(Part 1)

JBTM Robert D. Bergen
23
The Apostle Paul, for example, declared that all Old Testament “Scripture [including
its narrative portions] is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for
correcting, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). This position reflects the Jewish
tradition in which Paul was raised, which understood the Torah to be “the full expression
of knowledge and truth” (Rom 2:20b). As such, Paul understood Old Testament narratives
to be a source of factual information, divinely sanctioned behavioral standards, and both
positive and negative examples for living.
Consistent with the apostle’s words to Timothy, Jesus and the New Testament church
leaders used Scripture in two primary ways: to educate the mind and shape the will. That
is, they used Old Testament narratives to teach people fundamental religious truths and to
help direct people’s wills to strive for ever-higher degrees of godliness in thought and deed.
1. Use the Old Testament narratives as a witness to Jesus Christ. First in importance among
the educational uses of Old Testament narratives was the task of providing insights into
the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself authorized this use of Old Testament
narrative by declaring that “the Scriptures ... testify about Me” (John 4:39). More than that,
He led the way in using Old Testament narrative accounts to teach about himself. In a
direct reference to the account of God’s provision of manna to the Israelites in the desert
(Exod 16:4–35, see especially v. 4), Jesus declared that he himself was “the real bread from
heaven” (John 6:41)—“the living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:51).
By doing this, Jesus invited his listeners to do four things: 1) bring to remembrance the
details of an Old Testament narrative account, 2) reflect on the function or quality of some
focal element within the narrative, 3) compare that focal element to the life of Jesus and his
ministry, 4) affirm that Jesus’ life and ministry was superior in effect to that of the narrative
element to which he was compared.
Within John 6 Jesus declared that he was not merely “bread”; instead, he was the “real”
and “living bread.” Manna sustained the physical lives of those who consumed it during
their pilgrimage through a sterile and threatening world, but it had its limits; the Jews’ “fathers
ate—and they died” (John 6:58a). By contrast, taking Jesus into one’s life would bring
eternal life—not just four decades of life—to a person’s soul through all the trials of life in
the present and the joys of eternity in heaven with him (John 6:58b).
Gospel accounts describe four additional references in which Jesus clearly made use of
Old Testament narratives to provide instruction about himself. While conversing with Nicodemus
the Lord spoke prophetically of his death and the role he was to play in providing
salvation to humanity. To do so he used the Torah account of Moses lifting up the bronze
snake in the wilderness (John 3:14; Num 21:4–9). As in the reference to manna, Jesus here
brought a specific Old Testament passage to remembrance, indicated the significance of
the bronze snake within the narrative, linked his own life and ministry to that aspect of the
narrative, and then declared his superiority to the highlighted narrative element. Whereas
the bronze snake saved the physical lives of afflicted Israelites in the wilderness, Jesus
would provide unending spiritual salvation when he was lifted up on a pole, so that “everyone
who believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 3:15).