Finding Christ in the Old Testament | Come, Follow Me | Dec 29–Jan 4 | John Hilton III

These were the scriptures studied by Jesus Christ himself. I've tried to read the Old Testament, I just can't get that much out of it. When you read Looking for Jesus Christ on every page, you'll be surprised at what you find. Jesus Christ is alive. He did not give up on us in Gethsemane, and he did not give up on us on the cross. He is not giving up on us today. Welcome to the course, Finding Christ in the Old Testament.

I'm so excited about this class because on every page of the Old Testament, there's a testimony of Jesus Christ. And sometimes It's really obvious. And sometimes there's lesser known stories. Like, have you ever heard the story about a nail in a sure place?

Most people haven't read that because it's in Isaiah chapter 22. It's a hard to find passage. But that's part of the reason why I love the Old Testament. There's so many lesser known stories. For example, if I'm teaching the Book of Mormon and I'm like, all right, class, I'm so excited. There's this.

Great story about a guy who chopped off everybody's arms. People are like, oh yeah, I already heard that story. But if I say, do you know the story of Eliakim? People are like, Eli who? Never heard of him. Well, he's the guy. that it talks about in Isaiah chapter 22. So let's take a look. In Isaiah chapter two, there's been a steward in the king's house. His name is Shebna, but he's been less effective. So he gets kicked out and Eliakim.

takes his place. So in Isaiah chapter 22 we read that Eliakim would be given many important responsibilities including receiving the key of the house of David. which would give Eliakim authority. For he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. Then continuing to talk about Eliakim, we read, I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place.

And he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house, and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the shore place be removed and be cut down. The burden that was upon it shall be cut off. So in context, Eliakim is like the head steward of the king's household. He's like a sturdy peg in a wall. And so everything is hanging on Eliakim.

You're probably already making connections to how this relates to Jesus Christ. I love what President Jeffrey R. Holland wrote. He said, They did so first in the open palm. But because the weight of the body might tear that flesh and not sustain the burden to be carried, they also drove nails into the wrist, down

in the nexus of bones and sinews that would not tear, no matter what the weight. Thus, the nail in the wrist was the nail in a sure place. Once it was removed and the Savior was cut down, the burden of the crucified body More literally, the burden of the atonement was brought to an end. In terms of our salvation, Christ is the nail in a sure place, never failing, never faltering.

So just take a moment to pause and reflect. What does it mean to you personally to know that Jesus Christ is the nail in the sure place? And I share this story up front because it encapsulates what I hope will happen in this class. Whether we're talking about a story that we've all heard of like Noah and the Ark or a lesser known story like Eliakim, I want us to center on Jesus Christ.

I testify that he has burst forth from the empty tomb. Jesus Christ is alive. He did not give up on us in Gethsemane, and he did not give up on us on the cross. He is not giving up. on us today. And so as we explore the Old Testament, we won't have time. We want to keep this class to a reasonable time length. So we won't be able to cover every word and every verse, but have that in everything we do talk about.

will be focused on Jesus Christ. And that is because as President Russell M. Nelson taught, whatever questions or problems you have, the answer is always Jesus Christ. So in this course, Finding Christ in the Old Testament, we'll have 50 different classes. We'll go from Genesis all the way to Malachi. And throughout it, there's four major outcomes we have. First, to come closer to Jesus Christ.

through studying the Old Testament. Second, to better understand the storyline and teachings of this great book. Third, to learn new study skills. And that is important. I hope that this class isn't just like me giving you a lot of information but that you're picking up some new study skills that will change the way you study on your own in your personal study.

And last but not least, I hope that this class isn't just a cerebral experience, but that it's helping us apply the teachings of the Old Testament so that they're moving from our heads to our hearts.

Our purpose today is to give some background for what the Old Testament is and how we can best study it. Specifically, we'll talk about five questions. What is the Old Testament? Why should we study it? How do we get it? What's the Old Testament storyline and how can we... improve our study of it. So first, what is the Old Testament? Simply put, the Old Testament is a collection of 39 books that are held sacred by both Jews and Christians.

Now, if you were to open up your Bible, you'd see that for centuries, Christians have organized the 39 books of the Old Testament into four main categories. First, there's the law, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Sometimes it's called the Torah. Then there's the history. So this tells us the story of what happened from the conquest of the Promised Land in Joshua all the way down to Esther in the Persian period. So it's about 800 years of history.

