Show Notes
In this episode of Peaceable and Kind, host Derek Vreeland invites you into the practice of reading the Old Testament with fresh eyes—looking for Jesus in every passage.
Derek shares his personal journey of nearly a decade of daily Old Testament reading, rooted in the daily office lectionary, and how it has transformed from duty to delight. Drawing from Scripture, church history, and personal stories, he demonstrates how Christians can uncover the presence of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures. Key Takeaways
Why the Old Testament is essential reading for Christians today.
How Jesus Himself taught us to read Scripture with Him at the center (John 5:39; Luke 24).
The difference between reading the Bible in its historical context and reading it devotionally with Christ in view.
Insights from Charles Spurgeon and Augustine on finding Christ in every passage.
How allegory and prayerful reflection reveal Christ in unexpected places.
A practical example from Psalm 89 of seeing King Jesus in the Psalms.
Why some verses may not immediately point to Christ—and how to wrestle with that tension.
Scriptures mentioned in this episode: Luke 24:27 Luke 24:44-45 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 Psalm 89:19 Psalm 89:24-27 Books mentioned in this episode: _Jesus-Centered Bible_by Group Publishing Seven Things I Wish Christians Knew about the Bible by Michael Bird
Preorder Derek’s new book, Incarnation: 8 Lessons on How God Meets Us here: https://amzn.to/42jSZAs
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Transcript
Welcome back to the back.
To another episode of Peaceable and Kind.
I’m your host, Derek Vreeland.
Thank you for joining me for this episode today.
And before we get going, let me encourage you to subscribe.
To leave a rating and review, do all the things, all the things help.
We have been talking a little bit about the Old Testament, and I want to continue
That theme in this episode, specifically talking about how to find Jesus in the Old Testament.
Reading the Old Testament for me has become such a delight over recent years, and one of the reasons I have enjoyed my Old Testament reading.
Is that I have developed this practice of looking for Jesus in the Old Testament
And I love reading scripture every day, of course, as a pastor and author.
I am studying the Bible and
Teaching the Bible and studying in such a way to write and to do all those things, but I also spend time every day reading in the Old Testament
For perhaps nine, maybe ten years now, I have been following the Daily Office lectionary, which gives me readings in the Old Testament.
Gives me readings in the epistles from the New Testament and then a gospel reading from Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John every day.
And in developing that habit, I have been forced, and that may be the wrong word to use, but I’ve been encouraged
uh by this Bible reading plan to stay connected to the Old Testament.
And it’s been, like I said, almost a decade now.
And anymore I have reached a place where I just enjoy it.
And so if I miss a day,
And sometimes that happens.
I was traveling recently, and sometimes with traveling and travel schedules and catching early morning flights.
It’s been difficult.
And so I might miss a day.
I can admit that.
But I don’t really beat myself up when I miss a day reading in the scriptures.
What happens is I just miss it and I can’t wait for the next day so that I can get caught up.
And I have enjoyed diving deep into the story.
of Israel in the Old Testament.
And in a previous episode, I talked a little bit about why the Old Testament is important and its value.
But on a just a personal level, I’ve just enjoyed reading.
And, you know, I’m reading the same scriptures that I’ve been reading for
35 years and uh but the last few years it has been such a delight.
And so this might be a new practice for you
But I want to explain to you why I go looking for Jesus in the Old Testament and how I do that.
And maybe it will encourage you to give it a try when you’re in the Old Testament to go and look for Jesus.
Now, I need to say that I believe that when we are reading Scripture, that we do need to first read it in its, maybe I’ll call it linguistic
and historical context first and foremost.
And when I say linguistic, I’m talking about the language of scripture and its historical context.
In other words, when I’m reading in the Old Testament, I recognize that this is talking about a world that’s very foreign to me.
So before I try to find meaning in it for myself, in my daily Bible reading
I do want to first try to have some understanding of what it meant in its original historical context.
And that does lend itself a little bit more to Bible study.
And so because I’ve done lots of Bible study in its historical context.
It has helped me in my daily Bible reading to sort of know where I’m beginning.
But reading Scripture in its linguistic and historical context.
is really a different set of conversations.
