I have a question for you guys. I don't know if y'all ever relate to this. Has anyone ever woken up in the morning to read your Bible? You actually wake up. The alarm goes off, and you're like, okay, this is going to be great. You grab your coffee mug, you know, the Hebrews coffee mug we talked about last week, the only one you need to have. You grab that coffee mug and you start reading your Bible, and you're so proud of yourself. You finish your Bible reading, and then you have this moment where you look up and you're like, I have no idea what I just read. Anyone ever had that, where you're reading the Bible and you're like, wait, I don't think I understood a word of that?

I would almost guarantee that if you've ever had that moment, it happened because you were reading the Old Testament. You went in and you were like, what is going on? All these weird sacrifices. None of this makes sense. And what I want to do today is help you with that.

Last week we started a brand-new series called How to Read the Bible. The reason we did this series is that coming into Easter, we surveyed and asked, "What are some of the things y'all want to know about? What are some things you're struggling with?" And almost the number one request, time and time again, was, "Can you just help me read the Bible?" I think we know the Bible is true. I think we know the Bible has the words of eternal life. I think we know there's so much good in it. But what we can't understand is, if it's so good, why is it so hard to understand?

How should you approach reading the Bible?

Last week we talked about an approach to studying the Word. There are a couple of things you need to know whenever you read the Bible. Number one, you have to choose a translation you understand. The King James is great, but I have no idea what it's saying. It sounds like Shakespeare. "Thou, hither, thou therefore." I have no idea what you just said. You want to pick a translation you understand. The second thing is you want to choose a time, a place, and a plan that you'll keep. And the third thing is you want to choose the right approach.

The approach we talked about is what we called the safe approach. Whenever you're reading the Bible, you have to observe the text. What do I see? You're reading slowly and asking, who was this written to? What are they saying? Why are they saying it? You're just making observations as you read.

The second thing you have to do is understand the text, and you do that by asking, what does it mean? Not what does it mean to us. What did it mean to them? That's an ancient context, and we're a modern context. Only once you understand what it meant to them can you bridge the text and bring it into our modern world. You say, okay, I understand what it meant to them, and now I know what it can actually mean to me. And the final thing is you have to apply the text.

The problem comes when we skip the middle steps. This is how cults are formed. You observe the text, and then you just start applying. Let me prove it to you with a couple of scriptures. Imagine if you went straight to applying these.

Romans 16:16: "Greet one another with a holy kiss." It's in the Bible. Imagine you come to Spirit Church and everyone's just doing that. That is a great way to shut down a church. You can't just go and apply that, kids.

Here's another one. 1 Timothy 5:23: "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine." Some of y'all have never taken notes before, and you're like, that's good, I'm writing that one down. The apostle said it. The preacher said it. "Babe, no water, only wine for me from here on out. It's in the Bible."

I'll give you one more you can't just apply. 1 Timothy 2:8: "I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands." Say "every place." Not only in worship, but at Starbucks. At the gym. Imagine you're about to bench press: "Jesus, help me. It says I need to lift up holy hands." That's weird. This was written to an ancient context, and you have to understand it so you can apply it rightly.

The Bible talks about that. James 1:22 says this: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

Why should Christians read the Old Testament?

So what I want to do today is help you approach the Old Testament in about 30 minutes. Y'all pray for me. I need to try to give you the whole Old Testament in 30 minutes, and it's important. Because this is what Paul says: "All Scripture." Say "all Scripture." "All Scripture is God-breathed." There is power in these pages. "And is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."

We need this more than ever, because we're in a culture that says, "No, I don't want to change my life. I want to morph the Word of God so it approves of the lifestyle I've already chosen." I don't want to change myself for it. No. We need the Word of God, because the Bible shows us where we're deficient. It shows us when we don't have what we need to have. But it also shows us who we can become. In Jesus, we can become something greater. We don't change the Bible to fit us. We change us to fit the Word of God.

"So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Every good work. That's in your marriage. That's in your life. That's in your job. This Word has everything we need. And when those words were written, they weren't written about the New Testament. Paul was writing about the Old Testament. It has everything we need. Let us not neglect that book. That was Jesus' Bible.

