Bible Overview

Steve Levy, Paul Blackham

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781781915929

Part One
What the Bible says about itself

1:1
The Bible’s about Jesus

Ever felt you’re missing the point?

Somebody decided to buy the Levy family Monopoly. (I cannot think of a more inappropriate present for a family with three boys who only ever played football!) But my sister insisted we should play it with her and so we did.

After an argument, over who would be the dog and the sports car, we started. The rules seemed pretty obvious so we ignored them. Three days later we were still playing. Nobody knew how to win or lose and by now rules were being invented as we argued through each lap of the board.

If only someone could have explained the purpose of the game, it might have been bearable.

I didn’t understand what I was playing, or why, and I hated every minute.

What does Jesus say the Bible is about?

Jesus says this, ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them’ (Matt. 5:17).

The word ‘fulfil’ is not referring to a handful of Old Testa-ment references – a verse predicting where Jesus would be born, a few verses hidden away in Isaiah about the suffering servant. Jesus is very clear. He didn’t come to destroy the Law and the Prophets. He is what they are all about. If we take Jesus out of the Old Testament it is little wonder it confuses us.

Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:27).

Not just some, not just bits to be read at Christmas – all. All of the Bible is about Jesus. You might be thinking, ‘I can’t see that’. Then something is wrong with the way you read it. Listen to Jesus again:

‘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.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations’ (Luke 24:44-47).

When our eyes are opened, we see that the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms have one message – Jesus’ suffering, His death, His resurrection and the offer of the gospel for everyone.

Moses explains Jesus

My eyes were opened to this truth, one humid June afternoon in a London Starbucks. I was deep in conversation with a well-known Bible scholar.

‘Jesus explains Moses,’ I said with great confidence and feeling very profound (it is amazing how pompous I can be). ‘Of course that’s true,’ he replied, ‘but the Bible’s emphasis is that Moses explains Jesus.’

Normally I would have started arguing straight away, but two things stopped me. First, as I thought of every text to prove he was wrong, I realized in fact that I was wrong. The second was he had just bought me a huge strawberry and cream something or other and if I were too aggressive he might not buy me another one!

It took me five minutes and a lot of slurping to admit that he was right. I left with considerably better theology.

When you listen to Jesus, Moses and the Prophets have already explained who He is and what He does.

‘If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me’ (John 5:46).

Hold on. Isn’t the New Testament about Jesus and the Old – well who knows? Listen to this verse:

‘I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen – that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles’ (Acts 26:22-23).

Do you see: ‘nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen.’ When you are reading any of the Old Testament books, whether Numbers, Leviticus, Kings or Chronicles, you are reading about the gospel of Jesus Christ. You are not reading an illustration of the gospel, you are not reading stories that can be reinterpreted in the light of the gospel. You are reading God’s clear word about Jesus. That is how the Bible sees itself.

The Old Testament is not a riddle that no one can make head or tail of until Jesus comes along and unravels it all. If you believe that, it doesn’t take long to draw the conclusion (even subconsciously) that there’s little point reading the Old, you might as well go straight to the explanation in the New. The Bible simply won’t let you do that.

Still confused? Listen to Jesus as He tells the story of the rich man who wants his five brothers saved from hell:

‘Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’(Luke 16:28b-31).

Moses and the Prophets tell us enough about Jesus to save us from hell. They are more impressive than seeing someone raised from the dead – that makes for pretty essential reading! The glory of the resurrection is seen not only in the gospels, but in all the Scriptures. Jesus Himself tells us that the Old Testament prophecies about Him (and His resurrection) are the most convincing evidence.

Both Peter and Paul use the same argument. If you’ve read Moses you should understand Jesus and His work:

‘But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’

Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days’ (Acts 3:18-24).

They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day… he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets (Acts 28:23).

Paul was able to perform great miracles. He spoke tongues more than any man. He was inspired by the Spirit to write most of the New Testament. He has an opportunity to evangelize a large number of people – so where does he start? Which Bible passage does he use to explain the good news about Jesus? With his Old Testament in one hand, he preaches about the wonderful salvation they can know in Jesus from the ‘Law of Moses and from the Prophets’.

An overview of main themes

We have seen that the best interpreter of the Bible is the Bible. We have seen that all of the Bible is about Jesus and that the Old Testament explains truths about Jesus. So let’s conclude with some of the great truths that are revealed to us about Jesus throughout the Bible:

• Through Jesus the world is made

(Gen. 1:1-3; John 1:1-3).

• The gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to Abraham

(Gen. 15:1-4; Gal. 3:8).

• Jesus is the ‘I am’ who redeems Israel

(Exod. 3:13-14; John 8:58).

• Jesus gives the inheritance of the land

(Judg. 2:1-4; Heb. 9:15).

• Jesus is the Son of David who brings a kingdom that will not end

(Ps. 2:2-7; Luke 1:32-33).

• Jesus is the servant who explains the exile and brings its end

(Isa. 42:1-9; Matt. 1:17).¹

• The Spirit of Christ testifies to the prophets about Jesus’ suffering and the glories that will follow

(Isa. 53; 1 Pet. 1:11).²

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1 The Old Testament Scriptures, as Jesus and the apostles knew them, ended with 2 Chronicles, and that book ends with the people still in exile waiting for the Christ.

2 There is so much more! As the rest of this book will show!

1:2
It’s always been about Jesus

I had an interesting conversation once with a man who held quite a position of authority in a Bible-believing church. After the service he took me to one side and said the most remarkable thing.

‘There are many ways to come to God. You don’t have to come through Jesus. In fact I didn’t know anything about Jesus when I became a Christian.’

