T H E B I B L E

EXPOSITOR’SH A N D B O O K

OLD TESTAMENT DIGITAL EDITION

GREG HARRIS

The Bible Expositor’s Handbook

Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Greg Harris

Published by B&H Academic

Nashville, Tennessee

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4336-9240-6

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by

the Lockman Foundation

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain).

The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the book’s publi-cation but may be subject to change.

First published in 2017

DEDICATIONTo the Master’s Academies International,

and to all such lovers of God’s Word,

especially to such students as those whom I taught at

Washington Bible College (1989–95),

Southeastern College at Wake Forest/Southeastern

Baptist Theological Seminary (1997–2006),

and The Master’s Seminary (2006 to the present)

And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. —Luke 24:25–27

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” —Luke 24:44

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: So You Want to Be an Expositor? ..........................................................4

CHAPTER 2: The Old Testament Is the Story of Jesus ............................................16

CHAPTER 3: Why Are There So Many Different Interpretations

of the Bible? ........................................................................................................................28

CHAPTER 4: Four Biblical Examples of Moses Writing about Jesus ......................42

CHAPTER 5: The Mosaic Covenant and Its Biblical Relevance ...............................58

CHAPTER 6: A Star! A Star! Shining in the Night! .................................................74

CHAPTER 7: The Biblical Logic of Joshua 1–6 .........................................................88

CHAPTER 8: But Doesn’t Joshua 21:43–45 Show That God Has Fulfilled His

Land Promises? ................................................................................................................101

CHAPTER 9: Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve; as for Me and My

House, We Will Serve the Lord ....................................................................................119

CHAPTER 10: This Just In: David’s Victory over Goliath

Was Not an Upset! ...........................................................................................................132

CHAPTER 11: The Davidic Covenant and Its Theological Relevance ..................149

CHAPTER 12: Worship and Wisdom .....................................................................166

CHAPTER 13: I Know the Plans I Have for You ....................................................179

CHAPTER 14: Great Is Thy Faithfulness .................................................................193

CHAPTER 15: As I Live, I Shall Be King over You .................................................206

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dr. Greg Harris’ personal editor: Rebecca R. Howard

The Master’s Seminary consulting class, fall 2015: Abera Ajula, David High-field, Daniel MtPleasant, Andy Ramanahyake, Andre Randolph, Curtis Tyler, Daniel Wilson, and, those untimely born and grafted in, Chazz Anderson, Kevin Laymon, Faly Ravoahangy, and Michael Butler

Video engineer: Herald Gandi

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SO YOU WANT TO BE AN EXPOSITOR?

CHAPTER 1

To become a seasoned expositor of God’s Word requires a method, or a series

of specific steps. Equally important, however, is one’s starting point, which is, sadly,

quite often lacking. One’s starting point is important not only for learning how to

become a better expositor, but also as a means of attaining reverence for God, another

aspect of biblical exposition that is often overlooked. In this chapter, we will discuss

the starting point for becoming a Bible expositor before we look at the process. In

short, we start—and stay—with God.

I have had the high privilege and calling of teaching Bible Exposition classes

for more than thirty years. Very often, when I finish a class on a book such as Isaiah

or Hebrews, students will sigh and say, “Oh, if we could only go back to the beginning

of the Bible and do what we are doing now, it would be so tremendously rewarding!”

I agree—such is the richness of God’s Word. However, I remind them that if we were

to do that, they would be in seminary for twenty or more years and never leave our

campus or go to minister to churches or institutions. Yet it is in response to this desire,

and through God’s sovereignty, that the current volume, The Expositor’s Handbook: Old

Testament Edition, has come into existence.

What most intrigued me about writing this series was the vision of B&H

Academic to make the Bible the primary text. It is not that Bible research and com-

mentaries are unimportant; there are wonderful resources available with which God

has blessed His church throughout the centuries. But unfortunately too often, the

more students progress in theological training, the less they use their Bibles. As my

current and former students know, I do not permit computers in my classes. This is

not punishment; it is intended as part of the process of hiding God’s Word in their

hearts—not their hard drives. And there are no quick solutions for accomplishing this.