The conversation for today is really about how as a Christian
I derive meaning for my Christian life, for this Christian journey, in reading Jewish and Old Testament scriptures.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that we first want to understand what Scripture meant before we seek to know what it means.
And perhaps I’ll take a whole episode to do a little bit more in how I read in its historical context.
But I wanted to say that first off
Because today I am talking a little bit more about how we as Christians find meaning in the Old Testament
in our reading of the Old Testament, but I want to establish the fact that there is such value in understanding the culture, the history, and the language of the Old Testament.
But in deriving meaning as a Christian, I want to read the Old Testament and all of Scripture in a way that it’s revealing Jesus to me
And I do this, well, because Jesus himself told us to read this way.
In John 5.
39, Jesus says.
You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me.
Now, when Jesus is talking about the scriptures, he’s not talking about the Bible as we have it today, Old Testament, New Testament, 66 books.
Because for Jesus and the early Christians, their scriptures, the Bible that they read, was only what we would call the Old Testament.
And Jesus says, you search the scriptures, you read the scriptures, you spend time invested in the scriptures, thinking the scriptures themselves give you eternal life.
But Jesus gives us this little point of correction, this little course correction, that the scriptures, that is, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, they are pointing to Jesus.
So it’s a good reminder that Jesus is the main character of the story the Bible tells.
So when we’re reading in the Old Testament, just recognize that this is not the end of the story.
It’s the beginning of the story
And as our current Bibles are put together, the Old Testament is about two-thirds of our actual Bible, if not three-fourths.
But all of the reading in the Old Testament, which is good and valuable, is just reading the backstory that gets us to Jesus.
Jesus is the main character.
Now, there’s lots of important people in the Old Testament.
Abraham
There’s Moses and David, and there’s so many important characters, important figures in the story the Bible is telling, but the main character is Jesus.
Jesus is our Savior.
He is the one rescuing us and giving us eternal life, not the Bible
Jesus is our shepherd.
He’s the one we’re following, not the Bible.
Jesus is our God and King, not the scriptures
Now, the Bible and the Old Testament, since we’re speaking about that today, is the holy
sacred, infallible, inspired, written word of God.
And so we value the scriptures, but we recognize
that it’s the written word of God, the scriptures, that lead us to the living word of God, who is Jesus.
Australian theologian Michael Byrd wrote a great little book a couple of years ago entitled, Things I Wish Christians Knew About the Bible.
It’s a quick little read.
I highly recommend it.
But one of the lines that really stood out to me in Bird’s book is this one.
He writes.
To read Scripture as a Christian is to regard Scripture as finding its substance, coherence, and unity in Jesus Christ
So in reading the Old Testament as a Christian, I do want to understand the language and culture of the ancient Jewish people.
That’s important.
That’s key.
But from there, I want to read it in a way where I find its substance, its coherence, and its unity in Jesus.
Maybe I’ll tell you a story.
I think a story would be helpful to illustrate this point.
Let me tell you a story about Charles Spurgeon.
Charles Spurgeon was born in 1834 in Essex, England.
He started preaching in London as a teenager.
And before long, crowds were filling halls just to hear him speak.
His sermons weren’t super polished academic lectures.
They were clear, biblical, and they spoke straight to the hearts of the people.
And Spurgeon grew in popularity.
People called him the Prince of Preachers.
Because his words had both weight and warmth.
It was truth.
It was God’s truth wrapped in love
And so week after week, Spurgeon in his preaching lifted up Jesus with such a passion.
that it drew in both skeptics and believers who were encouraged by his preaching.
And more than a century later, his sermons still speak
reminding us that the gospel of Jesus never goes out of style.
And Rick Lawrence, who was the general editor of the Jesus Centered Bible, has this to say about Spurgeon.
The Jesus Centered Bible is a study Bible that uses the New Living Translation, and it is a study Bible that I’ve recommended to a number of people.
In part because I know a lot of the contributors to the study Bible who wrote a lot of the notes.
And so when people ask me about study Bibles, usually the Jesus-centered Bible is the one I’m recommending
And Lawrence, again, who is the general editor, he talks about the heart of this study Bible.
And in doing so, in the very introduction of the Bible, uh, Lawrence has this to say about Charles Spurgeon.
He writes.