Then there's the poetic books. This includes Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. And then we also have the prophets. Now you'll notice that the prophets are split up into major and minor prophets. This isn't like the major leagues and the minor leagues. It's not like Hosea is hoping to get called up to be a major prophet one day. It has to do with how long their book is. So major prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, their books are really long. The minor prophets are shorter.

Now, here's a little detail. I've been using the term Old Testament because that's what we're most familiar with, and I'll probably continue to use it. But another way that we could describe these books is the Hebrew Bible.

In fact, if we were talking with our Jewish neighbor, it'd be much more polite to use the phrase the Hebrew Bible rather than the Old Testament. Because if I say the Old Testament, it's kind of like, oh, that's the old thing. And for a Jewish person, it's like, no, that's my current testament. So if we were to open up a copy of the Hebrew Bible, these same 39 books would be organized differently. In the Hebrew Bible, it's called the Tanakh.

Based on the three main divisions, T, N, K, the Torah is the same, Genesis through Deuteronomy. But then the second is organized differently. It's called the Nevi'im or the Prophets. which would include some of the books Christians count as history as well as prophets. And then the third is Ketuvim, or the writings, which include psalms, proverbs, and even some of what the Christian

organization would put as a prophet as well. And it's interesting to note that by the time of Christ, this three-part division seems to have already been in place. You remember that Christ said to his disciples, these are the words which I spake unto you that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets.

And in the Psalms, remember Psalms are part of that third group of writing. In essence, what is the Old Testament? It is 39 books of scripture held sacred by both Jews and Christians. Now, a hard question.

Why should we study it? And I know this is a hard question because I've been talking to lots of people about their Old Testament study, and the most common thing people say is, well, I've read all the books of Scripture except the Old Testament. I've tried to read the Old Testament. I just can't get that much out of it. I think for a lot of us, the Old Testament is like a big plate of broccoli. We know it's good for us, but it's just so hard to get through.

But that's not what the apostle Paul felt. Look what he said. Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. So for Paul, this wasn't the Old Testament. It was the current testament. These were the scriptures of Peter, James, and John, of Mary, Joanna, Susanna. These were the scriptures studied by Jesus Christ himself.

They were also the scriptures that Nephi loved. You remember how much effort Nephi and his brothers went to get the brass plates? Well, essentially the brass plates are what we have as the Old Testament. Nephi said, we had obtained the brass plates and searched them and found that they were desirable, yea, even of great worth unto us. It was wisdom in the Lord that we should carry the Old Testament with us.

And so if it's wisdom in the Lord for Nephi and his family to carry the Old Testament, there's got to be wisdom in it for us as well. I mean, here's something interesting. One third of all of Nephi's writing is just him copying passages he loves from the Old Testament. That's how much he loved it. Later he wrote, the scriptures are engraven on the plates of brass. My soul delights. in the scriptures? Can we make it so that our soul delights in the same thing that Nephi's soul delights in?

Now, I know some of us are probably on the fence like, I don't know, I'm not sure if I want to study the Old Testament. But consider all of the foundational gospel doctrines and topics that are taught in the Old Testament. There's the creation, the fall. the Abrahamic covenant, Christ's atonement, temples, prophets, covenants, the gathering of Israel, agency, Zion, Jesus Christ as Jehovah. All of these principles and many more are rooted

in the Old Testament. In fact, we might call the Old Testament the parent scripture. All other scripture is going to quote from or riff off or refer back to what's taught in the Old Testament. So the better we understand the Old Testament, the better we will understand all of Scripture. So as we think about the Bible, I want to highlight this quote from President M. Russell Ballard. He said,

and its great prophets testifying of the coming of Christ. I love the perspective and peace that comes from reading the Bible. Now focus on this point here. We tend to love the scriptures that we spend time with. We may need to balance our study in order to love and understand all Scripture. Do not discount or devalue the Holy Bible. Remember, there are as many pages in the Old Testament

is there are all our other scriptures combined. So if we did come follow me based on page count, we would spend two years on the Old Testament and then the other two years on everything else. So this upcoming year. we get to focus on the Old Testament. So let's treasure this time. Okay, we've talked about what is the Old Testament. Why should we study it now? How did we get it? So we know how Nephi got the brass plates, but how did we get the Old Testament?

