Reading the Pentateuch

John 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

46 εἰ γὰρ ἐπιστεύετε Μωϋσεῖ, ἐπιστεύετε ἂν ἐμοί· περὶ γὰρ ἐμοῦ ἐκεῖνος ἔγραψεν.

Jesus here makes a very important statement for how we treat the Old Testament.  It is easy for us to just forget about the Old Testament.  After all, we have the New, so why bother?  What value does the Old Testament give us?  Here we see that the Pentateuch in particular speaks to us of Jesus.

This is certainly interesting reading, but what value does it add?  Personally, it increases the faith I have in the God who can make all things happen according to His will.  Moses wrote of Christ thousands of years before the incarnation.  This is not a God who leaves things up to "chance," whatever that is.  No, He is a God who has a plan for the fullness of time, as Paul told us in Ephesians.

This statement εἰ γὰρ ἐπιστεύετε Μωϋσεῖ, ἐπιστεύετε ἂν ἐμοί is a second-class conditional statement.  What Jesus is saying is, "If you had believed Moses, and I know that you didn't, then you would believe me."  Or, put another way, "Since you didn't believe Moses you don't believe me."  This is a stinging rebuke to the Jews.  They were sure that they had got Moses right, but Jesus turned that upside-down.

Where are you?  Are you living in certainty that you have God figured out?  If you are sure, what are you sure about?  Hopefully your certainty comes from knowing Jesus and not from something you have decided on your own.  The Bible is a big book about Jesus.  Let's remember that and rejoice in it.