A little taken aback, I explained that there has only ever been one way to God – through Jesus. Sadly he simply shrugged his shoulders

The Bible is explicitly clear. You cannot know God without Jesus.

Many people get confused with the Old Testament believers. They came to God somehow but not as we come now, not directly through Jesus. But look at the texts:

Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6).

‘All things have been committed to me by my Father. No-one knows the Son except the Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him’ (Matt. 11:27).

To know the Father you need Jesus. If you don’t know Jesus you don’t know the Father. Jesus does not say that this truth applies from now on. This truth is universal, for all time and eternity. Either we come to God through Jesus or it’s not God that we’re coming to. And that applies to every single believer in the Old Testament – they came to the Father as we come – through Jesus. John expands on this:

No-one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known (John 1:18).

Hang on a minute. No one has ever see God? Hasn’t John read the Old Testament? The Lord appears to people all the time. He appears first to Adam in the garden, then to Noah and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses.

But of course he hasn’t got it wrong. The Lord who appears is Jesus. They didn’t see the Father – they saw Jesus who made the Father known to them.

What did Jesus do for the Old Testament believers?

The result of knowing Jesus is always the same – as we come to God through Jesus we receive his righteousness and we are put right with God. When the Law and the Prophets speak about righteousness and salvation there is only one place that it can be found.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify (Rom. 3:21).

‘But my righteousness will last for ever, my salvation through all generations’ (Isa. 51:8b).

Salvation has not changed and cannot change. To quote the famous verse:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8).

Did all of the Old Testament believers know the Jesus we know?

The book of Romans is written to explain the gospel. After giving one of the most detailed explanations of how the gospel of God works in chapter 3, in chapter 4, Paul looks for some genuine examples of saving faith. Where does he turn but to Abraham and David?

These men are examples of how to believe in Jesus – example Christians if you like. On top of Paul’s argument in Romans, there are many other instances of the New Testament going back to these Old Testament believers.

Abraham

Jesus knew exactly what Abraham thought about Him:

‘Your Father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad’ (John 8:56).

David

Peter explains exactly what David thought about Jesus. David always saw Jesus. David knew and spoke of the resurrection in great detail. David called Jesus ‘Lord’.

David said about him: ‘“I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken”’ (Acts 2:25).

‘Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay’ (Acts 2:31).

Jesus knew exactly what David thought about him:

‘How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him “Lord”?’ (Matt. 22:43).

Mark and Luke emphasize the same point in their gospels, it is so important.

Moses

Moses as the writer of the first five books of the Bible towers over the Old Testament. What made him great?

He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward (Heb. 11:26).

Moses left everything for Christ. You can’t have the kind of impact Moses had without knowing Jesus.

The Israelites

Jesus was with the Israelites in the wilderness day by day as he is with us.

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:1-4).

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe (Jude 5 esv).

Isaiah and the prophets who followed him

Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him (John 12: 41).

The gallery of faith

This is why in Hebrews 11 there are so many examples of Christian faith (as if there was any other kind of faith). Believers in the Old Testament had the same relationship with God that you and I have. They are as much our examples of how to live for Jesus as New Testament believers.

So how does that work?

When I was starting out as a preacher (I had preached the sum total of one sermon on a Sunday to a church congregation) I was asked to preach at a communion service. What on earth was I to say? I rang my pastor Paul Tucker for advice.

‘Summarize communion as it summarizes our faith.’

‘Exactly how would I do that?’

Silence. I could sense his disappointment at one of his many protégées, as he once called us. And then came a sermon well worth stealing.

‘We look back at the cross of Jesus, we look up to the ascended Jesus. We look forward to Christ’s return.’

I added we look around at Jesus’ church, so I could feel at least part of it was mine!

The Old Testament believer looked up to the pre-incarnate Christ and on occasions (as we shall see) met with Him. He looked forward to the cross of Jesus and he looked further forward to His return. And he looked around at His gathered church.

Hardly a huge difference!

What did they call Him?

I have been called many names in my lifetime – ‘Rabs’ (short for Rabbi – the downside of a Jewish surname), ‘milkman’, ‘fat boy’, ‘Bible-basher’, ‘vicar’, ‘Levy’ and a few others not repeatable in a Christian book. Some of them describe who I am, others how I look and others, what I do. But if I am with someone who really knows me, they call me by my name, Steve.

In the New Testament Jesus is called many names – ‘Immanuel’, ‘Master’, ‘Good teacher’, ‘Son of Man’. All of these names sum up an aspect of His character or person. But His best name, the name we know Him by is the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Old Testament Jesus also has many names – the ‘Angel of the Lord’, the ‘Commander of the Lord’s army’, ‘Son of Man’ and sometimes simply the ‘Lord’.

So when reading the Old Testament, should we say it is Jesus speaking and call Him by the name we are most familiar with? God inspired the writer to the Hebrews to do just that (Heb. 2:11-12). Should we say Jesus appeared in the Old Testament? John does just that (John 12:41). Should we refer to the Old Testament people of God as the church? God inspired Stephen to do just that (Acts 7:38).

So let’s follow the Bible’s example and use names that help us to apply the Bible to our own lives.¹

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Table of contents

• Testimonials
• Title
• Indicia
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Visit Christian Focus
• Introduction: Who will show me what the Bible says?
• Part One What the Bible says about itself
• Part Two Creation to new creation
• Part Three Father Abraham
• Part Four Redemption
• Part Five Promised land
• Part Six Kings to exile
• Part Seven Latter prophets
• Part Eight The writings
• Part Nine The gospels
• Part Ten Acts and the church
• Part Eleven The church in Revelation
• Appendices
• Christian Focus Publications