What is a testament?

So I want to help you understand the Old Testament. First, let me explain what a testament is. Say "testament." A testament is a covenant. And you're like, "That helped me nothing." Okay, what is a covenant?

A covenant is like a contract, but different. The way a contract works is that two parties agree to something, and if either party breaks the agreement, the contract is void. A covenant says, "We're making an agreement, and even if you fail, I will uphold my side of the bargain." A contract says, "If you do your part, I'll do mine." A covenant says, "I'm committed even when you fail." So God initiates it, God sets the terms, and God keeps His promise.

That's why when we enter into marriage, we don't enter into a contract. We enter into a covenant. We say for better or for worse, in sickness and in health. We're making a covenant in that moment.

In the Old Testament there are a bunch of them. God makes a covenant with Abraham based on faith: "I will bless you." God makes a covenant with Moses and his people: "If you follow these laws, I'm going to make you My people." God makes a covenant with David: "From your line a king will be born." And then, of course, we have the new covenant.

What is the difference between the Old and New Covenant?

Let me show you the differences between the old covenant and the new covenant. This will help you understand it. The Old Testament tells the story of a people, but the New Testament tells the story of a person. The Old Testament centers around Abraham and Moses, the faith covenant and the law covenant, but the New Testament centers around Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We now place our faith in Jesus. The Old Testament centers around Sinai and Israel, but the New Testament centers around the cross. The Old Testament shows the wrath of God against sin, with a little bit of mercy. But the new covenant shows the grace of God toward sinners, with a little wrath. Aren't you grateful for the grace of God? And I love this: the Old Testament writes the laws on tablets, but the New Testament writes the laws on our hearts.

And it matters. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

What is the Old Testament about?

In this series I'm a little more teacher than preacher, but I'm trying to help you understand this whole picture. Here's a question. Have y'all ever had a moment when your spouse or your friend is watching a show, and they're in season two, and you try to jump in, and you're like, "What is going on?" My wife does this all the time. She's like, "There's Jimmy, and Jimmy really loves Sally, but Sally is sick. And then there's this guy named James. Oh, you need to watch out for James." And I can't figure out what's going on. I'm jumping into the middle of the story, and it makes no sense.

That's often what we do with the Old Testament. We jump in in the middle, and then we're like, "Why are you boiling goats in their mother's milk? I don't understand. What is actually happening?" More often than not, you have to go to the beginning. So that's what I want to do. I want to go to the beginning and help you understand the entire framework that is the Old Testament.

There are four main movements in the Old Testament: creation, covenant, kingdom, and collapse. Creation: God creates the heavens and the earth. Then covenant: after they have sinned, He makes a covenant with His people, saying, "I'm going to be your God." He establishes a kingdom by the name of Israel. And then that kingdom collapses. You want to know what the Old Testament is about? That. They tried everything to get to God, and it didn't work.

How are the books of the Old Testament organized?

If you have your Bibles, open to the table of contents. There are 39 books in the Old Testament, and I want you to understand them, because your Bible is not laid out chronologically. Y'all know that? If you think it's laid out chronologically, the New Testament is going to mess you up. You're going to be like, "It's crazy. In Matthew, Jesus was born, He lived a life, He died, and then all of a sudden He's a baby again." Nope, that's called the four Gospels. They tell the same story. It is not chronological. And you might think your Old Testament is chronological, but most of it is not.

It's broken up into four sections. You have the Law, or the Torah, or the Pentateuch. You have History. You have Poetry. And then you have the Prophets.

The Law is the first five books of the Bible. These are the books Moses would have written, Genesis through Deuteronomy. It's creation, it's the enslavement in Egypt, it's their freedom, and it takes them to the edge of the promised land.

Then you get the History section, Joshua through Esther. They enter the promised land. God gives them this land, but, dun dun dun, they're disobedient. And what happens is they get exiled. They were once enslaved and then freed, and now they go from freedom back to slavery. They're held in what is now modern-day Iraq for 70 years. Their kingdom is completely destroyed. Jerusalem is completely destroyed. And it ends with them coming back to rebuild.