Every Sunday, Spurgeon preached twice to congregations of 6,000 people before the days of microphones and amplification.
Now, just as a preacher and communicator, I’m impressed by that.
The ability to speak to thousands of people in one place without a microphone.
That impresses me.
Now, I’ve I’ve been given a preacher voice.
My wife reminds me of that when we’re in public.
She’s often like, you need to bring the level of your voice down a bit.
Because I tend to to turn on that projector in my voice.
But Spurgeon had one of those kind of authoritative preaching voices.
And that impresses me.
But
Lawrence goes on in his introduction here in the Jesus-centered Bible, uh, talking about Spurgeon.
He continues by writing
No matter what Spurgeon was preaching or teaching about, he always headed to Jesus.
He lived and urged the Jesus-centered life.
Once a young pastor asked Spurgeon to critique his preaching, and the older man was blunt.
That was a poor sermon.
When the young man asked for an explanation, Spurgeon replied, Because there was no Christ in it.
The young man protested that his chosen scripture verse had nothing to do with Jesus
Spurgeon responded, Don’t you know, young man, that from every town and every village, and in every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London
And so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the scriptures, that is Christ.
I love that story about Spurgeon.
I love that Spurgeon in his preaching, and it didn’t matter where he was preaching from, would always lead to Jesus.
Because Spurgeon heard, read, knew, and practiced what Jesus said when he said, You’re searching the scriptures because you think they are going to give you eternal life, but it’s the scriptures.
That point to me.
In every verse of Scripture, there is a roadway that will lead us to Jesus if we are able to find it.
Augustine from the fifth century said something similar in a sermon.
Saint Augustine said, Everything in the scriptures speaks of Christ.
but only to him who has ears.
He opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and so we should pray that he will open our own.
Now, this reference from Augustine is a comment on Jesus and those two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
And Augustine, much like Spurgeon, some hundreds and hundreds of years later, is using the same metaphor that the scriptures are speaking of Jesus.
Any place in the Bible, including the Old Testament, it can lead us to Jesus if we have ears to hear
I have to pause this episode for just a moment to tell you that I have written a new book.
Incarnation: Eight Lessons on How God Meets Us.
This eight-week Bible study uses the uniqueness of the message translation to
Explore God’s presence with us.
Link to pre-order is in the show notes.
Now, the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection in Luke 24 is one of my favorite passages in the gospel.
Every time I read it again, it always brings a smile to my face.
I love this story because there’s some playfulness in it and there’s a lot of truth.
So if you remember the story, this is after Jesus has raised from the dead and he is walking on the road, and there are these two disciples.
Cleopus and someone who’s unnamed, and they’re having a conversation.
And Jesus sort of saddles up next to them as they’re walking on the road.
And for whatever reason, they don’t recognize that it’s Jesus.
And so they’re having a conversation, and Jesus is like, what are you guys talking about?
And they’re like, are you the only.
Visitor here in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened.
And of course, he he knows what’s happened, but Jesus is he’s playing coy a little bit.
He’s like, Well, well, tell me what’s happened.
And they’re like, you don’t know what’s what’s happened, this this account of this man, Jesus of Nazareth?
And it’s not in the scriptures, but playfully in my mind, I kind of imagine Jesus saying
Oh, please tell me, tell me more about this Jesus of Nazareth.
What do you think?
And they said, well, we we thought he was going to be the one to redeem Israel.
But of course, he was crucified, and they say, and there’s some reports that he has been raised from the dead
And so Jesus is walking with them and talking to them.
And then if we jump into the gospel story in Luke 24, kind of pick it up in verse 27, it says.
Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
I wish I could have been there.
I wish I could have been on that road to Emmaus, listening to Jesus, who is a bit incognito.
Open up the Old Testament scriptures and reveal to these guys.
I would love to hear that, what Jesus would say and how Jesus would show
What was written in the Old Testament is all talking about Jesus.
Then Jesus, later in Luke 24, does the same thing when he’s gathered with his disciples.
So if we skip down to verse 44, Luke 24, verses 44 and 45, it says, Then he said,
When I was with you before, I told you that everything 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 this is the line from the gospel that Augustine was talking about.
When Augustine said everything in the scriptures, it’s speaking about Jesus.
