The Old Testament as the Story of the Savior

On the Sunday before Christmas the Church prepare us to receive Christ by recalling the story of His ancestors. When most people read the Old Testament, which we should ALL read, they think they are reading the story of the saved people of God. While the Old Testament does in fact speak about the people of God whom God continues to save, if you take a closer look you will notice the story is really about the family tree of Jesus Christ.

Look very briefly at Genesis and you will see the story. Creation...Fall... First Promise...Sinful world gets out of control....Fall (Great Flood)....Promise (Noah)....Sinful world gets out of control....Fall (Tower of Babel)...Promise (Abraham)....Sinful world gets out of control....(slavery, plagues, famine, murder, etc). At the point when the whole world had fallen into a sinful state THEN the final Promise is fulfilled with the coming of God into the world. This is why the Gospel of Matthew begins with the generations of Christ from Abraham to Christ.

For Orthodox Christians the Old Testament always points toward Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is the story of how God ensured at every point when sin had spread to the furthest reaches of the world that He identified at least one righteous human being through which the family line of the savior could continue. God’s promise since the very first Fall has always been to save humanity from eternal death, and the celebration of Christmas is the celebration of the beginning days of that final promise as it became a reality.