We all learn throughout our entire lives. I tell students to bring a Bible they can mark

as we follow some of God’s biblical trails. I hope that it will be a Bible they can take

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into the hospital room of someone facing death, use to comfort people in mourning or

grief, or pull out as they witness to someone in the seat next to them on a bus or plane.

What’s more, I fear a time will come when around the world, even in America, the

Bible may be the only resource available to God’s people. Yet even then, owning a Bible

could prove to be dangerous.

Of course, no single biblical resource could cover everything needed to be an

expositor of God’s Word or deal with every theological issue or current hotly debated

topic. And such is not my intent. The purpose of this book is to establish some biblical

boundaries based upon several divine, and immovable, truths for understanding and

expositing God’s Word. There are times, most would agree, when assistance is needed

from a more seasoned believer in helping others better understand biblical truths. Acts

18:24–26 shows such an example, in Priscilla and Aquila:

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

My desire is that The Bible Expositor’s Handbook will be used in the same way.

And while no book can cover every issue, it will be shown that there are some issues

you must be aware of if you are going to understand God’s Word.

THE IRREPLACEABLE POINT OF BEGINNING

The discipline of hermeneutics can be defined as the rules by which the Bible

is interpreted. With this in mind, hermeneutics serves an indispensable role in the

formation of one’s methodology. While a sound methodology is utterly important and

cannot be overlooked, true, God-honoring lovers of God’s Word need an even more

fundamental starting point. Simply expressed, before the methodology (the how-to),

we need to focus on—and prayerfully worship in Spirit and truth—the God to whom

the Bible belongs.

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Below are just a few examples (to which many more could be added) of some

of the core biblical truths from which we can establish the irreplaceable point of be-

ginning for biblical exposition. That beginning point entails knowing how to approach

God and His Word. First, one must be humble before God, contrite in spirit, and

trembling at His word. Isaiah 66:1–2 reads,

Thus says the Lord,

“Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.

Where then is a house you could build for Me?

And where is a place that I may rest?

For My hand made all these things,

Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord.

“But to this one I will look,

To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

Note the three divine requirements for approaching God and His Word:

being humble, being contrite of spirit, and being one who trembles (in fear or ex-

citement) at His Word. All of these spiritual dispositions, it should be observed, are

mocked by the world and by many who are considered to be part of “the Christian

world.”

Second, one must be a learner. In Matthew 11:28–29, Jesus says, “Come . . .

learn of me” (KJV), with the word learn serving, in the Greek, as the base word for dis-

ciple. A disciple, then, is a learner, and that is just what God calls us to be. He did not

say, come and I will teach you a method. He says, come and learn of—and from—Me.

Third, one must hunger for the pure milk of God’s Word. First Peter 2:1–3

states, “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and

all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may

grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” The bibli-

cal command here entails longing “for the pure milk of the word”—not theological

studies (although that has its place), not coffee-table debates, and not philosophy. God

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wants us, even commands us, to long for the pure milk of His Word as a newborn

baby would for his mother’s milk. Sadly, often as we grow in our faith, we get “weaned

away” from the pure milk of the Word, and we replace it with something else, wrongly

concluding, “we can take it from here.”

Fourth, one should strive to grow in grace and knowledge. In 2 Peter 3:18 the

author exhorts us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” Both grace

and knowledge are required for spiritual growth. To grow in grace only, and not have

that bound to true biblical knowledge, has no boundaries or basis for evaluation. Since

the beginning of the church, many people have called—and still call today—virtu-

ally anything “growing in grace,” even if what is done is contrary to Scripture. Simply

put, growing in grace must have solid biblical evidence for it, otherwise, it is not truly

growing in God’s grace, no matter how well meaning it may be. Paul thus warned the

church in Colossians 2:18, “Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting

in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has

seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind.” Paul concluded Colossians 2 this way:

“These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made reli-

gion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against

fleshly indulgence” (v. 23). Many at the church in Colossae would have considered

most or all of these components to be wonderful aspects of their Christian spiritual

growth. Yet God—by means of the apostle Paul—did not find them to be acceptable

to Him.

