Reading the Old Testament can seem like exploring an old, mysterious mansion, packed with all sorts of strange rooms. The creation room, vast and sublime. The exodus room, with hardhearted pharaohs and dried-up seas. The war room, with bloody swords and crumbling walls. The tabernacle room, with smoking altars and dark inner sanctums. What does this odd and ancient world have to do with us, who are modern followers of Jesus? As it turns out, everything! Every chapter in the Old Testament, in a variety of ways, tells the story that culminates in Jesus the Messiah.
What Christians today call the Old Testament is what Jesus and the earliest believers simply called the Scriptures. That was their Bible. From its pages, they taught about the Messiah's divine nature, his priestly work, his ministry of salvation.
The Christ Key will reintroduce readers to these old books as ever-fresh, ever-new testimonies of Jesus. By the end, you will see even Leviticus as a book of grace and mercy, and you will hear in the Psalms the resounding voice of Christ.
Chad Bird is a Scholar in Residence at 1517. He has served as a pastor, professor, and guest lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew. He holds master's degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College. He has contributed articles to Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Modern Reformation, The Federalist, Lutheran Forum, and other journals and websites.
He is also the author of several books, including Night Driving: Notes from a Prodigal Soul, Your God Is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places, Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life, and most recently Unveiling Mercy. He cohosts two popular podcasts: "40 Minutes in the Old Testament" and "Hidden Streams." Chad and his wife Stacy have four children and three grandchildren. They enjoy life together in the Texas Hill Country.
ABOUT THE BOOK
CHAD BIRD
"“In the Beginning, that is, in Wisdom who is the Son of God, the Father made the heavens and the earth.” From the very opening word of Scripture, Christ is on our lips."
"To talk about Jesus you talk about the Bible that Jesus himself read and quoted, preached and built upon, alluded to, and fulfilled—the Old Testament."
"Every time we return to the Old Testament to meditate upon it anew—to pick it up, turn it over, shake it—some new Christological jewel drops from it."
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