It's broken into three sections. You get the pre-monarchy, before the kings come into the picture. That's Joshua and Judges, and that's all chronological. Then you have Ruth, which spotlights a moment in that period. It's kind of like a recap. Then you get the actual monarchy: 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles. 1 Samuel through 2 Kings is chronological, and then 1 and 2 Chronicles recaps it. That's the monarchy. Then you get the post-monarchy, where Ezra and Nehemiah come and rebuild the walls. And then Esther recaps something that's happening in that moment. Does that make sense? So that's the History.

Then you get into Poetry and Wisdom, Job through Song of Solomon. And then you get the Prophets. There are 17 prophets. Five of them are called the major prophets. Say "major." They're not called major because they're important. They're called major because they are long. And then you get the minor prophets, and they're called minor because they are short.

Y'all get the 50,000-foot view? Is it okay if I just teach today? That's the entire picture of the Old Testament. Now pray for me. Holy Spirit, help. In 25 minutes I'm going to zoom in on all of those books and help you understand them. I'm going to spend most of the time in the first five books of the Bible. So if you're like, "Man, he spent seven minutes on Genesis," you're going to be good. Trust me.

What is the book of Genesis about?

The first book of the Bible is what? Genesis. We can start there. Genesis is incredible. I'll give you the main idea, some key themes, and some scripture. If you're looking for what Genesis is all about, it's this: God creates, but man corrupts.

In the beginning, God creates the earth, and He creates humankind to be in relationship with Him. But the problem is that sin enters. Sin enters in Genesis 3. Satan comes, and sin fractures everything. All of a sudden they are separated from God, and death comes to the earth. If you're wondering why there is sin, why there is evil, Genesis explains that it's because we sinned against the mighty God. We are separated from Him, and death comes.

Some of you are in this place. You feel chaos in your life. You feel death in your life, and you feel like you've been separated from God. Let me tell you, that's sin. But the beautiful thing about Jesus is that when we come and say, "Jesus, be my Lord," He brings us back into relationship with Him.

In Genesis 3, they are taken out of the garden, because God doesn't want them to eat from the tree of life and lock in a state where they're forever separated from Him. So they start multiplying and having dominion over the earth, and everybody goes bad. So God says, "We're going to press reset. We're going to restart this whole thing. Noah, you're My guy. I'm about to wipe out everyone." The flood comes and wipes out everyone, and God says, "Okay, we're going to restart this with Noah." And then what happens? Everyone starts multiplying again and building again, and they get evil too.

That's the story. All of a sudden there's this one-world government. They're coming together to build the Tower of Babel. Or Babel. I don't know how you say it here in America. How do y'all say it? Okay, we'll go with Babel. My South African is showing. They build the Tower of Babel, and God says, "No, no, no, we're not going to do this." He comes down and confuses their languages, and all of a sudden the nations are born. That's Genesis 1 through 11.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph

The second part of Genesis is the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Because of the corruption, God comes and makes a covenant with Abraham, saying, "Through you I'm going to create nations." A key verse of Genesis is Genesis 12:3: "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." I want you to understand this. God came to save through a people.

He comes to Abraham and says, "I'm going to choose you. I'm going to build a nation from you." The problem is that Abraham and his wife Sarah were infertile. So God is calling something out of him that he couldn't even see in himself. And I think someone needs to hear that today. Sometimes God is going to come and start calling potential out of you that you don't even see in yourself. If God says something about your life, even if you can't see it, if He's calling something out, if He said it, He can do it. That's the story of Abraham. "You can't see it right now, but I do. And if I say it, it can be true, and it will be."

But Abraham doubts. He says, "I'm going to take matters into my own hands, because God is taking His time." So he takes Hagar, his wife's handmaiden, and he says, "I'm going to lie with her, and we're going to start the nation through her." And Ishmael is born. Not part of God's plan at all. And that forms 12 tribes. Even now, you can trace the Arab tribes back to Ishmael.

And then finally God comes through, and Isaac is born. Then Jacob has 12 sons, which form the 12 tribes of Israel. Eventually his name changes to Israel. He has these 12 sons, and there's the 11th son, named Joseph. Say "Joseph."

