Today I began my Christmas sermons for this year. My text today was Hebrews 1:1, “Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways.” In the Old Testament, whatever the portion proclaimed, and whatever the method, the important fact was that God was doing the speaking. God was in the prophets, controlling their thoughts and guiding their words. The same God who speaks in the New Testament also speaks in the Old. We must think of both testaments with equal reverence. The Old Testament is also God's Word. "It was our Savior's Bible" (F. B. Meyer). Jesus loved it, and fed on it.
Neither testament would be complete without the other. One is the plant in full bloom, the other the seedbed. The roots of Christianity are buried deep in Judaism. The Old is fulfilled in the New, the New is built on the Old. For instance, Leviticus "lives" when studied in the light of Hebrews, and Hebrews is impossible to completely understand without Leviticus.
Our writer believed God wrote the Old Testament. Hebrews gives abundant proofs of the verbal inspiration of Scripture. In referring to Old Testament passages, our writer usually makes no mention of an author's name, but instead speaks of the passages as emanating from God Himself.
Whether Old Testament or New, it is God who speaks. He inspired the writers, who wrote His utterances.
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