So to grow only in grace has no biblical boundaries for how that is accom-

plished or measured, or even if it has occurred at all. In a similar manner, the other

extreme is valid to consider: to grow only in knowledge without grace not only treats

God’s Word as a mere textbook, but also removes God Himself from the hermeneuti-

cal task. God does not permit either extreme in true biblical exposition.

CORE TRUTH: Never go to God’s Word merely for a sermon or

Bible lesson; go to God’s Word for truth; the preaching or teach-

ing comes from those truths.

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Fifth, one must receive the Word with great eagerness. Acts 17:11

describes the Jews at the synagogue of Berea: “Now these were more no-

ble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great

eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were

so.” The prayer of the “Berean Christian” might be best summed up by Psalm

119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold / Wonderful things from Your law.”

From this psalm about the truthfulness and treasure of God’s Word comes

this prayer that God would open our eyes to behold wonderful truths in His

Word. God is the ultimate teacher; God is the ultimate author; and God is the

ultimate illuminator of His Word. And, while I do not want to sound overly

mystical, there will always be a spiritual component to true biblical exposition

that the world will never understand. Being a “Berean Christian,” then, is not

only recommended, it is required for those delving into this book and for any

other book that presents itself as teaching biblical truths. A “Berean Christian,”

then, will carefully search the Scriptures to see whether what is being presented

is true or not.

In summary, the fundamental starting point of true biblical exposition,

that is, the irreplaceable point of beginning and staying, is to come humbly

before God, contrite in spirit, and trembling at His word (Isa 66:1–2); to come

as learners, as His disciples (Matt 11:29); to hunger for the pure milk of God’s

Word (1 Pet 2:1–3); to strive to grow in grace (from the inside out while walk-

ing with Him) and knowledge (true, biblical knowledge, not our mere emo-

tion); and to receive the Word with great eagerness. For those who find these

core biblical truths unimportant or overly simplistic, read—and fear—Jesus’s

rebuke of the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:1–7, who after doing so many

things right “had left their first love.”

WHY DO WE NEED A BIBLE EXPOSITION HANDBOOK?

One might ask why we need another book about Bible exposition. To answer

this question, it is important to explain a few terms. This book will assume a clear

distinction between Bible exposition and expository preaching or teaching. While

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these two tasks are related, they are not identical. I will use Bible exposition to refer to

the expositional method and the expositional preparation. Expository preaching and

teaching, however, are outlets for the truths you have found in God’s Word in your

expositional studies. Therefore, this handbook will focus primarily on the content part

and secondarily on the methodology undergirding that content. In other words, we are

not seeking to sermonize the text but to grow in our understanding of biblical truth.

Undergirding this approach are two important convictions:

CORE TRUTH: Your expository preaching or teaching will only be

as good as your expository study—or lack thereof.

CORE TRUTH: Expository preaching is much more than “exposi-

tory calendaring.”

It is important not to reverse this process. You can set up your calendar to

ensure that all biblical texts are addressed in a particular order (e.g., week 1, Phil

1:1–4; week 2, Phil 1:5–7, etc.). To be sure, many would consider this approach to

be expository preaching. But without solid Bible exposition (expository preparation),

it is possible to use this method for years without ever addressing what the book is

actually about. For instance, if you did not know that virtually everything Paul wrote

to the Corinthians in his first epistle was extremely corrective in nature for what they

were doing wrong, you could “calendar preach” through 1 Corinthians and ignorant-

ly encourage your listeners to follow the same example of this multifacetedly sinful

church. That is why this handbook will focus more on the study of the content than on

the delivery of that content. One way we hope to achieve this goal is by implementing

the hermeneutical methods you may have already been taught and applying them to

key biblical texts. This approach will not only help readers grow in the understanding

of God’s Word, but also make readers become more aware of some of the obstacles to

learning.

A brief example might help illustrate the importance of moving from Bi-

ble exposition to expository preaching and teaching. While conceding that there are

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different ways to approach the text, we will confine our method to the oft-used trifold

approach of Howard Hendricks’s Living by the Book, which includes (1) observation—

what the text says, (2) interpretation—what the text means, and (3) application—

what we can apply to our lives. This hermeneutical approach will be applied to Job

8:3–7, a discourse spoken by Eliphaz:

Does God pervert justice

Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?