Here's the problem: Joseph was his favorite. Parents in the room, don't have favorites. It messes a whole bunch of things up. And that's exactly what happens. The brothers get jealous and say, "No, this can't be." So they get rid of Joseph. They sell him into slavery. The next thing you know, Joseph is in Egypt, but God is with him. Which means that even if people stand against you, if God has a plan for your life, He's going to make it come true no matter what.

He steps into Egypt, and all of a sudden he has this favor. A famine is coming, and because he's next to Pharaoh, God gives him insight that it's about to happen. They prepare, and there comes a point where all the nations are coming to Pharaoh, even Joseph's brothers. They come begging for food, and Joseph recognizes them. And watch this moment in Genesis 50:20: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."

That preaches to me, because there are moments when what the enemy meant to destroy you, God can use to propel you. In that moment they tried to destroy him, and he says, "No, no, no. What you meant for evil, God meant for good." Does that sound like anything? Jesus. Jesus on the cross. The enemy meant it for evil, and God said, "You have no idea what I'm doing, because what you mean for evil right now, I'm about to turn for good." Jesus is our greater Joseph. All throughout the Bible you see these pictures of Jesus.

How Genesis gives us our theology

Something you need to understand about Genesis is that it gives us so much of our theology. There's something called the law of first mention: anytime you see something for the first time in the Bible, it sets the trajectory for everything else. It's in the first three chapters of Genesis that we get our major theology.

What do we get? We get the doctrine of God. God is uncreated. He is sovereign. He is all-powerful. He is all-good. He is all-knowing. He is triune. He says, "Let us make mankind in our image." You see that right there.

We get the doctrine of man. God says, "Let us make mankind in our image," and from the dust He forms man, the very fingerprint of God. Let me just say this: when you realize that, you realize the value of people. It doesn't matter what race you are. It doesn't matter what socioeconomic status you come from. It doesn't matter what gender you are. You are valuable in the sight of God. That's why racism is evil. That's why sexism is evil. Because every single one of us is an image bearer, a fingerprint, made in the image of our God. We get the doctrine of man right there in Genesis.

We get the doctrine of sin and shame. They fall into sin, and they're separated from God.

You get the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. What is that? Something has to die to cover us. They sin, so they grab leaves and cover themselves. And God kills an animal and makes them clothing. Something died for the first time to cover us. And later, someone else is going to have to die to cover us. Right there in Genesis 1 to 3.

But the beautiful thing is that you also get the doctrine of grace. Adam falls into Satan's temptation, but then God prophesies about Jesus. Check this out. Genesis 3:15: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

What does that mean? It says that at some point you're going to attack. You're going to wound Jesus. But you're going to hit His heel and wound Him, and He is going to crush your head. One is not fatal. The other one is. Yes, you're going to put Him on the cross, and there's going to be harm, but ultimately, in the end, you're going to be defeated. God literally prophesies about Jesus in Genesis 1 to 3. Insane.

Here's what you need to know about Genesis. It's a story of this: if God starts it, He will finish it. That's Genesis. Now, I'm definitely not going to spend as much time on everything else, but you need to know that. Genesis is so important.

What is the book of Exodus about?

The second book is Exodus, which means this: God frees. Remember Joseph? Joseph was successful. His brothers come to visit him, and Pharaoh gives them land. Over 400 years, they multiply. They have all this land. Meanwhile, the Egyptians give their land to Pharaoh in exchange for food, because the famine is happening.

Four hundred years later, the people are still there, and a new Pharaoh who doesn't know Joseph looks around and says, "Why are the people of God so blessed?" So he says, "I'm going to enslave them." And that's exactly what happens. The people start crying out to God, and God raises up someone named Moses. The key verse of Exodus is Exodus 6:7: "I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians."

He says, "I'm bringing them out." How does He do it? Plagues. These ten plagues. People often get uncomfortable reading about the plagues. You need to know that in the Old Testament, God would use the people of God to bring judgment and blessing. It's different from the New Testament. Why? Remember what He said to Abraham: "Whoever blesses you, I will bless. Whoever curses you, I will curse." So if you see judgment being poured out through the people of God in the Old Testament, that's why it's happening.