To answer that, let's first look at this question. Where are the original manuscripts of the Old Testament today? A, at the Louvre in Paris. B, the British Museum in London. C, the Vatican Library in Rome. or D, the first presidency's vault in Salt Lake City? Any guesses? Actually, a trick question. They don't exist. Sorry.

So what we have today are copies of copies of copies of copies. Now it is interesting, some of our earliest fragments, this is from the book of Numbers, date to 650 BC, so before the time of Lehi. So we definitely have ancient records, but when it comes to our oldest copies of the Old Testament, and this is going to get a little nerdy for a moment, if that's okay, I want to talk about three specific sets of manuscripts. First, the Masoretic text.

the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. So the Masoretic Text is one of those copies of copies of copies, and these are scribes who for centuries are carefully copying the Hebrew version. of what we would call the Old Testament. Remember, it's originally written in Hebrew. So the earliest complete manuscript that we have dates to about 1000 AD.

a complete copy in Hebrew, a copy of a copy of a copy. But if we were to go back to the year about 250 BC, there's a translation made of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. That's called the Septuagint. So Hebrew Bible, but it's in Greek. And that copy was better preserved over time. So our earliest complete version of the Old Testament in Greek dates to 350.

ad so if you're a scholar a couple hundred years ago and you're trying to figure out what does this certain passage mean your options are you can look at the hebrew text that dates to a thousand bc or you can go back 750 years earlier, but now you're working from a translation. You're working from the Hebrew translated into the Greek until this amazing discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here's the story.

It's the year 1947. There's a Bedouin boy. His name is Mohammed the Wolf. And he's out walking around. He's throwing rocks into a cave and he hears something tinkle. He throws another rock in. Here's a tinkler, and he's like, ooh, could be an evil spirit. I don't know. And so he runs home. But the next day, he comes back with his cousin. They go into the cave, and they find some jars with parchments inside of them, paper with some kind of writing.

So they take it. Eventually, the papers get to some antiquities dealers who realize this is Hebrew writing. This is copy of Scripture. And it turns out that there was a group in this area, it's called Qumran by the Dead Sea, and they lived about the time of Jesus Christ. And they had copied scrolls that included... almost the entire book of Isaiah, Deuteronomy. In fact, almost every book in the Bible, at least part of it, is written on one of their scrolls that they had hidden.

So once the antiquities dealers figured this out, they start telling all the Bedouins, hey, go into all the caves around, find as much parchment as you can. Then they made a big mistake. They told the Bedouins, we'll pay you for every piece of parchment you bring to us. Bedouins aren't stupid, right? So they start tearing up parchments. They're getting more money bringing them in, which led to, for the past 60 years, scholars doing the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. But they've actually now...

been able to recreate these Dead Sea Scrolls, stitch them together. And it's really cool because this is the Hebrew text of the Hebrew Bible, but it's a thousand years earlier. than the Masoretic text. So now the Hebrew text goes back in time a thousand years. One of the things I want to highlight is that the scribes did a pretty good job because there are differences between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic text, but they're relatively small.

Now, I mentioned up front, we've only got 50 classes and we have to keep them to a manageable amount of time. We could probably have 50 classes just on the Dead Sea Scrolls. And I know some of you are thinking to yourselves, Brother Hilton, well, I wish I could at least read a free book about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Wish granted. So it turns out here's this great book the Dead Sea Scrolls

Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints. So as part of this class, we have a website and there's lots of additional resources that you can go in and download for free. So I definitely encourage you to check out this book and read all about it. Now some of you might be wondering what is a great question. There were lots of prophets writing lots of books, so how did the 39 books that we have as our Old Testament get selected?

And unfortunately, this is a question that we can't answer. It's clear by the time of Jesus Christ that some books were authoritative. The Savior will quote from Psalms, Isaiah, Deuteronomy. And by the year 150 AD, we actually have a list of books that match our current list of books in the Old Testament. But the exact process of how those were selected is just lost in the mysteries of time.

Now we come to one of my favorite topics, which is what is the Old Testament storyline? And I think a lot of us know many of the different stories in the Old Testament, but we have a hard time putting it all together. We've heard of Samson, we've heard of David and Goliath, and we know that there's this amazing prophet named Elijah.