If your sons sinned against Him,

Then He delivered them into the power of their transgression.

If you would seek God

And implore the compassion of the Almighty,

If you are pure and upright,

Surely now He would rouse Himself for you

And restore your righteous estate.

Though your beginning was insignificant,

Yet your end will increase greatly.

Although one could make a number of observations about this text, we will

limit ourselves to one, namely that it begins with a rhetorical question that asks if

Almighty God would pervert justice. Assuming a negative answer, a reader might draw

several interpretive conclusions related to God delivering sinners into the power of

the transgressions committed and then related to imploring one to seek God and His

compassion. Further, the overarching meaning of the text might even be connected to

Jesus and His work in the Gospels. Finally, an application might ask if anyone would

like to partake of the same offer from God.

The problem with this interpretation, however, is that it is all wrong. You

might reply, “This cannot be wrong! How could this possibly be wrong or contrary to

Scripture?” Here we need to note a major truth: Scripture references are not fortune

cookies or one-liners. One must consider whether there is other divine revelation that

God has given earlier or later that gives clarification. In this case He has. The dialogue

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in Job 8:3–7 comes from the lips of Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends. Yet when we come to

the end of the book, God warns Eliphaz and others:

After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has. Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.” Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer. ( Job 42:7–9 HCSB)

Twice in this section God declares that Eliphaz and his two friends did not

speak the truth concerning Him, and God strongly warned “that I may not do with

you according to your folly.” People who cite or quote from the book of Job often refer

unwittingly to various passages from Job’s three friends whom God says do not speak

accurately concerning Him. Granted, some of these same concepts or truths may be

found elsewhere in Scripture; that is not the point here. The point is that you can fol-

low a time-honored hermeneutical procedure with an expositional calendaring of the

texts and unintentionally fail to do either sound Bible exposition or the solid biblical

expository teaching or preaching that would follow.

What is frequently omitted in such ill-advised approaches, then, is the conti-

nuity, cohesiveness, and unity of Scripture as a whole, which will be one of the primary

emphases of The Bible Expositor’s Handbook. Where does a verse occur in Scripture?

Who is being addressed or written about? What information has God already given?

What does He give later to clarify or expand? This is a lifetime of learning for all of

us, and no one ever learns all of it. Although we cannot cover everything in the Bible,

there certainly are things we must cover.

That Bible exposition should give special attention to the continuity and

assimilation of a given text is a focus of the present study; undergirding this effort is a

literal-grammatical hermeneutic. More and more people are abandoning this herme-

neutic as being outdated and out of fashion. Yet I will argue that the biblical writers

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themselves do not hold such a position. To clarify what I mean by literal-grammatical,

let us consider the example above of the Bereans in Acts 17 who (1) were more no-

ble-minded than those at Thessalonica, (2) because they received the word with great

eagerness, (3) examining the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so. It is

evident from this text that those so described received God’s Word, studied it carefully,

and examined it daily to see whether these things were true. For them to study, com-

pare, and make conclusions, they would have had to have employed the literal-gram-

matical hermeneutic, because that was the only way by which any of the claims could

have been evaluated.

A literal-grammatical approach, then, takes the biblical text at face value, rath-

er than an approach that spiritualizes much of the historical elements of a given text.

Such spiritualizing approaches, however, often differ wildly from one interpreter to the

next. Before abandoning the literal-grammatical hermeneutic, one ought to consider if

such an approach fits within the unfolding message of Scripture. And while we cannot

consider all the verses of the Bible, we can apply this approach to key verses. We will

begin the next chapter with Jesus’s own understanding of the Scriptures, that is, the

Old Testament.

