I'm sitting here at my desk wondering the same thing that I so often do, why is it so hard for some people to find Jesus. Last night for some reason, this seemed a little more on the forefront of my mind than usual. I taught twice yesterday, once on a section from Proverbs, and once from Nehemiah. For me, the link between Jesus and the Old Testament is very natural. However, it wasn't always that way. There was a time, as I first began to seriously study the Hebrew Scriptures that I became frustrated, wanting them to stand on their own apart from the New Testament. If the Old Testament was all that Jesus had to preach the gospel from, then it's all that we need.

Though I can't remember who preached the sermon, or where I heard it, I once heard something that forever changed my opinion on how much of Jesus we can 'read into' the Old Testament. In a critique of another mans sermon on a passage from Psalms, this preacher remarked; the problem with that message was that Moses or Ezra could have preached it.

Who was this man to bash two of the greatest prophets to have ever been sent by God. No doubt that either one of them accomplished more for the kingdom in 10 minutes that I will in my entire life. How dare I compare myself to them, let alone presume to accomplish more. And then it struck me. If I don't read the text devoid of Jesus, why would I preach the text without him? If I pray for his help before I communicate his words, why wouldn't I also communicate him? As Heb 11 makes so clear, all the great prophets of old looked forward to Jesus coming!! If they talked about him even though they didn't know him, how much more should I talk about him since I do know him.

Last night as I taught, I was amazed at how well these two texts, neither discussing Jesus at all, and neither really related to salvation were still primed so perfectly to teach the story of God. Maybe that's because they are the story of God!