.
Christians have described these changes in many ways, but one common and helpful illustration compares Old Testament theology to a growing tree. A healthy tree goes through many changes as it grows from a small seed to full maturity. But the growth of trees in most parts of the world is tied to annual weather cycles. Trees tend to change slowly in colder seasons, and rapidly in warmer seasons.
The growth of Old Testament theology was seasonal, too. Sometimes it changed relatively little. But at other times it changed dramatically and reached new stages of maturity. These stages of maturity correspond to the epochal divisions of the Old Testament. Each epoch is a period of time characterized by substantial and long-lasting transitions in Old Testament theology.
We'll discuss the epochal divisions of the Old Testament in three steps. First, we'll acknowledge the variety of ways scholars have divided the history recorded in the Bible. Second, we'll describe a helpful epochal outline that many Christian traditions use. And third, we'll point out some implications this outline has for the modern application of Scripture. Let's begin with the variety of ways Old Testament history has been divided.
Variety
It shouldn't surprise us to learn that theologians have found different ways to divide the history recorded in the Old Testament. For one thing, time doesn't pass in sharply segmented periods. So, transitions between epochs generally took place gradually, and the epochs themselves often overlapped. For another thing, the divisions theologians draw depend on the criteria they use. Think about the way this happens in science. Archaeologists tend to divide history according to developments in metallurgy. So, they talk about the early, middle and late Bronze Age; and the early, middle and late Iron Age. Sociologists tend to emphasize political developments. So, they talk about the tribal period, the early national age, the monarchical times, the exilic period, and the post-exilic period.
In a similar way, theologians obviously tend to use theological criteria to delineate the epochs. But they still don't always agree on the divisions because theology within the Old Testament developed in different ways at different times. When a tree goes through stages of growth, its different parts don't grow at the same time or at the same pace. Sometimes disease will actually stunt the growth of one branch as the others move forward. The bark of a tree's trunk might grow rather slowly and inconspicuously, and its tiny branches and leaves might grow quickly by comparison. In a similar way, some parts of Old Testament theology advanced slowly, others proceeded at a medium pace, and others changed rapidly. And many of these parts did their growing at different times. If every aspect of Israel's faith had shifted at the same pace and at the same time, it would be easier for interpreters to agree on its divisions. But as it stands, theologians have divided Old Testament history in a variety of ways.
Given that Scripture is a progressive revelation, that it's come to us over time, it's important to know exactly where we are in the unfolding plan of God. Theologians often talk about dividing God's plan into various eras and epochs … We have a number of examples in the New Testament of how the New Testament divides up the Old Testament. You think of Matthew's genealogy. It begins with Abraham, works through David, it looked through Old Testament history in terms of Abraham to David, David to exile, exile to Christ. That's a way that the Bible divides up Old Testament history, seeing its unique importance and then how it comes over to us. There's other ways that the New Testament also divides it up. You think of Paul in Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15. You can speak of Adam and Christ before the law, after the law. So, the New Testament shows a number of ways to do this. I do think in reflection upon, you know, the whole counsel of God, one crucial way that we can do this is through the biblical covenants. It's very interesting that as you walk through Adam — creation covenant, through Noah, through Abraham — the Abrahamic covenant, the old covenant — associated with Israel and Moses, the Davidic covenant, and then the anticipation of the new covenant, this is, I think, a God-given way that redemptive history unfolds as covenant leads to the next covenant and ultimately its culmination in Jesus Christ. This is a really, really helpful way of thinking through how we move from Genesis to Christ, how the whole counsel of God fits together. And indeed many of the ways the New Testament speaks of Old Testament history, redemptive history, follows this covenantal pattern. [Dr. Stephen J. Wellum]
Now that we've acknowledged the validity of a variety of epochal divisions of Old Testament history, let's consider one helpful outline that many interpreters have adopted.
Outline
One of the most popular ways to divide Old Testament history is by associating each epoch with one of God's covenants. God's covenants with his people always entailed significant theological shifts, and therefore provide helpful boundaries for epochal divisions.
Many Christian traditions identify six major divine covenants in the Old Testament: the covenants associated with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, and the new covenant that Old Testament prophets predicted would come at the end of Israel's exile from the Promised Land.
