I said nothing contrary to your post.
I don't think so. If you are saved, you are reading it with at least a measure New Covenant understanding, even if you reject Covenant Theology.
Revmitchell said:
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The OT can stand on its own and be rightly understood without the NT.
The OC Scriptures describe a holy God dealing with, judging rebellious mankind, with the clear intention of perfect restoration to an eternal state. He does hate sin & sinners are condemned to hell for their sin, but he warns, & calls for repentance. The antediluvians had 100 years warning, with Noah preaching righteousness. The Sodomites were warned & rebuked by Lot, & the angels that delivered him.
Abraham & the Patriarchs lived among the Canaanites for 300 years which years of grace they used to fill up their iniquity. Judgment was delayed 400 years before Joshua led the children of Israel into the promised land, with the slaughter recorded in Scripture. Even then those who sought covenant protection from the invaders were spared & protected. (The Gibeonites)
Yes we do read of constant warfare, & the slaughter of children. Psalm 137 is a warning of coming judgment on Babylon. Collateral deaths.
BUT for all we read in the OT we find God weeping over the death the unrepentant -
Luke 19:41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
2 Peter 3: 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us,not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
What we learn from the NC is the "mystery" that believers of all nations become one body with believing Jews.
Eph. 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
God's dealings with Jew & Gentile are by one Gospel. The judgments of the nations we read about in the OC Scriptures await the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The nation calling itself "Israel" has no divine commission to take the land from the inhabitants, nor to wage war. They are living under the judgment of God, as are all unrepentant sinners.
If the want to act under the OC, they need to obey OC Scripture:
Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And work out evil on their beds!
At morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.
6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?