What most people don't know is that the plagues actually track back to gods the Egyptians worshiped. Exodus 12:12: "I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt." They had a god named Ra. Say "Ra." It was the sun god. So God says, "Great. I'm going to block out the sun." They worshiped the Nile, the bringer of life. And He says, "Nope. I'm going to turn it to blood, and it's going to kill every living thing in there." "Oh, you like to worship frogs because of fertility? Great. I'm going to bring so many frogs that you're going to want to kill them." What is He saying? "I'm greater."

And then the final plague happens. He says, "I'm going to kill the firstborn, but I won't kill the firstborn if everyone kills a lamb and puts its blood over their doorposts." The angel of death comes, and the people of God who do that are safe. That's called the Passover. Another picture of Jesus.

So Pharaoh says, "Get out of here," and they cross through the Red Sea. Watch this. Moses lifts up a stick, the Red Sea parts, they go through it, and they go from a place of slavery to a place of freedom. Does that look familiar? He lifts up a stick, and they pass through. Jesus is lifted up on the cross, and we go through the waters of baptism. We go from slavery, we cross through the water, and we are free. It's a picture of baptism. Throughout the Old Testament, Jesus is everywhere. So they cross into the wilderness, and God is with them. And that's where the book of Exodus ends.

Why does Leviticus matter?

And then we get to our favorite book that I know all of you love: Leviticus. How many of you love Leviticus? You're like, "Man, I don't like it. None of this makes sense." I actually think Leviticus is one of the greatest books.

God brings this covenant at Mount Sinai. It's the Mosaic covenant. And Leviticus is a book about how a holy God can be with wretched people like me. They're coming out of Egypt, and they're wretched. Let me just say it: they're wretched. And God is saying, "I can't be with you. My wrath will smite you. I can't be in relationship." And Leviticus is a picture of a God who loves them so much that He says, "I'm so righteous that I can't be in relationship with you, but if you do these things, you will be less wretched, and I can come and finally be with you." In Leviticus, He puts these laws in place. He builds His tabernacle, and His presence comes, because He so desires to be with you.

The book of Leviticus is about this: God will do anything in His power to be in relationship with you. It's actually a book about love. Ain't that crazy?

Why couldn't Israel eat shellfish?

And you're like, "But Brad, I don't get it. What's up with the shellfish thing? I like shellfish. Why can't they eat shellfish?" You need to know this: they didn't have the same cleanliness standards we do. So there were things that were unclean.

Here's the big scripture. Leviticus 19:2: "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.'" In that moment God is saying, "I'm setting you apart because I am set apart." If you ate shellfish, you were going to get sick, because you couldn't clean it right, and you were going to get disease. Why are all the purification laws in there? Because if they didn't follow them, the entire nation would become contaminated. He was putting things in place so the people of God would be the healthiest people on earth, and the nations would look at them and say, "Wow, your God is so wise." That's the reason for all of that. There are moral laws, which are great, and you see a lot of them continue in the New Testament. The reason the other stuff falls away is that it was for a time and a place.

My favorite part of Leviticus is Leviticus 16, the Day of Atonement. They would take two goats. One of them they would kill. The other one they would speak over and send into the wilderness, and all the sins would go into the wilderness. It was called the Day of Atonement, because everyone's sins would be forgiven.

Does that look familiar? That's a picture of who? Jesus. He gets on a cross, and in that moment, just like they killed that goat, the Lamb of God is slain. And not only that, He's also separated, the same way they sent the goat into the wilderness. Jesus is separated, because He says, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The Day of Atonement was a day when everyone's sins would be forgiven, and Jesus gets on the cross, and all of our sins are forgiven. He is our great atonement. Did you know there's so much in Leviticus? Leviticus is amazing.

Numbers and Deuteronomy

And then we get to the book of Numbers, because we're all counting. Numbers is basically the story of a journey that should have taken 11 days but takes 40 years, because of their disobedience. What season in our lives are we about to delay because, like them, we're being disobedient to what God called us to do?