With regard to Adam, we should note that the record of Genesis 1–3 doesn't use the Hebrew term berith, which we usually translate as "covenant." Even so, Genesis forcefully implies that God made a covenant with Adam. As just one example, in Genesis 6:18, God said that he would "establish" his covenant with Noah. The Hebrew verb translated "establish" is qum, which was used to describe the confirmation of something that already existed, rather than the start of something entirely new. So, we can be confident that the book of Genesis presented God's relationship with Adam as covenantal. Also, it's likely that in Hosea 6:7, the prophet referred to a covenant between God and Adam, or to a covenant between God and the entire human race as represented by Adam.
God's covenant in Noah appears in Genesis 6:18 before the flood, and in 9:9-17 after the flood. God's covenant in Abraham is mentioned in Genesis 15:18 before Abraham sought an heir through his wife's servant Hagar, and in 17:2 after he sought an heir through Hagar. God's covenant with Israel under Moses is recorded in Exodus 19–24 at the foot of Mount Sinai, and his closely associated covenant with the courageous Levite Phineas is mentioned in Numbers 25:13. God's covenant with David is recorded in 2 Samuel 7 and in Psalms 89 and 132. And finally, we find a prediction of a new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31. This same covenant is also called a "covenant of peace" in Isaiah 54:10 and Ezekiel 34:25. And passages like Luke 22:20 and Hebrews 8:6-12 assure us that this covenant has come in Christ.
These covenants represent times when God moved mightily in history, and they introduced long-lasting theological emphases. Adam's covenant relationship with God took place in the context of creation and God's initial reaction to humanity's fall into sin. It emphasized the foundations of humanity's service to God, and described how sin had complicated this service. It also contained God's promise that humanity would eventually succeed in this service.
In the days of Noah, humanity's horrific corruption of the world led God to send a great flood of judgment. Not surprisingly, the covenant with Noah emphasized God's promise to establish the enduring stability of nature, in order to give sinful people the time and opportunity to restrain their sin and fulfill their original service to God.
In Abraham's day, God chose Israel as the people who would lead humanity in service to God. So, the covenant with Abraham was oriented toward the election of Israel. This covenant epoch emphasized Israel's need to have faith in God's promises and to remain faithful to him.
God made a covenant through Moses after he had delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and set them on their course to the Promised Land. Not surprisingly, this covenant was oriented toward Moses' codified national law, which guided the Israelites as they moved forward in their service to God.
In the days of David, God raised up David as king over Israel. His covenant with David established David's family as the permanent royal dynasty that would lead Israel's imperial expansion. This expansion was a significant aspect of Israel's service to God.
Finally, Old Testament prophets predicted that a new covenant would come at the end of Israel's exile, when God fulfilled all history. The Messiah would redeem God's people and spread God's kingdom throughout the world.
Each of God's covenants established different ways in which he related to human beings, and each provided his faithful people with new principles to follow in his service.
So far in our discussion of epochal divisions, we've seen the variety of ways biblical history has been divided, and provided a helpful outline of the epochs. At this point, we're ready to look at some implications this outline has for the modern application of Scripture.
Implications
The divisions of the Old Testament into ages makes it clear that God wanted his people to understand and apply theological themes in different ways at different times And just as Old Testament believers weren't supposed to serve God as if they lived in earlier periods of history, New Testament believers should never apply the Scriptures as if they live in earlier periods of history.
Imagine that you're an Israelite living shortly after Solomon built God's temple in Jerusalem. You know you're living during David's covenant age. You know that in the earlier Mosaic epoch, Israel sacrificed at Moses' tabernacle. You also know that in your own epoch, God has commanded you to offer sacrifices only at the temple. In your historical context, sacrificing at Moses' tabernacle would violate God's will. The same would be true if you lived under Moses' covenant and returned to building altars and sacrificing in various locations, as Abraham and other patriarchs had done. Once God commanded a new way for sacrifice in worship, he expected his people never to return to the old ways.
In the same way, when we think about the modern application of the Old Testament theme of sacrifice in worship, we have to be aware that we live in the epoch of the new covenant. As the New Testament explains repeatedly, Christ's once-for-all-time, perfect sacrifice has superseded every earlier form of sacrifice. His death on the cross changed how God's faithful people are supposed to offer sacrifices in God's worship. That's why the New Testament author of Hebrews so strongly condemned Christians that wanted to return to Old Testament sacrifices. First, he argued that Christ has inaugurated the new covenant that Jeremiah has predicted in Jeremiah 31. Then he said that the new covenant was making the old system of sacrifices obsolete. Listen to what he wrote in Hebrews 8:13:
By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear (Hebrews 8:13).
Here, the author of Hebrews said that the arrival of the new covenant made the old ways "obsolete," using the Greek term palaioō which may also be translated "made old" or "outdated."
