Some Of What Nick Shock Is Thinking About

My current devotional reading is through book of Jeremiah. I like the book of Jeremiah, but to be honest, reading the prophets in the OT can get a little monotonous to me. Disobedience, deafness, discipline, destruction, then deliverance over and over. (Sounds like my life!) Ok, that’s a ridiculous over-simplification, it is much more than that. But, it is easy to read the prophetic books and get a little disconnected from it’s point. Besides trying to interpret the prophetic messages accurately and understand the story of Israel, I have had moment’s of disinterest in reading the books. And this goes for a lot of the OT once you get acquainted with all of the main stories that are pulled out of the text and taught repeatedly in church. However, in the past couple of year’s God has been using men like Tim Keller to remind me that the entirety of scripture points to Jesus and the beautiful Gospel. The result has been incredibly refreshing to see Jesus come into focus as I read OT passages. I have a renewed sense of hunger to scour the scriptures to see ways that the text points people to Christ and reveals the fulfillment that Christ brought when he came. When I am honest with myself, I have always identified with the idolatry and rebellion of the people of Israel. However, am I supposed simply see my sin more clearly by understanding their sin? No, the revelation of the depth of my sin points me to the beauty of the restoration and redemption from my slavery to the sin. Jesus is all over the text and as I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal this to me as I come to the scripture, my eyes are being opened, and my heart is being filled with a greater sense of gratitude and worship to my savior. The reason people don’t camp out in the OT is that we are missing Jesus and the Gospel in it. If you want to enjoy reading through the OT, ask God to reveal the person and work of Christ in it and I believe you will begin to be captivated by this powerful realization.