When Jesus walked the earth He often came into conflict with the religious Pharisees. There were many reasons for this, but perhaps the most significant reason was due to the Pharisees commitment to their traditional view of bible interpretation. They simply could not, and would not, allow themselves to interpret the Bible from any other perspective; after all, they were the experts! In one such conflict Jesus rebuked the Pharisees by saying:

“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” John 5:39-40

They studied the Old Testament diligently, but they didn’t study with the perspective of looking for Jesus. Now I think, in all fairness, it was a tough ask of the Pharisees. They didn’t really see this coming; they were confronted from one moment to the next with a whole new way of understanding God, theology and the Bible.

As the church however, we’ve had Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Apostles and 2,000 years of awareness, we should know by now that this is how we should be studying the Bible. Looking for the person of Jesus and His testimony throughout all the Scriptures is the most important, and perhaps the only way we should be seeking to understand what the Bible is trying to tell us.

I believe that the whole bible is testifying to mankind about the person of Jesus. In my opinion, the Bible is not a moral guideline, a life coaching manual or a rulebook for living. It is a biography of the life of Jesus!

Jesus is just as present in the Old Testament as He is in the New; we just have to be willing to look for Him. With this in mind I am going to start blogging my discoveries of Jesus in the Old Testament, starting with Genesis. I’ll be starting from tomorrow’s blog, so stay tuned!!

Blue skies,
Mick