Now, we have to be careful, because many well-meaning Christians take this to mean that followers of Christ should simply discard the Old Testament and pay no attention to its teaching. But nothing could be further from the truth. The book of Hebrews itself applies the Old Testament to Christians. Its author wasn't telling Christians that the Old Testament was irrelevant. Rather, he was saying that we live in a different epoch, and that the new covenant requires us to reorient the practice of sacrifice. We don't ignore the old ways, but we should never try to serve God as if we still lived in the old days.
Another striking example is the theme of leadership in battle. Imagine that you live in the period of David's dynastic covenant. You know that God has ordained the kings of Israel to lead his people into war against evil. The kings receive direction from God, and in turn direct the ways that you participate in war. But now imagine that you personally don't like the Davidic king, and want to return to the covenant epoch of Moses' national law. You might prefer to follow a local judge like Gideon, or an Ephraimite like Joshua, or a Levite like Moses himself, just like your ancestors did. But if you followed one of these instead of the house of David, that would be sin. You would be violating God's command for your epoch. You would be making a similar mistake if you lived in Moses' day but preferred to follow a tribal patriarch as God's people did in the covenant age of Abraham. In every age, we need to follow the military leadership that God has established for that age.
And that includes modern Christians. As people living under the new covenant, we follow Jesus, the great Son of David. He is our God-ordained king. And God has given him the exclusive right to lead his people into war against the forces of evil. But how do we do that? What is our current strategy for war? Listen to the way the apostle Paul explained new covenant war in Ephesians 6:12:
Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).
This is a very different strategy from those of earlier epochs, when leaders like Moses and David led God's people into physical, flesh and blood battles. There were still spiritual battles, too, but these leaders didn't head up God's spiritual armies. By contrast, Jesus doesn't lead the church into physical battles. But he does lead us in spiritual warfare, and we violate God's will if we ignore this strategic shift.
The New Testament mainly sees the battles and the wars of the Old Testament as part of the massive battle between God and Satan and between God's people and Satan trying to destroy God's plan. So then it is also applied to Christians nowadays who are in the same way part of the same battle, if you think of Ephesians 6, that your struggle is against the evil forces of Satan and that Christians must put on the full armor of God to be able to stand firm in this battle. [Dr. P. J. Buys]
The New Testament writers take Old Testament depictions of spiritual and national warfare and really radicalize it in certain ways and apply it in a very different trajectory than people might popularly understand today. First of all, Christ came to fight spiritual warfare. He came to overcome the darkness, John 1 tells us. The problem wasn't the darkness not comprehending him but trying to overcome him, and he does battle against the darkness — we see that particularly in John's gospel. And so, Christ comes as the divine warrior fighting against the ruler of this world, that is, Satan. In fact, in John 12 Jesus says the hour of his glorification has now come, which is the hour of his crucifixion, and he says at that moment the ruler of this world will be cast down … So when Paul says the weapons of our war are the word of God and prayer and faith and so on, as he does in Ephesians 6, saying this is no longer geopolitical, national warfare, that Christians must not be nationalistic in how they perceive war … There's the sword and there's the cross, and the tendency of us as human beings is to put down the cross and take up the sword. But Jesus said no one can be my disciple unless he take up his cross and follow me. So the way we fight spiritual warfare today is by the self-sacrificing, self-giving kind of love that Jesus demonstrated from the cross and in his whole earthly life and ministry. [Rev. Mike Glodo]
God has always expected his people to serve him in ways that were appropriate to the covenant age in which they lived. So, understanding how Old Testament history divided into major covenant epochs is essential for applying the Scriptures in our day. Rather than turning the clock back, as if God hadn't moved history forward, we have to trace every theological theme as it develops through every covenant age all the way to the new covenant in Christ.
Now that we've considered modern application and Old Testament epochs in terms of the epochal divisions of the Old Testament, let's explore the ways epochal developments should inform modern application.
EPOCHAL DEVELOPMENTS
To illustrate the concept of epochal developments, let's think once again about a growing tree. This time, imagine that you have a photograph of a seed, and a photograph of a tree grown from that seed. The seed and the tree look so different that it's hard to believe they're the same thing at different times. But they are. They are the very same organism at different stages of development. They even have the same genetic structures in their DNA to prove it.
In the same way, earlier and later Old Testament epochs have countless theological differences between them. But if we learn about their underlying theological structures, their DNA as it were, we discover that these theological changes actually reflect the organic development of a single growing faith.
