If I’ve learned anything from reading the Old Testament this year, it’s the truth of 2 Timothy 3:16 – all Scripture is indeed God-breathed and useful. Let’s face it, there are parts of the Old Testament that were a chore to read, a desert wilderness of their own that seemed like they were taking 40 years to get through. But now through the whole thing and looking back, I’m struck that those dry passages have spoken just as much into my appreciation and awe at the huge narrative God has been working since creation as the action-packed stories that often serve as our only knowledge of Old Testament events – the David and Goliaths, the Samson and Delilahs, the Moses and the Red Seas.

Plowing through the excruciatingly detailed descriptions of the Tabernacle, the endless lists of which tribe and heir got which tract of land in which unknown-to-me nook and cranny of the Promised Land and the other ‘desert’ passages, I got a real sense that God isn’t just putting together a storybook but that real human history is working out under his watchful eye and powerful hand. God had his hands in the minutia of ancient Israel, and I have every reason to believe that God has his hands in the minutia of my life. If all I got out of those dry portions of the Scriptures was that God has a great care for detail in human existence, then I’ve gotten an amazingly useful teaching because then I’m forced to take God’s word into the minutia of my life and I’m encouraged toward even deeper, fuller obedience and worship of my Savior. My Lord’s penchant for seemingly boring detail taught me his significantly intimate love for all of each of his people.

I’ve also been struck that the Old Testament has seemed like the story of one big downhill slide into moral decay punctuated by moments of godliness. It was a bit depressing, but then, that’s me, too. I was one big downhill slide before Jesus Christ redeemed my life and brought me to repentance. God’s people had to be brought low before Jesus came, which the Old Testament unflinchingly depicts, and so did I. Having read the Old Testament, I can see the Bible telling two stories at once historical and personal to me. The first story is the failure of people – and me – to be faithful and the second story is God’s redemption, climaxing with Jesus Christ, and the outworking of a life restored, my life restored, your life restored, our lives together restored.

At the end of this project, I must simply say, praise God for the bottomless beauty and instruction of his Word.