In the first part there's a census, and it's an unbelieving generation. They're like, "Give us water." So God's like, "Here's some water." And they're like, "No, I want Perrier. I want Fiji water. That's what I want." "Give me meat." And He gives them quail, and they're like, "No, I want provolone." They complain and they complain. And God gets to a place where He says, "No one in this generation will enter the promised land. Instead I'm going to raise up a new generation, a Joshua generation, that's actually going to step into that place." What seasons in our lives are we delaying? What should take 11 days takes 40 years. That entire generation dies out, and there's a new generation. And God says to Moses, "You're not going to enter the promised land either."

So Moses writes this book called Deuteronomy. It's his final sermon, his last words. He recaps the story, and what he's saying is, "Please, please, please love God. This is who you are. This is your story. This is what it means to be an Israelite. I am begging you, when you enter this new land, love God." A key scripture is Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy is a book about love.

The rest of the Old Testament: history, wisdom, and the prophets

So let me recap everything that happens from here on out. That's the big thrust of the Old Testament you have to understand.

In Joshua, they enter the land, but they don't fully possess it. God says, "Go take everyone out." Again, God is bringing judgment on a people far from Him. And they don't do it. I need you to understand this: partial obedience is disobedience. There are some things God has called some of you to do, and you're not actually doing them. The book of Joshua shows us we have to obey fully. Joshua 21:45 says, "Not one of all the Lord's good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." God held His side. They didn't hold theirs. So they take the land, but they don't take it fully. The 12 tribes split into 12 regions.

Then you get the book of Judges, and the book of Judges is terrible, because you have these judges who rule and try to help, and some of them are good. But the people start sinning, and God rebukes them, and they confess, and another judge restores them, and it's this entire downward spiral as people go deeper into sin. That's the book of Judges.

Then you have the story of Ruth, which is a snapshot within the time of the Judges. It shows a Moabite woman who is widowed, and God uses Boaz to restore her. It's a picture of Jesus.

Right after the Judges, everything is descending. Everything's awful. And the people say, "We want a king." And God says, "You do not want a king. A king will tax you." And they say, "No, we want a king. We want a good-looking king to show what our nation looks like." So God gives them Saul, and you know the story of Saul. Everything goes wrong. So they say, "We want another king." God raises up David, and He says, "People look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart." 1 and 2 Samuel is the story of David coming into kingship.

Then David has a son named Solomon. Solomon turns away from God, and everything starts to collapse. 1 and 2 Kings are all the kings. There's a civil war. Israel splits in two, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. Everyone's fighting. There's all this idolatry. Kings rise and kings fall, and the nation goes into turmoil. That's the story, and it ends in exile.

The Babylonian kingdom comes and takes them out of the promised land. They take them out of Israel. And you need to understand that when that happened, they weren't just losing their home. The temple was where God's presence was. They felt like they were losing God. They're like, "We are separated from God."

Then God raises up Persia, which destroys Babylon. And the Persians start to favor the Israelites and say, "We're going to send you back to your homeland." That's when 1 and 2 Chronicles is written. 1 and 2 Chronicles actually retells the story from a positive perspective. Y'all know the story about David and Bathsheba? That's not in 1 and 2 Chronicles. Because these people, who are feeling so much guilt, are coming back to a promised land that has been completely destroyed, and they're trying to have hope again. They're trying to have faith again. They're trying to understand that God can restore again. So 1 and 2 Chronicles retells the story of the Israelites in a way that would build their faith.

They come back into Israel. The walls are down. The temple is down. Ezra is written, which is the rebuilding of the temple. Nehemiah is written, which is the rebuilding of the wall. And Esther is written, showing that even for the people who didn't come back, God was still providing. That's the end of the History section.

All the prophets, the major and the minor prophets, were people during that history saying, "Repent. Repent. Repent." And the people never did.

Then the Wisdom literature. Job was written during the time of Genesis. Everything else was written by David and Solomon, Solomon being the wisest man who ever lived. If you want to know about suffering, read Job. If you want to know about wisdom, read Proverbs. If you want to know about worship, read Psalms. If you want to know about the meaning of life, read Ecclesiastes.

