HGB-08 Modern Application and Old Testament Epochs

Have you ever noticed that Christians tend to go to extremes when they think about applying the Old Testament to modern life? On one extreme, some believers think that we need to do precisely what God’s people in the days of the Old Testament did. On the other extreme, some believers think that we should simply forget what God commanded his people to do in Old Testament days. But in reality, the truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. When it comes to applying the Old Testament to our day, we need to remember two things: we should never return to the past, but we should never forget the past.

This is the eighth lesson in our series He Gave Us Scripture: Foundations of Interpretation, and we’ve entitled it “Modern Application and Old Testament Epochs.” In this lesson, we’ll explore the ways Old Testament faith developed through the great ages or epochs of history, and explain how these developments impact our own application of Scripture.

In a prior lesson, we saw that the original audiences of Scripture differed from contemporary audiences in at least three ways. The original audiences lived in different’ historical epochs than we do. Their cultures were different from ours. And they were different kinds of people than we are. Although these three differences interconnect in countless ways, in this lesson we’ll focus our attention on the epochs of the Old Testament and how they affect modern application.

We’ll explore the association between modern application and Old Testament epochs in two ways. First, we’ll look at the epochal divisions of Old Testament history. And second, we’ll consider the epochal developments that these divisions represent. Let’s begin with the epochal divisions of Old Testament history.

The Old Testament reports many theological changes that took place throughout history. Theological changes occurred every time God altered his expectations regarding the concepts, behaviors and emotions of his people. And when the changes were significant enough, they became the basis for identifying epochal divisions.