Basic Principles for Interpreting the Old Testament

[Carbon]

First,
Christ Himself is the key that unlocks the riches of the Old Testament.

Christ is the all-glorious Lord, the only Son of the Father, who from all eternity beholds the Father face to face, who is with God and who is God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1.

Every word of the Old Testament is the word of God Himself, 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Tim 3:16-17. and God is the Trinitarian God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Thus, all over the Old Testament is Christ's word to us, as well as God the Father's word to us.

 

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Second,

The Old Testament teaches us about Christ. Such is one main implication of the story in Luke 24. Christ is the focus of the message of the Old Testament. He is the One to whom it points forward, about whom it speaks, and whom it prefigures in symbols.

 

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Third,

Christ not only instructs us but establishes communion with us through His word. We abide in Christ as His word abides in us. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7.
As the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, we find that we are meeting Christ, and He talks to us very personally through the bible, including the Old Testament.

 

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Forth,

Christ changes us and transforms us through His word. As we meet with Christ and experience His glory, we are transformed into His image. The bile says that we start out with a lack of understanding of the Old Testament, due to hard hearts. And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Luke 24:25.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Cor 4:4.
This lack is like a veil over our hearts, keeping us from seeing it correctly. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 2 Cor 3:14-15.

When we turn to the Lord, the Holy Spirit works in us, and the veil over our hearts is removed. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Cor 3:16-17.

Then we see the true glory of Christ, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:18.

 

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Fifth,

As our hearts are changed, we begin to respond to Christ in adoration, thankfulness, and obedience. Christ is our Lord, our Master, and that means that we must obey Him. But Christ is also our beloved, and that means that we can come to please Him and obey Him. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:15, 23.

Our response ought not to be a reluctant, grumbling obedience, but joyful, enthusiastic obedience. And so it will be more and more, if we belong to Him and have fellowship with Him, because Christ writes His own law on our hearts.
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 2 Cor 3:3.
who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Cor 3:6.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” Heb 10:16.

 

[Carbon]

Thus, when we read the Old Testament should pray that Christ will both enlighten and transform us. Because the Old Testament as well as the New is Christ's word, we should believe that God teaches there, obey what He commands, and give thanks for the blessings and communion that He gives. Above all, we should endeavor to search out how the Old Testament speaks of Christ.

 

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Above all, we should endeavor to search out how the Old Testament speaks of Christ.

Consider the Tabernacle, a symbol of God dwelling with Israel. The Tabernacle foreshadowed the fact that Christ would become incarnate and dwell among us.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14.

Now Christ sends the Holy Spirit like a cloud of fire to make His church and His people into a tabernacle of God.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:2-4.

10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1 Cor 3:10-17,

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1Cor 6:19.

 

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When God came down in a cloud on Mount Sinai, the cloud symbolized both God's heavenly character and His inaccessibility. Moses went up to meet God, foreshadowing Jesus' function as a mediator between God and man.

 

[EarlyActs]

Concentrate on the almost 20 passages quoted by the apostles in the churches earliest record—Acts 1–15. You’re not wrong but maybe doctrinaire, rather than vivid and incisive.

 

[Carbon]

Concentrate on the almost 20 passages quoted by the apostles in the churches earliest record—Acts 1–15. You’re not wrong but maybe doctrinaire, rather than vivid and incisive.

 

[Carbon]

The first five books of the Old Testamant were written centuries before the birth of Jesus. Yet they intricately involve Him.
V. Poythress

 

[EarlyActs]

Those passages were all the important apostolic doctrines about that generation, the Cornerstone, the meaning of the resurrection as the enthronement of Christ, the transfer of David's promises to Christ, the gift of justification in Christ, the Seed of Abraham blessing, the New Moses and the huge warning about failing to follow him, the raised fallen tent of David, etc.

A good translation that marks/footnotes the OT quotes is a good place to start. The Metzger Greek NT put them in bold (there are other allusions, but I'm limiting to the quotes).

The letter to Hebrews and 2 Cor have some of the shadow/fulfillment language like you use, but it is less prominent than the themes in these passages.

 

[EarlyActs]

The reason for stressing those passages is the actual language of the Lk 24 and Acts 1 that you mentioned. Christ directly spoke to them for 40 days teaching how the OT was about his suffering and victory.

Let this sink in: the only record we have of early Christian preaching is these passages, and then Paul. It is significant that he used so many of the same ones, even though he was not there with the apostles., they were taught to him direct by Christ, resulting in such high-density quote sections as Gal 3-4.