Dr. Toby Shockey is a teaching and preaching pastor and the founder of Mountain Time Ministries, based in the San Antonio, Texas area. “Mountain time” is based on another Old Testament passage from Exodus in which Moses speaks with God on the mountain. While Toby really does like the New Testament (really!), he truly enjoys the light and life provided for us in the Old Testament.

 

Some of the devotions in this book are not just from the Old Testament but are even from obscure, unexpected places in the Old Testament. Some of the passages will be familiar to you, but it’s likely that many of them will not be. And that’s by design. The Bible includes chapters and sections and even books that many of us rarely see, but hopefully a devotion from an obscure place in Scripture will whet the appetite.

​

But if you are still asking why the Old Testament, that’s a good question. After all, we are talking about the Old Testament. We might think of several reasons, but the main reason is that the Old Testament points to Jesus and is only understood in the light of Jesus. Not only is Jesus predicted and promised, but the story of God’s people reveals their desperate need for a Savior…and ours! Related to that, the Old Testament is as much the Word of God as the New Testament. The Bible that Jesus and all the New Testament writers read was the Old Testament. Our understanding of the New Testament is deeper and richer through the study of the Old.

​

Finally, when Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The writer of Hebrews added, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). With those descriptions in mind, let’s remember that the New Testament was still being written at the time. While we know these descriptions are true of the New Testament, they were primarily written about the Old. We read and study the Old Testament because it is powerful, relevant and life changing.