Or is it Elisha? You know, we start to get a little bit confused on the details. So as we embark on a study of the Old Testament, I think it's really helpful to step back and look at the big picture. So we're going to see nine periods of the Old Testament. First, early history, then the patriarchs and matriarchs. We'll go in and out of Egypt. We'll see the conquest, the united monarchy, the divided monarchy, the time when Judah stands alone, Babylonian exile.

and the Persian period. Now as you look at this list on the screen, some of you are like, wow, I wish I could see it visually. You got it. Now, some of us might look at this visual and be like, oh, too much information. There's no way I can comprehend it. But don't worry. If we take it a piece at a time, I think you'll find out that the Old Testament storyline is not that hard to learn.

So first, let's begin with early history. These symbols here on the screen represent the creation of the world, the flood, and the tower of Babel. And that's Genesis chapters 1 through 11. It seems like the authors of Genesis are trying to give us the background, but they're really excited to take us to the patriarchs and matriarchs, the foundation of the family of Israel.

This is Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and his wives Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah. And as you probably remember, Jacob's name is changed to Israel. And he has 12 sons. So they're the 12 sons of Israel. And a lot of the foundational part of Genesis is meant to tell us the story of where the 12 tribes of Israel came from. When we get to Genesis 37,

That's where we're introduced to one of Jacob's sons, Joseph. He's the one with the coat of many colors. As you remember, Joseph is going to get sold into Egypt, but that's going to turn to his family's salvation. Eventually, all of the children of Israel will... come into Egypt, which works out great for a while, but then they're enslaved. And so from Genesis 37 all the way through Exodus and into the end of the book of Deuteronomy, that's the story of the Israelites going in and out.

That takes us to the conquest. So Joshua, that's the letter J there, he'll go in and conquer Cana. This is the time period of the judges. Ruth, who's an ancestor of Jesus Christ, lives during this time period. Now, during the time of the judges, there are no kings. But that changes when we get to what we'll call the united monarchy. And this is a long period of time, especially as covered in Scripture. It's from 1 Samuel all the way into 1 Kings.

We'll hear about three major kings, Saul, David, and David's son, Solomon. Solomon's the one who will build the temple. in Jerusalem. So it's sometimes called the first temple. This is a high point in Israelite history, the united monarchy. But after Solomon, there's a split. His son Rehoboam, who's from the tribe of Judah, He stays in Jerusalem as king over the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, and they have one civilization going on down in Jerusalem.

But the other 10 tribes, they rebel. They feel like taxes are too high. They're led by a guy named Jeroboam. And so for a 200-year period of time, you've got the 10 tribes in the north. and Judah in the south. And it's a little confusing for us because when we hear the word Israel, we tend to think of all 12 of the tribes. But it's split here, 10 tribes in the north.

Prophets like Elijah and Elisha are there. Isaiah probably is the most notable prophet preaching down in the land of Judah. And this time period goes until about the year 720 BC. when a superpower named Assyria comes in and scatters the 10 tribes. We'll talk about three superpowers. Assyria is the first. And we've all heard of the scattering of the 10 tribes. This is where it happens. Second Kings chapter 17, that's when...

the 10 tribes are lost. Now Assyria tries to conquer Judah, but they're not successful. So we have another 100, 130 years where Judah stands alone. This is where we'll read about the prophet Jeremiah. There's a king, Zedekiah. You might remember him. He's on the first page of the Book of Mormon. He's the king when Lehi and his family are leaving Jerusalem. But the whole reason Lehi and his family are leaving Jerusalem is because Babylon is going to come in.

and conquer it. Babylon's our second superpower. So they conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and that takes us to the Babylonian exile. You've heard the stories of Daniel in the lion's den or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The reason they're in Babylon is because they've been taken captive as part of this time of exile. The prophet Ezekiel is also prophesying then. But then there's our third superpower, Persia.

that comes on the scene. And the king of Persia is Cyrus. So in about the year 539 BC, Cyrus will set the Jews free and many return, go back to Jerusalem, and they set about to rebuild the temple. Prophets like Haggai and Zechariah encourage them in this process. And since the temple is being rebuilt, sometimes it's called the second temple. This is when we read about Queen Esther or a scribe named Ezra.

and the guy Nehemiah who builds a wall around Jerusalem. And that's where we'll come to an end in terms of chronology with the prophet Malachi, who's our last prophet about the year 400 BC. Now this is a lot of information and I'm going to put this back up on the screen and I just want you to try this.

