Malachi’s prophecy concerning the ‘messenger’ and the ‘Messenger’ segues beautifully into the writings of the New Testament. However, before we move to the ‘training to reign’ in the NT, I’d like to share some important lessons from the OT that I haven’t touched on before.

More OT Training for Reigning

It should be obvious to any reader of the Old Testament that people need a Savior. God said of people that ‘the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth’ (Genesis 8:21). How true. On the whole, the people God chose to be ‘His people’ failed God miserably. God said that they were ‘stiff-necked’ and ‘rebellious.’ The reason that the people who stand out positively in the Old Testament is because there were so few who did. Even those people had their faults (e.g. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, the true prophets), but at least they tried.

They believed in the Only True God. They didn’t worship false gods (idols). They obeyed God for the most part. They feared God and loved Him. God demonstrated His superior power over the false gods and simply asked that people acknowledge that as a fact and worship Him and only Him –

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:2-3

On the surface that does not appear to be a difficult thing to ask of the people God freed from bondage in Egypt. However, the people were worshipping a golden calf within weeks of leaving Egypt. No matter what God said, no matter what leaders said, no matter what prophets said – the people kept worshipping idols for centuries. Even after the destruction of Israel and Judah, even after the exile in Babylon, even after returning to Judah to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, people continued to intermarry with pagans and allow idol worship in their homes. People are still doing it to this day, which is why we really need a Savior. We cannot save ourselves.

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:24-26

As we’ll see in future parts of this series, Jesus and His apostles quoted heavily from the Old Testament. There was a good reason for that, as Jesus explained after His death and resurrection –

Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Luke 24:44-45

Knowing and believing in Jesus Christ is the key that unlocks our understanding of the Old Testament.

God’s Self Revelation

There’s one more thing I’d like to share about ‘training to reign’ in the Old Testament before we move into the New Testament. The OT is God’s ‘Self Revelation.’ We learn so much about the Nature and Character of God from what He reveals about Himself in the pages of the Old Testament.

One of the ways we know about God is through His ‘actions.’ He ‘created the heavens and the earth.’ He ‘sustained’ the children of Israel in the wilderness during 40 years of wandering – ‘They lacked nothing; Their clothes did not wear out And their feet did not swell’ (Nehemiah 9:21). God ‘won’ many victories for Israel against their enemies. God revealed Himself through His ‘actions.’

God also revealed Himself through His ‘Names.’ When Moses asked God how to answer questions about who sent him to the children of Israel in Egypt, God answered – ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:14). Here are some of the other ‘Names’ God used to reveal Himself to people in the Old Testament. As you look at each of the names, think about what they tell you about God –

Adonai – The Lord, My Great Lord

Eloah – God (noun, masculine singular)

Elohim – God, All-Powerful One, Creator God (noun, masculine plural)

El Shaddai – God Almighty, The Mighty One

El Elohe Yisrael – God, the God of Israel

El Elyon – The God Most High

El Olan – The Eternal God, The Everlasting God

El Roi – The God Who Sees Me

Immanuel – God With Us

Yahweh (also spelled YHWH and Jehovah) – from a word meaning ‘to be’ .. God is Self-Existent, relying on no one for His existence .. God is the Necessary Being for all of creation .. all other life forms are contingent on God

Yahweh-Jireh – The Lord Will Provide

Yahweh-Mekaddishkem – The Lord Who Sanctifies

Yahweh-Nissi – The Lord Is My Banner

Yahweh-Rapha – The Lord Who Heals

Yahweh-Rohi – The Lord Is My Shepherd

Yahweh-Sabaoth – The Lord of Hosts

Yahweh-Shalom – The Lord Is Peace

Yahweh-Shammah – The Lord Is There, The Lord Is My Companion

Yahweh-Tsidkenu – The Lord Is My Righteousness

In Summary

Humans are haunted by a deception and a decision made thousands of years ago in a beautiful garden location somewhere in the ancient world. The God who created the heavens and the earth and all living things is a perfect God. As we’ve seen throughout this series, God has revealed Himself to be Self-Existent, Almighty, All-Knowing, Everywhere Present at the same time, Unchangeable, Loving, Kind, Compassionate, Caring, Honest, Truthful, Righteous, and Just. However, there is a being who has opposed God throughout the ages.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Genesis 3:1a

This ‘cunning’ serpent approached the woman God had created and questioned her about what God had said.

And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? ‘ Genesis 3:1b

When the woman responded that God had said that, the serpent contradicted God and deceived the woman into believing him rather than God.

Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ Genesis 3:4-5

The woman disobeyed God and led her husband into disobedience as well. Nothing has been the same since. People believe lies and are easily deceived. We’ve seen that throughout this series. Remember that God’s purpose in creating humans, male and female, was to ‘reign’ with Him over the world. That reign would include being fruitful and multiplying, filling the earth and subduing it, and having dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1).

However, the disobedience of the first humans led to a severe curse that every human would endure from that day until now and into the future. God cursed the serpent, the man, and the woman, but He did not give up on humanity. We find God continually guiding and training humans, even as He judged them with righteousness. What we see in the Old Testament is that humans preferred worshipping false gods rather than the Only True God.

God knew that humans could not do anything to ‘save’ themselves, so He promised them a Savior, the Messiah, the Branch of Righteousness who would come from the lineage of King David. However, as the Old Testament drew to a close with its final prophet (spokesman for God), the Messiah had not yet appeared. Israel, the chosen people of God, were still waiting.

Free eBooks

You can download the first 13 chapters of this series here.

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You can download chapters 25 – 30 of this series here.

You can download chapters 31 – 39 of this series here.

Next Time

God did not speak to Israel for 400 years between the time of the prophet Malachi and the prophet John the Baptist. What happened to Judah and the promised Seed during that time? Did the Seed ever appear? If so, when and how? What happened when the Seed appeared? We’ll step into the next phase of God’s eternal plan in the next part of our special series – Train to Reign.

“Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”

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