The Old and the New Tie Things Together

 

One of the things I always find interesting in my daily study is how the Old Testament and the New Testament so often confirm each other.  In fact I believe that is one of the ways to check if I am on track with my beliefs.  Is what I believe confirmed by both the old and the new?   

Why is it important that it is confirmed in both?  For me it goes to the concept that God and Jesus are always in agreement.  I kind of see the OT as God's book and the NT as Jesus' book.  If they always agree then most of what  find in one book I should find in the other.  Does that make sense?

A few years ago I did a Bible Study on Revelation.  That book is so cryptic and hard to understand, at least for me, that I found an organized Bible study very helpful for that. 

One of the things that seemed new to me was the following verse.

Revelation 21:1(NKJV)

1Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 

A new Heaven and a new Earth.  Not the one we are living on now.  This one will be replaced by a new one.  I just don't remember being taught that when I was growing up. 

Well today as I was reading Isaiah these verses jumped out at me. 

Isaiah 24:17-23(NKJV)

17    Fear and the pit and the snare      Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.

18    And it shall be     That he who flees from the noise of the fear     Shall fall into the pit,     And he who comes up from the midst of the pit     Shall be caught in the snare;     For the windows from on high are open,     And the foundations of the earth are shaken.

19    The earth is violently broken,      The earth is split open,     The earth is shaken exceedingly.

20    The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,     And shall totter like a hut;     Its transgression shall be heavy upon it,     And it will fall, and not rise again.

21    It shall come to pass in that day      That the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones,     And on the earth the kings of the earth.

22    They will be gathered together,     As prisoners are gathered in the pit,     And will be shut up in the prison;     After many days they will be punished.

23    Then the moon will be disgraced     And the sun ashamed;     For the Lord of hosts will reign     On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem      And before His elders, gloriously.

Doesn't that sound like the earth "passing away" as Revelation put it?  And the rest of the passage seems to parallel a lot of what is in Revelation as well.  The Kings being gathered and sent to the pit etc.
 

 Pretty cool isn't it?