The son trudges uphill, bearing wood for his own sacrifice. Is this Isaac on the slope of Mount Moriah, or Jesus on the slope of Mount Calvary? The connection between these two stories is deeper than mere coincidence. Christ is present in the story of Isaac. In Jesus on Every Page, pastor and professor David Murray reveals Christ’s presence throughout the Old Testament—in the Creation, the Law, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Proverbs.
Dr. David Murray is Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, and recently also became Pastor of the Free Reformed Church in Grand Rapids. He was ordained to the ministry in 1995 and pastored two churches in Scotland for 12 years. He is the author of Christians Get Depressed Too and How Sermons Work and regularly speaks at conferences in North America and beyond. David and his wife Shona have five children and they love camping, fishing, boating, and skiiing in the Lake Michigan area.
With deceptive ease Dr. David Murray brings his readers on to the Road to Emmaus for a few hours of conversation about Jesus and the Old Testament. With an enviable grace and simplicity he teaches us how to read the Old Testament as Christians. Jesus on Every Page is a book on Christ-centered biblical interpretation that doesn’t involve complex grammatical, rhetorical, or hermeneutical complexities that cause the ordinary Christian (and pastor for that matter) to glaze over and despair. Rather, as a most agreeable companion, Professor Murray walks along- side us and points out the most important landmarks we need to notice if we are to make our way through the Old Testament for ourselves and see how it points to Christ. Far from talking down to us from the lofty heights of technical Old Testament scholarship (although he is familiar with them), he tells us that he once sat where most of us sit. But then, as a quality teacher, he is able to help us learn what he himself has so obviously done. Here, then, is an ideal primer for beginners, a great refresher course for anyone who has got lost in the woods attempting to read Scripture the Emmaus Road way, and a wonderful reminder to us all that it was Jesus himself who taught us that he is at the heart of the entire Bible, and not just the righthand side of it!
This is not a small book, it is a game-changer. I read it with a notepad in one hand and at times tears on every page. If you think that we have to wait until that night in Bethlehem to meet Jesus face-to-face, this pro- found work shows that from the first chapter of Genesis to the final notes of John’s Revelation, Jesus is on every page of God’s love story. This is a book I will read over and over. I highly recommend it!
Certainly one of the most helpful and most needed new books that I have seen for a long while. True faith in Christ as revealed in the Old Testament needs to be grounded on right principles of interpretation. Whenever those principles are confused, faith in large portions of Scripture will also be confused. This book is more than a devotional read. It leads us to understand more accurately why Jesus could say of the scriptures, ‘they testify of me’. What could be more important?
Far too much Old Testament preaching is moralism—pure and simple. Moralism is an evil, wicked thing that suggests that with a little effort, and some help from the Spirit, we can improve our lot. Thus hundreds of ‘killer-be’ sermons (‘Be like x or y’) have urged Christians to ethical response without gospel foundations, encouraging guilt eradication by more urgent effort on our part. Failing to see the grand, ‘eye in the sky’ redemptive story of Scripture, such myopic views focus instead on self— self-effort, self-importance, self-justification. And Christians are rightly crying ‘foul’ to this pernicious trajectory, consigning to the dustbin of error where it belongs and replacing it with a Christ-centered, gospel- focused understanding of the Old Testament. There have been strident voices urging us to see Christ in the Old Testament in recent years— among them Greidanus, Goldsworthy, Clowney, and Chapell. Now comes David Murray’s Jesus on Every Page—a bang-on target, concise summary of this urgently needed, hermeneutical adjustment. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
There’s no one I’d rather have serve as my guide for a journey down the Emmaus road than David Murray. Jesus on Every Page provides solid, understandable categories and tools for retraining ourselves on how to read and understand the Old Testament. Without complicated theologi- cal jargon, this book helps readers to see that Jesus, in his person and work, is the answer to all of the Old Testament’s lingering questions, the fulfillment of all of its unfulfilled promises, and the resolution to all of its unresolved tensions.
There could scarcely be a more worthy pursuit than seeking to learn of Jesus in the pages of Scripture. And—even allowing for the many differences in approach and interpretation—it would be difficult indeed to find a more accessible, concise, practically helpful, warm-hearted guide than David Murray’s Jesus On Every Page.