We'll explore Old Testament epochal developments in four parts. First, we'll see that the two main characters behind these developments remain consistent throughout biblical history. Second, we'll see that each epoch connected to the others in a unified storyline. Third, we'll see that the Old Testament authors themselves often applied earlier epochs to later audiences. And fourth, we'll highlight some connections between the epochs that Old Testament authors relied on to make these applications. Let's begin with the main characters of biblical history.
Characters
Throughout the history recorded in Scripture, the same characters are engaged in the great conflict between the forces of good and the forces of evil.
In literary terms, we can say that the forces of good are led by the protagonist or hero of the story, namely God himself. And the forces of evil are led by the antagonist or villain, the supremely evil creature Satan, who tries to prevent God from accomplishing his goal. Satan is very powerful and clever. But he's still a creature, and always under the Creator's sovereign control. Even so, God has permitted Satan to stand against him while the divine drama plays out.
God is the supreme Creator-King who rules from his heavenly throne and fills his celestial palace with his brilliant glory. The creatures serving him in heaven already honor him. But God has always been determined to increase his honor by extending his glory throughout the earth. To accomplish this goal, God plans to extend his kingdom to earth, so that earth becomes like heaven. When that happens, every creature above, on and beneath the earth will render him unending worship and praise. God employs myriads of spirits that work toward this end. But he's given his earthly image, humanity, the honor of filling and subduing the earth. Throughout the Bible, we're God's representatives, preparing the world for the ultimate display of his glory.
On the other side of the conflict, Satan resists the spread of God's glory by trying to prevent humanity from filling and subduing the earth for God. In order to resist the spread of God's kingdom throughout the earth, Satan leads many spirits and human beings in rebellion against God, and into conflict with God's spiritual and human servants. He gains human allies in his cause through a wide variety of means, including lies, deception, false religion, and appeals to fallen humanity's sinful desires.
In every great story there is a hero, and there is someone who stands against that hero. There's the protagonist, which is the main character of the story, and the antagonist who stands against that character. And the Bible is the greatest of all stories, and so it's not surprising to see, as you read through the Old Testament, that there is a battle that has been joined between God and his promised Messiah and the Devil who is trying to do everything he can to prevent that Messiah from ever coming. So, already in the Garden of Eden when God gave the promise that a seed would be born to the woman who would crush the Devil, from that point on you see the Devil opposing God at every turn. And it strikingly, even when there's a young child, many times the Devil is trying to take the life of that young child, or when the people of God are thriving he tries to bring them into captivity and crush them. You see that story worked out time and time again all the way through the Old Testament. [Dr. Philip Ryken]
In the storyline of Old Testament history, right from the beginning, God is the protagonist and Satan is the antagonist. You see that right from the beginning in the Garden, because it's Satan who comes and tempts Adam and Eve, but he tempts them over against God … And then of course after the fall, we get this mention of this ongoing struggle that's going to take place throughout the rest of the Old Testament, and of course into the New Testament that is between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, Eve. And of course this finally reaches its climax, its fulfillment in Christ who puts the Devil to shame and defeats him once and for all … And I think then you see that that keeps playing out over time in the Old Testament as the seed of the serpent, which I think we can generalize as the enemies of God, continually resist God, resist his people, go to war with his people, oppress his people, and so you see that throughout. And so you know, when you have Israel, say, being oppressed and in battle with, say, the Philistines, just for one example, that's more than just Israel verses the Philistines. I think behind that, under it, is that ongoing sort of warfare between God and Satan. [Dr. Brian J. Vickers]
Now, we should admit that modern Christians often miss the importance of this struggle between God and Satan. Many of us come to the Bible with very little awareness of how the empirical world is influenced by God and by the spirits that serve him, as well as by Satan and the spirits that serve him. But the original audiences of Scripture did not have this problem. They already understood the dynamic interconnections between spiritual and empirical realities. In fact, this belief was so common in the ancient world that the authors of Scripture never felt the need to provide a complete description of it. So, as modern people, if we begin to look at the drama of Scripture in terms of this spiritual conflict, we'll discover what the original audiences of the Bible already knew: this conflict underlies everything the Bible says.
With the main characters of Scripture in mind, let's turn to a second aspect of Old Testament epochal developments: the Bible's underlying storyline.
Storyline
Despite the countless differences between covenant epochs, all these variations fit within a unified, all-encompassing narrative about the conflict between God and Satan. For the sake of convenience, we'll treat the covenant epochs of Scripture as major chapters in the Bible's story, in which God is spreading his glory in order to obtain endless praise.