ONE FINAL PRAYER FOR US

We note one final item for this first chapter, and we do so by going to the

Luke 24 account of Jesus with His two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day

He arose from the dead. Before Jesus revealed to them who He was and is, He mildly

rebuked and admonished them in Luke 24:25–27:

And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suf-fer these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

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We note the following verses as well:

And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. (Luke 24:28–31)

Following this grand encounter with the risen Christ, these two lovers of

God’s Word responded in true worship, as recorded in Luke 24:32: “And they said to

one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on

the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?’” May this hold true for you

and for me—that our hearts would burn within us as we go through God’s Word, and

that it would be multiplied and used many times over to the glory of God, as people

feed on the Word of God and grow in true grace and knowledge of Him.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter we learned, first, that the starting point for becoming an

expositor of God’s Word is God Himself, and there are no shortcuts. It takes time and

effort to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet

3:18). And if you think you will ever outgrow this initial core concept that being a dis-

ciple means being a person who is ultimately taught by God, you will not have any true

ministry resulting from your walk with Him. Second, we learned that one should not

go to God’s Word for a sermon or a teaching outline; we go to God’s Word for truth.

From these truths emerge expository sermons and teachings. Third, two additional

truths from this initial chapter are interconnected: (1) Your expository preaching or

teaching will only be as good as your expository study, or lack thereof. (2) Expository

preaching is much more than “expository calendaring.” You can go through the text of

a biblical book in sequential order and still not necessarily be handling God’s Word

accurately. So even employing the “tried-and-true” process of (1) observation of a text,

(2) interpretation of the text, and (3) application from the text will not necessarily

involve rightly dividing the Word of God.

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Part of the purpose of The Bible Expositor’s Handbook: Old Testament Edition

is to assist with the lifelong process of expositing God’s Word. While we cannot cover

all of the Old Testament, we will highlight some incredibly essential texts and learn as

we go by doing. Also, we will implement a literal-grammatical hermeneutic to see if

this is indeed a logical means of biblical interpretation, and we will do so as we follow

the biblical trail that God has set before us.

DEEPER WALK STUDY QUESTIONS

1. From the texts given, list and summarize all the spiritual qualifications of being

an expositor. Why are these verses important to understand at the beginning of

becoming an expositor? What are some of the disasters (spiritually speaking) if

one does not start with or keep these in mind throughout one’s entire life? What

are you going to do to keep them from happening to you? Explain and be specific.

2. List and discuss five substantial truths regarding what the Ephesian church did

that prompted rebuke by Jesus in Revelation 2:1–7. List and discuss five di-

sastrous truths if people do not heed the example of the Berean church in Acts

17:11.

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3. Name five specific ways “going to the Bible for truth” differs from going to the Bi-

ble for a sermon or a teaching. Why is this so important to your overall Christian

walk? Explain.

4. Make five sound deductions from the following sentence: “Expository preaching

is much more than ‘expository calendaring.’” Why is this true? List some of this

truth’s consequences.

5. List six deductions from Job 42:7–9 that help us better understand the book of

Job. Make four deductions about how this relates to studying the rest of the Bible.

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THE OLD TESTAMENT IS THE STORY OF JESUS

CHAPTER 2

I have written The Bible Expositor’s Handbook for those who believe the Bible.

I do not argue for the Bible’s God-breathed origin and uniqueness; God does (2 Tim

3:16). Others have the God-given mandate/assignment to argue against those who

reject God’s Word.

Many people expositing the Old Testament assume what I did for years,

namely, that the Old Testament contains many examples for us to use in our own

Christian lives. Paul himself wrote concerning the wilderness generation, “Now these

things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things, as they

also craved” (1 Cor 10:6), and then a few verses later, “Now these things happened to

them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends

of the ages have come” (1 Cor 10:11). This is an example of a direct application of Old

Testament texts. While applying them directly to our lives has its place, it becomes

problematic when the entire Old Testament is treated in such a way. In this chapter we

will explore the ways in which God has revealed just how He wants His Old Testa-

ment to be interpreted. We find these foundational truths in the New Testament and,

by understanding these verses, we are able to look at the Old Testament with better

clarity.

CORE TRUTH: A pitfall for many expositors is either to ignore the

Old Testament as a text containing God-breathed doctrine, or

to take a doctrinal truth set forth by God and turn this into “life

lessons.”

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FOUNDATIONAL TRUTHS FOR STUDYING THE OLD TESTAMENT

God chose to disclose truths about the Old Testament so that when these

texts are viewed accordingly, makes the Scriptures open up before our very eyes.

