Romans 15:4

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.

This verse has left a mighty impact upon the minds of all who ever contemplated it. Adam Clarke, the great scholar of the 19th century, made this the motto of his life's work of a commentary on the entire Bible. The immediate application of the first clause in this verse is to the things writhed in Psalms 69, just cited; but it has a wider scope of application to all of the sacred scriptures, showing that the Old Testament, no less than the New Testament, bears a precious freight of relevance to all people of all ages; and, although many of the forms and shadows of the old order have been replaced by the realities of the new institution of Christ, a proper understanding of those glorious principles which, in the New Testament, have supplanted the types of the Old Testament, is surely promoted and enhanced by the study of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. John 5:39; 1 Corinthians 10:11, and many other New Testament passages affirm such to be the case, as well as the hundreds of New Testament quotations from the Old Testament, as here, and throughout the New Testament. Matthew alone quoted the Old Testament 66 times; and practically all of Hebrews is written with the Old Testament in view.

The patience of the Old Testament heroes of faith provides strong encouragement for Christians who must struggle with many of the problems and situations which confronted them. Glorious comfort is provided in the record of their ultimate triumph. It is a mistake, therefore, for Christians to confine their studies to the New Testament alone. There is many a cup of joy awaiting the careful student of the Old Testament.