The Big Picture:
Our final Covenant Reminder is "Study the Scriptures." Nothing reminds us more clearly of God's covenant than our regular reading and studying of His Word. Because the Bible is our record of God's relationship to with us, knowing and studying the Scriptures is critical to maintaining a Christ-centered life.
Jesus, our Rabbi, often spent time in the synagogues and the Temple studying and teaching on God's Word (for example, Luke 2:46-47, 4:16-21). Like those who went before Him, Jesus grounded His teaching in the Torah, the Poetry and the Prophets. Unlike those who preceded Him, Jesus also taught as though He had authority in Himself, not merely by extension of His understanding of Scripture (for example, Matthew 7:28-29).
Dust of the Rabbi: Covenant Reminder - Study the Scriptures
In the Old Testament, God commands His people to remember and reflect on His word continually. Even Torah (the Law) was not designed merely for obedience, but for also thoughtful contemplation. This is true of all of Scripture; while it contains many commandments, the majority of the Bible is not law, but story and poetry. Part of our work as followers of God, like Moses instructed the Israelites, is to write these stories on our hearts, homes, hands and children (see Deuteronomy 6:1-9).
Jesus spends a great deal of time in the Gospels talking about specific passages of Scripture and frames His purpose on earth as to "fulfill" the law and the prophets (see Matthew 5:17-26). This phrase, "to fulfill," may have many different meanings. Jesus fulfills the Law by obeying it perfectly, by giving us a more complete understanding of its real purpose, and by correctly interpreting it. This has less to do with "fulfilling" prophecies and everything to do with revealing God's purpose for our lives through His commandments.
For us today, continually studying God's word is one of the most important covenant reminders. Our goal is learning who God is and how He calls us to live. We must remember that Jesus authoritatively interprets the Word for us, and that He is always the lens through which we must read all of God's Holy Scripture. Do you make daily time to read God's Word? When you read, do you read in light of the One who has fulfilled it all?
Extras:
All books of Scripture are inspired by God, but all are not equal in significance in our reading of the Bible. Both Testaments have a set of books that are the core, or foundation, upon which the rest of the Testament is built. In the Old Testament, that foundation is the first five books, collectively called Torah or "the Law." In Jesus' day, there were two major Jewish groups (we might call them denominations) who had differing opinions on the Hebrew Bible. The Sadducees, the more powerful group who controlled the Temple, believed that only the Torah was rightfully called Scripture. The Pharisees, with whom both Jesus and modern Jews identify with theologically, believed that all of the Old Testament was inspired by God. However, even the Pharisees would agree (as we would today) that the rest of the Old Testament is God's expansion upon the covenant and commandments laid out in the Torah.
In the same way, the core of the New Testament is obviously the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They teach us the story of Jesus and the new covenant He made with us; the rest of the New Testament is a "fleshing out" of what we first find in the Gospels.
However, while both Testaments have what we might call "core" books, all the books of the Bible are inspired by the same divine Author, and therefore they all infallibly teach us who God is and how we are to obey Him.