However, one must, first, note what those truths are, and, second, apply them to the

interpretation of the Old Testament accordingly. Let’s look at three foundational

truths critical to our interpreting the Old Testament.

First, just like the New Testament, the Old Testament contains God-inspired

doctrine. As a matter of fact, it is the Old Testament that serves as the scriptural con-

text for the New Testament authors’ claim that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of

God.” Consider 2 Timothy 3:14–17:

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be ade-quate, equipped for every good work.

Many expositors are oblivious to or ignore the Old Testament as a text con-

taining God-breathed doctrine, or they take a doctrinal truth set forth by God in the

Old Testament and turn this into “life lessons.” However, 2 Timothy 3:16 does not say,

“All [Old Testament] Scripture is profitable for application or life lessons.” Not every-

thing necessarily carries over from the Old Testament into the New. Nevertheless, if

the God-inspired doctrine of the Old Testament is ignored, there remains a vast gap in

“the man of God” being complete, “equipped for every good work.”

I will sometimes jokingly say to my classes, “Let’s turn to the first verses of

Scripture.” While the students are turning to Genesis 1, I start reading out loud from

John 1. Even though written many centuries after Moses wrote Genesis, John 1:1–3

contains Scripture references that refer to the earliest time in all the Bible: “In the

beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He

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was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from

Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” These verses refer to eternity

past, long before Genesis 1. However, the creator aspect of the second Member of the

Godhead is found not only in John 1:3 but also in John 1:10, “He was in the world,

and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”

CORE TRUTH: John 1 is a great section of Scripture to present

to people in cults, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons,

who teach the false doctrine that Jesus was a created being

and is lower in status than God the Father.

Second, according to the New Testament, the Pentateuch is the story of Jesus.

Accordingly, it is doctrinal or, more specifically, Christological truth, not merely life

lessons or application. Consider John 5:45–47:

Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not be-lieve his writings, how will you believe My words?

These important verses changed my perspective on the Old Testament. I had

no doubt read these verses many times before, but I had failed to notice their herme-

neutical significance. What’s more, I had read many books on the Pentateuch. I had

even taught a class on the topic a few times before considering and implementing what

Jesus revealed to the Jews who opposed Him in John 5:45–47. If you had asked me

then about the Old Testament, I would have answered as most people do, that it is the

story of creation, Adam and Eve, the fall, the flood, Moses’s birth, and so forth. But

Jesus specifically said, “Moses wrote about Me,” and linked His teaching about Himself

to properly understanding this biblical doctrine. So while the first five books of the

Bible contain the creation account and Adam and Eve and such, Jesus specifically sets

forth that the Pentateuch is His story—the story of Jesus. If you are looking for Him,

you will clearly see Him in these first five books; if you are not looking for Him, you

most likely will miss Him, as I did. Once I started factoring John 5:45–47 into my

studies, the name of the class unofficially became “Jesus in the Pentateuch.”

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FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: John 5:45–47 clearly states that the

Pentateuch is the story of Jesus and is doctrinal truth—not life

lessons or application.

FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: Watch out for the other extreme—in-

stead of ignoring Jesus’s teaching in John 5:45–47, trying to

make everything in the Pentateuch a picture of or a reference

to Jesus.

A third truth: not only the Pentateuch, but all of the Old Testament is the

story of Jesus. If you were like me, you may have started reading your Bible in Luke 2,

the birth of Jesus, or in Gabriel’s pronouncement to Mary in Luke 1. Or perhaps you

began with the cross of Jesus as the initial place to begin to understand the gospel. Yet

in light of John 5, cited above, the first five books of the Bible are just as much a part

of His story as the New Testament. I have taught these verses at various churches and

Bible conferences, and it makes those who love God and His Word say, “Let’s go find

Jesus in the Pentateuch,” instead of avoiding it. But there is more, for the story of Jesus

expands well beyond the Pentateuch.