The drama opens in the first chapter, the epoch of Adam. In the beginning of this chapter, God put the first human beings in the one place where his visible glory initially appeared on the earth: the Garden of Eden, which served as his sacred palace. In accordance with his purpose for creation, God commissioned Adam and Eve to expand the boundaries of his holy garden by filling and subduing the earth. The goal was to turn the earth into an appropriate place for God to manifest his visible glorious presence.
Of course, Satan resisted this plan by leading the first humans into rebellion against God. And in response, God cursed his creation and made humanity's task difficult. He also announced that humanity would divide into rival factions from this point forward: the seed of the woman would consist of people that served God's purposes, and the seed of the Serpent would consist of people that joined Satan's rebellion. At the same time, God promised that the seed of the woman would eventually be victorious over Satan and his seed.
The remaining covenant epochs of the Old Testament form the body of the biblical storyline.
In the second chapter, the epoch of Noah's covenant, God cleansed the earth of the horrific violence humanity had committed as they followed Satan. He also rescued the remnant of the seed of the woman, Noah and his family, and established a stable world in which human beings were told to oppose further corruption as they filled and subdued the earth.
In the third chapter, the covenant epoch of Abraham, God chose Abraham's family as the portion of the seed of the woman that would lead humanity into conflict with Satan and his followers. God promised to multiply Abraham's descendants and to give them the land of Canaan. From that geographical starting point, they would eventually overcome all opposition to God and his plan. They would inherit the entire earth, and spread God's blessings to every family of the human race.
In the fourth chapter, the age of Moses' covenant, God gave Israel a great victory over the Egyptians and their satanic gods. He also constituted Israel as a nation, ruled by his law, and charged them to dispossess the Canaanites. As the Israelites moved into Canaan, God gave them victory over the Canaanites and the satanic spirits they served. He established and prospered the Israelites in the land, and moved them toward their ultimate goal of spreading God's kingdom throughout the earth.
In the fifth chapter, the covenant epoch of David, David's family was ordained to rule over God's people, and to lead them into further conflict with the nations that served Satan. David's dynasty brought security in Canaan and continued to extend Israel's borders in service to God's plan for the world. Sadly, over time Israel's kings flagrantly rebelled against God, to the point that God destroyed their empire and sent them into exile. During the exile, they suffered under the tyranny of foreign empires and their gods. Eventually, God offered to end the exile and returned a small remnant to the Promised Land so that they could attempt to restore the kingdom in Canaan. But even that remnant failed to remain faithful, so the exile continued under the tyranny of evil.
The final chapter mentioned in the Old Testament is the climactic new covenant God said he would establish when a remnant of Israel repented and the great son of David, the Messiah or Christ, atoned for their sins. The Messiah would lead Israel in final victory over Satan, the evil spirits and the nations that served them. He would crush Satan and judge all who followed him. In the end, the Messiah would make all things new, reigning over the earth with God's people. God's glory would fill creation, and every creature would praise him endlessly.
This summary of the biblical story shows us that despite the differences between Old Testament covenant epochs, these epochs build on each other like chapters of a long narrative. Rather than contradicting, displacing, or even discounting each other, each of these stages of history contributes cumulatively to the developing, unified story of Scripture.
So far, we've considered the main characters behind Old Testament epochal developments, and shown that each epoch connected to the others in a unified storyline. Now we're ready to see that Old Testament authors frequently applied earlier epochs to later audiences.
Authors
You'll recall that in the beginning of this lesson, we summarized the application of the Old Testament by saying: "Never return to the past, but never forget the past." We don't live in the past, and for that reason we should never think, behave or feel as if we lived in earlier times. But we're part of a story that includes the past. And the Old Testament authors knew this well. They recognized that the one true God had been revealing himself through the one true religion over time. And this meant that the things God had said and done in the past would continue to guide his people throughout time. In light of this, Old Testament authors regularly took what they learned from the past, and applied it to their own day. Think about it this way: There are six major covenant epochs mentioned in the Old Testament. But all our information about the three earliest epochs — the periods of Adam, Noah, and Abraham — comes from biblical books written in the later epochs of Moses, David and the new covenant.
We'll consider two common elements that Old Testament authors included in their writings that revealed their understanding of epochal developments. First, we'll see that Old Testament authors wrote about the past. And second, we'll see that they wrote for the present. That is, they wrote for audiences that lived in their own day, in their own present. Let's look first at the fact that Old Testament authors wrote about the past.