In this book, seminary professor David Murray takes us on a fascinating journey to find the right kind of help in interpreting the Old Testament Christologically. Without sending us down any dubious interpretative avenues, David shows us not only that Jesus is on every page of the Old Testament, but in every picture, poem, historical fact, and prophetic utterance. His aim throughout is to remind New Testament Christians that they are whole Bible believers, and to give them a key to reading the Old Testament biblically. The key to his own book is simple enough: it is that the gospel interprets the Old Testament. As he unpacks this theme, David shows us that Jesus does not simply emerge at the end of the histori- cal process we call the Old Testament, but was present from the outset as the Savior of sinners. This is a safe guide to a controversial topic, and will be of help both to theology students and serious Bible readers. I wish it a wide circulation, if only because it will enable a new generation of believ- ers, many of whom don’t really know how to handle the first half of the Bible, to read and preach the Old Testament just as its Author intended.
Much has been written for seminary students and pastors on interpret- ing all of Scripture with a view to Christ. Unfortunately, very little has been written with the average Christian in mind. In Jesus on Every Page, David Murray sets out to correct this deficiency by sharing his own jour- ney of discovery and providing ten simple ways to see Christ in the Old Testament. No longer is the person in the pew left to wonder how the preacher got to Jesus from that text in Leviticus about dietary restrictions; she will be able to make the connections herself. I hope you will read Jesus on Every Page and embark on your own ‘Emmaus road’ and discover that the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments, tells the story of Jesus.
Every wise mountaineer, unless he is an expert, welcomes whatever help he can get to further his endeavor to reach the summit. Similarly, the Christian, as he daily studies his Bible, strives in his reading to get to know Christ more perfectly. Though he realizes that the summit of per- fection will only be reached in heaven at last, he welcomes the helping hand of those ahead of him. Dr. David Murray has here given us all a welcome lift so that we might see Jesus much more clearly in the Old Testament. It cannot but be a sweet and an enlightening experience to be taught to know Jesus more perfectly.
With contagious delight, David Murray not only opens up the Old Testament beautifully, he draws you to marvel at the One it is all about. This is a moving, rich book that can hardly fail to help readers enjoy Jesus more in his Word.
Jesus is indeed on every page, and Murray’s book offers a practical, acces- sible, and engaging introduction to the Old Testament. The book not only helps Bible students to understand the excitement of the Old Testament’s testimony to Christ, but provides a host of suggestions and paths by which readers can begin to experience for themselves the opening of depths in the Old Testament. This book shows the glory of Christ, and is recommended especially for anyone previously intimidated by the Old Testament.
If you heard that archeologists had discovered a genuine book with pic- tures of Jesus’ life, a diary of his thoughts, and further explanation of his ministry, would you not yearn to have that book in your hands? If you have the Old Testament, you do! With the enthusiasm of personal discov- ery and the heart of a loving pastor, David Murray explains carefully and plainly that Jesus indeed can be seen, heard, and experienced on every page of the Old Testament.
With a multitude of hermeneutical challenges facing the church in the twenty-first century, the establishment and defense of Christological principles of biblical interpretation is not least among those of foremost importance. Turning to the teaching of Christ and the Apostles, David Murray carefully explains the exegetical and biblical-theological rational for a Christological interpretation of the Old Testament. Murray takes the reader into the world of redemptive history to show how Christ is the epi- center of all Old Testament revelation—so that you, too, will see Jesus on Every Page.
David Murray’s Jesus on Every Page is the missing piece in most approaches to hermeneutics. A piece so central and important that without it the pic- ture Scripture paints is incomplete and marred. Dr. Murray guides the reader safely through the Old Testament pointing to the Son of God who is there in person and promise. I can’t imagine a clearer or more helpful book that shows us what Jesus meant when he said the Law, the Prophets, and Psalms all speak of his person and work.
If you have always struggled to understand the Old Testament, this is the book for you. Dr. Murray has provided us with a refreshingly simple guide to seeing the glory of Jesus our Messiah throughout the Old Testament. With scholarly insight and pastoral care, Murray helps to show us how God sovereignly unfolds the great drama of redemption throughout the Old Testament. This book will not only help you understand the Old Testament but will help you love the Old Testament as well.
We must give thanks to God for David Murray’s study of the Old Testament. Murray reminds us that in the Old Testament Scriptures there is a treasure chest of grace and truth waiting to be unlocked. God has given us us the key – namely, Jesus Christ. If you are like me and have longed for a readable book on seeing and savoring Jesus in the Old Testament this book is the resource for you. It is biblical, practical, and preachable. I will recommend it to everyone