And that's the entire Old Testament. You have the first five books of the Bible. You have the History. You have the Wisdom written during this time. And you have the Prophets, all of them basically saying, "Turn back to God. Turn back to God." The people come back into their land and rebuild everything. And then there are 400 years of silence. No prophetic revelation.

How does the Old Testament point to Jesus?

But I want to show you something as we close. Hebrews 8:7–8 talks about the new covenant they were expecting. It says this: "If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. But when God found fault with the people, he said: 'The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.'"

He's quoting Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31:31: "'The day is coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife.'" Watch that language: as a husband. God loved them so deeply, and yet they turned from Him.

Verse 33: "'But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,' says the Lord. 'I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts.'" It's no longer going to be written on tablets. When we start following Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes into us, and He writes it on our hearts. We no longer need external laws telling us what to do, because something better has been written within us.

"'I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, "You should know the Lord." For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,' says the Lord. 'And I will forgive their wickedness,'" and I love this, "'and I will never again remember their sins.'"

In the Old Testament, that wasn't the case. Their sins were deferred. In the new covenant, He no longer even remembers your sin. You walked in here feeling shame for the things you've done. There is no shame. The Bible says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You don't need to feel shame. God says, "I'm not going to remember it anymore." We're in the new covenant. We're not in the old. We're in something brand new.

Hebrews 10:1 says, "The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared."

They still felt guilt, even though they were doing those things. That guilt, that shame, wasn't removed. Verse 3: "But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

It's not possible. If I commit a crime and I need to go to jail, I can't say, "Can you take my dog?" It doesn't work like that. You can't have an animal die for something I'm supposed to die for. We're on trial, standing before a holy God, sentenced to death, and Jesus comes and says, "Can I take that punishment for them?" Substitutionary atonement. "Don't send them away. Send Me away."

Verse 5: "That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God, 'You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.'" Then verse 9: "Then he said, 'Look, I have come to do your will.' He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy."

What is the story of the Old Testament? It shows us that time and time again we try to make our way back to God, and it is impossible without Jesus. All it did was show us our need for a Savior.

The story ends where it began

People often ask, "Why did that need to happen? Why couldn't we just start in paradise?" Here's what you need to understand: God's plan is better. Every single one of us has free will. We start in the beginning with free will, and we turn away from God. But we end in paradise, with free will, and with God.

I want to show you something called the mirror image. This is the story of the Bible. It starts in Genesis with God and righteous people in paradise, but Satan and sin enter. The world is judged and destroyed. There's a one-world system at the Tower of Babel. There are the 12 tribes of Israel, God's holy people. But the entire Bible centers on the middle, which is Jesus Christ. And instead of 12 tribes, there are now 12 disciples, and the church is formed, God's holy people. And instead of one world at Babel, we're now moving toward a one-world system again. If you want to know where we are in the prophetic timeline, we're here. The Bible says it's going to happen. And at the end, the world is going to be judged and destroyed. But here's the beautiful thing: because of what Jesus did, where Satan and sin once entered, Satan and sin will exit, and God and His redeemed people are back in paradise with Him. It ends where it began.

This ain't Disney: beginning, conflict, happily ever after. No, this is beginning, conflict, Jesus, new beginning. And the Bible says all you have to do to step into that new covenant with Him is say, "Jesus, be the Lord of my life." The Old Testament shows us it was not enough for us to do it by ourselves. We need Jesus. Amen.

Can I pray for you? I want everyone to close their eyes. God, I want to thank You for every single person who's here. God, I thank You for the Old Testament, that we get to see the story of how we got here. But God, I thank You that You didn't leave us in that place, that You sent us Your Son, Jesus. Holy Spirit, fill us. Jesus, do what only You can do.

I know there may be some people here today who have never taken a step to trust Jesus. If that's you, I want to give you that opportunity. If you're saying, "I want to come back to Jesus. I want to start a relationship with Him," I want you to pray this prayer after me. Just say, "Dear Jesus, I believe that You're the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe You came to this earth, You died on a cross, and You were raised for my sins. Jesus, right now I make You my Lord. I make You my Savior. In Jesus' name."