About the Past
All Old Testament books explicitly deal primarily with the past. Consider the Pentateuch — the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses wrote all these books during his covenant epoch. But in Genesis he reported events that had taken place in the distant past, during the covenant epochs of Adam, Noah, and Abraham. In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, he didn't reach back as far into history. But even there he focused on events that had taken place before the books were written.
The rest of the Old Testament books were written in David's covenant epoch. And they also took their audiences into the past. For example, the book of Job was most likely written during the monarchical period of the Davidic epoch. But it reports events that had taken place in the Abrahamic epoch, long before the monarchy. The books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth were written in the age of David's covenant, but they reported events that had taken place near the end of the Mosaic epoch, before David became king. The books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther primarily referred their audiences to recent events in the past. This is also true of all the Old Testament prophetic books, Isaiah through Malachi. The prophets first ministered through prophetic speeches and actions, and only later recorded their ministries for the sake of expanding their contemporary audiences. So, their books were largely written records of prophetic actions and speeches that had already been delivered. In much the same way, Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes were also theological reflections on the recent past.
Now that we understand that Old Testament authors wrote about the past, let's turn to the fact that they wrote for the present, that is, for their own contemporary audiences.
For the Present
When the biblical writers started writing the Scriptures… they wrote to meet the needs of the readers, their people. And they didn't sit down and write just for the love of writing. Instead, they wrote to meet their people's need for learning, guidance and structure. For this reason, there was an intended purpose behind every book. The inspiration was not the issue of just "sit down and write." No, the issue was that there was a need — "rise up and write." That's why each writer took into account the need of his people to provide the information in a way the people could understand. [Dr. Ghassan Khalaf, translation]
Scripture authors paid close attention to the circumstances of the audiences they were writing for. We don't want to go overboard there. We don't want to say they're so tailored to the original circumstances that they can't mean anything for later readers. We know that from Romans 15:4 among other places where Paul says whatever was written was written for our encouragement. And yet, still, the Scripture writers did pay careful attention to what was going on in the lives of the people they were writing for … Genesis, for instance, is written to a group of people who had just left Egypt. They had just made angry the mightiest empire on the face of the earth. They are getting ready to go into a land where they're going to have to battle other enemies. They need to know that they don't have anything to be afraid of, and so the book of Genesis opens with this picture of God who made everything, who is in control of all the nations, who has made promises to the patriarchs and is keeping those promises. Israel doesn't have to be afraid … So, once we know the circumstances of the original audience that actually helps us to see not only what Scripture says but why it says it. And then we can start to ask questions like, where are we facing similar circumstances to those of Israel in the desert after they had left Egypt? … And we begin to see how God cares for his people as a shepherd and shows compassion for our needs. [Dr. Jimmy Agan]
The authors of Scripture understood that the past represented earlier stages in the organic development of biblical faith. But they were called to minister first and foremost to audiences that lived in their own day. So, they wrote about the past in ways that built bridges to the lives of their original audiences. They highlighted historical people, actions, words, institutions and the like in ways that connected these historical topics to the lives of their audiences. For the most part, the original audiences of Old Testament books were familiar with the literary conventions that biblical authors followed to build these bridges. So, the authors didn't normally bother to explain these connections. At other times, the authors provided small clues that pointed to the connections between the past and the present. And in still other passages, biblical authors offered rather direct explanations to help their audiences see how the past applied to them.
Just as the authors of the Old Testament found ways to connect the past to their own present audiences, modern Christians need to connect those writings about the past to ourselves. Yes, modern application is concerned with what's happening in our day. But it's always based on the ways of the past.
As God's people living in the modern world, our faith is deeply connected to what God revealed long ago. We're devoted to the modern application of Old Testament books that deal with the past. And even when we're applying New Testament books, we're still looking to the past. Now, some books like Revelation focus on the future quite a bit. But even Revelation is a record of the visions that its author John applied to his original audience in the past. In one way or another, every book of Scripture concentrates on what God did in the past. So, in order to apply those books in the modern world, we have to concentrate on the past, too.
To this point, our discussion of epochal developments has covered the main characters behind Old Testament epochal developments, the unified storyline of Scripture, and the fact that Old Testament authors applied earlier epochs to their contemporary audiences. So, now we're ready to focus on the types of connections biblical authors drew between the past and the present.
