Reading the Old Testament can seem like exploring an old, mysterious mansion, packed with all sorts of strange rooms. The creation room vast and sublime, the exodus room with hardhearted pharoahs and dried up sees. The war room, with bloody swords and crumbling walls. The tabernacle room, with smoking altars and dark inner sanctums. What does this odd and ancient world have to do with us, who are modern followers of Jesus? As it turns out, everything! Every chapter in the Old Testament, in a variety of ways, tells the story that culminates in Jesus our Savior. What Christians today call the Old Testament is what Jesus and the earliest Believers called the Scriptures. This was their Bible. From its pages they taught about the Messiah–His divine nature, His priestly work, and his ministry of salvation.

by Chad Bird