I want you to just take 30 seconds, talk with one or two of the people that you're sitting next to, see how much of all of this information can you remember. Do you remember what the I is or what the SDS is? Just try it.

See how much you can remember. Now, don't worry. You don't have to have everything memorized. But I do want to highlight that all of the PowerPoints that I'm using in this class are available online for free. So you can just download them from the course website. And I do encourage you to study. It's not that hard. to get an overview of the Old Testament. But now I want to go to our last question, which is how can we improve our study?

of the Old Testament? And this is an important question because like I mentioned, I've talked to a lot of people who have read Genesis many times, but never gotten through Leviticus. So how can we do this? I have three suggestions for how you can improve your study of the Old Testament, and the first one might surprise you. Doesn't that sound like clickbait? Three suggestions, and the first one might surprise you. So here's the first one. Use a modern Bible translation.

Like I said, this might be surprising, but as I've been doing research in this area recently, I've learned that 50% of American adults, that's American adults, to say nothing of kids, struggle to read. at a seventh grade reading level. And the King James Version of the Bible is written at a 12th grade level. So there's an accessibility gap between what the King James Version demands. and what the average American adult can actually read.

The good news is there are lots of different Bible translations written at a variety of grade levels. As Latter-day Saints, the church doesn't tell us you can only read from one Bible translation. We believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly. Now, we know that Joseph Smith used the King James Version, but that was also the only English version that was available to Joseph Smith.

He was not afraid to read other Bible translations. In fact, Joseph Smith said that the best Bible translation he read was the German translation. and i share this because at least for me for many years i was very suspicious of other bible translations i kind of felt like oh that's not good but as i learned more about them one of the things i found out is that most modern

Bible translations are based on older Greek and Hebrew manuscripts that weren't available to King James translators. We've already talked about the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example. They were only discovered 70 years ago. But remember, the King James Version of the Bible was translated more than 400 years ago. So in the intervening centuries, there have been lots of manuscript discoveries that take us back to...

earlier Bible manuscripts. So since we believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly, some modern Bible translations are going to, in some cases, have a better translation. And second, most modern Bible translations are translated by scholars who believe the Bible to be the Word of God. Now, it might seem like I'm making a big deal about this, but here's what I can kind of picture in my mind.

I see a 14-year-old young woman, and her heart is breaking because her parents are getting divorced. It's just tearing her up inside. So she goes to her seminary teacher, and she says, what do I do? And our seminary teacher says, you know what? The Bible has the answer for you. Go home, open up your scriptures, and you'll get the revelation you need. Now, that is actually really good advice.

But this young woman struggles to read. Maybe she has dyslexia. Maybe English isn't her first language. But she goes home. She opens up her Bible. It's the King James Version. It's the only Bible she's heard of. She starts to read. She doesn't understand what she's reading. So she closes the Bible and says, I guess that doesn't work for me. And then she goes on TikTok. Maybe I'll find some answers there. Now, I made that story up, but can you feel the truth of it?

I am confident that that exact story happened somewhere recently. And so even if you read at a 20th grade level, you're like, I can do the King James, no problem. You might be a person who is a teacher or you might be a grandparent or a parent. You might have someone in your life that does struggle to read at a seventh grade level. And so this is an important thing for you to be aware of as well. Recently, the language in the handbook about scripture translations was changed. It now says...

Generally, members should use a preferred or church-published edition of the Bible in church classes and meetings. So in English, this would be the King James. The handbook continues, This helps maintain clarity in discussions and consistent understanding of doctrine. Now these next two sentences are new. The handbook says other Bible translations may also be used, meaning may also be used in church meetings. Some individuals may benefit from translations that are doctrinally clear.

and also easier to understand. The church's Holy Bible page specifically says the Bible can be difficult to understand. It would be appropriate to use a simpler Bible translation for youth and children or any who would benefit and i highlight this because i recently gave a talk on this topic and afterwards i was talking to some people and they're like we're not sure if it's okay to use another bible translation even though the handbook said it's fine

Like I said, for many of us we kind of grew up feeling uneasy about it. I love what Sister Tamara W. Rooneya, First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency said. She said, Our hope is that everyone will feel welcome and respected no matter the translation they connect with and choose to use. What matters most is how the scriptures speak to our spirits and draw us closer to God as we read every day.

Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson said, if we want individuals to develop a habit of reading the scriptures, if we want mothers and fathers to read the scriptures with their children, it is helpful for them to have the option of using a Bible translation that teaches doctrine in a way they can understand. President Jeffrey R. Holland in the Deseret News said, I'm reading concurrently the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.

I'm also doing the Oxford Study Bible, which is the revised English version, a delightful work which I am loving. And I just point this out to make sure that everyone knows if you read a different Bible translation, you're not being rebellious. If you have family scripture study and your kids are between the ages of six and 12, they might be better off using a different Bible.

translation. And some of you might think to yourselves, okay, I'm willing to try it, Brother Holden, but there's a bajillion translations out there. Which one should I try? Let's take a look at a couple. First is the New International Version, the NIV. For more than 40 years, the NIV has been the best-selling Bible in America. Now that surprised me because I always thought that the King James Version of the Bible.

was the best-selling Bible in America. But that has not been the case for decades. If you live in Alabama or Georgia or Tennessee and your neighbor reads the Bible, it's much more likely that they're reading the NIV than the King James Version. The New International Version is written at a seventh grade reading level, which is nice. And one more thing I'll say is that if we lived in the first century, you probably wouldn't be reading the Bible. You'd be listening.

to the Bible. Most people, that's how they heard it. And so don't be afraid of audio versions. You know, hey, maybe you'd like to get this listener's audio Bible. It's performed by a Christian actor. His name's Max McLean. He's got a great voice. There's a little music in the background. So I downloaded it. It was so fun to listen to. At 1.4 speed, I could listen to the entire Old Testament.

in about 40 hours. Okay, I did Leviticus on three times speed. But it was fun and, you know, just different things popped out in a different way. So the new international... The reader's version of the Bible is written at a third grade level. So if you have young kids or grandchildren, this could be a great opportunity to find a version that they could read. Let's take a look at some comparison passages. Is there someone who'd be willing to read for us?

With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. So let's take a look at that same verse, but at a third grade level. Don't worry about anything, no matter what happens. You can see that it's the same words, but one passage will mean a lot more to a 10-year-old.

So I definitely want to mention as well the English Standard Version. I once heard Emily Bell Freeman say this is her favorite Bible translation. It's written at a 10th grade level. So between the New International Version and the King James, let's take a look at another. Sample verse. So that's Colossians 3 from the King James Version. That's admittedly a tough verse. I was recently reading this with a group of teenagers.

None of them knew what the word concupiscence meant. I'm not sure I know what it means. But it was interesting. I asked them, do you know what the word fornication means? And most of them did not know, which in some ways is kind of a good thing, right? But I also wonder if they're missing the whole meaning of the verse. So could you read us the 10th grade version and the English Standard Version?

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Think about that 14-year-old we talked about earlier. Her parents are going through a divorce. She feels this deep emptiness in her heart. She's trying to fill it. There's a boy who's starting to pay more attention to her. She's not sure if what they're doing is right. Which of these two...

translations is going to help her in the difficulty she has. Now I mentioned Max MacLean as a great voice artist. He does an audio version of the English standard version and it's available for free. online so i've linked to it on our additional resources i definitely encourage you to check that out last but not least the new revised standard version updated edition is a version that's really appreciated by scholars in particular it's an ecumenical version

translated with the best manuscripts that are available. Let's just look at one more comparison version. Do you want to keep reading for us? For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Here's the NRSV. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

Plans for your welfare and not for harm. To give you a future with hope. Again, you can see it's the same ideas, just translated into a simpler language. Look at the passages that we've just read. Is there one of these that stands out to you? What are your questions or comments, experiences, either about these passages or just kind of the general topic that we've been discussing? Yeah, I've had difficulty reading Isaiah, trying to understand what he's trying to say in there. And I think if I...

picked one of those other ones and listened to how they said it, that I'd understand it better. Yeah. Let's try Isaiah at the third grade level. Love it. Other thoughts? So looking at this, I'm looking at the last passage where it ends with, to give you a future with hope. And as I thought about that word, this actually gives me hope because when I've sat and done scripture study with my children,

I can totally see the scriptures just going up over their head. They're just like, I have no idea what is even being spoken of here. But at the same time, I'm watching their expressions, and I'm looking at myself and going, I don't know what it's saying either. So I'm a little bit lost.

