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This very last section of the Old Testament will tie together not only what you have learned in the Old Testament but will show how it led to Jesus. This is called the Theory of Progressive Revelation. It is not as intimidating as it looks. This idea, or theory, will explain how God reveals himself, also called revelation, more and more throughout the Old Testament, or progressively. Basically, this idea shows how God began by only revealing a little of himself to Adam and Eve, and then progressively, or increasingly, revealed more and more of himself throughout the Old Testament. God’s revealing himself will continue to grow until it ends with Christ, because that is when we see God fully revealed (100%) in a human form, Jesus Christ.

As we go through these people, watch for two things: first, think about what people knew about God before this person and, second, watch for God to reveal something new about himself.

Finally, this is helpful to me and it might help you understand this theory: think about how people grow and mature. When they are young, they do not know much but instead are given many instructions. Usually these instructions do not come with explanations. You tell a 3-year-old not to cross the street, and that is good enough. You don’t need to explain why. As they get older, then you start to explain more and more of how life works, for example, you teach them to look for cars before crossing a street. Then, as the person becomes a teenager and even an older teenager, you give more and more details and explain “larger issues” of life and even death. That is a way to understand what happens in the Old Testament with God’s people (the Jews). God reveals more and more of himself as time progresses (Progressive Revelation). Just like you don’t take the time to explain to a 3-year-old why they should not cross the street but only tell them not to, we will see that God tells the Jews to do one thing early on (for example, the importance of offering sacrifices), and then, as the people of God mature in their understanding of God, he gives them a deeper teaching (sacrificing is really not important but, instead, obedience is more important).

That is how this theory works: it helps us to pull back from examining individual stories and books in the Old Testament and to understand the bigger picture of how God works and molds the People of God. Then, when the people are finally ready, Christ appears on the earth and takes the People of God (the Christians) into even deeper understandings of God because Jesus is 100% God and, after he leaves, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to continue teaching and encouraging us to grow and mature our entire lives.

Adam: We start off with Adam. Think back to what Adam knew about God. Ask yourself, what did Adam really know about God? These are a few of the bits of knowledge that Adam had about God:

• God was the Creator
• He knew what God sounded like (he heard God’s voice)
• He knew there was good and evil, obedience and disobedience
• He knew that disobedience brought punishment
• He knew that sometimes God did not punish but instead had mercy. For example, God told them they would die if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They did die eventually, but not immediately, cf. Gen 2:17
• Also, he must have known that God wanted sacrifices, because Cain/Abel sacrificed to God

Noah: He knew the same as Adam plus:

• God hates evil and will kill people steeped in sin, Gen 6:13. Basically, he learned that God sometimes has mercy and sometimes carries out the punishment people deserve.
• God knows how to build arks, Gen 6:14ff (this is a joke!)
• God divided the animals into clean and unclean animals, Gen 7:2ff, also Gen 8:20-21. So he learned a little more about sacrifices
• God would never send another worldwide flood, Gen 9:8ff

Abraham: He knew the same as Adam and Noah plus:

• He knew God wants his own people. This means he also learned that God is holy and wants a people who are holy.
• He knew God makes covenants/contacts with people.
• He learned that God owns all the land and all possessions, because He told Abraham he would give him the land of Israel even though other people were living there.
• He learned that God wants sacrifices. Even though Cain and Abel plus Noah offered sacrifices, God did not request them. Abraham is the first person that God told to offer a sacrifice.

Moses: He knew the same as Adam, Noah, and Abraham plus:

• He knew that God could perform a variety of miracles (10 plagues). Adam did not witness God performing any miracles, and Noah only witnessed the flood and Abraham only witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
• God required sacrifices to forgive sin
• God had many requirements for his holy people

David: He knew the same as Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses plus:

• He learned that it was better to obey God than to sacrifice: I Samuel 15:22
• The Law of Moses was still in effect, and, therefore, Jews still needed to sacrifice. But God was laying the groundwork for Jesus by beginning to reveal to some Jews that the Law of Moses was flawed. This is made clear in some of Paul's letters in the New Testament.

Writing Prophets:

The system before was based on receiving forgiveness from sin, meaning that the average Jew (who did not have the Holy Spirit!) was focused on trying to figure out which sacrifice to offer when he did sin. But this is slowly changing after David and through the time of the prophets. People are increasingly being encouraged to avoid sin altogether, meaning, instead of thinking about the sacrifice you will have to offer when you do a certain sin, instead begin to focus on loving God and wanting to please God. The prophet Samuel was the first person to mention this idea in the Old Testament.

• David understood this and begins to teach it to those who can understand. Psalm 50 is a great example. This psalm was not written by David but by Asaph, which means that some people are beginning to understand it. 50:7, 8: (God is speaking). “Here, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God. I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. I have no need of a cow from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” God is not angry that they are offering sacrifices, but is beginning to show that they are not the main point of their relationship.
• We see this again with Solomon in Proverbs 21:3: “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than to sacrifice.”
• And more forcefully in Hosea 6:6: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offering.”

Jesus: Finally, in Jesus we have the full representation of God, which was gradually revealed throughout the OT. After Jesus, we do not need to offer sacrifices at all. Instead, the People of God (now the Christians) have the full representation of God in the form of Jesus and are taught by the Holy Spirit. (Only the prophets and some of the leaders had the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, but now all believers have the Holy Spirit.)

If you have any questions about this, please email me! Dr. Nickens

© 2020 Mark Nickens