Knowing Jesus Through the OT: A Review by Vincent Eagan
Author: Bobby Valentine | Filed under: Bible, Books, Hebrew Bible, Ministry
Occasionally we have a guest writer on our blog. Today Vincent Eagan has shared a short review of an important and imminently readable book by Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. Vincent has developed his review as he chose and it has been placed here without any change except the addition of the link to get the book. (Bobby Valentine).
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While many in the church tend to gravitate to the New Testament, and treat the Old Testament as a sort of history book that teaches good morals, it is impossible to really understand the New Testament’s central figure – Jesus the Christ – without a good study of the Old Testament. Christopher Wright, an Old Testament Scholar, has made such a study, and of course continues that study as we all should daily. He brings the fruits of that study to the table to share with all in his book, Knowing Jesus Through The Old Testament.
This book is filled with the foreshadowing we see in the Old Testament, guiding us to see it in the same way Jesus and others in the first century would have, helping us to understand the Messianic tilt of the entire collection of history, law, prophecies, and literature. Everything we read in the Old Testament was chosen specifically by God to tell the story of His Son, and the great change his sacrifice would bring about. All questions about that sacrifice are answered: What it really was about, why it had to take place, and how it would affect not just Israel, but the whole of mankind. In order to do that, God wrote it into his whole word … into the scriptures. The New Testament tells us how this came about in real time, and the jump start it gave to the church, but to truly understand the grand scheme we need to travel back to the Old Testament. There, we can see that God had this planned from the beginning.
Some of the more obvious parallels are examined in depth. The Passover lamb in the Old Testament was sacrificed first by every Israelite household in Egypt, to save them from the angel of death. He would pass over the houses that had the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. There were several rules about the lamb each household could use … without blemish, no bones could be broken, when it was to be sacrificed, what was to be done with the remains. Wright then brings us to the New Testament and shows how Jesus is the Lamb that is the eternal sacrifice, once for all, and how he also fulfills each of these rules in a much broader context.
The suffering servant is seen in Isaiah 53. There was much discussion, even in the first century, about who that might be. Isaiah himself, Jeremiah, or was it even a real person. Wright shows us how the passage was a prophecy about Jesus, proving him to be the Messiah.
Other messianic prophecies are examined to see if Jesus fit the bill … one of the Davidic line, tribe of Judah. And yet, even though he was of that line and NOT Levi, he is also our High Priest. Wright explains how this is possible and what roles the High Priest had that Jesus fulfills.
One thing I enjoyed about this book was that, although I am a scholar, I could read this book without having to be one. What I mean is, Wright made it easy to understand what he was saying – anyone can read it and understand. Better than that, he shows how one must know Jesus better in order to follow him – so there is explanation as to why these things matter in the first place.
This book is helpful in leading the reader to a better understanding of how Jesus is both the finish and the fulfillment of the Old Testament narrative (as a whole). It is essential to both church leaders, and to lay persons.
Also by Vincent Eagan
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