God bless you bubbles.One of the ways we can look at the old testament is by thinking of the term "types & shadows" People in the old testament were saved the way we are today,that being by faith.It says in Genesis 15:6 "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." Notice it says this about him BEFORE God changed his name to Abraham.Abraham did what God said,trusting that God would keep His word.Abraham took Isaac,the son through whom the promise was to come,& in his mind had prepared to sacrifice him on mount Moriah,& believing the promise of God "He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Genesis 22:5) Note that Abraham said "we will come back to you".By believing God Abraham gave us a picture of how He would sacrifice His son Jesus for us,even using the words of Abraham "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the two of them went on together. People were saved looking forward to the cross in the old testament.What is not very well known is that even though the first 5 books of the Bible,the books of Moses go all the way back to "In the brginning",it is believed that the 1st written book of the Bible was the book of Job,going back to about the time of Abraham.Listen tothe words of Job in Job 19,verses 25 & 26."
I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;"Sounds kind of like the New testament,doesn't it.How did Job know this?Well.back in Genesis 3 "15)So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life. 15)And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel. It says that God will put emnity between your "offspring" her "offspring" (better translated seed).This is the 1st prophecy of the coming messiah,& people knew this by word of mouth from generation to generation.God preserved His Word,even before it was written down.If people kept the law by faith,they knew that Messiah would fulfill the law.Hear the repentant words of David in psalm 51 16)You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17)The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise. David understood.1000 years before Jesus came,David understood.The law never saved,but rather the law was a mirror to let men see that they needed a redeemer.Listen to the words of Jesus To the Jews who were angry with Him for healing on the Sabbath in John chapter 5 "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me".The old testament was the foundation that the new testament was built on.they are not complete without each other,& every word testifies of Our Living Word Jesus Christ.God bless you.
