Reading the Bible is by its nature an encounter with divine speech, we should always therefore ask with the primary author of Scripture, Jesus, has to say about himself in every text that we read.

By this time, we’ve spent some time discussing what is strange about the text in question. We’ve got under the skin of it a bit and are trying to face it on its own terms. We have not applied it, discussed its relevance for us, or anything similar; we’ve deliberately kept exploring the text for some time.

It takes people a while not to jump to application (which is question 3) because we’re inclined to assume that’s what Bible study is about. Before we get there, I make sure we address another question: ‘where’s Jesus?’

For this I make the assumption that Jesus really meant what he said to Cleopas and his friend on the Emmaus Road: Moses and the Prophets really are about him. The whole Bible is a unified story that not only points to Jesus but is about Jesus in its details.

It’s important to not paste Jesus over the top of Old Testament narratives with their own distinctive warp and woof, but we have by this point spent a significant amount of time exploring the text on its own terms. Instead, once we’ve grasped the text, we assume Jesus meant what he said and ask how this particular text in front of us speaks to him.

Every text will. I mostly study Old Testament narratives with people and this question works in the New Testament but not in quite the same way. Certainly, in the gospels it can seem silly to ask, but instead we can ask ‘what does this tell us about Jesus?’ That can seem like a comprehension question but almost always turns to worship fairly quickly.

Where is Jesus in Ruth or Exodus or 2 Chronicles? If readers aren’t used to this question then they will need some hand holding in the study to have anything to suggest. It is my experience that over a prolonged period of time—and all Bible study is not short haul but long haul if it’s going to be done really well—readers will learn patterns and ways to spot the shape of Jesus in, with, and under the text.

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