Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
YHWH in the Old Testament
(Essay Installment 12)
Afterword
In yesterday’s conclusion to “YHWH in the Old Testament,” I pointed out that references to the Lord (including Jesus and Christ) were more numerous than references to God (and Father) in both testaments! Everyone knows that Lord in the New Testament refers to Jesus. What more people need to know is that Lord in the Old Testament refers to Jesus, too.
You may have noticed that in these installments of “YHWH in the Old Testament” I have made little effort to explicitly show that I was “finding Jesus in the Old Testament” (FJOT) by finding Him in YHWH. The closest I came was the time I spent in “Essay Installment 4” describing how Moses gave Hoshea the name Joshua, which eventually ended up meaning that the name of Jesus has YHWH embedded in it.
In regard to that, you may have also noticed that yesterday’s short conclusion was a hint that YHWH must have been the way Jesus spent His preexistence before His earthly life. For how could there fail to be a connection between the most prominent name in the Old Testament and the most prominent name in the New Testament? That Jesus was YHWH before He was Jesus is, for sure, the point I want to make, and there is plenty of evidence I want to give you when I make the full case. For now, I just wanted to point out what the number counts alone suggest.
Going into this series “YHWH in the Old Testament,” my plan was to make the point about Jesus being YHWH when I got to “YHWH in the New Testament.” I may still do it that way, but I’m currently weighing other options. The question in my mind is “What is the most logical and concise way to lay out the case?”
If I were only writing for you, the question would not be so difficult for me. But I’m writing for your family and friends as well – people not as familiar with me or my writing. And people who may be reading these words as part of a complete book one day and not in day-by-day installments like today.
For almost two thousand years, most people have thought that the Old Testament is about God the Father and the New Testament is about God the Son. To tell them that both testaments are about the same person is going to require a lot of biblical evidence. I am eager to provide it. There is, in fact, so much biblical evidence that it can be overwhelming to a reader unless it is thoughtfully arranged.
When I wrote The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven and The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact, I had the same concern in mind. The main difference between those books and this one is that I’m trying to write this one “live” in front of an audience. When I compile these installments into an essay and/or a book, I may re-order it by making the point of YHWH = Jesus right up front. We’ll see. In the meantime, keep finding Jesus in the Old Testament as well as in the New.
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