“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about Me…”
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.”
“He said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’”
The Bible can be overwhelming. Reading it can seem like a daunting task; understanding it, a whole different question. It’s made up of 66 distinct books, written by over 30 authors spanning thousands of years, civilisations and cultures. And none of those cultures are ours.
Yet, it is also one succinct story, which applies to our lives today. To put it in bite-size form, the Bible tells the story of God’s interaction with mankind – past, present, and future.
Going further, the Bible is one story pointing to Jesus, as many have nicely phrased it. Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and second coming are God’s plan of redemption for – and reconciliation with – the rebellious human race. In the first verse quoted above, Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews in Jerusalem, who were persecuting Him for supposedly breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Though they had extensive head knowledge of the Scriptures, Jesus accuses them of missing the point of those Scriptures: Him.
At that time, the Scriptures consisted of what Christians call the Old Testament and Jews call the Tanakh. The Tanakh is divided into 3 sections: the Torah or Law; the Nevi’im or Prophets; and the Ketuvim or Writings (if you’d like to know which books fall under each category, see the notes at the end of this post). In Luke 24:44, Jesus says everything must be fulfilled that is written about Him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.
The Law. The Prophets. The Psalms.
Are you seeing what I’m seeing?
By mentioning all 3 divisions of the Scriptures, Jesus was revealing that He exists not only in the four Gospels, but in every book of God’s word (which, after Jesus’ time on earth, expanded to include the New Testament).
This year, Skinneeds will be reading through the entire Bible. I’m beyond excited! However, in my experience, it’s easy for us to get lost and confused – particularly in the Old Testament. It is long and repetitive. It can feel irrelevant. It requires effort to translate what happened then, in a way we can understand now. And most crucially, its harmony with the good news of Jesus Christ is not always obvious.
So, after completing each book of the Bible, I’ll share a post on how I believe Jesus is foreshadowed, prophesied, or even makes a cameo, in it. We will see how, in Genesis, a mysterious man named Melchizedek sets a precedence of royal priesthood; in Job, an innocent man suffers the fate due a sinner; in Ezekiel, God vows to step in and personally shepherd His people Himself.
I invite you to come on this journey with me, regardless of whether you’re following the plan. At the very least, you’ll have more context and understanding of the Bible. But beyond that, my prayer is that through these blogs you and I will see Jesus more clearly – in His word, and in our lives.
“Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”
Notes: Division of the Tanakh
Torah (Law/Instruction): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Nevi’im (Prophets): Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel*, Kings*
Latter Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, The Twelve (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)
Ketuvim (Writings): Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah*, Chronicles*
*these books are split in two in the Bible