I have recently been asked to facilitate a group bible study, which I jumped at the opportunity.  I am by no means specially trained or qualified to ‘teach’ a bible study class, but there is material provided for us to follow and I will just be guiding the group through this course of study, hoping to learn myself.

This has me thinking more about the bible than normal.  I recently read a post of a friend of mine that he made on his blog.  (A blog is an on-line personal log).  It is wonderful reading.  You can find it here - http://jobstale.blogspot.com/2005/12/word.html

What occurred to me this week at mass, during the first reading, was that the people of the Old Testament had to have had great faith.  Think about it.  During this time there were great prophets such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and many others to teach about God, bringing His word to the people of that time.  But these were all just men. (There were some women prophets also).  They were just as human as you or I.  All these people had to go on was the word of these prophets and their own faith.

On the other hand we have Jesus.  God’s son.  Sent to teach us about his Father, confirm what the prophets taught and then die to give us eternal life.  Jesus was human too, all human, BUT, He was also God.  As Christians we believe this and have Jesus’ word to live by and have faith in.  If we believe in Jesus then it is easy to believe in what He said, but I don’t know if I could have had the same faith before He came.  I would like to think that I would.

The Old Testament is a book of hope.  They had the hope that the promised Savior would come to free them and save them.  Although I wonder how many of them realized that when He would come that He was going to save them from more than just slavery of Egypt.  He was going to save them from the slavery of sin and eternal death.

The New Testament is a book of praise and love.  Praise that He has finally come and now with the understanding of why he came a deeper love of our Father. 

I guess what got me thinking about all this was the time of year it is now – Advent.  Again, we are waiting and hoping, but now we have the word of Jesus Christ Himself that He will be returning.  I guess this all just gives me a new appreciation for the Old Testament.  I need to return to reading some of it.  Maybe in reading it I will learn what gave people of those days such faith and it will increase mine.