Dear Editor,
I agree with James Williams (‘Jesus on every page’, September en) that we should use all the Scriptures in our preaching. But if we only see OT characters as types of Jesus, I feel we are missing out on many important lessons that need to be learnt.
The OT has teaching which is founda-tional to our faith (Creation, the Law, the nature of sin etc). And because many people in this country have little or no knowledge of any part of the Bible, we need to lay this foundation before they see their need of forgiveness through the death of Christ. But also, there is much practical teaching to be learnt as we look at characters such as David, Job, Jeremiah etc and see how they found God in their need.
The NT assumes a knowledge of the OT, so it does not repeat lessons which are clearly taught there. By all means, let us see how the OT points forward to the coming of Christ, but let us also be willing to learn the obvious lessons to be learnt by taking the OT characters as real people who found God in their time of need.
Yours sincerely,