Connections
We'll speak of three types of connections Old Testament authors drew between the past and the present. First, they provided their audiences with historical backgrounds to different dimensions of their faith. Second, they presented models for their audiences to imitate and to reject. And third, they provided anticipations of their audiences' experiences. Let's look first at how biblical authors provided their audiences with historical backgrounds.
Backgrounds
Old Testament authors most often showed the relevance of the past by explaining the background or origin of their audiences' current experiences. For instance, after Moses described the marriage of Adam and Eve, he paused his narrative to connect this event directly to his audience. Listen to Moses' words in Genesis 2:24:
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24).
In this verse, Moses explained how a feature from Adam's covenant epoch was relevant to audiences in the Mosaic epoch. Specifically, the marriage of Adam and Eve established the lasting ordinance of marriage, which extended to the days of Moses.
Once we see that Moses used this event as background for his original audience, we can connect it to ourselves in the same way. Adam and Eve's marriage was the background of marriage in ancient Israel, and it's also the background of marriage in our day.
At other times, biblical authors used backgrounds in ways that revealed God's approval or disapproval of historical figures. For instance, the book of Ruth finds no fault in Ruth, Naomi, or Boaz, and shows that they had God's full approval. We find the reason for this at the end of the book. Listen to the genealogy that closes the book in Ruth 4:21-22:
Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David (Ruth 4:21-22).
This genealogy shows that Boaz is a direct ancestor of King David. This ending connects the events in Moses' epoch to the time of the original audience, who lived in the time of David's covenant.
In all likelihood, questions had been raised as to the legitimacy of David's kingship because he descended from the Moabitess Ruth. But the story of Ruth demonstrates that her inclusion in Israel was exemplary in every way, and that God fully approved of her. In this way, the book of Ruth provided background that reinforced the selection of David as Israel's king.
And once again, in modern application we have the opportunity to extend the bridge that the author of Ruth built for his original audience. Just as God's approval of Ruth showed the legitimacy of David's dynasty in David's time, it also provides background that validates the kingship of David's greatest heir, Jesus, in our day.
Besides providing backgrounds the connections authors drew between the past and present also presented models for their original audiences to imitate or reject.
Models
Sometimes when we're reading a Bible story we ask ourselves, "Now, is this a good example or a bad example? Should I be doing the same thing that this person in the Bible has done, or should I do something different from that?" And answering that question may be different in different passages, but here's one very important principle that applies to a lot of biblical stories, and that is what I like to call the rule of outcomes, and that is looking at the end of the story and seeing what happens to that person. Do they receive God's blessing or do they receive God's judgment? And that's often all the clue that we need to figure out if someone is setting a good example for us or a bad example. [Dr. Philip Ryken]
Let's look at two examples of models from the book of Joshua, which recorded events from the Mosaic epoch for an original audience living in the Davidic epoch. The author of Joshua provided a positive model in Israel's performance in the battle for Jericho in Joshua 2–6, and a negative model in their performance at the battle for Ai in Joshua 7.
In the lengthy account of the battle of Jericho, there is no hint that Joshua, his spies, or the army of Israel did anything contrary to God's will. They showed their full devotion to God by submitting to circumcision a few miles away from Jericho in Gilgal, and they followed the Levites and the priests as they marched around the city singing, shouting and blowing trumpets, just as God had commanded. So, the author of Joshua concluded the story of Jericho with these positive words in Joshua 6:27:
So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land (Joshua 6:27).
But listen to how the account of the battle for Ai begins in Joshua 7:1:
But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things (Joshua 7:1).
This verse contrasts the positive model of Israel at the battle of Jericho with the negative model of Israel at the battle of Ai.
When Israel first attacked the tiny city of Ai, Israel's huge army was defeated because the Israelite Achan had stolen property from Jericho in rebellion against God's command that all the spoils of war be devoted to him. Joshua and Israel did not defeat Ai in battle until they had first been confronted by God, repented of their sin, and rendered severe judgment on Achan and his family.
The contrast between the battles of Jericho and Ai provided the readers of Joshua with both a positive model to follow and a negative model to reject. By observing these models, the original readers in David's epoch were supposed to learn how to follow their own kings into battle.
Of course, as followers of Christ, we no longer wage physical war like Joshua did, because the New Testament only calls us to spiritual warfare. Still, in modern application we extend the bridge of these same positive and negative models in order to learn the proper ways to engage in spiritual warfare. Simply put, we have to be devoted to God like Joshua was at Jericho, and we have to avoid neglecting his commands like Achan did at Ai. Of course, there are countless details related to these broad modern applications. But the connections that the author of Joshua drew to his original audience can all be extended in ways that help us determine those details for our own situations.
