"The Holy Scriptures"

2 Timothy 3:15-17 ¹⁵ and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 
¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Here the Apostle Paul is writing to his pupil and son in the Lord Timothy. Paul is reminding Timothy that he has known the Holy Scriptures, those taught to him as a child. What Holy Scriptures was Paul referring to? We have to remember that in the days of Jesus, and then Paul, there was no New Testament. Jesus and Paul were Jews and the only Holy Scriptures they had were the Hebrew Scriptures, what we now call the Old Testament. 

When Apostle Paul met the Lord on the road to Damascus (Acts 9), he had an encounter that changed his life. This event shook his whole understanding of what he believed. As a result, we can read in his letter to the Galatians that he had to take time to go and be with the Lord and seperate himself so he could make sense of it all.

Galatians 1:15-18 ¹⁵ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called methrough His grace, ¹⁶ to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to thosewho were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. ¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter,^[a] and remained with him fifteen days.

We can see here in Paul's own words that he took time to go to Arabia. After his encounter on the road to Damascus he went to the city, received his site, then was baptized and preached the Word. However, there is a period of time when he left Damascus and went to Arabia, before going back to Damascus. We don't know about his time in Arabia; how long it was or what he did. We can only imagine that all the events leading up to his conversion, and then his subsequent revelation of Jesus Christ in his life, must have left him with several questions. We can only imagine that as Paul went to Arabia he was filled with wonder and confusion. We have to remember that Paul was a pharisee of pharisees. He knew the Torah, and this belief in Jesus went completely against everything he had been taught. Knowing Paul's devout dedication to the Torah, we have to believe that he wanted to seek for answers in the only source he could believe in; the Torah of the Jews. It was during this time in Arabia that the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to Paul through the Hebrew Scriptures. We can see this evident in the fact that in many of his letters he quotes the Torah to support his statements of who Jesus was.

If we only live out of the New Testament, we are missing a HUGE portion of who we are in Christ Jesus. Jesus was a Jew, therefore He taught and lived according to the Jewish Torah. If we remove the basic foundation of our faith we are denying ourselves the completeness we have in Jesus. We need to be like Apostle Paul. We need to discover who Jesus is in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Torah, and He brings with Him the promises of God found in the Hebrew Scriptures. We need to discover our Jewish roots and reunite the two covenants through the revelation of who Jesus is. When we discover our Hebrew heritage, in light of the revelation of Jesus Christ, we can unlock the total blessings of God for our lives. There are many rich blessings found in the Jewish Torah and we as Christians have limited ourselves by not embracing our Jewish heritage in Jesus. 

Ephesians 2:11-14 "¹¹ Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation"

I pray that the Lord stirs within your heart a deep passion to dive in and discover the roots of your faith in Jesus Christ. It is a rich journey full of blessings. 

May the Shalom of God be over your life.

© 2011 Scott Wood - No distribution beyond personal use without permission