>People all over the world like to use the Old Testament to illustrate what they write. Here is a sample of what I found in the news today.

From Lahore, Paskistan:

Marx cannot be read with profit in times of plenty. You do not feel his sting. When business is booming and the proletariat can acquire any number of unnecessary gadgets on borrowed money, Marx will sound like a spoilsport, an Old Testament prophet who has blundered into gilded Rome.

I did not know that Old Testament prophets were “spoilsports.” I cannot also recall which Old Testament prophet “blundered into gilded Rome.”

From Lebanon, Pennsylvania:

A letter to the editor accused me of being like an Old Testament prophet, warning of horrible retribution if we do not change our evil ways. To some extent it is true because economists are assigned the unwelcome task of informing people that there is no free lunch.

If this modern Old Testament prophet proclaimed that there was no free lunch he was wrong. His words indicate that he has never read Isaiah 55:1.

From Oxford, England:

According to the poet Lord Byron, the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, although a solo mission might account for why, according to Old Testament war correspondents, that invasion came to a sorry end.

Again, I no not think we could classify Isaiah as “a war correspondent.” Many prophets reported on wars but they were not just mere observers.

From Moultrie, Georgia:

So Mr. Olmstead wants us to live under Old Testament law. Does that mean we can bring back slavery and polygamy? After all, those laws were never repealed in the Bible.

These laws cannot be repealed because they were never enacted in the first place.

From Edinburgh, Scotland:

Old Testament, the prophet Elisha was mocked for his baldness by no fewer than 42 “little children”. Rather than get an Asbo, he cursed his tormentors in the name of the Lord.

The reason Elisha did not get an Asbo was probably because he did not know his PC very well.

From Chicago, Illinois:

We know how powerful the Puritan Ethic has been in our country, informing down to this very day views on matters such as human sexuality and other forms of “proper behavior,” reflecting the Power of the Old Testament.

But just because many of the moral teachings of the Old Testament are present in our society, this does not mean that the USA is “clearly a Jewish nation.”

From a blog:

“Well, you know how they’s always begattin’ in the Old Testament.”

I know, and there was begattin’ in the New Testament also.

From another blog:

What’s so great about the Old Testament?

Well, it is when you read the Old Testament that you discover the riches contained in the Old Testament. This blogger has discovered the Old Testament. She wrote: “God will often lead me to Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Psalms.” Please, don’t stop there. These are only 3 of the 39 great books of the Old Testament. You should read all of them at least once in your Christian life.

Enjoy reading and studying the Old Testament.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: Old Testament