The Why Series

INTRODUCTION I wrote this book out of my own discovery of God’s word over the last ten years of ministry. I realized the more I discovered Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, the more the entire Bible came alive to me. I really began to understand how the Old Testament and New Testament were perfectly in sync with one another. They were, in fact, not two different books at all. It was always easy in my life to treat the Old Testament as less important than the New, but if you don’t understand the Old Testament and how Christ was being foreshadowed throughout it, then you cannot fully understand why Jesus did what he did. I had always tried to understand the life of Christ without ever wanting to grasp an understanding of the Old Testament. I’ve always thought if I could find someone to put these pieces together, how awesome it would be and how inspiring it would be for their faith. I thought somebody needs to write a book about all this, and I need to find a book explaining all this stuff. Guess what? Well, I knew, deep down, God was telling me to do it. Me? Are you sure, God. I can’t write a book! Then God made me realize I write a chapter every time I write a Bible study or sermon about these very things. “Put it all together in a book,” he told me. He made a good point, and he’s kinda hard to argue with. Now, there is something you need to understand; this is not a seminary textbook. It is not for anyone who may have attended a seminary or might have taken courses in ancient Greek or Hebrew literature. This book is for the people who sit in church every Sunday morning and want to have a better understanding of what their preacher is talking about. You know what I mean. Sometimes we preachers are guilty of thinking everybody knows the background of the story we are preaching about. I remember those days sitting in church and thinking I have no clue what this preacher is talking about. I wish he would help me understand it better. Most of the time, it seemed too overwhelming or daunting of a task to even know where to start looking for answers. A lot of people are intimidated by the Bible, so they choose to give up and settle for a surface understanding of God’s story. This book is my attempt to change that. I want to inspire you to look and dig deeper into God’s word. I hope to answer any questions you might have and explain the Bible in a way you may never have thought about. I want to walk you through many of the why questions I have when I read the Bible. I always felt like there were a bunch of dangling parts to Jesus’ story, and I never knew how they were tied together in the Old Testament. I am a big fan of TV shows that feature gold mining. As I was watching an episode one day, the thought clicked into my head that digging for actual gold is like digging in the Old Testament to find Jesus. Every time I saw those men find gold, I was struck by how excited they became, how much more inspired they were, and how much harder they worked to find more gold. I eventually realized that is what had happened in my life. When I started digging for Jesus gold, I saw the Old Testament as a gold mine of Jesus. As I began to read even more, I began looking and digging harder to find Jesus. Every time I found a gold nugget of Jesus in the Old Testament, I would begin to connect the dots between the Old and New Testaments and the foreshadowing of Jesus. I began to have aha moments, and what ensued was Jesus fever. I found myself consumed with trying to find more Jesus and connecting more of the dots that were left unconnected in my life. I love the typology of the Bible. I know, I used a religious term on you. Typology means to compare things in the Old Testament to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. It amazes me away, and I regularly find myself sitting with my jaw wide open, like, “God, you’re messing with my mind. How did you think of all this?” Then it occurs to me. “God, you are infinite in your wisdom, and you have had eternity past to think through it all.” When I read the Bible, I picture God being like a parent on an Easter-egg hunt when your kids are still little. You’re trying to help them find the prize egg that is most valuable. You’re like, “Look this way. You’re getting hotter and hotter.” Then it’s “Colder, colder, no, hotter…now look down. Yes, you found it!” I feel God does the same thing when we try to study his word. It’s like he’s saying, “A few more pages over, Sam. Yes, you’re on the right track. You’re getting hotter and hotter.” Then I flip over to another book to read a reference, and the Holy Spirit says, “The bottom of the page. Look at the bottom of the page, Sam.” Then all of a sudden, “Boom! You found it,” and I’m like, “Yes, I found it! God, this is awesome.” It is my desire for every person to have these types of experiences when reading God’s word. I’m telling you it’s awesome when you experience the Bible coming alive like that.