The weight of the Old testament.

One day I asked God why the Old Testament was so much bigger than the New Testament. If the Old Testament could be the same size as the New Testament, I reasoned, the Bible would be easier to carry around, more people would take the time to read it and there would be less scriptures to memorize. 

As He usually does when I approach Him with a questions, God smiled. I knew at once that he had a good answer for me, and He spoke.  

“You really want to know why the Old Testament is so big? It is because that’s how long it took me to get my message through to my people. To penetrate their hardened hearts, to capture the attention of their distracted and divided minds. It took me thousands of years to teach and re-teach them what they needed to learn. Often I had to take them through bitter experiences to make a simple point. Take for instance my plan to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Such a simple operation the way I had it planned. If only my people would have cooperated with me, the journey could have been completed in a few weeks. But no, they had to make it painful for themselves and the next generation and drag out the wonderful plans I had for their future in the Promised Land. Think about how many hundreds of pages in the Old Testament that one episode alone could have saved.”

And he continued, “I sent prophets after prophets to correct them and to set them on the right course, but they refused to listen. They never learned a single lesson the easy way. They mistreated the prophets I sent them and even killed some of them. I could have given up on them and ended it all right there and then, and there would be no need for a Bible at all. But I continued to be patient with them for the sake of a few who were faithful and for the great love I had for my people.So you see, I really could have accomplished my plan of salvation in a handful of books, if it wasn’t for the stubbornness of the people I was dealing with. So when you carry the heavy weight of the Bible around, do not blame me, blame the people of the Old Testament. Had they listened and obeyed the first time, the stories and experiences you see repeating over and over in the Old Testament would not have been necessary.”

So at last, I thought to myself, I have the answer and I have someone to blame for the heavy weight of the Bible. It is the fault of those thick headed Israelites. But just as I entertained that thought, the Holy Spirit intervened and posed a question. “Before you judge the Israelites, ask yourself what your own conduct and life was like before you gave your life to Christ about 11 years ago?”. That question stopped me in my tracks. I did a quick recollection and to my utter shock I saw that the Israelite of the Old Testament was only an archetype of my own self. I too had been selfish, stubborn, slow-to-learn, rebellious, sin-loving and unfaithful man.  I remembered how many people God sent my way to warn me and correct me but I would not listen. How many adverse situations God allowed me to face and the consequent losses to myself and my loved ones, to the point that one day He decided he had had enough with me and decided to uproot me from the land in which He had settled me for almost 20 years and send me to a distant land called Dubai where I knew nobody. Only then had I finally relented and surrendered completely to his Kingship and Lordship over my life.

The Holy Spirit helped me realize that the “Old Testament” of my own life was just as long and heavy as that of the Bible and I was entirely responsible for the length and weight of it, not any Israelite. If anything, the Israelite's only foreshadowed me and the stories of the Old Testament simply pointed to my own life in the wilderness, yet to unfold in the distant future. I felt ashamed that I even thought of pinning the blame on the Israelites, when the Old Testament represents my own life in the darkness on which Jesus would shine his eternal light.

Now every time I carry the heavy Bible I hold only myself responsible for its length and its weight. The heavy portion - the Old Testament- represents my own rebelliousness and my stubbornness. The light portion - the New Testament- represents God’s salvation and infinite mercy. 

Jaime Demelo 

HSI Media