I actually feel from these different translations at these different levels, I feel like I will be able to, with my children, have better discussions. And this gives me hope that our scripture study is going to be more effective, probably.

Awesome. Thank you. Now, I want to just mention, I know some of you are like, Brother Hill, this is kind of overwhelming, though. Do I have to go out and buy copies of all these different translations? Here's the good news. There's a great app. It's called the Bible. It's free. You can download it. All of the translations we've talked about, you can just select which Bible translation you want to see. You can switch between different Bible translations.

It's a great tool, so I encourage you to check it out. You can even listen to audio versions there. The reality is we believe the Bible to be the Word of God as far as it is translated correctly, and there are lots of great translations out there.

Now, my second tip is to use study tools. I'll just briefly mention a few, and in future classes we'll practice how to use these tools. But for example, there's the Institute Manual. And the church has just released a new copy of the Old Testament Institute Manual. So that's a fantastic resource for studying. There's also the New Oxford Annotated Bible. If you look down at the bottom, you can see all of these notes.

giving you historical context, extra details and information. And there's a digital version of this that's available online for free. So I've linked to it at our course website. We'll talk about the Blue Letter Bible, which helps you go back and see what the original Hebrew words were.

and what they mean. There's the scripture citation index, which helps you see what modern prophets have said about a specific scripture. And of course, in this day and age, we cannot talk about scripture study tools without mentioning AI. Now I generated this drawing with AI, and if you look at it, you'll see that there are some mistakes on it. So I'm not saying that AI is perfect, but it's pretty good.

You could actually take a lot of the questions that you have as you're studying the Bible and ask AI, and you'll get a great answer. For example, I went to chat GPT. I said, I've heard about the scattering of the 10 tribes. Can you explain when that happened and where in the Bible?

i could learn more about it and then it starts breaking everything down it gives me the year 722 bc talks about the assyrian empire remember one of our superpowers it tells me where i can read about it in second kings chapter 17. it's pretty good. Now, if we wanted to do a little experiment right now, you could try it. Do you remember that earlier in today's class, I told you that there were some textual connections between a lyokine...

and Jesus Christ. None of you raised your hand and said like, hey, wait, what are those connections? So let's say we forgot to figure it out, talk about it in class. You could actually go back later on and ask AI this question. So I tried it. I took this exact question.

I asked ChatGPT, hey, I heard someone say there are textual connections between Eliakim and Jesus Christ. Is that true? Yes. And then it shows me this phrase we looked at about Eliakim, the key to the house of David, what he opens, no one can shut. What he shuts, no one can open. Jesus Christ himself uses that same phrase to describe himself.

in Revelation chapter three. So don't be afraid to tinker with artificial intelligence. Now, again, it's not perfect. Sometimes when I get a response, I'll say, are you sure about that? Or what would a Bible scholar say about this response? And sometimes like, oh yeah, I'm glad you asked. It's not perfect. But it's good, and it's a helpful resource. But ultimately, I think the tip that I'm most excited about is to look for Jesus Christ as you read.

We started out today with this obscure story about a guy named Eliakim and found powerful insights about the Savior. What we'll see is that page after page of the Old Testament points us to Jesus Christ. When we read about Abel whose blood cries out from the ground for vengeance, we'll think about Christ whose blood was shed for mercy. When Noah builds an ark to save his family, we'll remember the protective power of Jesus Christ.

Or when we read about Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac, we'll remember another father and the sacrifice of his son. We'll talk about Joseph, who was sold into Egypt. Do you see the echo of someone betrayed by his brothers, but still saving them? Or what about the Passover lamb, thinking about Christ's blood? on the doorposts of our hearts. David, the psalmist, says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Or we could think of Queen Esther who will risk her life to save her people.

pointing us to Jesus Christ who gave his life to save all of us. And this is just the beginning, whether we're talking about Moses' tabernacle or Solomon's temple or the serpent that was up on the pole or the scapegoat. Or just like water flew out of the rock in the days of Moses, blood flows from Christ's side on the cross. Every page testifies of and points us to Jesus Christ.

He is the suffering servant of Isaiah. And I testify that when you read the Old Testament, looking for Jesus Christ on every page, you'll be surprised at what you find. You see, the Old Testament doesn't just... prophesy of Christ, it proclaims him on every page. And so my friends, I am so excited to begin this study with you of finding Christ in the Old Testament.