So let’s pray that Jesus would open up our minds.
To understand the scriptures just like he did with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and then as he did with the eleven later.
And that’s what I have been embarking on in the last 10 years as I’ve been reading through the Old Testament.
I’ve had this ongoing prayer: Jesus, would you open up my mind?
So that I’m reading in the Old Testament, I can see you there.
So I can see what was written about you in the Old Testament.
So I want to explain how I do that, sort of the the practice of doing that.
I pray for it.
And I depend on the Holy Spirit, who inspired the scriptures to illuminate my mind as Jesus is opening
my understanding, but I want to be clear that the the Old Testament, that is the the law, the prophets, and the Psalms
It’s all about Jesus.
And if we believe that, then with Jesus’ help, we can keep our eyes open for him when he appears.
Now, this kind of reading of the Old Testament requires that we use an allegorical approach to reading the Old Testament.
that we look beyond the historical context, which is very important.
I cannot emphasize that enough
But in finding Jesus in the Old Testament, we do have to read beyond its historical context to have more of a spiritual that is
Directed by the Holy Spirit, an allegorical reading of the Old Testament.
Allegorical reading
Is not to ignore history, but to show that there is a deeper revelation in the Old Testament that does require God’s help.
We need the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
We need Jesus to open up our minds in this kind of reading.
Because to read it as an allegory is to read the words in such a way that we recognize
that they are pointing to something beyond its immediate and historical context.
The Old Testament, the
the the story of Israel is eventually pointing us to Jesus.
And so to read it allegorically is to see where are these signposts in the Old Testament
that are pointing us to Jesus.
Now let me show you a place in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul is doing this.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, starting in verse 1, the Apostle Paul writes, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters.
that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea
and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
Now, perhaps you remember the story of ancient Israel led by Moses through the wilderness, and the people began to complain because they had left Egypt, which was
Forced labor, enforced slavery, it was an awful experience, but at least they had something to drink
And here they are in the wilderness, and they’re thirsty, and they’re complaining to Moses.
And Moses takes their complaint to the Lord.
And God does a miracle.
God causes water to flow out of a rock so that the children of Abraham they have something to drink in the wilderness.
Now, when Paul is reading that story and describing it here in 1 Corinthians, when he sees that rock,
that issued forth with water, he said, that rock was Christ.
That rock was Jesus.
Now, again, not literally, not historically
At the moment when the water was flowing from that rock, Moses didn’t say, and this is God’s only son, Jesus.
So it’s not there in a literal reading of the story, but Paul is using the story as an allegory.
The Holy Spirit is revealing that that rock is Jesus.
So let me show you how I do this just in my everyday reading of the Bible
So in my reading, again, I read from the Old Testament and the New Testament, and I don’t read the Psalms the same way that I read the Old Testament.
So in following the Daily Office Lectionary, I read the portion of the Old Testament given to me every day by the lectionary, but I have a different way of
encountering the Psalms.
For me, the Psalms, those hundred and fifty prayers in the Old Testament
It’s not necessarily the story of Israel, although in some of the prayers the story of Israel is being told
But I see the Psalms like Jesus and the early church did, and that these psalms are a collection of prayers
The Psalms, as we know them today, this was the prayer book of Jesus, the prayer book of the early church.
And there are a number of Christians, both historically and present day, who have maintained that emphasis
In particular, I see it in the Benedictine tradition.
Benedictines, that’s a Catholic religious order, and monks in Benedictine monasteries.
They pray five times a day, and their prayers are primarily the psalms.
So in our church, we have developed a tradition of praying a psalm for the day.
That aligns itself with the day of the year, which makes things really complicated because there are 365 days a year.
And uh only 150 psalms.
So what we do is we read a psalm for the day that aligns itself with the day of the year, the first 150 days, that’s pretty easy.
But on day 151, we read Psalm 1.
So we just start over.
And then on day 301, we start over again back in Psalm 1.
So today in recording, today is day two hundred and fifty-four
Now, this requires a little bit of math because you have to subtract 150.
What that means is that the psalm for today is Psalm 104.
And so not only do I read these psalms out loud, but I read them out loud as a prayer.