Luke 24 contains the account of the resurrected Jesus and the women at the

empty tomb. It also contains the account of His special visit with two of His disciples

later on that same day:

And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began travelling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleop-as, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God

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and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:13–27)

Note especially the importance of the last sentence above: “And beginning

with Moses and with all the prophets . . .” Jesus used a twofold division of the Old Tes-

tament to broaden it from John 5 and the Pentateuch to “all the Scriptures.” So begin-

ning with Moses and then all the way through to the end, “He explained . . . concerning

Himself ”—eternal doctrine, not life lessons—“in all the Scriptures.” Of course, the

reference to “all the Scriptures” at this time meant the Old Testament. So from this

encounter, we should look for and expect Jesus not only in the books of Moses but all

the way through Scripture.

But the story does not end there.

Later, on the same day, after Jesus had dined with the two disciples on the

road to Emmaus, after which He instantaneously vanished from their sight, they ran

to report it to the eleven apostles, as Luke 24:36–47 explains:

And while they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst. But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were see-ing a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” [And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.] And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, He said to them,

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“Have you anything here to eat?” And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

In Luke 24:44, Jesus chose to use the threefold division of the Old Testament.

But as with the earlier use in the same chapter, Jesus specifically established the biblical

doctrine “that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the

Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” So although not every individual Scripture

verse given at the time alludes to Jesus, they most certainly collectively and definitively

point to Jesus as the promised Messiah, Son of God. As mentioned previously, these

are not “life application lessons,” this is the Life ( John 14:6) teaching biblical doctrine

in reference to Himself. One more item to note—the original need in Luke 24:45,

namely, that “He opened their minds [literally, “mind” singular] to understand the

Scriptures.”

From Jesus’s twofold examples in Luke 24, we should not overlook a very

important point: Jesus began—and stayed—in God’s written Word to point to eternal

doctrines about Himself.

FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: On the day He was resurrected, twice

in instructing His disciples, Jesus began “with [the books of]

Moses,” not with any theoretical or presumed covenant of grace

or covenant of works, as many Christians hold to. Everything

Jesus taught that day was taken solely from Scripture.

Jesus began—and stayed—in God’s written Word to point to eternal doc-

trines about Himself.

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A final foundational truth about interpreting the Old Testament is evident in

Peter’s sermon in Acts 2: the death of Jesus was “the predetermined plan”—singular,

not “plans”—“and foreknowledge of God.” Consider Peter’s words in Acts 2:22–23:

Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attest-ed to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—this Man, deliv-ered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

These verses give both the human and the divine side of Jesus’s death; they

also contain two tremendously important truths that help our understanding of the

Old Testament. First, the death of Jesus was “the predetermined plan and foreknowl-

edge [where we get our word prognosis] of God.”

FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: Acts 2:23 is good to cite to counter lib-

eral critics who claim that events got out of control and that Je-

sus never intended to be crucified, an aspect of “open theology,”

which teaches that God did not know how things would turn out;

God was “learning” as events unfolded from Genesis onward.

Second, these verses also reveal that there was and never is any “Plan B” with

God—only one plan. What’s more, this plan was set in motion long before the events

of Genesis 1 and all that followed. That this plan would center on the person and work

of Jesus who was “foreknown before the foundation of the world” is evident from 1

Peter 1:17–20:

If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

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FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: Before there was the first sin, the God-

head had already determined the divine plan—singular—of

salvation.

FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: Before the first sinners in Genesis 3,

there was already a Savior—singular—in the mind of God.

Before creation and the subsequent fall of Adam and Eve, the Trinity had

determined what Paul would so beautifully articulate in Philippians 2:5–8:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Even prior to the first sin, according to Paul, the Godhead had already deter-

mined the divine plan—singular—of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Yet this is a unified plan that begins to unfold in Genesis and is subsequently

written about and prophesied from Genesis all the way through Revelation. As such, it

is all part of the overall love story of God, all part of the Old Testament being the story

of Jesus. While space precludes an analysis of every aspect of the story of Jesus within

the Old Testament, some treatment of its early development in the Genesis account is

warranted here.

After the pristine beauty of God’s perfect creation in Genesis 1–2, an enemy

approached unannounced and led God’s two children into sinful defilement in Genesis

3. Once the first sins occurred, the following took place in Genesis 3:6–7:

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

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FOUNDATIONAL TRUTHS: Sin kills; it always kills. Sin separates;

it always separates. Also, it was Adam and Eve’s first sin—not

their millionth—that made them unholy, defiled, and lost before

the Holy God.