The Bible teaches us in many ways what a godly life is to look like, what sin is, etc., sometimes simply by stating it straight out — thou shalt, or thou shalt not, or you shall, or you shall not — but also by giving us the history of real people who lived out their lives, everyday lives. And as we read them, we know that we are supposed to learn from their example positively or negatively. It says in the book of Romans, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." So we have positive examples that we are to emulate, and we have negative examples that we are to shun … Like when David committed adultery with Bathsheba, we know from the Ten Commandments that that was wrong; we know it from the account as Nathan accused him of sin. And we have other indications. So we know that that's a bad example by a man who generally was a good example, a man after God's own heart … So what enables us to know the difference? The law of God, the clear teachings, the precepts, and then it's acted out, and we can put the two together. [Dr. Andrew Davis]
You know, sometimes it's very hard when you're looking at the Scriptures to figure out if a personal character or his life is one that we ought to be imitating. And we have to remember the only one that we know we can imitate is Jesus himself. That's the only one that gets a total pass on our critique. Everyone else we must examine very carefully. The reason they're in the Bible is normally not primarily to be exemplary for us to imitate … But when we're trying to figure out when are we getting a life lesson to emulate and when not, you have to look at context, what's said about those actions, the outcomes of those actions, whether they contribute to the expansion of the kingdom or not, but primarily look to the moral precepts that are in the Scriptures and make your judgment there, and everyone's fair game except Jesus. We know that whatever he said and did is good, true, and beautiful. Everyone else comes under the microscope of biblical morality. [Dr. Sanders L. Wilson]
Finally, besides providing backgrounds and models, Old Testament authors also drew connections between the past and present by incorporating anticipations of their original audiences' own experiences.
Anticipations
Biblical writers frequently wrote about the past in ways that pointed out, how events from the past were very similar to the situations their audiences faced. This kind of bridge is similar to a literary device called "foreshadowing." In foreshadowing, an author presents earlier details of a story in ways that anticipate later details. And biblical writers sometimes wrote about the past with similar intentions. They wrote about past events in ways that anticipated the experiences of their readers.
One well-known anticipation occurs in Moses' story of Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, recorded in Genesis 12:10-20. Of course, Moses told the truth of what happened in Abraham's epoch, but he explained the story in ways that helped his original audience recognize many parallels between Abraham and themselves. For instance, Abraham went to Egypt because of a famine, just as Moses' original readers had been in Egypt because of a famine. Pharaoh unjustly held Abraham in Egypt by taking Sarah into his harem, similar to the way the Egyptians unjustly held the Israelites as slaves in Moses' day. God delivered Abraham by sending a plague on Pharaoh's house, and he delivered Israel in Moses' day by sending plagues on Egypt and Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh sent Abraham away with great riches, and in the Exodus in Moses' day, Pharaoh and the Egyptians sent the Israelites away with the riches of Egypt.
Moses drew these parallels to show that Abraham's experience anticipated their own. Moses wanted to encourage his original readers to turn away from idealizing their time in Egypt, and to see their deliverance as a mighty act of God on their behalf.
Once again, in modern application our task is to see the bridge that Moses built from Abraham's life to his original audience, and to extend that bridge to our modern lives. For instance, the New Testament teaches that Christ has delivered us from the tyranny of evil, just like God previously delivered Abraham and later delivered Israel. Through similarities like this, Abraham's sojourn to Egypt also anticipates the ways modern Christians should understand our faith and service to God.
Whenever we apply Scripture, we need to consider the epochal developments that have taken place between the times of the Bible and our day. And the connections Old Testament authors drew through backgrounds, models and anticipations provide patterns that help us bridge the gap between these historical epochs.
CONCLUSION
In this lesson on modern application and Old Testament epochs, we've looked at the epochal divisions of Old Testament history in terms of their variety, a common outline of the epochs, and the implications of these divisions. And we've considered the epochal developments between these divisions in terms of their consistent characters, unified storyline, use of earlier epochs by biblical authors, and the connections between the epochs that aid our application.
As we've seen, God's covenants divided biblical history into major epochs that had different theological orientations. So, we should never try to serve God in our day by returning to the ways of the past. But we are never to forget what God revealed in the past. When we factor in the ways that theological themes developed organically from one age to the next, we find that everything God revealed in earlier covenant ages has much to teach us about serving him in our age, even the age of the new covenant in Christ.