And very often, as I am voicing these psalms out loud as a prayer, I’m keeping my eye out for Jesus
So let me show you a place in the Psalms I was reading just a few weeks ago when it was Psalm 89.
Now, it says again in Luke 24 that when Jesus was opening up the minds of his disciples, Jesus showed
Where he was in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms.
How the writings of Moses, prophets, and these psalms are revealing Jesus.
So, in reading or praying the Psalms, I’m looking for Jesus.
Now, there’s times in the Psalms I don’t necessarily see Jesus, but starting in Psalm 89,
which is the end of book three, and then into the 90s, uh, particularly Psalm 92, Psalm 91
Psalm 97, there are these references to the Lord being King.
And for me, this is some of the easiest places to see Jesus in the Psalms.
Because of course we believe that Jesus is King.
Christ is not Jesus’ last name.
Christ is a title that means King
So Christ Jesus is King Jesus.
So here, and I want to just focus on a few verses in Psalm 89, when it speaks of the King.
For me, that becomes a very easy signpost pointing us to King Jesus.
So let me show these verses.
Psalm 89, let me just start with verse 19.
Which says, Long ago you spoke in a vision to your faithful people.
You said, I have raised up a warrior.
I have selected him from the common people to be king.
Now, again, in its historical context, Psalm 89 is probably talking about King David, because the next verse, verse 20, says, I have found my servant David.
A lot of the Psalms, when they speak of the king, they’re talking about King David, who was the prototypical king of Israel, the greatest
king of all of ancient Israel.
But when I read Psalm eighty nine nineteen, and I come across this line, I have selected him from the common people to be a king, well I’m quickly thinking of Jesus.
Jesus was born to a common peasant family.
Mary and Joseph, they were not social elites.
They were not at the top of the social ladder.
They were just common people.
And from these common people came King Jesus.
Now, if we skip down to verse 24,
It says, my faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him, and by my authority he will grow in power.
Now again, this may historically be speaking of King David, but I see this as pointing to Jesus.
Remember at his baptism, when Jesus is baptized and he comes up out of the river Jordan,
God the Father speaks, saying, This is my beloved son.
This is the son that I love.
My faithfulness and unfailing love will be upon him
All right, back to Psalm 89.
Next verse is verse 25.
I will extend his rule over the sea, his dominion over the rivers.
This is speaking about the expansiveness of the reign of King Jesus.
And then verse 26 and 27
And he will call out to me, You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
I will make him my firstborn son, the mightiest king on the earth.
Again, in those verses, I see Jesus, because Jesus was the one who called God his Father
And of course, we believe that Jesus is the one and only begotten Son of God.
And so this is just one example in the Psalms where as I’m reading, and with the Psalms, I’m prayerfully reading these verses, I see Jesus.
And again, this is easy when king language is being used, but there’s plenty of places in the Psalms and in the Old Testament that I don’t see Jesus
when I see people acting in a way that’s contrary to the way of Jesus, what I do is I I draw a little sad face in the margin.
It’s just a way of me to communicate, oh, I don’t really see Jesus here.
I will be reading stories and I’ll think, wow, if you knew Jesus, you wouldn’t be doing that.
So I’m not saying that it’s easy to find Jesus in every verse of Scripture.
but I believe that sentiment from Charles Spurgeon, that every portion of Scripture, even in the Old Testament, if we continue to look, we’ll find a road that leads us to Jesus.
Well, I hope that this was uh encouraging to you.
And I want to encourage you that as you’re reading in the Old Testament, look out for Jesus.
And when you see Jesus in the Old Testament, if you have a Bible that you write in, I encourage you just write in the margin.
I see Jesus, or this is King Jesus.
I hope that this has been an encouraging practice for you.
give it a try and let me know how it’s working.
If you’re reading to the Old Testament and you find Jesus in a set of verses, reach out to me.
Let me know that this practice is taking hold in your own life.
You can find me on
social media at Derek Vreeland all over the place.
If you go to the show notes, you can see links to all my social media accounts.
Shoot me a message and let me know.
And if you’re struggling a little bit and you want to have a dialogue, always feel free to reach
out to me.
I’d love to take this podcast episode and turn it into a dialogue.
Well that’s all we have for today.
Thanks once again for joining me for this episode.
Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.