Subsequent to this failure of the first couple was the initial impulse to hide

from their creator. Genesis 3:8 explains, “They heard the sound of the Lord God walk-

ing in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from

the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”

In addition to shame and separation, the ramifications of their sin were man-

ifest in God’s curse against Adam and Eve and their offspring, the physical serpent,

and ultimately “the serpent of old,” Satan (Rev 12:9). Yet God also gave a revelatory

promise in Genesis 3:15:

And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed;

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel.

The operative question from this point forward is, who is this One who will

crush the head of the serpent? God knew the answer, long ago determined in history

past; we who live this side of the cross know the answer as well. Those present at the

time did not know, because it was not yet revealed to them. The Old Testament begins

telling the story of the One who will not only crush the head of the serpent at the

Savior’s death, but, far beyond this, it tells of His return in and reign in glory.

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FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH: The Old Testament is the story of Je-

sus—not “was the story”—because so much of it remains un-

fulfilled. If the Old Testament “was” the story of Jesus, every

prophecy about Him would have already been fulfilled, but as

we will clearly see, more prophecies remain unfulfilled about

Him at the present time than have already been fulfilled.

We could add more, but one final grace gift in Genesis 3 should be noted.

Genesis 3:7 states that after their sin Adam and Eve “sewed fig leaves together and

made themselves loin coverings.” But God in His holiness and grace did not accept

their man-made attempt to cover their own sin. Genesis 3:21 reveals that God took

“garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” While not stated explicit-

ly, it is implied that this divine act represents the first blood sacrifice in history, the first

“substitutionary atonement.”

This is not fair. Adam and Eve sinned, not this animal. This animal was holy,

innocent, and undefiled. The text does not say what animal shed its blood as a tem-

porary covering for the sins of the first couple, but a lamb would fit beautifully here.

We will have to wait to get to heaven to see if it was indeed a lamb. Regardless of the

animal’s species, its death must have been horribly sad for Adam and Eve. This was

an animal they had named; this was an animal known to them; this is the first death

recorded in Scripture—and it was done so that others might live by that death.

It is true that this is not fair—this is the grace of God.

Whether or not it was a lamb who died in Genesis 3, it most certainly will

later be the Lamb who will indeed redeem “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblem-

ished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation

of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you” (1 Pet 1:19–20);

and “if you believe Moses you would believe” Him, for Moses wrote about Him ( John

5:45–47). The Old Testament is the beginning of God unfolding His story.

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CONCLUSION

In this chapter we learned the core essential truths for how God wants His

Old Testament to be read. First, it is clear from passages such as John 5:45–47; Luke

24:27, 44; Acts 2:22–23; and 1 Peter 1:17–20 that the Old Testament presents many

eternally doctrinal truths—not merely life-lesson applications. Second, and more spe-

cifically, it was shown that long before there was the first sin, the Godhead had already

determined the divine plan—singular—of salvation; before the first sinners in Genesis

3, there was already a Savior—singular—in the mind of God. Genesis 3:15 promised

that One will come and crush the head of Satan, and the Old Testament is the begin-

ning of that blessed, unfolding story. Third, we learned that the Old Testament is the

story of Jesus—not “was the story”—because so much of it remains yet to be fulfilled

by the same God who already fulfilled the first part.

DEEPER WALK STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What are the biblical significances of how Paul referred to the Old Testament in

1 Corinthians 10:6 and 11? As related to Bible exposition, name six pitfalls for

taking these verses beyond Paul’s intentions.

2. List five theological problems that arise if one ignores the doctrinal parts of the

Old Testament.

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3. List five observations each about the importance of John 5:45–47; Luke 24:13–

27; and Luke 24:36–47. Name three truths that would be missing if we tried to

turn these into “life lessons” rather than receiving them as sound biblical doctrine.

4. What is the theological significance of Jesus starting in Genesis to explain Him-

self? How does this argue against so-called covenantal theology? Explain.

5. What is the theological significance of Acts 2:22–23 and of 1 Peter 1:17–20? List

five truths found in each passage.